He thought he must be hallucinating until she turned to face him. The seductive floral scent that had enticed him on too many other occasions drifted past him.
Her makeup and earrings might be different, the brown lenses fake, but he’d know the bewitching lines of that exquisite face and mouth anywhere.
The blood pounded in his ears.
“Stefanie?”
“Yes,” came her terrified whisper. Beneath the makeup, her complexion had paled. “Please don’t be angry with me, Gabe. Please.” Her gently rounded chin quivered. “You have to hear me out! No one knows I’m here. Your secret is safe. I swear it!”
He was so shocked to see her, the meaning of her words didn’t register right away. All this time he’d imagined her in Paris, charming every damn male in sight.
His gaze followed the involuntary movement of her hand to her heart, drawing his attention to the gorgeous mold of her body. The black sweater proved faithful to her rounded curves.
“How in the hell did you find me?”
Even to his own ears he knew he sounded furious, but he felt out of control, unable to quell the myriad of conflicting emotions that were exploding inside him.
She moistened her luscious red mouth nervously. The color was one she’d never worn before. The sight of it on her lips was incredibly erotic. “I—I had you followed. But don’t worry!” she blurted. “They’ll never tell anyone.”
He fought not to erupt again, but it was almost impossible. “Who are they?” he demanded in a deceptively silky tone.
She swallowed hard, once again distracting him as his gaze studied the creamy column of her throat rising out of the material. No woman in the world had such flawless skin.
“A team of p-private detectives. I paid them well.”
“What’s this all about, Stefanie?” He fired the question before he noticed she’d been gripping the steering wheel to keep from falling sideways. When he realized how she was straining, he yanked the door open and pulled her out.
Obviously unprepared, she fell against him like a rag doll, leaving the imprint of her beautiful body against his, turning his legs leaden until his breathing constricted.
Though he knew it was insane, he found himself unwilling to break the contact. Without conscious thought he picked her up in his arms and carried her through the snow to the passenger side of the Explorer.
During their marriage he’d made certain they never experienced this kind of physical closeness, not even when they’d danced together at fund-raiser galas. Especially not then. Now he knew why.
For a year a fierce hunger had been burning inside him. A hunger he’d never dared feed, not when there couldn’t be a future for the two of them.
Not when she would never love a man for the only reason that mattered.
The discovery that the woman he thought he’d said goodbye to forever had secretly followed him to Montana had all the components of some fantastic dream. But it was a flesh-and-blood Stefanie he deposited on the seat before removing her arms from his neck.
Determined to get this over as soon as possible, he stowed her purse and suitcase in his car, then started down the road.
She darted him an anxious glance. “Where are we going? The ranch is the other way.”
“I’m taking you to Marion where there’s a garage. The sooner your car is repaired, the sooner you can be on your way.”
“No, Gabe!” Her body jerked toward him. “I—I mean, I need to talk to you. I had no idea the sheriff’s office would send you to help me. Naturally I’m very grateful it was you who came.” After a slight pause, “Now that you’re here, couldn’t we pull over to the side of the road for a minute?”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “It’s getting late. We’ll be lucky to catch the mechanic before he goes home for the night.”
“I don’t care about the car. This is more important.”
With a grimace he asked, “You’re not worried about where you’re going to sleep tonight?”
“I was hoping I could stay with you,” came the quiet response.
“That would be impossible.”
Her head was bowed. “Is that because your son’s mother wouldn’t understand why your ex-wife has suddenly appeared, hoping to prevail on your good nature instead of partying in Paris?”
Gabe braked sharply, forgetting the snow. His Explorer skidded at an angle, but he was able to correct it in time to bring the car to a stop.
“All right, Stefanie. We’re off the road. You’ve gotten your wish and have my undivided attention.”
“Don’t worry,” she said quietly. “Your private life is your business. Rest assured your secret is safe with me. When the P.I.s saw you pick up a woman and a teenage boy who bore a resemblance to you, it wasn’t hard to figure out th—”
“Get to the point!” he broke in, knocked sideways by her erroneous conclusions. “To say that I’m surprised to see you again would be the understatement of all time.”
She nodded. “I know, but there are compelling reasons—at least compelling to me—why I was driven to follow you. If you’ll just hear me out.”
He sucked in his breath. “I’m listening.”
“The truth is, I—I didn’t want to go around the world alone. I realized you planned that trip as a fabulous thank-you gift for me. When you first suggested it, I felt it would have been unconscionable of me to turn it down. I could tell you were trying hard to do something special and unique for me. But as the days grew closer to my departure, I started to panic.”
A groan escaped his throat. “Then why didn’t you say something?”
“B-because I’ve never really been on my own before and knew it would be good for me. When you think about it, I’ve only lived with my parents, and then w-with you. Other people seem to handle independence just fine. But deep down the thought of being free to travel for six months by myself started to sound worse than being locked up in a prison.”
“For the love of heaven, Stefanie—” He raked an unsteady hand through his hair. Her revelations were so unexpected, he wondered if there wasn’t some other reason she’d come.
“Two days before you left Newport I got so frightened, I knew I would never be able to set foot on that plane to Paris. But I also knew you were depending on me to do my part and disappear.”
“Not at the cost of your sanity,” he muttered fiercely.
“Gabe—I’m not trying to make you feel sorry for me. I’m just trying to explain that there was no way I would have let you down. S-so I came up with this plan to follow you, then beg you to let me stay wherever you were until the six months were up.”
He had to be dreaming. “Why did you give the sheriff’s office a fake name? For that matter, what are you doing in this disguise?”
“I didn’t want anything I did to give your secret away. I knew how important it was for you to stay hidden from the media. To make certain no one recognized me or could link us in any way, I decided to camouflage myself and have been wearing this outfit since I left Newport.”
She’d come up with a good one. She was sexy as hell.
“At first I thought maybe you’d made arrangements to leave the States for good. Then came the surprising news that you were driving across the country. I had no idea you owned a ranch and planned to live out here.”
“It’s