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  But knowing parents, JoAnn had limited their separation to just two nights.

  Being with Mr. Parsons was a whole lot like being with Andrew. They were of the same ilk.

  Andrew might change enough that he would leave the cloak of his father behind. Andrew might very well become logical. How interesting that would be. He was like a turtle.

  JoAnn considered the label and realized it was true. Andrew was only now pushing his head out from under his shell and looking around to see the world... and beyond.

  Soon he just might stretch his neck out into the open and swing his head around to see other things, farther away.

  He might even leave that protective encasing and stride out with greater interest.

  It would be interesting to watch.

  JoAnn would ask Mrs. Keeper how to help Andrew to spread his wings...and fly!

  The two lovers returned to the Keepers’ as if they were a part of them. Their rooms were still theirs. The Keepers were remarkable. They’d be welcoming if the people who left would return and be without space.

  Was that automatic? Or was it because the Keepers had been there so long that the courtesy just continued. Who knew when guests would return? That probably was started several hundred years ago when the Keepers had guests who had no real place to go in that new land?

  To them it was new. It had been different from Europe, but people had already been on these two lost continents for many and many a century.

  At the Keepers’, Andrew assumed his room would still be his, and he went there.

  JoAnn inquired of Mrs. Keeper’s secretary, “Do you know if I have a room?”

  The secretary blinked. “We always keep rooms ready for a month after people leave. They generally come back.”

  And JoAnn mentioned, “If I didn’t have a place to stay, here, I could bunk with Andrew.”

  The secretary blinked and observed JoAnn for a blank minute. Then she smiled. Then she said in sassy humor, “I’m so sorry. We’ve used your room for another guest. We’re just about filled up, but Andrew does have two beds in his room. Shall I inquire if he would mind a roomie?”

  “I’ll tell him.” JoAnn smiled a cat’s smile and left.

  Andrew wasn’t in his room. His luggage was piled in a small mound. He hadn’t even bothered to unpack. Where was he? Gone to see his absent dog? Gone to tell his sister about his parents? Just...gone?

  Without a word to her, he’d left.

  That made JoAnn feel sad. She wasn’t prime for him. She was a convenience? Just convenient.

  She ought to lea—

  And the door opened. It was, indeed, Andrew. His face bare, he looked at her. “I looked everywhere for you. You weren’t in your room. I looked for your car. It was there in the garage. But I couldn’t find you!”

  “We need to communicate.”

  “My God, I thought I’d lost you again.”

  “You haven’t ever lost me, how could it be—again?”

  “You’ve given up on me a couple of times. You’re the one who has brought me out of my shell.” He was not talking about turtle shells.

  JoAnn watched with great interest. “You love me.”

  “How could you not know that?” He was somewhat indignant.

  “You don’t mention love.”

  “I took you to England with me so that you could see where I’d been.”

  “Just you. Not the people who were there?”

  “I didn’t know if they would be back or which of the staff was still around. It’s been a long time since I was there.”

  “They knew you.”

  “Yes.” He admitted that but his entire attention was on her. He told her, “I’d die if you left me now.”

  “I can—leave you—later?”

  He was intense. He admitted, “Probably...never.”

  “I’ll consider it.”

  “Soon. I don’t want to hassle you or follow you or hold on to your dress so that you don’t leave me. I need to know if I wake up, you’ll be there.”

  “I would never sneak out. I would tell you first.”

  Andrew questioned, “Would you listen to any arguments opposing your leaving?”

  JoAnn replied, “Well, we can hardly stay here all the rest of our lives.”

  He considered that. “I hadn’t thought about that. I’d only thought about you being with me—somewhere. And since we’re now here, I assumed it would be here.”

  She suggested, “We might rent one of the houses the crew has a couple of blocks away from here.”

  “I rather like it here.”

  “The servants?”

  “It is convenient.”

  JoAnn inquired with interest. “What are you like without servants?”

  He watched her. He said carefully, “I can learn anything.”

  “Chopping wood?”

  Andrew nodded. “I’ve done that. I’ve traveled by horse and I’ve learned to fix camps.”

  “You should write a book or so.”

  Andrew replied thoughtfully, “I could.”

  And she shrugged. “Why not?”

  He told her, “I do have an income. We could be wherever you might want to be.”

  “—with you.”

  That melted him altogether. He said, “JoAnn...” It was just her name. He watched her. “Do you realize how important you’ve been to me? How much I love you?”

  JoAnn clarified it all, “You’re only surfacing. You need to be sure this is important to you. I am a woman. You know I’ve not been with any other man. I love you, but you could ruin me.”

  “We’ll take it easy. I’ll have the time to convince you. We can find a place to be together. I love you.”

  “We’ll see.”

  He smiled. “I’ve heard that all my life. And we always do—see whatever it is. Trust me.”

  She put her hand in his outstretched one and she moved closer to him, but he met her halfway.

  And that’s the way their lives went on. They met halfway, and they worked to understand each other. It was true love.

  Be sure to look for Tom’s story,

  the next installment of

  THE KEEPERS OF TEXAS Series,

  available in September from Silhouette Desire.

  This book will also mark Lass Small’s

  50th title for Silhouette!

  ISBN : 978-1-4592-6497-7

  THE HARD-TO-TAME TEXAN

  Copyright © 1998 by Lass Small

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  Table of Contents

  Letter to Reader

  Title Page

  Books by Lass Small

  LASS SMALL

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Copyright

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