Hawk's Way Collection: Faron And Garth: Hawk's Way: Garth / Hawk's Way: Faron

He lifted the hand he held, turned it over and kissed the center of her palm.

Belinda felt a streak of electricity shoot up her arm. She yanked her hand back reflexively, then laughed to cover the awkwardness it had created between them. “That tickled,” she murmured in excuse and explanation.

“Yeah,” he muttered back. Faron wondered if she had felt the same charge on her skin as he had felt on his lips. It had been an amazingly strong jolt to his system.

“Let’s sit down, shall we?” Belinda dropped to her knees near a patch of large, daisylike flowers. Nearby was a bunch of bright blue lupine. The top of the hillside was rimmed with Indian paintbrush. “We couldn’t have picked a more perfect spot for an afternoon idyll if we’d tried,” she said.

Faron’s eyes narrowed as he surveyed the countryside. “It is beautiful. It’s a shame…”

“What?”

“Nothing.” Faron wasn’t about to spoil his afternoon by thinking about his father and stepmother. He sat down and realized the ground still held the chill of winter. He pulled off his denim jacket and said, “Why don’t you sit on this? It’ll keep you from getting cold.”

“I don’t think—”

Again, he didn’t give her a choice. He spread his jacket on the ground, then slipped a hand around her waist and resettled her on the denim. “Thanks,” she murmured.

Faron’s gallantry won him a rare smile that made his heart skip a beat. “You’re welcome.”

Belinda immediately began making a chain from the daisylike flowers. Faron stretched out beside her, his head on his hand.

“God, you’re beautiful,” he said.

Belinda laughed. “Are you always so forthright?”

He felt his body tighten at the sound of her laughter. “I tend to say what I’m thinking.”

She looked up at him from under lowered lashes. “Then since we’re being honest, you’re quite good-looking yourself.”

He grinned. “Thanks.”

She laughed again. He was so different from Wayne. So carefree. She ought not to be here. She ought to be home, wearing black. Mourning.

“What are you thinking, Princess?”

The Cowboy’s voice ripped her from the melancholy that threatened her peace. “What?”

He smoothed the furrows on her brow with his thumb. She had to purposely hold herself still for the caress. It was the first one she had received in so long her skin seemed to come alive beneath his touch. When his fingers trailed into the hair at her temple she leaned away, and his hand dropped back to the grass.

“You looked worried,” he said. “I wondered what you were thinking.”

“That I shouldn’t be here.”

“No time for regrets now. We made a deal. Only happy thoughts.” Faron sat up and leaned his wrist on one bent knee. “Let’s see. What should we talk about?”

“When was the happiest time in your life?” she asked.

“It’s all been pretty good,” he admitted. Until lately. “I guess I’d choose the day I made love to a woman for the first time.”

Faron was both surprised and delighted by the blush that stained her cheeks at his revelation.

“I can’t believe you said that,” Belinda protested with a laugh.

“I warned you I was honest,” Faron said. “It’s your turn now.”

“The happiest time?” she asked. There was a long silence while she thought about it.

“It wasn’t that tough a question, was it?” Faron asked.

She grimaced. “I suppose the happiest time would have been before my parents died, although life was such a struggle on the ranch…” She shrugged.

Belinda could see the Cowboy was about to ask questions she would rather not answer, so she asked, “What did you want to be when you grew up?”

“That’s easy,” Faron replied. “The best.”

“At what?”

“Something. Anything.”

“That certainly gave you a lot of room to succeed,” she said teasingly. Apparently he hadn’t liked the idea of being tied down to any one thing. “Are you the best at something?”

Faron grinned. “I’m a damned good cowboy, ma’am.” He leaned back so she could see the rodeo belt buckle he was wearing.

Belinda laughed and realized suddenly it had been a long time since she had done so. “I should have known.” She leaned over and traced the writing on the buckle with her fingertips. Rodeo Cowboy All-Around Champion.

No wonder he had called himself Cowboy!

Faron held his breath as Belinda traced the face of the silver buckle with her fingertips. It was as though he could actually feel her touching his skin. He wanted her hand lower. His body was doing a helluva good job of imagining all by itself.

He cleared his throat, distracting her attention. “How about you? What did you want to be?”

“I never let myself dream. I couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

She draped a chain of flowers around the brim of his Stetson. “My sisters and I were orphaned when my parents were killed in a car accident. I was eighteen and had just graduated high school. Dori and Tillie and Fiona were still in school. The ranch went to the bank for debts. I found a job in Casper that paid enough to feed us and keep a roof over our heads. That didn’t leave much time for dreaming.”

“Let’s pretend you’re a real princess, and you can have anything you want. What would you wish for?” Faron asked. He laid a handful of flowers he had broken off just below the bud in her lap.

She scooped up the white, yellow and blue flowers and lifted them to her nose to see how they smelled. “I’d wish for a man to love me. And for children. I’ve always wanted to have children.”

“How many children?” he asked in a quiet voice.

“More than one,” she said definitely. “I liked having sisters. I grew up knowing I never had to be alone.”

“Do your sisters live close?”

“Unfortunately they’re scattered across the country. Every Fourth of July we get together. That’s the only time everyone can get free.”