Brenda Williamson

Eden Cruthers returned to the West to settle the affairs of her deceased father’s ranch. She didn’t expect Charlie’s father, a half-breed Indian to show up and demand to take him from her. In desperation, she begged to go with him, for her son, and for a chance at love.

Brant made mistakes, and one was letting Eden ’s father get between them, forcing him to lose her. With the intention of making her suffer the emotional pain he had for ten years, he sets out to take his son and leave her behind. But hearing the fear in her voice changed all his plans.

As their reawakened love grows stronger, leading them into the naked passion of each other’s embrace, a sudden tragedy threatens to destroy their happiness forever.

Excerpt

“Come.” Brant motioned for Eden to follow him.

“Where?” She got to her feet on her own when he should have helped her up.

He didn’t answer and prodded her along.

In the firelight, he had studied her features and tried to recall the texture of her skin. Long ago, he’d held her close enough to know the softness of her legs and the smoothness of her breasts. He loved everything about her touch, even the feel of her fingers folded with his.

“Our lodge.” He lifted the canvas flap so she could enter.

Eden ducked beneath and entered. “Where’s your wife?” She turned and faced him.

He put a hand up to the side of her face. Sliding his thumb over her cheek, he brushed her lips.

“If you’ve sent her away just to accommodate me, I won’t have it. Shouldn’t Sully have come here to sleep?”

“He sleeps where my son sleeps.” He slid his hand behind her head and pulled her to him. “You will sleep where my wife should.”

“And you?” her voice squeaked. “Where will you be?”

“With my wife.”

Lowering his head, he captured her mouth, taking what he wanted before she could deny him. Plying her moist lips with a hunger he had never been able to satisfy, he crushed Eden ’s slender frame to him as she squirmed in resistance.

“Brant, stop.” She wrenched her head to the side. “I won’t share your bed. I can’t do that with another woman’s husband.”

Digging his fingers into her pinned up hair he grasped her head. “Don’t you understand? I’ve said vows to only one woman in all my life.”

He watched her eyes widen as she absorbed the information.

“But Sully, his mother… He’s your son, is he not?”

“He’s my brother. My mother had him several months after you were gone.”

“You’ve never taken an Indian wife?” Her voice made it sound unbelievable.

“You are my woman.” He pressed his mouth to hers again.

She tasted sweet, honeyed by what she spread on a piece of bread at her meal. He scooped her up without breaking his kiss, savoring the flavor of her tongue as he pressed his between her parted lips.

Her fingernails dug into his hair and scratched at the back of his head. She kissed him with all the passion he recalled as if it were yesterday. Wracked with emotional sounds, she clung to him, showing him there was something salvageable in their relationship.

Brant lowered her into the nest of furs and blankets making up his bed on the ground. He used to lay awake for hours thinking about her being there with him, cradling her in his arms, sucking at her lips and quenching his long denied thirst for her. The one woman he wanted to possess owned his soul. The fire in her eyes, the puffs of her breath on his face, everything about her beckoned his Indian blood to take her without hesitation. His white blood summoned the courage to let her know his feelings while making tender love to her.

Endearments, confessions and declarations of love formed in his head. “ Eden…”