After making that ominous declaration, Gina excused herself and departed, leaving the rest of them staring silently after her.

“It has something to do with that mysterious man who’s been hanging around,” Lauren said. “I know it does.”

“Pestering her for answers won’t do a bit of good. When it comes to being tight-lipped, Gina’s even worse than Lauren,” Emma said, grinning across the table at the woman she’d just accused of keeping too many secrets.

“Spend a little time having your life splashed across the front pages of the tabloids and you’ll keep your own counsel, too,” Lauren retorted. “Come on, Emma, my ride just abandoned me. Take me back into town. I think we ought to be long gone before the sexy Mr. Blackhawk returns. He might come to the conclusion we’ve been out here conspiring against him, especially when he hears what Karen has to say about selling the ranch to me. I don’t want to be around when he concludes I’ve stabbed him in the back. He doesn’t seem like the kind of man to take defeat really well.”

Karen hugged her friends goodbye, straightened up the kitchen and put a roast in the oven for dinner. She might as well feed Grady well before she broke the bad-albeit false-news to him.

It seemed to Karen there was something different about Grady when he got back to the ranch shortly before supper time. He looked relaxed, more at peace in some way she couldn’t quite define. The kiss he brushed across her lips was lighthearted, as was his teasing “Hi, honey, I’m home.”

She regarded him intently. “You certainly seem to be in a good mood.”

“I am,” he said.

And she was about to ruin it, she thought despondently. Oh, well, it had to be done.

But maybe not until after dinner.

“Put your things away. Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes.”

“Smells delicious. What are we having?”

“Roast beef.”

He grinned. “Not filet?”

She chuckled at the taunt. “That remains to be seen.”

All during dinner she struggled with herself, trying to force the lie about an impending sale past her lips, but the mood was too special, too sensual, too emotionally charged, to deliberately ruin it. At least that’s what she told herself when she stayed silent right on through dessert and afterward, when she found herself once more in Grady’s arms.

“Make love with me,” he whispered as he held her.

Karen gazed into his eyes, saw the heat and longing there, and couldn’t resist.

His touches were magic, just as they had been before. Her body pulsed and throbbed and burned with each increasingly intimate caress.

And when he entered her, she felt that same astonishing sense of fulfillment even as her senses spun out of control.

In the peaceful aftermath, Grady held her. Tonight there were no tears to spoil the closeness, just the dread of a lie she was determined to tell.

Finally, when their breathing had eased and their bodies had cooled, she dared to broach the subject of the ranch.

“I had an offer on the ranch today.” That much at least was true, which made the words easier to get out. Yet guilt flowed through her when she felt his body go still.

“Oh?”

“Lauren’s interested.”

Grady didn’t seem nearly as shocked by that as she might have expected. Or maybe it was just that he was totally focused on what the news meant for him and his determination to restore the land of his ancestors to Blackhawk control.

“Have you accepted?” he asked, his voice neutral.

“I’m considering it.”

“I see. Mind telling me why you’ll consider her offer and not mine?”

Karen hesitated. This was tricky territory, even trickier than the blatant lie she had just told. He deserved honesty, though, at least about this.

“You know why,” she said.

“Because of Caleb. Even though you know that his animosity toward me wasn’t justified.”

She nodded.

Grady met her gaze, his expression sad but accepting. “I think what you and I have found these past few months is something special, but he’s always going to be between us, isn’t he?”

“No,” she said. “Not Caleb. The land. I’m afraid to trust what you and I have because of the land. I know how badly you want it, and if it were mine alone to give, it would be yours. But it’s mine only because my husband died trying to protect it. I have to consider his feelings.”

For a moment he seemed to be struggling with himself over something, but then his expression hardened.

“So sell it,” he said bitterly. “Get it out from between us. Then we’ll see where we go from there.”

She didn’t know how to interpret his expression or his words. She did know that when he left the bed and the house, her heart went with him.

Chapter Fourteen

Grady had struggled to keep a lid on his temper when Karen had made her big announcement about possibly selling the ranch to Lauren. He’d seen straight through the ploy. Maybe Lauren had made an offer on the land, maybe she hadn’t, but Karen had been deliberately testing him. Looking back on the exchange, he was pretty sure he hadn’t passed it with flying colors.

Oh, he’d told her to sell it, but he’d said it grudgingly, no doubt about it. He’d set up a test of his own-sell and then we’ll see if there’s anything between us. They were quite a pair. Despite everything they’d shared, trust was severely lacking. He wondered if they’d ever have any faith in each other’s motives…in each other’s love.

Why hadn’t he simply countered with an announcement of his own? Why hadn’t he told her of the conclusion he’d reached earlier in the day, that she mattered more to him than the ranch?

That one was easy. Because, despite knowing that a relationship with her was more important, it had hurt that she was deliberately trying to back him into a corner, to rob him of something she knew he had valid reasons for wanting.

He rode hard over his own acres for the next few days, trying to push Karen out of his head, but she wouldn’t go. He made almost hourly calls to Dooley and Hank to make sure that she was safe, that there had been no new incidents. He’d been careful to skirt the real reason for his absence, letting them conclude that he’d had sudden business to attend to at his own ranch. Dooley grumbled that they weren’t getting a lick of work done with all the baby-sitting they were doing.

“I suggest you not describe sticking close to Karen as baby-sitting,” he suggested wryly. “I doubt she’d appreciate it.”

“Nope,” Dooley agreed, not sounding the least bit remorseful. “And to tell the truth, she’s getting tired of seeing our faces around all the time. When are you coming back over here?”

“I’m not sure,” Grady said honestly.

“Well, hurry it up. Hank and me have real work to do now that the weather’s beginning to turn for the better.”

“I’ll try to wrap things up over here soon,” Grady promised. Just as soon as he finished kicking himself in the butt for walking out on Karen in the first place.

At the end of the week, when he turned up alone at Stella’s, craving company as much as food, Grady weathered the stormy expression in Cassie’s eyes when he slid into a booth at the back.

“Why aren’t you at the ranch with Karen?” she demanded. Evidently she was unaware of the fact that he’d been gone for days now. She regarded him with an accusing look. “When she refused to stay with Cole and me, you promised to keep an eye on her.”

“Hank and Dooley have everything out there under control,” he assured her. “I checked with them less than twenty minutes ago.”

“I hope you’re right,” she said direly. “Because if anything happens to her, Grady Blackhawk, you’ll have all of us to answer to.”

Grady took the threat seriously, but it was no match for the guilt he would live with for the rest of his life if something went wrong because of his own stupid pride. He sighed. It was time to face the music.