Aurelie couldn’t help the gasp that escaped her, the audible shock that her friend could disregard her feelings so completely.And for a man who hadn’t looked back when he left the first time.
“I’d love to,” he said, turning back and throwing Aurelie a wink.This wasn’t the cold, unfeeling man she’d met on the roadside, nor the easygoing one perched against the counter moments ago like he was part of their crew.No, this look was all danger and teasing.
And her heart had the damned audacity to scream with desire.
Ooh, she wanted to strangle this man.Her fists balled up at her sides, and she fought every urge to pelt him one on the shoulder, maybe across that chiseled jaw.That fleeting thought surprised her as much as the bizarre attraction for him that brewed beneath her furious exterior, both so unlike her.She wasn’t violent, nor prone to hook-ups, but at different moments the past couple hours, she’d considered both with this infuriating man.
It made her wonder about her sanity.Was losing her mom, combined with the prospect of losing her job and home, finally causing her to lose her mind?
“This is the man who almost ran me off the road,” she said.She heard the whine in her voice, and even she was annoyed by it.
“Still driving like a bat outta hell, huh, Jace?”Brad asked.They all laughed, and once again, Aurelie was dismissed.
“Grab another glass, will you, Aury?”Paige asked.Aurelie, stunned silent, nodded.Dismissed indeed.
“Grab a glass of wine for the handsome stranger,” Aurelie sang to herself, mimicking Paige’s high-pitched squeal when she talked about the celebrity.“Ply him with wine so he can use his gorgeous smile to trick us into giving away our property.He’s just soooo good-looking.He can do whatever he wants!”
“I’m glad you think I’m handsome, but that doesn’t mean I think I can get away with murder or anything.”
Aurelie screamed and dropped a glass, breaking the bowl cleanly in two from the stem.
“What are you doing, sneaking around like that?You could scare someone into a heart attack.”
Aurelie’s blood pounded furiously in her ears, but she couldn’t be entirely sure the palpitations in her chest were from the fright or from his shoulder muscles contracting and pressing against the fabric of his shirt.She reluctantly pulled her eyes from his body to his face, noting immediately that it didn’t help things.She didn’t miss the way Jace’s mouth curved down in one corner, the way his eyes looked stung.She’d wounded him, not the other way around.
“I’m not sneaking around, Aury.I offered to come help you bring everything to the table.”He paused, rubbed his forehead, his other hand on his hip.
“I’m sorry.”She handed him the newly opened bottle and a new glass to go with it.“You can take these.”Aurelie had never been good at small talk, at the fluff that seemed to sustain most American conversations, and sorely regretted that now.“If you promise not to treat them the same way you treat that car of yours.”
“Are you always this…” he started.
She turned back and threw him abe carefullook.
“Abrupt,” he said, smiling back at her, “with people you don’t know?”
“I am until I have reason not to be.”
“What can I do to give you a good enough reason to like me?I mean, you think I’m attractive, so that’s something, right?”Her cheeks burned hot with embarrassment.If there were a tidal wave heading for her, she’d dive straight into it to avoid this man’s piercing wit and gaze that made her feel like she’d come to the party without bothering to get dressed first.In the fright of Jace coming up behind her and her dropping the glass, she’d forgotten that he’d heard what she’d been saying out loud—how much, she wasn’t sure.She was mortified, but there was no way she was letting him know that.
“You can start by not destroying my friends’ farms.”
He frowned.
“I’m not the villain you think I am.Once upon a time, this was my home, too.It might not be now, but that doesn’t mean I want anything to hurt my former neighbors.”
But hewashurting them, wasn’t he?
Are you sure that’s true?She wasn’t.The evidence stacking up against him was damning, but itcouldbe circumstantial.
Maybe.But not likely.
“Are you staying at your father’s property?To run it?”
He chuckled, though none of this was humorous.“No.That’s not part of the plan.I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here.”
“Then, what is the plan?Because anything other than selling to a rancher means devastation to this place, and—”
He was in her space in a nanosecond, taking up all the air.“I’ll sell to whomever I need to so I can leave as soon as possible, just as you requested.You don’t get to have it both ways, sweetheart.”
