Katherine Garbera - Cinderella's Convenient Husband

“I like the change of pace.”

She’d never been able to look anyone in the eye while she lied to him. And it had gotten her into hot water more than once.

“You look tired,” he said.

She felt the fatigue as if for the first time. She glanced up and met his gaze. He compelled her to tell him the truth and she did. Just a little bit, a sop for her conscience. “I am.”

“Why are you really working here?”

“I don’t know. The people, I guess.”

“Really?”

“Yes, it’s too quiet at the ranch.” That was the truth. With the hands gone and the big old house to herself, she needed some conversation to distract her.

“If you ever need anything, Lynn, let me know. I owe your family.” She’d never seen him so earnest before. She’d seen him tough and ready to take on three older boys in a fight. She’d seen him eager to learn how to rope and brand cattle. She’d seen him with his dreams in his eyes as he’d looked at the night sky and told Matt about the solar system.

“You don’t owe us anything. You worked those summers you spent here.” And he’d given her brother someone to imitate. Someone to bond with and look up to. Especially after Daddy had died. She thought maybe the McCoys owed Seth more than he’d ever know.

A red tinge colored his neck. “Well, I tried to do my part.”

She realized then that Seth wasn’t all that comfortable with praise, and it made him seem a little more human. “I’ve got to go.”

“Will you give Matt this note when he comes home?” he asked, holding out a sheet of legal paper that had been folded neatly into thirds. Matt’s name was printed in large block letters. There was nothing timid about Seth, she thought.

“Sure,” she said, trying to convince herself that whatever she’d felt for Seth Connelly had died a long time ago. But somehow her hormones didn’t get that message. Her skin tingled when their fingers brushed. Her breath seemed harder to come by and her heart beat a bit faster. Chills spread up her arm. Her nipples tightened and her breasts felt heavy. For some reason her feet seemed planted to the ground.

She recognized the symptoms. Lust. Not now, she thought. Not again. The last time she’d followed her impulses around Seth she’d ended up brokenhearted. She’d learned too much and come too far from that sixteen-year-old girl to behave that way again. Or at least as a thirty year old she’d like to hope she did.

“I’ll stick it in the next letter I mail him,” she said.

“Thank you.”

She tugged her hand out from under his. “You’re welcome.”

She didn’t like the way he made her feel. Didn’t like that for the first time since Ronnie had taken her money and her heart, she was interested in a man. Especially didn’t like that the man was Seth.

Resolutely, she marched toward her truck and unlocked the door.

“Uh, Lynn?” When she turned to look at him, his eyes held the maturity of age and she knew that whatever she remembered of him she’d always liked him. Which was dangerous to her. Because he looked as if he needed a shoulder to cry on.

“Yes?”

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and then stepped closer to her. “It occurs to me that I owe you an apology.”

Oh, God. “I can’t imagine why.”

He moved another step closer. So close she could smell the coffee he’d drunk with dinner. “For that kiss I stole when you were sixteen.”

She didn’t want to have this conversation with Seth now. Never sounded like a good time to chat about it.

“You didn’t steal it.”

“I felt like I did after I walked away without a word.”

“Hey, I’m a mature woman now. I barely remember an embrace that long ago.”

“Really?”

No, but she’d rather give away the ranch than admit it. She shrugged.

“It haunts me,” he said simply. He started to walk away, his shoulders set and his stride bold.

His words cut through the protective layers she’d wrapped around herself. “Seth?”

He stopped, glancing over his shoulder at her. A light snow began to fall and it dusted his head and black trench coat.

“I…”

He nodded. She wasn’t sure he understood what she’d been trying to say.

“Me too,” she said finally and opened the door to her truck. She climbed in quickly and drove away, watching Seth standing there in the lightly falling snow.

For the first time in months she didn’t dream about the ranch or the diner. Instead, a pair of silver eyes plagued her dreams.

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.