he would not give up just as the son had come within a heartbeat of him!
Shane looked at Terrance, then at Melanie. "This land belongs to you and your brother," he said hoarsely. "It is all right that I stay a full night? I do not wish just yet to go to my father and brother. I would like another night to acquaint myself with all that has happened today." He leaned closer to her, his breath hot on her face. ''And also tonight."
A weakness claimed Melanie's knees as their breaths mingled. Then Terrance was suddenly there, jerking her away from Shane.
"Good Lord, Melanie, what on earth are you thinking?" Terrance roared, gripping her painfully by the shoulders. "Even though you know who this man is, it isn't right for you to behave soso brazenly with him. He's a stranger, Melanie. A stranger! What's got into you? I've never seen you behave so loosely before."
Terrance's fingers dug even more painfully into Melanie's shoulders. She tried to get free, but couldn't. "Terrance, you're hurting me," she cried. "Unhand me this minute. Do you hear?"
She gasped and stumbled free of her brother when Shane moved swiftly and jerked Terrance away from her. She watched in dismay as her brother cowered from Shane's threatening fist.
"You do not treat your sister with the respect that she is due," Shane growled. "Never lay a hand on her again. If you do, you will pay, for I shall be near to protect her from such abuse!"
The color had drained from Terrance's face. His heart felt a strange sort of iciness encircle it, as though he had been threatened by a savage, not a white man. He began inching his way backward, fumbling in the air behind him as he blindly searched for his horse's reins. "Melanie, I'm not going to tell you again," he dared to say. "Get your horse and come home with me. Now!"
Melanie looked from Terrance to Shane, afraid of these dangerous feelings that flowed between them. Yet Terrance did not have the backbone to fight back. She knew him well enough to know that once he rode away from Shane and his threats, he would not return. He was not the sort who would choose a fightnot even when he had been humiliated.
"I truly must go, Shane," she said, touching his cheek gently. She so wanted to kiss him goodbye, but that would be stretching her brother's contempt too far. "I'll be back tomorrow. Perhaps then you will let me accompany you to see your father and brother."
"Perhaps," Shane said, devouring her with his eyes, wanting her so badly it caused a cutting ache in his gut. He reached a hand to her hair and twined his fingers through it. Not fearing her cowardly brother, Shane drew her lips to his mouth and gave her a fleeting kiss.
Shaken, Melanie slipped free and ran past Terrance to her horse, unaware of the murderous glares being exchanged between her brother and the man that she knew she was destined to love.
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Restless, too much on his mind to be able to go to sleep, Shane looked down from the butte at his father's house outlined in the distant darkness. It would be hard to wait the long night without
at least a glance of the man he had worshipped as a child. He could go and take a brief glance through a window. Perhaps he would even see Josh, the man who was said to look so much like himself.
But he did not yet want to meet either his father or brother face to face. He would be committing himself to a new life by letting them know that he was alive. Though he never stepped back from a challenge, this time it was different. Many other hearts than his own were involved.
His eyes moved slowly to the other massive house in the valley below him. Melanie's home. He looked from window to window, seeing them golden with lamplight. She should be home by now. In which room would she be? Was she, like himself, entranced over the discovery that they shared so many feelings? Would she be as restless as he was tonight? Would it be because of him?
Shaking thoughts of Melanie from his mind, troubled enough by having been so affected by a woman for the first time in his life, Shane began running in an easy bounding gait through the forest, then down the steep embankment.
Not wanting to stampede the cattle, he moved in a wide circle around them, his eyes on his father's house that was growing closer in the distance. His heart thudded wildly at the thought
of looking upon his father's gentle face again. It was hard to believe that any of this was happening.
It had been so long, so very long. . . .
Melanie watched Terrance pacing back and forth in the parlor, a half-emptied bottle of whiskey clutched in his left hand. Her insides tightened when he tipped the bottle to his lips again and took several long gulps, then stared angrily at her as he slammed the bottle onto a table.
"I hardly know you anymore," Terrance said in a drunken drawl. "Ever since Pop"
"Yes, say it again," Melanie said, sighing resolutely. "Ever since Pop died, I've been nothing but a thorn in your side."
Her brown eyes flashed stormily as she glared up at him. "Terrance, maybe that's because you never saw me as a threat before Papa died," she said. "Now you watch every move I make as though you're afraid I'm going to cheat you or something. Why, Terrance? Why is there no trust between us anymore?"
Terrance threw his head back in a laugh, then met her steady, angry stare with his own. "You speak of trust when you've just come from the arms of a stranger?" he shouted. "You flaunted your independence in my face when you let him kiss you in front of me. Where is your self-respect, Melanie? Who knows where that man has been all these years? Why, he could be a thieving outlaw. He dresses no better. How could you have let him touch you? Or do you let all strangers paw you and I just never caught one doing it before?"
Melanie had taken all the insults that she could stand. She raised a hand and slapped her brother hard across the face. "How dare you!" she cried. "You've become even more insulting since Papa's death. Terrance, you have changed for the worsenot I!"
Terrance's eyes widened in disbelief as he rubbed his burning cheek. "Melanie, no matter what you say, I'm not going to let you get involved with Shane Brennan," he told her.
Terrance had been doing some serious thinking since they left Shane behind in the forest. It had suddenly dawned on him that Shane had appeared out of nowhere just in time to complicate everyone's lives. Josh needed to be warned! Josh would surely throw a fit when he discovered that he was now more than likely going to have to split his inheritance down the middle with a brother he had been parted from since the age of four!
And Shane was going to wreck not only Josh's plansbut Terrance's too!