Page 111 of Recurve Ridge

I let her see the fear in my eyes of what might happen while I wasn’t there as a barrier between her and the rest of the world.

“I didn’t think Robe Huntingdon was afraid of anything,” she teased, stroking Jon’s cheek as she disengaged from his embrace and sashayed toward me. Then she stopped, her eyes impossibly wide. “Mari Knight. On the license.”

I nodded. “It’s my family name. Huntingdon is the title I hold in Europe.”

“Are you shitting me?” she whispered, one foot preceding the other as she crept forward.

My vision tunneled in on her. “I wouldn’t admit it in front of anyone else,” I murmured.

Mari moved into my space, stealing my air with every step until the hem of her dress touched me. She rose onto her tiptoes, brushing her lips over mine in the barest caress. “I love you,” she breathed into my ear, so soft that not another soul could hear her confession.

I flexed my hands in my pockets. “Will you come back if I don’t say it again?”

My heart thudded in my chest as her mouth moved, but she didn’t kiss me.

“Half a mile up the path?” she asked, her breath hot on my mouth as she spoke.

“That’s right.” I still hadn’t touched her, couldn’t touch her. Otherwise, I’d never let her leave.

“Thanks.” She sent me an impish grin, whirled, and flew out the door before anyone thought to stop her.

Five pairs of eyes tracked her escape across the clearing and into the trees. The forest’s sentinels closed over her route until only the faintest trace of her scent remained among us.

Jon made a half-strangled sound deep in his throat and stepped forward.

I caught his shoulder. “Let her go.”

He watched me, turning his teacup in his massive paws. “You’re not keeping her?”

“Did you think she would say no? We gave her an offer she wanted, one she didn’t need to refuse.” I huffed a laugh. “She’s not going to tell anyone about the men who fucked her over. Or us. I think we’re safe.” I followed the boys out of the cabin and watched them scan the forest for any trace of her.

Alan alone leaned back against the cabin, his hands stuffed in his pockets. He caught my eye with a small grin while the others pined over what they couldn’t have.

I held his gaze, assessing him. “Want to check if she got to the car unmolested? Don’t be seen.”

Alan answered me with a fast grin and quicker feet. He hit the forest floor before the remaining boys could protest.

Leaning my forearms over the railing, I watched him disappear between the trees and head in the direction of the car I left on the road for Mari.

“Are you sure, Robe?” Jon braced his arms over his head at my side, gripping the struts that held up the veranda in a white-knuckled grip.

“I’m sure.” I scanned the trees, a plan forming. I retraced her original path in my mind to where someone had dropped her onto my land in an effort to incriminate me. A short surveillance walk might be the thing to keep the boys from obsessing over a broken heart. “Besides, I don’t think Mari Merripen-Knight is done with us yet.”

And I’m not finished with her.

I gave her my name, and that was a two-way door.

Mari would return to us. I had no doubt of that, the same as I refused to doubt her ability to take on my company and run it like a well-oiled machine. Hell, maybe I’d venture back into my old life to see how she filled those shoes, give her a reason not to slip away and disappear on me altogether.

And when she came back, I’d know she chose us. Until then, I opted for a little vengeance to seek on her behalf.

I spread my lips in a dead smile as a familiar coldness blanketed my ruined soul.

“Who’s up for a little recon mission?”

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