“You don’t watch them anymore.”

Caleb’s voice broke through her thoughts, bringing Keliana’s gaze up from contemplation of the path ahead of them. Little more than a thin strip of shorter grass it wound a meandering trail through the fields behind her small house toward the stream that cut through the gentle valley.

“Watch what?”

She tilted her head to look up at him, face sheltered from the glare of the summer sun by the wide-brimmed hat she wore. Caleb had insisted she wear it, plonking it on her head and refusing to let her leave the house without it.

A small smile curved her lips. Since he’d proposed he’d become bossier, but she didn’t mind. He was kind with it and mostly fussed to make sure she and the baby were OK.

“The transporters.” He adjusted his grip on the basket he carried and nodded upward where the exhaust trail of a space to surface vessel carved a white line in the blue of the sky. “You used to watch them.”

“No reason to watch them anymore.” She shrugged, her steps slowing as they reached the edge of the first field and the stile into the next. Caleb had surprised her, turning up with unexpectedly when she thought he’d be out on the Bane lands this weekend, rounding up the cattle with the rest of the ranch hands. Instead he’d snuck back, mischief glinting in his eyes as he admitted cutting work to spend time with her.

“Uhmm.” She contemplated the stile ahead of her. Usually, it wouldn’t pose a problem but her growing belly was making even normal things difficult. She’d forgotten what her feet looked like so putting shoes on was out of the question.

“Hold on, I got it.”

Before she could lift her leg and put a foot on the wooden step in front of her, strong arms wrapped around her. A gasp of surprise escaped her. Caleb lifted her as though she weighed nothing and she clung to his shoulders as he easily negotiated the stile with her held against his broad chest.

On the other side he stopped and treated her to a grin, not letting her go. Their gazes met and held. Her hat slipped back, falling to the ground behind them to be ignored as his eyes darkened, gaze dropping to her lips. His hand splayed over the side of her ribs, the other clasped around her knees, as he leaned in to feather his lips over hers.

Her heart ached, both for the man she’d lost and the man holding her. She didn’t watch the transports anymore because Jareth wasn’t coming. She’d finally accepted it was over. Done. She had to move on.

He lifted up, the kiss over almost before it was begun. That was Caleb all over. Softly, softly, not asking for more than she could give and in that moment she loved him for it. Without speaking, he let go of her knees and set her down on her feet, the strength required to deal with her and growing baby-bump impressing her for a moment. Right up to the point she remembered he was a rancher, used to dealing with thirty stone traxan heifers. It wasn’t a complimentary comparison.

He stood for a moment, tension running through the big, rangy frame as his gaze roamed over her face before settling on her lips. She could virtually feel the control as he pulled back and smiled brightly.

“Let me get the basket. I packed it myself; I hope you like it,” he said over his shoulder as he leaped over the stile to recover it. Soft amusement filled her as she bent down to pick up her hat, putting it back on her head before he could complain again. Wasn’t that just like a man, showing off so she could see how fit he was.

“I’m sure I will.”

A loud grumble from her midsection echoed her words. Caleb chuckled as he returned to her side, basket held in one hand as he extended the other arm.

“Sounds like it. Shall we?”

The rest of the walk was fortunately short. Keliana sank gratefully onto the rug Caleb spread in the shade of a large tree next to the brook and listened to the musical babbling of the water as he unpacked boxes and packets. His hands were large and capable, rough and scarred from his work on the land but that didn’t bother her. Jareth’s hands were scarred as wel—

She suppressed the thought partway through. Jareth was part of her past and she had to look to the future. Wriggling to get comfortable, she kicked her sandals off and looked over the spread. “This looks delicious, thank you. No one’s ever done anything like this for me before.”

“You’re joking?” Surprise showed on Caleb’s face as he set about preparing a plate for her. “Food is definitely one of the sensual arts. Good food, good wine, a place like this…” He motioned to their surroundings with a fork before sliding it onto her plate and handing it to her. “The company of a beautiful woman.”

She snorted as she took the plate. “Beautiful. I’m the size of a cow!”

“I beg to differ.” His eyebrow rose, an amused expression on his face. “You’re way easier to pick up than the average heifer. Least I don’t need a crane. Yet.”

She gasped in outrage and threw her napkin at him. He easily dodged it, chuckling as he loaded his own plate. Conversation was light, mainly about happenings in town as they ate.

Finally she set her plate down, rubbing over her swollen stomach as she eyed the jessian berries he’d put between them in the ultimate temptation. She’d never had them before she’d come to Roulla but they’d firmly become her favorite food. Sliding him a sideways look, she smiled happily when he indicated she should help herself, and dug in.

Picking one up, she rolled it between her fingers, feeling the resistance of the dimpled skin. They were similar in shape to strawberries but a pale lilac instead of red and the flavor—she groaned as she bit into one, the juices dribbling down from the corners of her lips as the taste exploded on her tongue.

“Messy pup.” Caleb chuckled softly as he moved in, tucking a napkin in her free hand. She looked up, realizing how close he was. The heat from his body beat at her skin, the thin sundress no protection. She caught her breath as he leaned in, purpose in his eyes, to kiss her.

His lips claimed hers, firm and warm. Her hands found his shoulders as he started light, small kisses along hers until he reached the corners. The warm brush of his tongue at the trickle of berry juice in the corner made her jump. Gently he took advantage of her gasp to stroke his tongue along the parted seam of her lips, urging her to open them further and let him in.

As kisses went, a year ago it would have rocked her world. Now… Closing her eyes, she put everything that had happened to the back of her mind and tried to relax in Caleb’s hold, letting him and the moment coax her into a response. He snaked an arm around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest as he deepened the kiss.

She murmured in the back of her throat as his tongue swept along hers, schooling her instinctive reaction to push him away. He wasn’t the man she loved, but the man she loved didn’t want her. This one did, and had proven himself time and time again.

She was under no illusion, out here in the colonies, everyone pulled their weight. Currently she got by with her teaching, but with the baby she was going to need some help. Caleb had offered her a way out, and Lady help her, she was tempted.

She didn’t love him, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t work. She’d been a courtesan, sleeping with a man she didn’t love wasn’t exactly a problem. Caleb was a good man; she could trust him to look after her, treat her as an equal… She couldn’t do it. Her body took over, stiffening as her hands curled into claws on Caleb’s shoulders. With a sob, she broke away, shivering.

“Oh my goddess, I’m sorry…I’m so sorry. You must think I’m a…I didn’t mean to lead you on. I thought I could, but I can’t. I’m so sorry…”

Her whispered words fell over each other as she leaned her forehead against his shoulder. Shame burned her cheeks. Why couldn’t she love Caleb? He was a good man.

“It’s OK, sweetheart. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have pushed you.”

Large hands swept her back, but in soothing motions rather than to explore her curves. His deep voice rumbled through the broad chest and the shoulder she rested on. She’d expected anger but he just held her as she shivered and her heart ached all over again.

Leaning back, she looked up at him. His blue eyes were shadowed and lines bracketed his mouth, but still his expression was calm and understanding. His compassion and empathy humbled her.

“You’re one in a million, Caleb.” She reached up and brushed a long lock of his hair out of his eyes. “You’ll find a woman who deserves you…I just know it.”

“I take it that’s a no then? To my proposal?” A sad little smile curved his lips, but he nodded. “If you should ever change your mind, you know where I am.”

Leaning down, he brushed a kiss over her lips. Chaste and platonic, it was a good-bye. Her hands relaxed on his shoulders as she started to pull away. She didn’t get to complete the movement as a roar of rage made them both jump and, in the next heartbeat, Caleb was ripped away from her.

“Get your fucking hands off her.”

Keliana gasped in shock as Jareth hauled Caleb to his feet, slammed his hands onto Caleb’s shoulders and grabbed fistfuls of fabric. Yanking Caleb off balance, he dragged and twisted, throwing the tall rancher to the ground. Before he’d hit the ground, Jareth was on him. Caleb barely got his fists up in time before the first punch was thrown.

“Jareth, no!”

Scrambling to her feet, Keliana went after them. Fear for Caleb exploded through her. Working with traxans meant he was used to taking knocks and tumbles, even the occasional kick that could shatter a man’s leg if caught wrong, but Jareth was a professional soldier. Hard as nails and twice as mean, right now he looked killing mad, the expression on his face furious as he dodged Caleb’s punch and launched an attack of his own.

The sickening sound of fists hitting flesh filled the air. Caleb doubled over with an oomph of pain, but Jareth didn’t stop, hauling the other man back to his feet to hit him again. Ignoring the danger, Keliana darted in and wrapped her hands around his arm to stop him.

“Jareth, please no…you’re killing him!”

Miraculously, he heard her, stopping with his arm still raised and fist bunched. His other hand was wrapped around Caleb’s throat. She winced at the trickle of blood rolling down from the corner of his lips.

Jareth’s gaze rolled to her, the muscles in his arm standing proud under her hands. “I should kill him, he was kissing you.”

“Kissing me good-bye. He was kissing me good-bye, there was nothing in it. You have to believe me. Please, Jareth,” she pleaded, aware of other people in uniform around them, but paying them no mind. Tension strung out, the babbling of the brook the only sound as Jareth glared at the bleeding Caleb.

“Please, you’re hurting him. He’s going purple.”

Elation that he’d come combined with terror for Caleb filled her as she tugged on Jareth’s arm, trying to get between them, but struggling thanks to her swollen belly. Instead, she settled for sliding an arm under his and pulling his chin around so he looked at her. His eyes were almost black with rage, the blue all but swallowed up. “Please, you’re mad at me, not at him.”

He released Caleb with a jerky movement, the rancher staggering back. He dropped to his knees, hand massaging his throat where angry red finger marks were already starting to darken.

“Jareth? Jareth Nikolai?” Caleb gasped and coughed, trying to get his breath. Disbelief flowed over his features as he looked between them. “The Stone-Cold Colonel…he’s the one?” Realization filled his eyes. “Keli…Keliana. You’re the harem-mistress, aren’t you? Fuck m—”

Jareth surged forward again, dragging Keliana a few steps as he snarled. Caleb jumped back, then scrambled to his feet and held his hands out.

“Whoa, I didn’t mean anything by it. We’ve all heard the stories. The women down in the town were all agog over the news feeds months ago. Thought it was so romantic.” He shook his head and smiled at her, holding his side. “I never had a chance, did I? No, don’t answer that.”

“Best she doesn’t, brother.”

A new voice joined the conversation. Keliana turned, her hands still wrapped around Jareth’s arm to find Devil next to her, and a blond woman with a med-kit who wasted no time in motioning to Caleb.

“Come on, farm-boy. Let’s take a look at those ribs… That is, if you’ve stopped using him as a punch-bag?” She directed the question at Jareth, her eyebrow arched. “But I gotta warn you, as a certified medic I’m going to have to step in if you try it. I won’t have you beating up on a defenseless man.”

“Hey! Less of the defenseless!” Caleb piped up, the natural arrogance of the male of the species resurfacing for a second before he coughed. A wince of pain contorted his features as he clamped a large hand over his ribcage. “I can take whatever he throws at me.”

“Yeah, sure you can handsome.” The woman chuckled as she wrapped a hand around his arm to lead him away. “Come this way and you can tell me all about it.”

“I…think I’ll go and see if he needs anyone to hold his hand,” Devil said behind them, but Keliana wasn’t listening. Instead her entire world had narrowed down to her hand wrapped around Jareth’s arm, the touch of her fingertips against his hair-roughened jaw and the hard male body a hairbreadth from hers.

Realizing she still had a hold of him as though to stop him hitting Caleb, she dropped her hands and stepped back to look up at him. Unable to look away, she drank in every detail of his appearance. His hair was a little longer, the dark locks loose about his face, and new lines bracketed the corners of his mouth. His blue-black gaze latched onto her.

“Who was that?” he demanded, his voice rough with anger. “If he…you…he…I’ll fucking kill him.”

It was too much for Keliana. A temper she didn’t know she had rushed to the fore. Two quick steps brought her toe-to-toe with him and her hand lashed out. The loud slap of her palm hitting his cheek reverberated like a gunshot.

“He is a friend.”

For the first time in her life, Keliana let anger overrule her as she faced down one of the most dangerous men in the princedom without batting an eyelash.

“One who stood by me, no matter what the circumstances. Unlike some I can mention. The sort who would ask a woman for her side of the story, not send another man to do his dirty work.”

She knew it was foolish, but she couldn’t stop the words once they started. Her lip curled as she looked him up and down, her hand wrapped protectively around her belly, trying to ease the uncomfortable ache there. Junior was really not happy at the tension running through her.

“I should do myself a favor and accept his proposal.”

Goddess, she was glorious when she was angry. And pregnant. Gloriously angry and pregnant.

Stuck dumb, Jareth’s gaze latched onto the new roundness of her stomach. He’d missed it before. Firstly because she’d been tucked in behind Caleb and then because he’d been too concerned with knocking the guy’s block off to actually look at her. Now though, now he looked. She was pregnant.

His gaze caressed her swollen belly, savage male triumph surging through him as he took a step forward. He’d done that, made her pregnant. His woman, his seed, his child.

“Oh no, you don’t. Don’t you lay a finger on me, your highness,” she spat, fists clenched as she backed up, warning him off with a flash in her expressive dark eyes. Her heart-shaped face set in stubborn lines, she looked at him as though he’d just crawled out from under a rock. Jareth didn’t blame her. He’d fucked up. Big time.

“Whoa, it’s OK, sweetheart,” he murmured, his body language as nonthreatening as he could make it. Hands out at his sides, he approached her as cautiously as he would a wounded animal, cursing as her eyes dropped to the heavy pistol holstered at his hip. He should have disarmed before coming near her. The mood she was in, she might just use it on him.

“I’m not going to hurt you, kitten. Please, just hear me out.”

He carried on talking as he backed her up until she bumped into the broad trunk of the tree whose branches provided the shade overhead. She gasped, hands spread over the bark behind her but didn’t run. The pulse in her throat, clearly visible under the pale, delicate skin, fluttered frantically and her breath caught as he got nearer. A wave of tenderness and possessiveness washed over him as he stepped in, trying hard not to crowd her against the tree, only to be brought up sharply when she glared at him again.

“Hear you out? Like you heard me out?”

Jareth winced as the barb hit true, aimed with lethal accuracy. She was right. He’d been an ass and he didn’t know how to put things right, didn’t know how to heal the hurt he could see in her eyes. All he knew was that he had to. That for all the battles he’d been in where his life and the safety of the princedom was on the line, this was the only one that mattered. He thought he’d lost her once, he wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice.

“I’m sorry, Kitten. I was an ass.”

“Damn right you were an ass,” she snapped, so much hurt and pain in her voice he just wanted to drag her into his arms and kiss it all away. “Did it ever occur to you that I wouldn’t just hop into bed with every guy that looked my way or did you buy into the whole ‘used to be a courtesan’ thing? Hmmm?”

“What the fuck, what kind of man do you think I am?” He grabbed her upper arms as horror filled him that she even suspected that he thought that of her. She’d been a courtesan, but for fuck’s sake, it had taken him long enough to get her to stop worrying she was betraying her master. She wasn’t the kind of woman to go jumping every guy she met.

“The kind who just looked at a piece of film and made a snap decision!” Her voice rose, anger and frustration written across her face as she shrugged off his hold, jabbing her finger into his chest so hard he was sure she’d hurt herself.

“The kind of ass who has all the smarts up top, but was too dumb to use them when it really mattered! Military genius they call you…the ‘Stone cold colonel’…nothing gets past you. Not a clue colonel if you ask me,” she snapped, working herself up into a fit that couldn’t be good for her or the baby.

Unable to think of anything else, he dropped first to one knee, then the other until he knelt before her. Humbling himself in the faint hope she might take pity on him.

“I should have spoken to you, listened to you. I’ve been in agony without you. Every day I wake, then I remember you’re not there and it tears me apart…”

He looked up, dropping the mask he’d worn for the past long months and let his emotions show though. Let her see the misery, longing and pain that lived in his heart when he was without her.

“I was an ass, easily tricked. I saw that guy’s hands on you and lost it,” he admitted, his voice rough with emotion. All his pretty words and eloquent turn of phrase deserted him as he looked at her and spoke from his heart.

“I’d give anything to turn the clock back. Please, princess, give me another chance. If only for the baby. Can I?”

He motioned toward her belly, her hands clasped protectively around it, and held his breath as she considered it. Finally she nodded, giving him permission. Jareth surged to his feet. A second later he smoothed his hands over hers.

“Mine.” His whisper was reverent as he felt the child within kick against his large hand, and felt a wave of emotion so primal and strong it nearly put him on his knees again. She shivered, her hands closing over his as the baby kicked again, as though happy to have both parents there. He didn’t bother to ask if the baby was his, he just knew. Keliana would never have sex with a man she didn’t love.

He just hoped he hadn’t killed her love for him.

He caught her gaze, imploring her with his own as he shamelessly exploited the chink in her armor. He wasn’t above dirty tricks to get the answer he needed. What they both needed.

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart. Please, give me another chance? I need you.”

She bit her lip, white teeth mangling her full lower lip and he had to bite back his moan. He was as hard as a rock just from being around her, his body reacting to the sight of her blossoming and swollen with his child. His heart stalled as she started to shake her head, tears welling up in her eyes.

All he’d thought about since Devil had told him where she was, was getting her back. In his mind it had been simple. He’d apologize, she’d forgive him and they’d ride off into the sunset. Happily ever after. Sorted.

What a fucking twat.

“I love you,” he blurted out, forgetting his promise to himself and crowding her back against the tree. He couldn’t lose her, couldn’t let her say no. His hand drove into her hair as he claimed her lips, pouring everything of himself into the kiss. His hopes, his dreams, his need for her and the sorrow for what he’d done condensed into the simple touch of his lips on hers.

She didn’t move, holding herself still and unmoving under him. His heart sank as he waited for her to push him away. Any second now she would and his heart would break, shattered into a million pieces, and it would be his own fault.

Her lips softened under his and hope filled him, growing and bursting free as she started to kiss him back. Slowly at first, just the mere brush of her lips against his, massaging and clinging. Groaning deep in his throat he turned them so he was leaning against the trunk, supporting the weight of her pregnant body in his arms as he deepened the kiss.

She opened without hesitation and he surged in to claim the sweetness of her mouth. A shudder hit him broadside, rolling through his body as she leaned against him willingly. By the time he lifted his head, his breathing was as ragged as hers.

“I love you, sweetheart,” he murmured against her lips. “Please, you’re killing me here. Say some—”

Her fingertips laid over his lips stopped his words midsentence, her eyes bright as she looked up at him.

“Jareth Nikolai, I love you. I have for years.” Her words were soft, but no less sweet for that. He sighed, the last of the tension draining from his body. “But if you ever pull any crap like that again, I swear to the Lady I’m gonna get Devil to teach me to shoot and use your hide for target practice. Understand?”

Laughter broke from his lips, loud and carefree as he scooped her into his arms and stood straight. “Sweetheart,” he said as her arms looped around his neck. “I’d even let you use my guns.”