Caroline wanted this, needed this, and Grady hadn’t disappointed her. His own display of eagerness warmed her heart. A delightful excitement filled her, allowing her to hope, to dream.

“Is this really happening to us?” she asked. She shifted around and rested her back against his chest. He spread light kisses down the side of her neck.

“If it’s not, don’t wake me.”

“When did this come about?” She closed her eyes and moaned softly when his teeth nipped her ear, sending shivers up her spine. “Grady,” she groaned, half in protest, half in encouragement.

“Kiss me,” he pleaded.

He didn’t need to ask twice. She twisted around and offered him her mouth. The havoc his touch created within her was much too powerful to resist.

Caroline was too involved in their exchange to hear the door open.

Grady abruptly broke off the kiss. Stunned by the sudden change in him, she didn’t notice Savannah for several seconds.

“Oops.” Her best friend sounded infinitely cheerful. “I think we came back a little too soon, Laredo.”

6

“THIS IS INCREDIBLE!” CAROLINE CRIED, galloping after Grady. The wind blew in her face as her pinto followed Grady’s horse across the wide open range. She hadn’t gone horseback riding in ages, and it felt wonderful, exhilarating. Caroline couldn’t remember a time she’d experienced such a sense of freedom. Not in years and years. This lighthearted feeling could only be attributed to one thing—the fact that she was falling in love with Grady.

“Come on, slowpoke,” Grady shouted over his shoulder, leading her farther from the ranch house. He hadn’t said where they were headed, but he seemed to have a destination in mind.

“Where are you taking me?” she called, but either he didn’t hear or chose to ignore the question.

Bless Savannah’s matchmaking heart. When she’d returned early, she insisted they go riding, saying she’d look after Maggie. Grady and Caroline had both made token protests, but it didn’t take long for Savannah to convince them to sneak away.

The day was lovely, not excessively hot for an August afternoon. Surprisingly it was several degrees cooler than it had been earlier in the week. The grass was lush and green because of the early-summer rains, and the air smelled fresh.

During the past few days Caroline had been giving a lot of thought to her relationship with Grady. Both were mature adults. He’d recently turned thirty-six and she was almost twenty-eight. She knew what she wanted in life, and he seemed to have set his own course, too. She liked him and deeply respected him. Recently, very recently, she’d admitted she was fast falling in love with him. Already she was beginning to believe they could make a decent life together.

Grady crested a hill and stopped to wait for her. His eyes were bright, alive with happiness, and Caroline wondered if the joy she read in them was a reflection of her own.

“Are you ready for a break yet?” he asked.

“I’ll rest when you do,” she told him, not wanting to hold him up.

“In other words you’re willing to follow me to the ends of the earth.”

She laughed rather than confess the truth of it. “Something like that.”

“Seriously, Caroline, my backside is far more accustomed to a saddle than yours. I don’t want to overtax that part of your anatomy.”

“I didn’t know you were so concerned about the care and comfort of my butt,” she teased.

Grady threw back his head and laughed boisterously.

She urged the pinto into an easy trot, and Grady caught up with her in short order. They rode in companionable silence for several minutes. Gradually he led her toward some willow trees growing along the edge of a winding creek. The scene was postcard picturesque.

“There’s a nice shady spot here.” Grady pointed to a huge weeping willow whose branches dipped lazily into the water.

They paused there. Grady dismounted first, then helped her down. Caroline had been around horses most of her life and certainly didn’t need any assistance. But she didn’t stop him; she knew he wanted to hold her, and she wanted it, too. She could find no reason to deny either of them what they desired.

He held her a moment longer than necessary and she pretended not to notice. Bracing her hands against his shoulders, she slowly eased her body toward the ground. Even then he didn’t release his firm grasp on her waist.

His eyes were intense, focused only on her. Time seemed to stop. Everything around her had an unreal dreamlike quality. Sound filtered lazily into her mind—the whisper of a breeze through the delicate branches of the willow, the creek’s cheerful gurgle, the bird song of early evening.

“I used to come here when I was a boy,” Grady said. He still held her, but more loosely now. “I used to think it was a magic place.”

“Magic?”

“Bandits hid in the tree, waiting to ambush me, but I was too smart for them.” Laugh lines crinkled at his eyes as he spoke.

“When I was a little girl, I used to hide in an oak tree in our backyard. I was sure no one could see me.”

He removed his glove and brushed a strand of hair from her temple, his callused fingers gentle against her face. “Once I’d rid the place of the bandits, I’d sit and think…and pretend.”

“I’d dream,” she told him, realizing as she did that this was the first time she’d ever told anyone about the oak tree.

“Any particular dream?” he asked.

“Oh, what most girls dream,” she said. “Girls who’ve read Cinderella and Rapunzel and Snow White—I adored those stories. I’d dream about being a princess in disguise. A handsome prince would fight insurmountable odds to come to me and declare his love.”

He grinned. “At your service.”

“Oh, Grady, are you my prince?” She felt foolish when she’d said the words, but he looked at her so seriously, all joking gone.

“There’s nothing I’d like more,” he said in a quiet voice.

The air between them seemed electric, charged with tension, and Caroline was convinced she’d die if he didn’t kiss her soon. Judging by the glitter in his eyes, Grady must have felt the same way. He muttered something unintelligible, then unhurriedly lowered his mouth to hers.

He tightened his arms around her waist, almost lifting her from the ground. Caroline ran her fingers through his hair. His Stetson tumbled from his head, but he didn’t seem to notice. The kiss went on and on.

Abruptly he broke it off and shook his head. “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry. I’m moving too fast. It’s just that—”

“No, that’s not it.”

His hands were in her hair, too, and he held her against him. With her ear pressed to his heart, she could hear its desperate pounding.

“I can’t seem to keep my hands off you,” he whispered.

“You don’t hear me complaining, do you?”

“No, but…” His chest expanded with a deep sigh. “Oh, hell, Caroline, I haven’t made any secret of the way I feel about you.”

“It’s how I feel, too,” she confessed.

Holding her hand firmly in his, he guided her toward the creek, stopping long enough to retrieve a spare blanket from his saddlebag. He pulled back the dangling willow branches and bowed, gesturing her in. “Welcome to my castle.”

“Castle?” she repeated. “I thought it was a bandits’ hideout.”

“Not anymore,” he murmured. “I’m your handsome prince, remember?”

All Caroline could do was smile. And if her smile was a little tremulous…she couldn’t help it.

He spread the blanket on the ground, and once she was seated, he returned to his saddlebag. To her surprise, he produced a bottle of cool white wine, two stemmed plastic glasses and a piece of cheddar cheese.

“You shock me, Grady,” Caroline told him as he opened the bottle with his Swiss Army knife.