Page 53 of Wyoming Tough

“If you don’t like the design, we can change it,” he assured her. He opened the jeweler’s box. “I had it made up like this, because I know how much you love roses.”

She caught her breath when she saw the rings. They were the most unique and beautiful settings she’d ever seen in her life. They looked like living blood in their exquisite eighteen-karat-gold settings. The engagement ring was a rose, its petals outlined in gold and set in glittering pigeon’s blood rubies, the largest of which made the center. The engagement ring was studded with rubies and made to interlock with the wedding band.

“Here.” Daryl pulled them out of the box and took her hand. He hesitated with a grin. “Want to try them on? No sales pressure. They come with a demented fiancé, but you can dump him anytime you like if you find someone more deserving.”

She looked into his black eyes with real pleasure. He’d taken her to movies and taught her to tango, he’d ridden with her over the acres and acres of her father’s huge ranch. He’d been a friend and even a confidant. She’d told him, although not her parents, the whole truth of her sojourn on the Rancho Real and found him a sympathetic and caring listener. He was also as quiet as a clam. He’d never divulged her secrets to her parents.

She could do worse.

He laughed, because she’d said it out loud. “Yes, you could,” he assured her. “I even still have most of my own teeth!”

“Most of them?” she asked with a curious frown.

His black eyes twinkled. “Your brother knocked one of them out when we were in college together. I can’t even remember what we fought over. But he said that since he couldn’t beat me in a fair fight, we’d be better off as friends, and we have been, all these years.”

“Yes, well, my brother has an attitude problem from time to time,” she conceded. He was hot-tempered, the way Shelby had said their father once was, and he tended to be impulsive to a fault. But he was a good person. Like Daryl.

She shrugged. “Might as well try them on, since you went to so much trouble having them designed for me,” she teased and held out her hand.

They were a perfect fit. They complemented her beautiful hands with their faint olive tan, and the settings glittered in the light with a thousand reflections. The cut was exquisite.

“I love them,” she confessed.

He smiled. “Good! So. When are we getting married?”

She stared at him in panic. Mallory was still out there somewhere, even if he hated her and considered her a thief. She should hate him, but she couldn’t. She loved him. The thing was, if he’d had second thoughts about her, he’d have been in touch by now. He’d have phoned, written, something, anything. But there had been only silence from him. He still thought she was a thief. It tormented her.

“He won’t change his mind, Morena,” he said gently, using her real name. “Men like that are never wrong, in their own opinion. You’re clinging to dreams. It’s better, always better, to deal in reality.”

“You’re right, of course,” she said in a subdued tone. “It’s just…”

He bent and kissed her forehead. “An engagement isn’t a marriage. Just say yes. We’ll announce it at the production sale and make your father and my father very happy so they’ll shut up trying to pressure us into getting married.” He lifted his head. “And if things do somehow work out for you and your suspicious rancher, I’ll take back the rings and go shopping elsewhere,” he offered firmly. “You have nothing to lose, really.”

She drew in a soft breath. He made sense. She didn’t really agree, but she was certain that the future would be dark enough if she went through it alone. In some ways Daryl was perfect for her, and her father would be ecstatic. It might be enough to stop him from digging into her recent past and steamrolling over the Kirks in revenge if he found out why Mallory had fired her. That alone was reason enough to say yes. Daryl was right about one other thing—an engagement wasn’t a marriage. She could break it anytime she liked, with no hard feelings.

She touched the rings. “Pity to waste them.”

“Just what I was thinking,” he agreed.

Her dark eyes twinkled. “Okay. We can be engaged. But it’s like a trial engagement,” she added firmly. “Just that.”

He touched her nose with the tip of his forefinger. “Just that. I promise.”

Her father was over the moon when they gave him the news. “Thank God you finally saw sense,” he told her. He shook Daryl’s hand. “Welcome to the family. You can be married very soon.”

“We’re not rushing it,” Daryl said, when he noted her discomfort. “We’re going to take our time and get to know each other.”

King’s dark eyes narrowed. “Is that necessary? Why?”

“Now, Dad,” Morie said gently. “Don’t push.”

“It’s because of that damned Wyoming rancher who fired you, isn’t it?” her father demanded suddenly. “The lowlife son of Satan is going to find himself on the wrong side of a defamation-of-character lawsuit just as soon as I find out who framed you! And his isn’t the only head that’s going to roll when I do!”

CHAPTER TEN

MORIE FELT HER HEARTturn over at the anger and threat in her father’s deep voice. “How did you…?” she exclaimed, horrified that he was going to try to ruin the Kirks. They were in a precarious financial situation. He could do it.

“I didn’t buy that story that you came home voluntarily. I know you,” he returned curtly. “You were devastated by whatever happened. I had a friend in Houston do some digging. My, my, what I found out,” he added softly, although his eyes were glittering.

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