Читать книгу Out of Exile - Carla Cassidy - Страница 7

He stood in the shadows near the barn, staring at the big white house. At the moment only one light shone from the windows of the huge two-story home. He knew Matthew Delaney, the eldest of the Delaney heirs and the manager of this ranch, would be sitting in his study, where he’d sat every night for the past week.

But tomorrow the house would be ablaze with lights because she would be here. Euphoria cascaded through him and his heart raced so fast he feared it might beat right out of his chest.

Lilliana Marie Winstead. Lilly. Tomorrow she would arrive here. After all the time that had passed, after all the heartaches in his life, tomorrow he would be reunited with the woman who was his soul mate, his love…his very life.

He leaned back against the wooden side of the barn and closed his eyes, a vision of Lilliana materializing inside his mind. The first vision his brain produced was one of her as a young woman. She’d been sixteen years old when he’d first seen her, when he had first recognized that she was his destiny.

At that time her hair had been a curtain of darkness that he’d wanted to climb into and hide in forever. Her eyes had been the deep blue of ocean depths and he’d wanted to dive in and die there.

But before he had been able to make her understand that she belonged to him, that they belonged together, she was gone. He’d been devastated, ripped apart.

And in the years following her disappearance, he’d searched for her, had even tried to take up with other women who looked like her. But in the end they had been terrible disappointments…pale imitations of the woman who was meant to be his.

A swell of rage rose inside him as he thought of those two women. He’d had such hopes for each of them, but they’d been nothing but stupid whores who had refused to understand their fate.

Now they understood. As they rotted in their shallow graves, he was certain they now understood. Just as Lilliana would eventually understand.

She belonged to him.

It had been sheer accident that he’d found her once again. He’d gone into a supermarket he never frequented for a pound of hamburger, and there she had been…pushing a basket just ahead of him.

He’d been so shocked, so utterly overwhelmed, he’d left the store without the meat, but had sat in his truck and watched as, moments later, she’d left the store.

It had been fate, giving him a second chance. And now that he’d found her again he wasn’t about to let her go. She would be here tomorrow and he would be here waiting for her.

He opened his eyes once again and stared at the big house. Matthew Delaney was hiring new help for the ranch and he intended to get hired on. He intended to be here to watch her…to wait…and eventually to claim her as his own for eternity.

He just hoped she didn’t disappoint him like the others before her.