“And stay until you get tired of me, like all the others?” she asked on a long sigh.

“Try to remember that tabloids run on gossip. The more lurid the story, the more people buy it. The real culprit was the starlet. Her series is ending and she needs publicity so that she can get another job.” His smile was pure cynicism. “I never even slept with her, Mina,” he added, his voice deep and very quiet. “She was just somebody pretty to take around town while I was there.” He lowered his eyes. “I never thought you’d find out about it.”

“Would you have told me?” she asked, with some of his same cynicism.

He drew in a long breath. “Probably,” he conceded. “But not until you were more sure of me than you are right now. You don’t know whether to believe me or not, do you?”

“Look, I live in a small town. I’ve been here all my life. The only thing I’ve really learned about men in all that time is that you can’t trust them. Maybe I trust Bart, but that’s a different sort of relationship.”

“It is. Bart’s just a friend. But you love me,” he said bluntly, watching her color.

She really wanted to deny it. She couldn’t.

“You’d like Latigo,” he said hesitantly. “It’s big and sprawling. We’re surrounded by thousands of acres of land. But if you want city life, El Paso’s not that far away. Hell, nowhere is that far away. We own a jet and two light aircraft.”

She was weakening. He sounded as if he really wanted her there. But he wasn’t talking about marriage. That worried her.

He slid his fingers over hers. “Okay. What’s that sad face about?”

She looked up at him. “It would cause a scandal…”

His eyebrows arched. “How so?”

“I’m not worldly,” she began, flushing. “People around here are mostly conservative, and I’m still trying to live down my mother’s reputation.”

“Oh.” His eyes twinkled. “I see. You think I’m asking you to come to Texas and live in sin with me,” he teased.

She went red. She jerked her hand away from his. “You stop that!”

He chuckled, but his eyes were soft with affection. “Actually, I want to make amends, for what happened in Lander,” he added quietly. “I rushed my fences. I feel guilty about that. You should have had the gown, the minister, the whole works. But there’s still time.” He pulled a box out of his pocket and pushed it toward her.

It was a jeweler’s box. She looked at him with curious interest.

“Open it,” he prodded.

She flipped open the lid and caught her breath. It was a canary diamond, a huge one, at least two carats, in a yellow gold setting. Beside it was a wedding band, also studded with canary diamonds.

“I thought it needed to be something that told a story,” he began slowly. “You glow. You’re like sunlight. It had to be canary diamonds.”