Treasuring Amber: The Temptation Saga: Book Five by Helen Hardt Page B

place on the slope.”
    “It’s a ranch house on about a hundred acres. I don’t need a lot of space for just me and a couple horses and a couple dogs. I have neighbors who care for the animals while I’m away.”
    “When do you plan to start making wine?”
    “I have to find a vineyard first. There are a couple small ones for sale. I’m looking into it. I have a little nest egg. Bronc bustin’ paid the bills. It didn’t make me rich, that’s for sure, but I can afford a small operation.”
    “What kind of wine do you want to make?”
    “Red, definitely. I’m partial to Rhone blends. You know—syrah, grenache, mourvedre.”
    Amber shook her head. “You’ll have to excuse me. I was telling Harper just yesterday ay that I know absolutely nothing about wine. I like the taste of most of it, though. Especially reds.”
    “I have a great little Rhone blend we can try tonight with our steaks,” Harper said, rising. “I’ll get it. And Amber baby, you’ll get your steak blue tonight.”
    “You like your steak blue?” Thunder smiled. “A girl who likes her meat still mooing is a girl after my own heart.”
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    “ I can’t believe you did that,” Amber said after Thunder left, “but I’m glad you did. He’s amazing.”
    “And he’s your dad.”
    She shook her head. “I wouldn’t have believed it, except for the eyes. I’m a dead ringer for Karen otherwise. But those eyes of his. It was like staring into my own.”
    “So, baby, when are you going to tell him?”
    “Tell him what? That he’s my dad?” She scoffed. “I think around the fifth of never.”
    “You can’t be serious.”
    “Of course I am. He’s got a life, Harper. A life that doesn’t include a twenty-two-year-old daughter he never knew he had. He’ll probably think I’m lying. I doubt he even remembers my mother.”
    “You said so yourself. The eyes tell all.”
    “Yes, but other than the eyes I don’t look a thing like him.”
    “There’s DNA testing.”
    “I couldn’t ask him to do that.”
    “Why not? If he doesn’t believe you, that’s the one way to know for sure. For both of you.”
    “He’s such a nice guy. I don’t want to screw up his life.”
    “Who says you’ll screw it up? He never married. He’s retired now. He’s all alone. He might welcome the idea of family.”
    Would he? Amber’s heart did a flip-flop. It was possible. She sure loved the idea herself. She hadn’t spoken to Karen in over six years. While she finished school, Laura had been her family. Laura’s mother hadn’t been around all that much, and once they’d both graduated, she very nicely told them to get the hell out. At Rachel’s the girls were her family, with Marta as a mother figure.
    Marta .
    Some mother figure, drugging girls and exploiting them.
    Blake Buchanan and those horrible Internet images catapulted into her mind. Her tummy—full of blue rib eye, tomato-and-mozzarella salad, loaded baked potato, and green beans—threatened to betray her.
    Escape. She longed for escape. And there sat Harper, his dark eyes smoking, his hair tousled and sexy as usual, smiling with those full pink lips surrounding nearly perfect white teeth. One of his front teeth slightly overlapped the other. A tiny imperfection that made him even sexier. Her heart melted.
    He’d done something so wonderful for her tonight. He’d found her father and brought him to her.
    So a man wasn’t in her immediate future. At least that’s what she’d thought. Maybe she’d rethink her stance.
    He wanted her. Even now, just sitting on the couch, electricity sizzled between them. His finger brushing her forearm sent tiny flames igniting over her whole body.
    Her need was more than physical, though. She liked him. Liked how he treated her, liked his openness, his forthrightness, how he’d told her in no uncertain terms he wanted to take her to bed. It was a statement of pure honesty. Who couldn’t respect a man who valued honesty above all else?
    She