His body was on autopilot at this point, a liability when faced with this alluring stranger.
Fuck.That single word was becoming his new mantra.
“I recognize you.You’re that actor.”Her voice was the same thickly accented one from his GPS, but with a twist.He’d spent quite a bit of time in Great Britain on his last movie set and hadn’t heard anyone who sounded like her.The whisper of excitement now screamed at his subconscious, but it battled other emotions, far more dangerous ones clawing at his chest.
“I am.Was.”
Why had he said that?He hadn’t quit, just taken a bereavement break.Some time to figure out his life, which, if he were being honest, had spiraled out of control a few movies back.Suddenly, his desire for art and meaningful roles had been sidelined for the next big blockbuster, the movie that would cement his fame.
Even if he hadn’t understood his son’s compulsion to leave Montana, his dad had stayed proud until the end.But could Jace say the same about himself?
“What’s that supposed to mean?Was?How obtuse.”
He chuckled, a low grumble that shook his chest, loosened the tightness in it.This woman was a hurricane force to be reckoned with.His dad should have hired her to execute his will.Somehow, Jace was certain she’d do well fighting lawyers and land acquisitions.He wondered if his dad had ever met her.
Not that it mattered either way, now.
“It means I don’t know what I do anymore.Right now, this is my job.”
He waved to his father’s land, trying to ignore the letter that had come with the will.The words were imprinted on his brain, though, and came up like a bad penny each time Jace faced his decision to leave this life, to leave his father.
Dear Jace, I’ve given up asking you to stick around and help.That wasn’t the life you chose, and believe it or not, I accepted it the minute you left.And I couldn’t be prouder of the life you’ve built yourself.
Jace’s eyes had watered.
Just promise me you’ll look at this land and make sure you’re ready to hand it off.You don’t have to run the ranch, but this place did more for you than I ever did.Those trails saw you through breakups I couldn’t talk you through, and the horses were better listeners than your old man by a long shot.Whatever you decide to do, I’ll be proud of you.I’ll just wish I’d been around longer to see you do it.
The words were everything he’d ever wanted to hear from his old man, just decades too late.It wasn’t his father’s fault he’d been raised in a rural ranching town in the middle of the century when men’s feelings weren’t a tradeable commodity.Or that his wife had died in childbirth, leaving him with a son he had no idea how to raise.
His father had done the best he could, and Jace had made his own choices based on all of it.What was done was done, and saying goodbye to the land was just one more goodbye he’d have to find the strength to do.
Because staying in Banberry, Montana, wasn’t an option.No damn way.
“Oh, I know your job.And I don’t like it one bit.”She snorted.Her arms fell across the most exquisite pair of breasts he’d seen in Hollywood or elsewhere.The tops of them peeked out of an off-white sweater that hugged her curves, seemingly painted on along with the jeans she wore.He tried not to ogle her, but the way she shifted her weight as she stared at him through heavy lashes, her hips jutting her tight, round backside out for him and all the wildlife to see, didn’t make his plight any easier.It’d been easy to ignore the women in Southern California since they were all caricatures of each other, of an ideal that Jace hadn’t ever subscribed to.But this woman, this equally aggravated and aggravating woman in front of him, was impossible to shove off.In more ways than one, it seemed.
“You don’t know me.What could you possibly not like about me already?”he said.
“Besides your piss-poor driving?”
“Hey—” he started.
“I knew you were a land-stealing prick before I followed you up here, but let me be the first tounwelcome you to our town.You need to leave.Now.”
Jace’s smile fell, as did the other part of him that was aroused by the stranger’s charm.Her accusation threw everything Jace had been thinking to a halt, as abrupt a transition as his driveway was to the road.
“Saywhat?This isn’t a theft, whoever you are.This is my—” he started but was met with a hand in his face that shut him right up.He had no idea what she was talking about.He thought she’d been pissed about the near accident, but now she was calling him a property thief?What the—?
She’d closed the distance between them, and this close, her jade-green eyes were flecked with a gold that rivaled the daffodils behind him.Plus, she smelled of coconut, and that alone almost bowled him over.The pressure on his jeans increased just below the waist again.God, did he ever hate his body for betraying him at a time like this.
Great.Real great.
“No.You donotget the chance to defend yourself!Not when you show up with your power and your money and take people’s farms out from under them to build huge monstrosities no one wants here anyway.I came here to tell you to leave, that no one in town appreciates what you’re trying to do here.”
“I’m sorry,” he began, “but—”
She didn’t let him finish that thought either, just turned on her heels and stalked off back down the drive to the main road.Just before she turned, she spun around again, that delicate finger pointed right at his heart.
“And slow the hell down until you get to the highway.You drive like an imbecile.”
