Higher Than Eagles (Donovans of the Delta) Read Free Page B

he didn’t watch himself, he’d be so carried away by his Irish sentimentality, he’d forget that Rachel Windham Devlin had cast him off like an old shoe. Clenching his jaw, he strode toward her. If he’d known how fierce he looked, cocky and arrogant and solid and dangerous, silhouetted against the fiery sun, he’d have been pleased. Jacob, like all the Donovans, loved to make an entrance.
    “Rachel.” The way he called her name was a command not a greeting.
    Her head jerked up. Jacob had to give her credit. Except for the widening of her eyes, she seemed totally in control, royal even. He wanted to lean down and kiss that imperious look right off her face.
    He stood over her, feet planted apart, blocking out the sun. “Doing a little gardening to ease your conscience, Rachel?”
    She jerked a handful of weeds out of the ground before answering. “My conscience doesn’t need easing, Jacob Donovan.”
    “Yes, it does. For all those lies you told me last night.”
    Rachel grabbed at her flower bed again, but this time she came away with a handful of petunias. Oblivious, she flung them aside like so much crabgrass. “Nobody invited you here, Jacob. Go away.”
    “Not until I get what I came for.”
    Another handful of flowers bit the dust. “There is nothing here for you.” She swiped angrily at her cheek and left a trail of dirt. Damn Jacob Donovan for coming, she thought. She used to see him, standing just the way he was now, feet apart, looking for all the world like he’d conquered the universe, and she’d go limp with wanting. And now, six years later—she sneaked a peek at him—now, it was just as bad.
    Madder at herself than at him, she snatched another handful of petunias and flung them into the dirt.
    “Go away and leave me alone.”
    “I’ll never leave you alone, Rachel.” He knelt beside her and stilled the hand that was hovering over another clump of flowers.
    “Don’t touch me.”
    She tried to jerk out of his grip, but he held her fast.
    “Make no mistake, Rachel. It’s not you I want.”
    Her heart slammed so hard against her ribs, she thought she would faint. Jacob’s next words restored her sanity.
    “I want the truth,” he continued.
    She saw a way out and took it. “You want the truth about why I jilted you?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then I’ll tell you. I didn’t love you enough, Jacob. I was too young. What we had was puppy love.” She forced herself not to waver under his stare. “The truth is I never really loved you.”
    The smile he gave her was the most dangerous thing about him. “Is that why you’re mutilating your flower bed? You’re tearing up your flowers over a man you never even loved?”
    She thrust out her chin. It was smudged, too, he noticed. He came dangerously close to kissing her. Instead, he laughed.
    “Rachel, you are the worst liar on the face of the earth. You always were.” He released her and reached for an uprooted petunia. “You are also a bad gardener. Here, let me help you fix this flower bed.”
    All she wanted him to do was go. She felt as if a hurricane had blown in off the gulf, and she was standing right in the eye. She snatched the poor wilted flower from his hand.
    “Give that to me. My flower bed is no concern of yours.”
    “Everything you do is my concern, Rachel. Don’t you know that?”
    “Why? If you don’t want me, for heaven’s sake, why?”
    He picked up another flower and took his time patting it back into the rich black earth. “Everywhere you go, I’ll be there. Every song you sing, I’ll be listening. Every move you make, I’ll be watching. I’ll dog you from here to the ends of the earth until I learn the truth.” He sat back on his heels and took his time viewing his handiwork. Then he turned to her, and she felt as if she were looking into the blue-hot fires of a furnace. “It’s the only way I can ever be free of you.”
    She felt chilled, even in the ninety-degree heat. “You really mean that, don’t