Sleepless in Montana by Cait London Page A

loved them all, was hers; and Dinah
had protected her, fought for her. Growing up, Jemma practically
lived with Dinah; the Delaneys hadn’t noticed, continuing to have
other babies.
    Dinah. A strong woman, Dinah still
loved Ben, and she looked forward to having all of her family— and
her family included Hogan— together.
    “This is going to work. They are going to be
a family again, whether Hogan likes it or not.”
    Jemma slashed away another tear. She hated
crying; it was only because she was too tired. She regretted
grabbing Hogan like a lifeline. She’d never let him see her fears,
shielding that unscarred part of her heart, because Hogan could
hurt her.
    Hogan . Jemma wondered if he could ever
be any woman’s. “He’s a lone wolf, that’s what he is, and he’s
licking his wounds. He’s going after Ben, positioning himself for
the kill, and I won’t have it.”
    Still, she could trust him and his unwavering
love for Carley, Dinah, Mitch and Aaron. Jemma didn’t like him—that
cold, stony silence, or the way he walked away from her, all lithe
and rangy in that hunter’s stride, but she wanted him.
    Jemma’s instincts told her to scoop all those
dark corners into her and make Hogan better, to please him. “I am
truly sick and demented. What woman would possibly want to cuddle
Hogan Kodiak?” she muttered.
    He’d held her wrists once when she was
fifteen and trying herself against a twenty-three-year old man of
the world.
    He’d flown to Dinah’s from his studies in
France, looking tough in faded jeans and a tattered black T-shirt.
She’d grabbed him, tumbled into his lap as she would with Mitch and
Aaron to scuffle and laugh.
    But Hogan hadn’t laughed. Fire and passion
had leaped in his eyes, searing her, before he pushed her away with
a look of disgust.
    As an adult, Jemma didn’t want fire and
passion, she wanted men she could control, just as she controlled
her life. And Hogan wasn’t one of them. Jemma took a deep breath
and repeated, “I can trust him. He won’t do anything to endanger
Carley,” to reassure herself that Hogan would play ball.
    She’d wanted to hear Hogan tell her that her
plan would work. She was terrified it would fail, and Carley would
pay. Jemma hit the leather flight bag in the empty seat beside
her.
    Hogan had held himself away from her,
disdaining to touch her.
    Well, there were plenty of other men who
would, if she’d let them. So he couldn’t stand the touch of her,
so what? That just made him all the more fun to torment, get
under that dark skin, that stony expression, those hard blue eyes.
“Too bad, buddy. We’re in it for the duration.”
    And Hogan’s need to take down Ben had
better wait until Carley was safe. One thing at a time, Jemma,
she reminded herself. Carley first, Ben second....
    Jemma shivered slightly with the knowledge
that diverting Hogan from methodically destroying Ben wouldn’t be
easy. Neither man was easy, an even match.
    “Nice view, Hogan. You can see the Bar K
ranch perfectly, and your ranch was originally on the Kodiak
homestead before Ben sold it. But that was the plan, wasn’t it? To
prove to the old man that you’d made it? That you’re not going
away?”
    *** ***
    At dusk in the first week of April, the white
rumps of antelope bounced away into the shadows of the Crazy
Mountains.
    From Hogan’s ranch house windows, the view
was magnicient: Newborn calves suckled cows in Kodiak pastures and
the foothills beyond the grassy expanse would have a blanket of
light frost in the morning.
    Mitch tossed aside his black-leather jacket,
leaned back, and sipped his brew. He shared a look with Aaron, a
replica of Ben, his blue-eyed, blond father. “So Jemma has a
plan.”
    “Dad is supposed to fake a terminal illness,
or so goes her plan. Trust her to come up with drama.”
    Aaron kicked off his expensive Italian
leather shoes, and propped his stockinged feet on Hogan’s massive
coffee table. He leaned back against the couch, his