Out of Exile. Carla Cassidy

and had become thriving, loving people. It amazed him sometimes, the indomitable will of the human spirit.

      What angered him more than anything was the fact that their spirits had managed to survive just fine and he was afraid his had not.

      He stood just outside the living room window, staring in at the scene inside. The night air that surrounded him was warm, but couldn’t compete with the heat inside him as he drank his fill of the sight of Lilly.

      Beautiful. Stunning. She looked as good as she had when she’d been sixteen. Even better. And he knew that if the window was open, he’d be able to smell her—a scent that he’d retained in his memory for years.

      His blood heated and surged through him, filling him with strength and purpose. She would be his. He knew it in his heart. He recognized it in his very soul.

      This afternoon she had stood so close to him he could have reached out his hand and touched her. He knew just how her skin would feel. He’d dreamed about touching her a thousand times.

      And, in the brief words they’d exchanged that afternoon, he’d seen the spark of something secret and knowing in her eyes.

      She knew they belonged together. They didn’t have to exchange a word. It was a knowledge both of them retained in their souls.

      His gaze narrowed as he watched Matthew Delaney pour Lilly a drink. Something in the way he looked at Lilly as he handed her the glass stirred a feeling of threat. For just a moment he thought he saw desire in Matthew’s eyes.

      “You can’t have her,” he whispered, his gaze intent on the tall, handsome cowboy. “She’s mine.”

      As he saw the gathering starting to break up, he scurried away from the window and into the night shadows. Fate had given him a second chance to claim Lilly as his own, and he wasn’t about to allow Matthew Delaney to stand in his way.

      He got into his pickup and headed for his own place, knowing it would be too dangerous to hang around the ranch anymore that evening.

      As he drove, he thought again of that look he’d seen in Matthew’s eyes as he’d gazed at Lilly. Matthew Delaney would never get an opportunity to follow through on any desire he might feel for Lilly. He would see to that. He would make sure Matthew was too busy with other things to have time for anything remotely resembling romance.