Stone Cold Surrender - Brenda Jackson [26]
Stone shook his head, smiling. “Yes, I know. In fact that’s one of the reasons we’re going up to see him.”
Tapping her finger to her bottom lip, Morning Star Quinn gazed thoughtfully at Stone. “Then you know her? You know who this woman is?”
Madison knew that, out of consideration for her mother’s reputation, Stone would not say. But she knew that Morning Star Quinn was a person that she could be honest with; and was a person that she wanted to be honest with. “Yes, we know who she is,” Madison finally answered. “The woman up there on the mountain with Corey Westmoreland is my mother.”
Five
N othing, Madison thought as she walked outside on the huge porch, could be more beautiful than a night under a Montana sky. Even in darkness she could see the outlines of the Rockies looming in the background and was starkly amazed at just how vastly different this place was from Boston.
She turned when she heard the door open behind her and wasn’t surprised to see it was Stone. She smiled as she took a couple of minutes to calm the rapid beating of her heart. The more time she spent with him, the more she appreciated him as a man…a very considerate and caring man. Even now she could feel the warmth of his eyes touching her.
Earlier he had helped her unload her luggage and had placed it in the bedroom that Mrs. Quinn had given her to use. Then later, after she had gotten settled, he had come for her when Martin Quinn and his son McKinnon had come home. She had blinked twice when she saw McKinnon. The man was simply gorgeous and had inherited his mother’s golden complexion. After introductions had been made, Stone had asked her to take a walk with him to show her around the Quinns’ ranch before dinnertime.
On their stroll, he had shared stories with her about how, while growing up, he and his brothers and cousins would visit this area every summer to spend time with their Uncle Corey. It was a guy thing, which meant Delaney was never included in those summer retreats. She usually came to Montana during her school’s spring breaks. Stone also shared with her the little escapades the eleven Westmoreland boys and McKinnon and his three brothers had gotten into. He had made her smile, chuckle and even laugh a few times, and for a little while she had forgotten the reason she had come to Montana in the first place. At dinner she had met Morning Star and Martin’s other three sons, who were younger than McKinnon, but who had also inherited their mother’s Blackfoot coloring, instead of the light complexion of their Caucasian father.
“You okay?” Stone asked quietly, coming to stand beside her.
She tipped her head to look up at him. When he placed his arms around her shoulders as if to ward off the chill in the air, she became very aware of how male he was. And the nice thing about it was that he didn’t flaunt it. In fact he seemed totally unaware of the sensuality oozing from him. “Yes, I’m fine. Dinner was wonderful, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. Mrs. Quinn always knew how to cook and her apple pie has always been my favorite,” he answered.
Madison grinned when she remembered the number of slices he’d eaten and said, “Yeah, I could tell.” She then thought of something. “They didn’t say a lot about your uncle at dinner.” She felt his fingers inch upward to caress the side of her neck, sending a glimmer of heat through her.
“There wasn’t much to say. They know the man Uncle Corey is and know that your mother isn’t in any danger.”
She shot him a quick look. “I know she isn’t in any danger with him, Stone. I just don’t understand what’s going on. And I’m beginning to understand a bit about instant attraction if that’s what it was, but still I have to talk to her anyway.”
“I understand,” he said, giving her shoulders a quick squeeze.
A part of Madison wondered if he did understand when there were times when she didn’t.
“Tell me about your parents, Madison.”
His question caught her off guard.