Colorado Dawn by Erica Vetsch Read Free Book Online Page A

gripping the rail, halfway up the staircase.
    She lifted her hem and marched up the steps. “How dare you! How dare you claim I am out of my mind or somehow out of order in seeking recompense. I didn’t break this engagement. You did. You called the tune, now you can pay the piper. You’ve been nothing but rude and cold since I returned, and your treatment of your mother was atrocious. You owe her an apology for your unkind words, and you broke her vase and didn’t even have the decency to say you were sorry.”
    “My mother’s vase?” His head tilted and his eyebrows rose. Then his face hardened once more. “When you receive your payout from the lawsuit, you can buy her a new one.”
    His voice flicked at her, and she burned to grab his shoulders and shake some sense into him, to make him realize how much he was hurting all of them, how much he was hurting himself. “Stop being so difficult. I don’t want the money. I only want to marry you. I love you, David, and I know you love me. Why must you be so blind?”
    He froze, his face going white at her words.
    She wanted to call them back, but it was too late.
    A ripple went through his body, as if she had struck him.
    Her apology was halfway up her throat when she touched his arm.
    But he stiffened and thrust her hand aside. “
My dear…
”
    She winced at the endearment he used to say with such tenderness.
    “You claim you still want to marry me? You say you’ll sue me if I don’t capitulate? Well, if nothing else will please you, and since you have the support of my entire family, then I will marry you and leave you to suffer the consequences brought about by your rash actions.”
    The fight rushed back into Karen, and she stepped up onto the riser beside him. “Don’t toy with me, David. If this is some kind of joke to get me to withdraw the lawsuit, I’m warning you, I won’t be trifled with.”
    “You are warning me?” His hand gripped the banister so hard his arm shook. “You are the one who is in trouble, lady.” He grabbed her by the shoulders, shifting one hand to her chin. He kissed her, fierce and quick. It was over before she could react. “You have your wish,
my dear
. We’ll be wed tomorrow afternoon, and I expect this lawsuit to be dropped by the following day.” He turned and walked up the stairs every bit as if he saw each one, seemingly in too much of a temper to be tentative.
    Karen sank down onto the steps and stared after him, incredulous, her trembling fingers raised to touch her lips, still tingling from his kiss. She remained staring up toward the landing until a door slammed on the second floor. Her bludgeoned mind could hardly take in what had happened. At a noise below her, she turned.
    Sam, Jesse, and Matilda crowded in the parlor doorway. Sam rubbed his cheek. “At least Dave’s out of his doldrums now.”

    “What made you change your mind?” Sam plopped into the chair beside the bed and propped his boots on the comforter, making the mattress lurch.
    David tucked the fingers of his good hand behind his head and pressed back into the pillow. “General idiocy? Or maybe I thought it would be less expensive to marry her than to go through with that lawsuit.”
    “Or maybe it’s what you want deep down in your heart? You said you still love her.”
    The memory of Karen’s lips under his, even though he’d kissed her in anger, seared David through. He loved her and he wanted her. His abdomen trembled. He knew he was using the lawsuit as an excuse to push past his fears and marry her. But what about later? What about when everything fell apart? “Why did you come up here, Sam?”
    “I guess I wanted to make sure…I don’t know. You know I wouldn’t have pushed going through with this wedding if I wasn’t one hundred percent sure you two still loved each other, right? If I didn’t think it was the best thing for both of you, I never would’ve gone along with this breach of promise idea.”
    “How can you say