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“I’m just looking for a straight answer.” Stone spread his arms.
Johanna went prickly. “What this is or isn’t doesn’t concern you.”
“Sure it does,” he said, his tone half-joking, but his intent dead serious. “If you’ve been seeing each other and didn’t bother to tell me, that’s damn inconsiderate of my feelings.”
Alex snorted. “Your feelings? You’re joking, right?”
Stone resisted the urge to punch Alex in the face and forced reason through the fog. “You’re yanking my chain on purpose. Why?”
“Just making a point. Johanna is important to this family and not just because she was your fiancée. If you hurt her,” Alex said softly, lethally, “I’ll kick your ass.”
Fair enough.
They had the same goal: protecting her. Stone respected that. He nodded curtly. “Message heard and received.”
Johanna whistled sharply between her teeth, like when she called a horse. “Hey, boys? Don’t I get any say here?”
Stone shifted his focus from Alex to her. “Of course. What would you like to add?”
She rolled her eyes. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I’m completely capable of taking care of myself. Thank you both for your concern, but I need to pack for this trip tomorrow.”
“Of course you can look after yourself,” Stone said, gesturing for Alex to go out the door ahead of him. Then he took that moment’s privacy to lean toward Johanna. “Just wanted to bring the tulips and say thank-you for caring about my grandmother’s happiness.”
She went still, most likely in shock, her hand drifting down to rest on top of the purple tulips. He used her moment of distraction to kiss her, just once, on the mouth, but good God, even a brief taste of Johanna was more potent than...anything. After seven months without the feel of her, his body shouted for more.
For everything.
Desire cracked like a whip inside him. He pulled back before he lost control and pushed his luck too far. “See you in the morning at the landing strip.”
He closed the door behind him, the night sounds of bugs and owls, the wind in the trees, wrapping around him. He sucked in two deep breaths to steady himself before facing his cousin again.
Alex leaned against the porch post, tucking his hat on his head. “I meant what I said in there about kicking your ass.”
“How serious is it? Whatever the two of you have going on?” What the hell would he do if his cousin was all-in? Or worse yet, if Johanna harbored feelings, too?
“If you care so much who she’s seeing,” Alex said ambiguously, “then do something about it.” Without another word, he shoved away from the post, jogged down the steps and disappeared into the dark.
Stone stood on the porch, the smell of the tulips and the feel of Johanna still fresh in his senses even though he’d left her and the flowers inside. But then she’d been in his thoughts every damn second since their split.
His cousin was right. Stone was still attracted to Johanna, and it was time to do something about it.
* * *
Stone’s kiss still tinged her lips and her memory.
Johanna hauled her suitcase out from under the bed and tossed it onto the mattress with a resounding thump. What the hell had he been thinking, kissing her like that? Although he hadn’t lingered. Some might call it a friendly kiss. Except they had this history together....
Need coursed through her, hot and molten, with just a splash of sweetness, like the scent of the tulips she’d brought with her into the bedroom. They rested under the lamp, purple splashes of color on the white table.
She’d tried her best to tamp down her attraction to Stone these past months, which was easier to do when their paths rarely crossed. How would she survive a week of time alone with him?
She dropped to sit on the edge of her bed, the white iron headboard tapping the wall. She tugged one of the purple tulips from the bunch and skimmed it against her mouth lightly. She knew he’d certainly stolen them from a vase in the lodge, and she couldn’t help but note how both cousins had snagged the closest flowers at hand. They could drape women in jewels from their family business, yet they still understood the value of a well-timed bouquet.
Stone’s tulips, and his kiss, were picking away at her defenses. Too bad she couldn’t wedge a coat of armor into her suitcase to withstand the barrage on her hormones.
Laughter with a hysterical edge bubbled out of her, and she flopped back on the bed into the cushiony softness of her pink-and-gray chevron quilt. She clasped the tulip against her chest, watching the ceiling fan click lazy circles above her. She and Stone had spent entire weekends in her bed making love. She hadn’t wanted to go to his quarters in the main house, not even after they’d gotten engaged, not with his grandmother in a nearby suite. So he’d taken her on elaborate trips, vowing that he did so because then he could at least feel like she was staying with him.
Now Johanna wondered if she’d known they were destined to fail even from the start. Their time together had been a fantasy that couldn’t withstand the light of harsh reality.
She hadn’t traveled much before Stone. During her year dating Stone, he’d flown her to exotic locales and swanky fund-raisers held by influential billionaires, a world away from her ranch and Stetson day-to-day life.
What should she expect from this trip?
She rolled to her side and stared into the empty suitcase. What did a girl take to a week of doggie dates with mystery families and her ex-fiancé? More importantly, how would she react if he gave her another one of those impromptu kisses?
A tap on the window snapped her out of her daze.
She jolted upright, her heart pounding in alarm. Before she could even reach for the cell phone her eyes focused on the face in the glass pane.
Stone stood outside like a Lone Star Romeo.
Her pulse leaped. Damn her traitorous body.
She rolled from the bed and to her feet. She shoved the window up, the muggy night breeze rolling inside and fluttering the lace curtains. “What are you doing out there?”
“I forgot my flowers. You didn’t seem to want them, so I figured I would give them to someone who would appreciate them.” He hefted himself up and through the window before she could blink.
She stumbled back a step, watching him eye her room, walk to the flowers then peer out the door.
Realization dawned, along with a spark of anger. “You’re checking to make sure your cousin didn’t come back here.”
“Maybe I am.” He turned on his heels to face her again. His gaze fell to her bed, right where the lone tulip lay.
Feeling vulnerable, she rushed to scoop up the flower and said, “I’m trying to decide what to pack for the trip. Since I don’t know where we’re going, I’m not making much progress.”
“Pack comfortably.” The gleam in his eyes projected loud and clear that he wasn’t fooled. “If we need something more, I’ll buy it for you.”
“We’re not engaged anymore. You’re not buying me clothes or other gifts.” She’d returned all the jewelry after she’d broken up with him—everything, including a yellow diamond engagement ring with a double halo setting. The night he’d given it to her, she’d thought all of her dreams of a family and a real home had come true.
She’d grown up a lot in the past seven months, alone with her disillusionment.
“Johanna,” he drawled, “we may not be engaged, but you are an employee of Hidden Gem Ranch and if you’re on Hidden Gem business and need clothes, the company can pick up the bill.”
“Clothes for what, exactly?”
“There’s a gem trade show I want to catch while we’re out.”
She knew how elaborate and hoity-toity those events could get. Being with him at one of those shows would feel too much like a fancy date. “I’ll stay at the hotel with the dogs.”
“We’ll see,” he said in that stubborn, noncommittal way of his just before he swung a leg out the window again. “Good night.”
“Stone?”
He stopped shy of stepping all the way through the window. “Yes?”
“Thanks for the flowers.” She strode closer—just to be ready to close the window when he left, not to be nearer to him. Right? “It really is sweet how much you care about your grandmother’s happiness. I always admired that about you, your family loyalty.”
“Glad you have good memories, not just bad.”
Guilt pinched her over how their breakup had hurt him, too. She touched his shoulder lightly. “There’s nothing between Alex and me.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
Was it her imagination or had he swayed closer?
She pressed a hand to his chest. “That doesn’t mean there will never be someone. Am I not allowed to have another relationship again?”
A smile played with his mouth. “I’m not answering that.”
