Leanne Banks - Trouble in High Heels

“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.”

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 marriages. 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.