“Joshua Kincaid, I would like you to meet your son.”

Every sense of his was arrested by the woman before him. Her fiery hair was caught atop her head in an elegant chignon, with tendrils artfully cascading down her cheeks. His mouth was dry, and his heart pounded. A reaction which occurred each time he saw her. She wore a long-sleeved, dark-blue, buttoned-up dress with a perfectly starched collar. It hugged her upper body tightly before flaring from her hips down to her ankles. There was something elegant and gentle about her, that spoke of a different place and a different time. Certainly, a world of gentility he was unacquainted with. Though his mothers and sisters were undoubtedly ladies, they were capable of being as ruthless as the men they loved.

It took Joshua a few seconds to tear his gaze from her prettiness to the child in her hands.

“Grayson,” she spoke softly as if the boy could understand. "Meet your father, Joshua Kincaid."

The baby shocked them both with a gurgle of delight, he lurched from her arms, and Joshua had to lunge and catch him. He chortled, then rested his head trustingly against his chest. A lump formed in his throat, and for a moment he almost didn’t know what to do with himself.

“He knows you,” she said accusingly.

Guilty as charged.

Beth fisted her hand on her hip, and her eyes spit fire at him. “Mr. Kincaid, you will explain yourself.”

“I may have been to see him a few times, up in your room.”

“I think you did more than that, Joshua Kincaid.”

He cleared his throat. “I may have taken him in my arms a few times too and talked to him some.”

Her eyes narrowed contemplatively. "I knew I smelled you in my room."

A babble of excited nonsense erupted from Grayson, and she laughed, stepped closer, and pressed a kiss to his forehead. Joshua considered her bent head, wondering what her reaction would be if he took her in his arms and kissed her for all to see. Not that they had much of an audience, only a few ranch hands mending the eastern fences, and Elijah who was breaking in a few broncos.

“I was about to take him for his daily walk.” She cleared her throat delicately. “Would you like to come with us?”

He stared at her.

“This isn’t me agreeing to courting,” she hastily amended.

Joshua couldn’t help it. He smiled. She made a pretty picture when flustered. They made their way down to the full wrap around porch, strolled past the barns and stables, meandering with no visible location in mind. Bethany started to sing softly, the purity of her voice startling him momentarily. Her voice was rich and beautiful, and instead of interrupting to pay her a compliment he listened. Peace settled inside of Joshua like he had never felt in all his years.

“How old are you, Bethany?”

She peered up at him. “I reckon you’ve never courted a lady before. It’s quite ungentlemanly to ask for a lady’s age.”

“So, I’m courting you then?”

She scowled, then blushed. “Twenty-three.” There was a brief hesitation, then she asked, “And you?”

“Twenty-nine.”

She smiled, but there was a wariness in her gaze he did not understand. Her throat worked on a swallow, and she looked away. “I love coming out here, feeling the wind on my face.”

The main ranch wasn’t in screaming distance. And he spotted no ranch hands close by. Men could approach and catch her unawares. Several fir trees were hiding the trail a visitor would take to the WC. “You come out here often? To this very spot?”

“Yes.”

There was the faint rustling through the grass and leaves. He watched and listened which came naturally to him after the years of his life. “Do you bring a weapon?”

He was mildly surprised when she pulled a bowie knife from the deep pockets of her dress. “Do you know how to use a gun, a colt?”

“Why yes, I do,” she drawled, her eyes twinkling.

“The next time you should walk with one. It is better to shoot a man than allow yourself to get within his reach and then defend yourself with a knife. The ranch hands will also hear the shot.”

She flashed him a wicked smile. “I don’t need to get close to any man’s reach.”

Then the knife streaked from her hand and buried itself into a large oak tree several feet away with dangerous precision. He went over and saw where the tree had hundreds of cuts, some deep, others shallow, a testament to how often she had practiced.

“I’m impressed.”

“I started coming out here when Jericho Sullivan began pestering Sheridan several months back,” Beth said softly, strolling over to pluck her bowie knife from the tree. “I knew the kind of man he was. His eyes were mean, and I knew he wanted to hurt her. I feared one day he would have succeeded in attempting to hurt, rape or kill her. So, I came out here, and I practiced. Every day. Even when it was so cold, and my entire body would quake.”

He dipped his head and allowed his mouth to touch hers, light and teasing. “It’s a part of courting,” he murmured.

Surprisingly she laughed, those brown eyes assessing him as if she were trying to strip his soul. It was the first time he'd heard her laugh, and the sound was achingly sweet, pleasant, and contagious.

“Sheridan is richer for having a friend like you.” From what Elijah had told him, Bethany could have departed for the east months ago, but she had refused to leave Sheridan who had been too damn stubborn to give up her home and run from a fight it had been impossible for her to win. Of course, Sheridan had found Elijah holed up in the mountains where he had been burying his demons to fight for her. And from the way his brother looked at that woman, she’d made the right decision.

Beth sighed, caressing the edge of the blade. “Much good it did her. When she was taken, I allowed fear to overtake my common sense. I contributed nothing to getting her back. Well, I did scream a lot," she said with wry embarrassment, color staining her cheeks.

He rubbed his knuckles down the side of her cheek, loving the soft feel of her skin. “I heard tell there was a time Sullivan came for her and you shot his hat off his head. That took guts and sass.”

She gave a short, amused laugh as her brown eyes lit with laughter and appreciation. “That it did, and I quite like the idea of me having sass.”

There was steel beneath that sweet softness.

“You have more than you could possibly know,” he said. “You survived Benjamin Hardin, and you did not wilt under his brutality. Instead, you made plans to get the hell out.”

The baby yawned and rubbed his eyes sleepily. She reached for him, and Joshua handed him over. Grayson smiled up at her, and she brushed a fingertip lovingly across his cheek. “I think it’s time we head back. I didn’t walk with a blanket for him.”

Despite the heat of the day, the afternoon grew chill and the night would be cold. They walked back toward the main house in silence. For all his talks of courting a woman, Joshua hardly knew where to start. His brother Noah was the one who had an easy time of it with women, and they seemed to make themselves go silly over him. What the hell would Noah have done? “There’s a poster in town,” he said abruptly.

She stopped. “Of wanted men?”

“Advertising a circus coming to town. They’ll be in by this weekend.”

“Oh, yes, I’ve seen them.” She frowned and waited, and he felt like an idiot.

“Maybe you would like to see one of their acts…with me.”

She stared at him for the longest time. “I would like to avoid Blue Lagoon until I leave. Abraham Hardin—”

“Would not dare approach you.”

“And what if he should?”

“I will deal with him when he does.”

Her breath hitched. “He knew you won me that night. He believed we ran away together. Once he sees us together in town, he will approach, Joshua, and I can already sense you will tell him what happened to his brother. There will be a fight. Is there a way to avoid that?”

“You want me to lie?”

He saw the shimmer of tears in her eyes and his heart clenched.

“Could you?”

“A man must own to his actions. Otherwise, he is nothing but a coward.”

“And you’re not a coward,” she whispered. “And when the smoke clears from the guns what will I see?”

“I won’t go hunting a fight.”

“But you won’t run from it either,” she said fiercely, her eyes flashing. “Do you think about that when you’re talking about courting?”

He had never made excuses for the life he had led, and he wasn’t about to do so now. “No, but I’ll start thinking about it now.”

A long silence stretched between them. “Am I to believe that?” she finally asked.

“I’m not an easy man. My needs and wants in life are simple. Maybe because I have wealth, but I worked hard for it. I’ve been herding cattle and buffaloes, breaking broncos and building the Triple K to the spread it is today from when I was eight. I have gold. I have land. I have family…but I’ve never had a woman I would call my own.”

She stiffened, taking his meaning. He watched the shock ripple through her eyes. Hell, he should have handled that announcement with more finesse. The breath that came from her was shaky, almost fearful. “And you want me to be your woman, no one else.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve had a husband before,” she whispered, wetting her bottom lip. “He wooed me back home, and for a wild moment in time, I thought I could love him. Benjamin Hardin was handsome and charming, and he knew how to spin a good yarn. Virginia did not fare well after the war, and our home had been burnt to the ground. We stayed in St. Louis for a while then Mamma went to Boston, my brother chose London, and I chose Benjamin Hardin. It was the gravest mistake of my life.” She had been backing away with each word that came from her lips. “For four months I endured several beatings. That night in the Honey Pot Saloon with you, that was the only night I had ever felt pleasure and some measure of safety. It was all so fleeting sometimes I wondered if it was part of a fevered dream.” She looked down at their son. “Then I realize it wasn’t and how lucky I was to escape that man.”

The wistful note in her voice worried him. She did not sound like a woman who was apt to think on his proposal. “Bethany—”

She shook her head, and he stopped. Emotions darkened her eyes, but she held his gaze. “He beat me, something fiercely. Sometimes for days I laid abed and thought I would die from the pain and the shame of it all. I swore I would never place myself at the mercy of another husband. While I know you are nothing like Benjamin Hardin, what you are asking me is not easy.”

Something hopeful stirred in him. “We'll go slow.” He made the promise against his better judgment, for he wanted nothing more than to make her his woman. The certainty he felt, he had never felt about anything else in his life. “I would never hurt you or our son.”

“I believe you,” she said softly, but she still took another step back from him. “But there is no getting around the fact you’ve killed people and have a reputation. In Virginia, I went to balls, Sunday picnics, and church. Then in St. Louis balls and society galas. There is a life in Boston waiting for me, one that I truly want.” She stopped moving, her eyes searching his face as if she wanted to strip his soul, reach inside him and know his darkness. “Could you move back east, with Grayson and me?”

Joshua faltered, the question catching him off guard. Immediately his scalp tightened, and his skin started to itch. He was not a man made for the refinements of Boston. He liked the wildness of the west, the open lands and rolling meadows of his ranch. He was born on the frontier, and the land itself felt like it was a part of his soul. He had never imagined leaving it. “Is that what you want me to do?”

She looked away. “I don’t know,” she said softly. “Meeting you again, Joshua, was never something I anticipated. You are entirely unexpected, and I hardly know what to do with the feelings you stir in me.”

A pulse of raw pleasure went through him. She had feelings for him, and from the softness and hunger in her gaze, they were the sweet kind.

He’d take that for now.

Feminine laughter spilled through the open windows on the second floor, bringing a smile to Joshua’s face. He listened to Beth’s soft southern drawl, mixed with Sheridan’s cultured British one as they tried to speak over each other. The smell of roasted pork floated on the air as the cook whipped up what promised to be a satisfying dinner. And Grayson slept content lying on his father’s chest.

“Sheridan will be a bit lost when Beth leaves for Boston,” Elijah said, glancing up at the open windows.

They had been on the porch for a while, talking business and the fact Joshua planned to head to their ranch in the Colorado territory.

“And I admit I will be a bit lost when you head back to the Triple K.”

Joshua sensed his brother wanted to know his intentions. Would he allow Beth to go east, while he wandered or returned to their ranch? Though he desired to court her, he didn't believe in using force. She'd had enough of that in her life already. "When are you coming back to visit Ma? I told her about Sheridan, and she is very eager to meet her.”

His brother sent him a taunting smile, green eyes very much like his own, watchful. “I sent Ma a long letter, and you are avoiding talking about Bethany. She does not seem to be afraid of you. In fact, her shoulders lose their tension when she hears your voice.”

“I don’t plan on letting her go.”

“How did you persuade her to stay?” Elijah demanded, a mocking glint in his gaze.

"You know very well she is not convinced yet. But I aim to." There was a lingering fear in Bethany’s eyes Joshua did not like. He wasn’t sure what had put it there. Abraham Hardin’s presence in Blue Lagoon, or Joshua’s promise that he would woo her and make her his woman.

“You want to marry her?” Elijah asked.

“Without hesitation.”

“You love her?”

Joshua hesitated. He had no business loving any woman or allowing one to love him. He wasn’t an outlaw, in fact, he often rode on the side of the law. But Joshua was a man with a reputation, and many fools had come hunting him because they had heard he was fast with his gun, and they needed to be better. It didn't matter to them that he didn't ride the outlaw trail, nor did he seek infamy. The only thing that mattered to those fools was their wishes that they could possibly tell the tale of besting a Kincaid. “Sometimes I get restless…and I have to ride.”

“I know,” Elijah said quietly, his eyes reflecting demons he still fought.

“A few times I’ve wondered if a woman would be content with the need I have in me to see the mountains, the canyons, and the valleys. There are times where for weeks I simply roam, and the peace I feel is incomparable.”

Except when I had kissed her.

“Maybe she’ll ride beside you.”

He liked that idea, even though it seemed far-fetched. He had traveled far and wide, ridden the trails, Socorro, Missouri, Santa Fe, had fought the Sioux, Utes, Arapahos, Cheyenne, Apaches, and he’d fought in the war and outside of it. His wanderings had exposed him to the wild beauty of the west, and the savagery that seemed inherent to human nature. “She’s not like anyone I’ve known in the past. She is a lady, a bit like Ma and Sheridan, but Beth is softer. When I stand before her gentle beauty and her ladylike qualities, I feel brutal…and uncouth.” And undeserving of her. Hell, she wouldn't want a man like him in her life. It was clear to him she craved for a different kind of life, one less lawless. The West has broken many men, and what it does to a woman is unspeakable. He hated the very idea of its savagery ruining her. His brother’s first wife Emma had died to escape the brutality of the west. She too had been gentle, almost like spun glass.

Except…Beth had been fierce and courageous when she fled Benjamin Hardin. She was a fighter. Joshua knew he would never hurt her, and he wanted to show her that.

Her shock when he revealed he had killed Benjamin Hardin had surprised Joshua. What had she imagined he would have done with a man who had beaten and used her so cruelly? And that highlighted their differences even more. He was raw and fierce, she was sweet and gentle, he was the wind that would blow powerful and strong, and his strength would either bend or break her.

“But you still want her?”

“I feel something fierce when I am with her…and since that night in Liberty, I haven’t taken another woman. Memories of her prevented that, even though I never thought I would see her again.” He didn’t want her broken or hurt. He wanted her loved and protected. “It will be mightily difficult to tempt her into giving me and the west a chance.”

And Joshua finally understood. The west was for men who were willing to kill. It had no room for the soft or the tender heart. He swore softly. He should saddle up and get out. Return to Triple K and see his family, taking over the running of the spread as his father and mother wanted.

His brother faced him. “Beth has a way of bringing out a man’s protective instincts, but she isn’t fragile. You know I believe the west isn’t any place for ladies, and Bethany and Sheridan…” Elijah sighed. “They’re ladies through and through. They belong to a different world, Joshua. Fine balls and afternoon teas.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying if you want her, you’ll have to do everything to bring a little east to her.”

"Can you be any more cryptic?"

Elijah grunted. “Show her that you can be sweet.”

Sweet? Incredulity filled Joshua. “You were truly singing to Sheridan last night.”

The babe stirred in his arms and came awake with a wide yawn. His eyes widened when he peered up into his father’s face and not his mother’s. Grayson’s face scrunched into a frown, before bestowing on Joshua a toothless smile.

“He’s a beautiful boy,” Elijah said. “Ma is going to faint when she sees him.”

“That he is,” Joshua replied, unable to mask the pride in his tone, not that he wanted to. “I meant to speak with you earlier, but you were with Sheridan.”

“What is it?”

“There might be some trouble in town.”

His brother stiffened. “Bartley has returned?”

As much as it pained Joshua to admit it, he said, “He is too much of a coward to ever come back to this territory. Abraham Hardin, the brother of the man Bethany was married to is in Blue Lagoon. He confronted her in town this morning.”

“Did he hurt her?”

“No.” There was a quiet place inside of him that already knew how he would put down any threat to her—swiftly and mercilessly. “But he spooked her. The man was looking for his brother. He believes she knows of his whereabouts.” As succinctly as possible, Joshua told his brother of the encounter.

"Hell." Elijah raked his fingers through his hair. "Anyone else knows you killed Benjamin that night?"

“No.” Joshua looked across the rolling grasslands to the trail leading to the ranch. A cloud of dust appeared on the horizon, as several horses powered toward the WC. A foreboding sense of knowing settled in his gut. “He’s coming.”

“Didn’t waste much time, did he?” Elijah asked, assessing the riders in the distance.

“Bethany.” Though Joshua barely elevated his voice, the happy chattering from above stairs ceased.

Elijah placed his fingers between his lips and whistled sharply, and without any words being exchanged, a sense of watchful intensity seemed as if it blanketed the ranch. Several of the WC’s workers were on the range, but those who were close enough to hear the whistle from their boss understood the message. An enemy approached, and the women must be protected at all cost.