by Leanne Banks
“I know, sweetheart,” Virginia said and gave Maria a quick hug. “I wish Skip and I could have done something for you sooner, but we didn’t even know you existed until we found you sleeping in the barn.”
“Lucky for me,” Maria said. “But how long do we have to let Lori stay here?”
“As long as I told you that you could stay here,” Virginia told her in a firm voice.
Virginia had assured Maria that she could stay on the ranch as long as she wanted. “But I was helpful,” Maria said. “I didn’t ruin entire meals.”
“Give Lori some time. She’ll be helpful, too. You may not see it, but she has a heart of gold.”
“If she has this heart of gold, then why doesn’t she just give you the money for the ranch?” Maria demanded.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” Virginia said. “I just know that if she needs a place to stay, I’m going to give it to her.”
Chapter Eleven
“It’s not fun, sunbeam, but if you’re afraid of something, you’re eventually going to have to face it down, or it will own you for the rest of your life.”
– SUNNY COLLINS
Lori glanced at her diamond-encrusted Rolex as she left the cabin in sparkling-clean condition behind her. If anyone had told her that she would spend her days trying to set a new record for cleaning toilets, she would have laughed them into next week. Glancing up, she nearly ran into Geoffrey.
“There you are,” he said. “I was hoping you could show me around today. Last night we didn’t have an opportunity to share much time together,” he said, dressed in khaki slacks and a white shirt.
He really was cute, Lori thought. Floppy light brown hair, crooked self-deprecating grin, tons of polite British charm. She wondered if she could get along with him for six years. “Sounds lovely, but I need to clean two more cabins, and the clock is ticking. Maria will hiss at me if I don’t get them done.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “Maria? Why would she hiss at you? You’re doing her a favor by cleaning.”
“Not fast enough,” Lori said, then decided to give the duke a little test. “Would you mind helping me?”
He blinked for a solid moment, then seemed to force himself to shake his head. “Clean,” he repeated as if it were a foreign word. “Of course not.” He gave a slightly forced smile. “I’m happy to help. Lead onward.”
Lori bit her lips to keep them from twitching. “Thank you so much. The other cabins are this way.”
As soon as they stepped inside the first cabin, she gave him a feather duster and a mop. “I’ll do the bathrooms. They take the most work.” After a few moments of scrubbing, she called out to him. “Everything okay?”
“It’s fine,” he said and sneezed. “Everything’s fine.”
Lori shined the mirrors. “I’m surprised you were able to find me at Miracles in Motion.”
“Your housekeeper took pity on me. I begged her. And gave her a one-hundred-dollar bill.”
Lori glanced outside the bathroom door. “A hundred dollars?”
He nodded and flicked the duster over a dresser. “I started low, but she wouldn’t budge.”
“I’m flattered that you were so determined, but I’m kind of surprised. We only met that once.”
“I thought we connected well. That and I wanted to cut myself out of the pack of wild dogs barking at your back door,” he said.
She laughed. “They all want the money. What they don’t understand is that they’ll have to sign an iron-clad prenup.”
His dusting abruptly stopped. “Is that so?”
She nodded. “Of course. But whoever I marry will be generously compensated.”
“Really?”
“Until I’m thirty.”
The duster dropped to the floor. “Pardon me. Did I hear you correctly? Did you say until you reach thirty?”
She glanced outside the door at him. “Yes. The real reason I’ll get married is just to get access to my own money, which is unfortunately held in trust.”
“And what do you want to do with your money?”
“Give it away,” she said and gave the tub another swipe.
She heard a crashing sound and glanced outside the door. “Problem?”
“No, I just-” He picked up his broom and looked at her in confusion. “Why would you want to give away your money?”
“Because I have tons of money and I’m a philanthropist. Prime example is this ranch. Virginia really needs some money, but I can’t give it to her until I can access it.” She rinsed out the tub.
“Lori Jean,” Geoffrey said from directly behind her, startling her.
She whirled around to find him kneeling on one knee. “I didn’t know you were right behind me.”
“My apologies,” he said, mop and duster in his hands. “But would you do me the honor of becoming my wife? I think we could help solve each other’s problems. I’ve been told I’m not a bad man to have around. Amusing, clever, agreeable, not too demanding. I’m not a playboy, but I’ve also been told I’m not bad in the sack-”
Lori held up her hand. “That’s the thing. I’m not sure I want to have sex.”
“Oh,” he said, pausing for a long moment. Then she would swear he was mentally calculating how many years of abstinence would be required. He cleared his throat. “It might be difficult, but I suppose-”
“It might be okay with me if my husband-” She hesitated, searching for the right words. “If he took care of his needs with someone else, as long as he was discreet.”
“Ah, well, as you know we British are the epitome of discretion.”
She felt an odd lump in her throat. Marriage. Did she really want to go through with this? With him? “Would you mind if I think this over?”
He shook his head. “Of course not. It’s a big decision. For six years. You probably have some questions for me.”
“Right,” she said.
They stood staring at each other, awkwardly silent for a long moment.
The doorway swung open and Maria appeared. She lifted her eyebrow. “You haven’t finished yet?” she asked.
Lori hated the suggestion that she wasn’t good enough. “Three down. One to go. Getting faster.”
Maria tossed her hair. “So you are. With help from your English boy.”
“He’s not a boy. He’s a man,” Lori cooed, just to see if she could poke even a tiny hole in Maria’s thick hide. “But I guess since you don’t get many gentlemen around here, you wouldn’t know how to treat them.”
Maria blinked and gave Geoffrey a second assessing look. She opened her mouth and worked her jaw, but nothing came out. “Just finish the other cabin,” she finally blurted and stomped away.
“Moody,” Lori said.
“Fiery,” Geoffrey said, staring after Maria.
“She has zero patience,” Lori countered.
“She’s stacked better than the Oxford Library,” Geoffrey added.
Lori met his gaze, unable to keep her lips from twitching in humor. “Can’t argue with that.”
Geoffrey suddenly seemed to realize that he’d practically drooled over another woman in front of the woman to whom he’d just proposed. He grimaced. “Bloody hell. Well, you’re very well stacked, also,” he said. “Very well stacked. Better than Oxford. You have some kind of enormous library here in the States. What is it?”
“Library of Congress,” Lori said.
“Exactly,” he said with a firm nod. “You’re stacked better than the Library of Congress.”
“Thank you,” she said. “We still need to clean the last cabin.”
“Right-o. Lead on.”
That evening, Lori read another letter from her mother as usual before she went to bed, but her mind kept wandering to the prospect of marrying Geoffrey. After thirty minutes, she gave up, got dressed, and headed for the barn.
Did she really want to do this? Could she really go through with a business marriage? She thought of her sisters and their happy and passionate marria
ges. Maybe this was a weird twist-of-fate payoff. Since they’d had the tough upbringings, they were due love happily-ever-after. If the flip side were true, since she’d had the cushy childhood, she wouldn’t get the love connection.
It was terribly naive to think all her secret wishes would come true. And when she thought about it, if she got everything she wanted, she’d probably be exactly what Jackson had thought she was-a spoiled brat.
She wandered inside the darkened wooden building and inhaled deeply, wanting to recapture the way she had felt before the accident. Back then, there had been something peaceful about the barn at night. The horses rested easily. It was almost like watching a baby sleep, she thought as she looked into Lady’s stall.
She heard footsteps behind her and felt her heart kick a little as Jackson came into view. He was such a man. A man’s man. Strong, no-nonsense, sexy. The last description stopped her. Sexy? He was just different, she told herself, because he wasn’t falling all over himself to be with her. If she was attracted to him, it was just some sort of sick thing about wanting something she couldn’t have. But something had changed between them since they’d kissed. She couldn’t look at him without being aware of him as a man.
“Is this becoming a habit?”
She shrugged, leaning against the stall door. “There are worse habits.”
“I thought you’d be spending the evening with the English lord,” he said, standing beside her.
“Duke,” she corrected. “I spent a good part of the day with him,” she said.
“He must be very interested if he was willing to drive down here to see you.”
“I’m sure he is. I’m loaded and can solve most of his financial problems,” she said.
She felt his gaze on her. “You want to expound on that?”
“Not really,” she said with a breezy smile and moved toward the next stall. “I came here for the peace and serenity of the barn at night. Don’t feel you need to stay.”
He gave a rough laugh. “Dismissing me already?” he asked, joining her. “Are you sure you want to do that? I have some sugar in my pocket,” he said in a seductive voice.
She whipped her head around to meet his gaze, and then she was unable to stop herself from looking at his pocket. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard it called that before.”
He laughed again, this time more loudly. “Sugar cubes,” he said. “Get your mind out of the gutter, sweetheart.”
She scowled, but he ignored her, moving farther into the barn. “Let’s see who is awake,” he said.
“Probably Rowdy,” she said, curious.
“Peace is peaceful as usual,” he said. He walked a few steps farther and there was a sound of a hoof on the floor. Seconds later, Rowdy poked his head out of his stall door. “Looks like you were right. You want to give him a sugar cube?”
Lori immediately felt herself stiffen with fear. The dark feeling circled around and inside her, sucking away her breath and nerve. She took a careful breath and tried to appear nonchalant. “That’s okay. You brought the treat. You can give it.”
She moved closer, though, and watched as Jackson stretched his hand out flat for the horse. Rowdy politely took the sugar cube with his mouth instead of his teeth.
Jackson glanced at her. “You sure you don’t want to give him one? I have more.”
She considered the offer and felt her palms immediately go damp. It wasn’t riding, she reminded herself. It was just a damn sugar cube. She took a deep breath. “Okay.”
“Come here,” he said and put the cube into her open palm. He slid his arm around her back, and Lori felt a sliver of tension leave her body. Willing herself to remain calm, she tentatively lifted her hand toward Rowdy.
When he nodded his head and whinnied, she stiffened but kept her hand steady. She watched as the horse moved his super-soft lips over her hand and took the sugar cube.
She looked at Jackson and couldn’t help smiling. “I’d forgotten that their mouths feel like velvet.”
“Yeah, velvet,” he said, but he was looking at her mouth.
She felt as if she were going up the down elevator. She met his gaze and another crackle of electricity snapped between them. Was it just her? Was it some kind of masochistic tendency inside her that drove her toward him? Because he clearly didn’t think much of her.
Lowering her gaze to grab her equilibrium, she bit her lip. “Thanks for sharing your sugar,” she said, hoping she bothered him at least a fraction as much as he bothered her.
Geoffrey was bored out of his mind. He joined Lori to help clean the cabins and tried to engage in conversation, but she seemed distracted. After lunch, Lori announced her plans to muck stalls, and he bailed. She hadn’t accepted his proposal, and he was getting dishpan hands from his cleaning chores.
Wandering outside the barn, he walked toward the corral, where Maria and several others were helping a group of five disabled children ride horses, one at a time.
The children appeared to suffer a range of disabilities, some physical, some mental, and some both. He stared at Maria as she comforted a young boy. She hugged and cuddled him against her full breast as she murmured in his ear.
Lucky kid, Geoffrey thought. Bloody hell, he was sick. Jealous of a little kid. Shaking his head at himself, he continued to watch. As the lesson drew to a close, however, he went to the barn and got a soda for himself from the small refrigerator. On impulse, he pulled out an extra and met Maria as she walked toward the barn.
“Care for a refreshing beverage?” he asked her, offering her the can. “I thought you might be hot.”
She studied him for a moment as if she hadn’t quite made up her mind about him. “Gracias,” she said. “Very nice of you. Was there something you wanted?”
“Not particularly,” he said. “I don’t suppose this place has any musical instruments hidden anywhere?”
She frowned thoughtfully. “I may have seen a piano in one of the rooms upstairs in the house. I don’t know if it’s playable.”
“Would you mind showing me where it is?”
“You play?” she asked in surprise.
He nodded. “It’s a passion. Much more so than my day job, but family duty calls and all that rubbish.”
She smiled. “Sounds like you don’t want to answer the call of family duty?”
“You’re very perceptive. Now, the piano?”
“This way,” she said and guided him back to the house and upstairs. “I’m surprised you’re not spending the afternoon with Miss Granger.”
“I helped her clean the cabins this morning,” he said.
She murmured something in Spanish. “She needs help. She is so slow.”
“Better slow than not at all, yes?” he said.
She shrugged as she led him to the end of the hall and opened the door.
“Pardon me, but I must ask, how did you end up on this ranch, of all places? You’re so beautiful you could have been a model,” he said.
She stopped and stared at him.
He cleared his throat, feeling like a fool. “Well, I’m sure I’m not the first man to tell you that you’re beautiful.”
A trace of vulnerability deepened her eyes for an instant. She took a deep breath, which drew his attention to her prominent breasts. “Of course not,” she said. “But gracias.” She cleared her throat and pointed inside the room. “The piano.”
Geoffrey strode inside and swept the cover off an old spinet. It would probably sound like hell, he thought, but he ran his fingers over the keys anyway. “Needs to be tuned,” he said, continuing up the keyboard. He found a broken key that wouldn’t play. “Do you think Mrs. Dawson would mind terribly if I called a professional tuner? I would bear the cost.”
“I could ask her for you.”
“Thank you,” he said, taking her hand and lifting it to his lips. “You are truly a goddess.”
She met his gaze for a long moment as if she couldn’t decide how to take him. “I can’t tell if you are loco or ju
st strange.”
He smiled. “Why can’t I be both?”
Her mouth stretched into a smile that showed her white teeth against that gorgeous tanned skin, and then she gave a husky laugh that somehow managed to grab him by the heart and balls at the same time. God, what a woman.
That night around ten o’clock, Lori debated walking down to the barn again. She didn’t want Jackson to think she was going down there just to see him. And truthfully, she wasn’t. Even though the thought of riding a horse nearly made her break out in hives, the quiet of the barn calmed her.
Walking to the window of her small bedroom, she looked out at the clear night sky. Without city-light glare, the stars shone like diamonds on a blanket of indigo. The moon was a few days away from full but lit up the landscape below almost like a floodlight.
Sighing, she wrapped her arms around her waist, giving herself a hug. Soon she would need to give Geoffrey an answer to his proposal. That answer should be yes, and then she and he would begin their six-year sentence.
Chapter Twelve
“Sanity is overrated.”
– SUNNY COLLINS
The thought of her impending marital sentence made her want to vault out of her second-story window. Lori shook her head. The comfy room suddenly felt too small, her skin too tight. Was she doing the right thing by getting married? By the time she turned thirty, what kind of woman would she be? Would an empty marriage change her? Would she become cynical?
Desperate to escape her thoughts, she gave in to her urge to go to the barn. She would take an apple this time to give one of the horses, to prove that she wasn’t expecting Jackson to be there.
The apples looked so juicy and inviting in the bowl that she grabbed two and nibbled one along the way. The dry grass crunched under her feet. Lori inhaled deeply. She loved it here. No need for a new dress for every event. She wasn’t cooped up in her house trying not to think about her father or mother too much. Glancing down at her manicure, or lack thereof, she laughed. Her polish was chipped, her nails breaking, and her hands looked three hundred years old from being in water so much the last couple of days.