Rancher at Risk by Barbara White Daille

Author:Barbara White Daille
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-01-09T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Apparently, Ryan had found it easy to replace one appetite with another. Lianne found him in the kitchen with a mug of coffee and a plate of pie on the table in front of him.

“Did you save me a piece?” she asked.

His eyebrows shot up. She had surprised him. Maybe her bedroom slippers hadn’t made enough noise for him to hear her in the hall. “I’m sorry about this.” She gestured with the phone in her hand.

He nodded.

She rested her shoulder against the doorframe. “Kayla’s husband, Sam, texted me, and we went back and forth for a while. Then I heard from his mom, Sharleen. And after that, finally, Kayla herself. She’s at the hospital.”

He put down the mug he’d just lifted. “Everything okay?”

Her heart fluttered at his obvious concern. “Yes. But evidently my nephew’s getting restless.”

“She’s having him now?”

“No. They’re sending her home again, but she needs to take it easy. They want her to get closer to her due date.”

He shifted in his chair and pushed the plate away. “Guess she knows the routine.”

“Why would she…? Oh. Becky.” She shook her head. “No, we’re sort of a complicated family. The baby is Kayla’s first.”

If he had asked a question, if he hadn’t dropped his gaze, if he hadn’t reached for his fork again, she might have explained.

If she hadn’t had to track him down, she wouldn’t be standing here leaning against the doorframe. She stood upright. He hadn’t looked over at her again. The first sight of his midnight snack should have clued her in.

“I’m ready for bed.” Only as the words left her mouth did she realize how he might take the statement. But he didn’t react to the double meaning, just nodded and stabbed another piece of pie.

She turned and left the room.

Now her heart thumped painfully. Her eyes blurred. Despite her determination not to think of what had happened between them, the thoughts came. Just a few minutes ago he had kissed her nearly senseless. His hands had touched her, stroked her, as though she were something delicate and easily broken…

Or already broken? Was that why he had taken such care with her?

She almost missed a step on the stairs.

As she went up to the second floor, she felt no footsteps behind her. When she looked back from the doorway of her bedroom, the hall was deserted. He hadn’t followed. And she shouldn’t, couldn’t, have expected him to.

Why would he come after her now when he had been so quick to use her texts as an excuse to stop kissing her and leave her bedroom? When he so obviously preferred pie to…to…passion.

The comparison did the trick, allowing her to laugh despite the threatening tears.

That was what she got for falling for his “get to know you” line. For taking the risk of mixing pleasure into their business relationship. Clearly, he had gotten to spend enough time with her to know he wasn’t interested.

And she needed to get her job done.

An impossible goal, maybe, with Ryan still her supervisor, working beside her every day.

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