She sat back to give him a strange look. “I...assume we’ll live in Wyoming at your ranch.”
“Only if that’s where you want to live,” he assured her. “As long as I have you, I’ll live anywhere and make a trip back to the ranch periodically.”
“Blake, I was wrong,” she said, placing her soft palms on his cheeks to gaze into his eyes. “I love your ranch.”
“Our ranch,” he amended. “It’s yours now, as much as it is mine.”
She shook her head. “All I want is you.”
“Do you really want to argue about this now?” he asked, laughing.
Smiling, she shook her head. “I want to live with you on the Wolf Creek Ranch. That’s where I want to ride Suede and help you feed bucket babies and raise our own babies.” Her smile faded. “I know we haven’t talked about it, but you do want a family, don’t you?”
“There are a lot of things we haven’t talked about,” he said, nodding. “But now that you’re coming home with me, we have plenty of time to share our hopes and dreams.” When she continued to look at him, he grinned. “Yes, Karly. I want a family and I’ll be more than happy to give you all the babies you want.”
“I love you so much,” she said, snuggling against him. “I can’t wait to go back home.”
His chest tightened with emotion at her reference to the ranch as home. “There’s something else I intended to do for you after we got married in Vegas.”
“What’s that?” she asked, kissing his neck.
Her lips sent a flash fire blazing through his veins and he had to take a deep breath in order to answer her. “The ceremony we had in Vegas wasn’t very fancy and I want to see that you have the wedding of your dreams.”
“Oh, Blake, I would love that,” she said, tears filling her eyes once again. “But we’ll have to wait until spring.”
He frowned. “Why would we have to do that?”
“I’d really like to renew our vows out on the patio by the waterfall,” she said, looking hopeful. “I think it would be beautiful if we could have a sunset wedding.”
“We can make that happen,” he said, nodding. “It’s warm enough right now. How about this coming weekend?”
“We don’t have time to arrange everything,” she said, looking doubtful.
“Sweetheart, you’d be surprised how quickly things can be arranged when you have the money to do it,” he said, laughing.
“How about the following weekend?” she asked. “I really need time to think about what I want.”
“That sounds good to me,” he said, standing up with her in his arms.
“Where are we going?” she asked as he carried her across the living room.
“I’m going to take my wife into her bedroom and make love to her,” he said, kissing her soundly. “Then while you go to work, I’m going to try to get some sleep. Do you know how uncomfortable that damned couch is?”
Her laughter was one of the sweetest sounds he’d ever heard. “After we make love, I’m going to call and tell my boss that I won’t be coming back. Then I’m going to stay in bed and take a nap because I didn’t get much sleep last night, either.”
As he placed her on the bed and stretched out beside her, Blake kissed her soft, perfect lips. “Are you sure you want to quit your job, Karly? I don’t want you doing anything you might regret.”
“I’m positive.” She reached for the snaps on his chambray shirt. “Now, will my husband please make love to me?”
They could plan their wedding and discuss her decision to quit her job later. Right now, he had his beautiful wife asking him to make love to her and she wasn’t going to have to ask him twice.
“I love you, Karly Ewing Hartwell. You own me, heart and soul.”
“And I love you, Blake. More than you’ll ever know.”
Epilogue
Two weeks later, as Karly stood in front of the mirror in the bedroom she’d used at the foreman’s cottage, she waited for Tori Laughlin to work the tiny buttons through the decorative loops at the back of her long, white satin and lace strapless wedding gown. “Is Eli here with the carriage?” she asked.