Buch lesen: «A Vow to Love»

A Vow to Love
Sherryl Woods

www.millsandboon.co.uk

SHERRYL WOODS

With her roots firmly planted in the South, Sherryl Woods has written many of her more than 100 books in that distinctive setting, whether it’s her home state of Virginia, her adopted state, Florida, or her much-adored South Carolina. She’s also especially partial to small towns wherever they may be.

A member of Novelists Inc., Sisters in Crime and Romance Writers of America, Sherryl divides her time between her childhood summer home overlooking the Potomac River in Colonial Beach, Virginia, and her oceanfront home with its lighthouse view in Key Biscayne, Florida. “Wherever I am, if there’s no water in sight, I get a little antsy,” she says.

Sherryl also loves hearing from readers. You can join her at her blog, www.justbetweenfriendsblog.com, visit her Web site at www.sherrylwoods.com or contact her directly at Sherryl703@gmail.com.

For Diane Kay McDaniel, who had the

wonderful idea of bringing Sammy and Penny together.

This one’s for you.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Epilogue

Prologue

In the eyes of sixteen-year-old Penny Hayden there was something a little dangerous and very exciting about the handsome young man standing beside her grandmother in the streaming sunlight at the front of Boston’s Whitehall Episcopal Church. Though he was wearing an expensive suit made of the finest Halloran fabric and tailored to fit perfectly, he looked as if he would have been more comfortable in ripped denim and black leather. His blond hair had been newly trimmed and was slicked back, but it was still an inch or two longer than any respectable teen’s in her conservative private school back in California.

Of all the new relatives she was meeting for the first time at the christening of six-month-old Elizabeth Lacey Halloran, Penny thought Sam Roberts was by far the most fascinating. She had been drawn to him from the first instant she’d seen him. At the same time, the unexpected intensity of her reaction was something entirely new and faintly puzzling. Frankly, it scared her silly.

Sam’s exploits, at least as told by her grandfather, had taken on almost mythic proportions in her mind, adding to his intriguing aura. Every time the stories were told, her parents managed to look faintly alarmed, as if they’d guessed right off what her reaction to Sam would be. She’d probably been half prepared to fall head over heels in love with him before she ever got to Boston just because he was the kind of boy they’d always placed strictly off limits. At sixteen, she figured she was long overdue for both a rebellion and a gigantic crush. That probably explained why she trembled inside every time she set eyes on him.

Unfortunately, Sam Roberts, who’d just turned nineteen, hadn’t so much as glanced at Penny the entire weekend. In fact, he’d stood on the sidelines at most of the family gatherings this weekend, looking a little lost, a little lonely. She knew with some gut-deep instinct that he would never admit to either of those feelings. He probably didn’t even recognize them.

Penny could empathize. She still felt like an outsider with the tight-knit Hallorans. For one thing, they all lived on the opposite side of the United States. None had visited them in LosAngeles, despite her grandfather’s overtures. She guessed they were still as shocked as her family was by the discovery that Penny’s mother Ellen was the daughter Brandon Halloran had never known he had.

Personally, Penny thought it had been incredibly romantic the way Brandon Halloran had tracked down her grandmother Elizabeth and then discovered the truth. Penny had been dying to go to Boston for their long overdue wedding, but everyone had agreed it would be best if only her mother and her Aunt Kate were there for the first meeting of the two sides of the family. She’d had to wait six months, for this christening, to get her first look at all these intriguing new relatives.

Because of her own tumultuous emotions she could guess how Sam must be feeling. It made her want to reach out to him. To her parents’ regret, she’d been picking up strays most of her life, always befriending the outsiders in her class and in her neighborhood. It looked as if she might carry the trait into adulthood.

Right now, though, Sam was in the center of things, caught up in this special celebration. He, along with Penny’s grandmother, had been chosen as godparents for the firstborn in the fourth generation of Hallorans.

Sam’s expression was solemn as he listened to the minister explain his responsibilities. Only when he glanced down at the baby, still being held in her mother’s arms, did a look of absolute delight and reverence soften his features. Penny saw her grandmother reach over and squeeze his hand and wished like crazy that she could have been the one standing up there beside him, sharing this special moment in a family where tradition meant so much.

Later, at her grandfather’s house, Penny watched with her heart in her throat as Sam awkwardly cradled the baby in his arms. She told herself she was being silly and romantic, but she fantasized that it was their baby he was holding with such a look of tenderness on his face. Then she wondered when she had turned into such a nut case. She’d always been the steady one, the precocious one. She’d never fantasized about anything until this week…when she’d seen Sam Roberts for the very first time.

“What are you thinking about so seriously?” her grandmother asked, coming up beside her and giving her a squeeze. “You’ve been awfully quiet all weekend. It’s not like you.”

“They’re a little overwhelming, don’t you think?” Penny admitted aloud for the first time.

Elizabeth Halloran gave her a conspiratorial grin. “That’s exactly the way I felt when Brandon introduced me to them for the first time, but it doesn’t last. Pretty soon you’ll feel like one of the family.” She followed the direction of Penny’s gaze. “Quite a hunk, isn’t he?”

Embarrassment flooded Penny’s cheeks. She hadn’t realized she’d been so obvious. “Who?” she asked, hoping to save face.

“Sam.”

“I guess,” she said with a disinterested shrug.

“He’s older than you are, though.”

“Not that much. A couple of years.”

“But he had a much tougher life. He grew up a lot faster.”

“Is he going to go into business with grandfather?”

“That’s what Brandon wants and Kevin and Jason don’t object. Sam started working in the company right after his sister Dana got involved with Jason. He seems to have a real aptitude for sales and marketing, but according to your grandfather, Sammy’s gotten it into his head he wants to do something on his own. Maybe he’s feeling overwhelmed by all the Hallorans, just like you. How come you haven’t asked him about this yourself? You’ve never been shy.”

“I’ve never met anyone like him before,” Penny admitted. “He seems so mature compared to the guys in school. Whenever I get around him, I get all tongue-tied.”

Her grandmother regarded her with disbelief. “Now that has to be a first. How come when I was seeing Brandon, you had so much to say? You sounded very wise and grown-up.”

“All talk,” Penny retorted. All the textbooks in the world on human sexuality and family relations hadn’t prepared her for the giddy, off-kilter way Sam Roberts made her feel.

Her grandmother grabbed her hand. “Come on. I’m sure he’s tired of hanging around all these grown-ups, too. Maybe the two of you can go to a movie or something.”

Humiliated by the thought of being foisted on Sam, Penny held back. “Grandmother, no. You can’t make him take me out.”

“Going to the movies so you can get to know someone from out of town isn’t the same thing as a date, for goodness’ sake. Besides, I won’t have to make him do anything. One thing you’ll learn as you get older is that subtlety goes a long way. Now watch a pro in action.”

Determinedly tugging Penny along in her wake, Elizabeth Halloran breezed through the throng until they were standing beside Sam.

“Hey, Mrs. H., how’re you holding up?” he asked with genuine affection. He didn’t even glance at Penny.

“I’d give anything to kick off these shoes, but Brandon would be appalled,” Elizabeth Halloran confided.

Sam shot her a knowing look. “Come on. You know Granddad Brandon thinks you walk on water.”

“I won’t be able to walk at all if I stay on my feet in these shoes much longer. I don’t know why I let him talk me into these three-inch heels at my age.”

A devilish hint of mischief in his eyes, Sam leaned down. “He probably told you they made you look sexy.”

To Penny’s astonishment, a girlish pink tint flooded into her grandmother’s cheeks. She winked at Sammy.

“As a matter of fact, he did,” she admitted. A familiar glint of determination sparked in her eyes. “By the way, Sammy, weren’t you telling me earlier that the new action movie, the one with that Arnold person with the huge biceps, is playing now?”

He regarded her innocently. “You want to see it?” he inquired. “We could sneak out.”

“Not me,” she said with a laugh. “But Penny was telling me that she’d been dying to get to it. She’s seen all of his films, isn’t that right, dear?”

“All of them,” Penny confirmed, her gaze fastened on Sam’s incredible blue eyes, trying to read his reaction to her grandmother’s ploy. She might not be all that experienced, but it sounded less than subtle to her. And it was pretty clear that Sam hadn’t mistaken her intentions, either. He finally looked at Penny as if she’d just appeared magically at her grandmother’s side.

“Maybe we could go before you go back to California,” he said right on cue.

Sam hadn’t said it like a man who would die if she said no, but he had said it. Penny felt her heart begin to race. “That’d be great. I’d really like to.”

Sam nodded, meeting her gaze directly for the first time. “I’ll get back to you.” He leaned down to kiss her grandmother on the cheek. “Gotta run. I’ve got a date.”

When he’d gone, leaving Penny trembling with an odd mixture of anticipation and a first-ever attack of jealousy, her grandmother beamed at her. “Now, see, that wasn’t so difficult, was it?”

“Do you think he’ll really take me?”

“He said he would, didn’t he? I’ve never known Sam to go back on his word. Now, come on. Let’s go have some of that fabulous cake Dana just cut.”

For the next few hours Penny’s excitement mounted until she barely slept a wink all night. But as the remainder of her stay with her grandparents wore on, Sam didn’t call. Nor did he stop by. Slowly she began to realize that he never would. The date had been no more than a polite gesture, not a promise at all.

However, on her last night in town, he appeared at the door just after her grandparents had gone out for their favorite after-supper ice cream. This time he was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and a leather jacket that added to his mystique of danger. He looked exactly as she’d envisioned him. Penny’s heart began to thud wildly. She sensed she was about to embark on something that would change her life forever.

“Sorry I didn’t get back to you, kid. It’s been a busy week. You want to catch that movie tonight?”

Despite his failure to call, despite the rudeness of showing up at the last minute, Penny was thrilled and thoroughly disgusted with herself because of it. One thing every girl in her class knew was that appearing anxious killed a guy’s interest. Unfortunately, she hadn’t the vaguest idea how to act aloof when she could hardly wait for whatever the night held in store.

“I’ll change. It’ll only take a minute,” she said at once, thinking of the outfit she’d planned, the one that would make her look more grown-up in his eyes.

“You look fine,” he said automatically, without even giving her a glance. “Besides, we’d better get going if we’re going to make the show.”

Disappointed to be going out in an old pair of shorts and a faded blouse that she’d worn to help her grandmother in the garden rather than in the sexy sundress she’d anticipated wearing if this day ever came, Penny didn’t argue. She jotted a note for her grandparents, then followed him to his car. She told herself the important thing was to be going at all. She’d never felt so grown-up before in her life.

When Sam didn’t say another word all the way to the theater, Penny struggled for conversation. Silence or halfhearted replies met most of her attempts. Her ego tumbled further when he bypassed the popcorn and soda without even asking if she wanted anything.

Inside the darkened theater and filled with romantic yearnings, she imagined his arm around her shoulders or his hand brushing hers. Instead he remained slouched down next to her, his eyes glued to the screen. She told herself he was only being a gentleman.

The slights, however, were beginning to add up. During the silent ride home, when he never once suggested stopping for a hamburger or a soft drink, she began to get angry, really angry. Even the lowest form of creeps back home offered a snack at the end of an evening. The evening she’d been dreaming about with so much hope was turning out to be a dismal failure. The fact that she was still attracted to Sam despite his behavior only made her angrier.

“Why’d you take me to the movies?” she asked, finally summoning some of the spunk she was famous for.

He glanced over at her with a surprised expression. “You said you wanted to go.”

“And being a dutiful member of the family, you forced yourself to show up, right?” she snapped, infuriated by his patronizing attempt to place the blame for this miserable evening on her. “Next time, don’t do me any favors.”

“Hey, Granddad Brandon said…”

Penny thought she might very well die right where she sat. “You talked to my grandfather?” she asked in a low, hurt voice.

Now, at last, he did look at her. “I talk to him every day,” he replied evasively, but guilt was written all over his handsome face.

Oh, God, it was worse than she’d thought. Angry at Sam, at her grandfather, but mostly at herself, she lashed out. “And what exactly did he say to you? Did he tell you that I was moping around the house, that I had this silly crush on you and you should give me a break and spend a couple of hours with me? Maybe give me a little thrill, so I can take the memory back to L.A.?”

Something in his expression changed and before she knew what he’d intended, he’d pulled to the side of the road, turned off the ignition. “Is that what you want from me? You want a little thrill? No problem.” His hand circled the back of her neck and drew her toward him.

Penny’s heart thundered so hard she was sure it could be heard clear to L.A. She wanted to protest as he lowered his mouth to cover hers, but the words snagged somewhere in the back of her throat.

There was nothing tentative or tender about the kiss. It was a bruising, punishing clash of wills and it sent a dark, throbbing, sensual thrill right through her, just as he’d promised. She thought she heard him groan, but then she was lost to the wildly provocative sensation of his tongue invading her mouth. For the first time in her life, she began to understand all the excitement about sex as an unfamiliar heat spread through her, tempting her beyond reason.

Then she remembered that the man making her feel this way didn’t care about her, that this kiss meant nothing to him, that he was merely delivering what she’d asked for and she burned with humiliation. He had awakened her sexuality, but in the process the fragile flowering of her self-esteem was crushed.

Pushing him away, she retaliated with more anger and sarcasm.

“Tell grandfather he owes you extra for the kiss. I’m sure it’s worth more than the fifty bucks he probably paid you for your time.”

Sam couldn’t have looked more stunned if she’d slapped him. He muttered an oath under his breath as he visibly tried to bring his temper under control.

“Okay, let’s just wait a minute here,” he began in a more placating tone.

By now, though, Penny was in no mood to listen. “No, you wait a minute, Mr. Smart Guy Roberts. I don’t need any of your favors.” She reached into her purse and snatched out a five-dollar bill and threw it at him. “That ought to cover the gas. As for you, your company isn’t worth spit.”

There was something gloriously energizing about releasing all her pent-up anger and frustration. She seized the opportunity to fling open the car door and leap out. She was halfway down the next block before he could get to her. He pulled alongside.

“Get back in here.”

“Not if my life depended on it.”

“Granddad is going to kill me if I show up without you.”

“That’s your problem, pal.”

“Penny, look, I’m sorry. It’s not what you think, I swear it.”

The halfhearted apology came too late. She turned and drew herself up, realizing that in the past couple of hours she’d grown up more than she had in the previous sixteen years.

“Go to hell, Sam Roberts,” she said in the quietest, most dignified voice she could muster.

And then she cut across a lawn where he couldn’t follow and ran the rest of the way home.

Later, as she cried herself to sleep, she thought her heart was broken. It was several, miserable months later before she finally chalked the entire incident up to experience. At least she had learned at an early age that no matter how badly you wanted to, you couldn’t make another person fall in love with you.

She’d also learned, or so she told herself repeatedly, that anyone as insensitive as Sam Roberts wasn’t worth loving at all.

Sam watched Penny stalk away from him, her thin shoulders thrown back, her head held high, and thought he’d never met anyone quite so infuriating.

Or as fascinating, he added with regret. She was going to grow up to be a real hell-raiser and a real beauty on top of that. Even at sixteen there was something about her that made a man’s blood race in an entirely inappropriate way. He never should have kissed her, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself and it had only made matters worse. She was furious and he was hot and frustrated.

Hell, he’d wanted to kiss her from the first moment he’d set eyes on her, but he’d placed her off limits. With her privileged background, she was the kind of girl who deserved the best, and Sam Roberts hardly qualified. Everyone knew he was the kind of guy who’d break a girl’s heart.

He thought of the hurt he’d seen in Penny’s eyes when she’d realized that her grandfather had set up this movie thing and wondered if he’d made a terrible mistake in giving in to Brandon’s coercion. Then he considered the way she’d battled back and decided that, hurt or not, Penny Hayden would always be able to take care of herself. Too bad he wasn’t going to be around her to watch the fireworks.

Chapter 1

At first glance, primarily because of his size, the man lurking in the shadowy hallway of Penny Hayden’s apartment building looked faintly alarming. Penny immediately tried to quiet the little tremor of fear that zigzagged down her spine. The man was standing in plain sight, after all, not hiding like a dangerous criminal.

He probably had a very good reason for being there, Penny decided. Maybe he was just locked out and waiting for the landlord to turn up with a key. Or maybe he was meeting someone and he’d arrived early. Those were certainly logical explanations, and she much preferred those to the violent scenarios that had flashed through her mind when she’d first spotted him.

Of course, she reminded herself as she moved down the hall with slightly more caution than usual, she did have a tendency to be entirely too trusting. It came from growing up with doting parents who’d always made her feel safe and protected. They had fueled her natural curiosity about the unknown, rather than instilling fear.

That, of course, was precisely the reason Brandon Halloran had insisted she take a self-defense class before moving from Los Angeles to Boston, where she’d be entirely on her own for the first time in her life. He’d determinedly tried to plant the idea in her head that every stranger represented danger, which was ridiculous, of course. Strangers were just people whose fascinating secrets she didn’t know yet.

On the off chance that just this once her grandfather might be right, Penny drew in a deep breath and marched past the man without her usual sunny smile. She kept her gaze straight ahead, but alert for any sudden movement, even the slightest shift of his eyes in her direction.

Unfortunately, she had terrific peripheral vision. In addition to tracking his movements, she also noticed his well-muscled physique, emphasized by a tight, faded black T-shirt, and the shaggy blond haircut beneath a backward Red Sox cap. The look was scruffy, but definitely sexy.

There was something vaguely familiar about the lazy half smile that turned his expression into something far more dangerous than she’d first recognized. Intent on mayhem or not, men with smiles like that were lethal to the quiet, studious existence she’d promised herself for the next two years. They disrupted peace of mind without even trying, to say nothing of what they managed to do to pulse rates. Women were drawn to men like that the way moths were attracted to flames. She’d always figured the deadly futility in both instances wasn’t an idle comparison. She steeled herself against becoming a victim.

“Don’t you know you should beware of strange men who’re just hanging around in dark hallways?” he inquired.

Penny’s stomach clenched, more at the patronizing tone than out of fear. Her feminist hackles rose. Of course she knew that. Did the man think she was an inexperienced idiot? There were definite ways to correct that impression. She considered several of them, then dismissed them just as quickly. Maybe he hadn’t meant to taunt her. Maybe he was like her grandfather, unable to resist any opportunity to give advice.

Penny flashed him a tentative smile. He responded by falling into step beside her. Warning signals began to flash and that prickle of unease she’d dismissed came back as a full-fledged case of panic. Just in case her grandfather knew more than she did about Boston’s lowlifes, she tried to recall something—anything from those self-defense classes. For instance, exactly how and when should she make her self-protective move? It definitely should be before the guy followed her inside her apartment, which she was more and more certain was his destination.

She spent ten nerve-racking seconds considering her strategy, debating whether it was even called for, then decided it would be sheer stupidity to take any chances. She whirled, slammed one booted foot into his shin and aimed her denim-clad knee at his groin. It didn’t exactly connect, but she was satisfied with having proven her point, anyway.

Filled with confidence and adrenaline, she reached for an arm, expecting to flip him onto his back as easily as she had her instructor. Big as he was, this guy wasn’t nearly as beefy as Karate Todd. Her hand clamped around a wrist. Not two seconds later, she had one arm pinned behind her and she was locked against a body that was all male and seemed to be shaking with indignation. Or was it laughter?

Penny listened and heard the telltale snicker. The creep was actually laughing at her. Fury replaced fear, along with the firm conviction that she could handle the situation, no matter how out of hand it seemed to have gotten. Grateful that she was wearing her Western boots, she raised a foot to crunch the daylights out of his instep, only to find herself unceremoniously tossed over his shoulder.

“Next time, don’t pick on somebody bigger than you are, short stuff,” he advised as he plucked her apartment key from her hand and headed unerringly for her door.

How the devil had he known which apartment was hers? she wondered. Had he been stalking her? She’d read about stuff like that. In Los Angeles it happened to celebrities all the time. Usually, though, the person being stalked was someone famous or at least had a passing acquaintance with the stalker. She’d never seen this idiot before in her life. She surely would have remembered anyone with a voice that reeked of smoky sensuality and unbridled amusement—a combination she found particularly irksome under the circumstances.

Of course, given her humiliating, upside-down position with all the blood rushing to her brain, it was a strain remembering her own name. She did manage to recall a prayer or two. Unfortunately, she had a hunch she was going to need more than prayers to get out of this. Even more unfortunately, every single thing she’d learned in that self-defense class had suddenly flown out of her head.

She was, however, thinking clearly enough to make one firm decision. She knew absolutely that she was not under any circumstances going into her apartment with this man, even if that meant she had to scream her head off to catch the attention of her brand-new neighbors. Which, now that she thought about it, was what she should have been doing long ago, instead of trying to convince herself that she was in no danger.

She opened her mouth and let out a bloodcurdling yell that would have done Tarzan proud. It was greeted by an equally vocal string of obscenities from her captor and the satisfying sound of doors opening up and down the corridor. She followed up with one more ear-shattering scream, just to prove that she meant business.

“You little twit,” the man muttered, jamming the key into her lock and flinging open the door.

To her astonishment, he turned around, faced down all the neighbors and said, “Just a little lovers’ quarrel. Don’t mind us.”

It didn’t take much to imagine his smile and that amused, patronizing tone charming the daylights out of all of them. “It is not—” she screeched emphatically, only to have the words cut off by the slamming of the door behind them.

It took a supreme effort, but she convinced herself that no one could possibly be fooled by his lame remark, that even now police cars were speeding to her rescue.

Hopefully, he wouldn’t kill her before they arrived, she thought just as she was dumped in a sprawling heap onto the sofa. She glanced up. Indeed, the expression in his eyes was filled with murderous intent. For the first time she stopped being mad and started to get just the teensiest bit nervous.

Maybe Brandon and everyone else had been right to worry about whether she knew what she was getting herself into by moving to Boston. She found the unfamiliar flash of self-doubt extremely irritating. No, dammit! A twenty-five-year-old woman had every right to follow her own dreams. If that meant burying herself in a stuffy laboratory at Harvard while she pursued a thesis for her Ph.D in English, she couldn’t imagine why it was anyone else’s concern.

Some women preferred to concentrate on intellectual pursuits that might one day make a difference in society. Some women just weren’t cut out for romance. Look at her Aunt Kate. Well, that was a bad example. Aunt Kate had been a strong, independent, powerful lawyer. Now she carried a diaper bag in addition to her briefcase. Talk about ruining an image! Tough talk and baby talk were incompatible, it seemed to Penny. But the way Aunt Kate used to be…now there was a role model. Why couldn’t her mother and especially her grandfather, Brandon Halloran, see that she wasn’t burying herself in a lab because she was afraid of life?

Someday, though, they’d be proud of her when she was off in Sweden or Switzerland or wherever it was that they handed out the Nobel prizes. She hadn’t quite decided yet if she wanted the award to be for curing cancer or for literature. It occurred to her that quite possibly that was why her entire family was in such an uproar.

She could just imagine their reaction when they heard about some damnable man invading her apartment during her very first week in town. That thought gave her the bravado to launch another attack on the unsuspecting man, who was staring out the window, probably to make sure that the police weren’t rolling in before he finished up whatever mayhem he intended.

Without hesitating to consider the consequences of riling him further, she bounded across the room. She leaped up, looped her legs around his waist and one arm around his neck in what she thought was a fairly effective choke hold. To her astonishment and regret, he shook her off as if she were no more than a pesky nuisance.

“Do that again and we’re going to have one serious problem on our hands,” he warned.

He muttered something more under his breath. Penny’d always been taught that whispering in the presence of others was downright rude, but she was relatively certain that she should be glad in this instance that she hadn’t heard what he’d said. If the furious sparks in his eyes were anything to go by, she had a feeling he hadn’t been welcoming her to Boston.

Sam Roberts stared pensively out the window and tried to get a grip on his temper. He had grown up tough, always lashing out furiously and without thought. It had kept him in hot water most of his adolescence. Raised by his sister, he’d rebelled against everything. It sometimes astonished him that Dana had put up with all his garbage—defending him, bailing him out of trouble, loving him. For her sake, he’d finally learned to control the temper that was currently being put to an extreme test.