Katherine Garbera - The Texan's Contested Claim - The Texan's Contested Claim / The Greek Tycoon's Secret Heir

“Both of us in the same bed?”

He shrugged off his jacket and tossed it to a chair. “If you have a problem sharing, you can sleep on the couch.”

She glanced through the doorway at the couch in the other room, thinking about the eerie howling she’d heard, as well as the lunatic who supposedly wanted Garrett dead. Deciding that sleeping on the couch held about as much appeal as being the last person on the trail, she snatched up pillows and began erecting a wall down the center of the bed.

“Line of demarcation,” she warned him.

Ali didn’t expect to sleep a wink. Not with the threat of an assassin on her mind and Garrett on the other side of the bed. To her surprise, within minutes of closing her eyes, she slipped into a deep sleep and didn’t stir until hours later, when sunlight flooding through the bedroom window pricked at her eyelids. In an effort to block the sun, she folded an arm over her head and snuggled deeper into the cocoon of bedding.

Her mind slowly registered a difference in the firmness of the wall of pillows at her back, as well as the heat it was producing. Praying the cause wasn’t what she feared, she cautiously pushed her buttocks against the wall and froze when she met the unmistakable shape and resistance of an erection.

“Don’t panic,” a sleepy voice said from behind her. “Men wake up like this all the time.”

She twisted around to find Garrett directly behind her. “And that’s supposed to make me feel better?”

“Only if you considered it a threat.” He lifted a shoulder. “But if you prefer to claim ownership for producing it….”

“Claim ownership?” she repeated, then sputtered a laugh and rolled from the bed, pleased to discover he had a sense of humor. “As if.”

“Where are you going?” he called after her.

“To get dressed.”

“Don’t you want to finish what you started?”

She fluttered a hand, but kept walking. “No, thanks.”

After dressing, Ali went to the kitchen in search of food, and found Garrett sitting at the table in the breakfast nook, working at his laptop. “Have you eaten?” she asked, as she passed him on her way to the refrigerator.

“Nibbled.”

“Well, nibbling’s not going to cut it for me. I’m starving.” She opened the refrigerator and was surprised to find it fully stocked. “Wow. Your friends really know how to make a person feel welcome.”

“Mandy likes to play mother.”

She froze, her hand on a bowl of fruit. Mandy? Forcing the tension from her shoulders, she pulled out the bowl of fruit. “I, uh, assumed your friend was a male.”

“Mandy is Jase’s wife. They’re both friends.”

A pitifully brief explanation, but at least she now knew this Mandy person wasn’t a romantic interest of Garrett’s.

Not that she cared, she told herself.

She dropped down on the chair opposite him and plucked a grape from the bowl. “What are you doing?” she asked curiously.

“Checking my e-mail.”

“You can get Internet access in the boonies?” she asked doubtfully.

He tapped a finger against the side of his laptop. “Thanks to a wireless card from my cell phone provider. Anywhere I can receive cell phone reception, I can access the Internet.”

“Wow!” She popped the grape into her mouth, chewed. “So? Any word on the guy who’s threatened you?”

“No.”

“Have you checked to see if you’ve made the news?”

“No mention, yet.”

“Well, that’s good, isn’t it? It means we’re safe here, right?”

“For the time being.”

Grimacing, she fished a strawberry from the bowl. “You could’ve lied, you know,” she informed him, as she sank her teeth into the strawberry. “I could use some reassurance here.”

“I’m not going to lie just to ease your mind.” He closed the lid of his laptop and met her gaze. “But if it’ll make you feel better, the more time that passes without my whereabouts making the news, the more likely it is the person who’s threatening me will fall into the trap my security team has set for him.”

“You consider that reassuring?” With a woeful shake of her head, she rose. “If that’s the best you can do, I’m pulling a Scarlett O’Hara.”

“What’s a Scarlett O’Hara?”

“Putting off until tomorrow what I don’t want to think about today.”

“What does that resolve?”

“Nothing for you, maybe,” she told him as she moved to the den, “but it works wonders for me.” She stopped before the fireplace to look at the portrait hanging above it. “Who’re they?” she asked curiously.

“Jase’s parents.”

“They look nice,” she said.

“I wouldn’t know. I never met them.”

“Sometimes you can tell a person’s personality just by looking,” she said, studying the couple’s faces. “Look at her smile. It’s not just on her lips, it’s in her eyes. And him,” she said, pointing. “The way he’s holding his arm around her, his stance? He obviously adores her and is very protective of her.”

“That’s quite a lot to assume from a simple photograph.”

“Some things can’t be faked.” She ambled on, smoothing a hand over the supple leather of the sofa’s back, as she looked around. “This is a cool place. Rustic, yet comfy. Much nicer than what I’d expect a hunter’s cabin to look like.”

“This was Jase’s home.”

She glanced back to find Garrett had moved to stand in the doorway between the kitchen and den, and was watching her.

“Why’d he move?” she asked.

“It was Mandy’s idea. After they married, she wanted to live in the family home.”

“Family home?” Her imagination conjured a big rambling house full of kids and laughter. “I guess his brothers and sisters didn’t have a problem with that?”

He seemed to hesitate a moment, then shook his head. “Jase was the Calhouns’ only child. He inherited their entire estate after their deaths.”

“Wow,” she said and crossed to peer out the front window. “He inherited all this?”

“Yes.”

“How big is it?”

“I have no idea. Huge, I would imagine. I know he raises cattle and has a large pecan orchard business, plus he leases hunting rights and cabins to hunters during hunting season. I’d think all that would require a substantial number of acres.”

“Probably.” She turned to him. “Do you think he’d mind if I wandered around and took some pictures?”

“Of what?”

“Nature, silly,” she said, laughing. “There are some gorgeous old trees behind the cabin, and woods are usually full of all kinds of interesting vegetation.”

“I don’t think he’d mind, as long as you didn’t stray too far.”

“Cool!” She started for the bedroom to get her camera, then stopped, remembering the coyote she’d heard howling the night before. “Want to come along?” she asked hopefully.

He pushed away from the wall. “Why not? There’s nothing else to do.”

She beamed a smile. “Great. I’ll get my camera. Won’t take a second.”

When she returned, Garrett was standing before the gun case, studying its contents. Her blood chilled, as she watched him take out a handgun.

“Uh, what are you doing?” she asked uneasily.

He spun the cylinder, checking the chambers for bullets. “Never know what you might run into in the woods.”

“Do you think the guy who’s after you will come here?”

He shrugged. “Best to be prepared.”

She gulped, wishing she hadn’t asked. “Do you know how to shoot a gun?”

He tucked the pistol into the waist of his jeans. “I rescued Zelda.”

“Zelda? The video game?”

At his nod, she choked a laugh. “Just my luck. Of all the men in the world to get marooned with, I get stuck with a computer nerd who thinks he’s embodied with super powers.”