Читать книгу A Husband Made In Texas - Rosemary Carter - Страница 7

CHAPTER TWO

‘MAKE yourself comfortable, Flynn. There’s beer in the fridge.’

‘You’re not going to join me?’

‘I’ve spent the morning in the sun. I need to shower and change into other clothes.’

‘Can I help?’

Flynn was grinning, an inexplicably wicked look in the dark eyes. Great dark eyes, just as Kaitlin remembered them, with golden glints where the light caught them, and long thick lashes that had always seemed wasted on a man. His shoulder-length hair was as dark as his eyes, thick and glossy, tempting a woman to bury her fingers in it.

Looking up at Flynn, Kaitlin tried to remember if he had always been quite so tall. His shoulders had been broad, but surely they had become even broader, emphasizing the length of his legs and the narrowness of his hips. And the look of strength and toughness, of utter self-confidence, that was new too: as was an aura of danger that was spinetinglingly sexy.

Already she was reacting to him. Just a short time in his company, and a core of femininity that had been dormant deep inside her was awakening. Be careful, Kaitlin sent herself the mental warning.

Why was he here? That was the question she had been asking herself over and over again from the moment she had laid eyes on him two hours earlier. The question that spoiled her pleasure at seeing him again.

Five years ago he had walked out of her life, Flynn Henderson, with whom she had been so deeply in love that she could not have imagined herself sharing her life with anyone else.

Even now, so many years later, she still had nightmares about that dreadful evening. There were times when she jerked upright in bed, damp with sweat, heart pounding, knowing that once again she had dreamed about Flynn. Even in the daytime, she had only to close her eyes to picture him at the Formica table of the bar, his expression arrogant and mocking: on his lap a red-haired woman, her face plastered with too much make-up, her head cradled lovingly against his chest. Flynn should have been at Kaitlin’s party—why had he been with that dreadful woman instead?

Kaitlin had managed to keep her head high as she fled from the bar. But she had wept all the way back to the ranch.

In the years since then, nobody had ever hurt her as much again as Flynn had hurt her that night. One thing was certain, she decided grimly, she must not let it happen again.

Her expression was hard as she looked at him. Five years without an explanation or a word of apology. And now here he was, on her ranch, expecting her to welcome him. The utter nerve of the man!

‘Thanks,’ she said, ‘but I’ll get myself something to drink when I’m ready for it. I’m not much of a beer-drinker anyway.’

‘I wasn’t thinking of beer. Thought you might like me to wash your back for you.’

In a second, a flood of heat cascaded through Kaitlin’s body. Keeping her eyes averted from Flynn’s, she said, ‘You don’t really expect an answer.’

‘Don’t I?’ His tone was so seductive that Kaitlin had to suppress an involuntary shiver.

‘I’m sure you don’t,’ she said shortly.

‘Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve washed your back, Kaitlin.’

Glad that her face was turned from his, she closed her eyes for a brief moment. It horrified her to realize that despite her resolve not to let him get to her, his sexual attraction was as powerful as ever. More powerful even.

‘Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten, Kaitlin.’

‘That was different,’ she muttered unsteadily.

Then you do remember.’

Kaitlin swallowed hard. ‘You know what happened, Flynn. I’d fallen, my back was all scratched up. It... It was important to get the grit out of the scratches. It could have gotten infected...’

‘Your parents were out and you sneaked me into the house.’

‘Yes...’

‘You got into the bath.’

‘The way you make it sound! I had my clothes on, Flynn.’ Tersely she added, ‘To begin with, anyway. And when I did get undressed, it was only because my blouse was getting so wet.’

Flynn laughed, a low husky sound that made her shiver. ‘I’ll never forget the moment when you stripped.’ His voice deepened. ‘I can still feel your soapy skin beneath my fingers.’

As she could still feel his fingers sliding over her wet skin: sexy, and so exciting that her body had burned with desire for him.

Involuntarily, Kaitlin’s eyes went to Flynn’s hands. When she lifted her head a moment later, she found him watching her, his expression enigmatic. Did he know what she was thinking?

‘That’s enough!’ Kaitlin ground out hoarsely.

But Flynn ignored the protest. Closing the distance between them, he cupped her face in his hands. ‘I was washing your back, and it didn’t take long before I was wet, too. And then I was in the bath with you, and—’

‘There wasn’t much water in the bath,’ she reminded him hoarsely. ‘And whatever you may be trying to insinuate now, you were only trying to help me.’

The pressure of the fingers on her face increased, sending shock waves of excitement cascading through her. Flynn said, ‘It might have been that way at the start. But you wanted more than my help, even if you were playing for time. We both did.’

Restlessly Kaitlin shifted her feet, only to regret the movement when she found that it brought her closer to Flynn. Though he was only holding her face, she was aware of every inch of the long body, from the rock-hard chest to the corded muscles of his legs. She felt his breath stir her hair.

A sudden fire burned deep in her loins. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been so aware of the demands of her own body. Aware of a man... For the last year she had barely thought of men: there were so many other, more serious matters on her mind.

‘If I’d had my way, Kaitlin, we’d have filled the bath to the top and lain together in the water. And then we’d have made love.’

‘Don’t you know that you can’t rewrite history?’ It took all her strength to keep her voice from shaking.

‘Maybe not, but it’s always possible to create new history. ’

Flynn’s voice was almost unbearably seductive. Inside Kaitlin the fire was turning into a conflagration. But she didn’t want to be aroused Not when the man was Flynn.

‘New history? Oh no, I don’t think so,’ she said, as firmly as she could.

‘Do you remember how we used to kiss, Kaitlin? Don’t shake your head at me, because I know you remember.’

For some reason she seemed unable to move away from him: it was as if her brain refused to send the right messages to her legs. ‘Flynn—’

‘But kissing was never enough. We both wanted so much more.’

She couldn’t deny it, because they had talked about it so often. God, how she had wanted to make love with him! Two young people, madly attracted to each other. Kaitlin, just turned eighteen, Flynn going on twenty-four. Hormones crying out to each other. Standing so close to him, listening to the things he said, the desire she had experienced then gripped her again now. The intensity of her feelings shocked her.

‘It all happened so long ago,’ she said over a dry throat. ‘I don’t see any point in rehashing it.’

But Flynn persisted. ‘You said we had to wait another week, I thought we’d already waited as long as we had to.’

She had wanted be quite certain of his commitment before letting him make love to her. A lifetime commitment. What better time to announce their engagement than on the night of her party? They hadn’t exactly decided on an engagement—at least not in so many words—but they had spoken so often of marriage. Kaitlin had been as sure of Flynn’s feelings for her as she was of hers for him.

‘I remember...’ she said.

‘And then your parents drove up when we weren’t expecting them.’

He came closer still. His lips were temptingly near hers: another half inch and their mouths would be touching. It would be so easy to kiss him. Just in time, she remembered what had happened on her horse an hour earlier, and how humiliated she had been by Flynn’s reaction. She was in no mood for another rejection.

She threw back her head. ‘You made a quick exit that afternoon,’ she taunted.

‘Your father would have gone for his gun if I hadn’t.’

Her father had been possessed of a hot temper. ‘He’d have done just that,’ she agreed.

Flynn’s hand dropped from her chin, leaving a warm spot where it had been. He took a step backwards.

‘The hired help having the gall to make love to the boss’s daughter.’ His lips tightened, and for a moment there was an expression of intense anger in his eyes. ‘What you should know, Kaitlin, is that I’m not the naive young cowboy I was then. It’s been a long time since I’ve been intimidated by anyone. I don’t run any longer.’

The sureness in his tone caught her: it was as unfamiliar to her as the suggestion of arrogance and the striking look of success. This older, tougher, devastatingly attractive Flynn was not the handsome young cowboy who had left the ranch five years earlier, taking her heart with him.

Flynn had always been attractive, but now his sexuality was as much a part of him as a second skin: coupled with that aura of danger which never seemed to leave him, it made for a potent combination.

Kaitlin. lifted her chin in a challenge of her own. ‘You never run, Flynn? Not even when a man comes after you with a gun?’

‘Not even then.’

‘Sounds as if you’ve had your share of adventure. You must have quite a love-life.’ A deliberately bright smile hid Kaitlin’s pain.

He grinned. ‘Put it this way, I’ve learned to handle myself. Men like your father don’t frighten me.’

Looking at the rugged face of her first love—her only love, if she was honest with herself—it was easy to believe that there wasn’t a person alive who could frighten him.

‘I won’t run away next time I want you, Kaitlin.’

Kaitlin—and how many other women? For Flynn had not denied having an active love-life. ‘There won’t be a next time,’ she warned.

‘There could be.’

She increased the distance between them. ‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘No reason why there should be. We live in different worlds, Flynn.’

‘That again—Kaitlin Mullins and the hired man,’ he mocked.

She threw him a fierce look. ‘You’re not a hired man, you’ve made that quite clear. And whatever you choose to believe about me, Flynn, I’m not a snob. I never was. I’d have thought that was one thing you remembered about me. If I wanted you, your status wouldn’t matter.’

‘Isn’t that a relief,’ he said drily. ‘In the circumstances, you might even think again about letting me wash your back. Who knows what it could lead to?’

God, but she was tempted! She took a step towards him—then stepped quickly backwards. ‘What does it take to get through to you, Flynn Henderson?’ Furiously, she threw the words at him. ‘You don’t seem to have heard a word I said!’

‘Think what fun we’d have, Kaitlin.’

‘I don’t have to think about it,’ she informed him loftily, glad that her hands were in the pockets of her jeans, where he could not see their trembling.

‘Why not?’

She gave it to him straight. ‘I’m choosy about the men I associate with.’

But Flynn was not so easily deterred. Once more he reached for her, his fingers going to her throat this time, moving up and down in slow brushstrokes. Kaitlin thought the sensuousness of it would drive her out of her mind.

‘You chose me once, Kaitlin.’

‘I know that, Flynn.’ It was getting more and more difficult to speak normally. ‘But whatever there might have been between us once, it’s all in the past now. We’re no longer even the same people we were then. One brief meeting doesn’t change the fact that we’ve become strangers.’

There was a glimmer in the dark eyes looking down at Kaitlin: eyes that seemed to penetrate the superficialities of hair and skin to the very core of her being. At the same time, the sensuous finger was still continuing its nerveinflaming path.

‘Have your shower then. Alone if you must,’ he said at last. ‘When you’ve finished, we’ll talk.’

Flynn was at the window, beer-mug in hand, when Kaitlin came back into the room. For a long moment she stood quite still, her gaze-riveted on the tall, loose-limbed figure, tough as a mountain lion, sleek as a panther.

There was something disturbingly ominous about Flynn’s unexpected arrival at the ranch. Kaitlin straightened her shoulders as she reminded herself to be on her guard with him. At the same time, she knew already that this wasn’t going to be easy.

‘Flynn...’ she said.

He turned, lips pursed, as if to whistle. But the whistle died as he came towards her.

Not for the first time that day Kaitlin saw his eyes go over her. She made herself stand very still as he studied her. Fair hair, almost gold, had been released from its pony-tail: slightly damp still from the shower, it framed an oval-shaped face and hung in shining waves to Kaitlin’s shoulders. Green eyes shimmered beneath a dusting of eyeshadow, and her lips had been touched with a coral gloss. Kaitlin had discarded her jeans in favour of a white sun-dress with narrow shoulder straps and a skirt that swirled from a tiny belted waist, and on her feet were a pair of open-toed sandals.

The silent examination seemed to go on forever, but apart from a slight flicker of the eyes, Flynn’s expression remained impersonal. She had been a fool to go to so much trouble, Kaitlin thought grimly. How could she have been so foolish when she sensed he was dangerous? Had her brain temporarily stopped its proper functioning?

Briskly, she said, ‘I’m glad to see you got yourself a beer. I’m thirsty, too, so I’ll just—’

Flynn interrupted the flow of words. ‘What happened to the cowgirl?’ he asked softly.

The look in his eyes was all at once far from impersonal. Kaitlin found she could not hold it for more than a few seconds.

‘A cowgirl is still a woman.’ She hoped he did not notice that her voice shook.

Taking a strand of blond hair, he wound it around one of his fingers. ‘A very beautiful woman,’ he murmured.

Something unnerving, purely sexual in nature, crackled in the air between them. Kaitlin had a sense that things were moving a little too quickly. More than ever, she wished she had changed into more unfeminine attire.

She stepped away from Flynn, feeling the slight tug on her hair as it pulled away from his fingers. ‘You haven’t told me why you’re here,’ she said.

It seemed to her that a new expression came into his eyes. ‘I guess I haven’t,’ he drawled.

That expression, as much as his tone, made the hair prickle on Kaitlin’s neck. She could not have explained her uneasiness, the feeling that she was not, after all, ready to hear what he had to say. She decided to play for time. ‘It’ll be dark soon.’

‘So you’ve said already.’ His tone was sardonic. ‘Are you really so concerned with my safety?’

His arrogance was infuriating. ‘Lord, no, Flynn, why on earth would I be concerned about you? You seem perfectly well able to take care of yourself. I’m not equipped for overnight guests, that’s all.’

‘Why don’t you sit down, Kaitlin?’

Kaitlin did not like the sound of the words or the tone: they sounded a little too serious, somehow threatening. Still playing for time, she poured herself a glass of cool fruit juice before sitting down on a chair by the window. Flynn seated himself near her, long legs stretched out in front of him.

Steady eyes met Kaitlin’s. ‘Any idea why I’m here?’ he asked.

She shook her head. ‘Should I have?’

‘I’m wondering whether Bill Seally has been in touch with you.’

‘Bill?’ At sound of the name, Kaitlin jerked in her seat.

That morning, as on so many other mornings, she had woken and thought about Bill. Bill Seally. The ranch. The mortgage. Bill, friend of the family for as long as Kaitlin could remember, and holder of the ranch mortgage, had not pressed her hard for payment.

Kaitlin had often been grateful for the fact that Bill had been able to finance her father personally when money was short, that Dad had not had to go to a bank for a loan. Bill seemed to understand the gravity of her situation, he knew how hard it had been for her to take over the running of the ranch. Scrupulous about her obligations, Kaitlin made a point of paying Bill whenever there was money left over after the running expenses of the ranch had been met. Still, there had been times, especially lately, when it had been impossible for her to come up with the money.

‘What on earth does Bill have to do with your visit?’ she asked tensely.

‘We’ve done some business together.’

The eyes that held hers were cool as steel. The uneasy sensation was even stronger now. ‘What sort of business, Flynn?’

‘Can you guess, Kaitlin?’

An idea came to mind, but it was so horrific that Kaitlin could not bear to give it credence. She made an effort to suppress a great inner trembling.

‘I’m not in the mood for guessing games,’ she said flatly.

‘Fine.’ Flynn’s tone was crisp. ‘In that case, I won’t keep you in suspense. I’m here to talk about Bill Seally and the mortgage over your ranch.’

Kaitlin’s eyes were troubled. ‘What about Bill?’

‘When was the last time you made a payment, Kaitlin?’

‘I don’t think that concerns you.’

‘Believe me, it does. When was it, Kaitlin?’

‘Two months ago.’ She hesitated. ‘Maybe three...’

‘A long time to be overdue in your obligations.’

Kaitlin pushed a hand through her hair. ‘Do you think I don’t know that? I try to pay Bill whenever I can. Fact is...’ She paused.

‘Go on.’

‘There’ve been problems,’ she said after a moment.

One dark eyebrow lifted. ‘What kind of problems?’

‘Since Dad died—’ Abruptly, Kaitlin stopped the flow of the sentence.

She didn’t owe it to Flynn to tell him how badly her father had mismanaged his affairs, so that after his death Kaitlin had become heir to a host of financial difficulties. In fact, why should Flynn know anything about a situation that was growing more serious every day?

‘Problems that should be of no interest to you,’ she said flatly.

But Flynn was undeterred. ‘I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t interested.’

Dodging the issue was getting her nowhere, Kaitlin realized. Flynn would simply continue to badger her until she gave him an answer for some reason, he seemed to feel he was entitled to one.

Even then she took her time about speaking. Looking around the room, she took in the small details of her surroundings which she was normally too busy to notice: a picture that hung crookedly on the wall, a cobweb in one corner of the ceiling, a vase in which the flowers were dying. Signs of neglect that would have been unthinkable when her mother was alive. If only these small lapses of efficiency were all Kaitlin had to deal with.

‘Bill isn’t too concerned about my problems, so why should you be?’ she asked at last. ‘Bill Seally has always been understanding. He’s never minded if a payment was late.’

‘Don’t be too sure of that.’

‘What are you trying to say?’

‘Even the most understanding of men get nervous about money.’

‘Bill told you that?’ Kaitlin demanded.

‘In slightly different words.’

‘He sent you here?’ Her lips were suddenly stiff. ‘Bill told you to come to the ranch and remind me about paying? It’s so unlike him.’ She stood up abruptly. ‘He needn’t have done that, Flynn. He could have called me, could have spoken to me. We’ve never needed to communicate through a third party. We’ll work things out.’

‘Sit down, Kaitlin,’ Flynn said, not unkindly.

‘No! I need to speak to Bill.’

She was moving towards the phone when a hand snaked around her wrist, the cool fingers like ice against her burning skin. ‘Wait, Kaitlin. There’s more.’

‘Don’t you understand? Whatever it is, I want to hear it from Bill, not from you. I’ve never liked messages.’ Something drove her to add, ‘Or, in this case, the messenger.’

Flynn did not rise to the insult. ‘Sit, Kaitlin.’

His tone held a sure authority that made her feel cold. Slowly, unwillingly, only because she realized that in the end she would have to hear him out, she eventually did as he asked. ‘Well?’

Flynn let her have it straight ‘I own the mortgage now, Kaitlin.’

Silence greeted the words. A shocked silence. A silence that lasted almost a minute. The blood drained from Kaitlin’s face, leaving her face ashen. Her body was so rigid that she could not have moved if her life had depended on it.

‘You had no idea?’ Flynn asked at last.

‘None,’ she whispered.

Once more there was silence.

This time Kaitlin spoke first ‘Why didn’t Bill tell me?’

‘For one thing, I asked him not to.’

‘Why? Why would you be so cruel?’

‘Cruel?’ The dark eyes glittered.

‘You must have known I’d be shocked.’

‘Would you have been less shocked if Bill had given you the news himself?’

‘I don’t know... Maybe... At least I’d have had time to think about it before...’ She stopped.

‘Before?’ he prompted.

‘Before seeing you.’

‘Do you really think it would have made a difference?’

Kaitlin’s face lifted to meet Flynn’s gaze. For one awful moment she wondered if she was going to cry: tears were gathering at the back of her eyes and a sob rose in her throat. But she managed to stop herself from weeping as anger stirred.

Furiously, she said, ‘You could have given me some warning before flying in here like some feudal lord. Any decent person would have let me know in advance. And don’t give me any of that nonsense about Southern belles—you knew how shocked I’d be when I heard what you had to say. The least, the very least you could have done, Flynn, was to tell me why you were coming.’ Her eyes sparkled with outrage and defiance. ‘This is still my ranch, Flynn. Whatever piece of paper you may own, this ranch is mine, and you are not welcome here.’

His gaze flicked her face. ‘What’s your point, Kaitlin?’

‘Arriving here out of the blue. Ordering Bill not talk to me. Knowing how shocked I’d be when I found out what you’d been up to. My God, Flynn, you must have been laughing your head off at me!’

‘Is that what you think, Kaitlin?’

‘I think you could have found a less dramatic way of telling me my fate.’

‘Now who’s being dramatic? It’s not as if the idea of a mortgage is new to you. Only the identity of the person holding it has changed.’

On the face of it, what he was saying was perfectly true. The ranch was heavily mortgaged, a fact that was never very far from her mind. Why then did she have this dread feeling that her world would never be the same again?

All at once, Kaitlin felt as if she could take no more. She had managed, somehow, to endure the loss of her parents and the hardships of the ranch. And now here was Flynn. Tough, arrogant, unyielding Flynn. He would not be as understanding as Bill had always been: if anything, he would be ruthless. Unable to hold his cool-eyed gaze a second longer, she dropped her head and put her face in her hands.

She flinched when his arm went around her shoulders. She hadn’t realized that he had left his chair.

‘Kaitlin,’ he said softly. ‘Are you crying?’

She lifted her head to look at him. Her eyes were dazed and a little damp, but she was able to say, ‘I don’t cry that easily.’

‘You never did, that’s one of the things I remember about you. You always were a gutsy girl.’

Gutsy... At this moment, when she did not know how to defend the attack on her beloved home, Kaitlin felt anything but gutsy. She yearned to lean against the hard body, to bury herself in it, to seek warming comfort from the man who had meant so much to her once. Yearnings that were quite inappropriate, for as she looked into the rugged face she knew that Flynn had become her adversary.

She twisted away from him. ‘Bill should have told me.’ Her voice was low. ‘Why didn’t he tell me, Flynn?’

‘I told you—I asked him not to.’

There was an emptiness as he moved away from her and went back to his chair. a feeling of coldness, of loneliness. Kaitlin had to force herself to concentrate on the issue at hand.

‘Why do I get the feeling there’s also another reason why Bill didn’t talk to me himself?’

‘What do you think, Kaitlin?’

‘Am I right?’

‘Maybe.’

‘What was it?’ She threw the words at him. And when he remained silent, ‘I need to know—don’t you understand? ’

‘Bill Seally,’ Flynn said deliberately, ‘is a weak man.’

‘No! You’re wrong! Bill is sweet and gentle and kind.’

‘I’m sure he’s all of those things. Bill hates making waves, he has a great need to be liked. He shies away from conflict, especially where friends are involved. A good friend’s daughter, in your case.’

Kaitlin’s cheeks were flushed. ‘He would have got the money I owed him,’ she said unhappily. ‘I’ve always tried very hard to keep up my payments.’

‘Not hard enough. You’re in arrears.’

‘I know that. But in the end Bill wouldn’t have lost any money. I was always utterly determined to pay every cent, including interest on back payments.’

‘How did you plan to do that?’

‘Profits from the ranch. Things are starting to come right, Flynn. Slowly, I admit, but it’s happening. It’s been an uphill battle ever since Dad died, but I’m hoping my financial situation will improve.’

‘You can’t blame Bill for having some doubts.’

The flush in Kaitlin’s face deepened. ‘If he felt that way, why didn’t he say anything? We could have talked. Bill knew how things were at the ranch. Knew that Dad had...’ She bit her lip. ‘He understood that I needed time.’

‘How much time, Kaitlin?’

‘I don’t know exactly.’

‘Bill didn’t know either, and the situation was beginning to worry him.’

She shouldn’t be surprised, Kaitlin realized. The signs had been there for some time, only she had been too preoccupied to notice them. There had been a strange restlessness in Bill and Alice, his wife, when she did see them, a way they had of not meeting her eyes when they talked. Bill and her father had been boyhood friends, classmates, their friendship was one of the few constants in her life. When her parents had died, Bill and Alice had been there, phoning her, extending invitations. Yet now that she came to think of it, she could not remember the last invitation: she had been too busy to wonder about it.

Kaitlin looked at Flynn. ‘You may not believe me, but I didn’t know about the mortgage until after my father’s death.’

‘I see.’

‘Until then I’d had almost nothing to do with the running of the ranch’

‘No part in the finances?’

‘None,’ she admitted.

She would not tell Flynn, who seemed to be holding her destiny in those very competent-looking hands, of her dismay when she had sat in the office of her father’s lawyer and learned that she had inherited the ranch. A hollow inheritance, for the ranch was so heavily in debt that it didn’t belong to her in the true sense of the word. Apart from the ranch, there had been nothing else.

Helplessly she had looked across the desk at the lawyer. ‘I don’t understand... It seems impossible...’

‘It’s the way it is, Miss Mullins. I’m sorry.’

‘I always thought we were secure. We lived well. There was money for parties and travelling and for college.’

‘There was money once,’ the lawyer agreed, ‘but much of it was used for the wrong purposes. There was also a lot of debt.’

‘What are you saying, Mr. Barclay? I need the truth.’

‘Your parents were living way beyond their means. I often warned your father to be more careful, but he kept insisting that things were fine. The mortgage was never meant to be more than short-term assistance, he was certain things would come right.’

But her father had been killed when he had skidded off the road on his way back to the ranch one stormy night. His truck had been found in a ditch. Witnesses said the vehicle seemed to veer suddenly on a slippery section of the road, before rolling over onto its side. Kaitlin had pretended to accept the explanation, but privately she had wondered if grief over her mother’s death had made her father careless. He had had no time to put his affairs in order.

Kaitlin looked at Flynn, shivering when she saw the enigmatic expression in his eyes, the implacability in the firm jaw. ‘You’re saying that Bill was eager to rid himself of the mortgage.’

‘Correct.’

‘That’s when you appeared on the scene. Flynn Henderson to the rescue.’

Flynn shrugged, seemingly unconcerned by her sarcasm.

‘Some coincidence that you just happened to come along at the right time,’ Kaitlin went on grimly. ‘Why don’t I think that’s the way it was?’

‘Because you’re too intelligent to believe it.’

He grinned at her, a grin that warmed his eyes and deepened the lines around them. If only, Kaitlin thought, he didn’t have the ability to send her heart somersaulting in her chest.

‘Then it wasn’t coincidence.’

‘Of course not. I’ve kept my eyes on the ranch ever since I left. I knew about the mortgage.’

‘How did you know?’

‘Wasn’t difficult, Kaitlin. A person can make a point of knowing certain things. Besides, word gets around. When I thought Bill Seally was getting nervous I went to talk to him. To his credit, I had to speak to him several times before he made his decision.’

Despite the heat of the day, Kaitlin was feeling colder by the minute. ‘Five years, and all that time you were just biding your time to take over here.’

That grin again. ‘Five years ago all I had was a burning ambition. I knew what I wanted, but I couldn’t afford to pay for a corner of one barn let alone the whole ranch.’

That was one thing that puzzled her: how on earth had Flynn managed to acquire what must surely be a small fortune?

Before she could ask the question, he said, ‘Do you remember what I told you the last time we were together?’

‘In the bar? You were with that red-haired woman. I think her name was Marietta.’

‘So you remember that.’ The eyes that held hers were unreadable.

‘Sure, why not?’ She strove to make her tone as casual and matter-of-fact as she could. Flynn did not have to know about the pain that knifed her at the very mention of the other woman’s name.

‘I think it’s interesting that you would remember Marietta in such detail.’ Still he held her gaze. ‘But I wasn’t referring to her. Kaitlin, do you remember what I said?’

‘Why don’t you jog my memory?’

‘I promised you I’d be back for the ranch five years later. Five years to the day. I kept my promise, Kaitlin. Looking at your face, I know you never thought I would.’

Kaitlin. felt the colour drain from her cheeks as she stared at the tall cowboy.

‘So that’s why you’re here,’ she said, when she could speak.

‘Right.’

‘You could have written. Or phoned.’

‘I could have, I guess, but I decided to break it to you in person.’

‘Without a thought to my feelings,’ she accused unsteadily.

Flynn didn’t answer, but there was an odd expression in the eyes that watched her.

Over the emotions that raged inside her, Kaitlin said, ‘You knew I’d be shocked, but you wanted to see my face when you told me. What are you, Flynn—some kind of sadist?’

Flynn only shrugged.

Kaitlin’s hands curled tightly against her sides. ‘Anyway, now you’ve told me, you can go.’

‘We have to talk, Kaitlin.’

‘Not today, Flynn. Definitely not today. You have to give me time to think.’

For a long moment he looked down at her. Then, to her relief, he picked up his Stetson.

At the door of the house he turned. ‘I’ll be back.’