Читать книгу Cinderella's Convenient Husband - Katherine Garbera - Страница 11

It was well after midnight when Seth gave up trying to find a motel and turned down the familiar road that led to the McCoy ranch. He consoled himself with the thought that he could sleep in the bunkhouse with the ranch hands but he knew Lynn’s bed was where he really wanted to spend the night. A light flickered over the porch as the house came into view. A sole pickup was parked next to the kitchen entrance.

He pulled his Jag to a stop and went to the bunkhouse. It was deserted and locked up tight. Questions formed quicker than he could answer them. But he was tired and would seek those answers in the morning.

It was cold outside and he doubted he’d survive the night if he slept in the car. His options were limited. He’d have to disturb Lynn.

Only fair, his raging hormones agreed, since she’d been disturbing him all evening.

In the old days a spare key had been kept under the potted planter on the front porch. He was glad to see at least that hadn’t changed. He unlocked the door, replacing the key before he entered quietly. That was the one good thing to be said for a misspent youth; he knew how to move so silently that no one could hear him.

He turned left off the entryway toward the living room. As he made his way to the couch, he slammed into an ottoman that hadn’t been there in his memory and cursed under his breath. His shins ached and he heard footsteps upstairs.

“Matt, is that you?” Lynn’s voice was sleepy and husky.

Awareness tingled down his spine and stirred the flesh between his legs. He walked to the foyer and flipped on the hallway light. “No, it’s Seth.”

She descended the stairs before taking time to get a robe. The silk long johns she wore did little to mask her body, instead it seemed to frame it in a way meant to tease a man. But her clothes, imprinted with cartoon characters, clearly weren’t articles of seduction. She should have looked sweet and innocent instead of seductive. “Seth, what are you doing in my house?”

“There’s no place to stay in town.”

She stopped a few feet from him. He hadn’t realized earlier how much taller than she he was. She barely cleared his breastbone. His libido supplied him with the image of the two of them naked in a bed where she’d fit very comfortably into his arms.

She’s my best friend’s little sister, he reminded himself.

“Where are you headed?” she asked.

Straight to hell, he thought. He cleared his throat. “This is my destination.”

“Oh.”

“I thought I’d bunk with the men,” he said so that she wouldn’t suspect that he wanted her.

“No, you can’t. You’d better stay up here.” She wouldn’t look him in the eye, and he knew it was because she was planning on making up some story about where the cowpokes were who used to live there.

“I’ve been to the bunkhouse, Lynn. What happened?”

“Oh, we don’t have such a great need for overnight staff anymore.” Her hair fell to the middle of her back in tousled waves and the light reflected in it. He’d always loved her hair. Even as a tomboy teenager she’d had miles of hair. After she turned sixteen it had played into more than one of his fantasies while he’d slept under this roof.

“Why not?” he asked, trying to focus on anything but her body.

She sighed. “It’s the middle of the night and you must be tired.”

Seth knew the gentlemanly thing to do would be to get in his car and drive back down the highway until he found a place to stay, but he was tired.

“Can I stay here tonight? I’ll head back to Chicago in the morning.” He’d been turned out of better places and for less reason than Lynn had.

She touched his arm, and though he knew it was impossible, he seemed to feel her heat through the layers of his jacket and shirt. “Of course you can. I didn’t mean you should leave.”

“Thank you. I’ll grab my overnight bag and bunk down here,” he said. She’d tilted her head back to look him in the eye now that they were standing so close, and he realized she had a long, graceful neck. Her skin looked as pale as the moonbeams, and he wondered if it would taste as sweet as it looked.

“Do you really want to sleep on the sofa?”

“No. But I don’t want to disturb you.”

“You won’t. I didn’t even hear you enter the house.”

“I can be very quiet.”

“And then really noisy. What happened?”

“The ottoman.”

She chuckled. “Are you okay? I’ve hit that thing a time or two myself.”

The piece was old and heavy, made of solid oak with a pretty, embroidered covering that he knew Mrs. McCoy had made during her first year of marriage. It was a tradition in the McCoy family that the newlyweds made a piece of furniture for their new life together.

“Go get your bag. You can sleep in Matt’s room. I’ll change the sheets for you.”

“Thanks, Lynn.”

“No problem, Seth.”

The way she said his name made him wonder if she wasn’t remembering what it had been like to kiss him. And though he knew that would be a big mistake, it was all he could think of as he retrieved his overnight bag from the car. Think of her as your own sister, he cautioned himself. He tried to imagine one of his half sisters in those long johns waiting upstairs for him. But as he entered the house and climbed the stairs, he knew it wasn’t Alexandra, Tara or Maggie up there.

Even an image of Matt’s glowering face couldn’t keep his blood from flowing heavier or his loins from tightening. The only one who could do that was he. And the one thing Seth had always been able to do was keep his cool and his control. Why, then, did it feel as if he was barely hanging on?

Lynn turned off the shower at nine the next morning. She’d been up since dawn feeding Thor and the other horses that she boarded for the townsfolk. She’d slept better last night than she’d expected to. The security of knowing she wasn’t alone on the ranch should have been enough to ensure she didn’t spend the night twisting and turning in her bed. But Seth’s icy gaze and warm touch had haunted her dreams.

She’d hurried out of bed and refused to dwell on those thoughts. Seth was nothing more to her than an old family friend, and she didn’t have too many of them left. Most had died or moved on, leaving her alone for almost five years. Longer than she’d ever expected. Perhaps that loneliness was why she was so willing to latch on to Seth.

She had an appointment at the bank this morning and needed to get dressed. Her closet was a fashion nightmare, dominated by faded jeans and western shirts. In the back, in a plastic dry-cleaning bag, was her one suit, some designer label that she’d bought to wear to her mother’s funeral.

She dressed in it quickly but with care. If she had a chance of persuading Mr. Cochran at the bank to extend the loan, she needed to exude success. But how did success look? Seth would know, she thought.

It was too bad she couldn’t tell him the truth, because she could use his advice. He knew about making money. Heck, he came from one of the wealthiest families in Chicago. But he’d tell Matt and she wasn’t going to ask her big brother to bail her out of another mess.

She twisted her long hair into a chignon and applied the light makeup that she wore to church. The suit was cut with classic lines that flattered her lean frame. For a minute she glimpsed who she might have been if her family had lived in a city instead of this small rural town.

She didn’t hear any signs of life from Matt’s room as she walked down the stairs. Maybe she could sneak out before Seth woke. He’d be gone when she returned and she wouldn’t have to see him again.

The smell of coffee warned her that her luck was running par. She entered the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. At the breakfast table Seth had set up a laptop computer attached to her phone jack.

He made a few keystrokes on the computer and then turned to smile at her. For a minute she forgot why she thought she couldn’t trust him.

“Good morning.” His voice was low and husky, masculine in the early morning. She wasn’t used to a man’s voice and it startled her. Seth had obviously taken a shower before coming downstairs and was dressed again in casual elegance.

“Morning,” she said, gulping her coffee and scalding her tongue. She hated it when she did that. Damn, if she was this rattled on her home turf, how was she going to handle the bank?

“Sleep well?” he asked, eyeing her. She wondered if she’d smudged her lipstick on her teeth. Surreptitiously she rubbed her tongue over her front teeth.

“Yes.” She sat down across from him.

“Good, because I have some questions.”

“About?” Not now, she thought.

“The ranch, Lynn. What the hell happened?”

She knew he’d ask. Anyone with eyes would wonder the same thing. But her answers were hard to come by. She was a proud woman—always had been—and telling this smart, handsome man that she’d fallen for a con was not in the game plan.

“Times are tough. NAFTA didn’t do ranchers a favor.”

“Most of the ranches aren’t this bad.”

She glanced over his shoulder at the wallpaper that had once been a bright spring floral print but had faded with time. She had a moment’s fear that she was glimpsing the future. That someday she’d be as old and faded as the wallpaper and have seen just as little of life.

Carefully she considered her words. “True, but most of them aren’t run by one person.”

“The McCoy ranch never has been in the past.”

“Well, it is now.”

“Lynn, unless you want me to place an emergency call to your brother, you better start talking.”

“Why?” she demanded. Seth had been away for a long time, and though she knew he had fond memories of the summers he’d spent here, they couldn’t be reason enough for him to probe into ranch matters.

“What?” he asked.

“You heard me. Why do you care what’s happened?”

He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. He looked stressed. She wondered if this questioning wasn’t his way of hiding from whatever had driven him from Chicago. No matter what he’d said the night before she didn’t believe he just felt like visiting her brother on an impulse.

“This ranch is important to me.” Seth’s sincerity had never been more apparent.

“Then why haven’t you been back for fourteen years?”

“It’s not my ancestral home.”

“I’m doing my best to save it.”

“What do you think Matt will say when he sees this place?”

“It won’t look like this when he comes home.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I have big plans.”

“Tell me what’s going on.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because you won’t understand.”

“Trust me, Lynn. I’m on your side.”

“The last time I trusted you, you kissed me and walked away.”

“Is that what this is all about?”

“Of course not. I’m just saying your track record isn’t the best.”

“And yours is?”

“I didn’t walk away.”

“You didn’t come after me either.”

“I don’t want to have this conversation. I’m due at the bank at ten and I don’t want to be late.”

“Just tell me what’s going on. Is it money? Maybe I can help.”

“Why are you here, Seth?”

He was silent.

“That’s right,” she said with a nod. “You have your own secrets and I have mine. Let’s keep them that way.”

“Your family meant a lot to me.”

“I know. But it’s better this way. Besides, you’re leaving today.”

“I could still help you.”

“No, you can’t. But I’ll make a note that you tried.”

Lynn walked away from him wishing she felt a little more confident. Wishing for a miracle she knew she had faint hope of getting. Wishing that Seth wasn’t leaving today.

“Lynn, wait. I’ll drive you into town.”

She’d gathered her purse and a sheaf of documents. This was a Lynn he’d never seen before. He’d be lying if he said she didn’t attract him. She wasn’t the rough-and-ready ranch girl that he didn’t know how to handle. For the moment she was a city woman, like every other woman in his life.

She glanced over her shoulder at him, her eyes hidden by a pair of dark glasses. Mystery surrounded her, and Seth wanted to investigate the changes. Would the real Lynn McCoy please stand up?

“I’d rather take myself.”

Of course you would, Ms. Independent. She reminded him of his stepmother and sisters. They’d take any challenge but they’d do it in their own unique ways. And he knew he had to respect Lynn’s way of doing things even if it wasn’t his own.

Reality intruded. She’d said she was going to the bank. More than likely that meant she needed money and the only way she was going to get it was to look as if she didn’t need it. The Jag was a showy car, pricey and elegant; it spoke volumes for whoever drove it without him having to say a word. It had netted him invitations to the nicest residences in Chicago, even though he knew many of those old-money folks looked down on him because of his dubious parentage.

“The banker will be more likely to listen to whatever you have to say if you arrive in the Jag.”

“Okay, but I drive.” The haughty look she’d conjured up made him want to kiss her. She seemed untouchable in her upswept hairdo and her fancy suit. He wanted to rumple her up and find the girl who’d let him sleep in her home last night. To find the girl with hair hanging down her back wearing silky long johns.

Though Lynn’s suit made her look more like the other women he knew, he realized that he wanted her to be different. The thought floored him. Maybe he had an ulterior motive for wanting to help?

But he knew more than lust motivated him. There was a soft spot in his soul for the McCoys.

“No one drives my Jag.” He spoke from the gut. The car was as important to him as his laptop or his Swiss timepiece. He wasn’t going to chance it.

“Now where’s the trust?” she asked softly. Her words cut right through the superficiality of what he’d been thinking.

He did feel a bit like a child on Christmas morning who’d been asked to share his new toy. “Who’s talking about trust? This car is a finely tuned machine and you’re used to driving that tank over there.”

“Is it the car you’re worried about or your tough-guy image?”

He remained unfazed. “Whatever the reason, the result is the same. I’m driving.”

Deliberately he walked to the passenger side of the car to open the door for her. “What a gentleman you are, Seth Connelly. Too bad I know the real you.”

Though he knew Lynn had meant her remarks as something else entirely, she’d struck a nerve. “I think the door’s unlocked.”

She didn’t know the real Seth—no one did. And he’d made it his life’s mission to make sure that the situation stayed that way. He didn’t like Lynn’s innuendo that he was less than civilized. But maybe there was a kernel of truth in her words. Underneath his civilized veneer beat the heart of a warrior, not a Prince Charming.

He’d never been anyone’s white knight but he was the guy they’d turned to in a fight, knowing he’d never lose. That had been true at twelve when he’d come to the Connellys and it was true now in the courtroom where he won every battle he took up.

Whether Lynn liked it or not, he was in her corner. The debt he owed the McCoy family was too big for him to not step up to the plate now.

Five years of military school and six years of college had ensured that he could converse within any circle and not embarrass his family. Lessons from his stepmom, Emma Connelly, on deportment and manners had made sure he was every inch the gentleman.

“Are you going to check the door?” she asked.

Seth realized he’d been standing next to the car. He should just turn around, lock the door and drive her to town. He should pretend that her words hadn’t ripped away a scab he’d never known was there. He should not lean down so that her face was only inches from his and her sweet breath brushed across his cheek.

“I don’t think anyone knows the real Seth.”

She cupped his jaw in her hand and Seth was humbled by the touch even as it started a series of fires throughout his body and brought the hardness to his loins that had made sleep uncomfortable all night.

“I do.”

“Then who is he, Lynn?”

“He’s a man who’s strong and loyal. A man willing to go to any lengths for those he cares for, even putting up with the tantrums of his best friend’s younger sister.”

“You weren’t throwing a tantrum. You were right. I don’t like to share my things.”

“That’s because you’ve never been sure they were really yours.” Her insight was a smooth balm over his aching wounds, and he stood before he did something stupid like kiss her.

He closed the door firmly and went to the house to make sure it was secured. As he walked back to the car, he tried to tell himself he’d resisted Lynn because she was Matt’s sister. Tried to tell himself it was because she was in trouble and needed his help. But deep inside he knew the real reason—she saw too much of who he really was.