Blaylock's Bride Read online

  Letter to Reader

  Letter to Reader

  Title Page

  Books by Cait London

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Copyright

  Dear Reader-Friend,

  I am so pleased to be a part of Silhouette Desire’s 10th anniversary MAN OF THE MONTH promotion, and to return to the Blaylocks, the family in Midnight Rider (SD #726) and The Seduction of Jake Tallman (SD #811). Readers have often requested a return to the Blaylocks. Jake is a Blaylock cousin, and we met the Blaylock family in Dan’s book, Midnight Rider. The bachelor brothers were just too tempting, and Blaylock’s Bride, Roman’s story, reopens the saga of the Blaylock family; Rio’s story is next. The setting is unique: smalltown Jasmine, Wyoming (similar to the towns I travel through every summer), filled with ranchers and farmers from the valley, stuffed with wonderful characters and surrounded by the Rocky Mountains.

  Poor Roman. A darkly brooding hero, he’s given up on love, hoarding himself in his work and ranch. He was just too fascinating to leave moldering. So I tossed Kallista—an exciting, furious woman out for revenge—into his lap and, as a writer, enjoyed the fireworks.

  I hope you enjoy the Blaylock family, bound by love and land, and I look forward to hearing from you, my reader-friends.

  Dear Reader,

  April brings showers, and this month Silhouette Desire wants to shower you with six new, passionate love stones!

  Cait London’s popular Blaylock family returns in our April MAN OF THE MONTH title, Blaylock’s Bride. Honorable Roman Blaylock grapples with a secret that puts him in a conflict between confiding in the woman he loves and fulfilling a last wish.

  The provocative series FORTUNE’S CHILDREN: THE BRIDES continues with Leanne Banks’s The Secretary and the Millionaire, when a wealthy CEO turns to his assistant for help in caring for his little girl.

  Beverly Barton’s next tale in her 3 BABIES FOR 3 BROTHERS miniseries, His Woman, His Child, shows a rugged heartbreaker transformed by the heroine’s pregnancy. Powerful sheikhs abound in Sheikh’s Ransom, the Desire debut title of Alexandra Sellers’s dramatic new series, SONS OF THE DESERT. A marine gets a second chance at love in Colonel Daddy, continuing Maureen Child’s popular series BACHELOR BATTALION. And in Christy Lockhart’s Let’s Have a Baby!, our BACHELORS AND BABIES selection, the hero must dissuade the heroine from going to a sperm bank and convince her to let him father her child—the old-fashioned way!

  Allow Silhouette Desire to give you the ultimate indulgence—all six of these fabulous April romance books!

  Enjoy!

  Joan Marlow Golan

  Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

  Please address questions and book requests to:

  Silhouette Reader Service

  U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

  Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

  CAIT LONDON

  BLAYLOCK’S BRIDE

  Books by Cait London

  Silhouette Desire

  *The Loving Season #502

  *Angel vs. MacLean #593

  The Pendragon Virus #611

  *The Daddy Candidate #641

  †Midnight Rider #726

  The Cowboy #763

  Maybe No, Maybe Yes #782

  †The Seduction of Jake Tallman #811

  Fusion #871

  The Bride Says No #891

  Mr Easy #919

  Miracles and Mistletoe #968

  ‡The Cowboy and the Cradle #1006

  ‡Tallchief’s Bride #1021

  ‡The Groom Candidate #1093

  ‡The Seduction of Fiona Tallchief#1135

  ‡Rafe Palladin. Man of Secrets #1160

  ‡The Perfect Fit #1183

  †Blaylock’s Bride #1207

  Silhouette Yours Truly

  Every Girl’s Guide To.

  Every Groom’s Guide To...

  Silhouette Books

  ‡Tallchief for Keeps

  Spring Fancy 1994

  “Lightfoot and Loving”

  *The MacLeans

  ‡The Tallchiefs

  †The Blaylocks

  CAIT LONDON lives in the Missouri Ozarks but loves to travel the Northwest’s gold rush/cattle drive trails every summer. She loves research trips, meeting people and going to Native American dances. Ms. London is an avid reader who loves to paint, play with computers and grow herbs (particularly scented geraniums right now). She’s a national bestselling and award-winning author, and she also writes historical romances under another pseudonym. Three is her lucky number, she has three daughters, and the events in her life have always been in threes. “I love writing for Silhouette,” she says. “One of the best perks about all this hard work is the thrilling reader response and the warm, snug sense that I have given readers an enjoyable, entertaining gift.”

  Together again—To my new editor at Silhouette,

  Joan Marlow Golan. Thank you, Joan, for giving me my

  start in writing, for your patience in teaching me how to

  write many moons ago.

  Thank you, Melissa Senate, for being you, for being

  supportive, for building my career and for the wonderful

  years we’ve had together.

  A special thank-you to my dear readers, who have asked

  to see more of the Blaylock family after reading

  Midnight Rider and The Seduction of Jake Tallman.

  Author’s Note: The research for the Bisque Cafe was

  done at the Paint Cafe in Springfield, Missouri, where I

  painted my first smiling, belly-up hippopotamus.

  Prologue

  “You’re safe here with me, little bit...here on Llewlyn land,” Boone said to the little girl holding his hand. The wind sweeping across Llewlyn land was chilly, Wyoming’s early September ablaze with fiery quaking aspens amid the fir and pine trees; fur thickened on the animals now, a natural preparation for winter. On the Rocky Mountains above Llewlyn Ranch, the bears were fat with summer berries and fish and honey stolen from wild beehives.

  Boone Llewlyn lifted his head, letting the wind—filled with the scent of the land, of the pines and earth and fields—now through his shaggy gray hair and caress his leathered skin.

  He was old now, bent by age and shame. Boone kept the little girl’s fragile hand cradled in his large, rough palm, his scarred heart filling with love.

  This was his grandchild, Kallista May. Her green eyes and sleek silky hair came from his mother, that stubborn edge along her jaw from Llewlyn blood. At six, and dressed in her favorite red jacket and boots, she was too thin, and had seen too much of life’s dirty ways.

  To remind Boone who had the legal claim to the little girl, her mother would come to tear her away soon, and Boone’s wounded heart would weep. The cruel game used the girl as a pawn, to assure monthly payments to her mother and to Boone’s son, her father.

  Boone swallowed the emotion tearing through him. He treasured his inheritance, his parents, and the land that had been left to him. But in his thirty years away from this valley, he’d amassed a fortune and spawned two irresponsible sons...bigamists and careless, lazy men now—Boone couldn’t bear to have them near his land.

  So he paid them all—his sons and their harem of wives, married illegally under different names—and in return, they kept his secret from the good people of Jasmine, the Blayloc
ks and the rest. He’d bought his sons free of bigamist charges, because he couldn’t have his grandchildren publicly named as illegitimate.

  As a young man, he’d been in love with Garnet Marie Holmes, but she had wanted to stay in the valley. He’d turned to another woman and the world—and both had shamed him. Sara had been knowing, cultured and totally devoted to creating the picture of success that Boone had wanted then. Still in love with Garnet, he hadn’t asked for love or comfort, and had chosen his glittering, cold wife to suit his needs for power and money. When the babies came, they had less of her than Boone and still hunting his fortune, he’d left them to survive in her care. Sara had burned out her life long ago, mourned by no one. In his pursuit for money, he’d forgotten that a child was a precious gift, and that it took care to make a child feel proud and strong. And so his sons were weak men. Their wives were—Boone didn’t want to think of the greedy, immoral women his sons had chosen.

  After a time, Garnet Holmes had turned away another suitor, Cutter Lomax. Because Boone wouldn’t lend money to Cutter and had stopped his land schemes, Cutter believed that Boone had caused the ruin of his life. After that, Cutter bitterly blamed the loss of Garnet on Boone, and a longterm feud began. Garnet soon married Luke Blaylock, a fine man, and together they’d had a beautiful family. Boone had always loved Garnet Marie, and wished her well; he couldn’t bear to let that dear sweet, honest woman—or the rest of the valley—see inside his black shame.

  He had to protect the land from his sons. Llewlyn land was for his grandchildren, if they came back...

  Boone studied the Herefords grazing in the field; he barely noticed the deer moving along the fence. He’d created legalities to protect himself and Llewlyn land, but he mourned his grandchildren...The Innocents whom he wanted to claim for his own. Yet he couldn’t shame his parents...or truth be told, himself. His pride and his shame had made him weak, though he loved his sons.

  He held the girl’s hand and kept her safe—while he could, this tiny precious part of his blood, though she didn’t know it.

  There were other Llewlyn children who didn’t know he was their grandfather, and when they came to him, dropped off by a careless parent, he treasured every moment. The children all believed him to be a friend of the family.

  “You remember to come home, here to Llewlyn land, when you want... when you’re grown, and you remember how beautiful you are, how much I love you,” he said to Kallista May and watched her trusting, freckled face turn up to his. He knelt beside her, enfolding her in his arms, and wished he could protect her.

  Ten thousand acres of Llewlyn land would belong to his grandchildren. If they decided to live in the valley, they would each have their portion. If they did not, trust funds would be set up for them, and every one—when the time was right—would know who they were, and the proud blood that ran in their veins.

  He held the little girl closer; she was a Llewlyn, already proud and strong. He’d given her that, and if she needed him through the years, he’d come for her.... “You remember, Kallie-girl, to come back home, to Llewlyn land.”

  One

  “If there is one thing I don’t need, it is that sassymouthed, high-nosed female. Big Boone wanted her back. I don’t. I haven’t seen her for four years, and that’s fine with me. But I promised I’d get her here, just like the rest on his list—back on Llewlyn land, then she can fly off on her broom when she wants.” Roman Blaylock rubbed the cheek Kallista Bellamy had slapped four years ago, with enough power to send him reeling back against the shelves loaded with ceramic bisque, waiting to be painted.

  High on the Rocky Mountains behind the combined ranches of Roman and Boone Llewlyn, a lone wolf opened his throat and bared his aching soul to the moon. The sound suited Roman’s brooding mood; he settled into the shadows of Boone Llewlyn’s sprawling front porch.

  The sound of the shattering bisque echoed in the April Wyoming night as Roman scowled, recalling the scene four years ago. He remembered the shattered ceramic shop and the big dragon that had crashed down on his head. He’d caught the broken tail, uncertain what to do with the furious woman who had just shoved his chest again. As a piece of shattered bisque bumped down his cheek, he’d wanted to kiss her, wrap her so tight against him that all that heat would burn away the cold years stored inside him.

  Kallista had glared up at him. “Go ahead. You beat your wife. What’s one more woman?” Her green eyes had ripped down his dusty denim-clad body to his Western work boots; then her gaze had burned a slow, insulting path up to his face. “You’ve just destroyed my shop and terrified your wife. You’ve been drinking...you’re a mess...and you are a bully. You are not shoving your wife around in my shop. Get out.”

  He had forced himself to let go of the dragon tail. As it crashed, he realized that he was clutching a smaller dragon in his fist—when he uncurled his fingers, it smiled cheerfully up at him. As his usually mild temper soared, the dragon had shattered on the floor. The remnants of white bisque around his Western work boots had been symbolic of his dreams long ago. He’d pushed his face down the good twelve inches to hers and spaced out the words. “I do not beat my wife.”

  Kallista had flipped back her long, sleek black hair and leaned forward to meet his glare with her own. “Debbie said you were rough and things between you were not good. I assume that meant—”

  “Me? Rough?” The implication that he’d hurt his wife, perhaps sexually, was a hard slap to his pride.

  “You are a violent man and now you are drunk.”

  The scorn in her tone had hitched Roman’s temper higher, at the same time feeding his need to taste those red, moist lips. The woman was raw passion, steaming, noholds-barred. He wanted a taste of that undiluted emotion and it bristled from her—he had wanted to reach out and take...

  Boone had just served him two shots of whiskey and a careful reference to Debbie’s ongoing love affair with Thomas Johnston. Roman had not been aware other people knew of Debbie’s affair and he’d tossed back another whiskey at the exposure of the lie he’d been living in his less than perfect marriage.

  “I have never hurt my wife,” he’d told Kallista firmly.

  “She can’t bear for you to touch her, and she’s frightened of you—I saw it just now, when she ran away.”

  Debbie’s lies, her deceit and his own, had covered the reality of their tortured marriage. Her withdrawal of then savings to pay the bank’s mortgage could cost him Blaylock family land, his heritage. He’d mortgaged the land tc build the house she’d demanded. “She’s got reason tc run,” he’d said before he’d stepped from his leashes, snagged Kallista in his arms and kissed her hard. When he was finished feeding on her mouth, he’d stepped back and promptly received another hard slap.

  “Out.” The memory of Kallista’s voice, icy and accusing, still stung Roman four years later.

  With the April night fragrant and still around him now, Roman leaned his chair back into the night shadows covering Boone Llewlyn’s massive front porch. Lights twinkling, the city of Jasmine, Wyoming, sprawled down in the valley.

  Deer slid silently through the field, coming down to water at the stream, and Roman knew he’d fight to keep Blaylock family land. In another century, Boone’s ancestor, a second son of an English lord, had found a lasting friendship with Micah Blaylock, a rough woodsman descended from an Apache princess and a passing Spanish conquistador. The unlikely friends, Blaylock and Llewlyn, had settled in the valley; they had wagered who would marry and produce the first child. Llewlyn had sent for his fiancée while Micah had gone bride-shopping down the Natchez Trace. Micah had rescued a French seamstress from her first night in a brothel, and they were married. Both women produced sons, born so closely together that the friendly argument about who was the firstborn was never settled, and through the years, their friendship deepened. While the Blaylocks became a huge robust family, the Llewlyns dwindled until there was only Boone.

  Boone. A man who treasured his inheritance, his land, haunted
and fearful that he could not make amends for his tragic errors....

  After Boone’s illness two years ago, Roman had moved into the Llewlyn House and had joined his spread with The Llewlyn, making them easier to manage. He’d plowed through the mountain of paperwork that had accumulated in Boone’s illness...and had been shocked by what he’d discovered—the children who had stayed at Boone’s ranch through the years had been his grandchildren. As executor of Boone’s estate, Roman had sworn to draw those children back to Llewlyn soil and their heritage. Kallista and the rest had been protected by Boone Llewlyn; he’d threatened to cut off the payments to their irresponsible parents if anything happened to the children. Boone’s bigamist sons and their shallow, coarse ex-wives used the children to torture and bleed money from him. When he came too close, loving the children, the parents swooped in and reclaimed them. Big Boone couldn’t stand the thought of his grandchildren knowing that he couldn’t protect them, so he became their safety, their friend.

  Ashamed of failing his sons, Boone would not have them desecrate the Llewlyn name—not in Jasmine, at least. His pensions kept them away and Big Boone’s shame had been a terrible secret that Roman had sworn to keep.

  Roman’s own shame ran deep; he’d hidden his empty marriage from his family, deceiving them. In a family whose foundations were rock solid in marriage and love, Roman had discovered on his wedding night that his petite bride couldn’t bear for him to touch her. In public, Debbie had cuddled him, but behind bedroom doors...