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  Quinn watched a look of defeat cross Roarke’s face. He almost felt sorry for the older man who was accustomed to getting his way—and had run up against a brick wall today.

  “Fine then,” Roarke burst out, flinging his arms in a gesture of frustration. “Take my stubborn, rebellious daughters off my hands and we’ll see if you have more luck controlling them than I did. But I will be back in time for the birth of my grandchild.”

  When Roarke stuck out his chin Quinn knew immediately where Piper and Penny had inherited the mannerism. Grinning, Quinn offered his hand in a gesture of truce. “Matt and I will be more than happy to take your rebellious but adorable daughters off your hands. Feel free to return for a visit whenever the mood strikes, Roarke.”

  “But if I decide to shower my daughters and my grandchild with gifts then I want to hear no complaints from my sons-in-law,” he insisted. “It is my money, after all, and I will spend it where and how I wish.”

  He stared directly at Quinn. “And furthermore, I’m not accepting the use of your horse. I plan to spend the week with my daughters.”

  Piper inwardly winced at the announcement. Not that she objected to visiting with her father, now that he realized both of his daughters were determined to live their own lives. The problem was that Roarke would be suspicious when Quinn rode off—and didn’t come back.

  “Good,” Penny said as she smiled at Roarke. “It will give me a chance to show you around the garrison and the surrounding area. This really is panoramic country, Papa. It might even begin to grow on you. Out here, there is no one to crowd your space.”

  Roarke snorted. “And that is about the only nice thing you can say about this last outpost on the edge of the frontier.”

  When the threesome ambled down the hall, Piper stared up at Quinn. “This is your chance to make a fast getaway,” she murmured. “I’ll dream up an excuse to explain your absence.” She flung her hand dismissively. “Ranger duties or something.”

  “I’ve been thinking—”

  Piper pressed her forefinger to his lips to silence him. “You don’t have to do any thinking on my account. I can handle Papa now that he has faced the inevitable.”

  “Piper—” he murmured against her fingertip.

  She breezed back into the room to grab his saddlebags, then thrust them at him. “Just go. It’s what you want.”

  Quinn huffed out his breath. “Woman, you need to understand that you can’t boss me around any better than I’ve been able to boss you. Otherwise, this marriage isn’t going to work.”

  She smirked caustically. “Work? It doesn’t have to work. It’s legal and that’s all it has to be.”

  He took the saddlebags she thrust at him and dropped them beside his feet. “It does have to work. I have two Comanche recruits to replace me in the battalion. I have decided to reclaim my father’s ranch at Phantom Springs.”

  Piper blinked in confusion. “You lived in the canyon where the showdown took place?”

  “It’s still my property. And with the Rangers stationed in Van Horn and this fort nearby, I can supply them with beef and horses. I’m tired of going where the wind blows me. If I want to put down roots then I’m entitled, aren’t I? So…I was thinking…that I have a wife I want to keep and property to build on. I also have a new father-in-law who insists on checking up on me every six months.”

  He smiled crookedly when Piper stared up at him as if he had ivy sprouting from his ears.

  “If you have your heart set on teaching at the fort you can stay here during the week, but I really must insist that you’re home with me on weekends.”

  Quinn chuckled out loud when she choked on her breath. “You want me to live with you?” she finally chirped, astonished. “But why?”

  Quinn shifted awkwardly from one moccasined foot to the other and looked away from that intense, silver-blue stare. “I think you know why, Piper,” he mumbled self-consciously.

  “No, I don’t. Tell me why,” she demanded.

  He sucked in a steadying breath to force out the words that he had never spoken to anyone since he couldn’t remember when. “Because you make me happier than I have ever been. Because being with you feels right, natural, necessary. Because I love you, damn it. I tried not to, but I can’t help myself.”

  “You love me?” she squeaked, staring at him in stupefied astonishment. “When did this happen?”

  Quinn chuckled. “When I asked you the same question you practically jumped down my throat. I thought the correct response was, Thank you. That’s nice to know.”

  She waved him off. “Just answer the question.”

  Irresistibly drawn to her, Quinn reached out to trace the lush curve of her mouth. “I’m not quite sure. I think it must have sneaked up on me when I wasn’t looking. Or maybe it was when you got kidnapped and I was afraid I would never see you alive again. It felt like there was something I needed to tell you and I didn’t know if I would have the chance.

  “Or maybe it was last night when I walked in and felt like I had finally come home because you were here.” He threw up his hands in frustration and said, “Oh, hell, if you want to know the honest truth I think I fell in over my head while you were dangling off the cliff in the overturned coach and Lucky knocked off that ridiculous veiled hat you were wearing as a disguise. I saw the bewitching face that went with that sassy mouth and fiery spirit and I—”

  Quinn grunted uncomfortably when Piper leapt at him and sent him staggering backward. Her laughter was sweet music to his ears. The feel of her legs wrapping around his waist and her arms clenching around his neck reminded him of the magical, intimate moments they had shared.

  And suddenly the resentment, grief and hardships he had battled more than half of his lifetime dissolved because Piper kissed him as if he were the center of her universe.

  Quinn decided, right there and then, that he had finally found the missing half of his soul. He was tired of fighting his way through life, tired of denying that this fiery, adorable female was the one who made him feel again, made him hope and dream of a bright, promising future. With her.

  “I will love you forever and ever, Quinn Callahan,” Piper murmured as she cupped his face in both hands. “Guaranteed.”

  Quinn dropped a kiss to the tip of her nose. “I love you, too, sweetheart, but life has taught me that nothing is forever.”

  She smiled impishly up at him. Her love for him shone in those glorious blue eyes like the midday sun. “Maybe nothing lasts forever,” she whispered, “but this will.”

  When she led him to bed and made wild sweet love with him, she murmured that he was the most precious gift her heart desired. And when they were body to body and soul to soul Quinn felt himself soaring to delirious heights of the most incredible passion he had ever known, experiencing emotions that came bubbling up from nowhere like the pure, clear water in Phantom Springs.

  “All I need is to see you every morning for the rest of my life and to lie in your arms every night,” she assured him. “That is the truth. You are my forever, Quinn.”

  And suddenly he believed in happily ever after.

  Because Piper said it was so…and she always told him the truth.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-3732-2

  THE RANGER’S WOMAN

  Copyright © 2005 by Connie Feddersen

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