The Ruthless Caleb Wilde

Her eyes still glittered but she smiled. Caleb smiled back at her.

“We’d go to the park. The museums. The zoo.” Ah, hell. Two perfect tears were rolling down her cheeks. “Not the zoo, huh?” he said softly, wiping away the tears with his thumbs.

“I don’t like keeping animals in cages,” she said, and she thought, wasn’t this stupid? That she should be weeping?

“See? We have something in common already. Neither do I.” His smile tilted. “I’d spend a few days here, fly to Dallas, fly back next weekend. After a couple of weeks, I’d take you home with me. Show you my city. Show you El Sueño—”

“What’s El Sueño?”

“The Dream. The family ranch.”

“A ranch.” She swiped the back of her hand over her nose. “A real ranch?”

Caleb thought of the half a million rich acres that made up El Sueño. He thought of the stables. The barns. The paddocks. The prize-winning stallions, the mares that dropped prize foals in late winter and early spring, the oil wells …

“Yes,” he said gently. “It’s a real ranch.” He took a pristine white handkerchief from his pocket and folded it around her nose. “Go on, honey. Blow.” She did, and he took away the handkerchief, slipped his arms around her, drew her against him, one hand in the center of her back, the other stroking her hair. “You’ll like El Sueño, Sage. And my family.”

“Your family,” she whispered, “I almost forgot about them. Two brothers. Three sisters.”

“And my father.”

“The rancher, right?”

Caleb hesitated. How would she deal with his way of life? She could handle it, he was sure of that. But would she want to? There was so much she didn’t know …

Might as well get it over with, he decided, and he drew back a little and looked into her eyes.

“Here’s the rundown. One sister, Lissa, lives on the west coast—she’s a cooking nut but don’t ever tell her I called her that.”

Another smile. He was batting one hundred.

“Em and Jaimie live right here, in New York. Em’s into music. Jaimie is trying to make it as a designer.”

“They sound nice.”

“They are. You’ll like them, and they’ll like you.”

“And your brothers? Do they live in Texas, like you?”

He nodded.

“Jake runs El Sueño and his own place, too. His wife is terrific. She’s a lawyer, like me. That just leaves Travis.” Caleb grinned. “He’s this hotshot financial whiz.”

“And your father? If your brother runs the ranch, what does he do?”

Caleb hesitated. “Our father is—he’s an army man.”

“Ah. A soldier.”

“A general, honey. General John Hamilton Wilde.”

Sage jerked back in his arms. “A general?”

“Four stars,” Caleb said solemnly. “Just to put you completely at ease.”

She saw the laughter in his eyes, saw compassion, too, and suddenly she was willing to admit her anger had been terror in disguise.

“It’s going to be hard,” she said. “Isn’t it?”