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“Really? Let me see,” he said, peering into the glass. “Why, so it is. A diamond, in fact. Now how do you suppose that got in there?”

  She touched his cheek. “Hardy, don’t,” she pleaded. “Don’t play games. Not about something this important.”

  He met her gaze, then silently plucked the ring from the glass and held it up so that the waning sunlight made sparks shoot from it. His gaze still clinging to hers, he said solemnly, “I know we got engaged this morning, and I know you assumed it was just an impulsive thing I did to get your father off your case, but it wasn’t, darlin’. I love you. I want this engagement to be real. Brief,” he added fervently, “but real.”

  Tears swam in her eyes. “How brief?”

  “Oh, I’d say a few days ought to be long enough, but you can decide. That is, if you’ll agree to marry me, if you’ll let me be your husband and Laura’s father.”

  A million things crowded into her mind at once. Joy spread through her heart. She couldn’t seem to think of a thing to say.

  “Trish?” Hardy prodded, his expression worried.

  “I’m overwhelmed,” she said finally. “I’m grateful.”

  “Dammit, I don’t want your gratitude,” he said impatiently.

  She kissed him to silence him. “I am grateful,” she repeated. “But I was also going to say that I love you, Hardy Jones. You are the most amazing, sensitive, incredible man I’ve ever known.”

  Hardy stopped and stared, clearly taken aback. Apparently he’d expected to have to put up more of a fight. “Say that again.”

  “I love you,” she said, grinning.

  “You do?”

  She nodded. “Get used to it, cowboy. Your bachelor days are numbered.”

  Hardy whooped and gathered her into his arms. He twirled her around until they were both dizzy and giddy.

  Laughing, Trish gazed into his eyes. “I take it you’re not as upset by this as you would have been a few months ago?”

  “Upset? No way.” He peered at her intently. “You are saying you’ll marry me, right? You are saying yes?”

  “No need to say it,” she informed him. “I’ve already told the world—well, my father, anyway—that we’re engaged. I wouldn’t want to make a liar out of either one of us.”

  “No, indeed. We couldn’t have that.”

  She regarded him seriously. “Hardy, I know you never planned on getting married or having a family. I heard all about your New Year’s resolution when I first got to town.”

  Hardy grinned, seemingly unperturbed. “You ever know a New Year’s resolution that hasn’t been broken?”

  “As long as you don’t feel the same way about wedding vows, I’d say we’re in business.”

  He kissed her until her head spun. “No, darlin’. Those words are the kind a man says just once, and they’re meant to last forever.”

  Trish wanted him so badly she ached with it. “Does this house have a bedroom yet?”

  Hardy swallowed hard. “Not yet. Why?”

  “Because I desperately want to make love with my new fiancé.”

  “Is that so?” he asked, clearly intrigued. “I have a very thick, fluffy blanket in the truck and we’re all alone in the middle of nowhere. How would you feel about making love right out here?”

  She was already reaching for his tie. “Forget the blanket,” she said at once.

  “But—” The protest died on his lips, when she reached for the buckle of his belt.

  His hands swept hers out of the way, then reached for her, sliding her dress over her head in one clever movement. “You never cease to amaze me,” he told her.

  “Think I can satisfy you after you being used to having a different woman every few days?”

  “I think you can surprise me through eternity,” he said, as he unclasped her bra and filled his hands with her breasts. “You are perfect.”

  “Not so perfect,” she said, cataloging what she thought of as her many physical flaws. Hardy paid extra attention to each one she mentioned, moving from breasts to hips to thighs in a way meant to reassure her that what she saw as flaws, he viewed as sensuous, seductive parts of a whole woman, a woman he was desperately in love with.

  He dragged a cushion from a chair before lowering her to the patio. No bed could have been as romantic as this impromptu one under a sky that was rapidly turning from orange to mauve to velvet.

  “I have imagined being with you a thousand and one times,” he told her as he entered her at last. “None of them were anything like this.”

  “You probably figured we’d be in a bed,” she teased, rising to meet the thrust of his hips, awed by the sensations rippling through her. She had never felt so full, so complete, not just where he had entered her, but in her heart.

  “I should have known,” she said on a gasp of pure pleasure.

  “Known what?”

  “That it would be magic.”

  “We’ll keep it that way,” he promised as he began a rhythm that drove out all teasing, all thought.

  Wave after wave of wicked sensations washed over her, until she cried out his name, then felt him shudder with his own powerful release.

  As the stars came out, they relaxed in each other’s arms.

  “I guess we’re well and truly engaged now,” Trish declared, turning to face him.

  He grinned. “I guess we are.”

  “No backing out.”

  “I wouldn’t think of it, especially since that entire box of condoms I bought in case tonight went the way I hoped is still out in the truck with the blanket. I’m sorry. We haven’t even talked about having more kids.”

  “I want your babies, Hardy.”

  “Laura is mine, in every way that counts.”

  Her heart melted at the declaration. “I know you feel that way. It’s one of the reasons I love you.”

  “Are there others?”

  “Too many to name in a single night,” she told him, meaning it.

  “That’s okay, darlin’. We have a whole lifetime for you to fill me in. Then we can spend eternity with me telling you all the ways I love you and how I’ll never in a million years let you get away.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-5440-8

  THE COWBOY AND THE NEW YEAR’S BABY

  Copyright © 1999 by Sherryl Woods

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

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  *Vows

  *Vows

  *Vows

  *Vows

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  ‡And Baby Makes Three

  ‡And Baby Makes Three

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  **The Bridal Path

  **The Bridal Path

  **The Bridal Path

  ††And Baby Makes Three: The Next Generation

  ††And Baby Makes Three: The Next Generation

  ††And Baby Makes Three: The Next Generation

  ††And Baby Makes Three: The Next Generation

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Baby Makes Three: The Next Generation

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  ◊And Baby Makes Three: The Delacourts of Texas

  ††And Baby Makes Three: The Next Generation