It was Marla’s voice, no, not Marla, Kylie’s.
He forced his eyes open and stared into eyes as green as a forest at sunrise. Pain blasted through his abdomen but he managed a thin smile as her tears rained on him. “Where ya been?” he croaked.
“I was just wondering that about you.” She sniffed loudly. “You had me scared, Cahill, real scared.”
“Are you okay?”
“Are you?” She eyed his face. “You look like hell, you know.”
“I feel worse.”
She laughed and linked her fingers through his. “Thank God, you’re tough as nails.”
“I’m just glad to be back, Marla,” he said and saw the smile fall from her face. Then, when her eyes found his again, they narrowed.
“That’s not funny.”
“Sure it is, Kylie.”
“I don’t know where you get your sense of humor,” she grumbled, and he reached upward, surrounded her nape with his fingers and drew her face down to within inches of his.
“Well, darlin’,” he drawled, smelling her perfume. “Don’t worry about it. I’m the outlaw, remember?”
“How could I forget?”
“You can’t,” he said with a crooked, wicked smile. “Because as soon as I get out of this place, you and me, we’re gonna take the baby and Cissy up to Oregon to live and leave all this mess behind. Mother can come if she wants to, but it’s my bet she won’t.”
“I thought you were mad at me,” she said, trying to hold on to her soaring emotions.
“I was. But I’ve done a lot of thinking. We can have a good, no, make that great, life together.”
“You’ve been in surgery and recovery. You didn’t have much time to think.”
“Didn’t need it.” He winked at her and she melted. “I hate to admit it, but I was wrong when I said you were worse than Marla, Kylie. I knew you were different from the get-go and I’ve seen you with the baby and with Cissy and . . . with me . . .”
“Oh, did you?” She wasn’t convinced, though she wanted desperately to be so.
He managed a smile. “Oh, yeah, I did and I fought it, told myself that you were playing me for a fool.”
She rolled her eyes. “Is that possible?”
“Unfortunately, it’s been done before. Anyway, I guess I’m trying to tell you that I love you, Kylie Paris, and I know you did a lot of rotten things and feel guilty as hell for them, but I think, from the moment you had that baby, you changed.”
Her throat was thick and she blinked hard. “You do, do you?”
“Absolutely. You evolved into the woman you are today, the woman I fell in love with.”
“What do you know?”
“Just that you’re not Marla, you’re Kylie and I’ve never felt like this before. Not with any other woman. I would never have fallen in love with Marla again, Kylie. You’re gentler, more caring and yet you have a tough side . . . you’re not the woman I thought you were and that’s why I love you,” he said again, his blue eyes sincere, his gaze scraping against her heart.
This time she believed him. “And I love you,” she whispered.
“I know you do, darlin’. And that’s something I’m never going to let you forget.”