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“Wait a minute,” he demanded.
She spun around to face him, angrily. “Shouldn’t you be working?” she spat out at him.
He grabbed her arms. “No, actually, I shouldn’t. You see, when you’re your own boss you get to choose when you work and when you don’t, and I choose to call it a day, any objections?”
Chloé swallowed, feeling a little nervous looking into those deep, brown eyes while feeling his strong hands on her. “Well good for you. You might have fooled my uncle, Tyler Brannagh, but you don’t fool me.”
She was a little surprised when he let go of one of her hands and allowed her to open the front door. And she was more than a little annoyed when he quickly followed her into the house.
“Chloé, we need to talk.” His voice was deep and she was surprised at how attractive she found it, especially when she looked at the handsome cowboy.
She jutted out her chin in defiance. “Why? So you can try to soft-soap me the way you did my Uncle John? Well, I might be a woman, Tyler Brannagh, but I’m not weak. Certainly not as weak as him. My uncle was an old man who turned sour after he lost his wife and you took advantage of him.”
She pointed at him angrily as her voice rose.
Tyler stopped where he stood and let go of her arm. “Your uncle was sour long before he lost your Aunt Brenda,” he told her evenly. “And he wasn’t in the slightest bit weak. I don’t understand why he left me the house and all the livestock, but he must have had his reasons. Maybe we’ll never know what he was thinking, but the fact is it was his wish to leave them to me and I intend to honor that.
“I can’t make you believe me but I didn’t do anything to cheat or coax all that out of him – heck I was as shocked as you were. The fact is that we’ve got this place between us and we have to figure out a way to make it work.”
Chloé hated him for being so calm about it all. But then, why shouldn’t he be? He’d got what he wanted. She chewed the inside of her cheek thoughtfully. “All right. Let’s talk.”
They hung their coats in the hall and went into the sitting room where the fire was still burning, providing a welcoming warmth and a golden glow to the room. Tyler remained standing until Chloé sat down in her aunt’s favorite armchair, and then he sat on the sofa, placing his hat next to him. Chloé couldn’t help feeling a little touched at his good manners, and the fact that he hadn’t sat in her uncle’s chair.
“I know it’s early days, but I need to know what you’re intentions are,” he began slowly.
She raised her eyebrows.
“I’ve got the house and the livestock, so obviously it would be ideal if I could keep them all here on the ranch. The only trouble is that I don’t have any money to speak of. I don’t know if I can afford to keep them here, that all depends on you.”
“I don’t know what the going rate is to rent land on a ranch, do you?” Chloé kept her voice even. Bill Simmons might think he was a good businessman, but she had gotten a degree in accountancy and she knew a thing or two about finance.
Tyler sighed and shook his head. “I guess you can ask whatever you want. I’m at your mercy here.”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right.” She spoke pointedly; glad to have the upper hand for once.
“I’ll go to the bank tomorrow and ask them for a loan to help out with the cost of renting the land,” he said with a thoughtful frown. “But they’ll need to know what sort of money we’re talking about – just a ballpark figure would do. Do you have any idea how much you might be asking?”
Chloé shook her head. The sight of him sitting there in the firelight was doing strange things to her insides and she couldn’t help feeling distracted. His vulnerable situation added to his appeal and she sighed. He raised an eyebrow questioningly.
Quickly she cleared her throat and tried to compose herself. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with the place yet. I might sell up and let someone else worry about it all. It’s even more complicated now that it’s been split up like this. I don’t quite know what to do.” She knew she sounded pathetic, but at least it was honest.
“Perhaps we should both go to the bank together?” he suggested. “You could talk to someone about what your options are, and what would be viable. I could see about getting a loan for the rent using the livestock as collateral.”
“And what if it’s not viable for me? There’s no point in me throwing good money after bad. If I sell up now I can be out of here in the next couple of days.” Even the thought of it brought a lump to her throat.
“Is that what you want?” His voice was quiet.
She looked over at his face, shining in the half-light. His rugged features, that firm chin, those big brown eyes, and that oh-so-lickable throat of his made her insides clench. Chloé gasped. No-one had ever had such an effect on her before. She quickly looked away as she felt her face begin to get hotter.
“I-I don’t know what I want.” She lied. She knew exactly what she wanted and he was sitting right opposite her.
CHAPTER FIVE
A loud knock at the front door made them both jump.
“Are you expecting somebody?” Tyler stood up.
“No. Certainly not at this time of night, it’s after seven,” she replied looking at the clock on the mantle. She could only just read the time in the half-light and gasped when she realized how late it was.
