Thirty Day Affair
Maureen Child

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Christie Ridgway, Susan Crosby,

Liz Bevarly, Anna DePalo and Susan Mallery.

Great writers all,

they made being a part of this series so much fun!

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Coming Next Month

One

“Hunter,” Nathan Barrister muttered as he stared at the mammoth wood-and-stone mansion on the shores of Lake Tahoe, “if you were here right now, I’d kill you for this.”

Of course, Hunter Palmer wasn’t there and Nathan couldn’t kill the man who had once been his first—and best—friend, because he was already dead.

The ice around Nathan’s heart thickened a little at the thought, but he used his long years of practice to ignore that tightening twinge. Regrets were a waste of time.

“As big a waste as the next month is going to be.” He climbed out of his rental car and stepped into a mound of slush he hadn’t even noticed.

With a disgusted sigh, he kicked the dirty snow off the polished toe of his shoe and told himself he should have listened to the clerk at the rental agency. She had tried to tell him that renting a four-wheel-drive car would make more sense than the sports car he preferred.

But who the hell expected snow in March for God’s sake?

A wry grin curved his mouth briefly. He should have expected it. He’d grown up back east and should have remembered that snow could hit anytime, anywhere. Especially this high up in the mountains. But he’d spent so much time trying to forget his past, was it really surprising that even the weather had the ability to sneak up on him?

The air was cold and clean, and the sky was so blue it made his eyes ache. A sharp wind whipped through the surrounding pine trees, rustling the needles and sending patches of snow falling to the ground with muffled plops.

Nathan shivered and shrugged deeper into his brown leather jacket. He didn’t want to be here at all, let alone for a solid month. He never stayed anywhere for more than a few days at a stretch. And being here made him think about things he hadn’t allowed himself to remember in years.

Reluctantly, he headed for the front of the house, leaving his bags in the car for the moment. The crunch of his shoes on the ground was the only sound, as if the world were holding its breath. Great. Fifteen minutes here and his brain was already going off on tangents.

He shouldn’t be here. He should still be in Tahiti at his family’s hotel, going over the books, settling disputes, looking into expansion. And next month, he’d be in Barbados for a week and then Jamaica. Nathan moved fast, never giving himself a chance to settle. Never risking more than a few days in any one place.

Until now.

And if there had been any way at all of getting out of this, Nathan would have taken it. God knows, he’d tried to find a loophole in his friend’s will. Something that would have allowed him to keep both his own sense of duty in place and his sanity intact. But even the Barrister family lawyers had assured him that the will was sealed nice and tight. Hunter Palmer had made sure that his friends would have no choice but to honor his wishes.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” Nathan whispered to his long-dead friend. And when the wind rattled the pine trees, damned if it didn’t sound like laughter.

“Fine. I’m here. And I’ll try to make the whole month,” he muttered. Once he’d completed Hunter’s last request, he hoped to hell his old friend would stop haunting his nightmares.

A long white envelope with his name scrawled across it was stuck to the heavy wood front door. Nathan took the short flight of snow-dusted wooden steps, stopped on the porch and tore the taped envelope free. Opening it, he found a key dangling from an ornate keychain and a single sheet of paper.

Hi, I’m your housekeeper, Meri. I’m very busy, so I’m not here at the moment, and chances are you won’t be seeing me during your stay. But here’s the key to the house. The kitchen is stocked and the town of Hunter’s Landing is only twenty minutes away if you need anything else. I hope you and the others to follow enjoy your time here.

Without thinking, he crumpled the short note in his right hand and squeezed it hard.

The others.

In a flash of memory, Nathan went back ten years. Back to a time when he and his friends had called themselves the Seven Samurai. Foolish. But then, they’d been seniors at Harvard. They’d done four hard years together and come out the other side closer than brothers. They’d had their lives laying out in front of them like golden roads to success. He remembered the raucous evening with just a few too many beers when they’d vowed to build a house together and reunite in ten years. They’d each spend a month there and then gather in the seventh month to toast their inevitable achievements.

Yes, it was all supposed to work out that way. And then…

Nathan shook his head and let the past slide away. Jamming the key into the lock, he opened the door, stepped inside and stopped just inside the foyer. From there, he could see into a great room, with gleaming wood walls, a huge stone fireplace with a fire already ablaze in the hearth and lots of plush, comfortable-looking furniture.

As jail cells went, it was better than most, he supposed. He thought of the housekeeper and the nearby town and hoped to hell he wouldn’t be bothered by a lot of people. Bad enough he was stuck here. He didn’t need company on top of it.

He wasn’t here to make friends. He was here to honor a friend he’d lost long ago.

An hour later, Keira Sanders grabbed the oversized basket off the passenger seat, leaped down from the driver’s seat of her truck and slammed the door. Her boots slid around on the slushy ground but she dug in her heels and steadied herself. All she needed was to meet the first of Hunter Palmer’s houseguests with dirty snow on her butt.

“Great first impression that would make,” she murmured as she looked the house over.

It shone like a jewel in the gathering night. Light spilled from the tall windows to fall on the ground in golden spears. Smoke lifted from the stone chimney and twisted in the icy wind coming off the lake. Snow hugged the slanted roof and clung to the pines and aspens crowding the front yard. Winter tended to stick around this high up on the mountain, and she wouldn’t have had it any other way.

There was something about the cold and the quiet hush of snow that had always felt…magical to Keira. In fact, at the moment, she’d like to be back in her cozy place in Hunter’s Landing, sitting beside her own fire, with a glass of white wine and a good book.

Instead, she was here to greet the first of six men who would be spending thirty days each in the lakeside mansion. Nerves jumped in the pit of her stomach but Keira fought them down. This was too important—to the town of Hunter’s Landing and to her, personally.

Just two weeks ago, she’d received a very legal letter from the estate of a man named Hunter Palmer. In the letter, the late Mr. Palmer’s attorney had explained the unusual bequest.

Over the next six months, six different men would be arriving in the town of Hunter’s Landing, to spend thirty days in this gorgeous mansion. If each of the men stayed for the entire month, at the end of the six-month period twenty million dollars would be donated to charity—a large chunk of which would belong to Hunter’s Landing—and the house itself would be donated to the town as a vacation home for recovering cancer patients.

Keira took another deep breath to settle the last of her nerves. As the mayor of Hunter’s Landing, it was her job to make sure each of the six men held to the stipulations of Hunter Palmer’s will. She couldn’t afford for her small town to miss out on a windfall that would allow them to have a spanking-new clinic and a new jail and courthouse and…

Her head was spinning as she smiled to herself. She tightened her grip on the basket and checked to make sure the lid was latched down. Tugging at the lapels of her black jacket, she straightened her shoulders, plastered a smile on her face and prepared to meet the first of the men who could mean so much to Hunter’s Landing.

She was good with people. Always had been. And now, with so much riding on the next six months, she was more determined than ever that everything go right. Not only would she ensure that each of the six men would stay his entire thirty days at the lakeside lodge, she was going to make sure they knew how much this all meant to her hometown.

With that thought firmly in mind, she gulped a deep breath of frosty air and headed for the front door. Her boots crunched in the snow but, when she hit a patch of ice, her feet slid wildly. “Oh, no.”

Eyes wide, she held tightly to the basket and swung her arms in a desperate attempt to regain her balance. But her feet couldn’t find purchase and as she tipped and swayed, she knew she was going to lose both her balance and her dignity.

“Ow!” she shouted when she hit the ground, landing so hard on her butt that her teeth rattled. The basket tipped to one side and she groaned, hoping that the contents were tightly sealed. “Well, isn’t this perfect.”

The front door flew open and light spilled over her. She blinked up at the man silhouetted in the doorway. Oh, man. This so wasn’t how she’d planned to meet Nathan Barrister.

“Who’re you?” he demanded, making no move to come down the steps to help her up.

“I’m fine, thanks for your concern,” she said, wincing as icy, wet cold seeped through the seat of her jeans. So much for first impressions. Maybe she should crawl back to her truck and start all over.

“If you’re thinking of suing, you should know I don’t own this property,” he said.

“Wow.” For a moment, Keira forgot all about getting up—forgot all about the fact that this man and five others just like him could mean a windfall for Hunter’s Landing—and just sat there, staring at him in amazement. “You’re really a jerk, aren’t you?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Did I say that out loud?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry.” And she was. Sort of. For heaven’s sake, none of this was going as planned.

“Are you injured?”

“Only my pride,” she admitted, though her behind hurt like hell and the melting ice beneath her wasn’t helping the situation any. Still, might as well make the best of the situation. She raised one hand and waved it. “A little help here?”

He muttered something she didn’t catch and, considering his attitude so far, she considered that a good thing. But he came down the steps carefully, grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet in one quick motion.

His fingers on hers felt warm and strong and…good. Okay, she hadn’t expected that. He dropped her hand as if he’d been burned, and she wondered if he’d felt that small zap of something hot and interesting when they touched.

She brushed off the seat of her pants while she looked up at him. For some reason she’d expected him to be an older man. But he wasn’t. Tall and lean, he had broad shoulders, a narrow waist and long legs. Considering how easily he’d plucked her off the ice, he was strong, too. Not that she was heavy or anything, but she certainly wasn’t one of those stick-figure types of women that were so popular these days.

Ordinarily, a man like him was more than enough to make her heart go pitty-pat. However, the scowl on his truly gorgeous face was enough to make even Keira rethink her attraction. His black hair was stylishly cut to just above his collar. His blue eyes were narrowed on her suspiciously, and his hard jaw was clenched. And his full mouth was tightened into a grim slash across his face, letting her know without a doubt just how welcome she wasn’t.

“Wow. Are you really in a bad mood or is it just me?”

He blew out a breath. “Whoever you are,” he said, his voice a low rumble that seemed to dip all the way inside her to start up a slow fire, “I didn’t invite you here. And I’m not interested in meeting my neighbors.”

“Good,” Keira said, grinning at his obvious irritation, “because you don’t have any. The nearest house on the lake is a couple miles north.”

He frowned at her. “Then who are you?”

“Keira Sanders,” she said, holding out one hand and leaving it there until rudimentary good manners forced him to take it in his.

Again, there was the nice little buzz of connection when his skin met hers. Did he feel it? If so, he wasn’t real pleased about it. Keira, on the other hand, was enjoying the sensation. It had been a really long time since she’d felt the slightest attraction for anyone. Purposely. “Been there, done that” sort of summed up her feelings about romance.

But she had to admit, it was really nice to feel that sizzle.

Still shaking his hand, she smiled up into his scowl. Gorgeous, but crabby. Well, she’d dealt with irritable people before, and there was just no way she was going to let his bad attitude affect Hunter’s Landing’s chances at getting money that would be a godsend to the small town. “I’m the mayor of Hunter’s Landing and I’m here to welcome you.”

“That’s not necessary,” he said and dropped her hand.

“It’s our pleasure,” she said, hanging on to her good cheer by her fingernails as she turned to pluck the basket out of the snow. “And,” she continued as she walked past him, headed toward the front door, “I’ve brought you a welcome basket, courtesy of the Hunter’s Landing Chamber of Commerce.”

“If you don’t mind,” he countered, following after her quickly.

“Not at all,” Keira said, walking into the house and stopping just inside the foyer. “I confess, I’ve been dying to see the inside of this place ever since they started building it last year.”

It took a moment or two, but she heard him come in behind her and close the door with an exasperated sigh. He was not just crabby, but very crabby, apparently.

But that was okay. She’d win him over. She had to. She had to make sure that he and the five others who would come after him here would complete the terms of the will that would so benefit her hometown.

“Ms. Sanders…”

“Call me Keira,” she said and turned to give him a quick glance and smile.

“Fine. Keira.” He shoved both hands into the pockets of his slacks and rocked back on his heels.

He really didn’t want her there.

“Don’t worry,” she said, stepping through the arched doorway into the great room, “I won’t stay long. I only wanted to welcome you, let you know that you’re not alone here.”

“I prefer alone,” he said flatly and she stopped halfway across the room and turned to look at him, still standing in the foyer.

“Now, why is that?” she wondered aloud.

His features tightened even further, until he looked as though he’d been carved from stone. Not really a people person, Keira decided, then shrugged.

“Anyway,” she said loudly, setting the basket down atop a hand-carved coffee table that probably cost more than her monthly house payment. “I’ve got a few goodies here to make your stay more comfortable.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

She ignored him and started rooting through the basket, pulling items out, one after the other, with a brief description of each. “Here’s a certificate good for free coffee and freshly made doughnuts every morning at the diner. And a jar of homemade jam—Margie Fontenot, the late mayor’s widow, makes the best jam in the state. A bottle of wine from Stan’s Liquor Stop, fresh bread from the bakery, a bag of ground Jamaican coffee beans—” she stopped to sniff the bag and sighed at the aroma, then continued “—there’s a jar filled with the best marinara you’ve ever tasted, from Clearwater’s restaurant—you really should get over there for dinner while you’re here. The outside dining area overlooks the lake and there’s no better place to catch a gorgeous sunset—”

“Ms. Sanders…”

“Keira,” she reminded him.

“Keira, then. If you don’t mind—”

“And,” she went on as if he hadn’t spoken, “there are a few more goodies in here, but I’ll let you discover them on your own.”

“Thank you.”

“Now,” she said, turning to face him from across the room, “is there anything else I can do to help make your stay more interesting?”

“Leave?” he asked.

Keira shook her head at him, as if she were sorely disappointed. Wandering the great room, she ran her fingers along the deeply carved mantel over the fireplace and, just for a second or two, enjoyed the heat pouring from the hearth. Her gaze swept the rest of the room and lingered on the view of the lake out of the floor-to-ceiling windows. The moon was just beginning its climb across the sky, and the water shimmered with a breath of light as if waiting for the show to start.

She gave herself a moment or two to calm the flash of irritation inside her. Wouldn’t do to insult the man whose very presence could mean so much to her town. But at the same time, she wondered why he was being so nasty. By the time she’d centered herself and turned her gaze back to him, still standing in the foyer as if he could force her to leave by simply not welcoming her in, she was wondering something else.

Why did he intrigue her so much when his rudeness should have put her off immediately?

And how was she going to make this man connect with Hunter’s Landing and make a commitment to see this through when he so obviously wanted nothing to do with her or the town?

Two

Nathan had had enough.

He’d been at the lakeside mansion for a little over an hour and already he had an uninvited guest.

Plus, Keira Sanders seemed to be oblivious to insults and clearly didn’t care that she was very obviously not wanted.

His gaze swept her up and down more thoroughly than he had when he’d first found her sitting in the snow. Her jeans were faded and hugged her long legs like a second skin. Her long-sleeved black sweater came down to her thighs and, ridiculously enough, made her figure look more exposed than hidden. Maybe it was the way the soft-looking fabric clung to her curves, but whatever the reason, Nathan could appreciate the view even while wishing she were anywhere but there.

Her shoulder-length, reddish-blond hair hung loose in waves that seemed to dance around her animated face whenever she moved—which was often. He’d never seen a more mobile woman. It was as if she couldn’t bear standing still. She was wandering the great room, her fingers touching, stroking, everything as she passed and he couldn’t help wondering what those fingers would feel like touching him.

Yet as soon as that thought hit his clearly fevered brain, he knew he had to get her the hell out of the house. He wasn’t interested in a monthlong fling. That was more commitment than he’d given to any woman he’d known in the last ten years.

Best to just get her out of the house now. And if that meant being even ruder than he had been already, fine.

“Thank you for coming,” he said, waiting until she gave up examining the bookshelves to look at him again, “but if you don’t mind, I’d like you to leave.”

There. A man couldn’t be any more plainspoken than that.

“Wow,” she said softly, her green eyes sparkling in reflected light from the fire, “nobody ever taught you how to treat your guests?”

He swallowed hard and pushed away the thought of just how horrified his grandmother would have been at his blatant rudeness. “You’re not a guest,” he said tightly, reminding her as well as himself. “You’re an intruder.”

She actually laughed at him. “But I’m an intruder who brought you gifts!”

Nathan finally left the foyer, since it seemed clear that standing beside the door wasn’t going to be enough to convince her to step through it. He’d never met anyone else quite like her. She seemed impervious to rudeness, just rolling right along with a cheerful attitude that must, he thought, really annoy the hell out of people who knew her well.

“Look,” Nathan said, walking across the polished floor toward her. “I’ve tried to be polite.”

She blinked at him and her smile widened. “Really? That was trying?”

Frowning, he ignored the jab and said, “I appreciate the gifts. Thank you for taking the time to come out here. But I would really prefer to be alone.”

“Oh, I’m sure you want to settle in,” she said, waving one hand at him, blithely ignoring his attempt to get rid of her. “And I won’t stay much longer, I swear.”

Hope to cling to.

“I only wanted to let you know that Hunter’s Landing is ready to help you and the other men who will be staying here in any way we can.” She wandered to the big-screen TV, picked up the remote and studied it for a second or two.

If she turned the damn thing on, she might never leave. Nathan walked to her side, took the remote and set it down on a nearby table. She shrugged, walked to the windows overlooking the lake and stood staring through the glass as if mesmerized.

He watched her and couldn’t help feeling a little mesmerized himself. The fall of her hair on her shoulders. The curve of her behind. The defiant tilt to her chin. She turned to look at him and her wide, shining eyes fixed on him with a slam of power he didn’t want to think about.

“You’ll only be here a month,” she said quietly, “and maybe you don’t realize just how important your stay and the others’ are to Hunter’s Landing.”

Nathan sighed and resigned himself to at least a few more minutes of conversation. It seemed plain that Keira Sanders wasn’t going to leave until she was good and ready. “I know about what your town stands to inherit from the estate.”

“But you can’t know what it means to us,” she insisted, half turning to lean one shoulder against the cold glass. “With that influx of cash, we can build a new courthouse, expand our clinic…” Her voice trailed off and she smiled as if already seeing the changes that would happen to her town.

“And speaking of the clinic,” she said quickly, straightening up and walking toward him. “I want to invite you to the town potluck dinner tomorrow night. We’re raising money to get the expansion started and—”

“But you’ll have the inheritance—”

“Can’t count on that until it’s reality, can we?” she pointed out, neatly cutting him off before he could finish his sentence. “Anyway, our clinic is good, but it’s not nearly big enough. Of course, there’s a terrific hospital in Lake Tahoe, but that’s a long drive, especially in the winter snow. We need to be able to take care of our own citizens right here and, with the potluck dinner, all the money collected will go directly into the fund for…”

She was talking so fast Nathan’s ears were buzzing. He had no interest in going to her community fundraiser and he suspected that she didn’t really want him there, either. What she wanted was a donation. Wasn’t that what everyone wanted from him in the end?

With the Barrister family fortune behind him, Nathan had long ago accepted that he was seen first as a bankbook and second as a man. Which suited him fine. He didn’t want friends. Didn’t want a lover or a wife. What he wanted was to be left alone.

And he suddenly knew just the way to hurry Keira Sanders out the door: Give her what she wanted. What she’d really come for. While she continued to talk in nearly a stream of consciousness while hardly pausing for breath, he stalked across the room to where he’d dropped his briefcase on one of the overstuffed, burgundy leather chairs. Quickly, he opened it, grabbed his black leather checkbook and flicked his ballpoint pen.

Shaking his head, he wrote a check made out to Hunter’s Landing, and then tore it from the pad and walked back to where Keira was still smiling and outlining the plans she had for her little town.

“So you see, it would be a great chance for you to meet everyone in town. Nice for you to see the place you’ll be living for the next month and maybe it will help you see how important it is to us that you and your friends complete the stipulations of Mr. Palmer’s will.” She finally took a breath. “If it’s okay with you, I’ll pick you up tomorrow about six and drive you to the potluck myself. I can take you on a tour of the lake if you’d like too and—”

“Please,” Nathan said, interrupting her when it became obvious it would be the only way to keep her quiet. He held out the check and waited until she’d taken it, a question in her beautiful eyes. “Accept this contribution to your clinic fund.”

“Oh,” she said, “that’s very generous of you but—” She stopped, glanced down at the check and Nathan actually saw all the blood drain from her face. She went absolutely white and her hand holding the check trembled. “I…I…you…”

Her mouth opened and closed, she gulped noisily and wheezed in a breath. “Oh. My. God.”

“Are you all right?” Nathan reached for her, grabbed her upper arm and felt the tremors that were racing through her body.

She raised her gaze to his, waved the check in a tight fist and swallowed hard a time or two before trying to speak. Apparently, he’d finally found the way to make her speechless.

“Are you serious about this?”

“The check?”

“The amount,” she said harshly, then added, “I’ve got to sit down.”

And she did.

Right there on the floor.

She pulled her arm free of his grasp and folded up on herself. Leaning her head back against the closest chair, she looked up at him in stunned amazement. “I can’t believe you—”

“It’s just a donation,” he said.

“Of five hundred thousand dollars,” she pointed out.

“If you don’t want it…”

“Oh, no!” She folded the check and stretched out her right leg so she could stuff it into her jeans pocket. Then she patted it carefully and gave him a grin. “We want it. And we thank you. I mean, the whole town is going to want to thank you. This is just wonderful. Completely generous. I don’t know what to say, really—”

“And yet you keep trying,” Nathan said, feeling oddly embarrassed the longer she went on about a simple donation.

“Wow. My head’s still spinning. In a good way,” she insisted, then raised one hand toward him. “A little help here?”

Nathan sighed, reached for her hand and, in one quick move, pulled her to her feet. She flew off the floor and slammed into his chest with a whoosh of air pushed from her lungs. His hands dropped to her waist to steady her and, for a quick moment, he considered kissing her.

Which surprised the hell out of him.

Keira Sanders wasn’t the kind of woman who usually attracted him. For one, she was too damn talkative. He liked a woman who appreciated a good silence. And she was short. He liked tall women. And he preferred brunettes. And blue eyes.

Yet, as she looked at him, her green eyes seemed to pull at him, drawing him in, tugging him closer than he wanted to be.

With her breasts smashed up against his broad chest, Keira felt a rush of something hot and needy and completely unexpected. The man was as closed-off as a dead-end road, and yet there was something about him that made her want to reach up, wrap her arms around his neck and pull his head down for a long, lingering kiss.

And it wasn’t the huge check that was sitting in her pocket like a red-hot coal.

“You’re a very surprising man,” she finally said when she was pretty sure she could speak without her voice breaking.

His hands dropped from her waist and he stepped back so quickly that her shaky balance made her wobble unsteadily before she found stability again.

“It’s just a check.”

“It’s more than that,” she assured him. God, she couldn’t wait to show his donation to the town council. Eva Callahan would probably keel over in a dead faint. “You have no idea what this means to our town.”

“You’re welcome,” he said tightly. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have some work I have to get to.”

“No you don’t,” she said, smiling.

“I’m sorry?”

“You don’t have any work,” Keira said, tipping her head to one side to study him, as if getting a different perspective might help understand why such a deliberately solitary man could give away so much money without even pausing to think about it. “You just want me to go.”

“Yes.” His frown deepened. “I believe I already mentioned that.”

“So you did.” She patted the check in her pocket, swung her hair back from her face and gave him a smile. “And I’m going to oblige you.”

A flicker of something like acceptance shot across his eyes, and Keira wondered about that for a second or two. But then his features evened out into a mask of granite that no amount of staring at would ever decipher.

“Okay then,” she said, starting for the front door, only half surprised when he made no move to follow her. He’d seemed so anxious to get rid of her, she’d just assumed that he’d show her out once he had the chance. But when she turned to glance back at him, he was standing where she’d left him.

Alone, in front of the vast windows overlooking the lake. Behind him, the water silvered under the rising moon and the star-swept sky seemed to stretch on forever. Something inside her wanted to go back to him. To somehow make him less solitary.

But she knew he wouldn’t welcome it.

For whatever reason, Nathan Barrister had become a man so used to solitude he didn’t want or expect anything to change.

Well, Keira wasn’t going to allow him to get away with an anonymous donation. She was going to make sure the town got the chance to thank him properly for what he had done for them with a click of a pen.

Whether he liked it or not, Keira was going to drag Nathan into the heart of Hunter’s Landing.

By the next evening, Keira was running on adrenaline. She’d hardly been able to sleep the night before; memories of Nathan Barrister and the feel of his hands on her had kept her tossing and turning through some pretty detailed fantasies that kept playing through her mind.

Ridiculous, really. She knew the man would be here for only a month. She knew he wasn’t interested—he’d made that plain enough every time he looked at her. But, for some reason, her body hadn’t gotten the message.

She felt hot and itchy and…way more needy than she’d like to admit.

Apparently it had been way too long since she’d had a man in her life. But then, the last man she’d been interested in had made such a mess of her world that she’d pretty much sworn off the Y chromosome.

Then grumpy, rich and gorgeous Nathan Barrister, rolled into her life and made her start rethinking a few things. Not a good idea.

She spun her straw through her glass of iced tea and watched idly as ice cubes rattled against the sides of the glass. It felt good to sit down. She’d been running all day, first calling an emergency meeting of the town council so she could tell them about Nathan’s donation. And, she smiled as she remembered, Eva Callahan had behaved as expected, slumping into a chair and waving a stack of papers at her face to stave off a faint.

Once the meeting was over she’d had to take care of a few other things, like depositing that check, talking to the contractor about the renovations to the clinic, settling a parking dispute between Harry’s Hardware and Frannie’s Fabrics and finally, coming here to the Lakeside Diner.

Being mayor of a small town was exhausting, and it was really hardly more than an honorary office. Her duties consisted mainly of presiding over town council meetings once a month, playing referee to adults old enough to solve their own problems and trying to raise money for civic projects. And yet, she seemed to always be busy. She didn’t have a clue how the mayors of big cities managed to have a life at all.

But then, Keira thought, isn’t that the way she wanted it? Keeping busy gave her too little time to think about how her life had turned out so differently from what she’d expected. She picked a French fry off her plate and popped it into her mouth. Chewing, she glanced around the crowded diner and took a deep breath. Here, no matter what else was going on in her life, Keira could find comfort.

The Lakeside Diner was a tiny coffee shop and more or less a touchstone in Keira’s life, the one constant she’d always been able to count on. Her parents had owned and operated the diner before her and she herself had started working here, clearing tables, when she was twelve.

Then, when her parents died, Keira had taken over, because there was her younger sister, Kelly, to provide for. Now, she had a manager to take care of the day-today running of the diner, but when she needed a place to sit and recharge, she always came here.

The red Naugahyde booths were familiar, as was the gleaming wood counter and the glass covered cake and pie dishes, the records in the jukebox her father had loved hadn’t been changed in twenty years. Memories crowded thick in this diner. She closed her eyes and could almost see her dad behind the stove, grinning out at her mom running the cash register.

This diner—like Hunter’s Landing—was home.

“Hey, Keira. Can I see it?”

She opened her eyes, startled as an older woman slid onto the bench seat opposite her. Sallye Carberry grinned, and held out one hand dotted with silver rings.

“See what?” Keira asked.

“The check, of course,” Sallye prompted. “Everyone in town is talking about it. Margie Fontenot told me that she’d never seen anything quite so pretty as all those zeros. I just wanted an up close peek at it.”

“Sorry, Sallye,” Keira said, taking a sip of her tea. “Already deposited it.”

“Well, darn.” The older woman slumped back against the seat and huffed out a disappointed breath that waved the curl of bangs on her forehead. “That’s a bummer.”

Keira laughed.

Sallye waved one beringed hand. “That’s okay, I’ll settle for meeting the man himself. I hear he’s a real looker. He is coming to the potluck so we can all get a look at him—I mean thank him—isn’t he?”

There was the question.

She knew damn well Nathan wouldn’t want anything to do with the town or their potluck dinner. She knew he didn’t want their thanks and was pretty sure he wouldn’t want to see her again any time soon. So anyone with a grain of sense would keep her distance, right?

The last thing she should do was go back to the lakeside mansion to see a man who wanted nothing to do with her.

And yet…

Keira checked her silver wristwatch, saw she had a couple of hours until six and took one last sip of her tea. Sliding from the booth, she looked down at her late mother’s best friend and nodded. “He’ll be there,” she said firmly.

Three

Nathan felt like a prisoner.

And damn it, he shouldn’t.

He preferred being alone.

But this kind of alone was too damned quiet.

He stepped out onto the deck overlooking Lake Tahoe and let the cold wind buffet him. His hair lifted in the icy breeze, and he narrowed his eyes as he stared out over a snowy landscape. Silence pounded at him. Even the soft sigh of the lake water slapping against the deck pilings seemed overly loud in the eerie stillness.

The problem was, Nathan thought, he wasn’t used to this kind of alone. Other people considered him a recluse but, even in his insular world, there was more…interaction.

He traveled constantly, moving from one of his family’s hotels to the next. And on those trips he dealt with room service personnel, hotel managers, maids, waiters, the occasional guest. No matter how he tried to avoid contact with people, there were always some who he was forced to speak to.

Until now.

The plain truth was he hated being completely alone even more than he hated being in a crowd.

His fists tightened on the varnished wood railing until he wouldn’t have been surprised to see the imprint of his fingers digging into the wood. He was used to people jumping when he spoke. To his employees practically doing backflips to accommodate his wishes. He liked dropping in on his favorite casino in Monte Carlo and spending the night with whatever blonde, brunette or redhead was the most convenient. He liked the sounds of champagne bottles popping and crystal clinking, and the muted sound of sophisticated laughter. He was accustomed to picking up a phone and ordering a meal. To calling his pilot to get his jet ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

Yet now he knew he couldn’t go anywhere.

And that was the real irritant chewing at him. Nathan hadn’t stayed in any one place for more than three or four days since he was a kid. Which was exactly how he wanted it. Knowing that he was trapped on top of this damned mountain for a damned month was enough to make him want to call his pilot now.

Why he didn’t was a mystery to him.

“Hunter, you really owe me big time,” he said and didn’t know whether to look toward heaven or hell as he uttered the words.

Hunter Palmer had been a good guy, but reaching out from beyond the grave to put Nathan through this should have earned him a seat in hell.

“Why did I come here in the first place?” he whispered, asking himself the question and knowing he didn’t have an answer.

Old loyalties was not a good enough reason.

It has been ten years since Hunter had died. Ten years since Nathan had even thought of those days, of the friend he’d lost too young. Of the five others who had been such a huge part of his life. He’d moved on. Built his world just the way he wanted it and didn’t give a damn what anyone else had to say about it. That pledge the Samurai had made to one another? It seemed to come from another lifetime.

He thought briefly of the framed photos of the Seven Samurai, as they’d called themselves back then, hanging here in the upstairs hall. Every time he passed them, he deliberately looked away. Studying the past was for archaeologists. Not barristers. He didn’t owe Hunter or any of the others anything. College friendships were routinely left behind as life continued on. So why in hell was he here?

A bird skimmed the water’s surface, its wings stretched wide, its shadow moving on the lake as if it had a life of its own. “And even the damn bird is freer than I am.”

Pushing away from the rail, he turned his back on the expansive view of nature’s beauty and walked back into what he was already considering his cell.

He glanced at the television, then rejected the idea of turning it on. There were plenty of books to read, and even a state-of-the-art office loft upstairs but he couldn’t imagine sitting still long enough to truly accomplish anything, at the moment, all he could do was prowl. He could take a walk, but he might just keep on walking, right down the mountain to the airport where his private Gulfstream waited for him.

“I’m never gonna make the whole damn month,” he muttered, shoving one hand through his hair and turning toward the table where his laptop sat open.

He took a seat, hit a few keys and checked his e-mail as soon as the Internet connection came through. Two new letters were there, one each from the managers of the London and Tokyo Barrister hotels.

Once he’d dealt with their questions about his schedule, Nathan was at a loss again. There was only so much work he could do long-distance. After all, if he wasn’t there in person, he couldn’t scowl at his employees.

When the doorbell rang, he jumped to his feet. This is what he’d come to, then. Grateful for an interruption. For someone—anyone—to interrupt the silence that continued to claw at him. He closed the laptop and stalked across the great room to the front door.

When he opened the door, he said, “I should have guessed it would be you.”

Keira grinned, slipped past him into the house and then turned to look at him. “You’re going to need a coat.”

Nathan closed the door and didn’t admit even to himself that he was glad to see her. As annoying as she was, she was, at least, another voice in this damned quiet.

“I’m warm enough, thanks.”

“No, I mean, the potluck is outside so you’ll really need a coat.” She turned again and walked into the great room as if she belonged there. Her voice echoed in the high-ceilinged room and her footsteps sounded like a heartbeat. “We could have held the dinner at the courthouse, but it’s a little cramped and the band said it would be easier to set up outside.”

“The band?”

“Uh-huh,” she said, looking around as if she hadn’t just seen the place the day before, “it’s a local group. Super Leo. They play mostly rock but they’ll take requests, too, and they’re good guys. They all grew up here.”

“Fascinating,” Nathan said, moving to the edge of the foyer, leaning one shoulder against the wall and crossing one foot over the other as he watched her move. Damn, the woman looked good.

It was the solitude getting to him. The only explanation why he was interested in a short, mouthy redhead when ordinarily, he never would have looked at her twice. The fact that he’d only been “enjoying” this solitude for a day didn’t really matter.

“The town council approved new lights for this year, so the square will be bright as day with plenty of room for dancing. When I left they were already setting the food out on the tables and the band was tuning up, so we really should get going if you don’t want to miss anything.”

“Miss anything?” Nathan shook his head. “I told you yesterday that I had no interest in going to your town party or whatever.”

“Well, I didn’t think you meant it.”

“Why not?”

“Who wouldn’t want to go to a party?”

“Me.” Now, if the party were in St. Tropez, or Gstaad, he’d be right there. But a small-town party in the middle of Nowhere, U.S.A.? No, thanks.

She stared at him as if he’d just grown another head. Then she shrugged and went on as if he hadn’t said a word.

“The town council was incredibly grateful for your donation.”

“You told them?” An uncomfortable itch settled between his shoulder blades. He didn’t mind donating money. It was simply a part of who he was. But he preferred anonymity. He didn’t want gratitude. He just wanted to be left alone.

But even as he thought this, he realized that he’d been complaining about the solitude just a minute before.

“Of course I told them,” she said, picking up a throw pillow from the couch and fluffing it before she dropped it back into place. “Who am I, Santa? Dropping money into the town coffers without an explanation? I don’t think so. They all want to meet you, to thank you for your generosity.”

“Not necessary.”

“Oh, but it really is,” she said and reached down to straighten a stack of magazines strewn across the coffee table. “If you don’t come to the potluck so everyone can meet you…”

“Yeah?”

She shrugged. “Then I guess everyone will just have to come to you.”

Nathan sighed. She was blackmailing him into attending her damned town function. And doing a pretty good job of it, too. If he didn’t go, he had no doubt that she’d lead droves of citizens up the mountain to intrude on the lodge. He’d be hip-deep in people before he knew it.

“Extortion?”

“Let’s call it judicial negotiations.”

“And if I go to the party, you’ll leave me alone.”

She held up one hand like a Girl Scout salute and said, “I so solemnly swear.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Gee, attractive, crabby and smart.”

A smile twitched at his mouth, but he fought it into submission. No point in encouraging her any.

“Fine. I’ll go.”

“Wow,” she said, patting her hand over her heart, “I’m all excited.”

Her green eyes were shining and a smile curved her tantalizing mouth. The gray sweater she wore beneath a black leather jacket outlined the swell of her breasts, and her faded jeans and battered boots made her look too tempting to a man who was going to be trapped on a damn mountaintop for a month.

So Nathan got a grip on his hormonal overdrive and turned to the hall closet. He opened it, snatched out his brown leather jacket and pulled it on over his dark green cashmere sweater.

A few minutes ago, he’d been complaining that he was too alone. Now, he was going to a block party, of all things.

Be careful what you wish for.

Keira sneaked glances at him as she drove down the mountain. His profile was enough to make her heart stutter and when he turned his head to look at her, she almost drove into a tree.

“Whoops.” She over-straightened and her snow tires slipped a little on an icy patch of road.

“Was this a ploy to get me on the road long enough to kill me?”

“Everything’s fine,” she said, tightening her grip on the wheel. “But would you like to take a look around before we head into town?”

“No, thanks.” He checked the gold watch on his left wrist. “I can only spare an hour or two.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Ah. Good reason.” Keira smiled and followed the curve of the road. There was a steep drop-off beyond the white barrier and Nathan glanced down into the abyss.

“Look,” he said, “I’m only coming to this party to avoid the alternative.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be glad you came.”

“Why do you care if I attend this party or not?”

“Why?” She risked another glance at him as soon as the road straightened, then turned her gaze ahead again. “You and the others who’ll stay at the lodge after you are doing something tremendous for our town. Why wouldn’t we want to thank you for that?”

He shifted uncomfortably on the truck seat. “I can’t speak for the others, but I’m not doing this for you or your town.”

“Then why?”

His mouth flattened into a grim line. “It’s not important.”

“But it’s important enough for you to come here. To stay for a month?”

Still scowling, he said, “I’m here. As to the month…I don’t know.”

A small spear of panic jolted through Keira at the thought that he might leave. If he did, then, according to the terms of the will she’d read, the town of Hunter’s Landing would get nothing and the lakeside mansion would be sold.

She couldn’t let that happen.

She had to convince Nathan Barrister to stay for the whole month. And maybe the best way to do that was to show him the town he and his friends were going to help. To let him see firsthand what a difference a month of his time could make to all of them.

But if he really wanted to go, how could she make him stay?

“But you agreed to the month.”

“I did,” he said, and she sensed, more than saw, him shrug his broad shoulders. “But I don’t know that it’s feasible. I have businesses to watch over. Places I’m supposed to be.”

Already he was making mental excuses. Giving himself an out. Looking for a way to escape the terms of the will. The panic Keira’s heart felt a moment ago jumped into hyperactive life and did a quick two step in the pit of her stomach. Did he believe that by making that incredibly generous donation he didn’t have to complete the terms of the will?

“You wouldn’t really leave soon, would you?”

He shifted in his seat and the leather creaked as he moved. “If you’re looking for guarantees, I can’t give them to you.”

“But you agreed to the terms.”

“Yes.”

“So your word’s not worth much?”

He frowned at her. “Is insulting me your grand plan to get me to cooperate? If so, it’s a bad idea.”

“Probably.” She sighed and took the final turn down the mountain road. Just a half mile ahead was Hunter’s Landing, where her friends and neighbors were celebrating and planning the changes that would be coming at the end of six months.

She wondered how happy they’d all be to meet Nathan Barrister if they knew just how close he was to ruining those plans.

Pulling the car off to the side of the road, Keira threw the gearshift into park, yanked up the emergency brake and turned in her seat to look at him head-on.

“Problem?” he asked.

“You could say so,” she said. In the darkening light, his pale blue eyes shone like chips of ice—and were just as welcoming. “This might not mean much to you,” she said, “but your staying here for the entire month can mean a huge difference to the people here.”

“I didn’t say I was leaving,” he pointed out.

“You didn’t say you were staying, either,” she countered.

“I am for right now,” he said.

“That’s supposed to make me feel better? Right now?”

“It’s all I can give you.”

Keira wanted to grab him and shake him, but she knew that wouldn’t do any good. He was so closed-off, so shut down from anything other than his own feelings, she’d need a hammer to pound home her point. Tempting, but probably not logical.

“You’ve been here only one day. Give it a chance. Give us a chance.”

He looked at her in the waning light and, just for a second, Keira thought those eyes of his warmed a little. But she was probably mistaken since an instant later, they were cool and distant again.

“If you do,” she added, “who knows, you might just like it here.”

One dark eyebrow rose. “I’m not expecting to like it.”

“Well,” she said, smiling as she turned to shift the car into gear again and head into town, “surprises happen every day.”

“Whether I stay or go is really none of your business.” His tone clearly stated that was the end of the discussion.

Well, Keira wasn’t sure who he was used to dealing with, but she wasn’t about to back down under that king-to-peasant attitude.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Nathan.” She paused and threw him a smile designed to either put him at ease or worry him half to death. “You don’t mind if I call you Nathan, right? Well, Nathan, it is my business to see that you stay here. As mayor, I can’t let you walk away from something that will mean so much to us.”

He studied her for a long minute. She felt his gaze on her and forced herself to keep her own gaze focused on the road ahead of her. As they got closer to town, she heard the still-distant sounds of the band playing and steeled herself for whatever he was going to say next.

“Just so you know, Keira, if I decide to go, there’s no way you’ll be able to stop me.”

She took the last turn in the road and saw Hunter’s Landing spilling out ahead of her. Party lights were strung across the street, tiny blazes of white in the gathering darkness. People crowded the whole area, and a few couples had already started dancing.

Her heart swelled with love for the place and the people she’d grown up with. Determination filled her as she turned to glance at the man beside her. She smiled and said, “Nathan, never issue a challenge like that to me. You’ll lose every time.”

They were swept into the party the moment she parked the truck, and Keira watched with some amusement as Nathan was dragged unwillingly into the center of things. The man was so stiff, so aloof, he stood out from the crowd like an ostrich in a chicken coop.

With the band’s music pouring over them in a continuous wave of sound, Keira stood to one side and watched Nathan’s features tighten as a few of the older men gathered around him to give Nathan some advice on fly-fishing.

The devil inside her told Keira to leave him to it. To let him be surrounded by the townspeople she’d so wanted him to meet. But a rational voice in the back of her mind drowned out that little devil by pointing out that if he hated it here, he’d have little reason to stay for the month to insure the town’s bequest.

So she walked up to the group of men, smiled and said, “Sorry, guys, but I’m going to steal Nathan away for a dance.”

“Aw, now, Keira, we’re just telling him about the best spots in the Truckee River for fishing,” one of them argued.

“And it was fascinating,” Nathan said, dropping one arm around Keira’s shoulders and dragging her in close to his side, as if afraid she’d change her mind and leave him there for more fishing advice. “But if you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I did promise the lady a dance.”

Keira hid her smile and told herself that the warmth of Nathan’s arm around her had more to do with body heat than sexual pull. Although she wasn’t easily convinced, since parts of her that hadn’t been hot in a very long time were suddenly smoking with sizzle and warmth.

When they moved away from the crowd toward the dance floor, Nathan bent his head and muttered, “I don’t know whether to thank you for rescuing me or throttle you for bringing me here in the first place.”

His voice was nearly lost under the slam of sound, so Keira leaned in closer to make sure he heard her response. “But you looked like you were having so much fun.”

“I don’t fish,” he muttered.

“Maybe not,” she pointed out, “but thanks to Sam Dover and the others, you could now if you wanted to.”

He stopped and, since his arm was still wrapped around her shoulder, she did a quick stop too and slammed into his side.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Would it be wrong to say yes?”

He frowned down at her. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like you before.”

“Nathan! A compliment?”

“I’m not sure that’s how I meant it.”

She grinned. “That’s how I’m taking it.”

“Big surprise.”

Keira wasn’t fooled. There was a twitch at the corner of his way-too-kissable mouth that told her he was fighting the urge to smile. In the last day or so, she’d noticed he fought down smiling a lot. And she wondered why.

“So,” she asked, “are you really going to dance with me?”

He sighed. “If I don’t, are you going to sic the fishermen on me again?”

She lifted her arms into the dance-with-me position and said, “Nothing wrong with a good threat.”

Four

The music slowed down into as close as a rock band could get to a romantic ballad, and Nathan reached for Keira. The instant his arm went around her waist, he felt a charge of something that jolted him from the soles of his feet straight up through the top of his head.

She smiled at him and he knew she’d felt it, too.

Her right hand felt small in his and the featherlight weight of her left hand seemed to be branding his shoulder. The air was icy and the street was crowded with people, yet he felt as if he and Keira were alone in the tropics, heat pouring through them with enough intensity to kindle a white-hot flame.

“What’re you thinking?” she asked as he steered her around the makeshift dance floor in the middle of town.

“I don’t think I’ll tell you,” he said and deliberately raised his gaze from the sparkling beauty of her green eyes. “I have a feeling you’d find a way to use it against me.”

“Oh, you’re a sharp businessman, aren’t you?” she asked, and suppressed laughter colored her voice.

He risked a glance down at her and found that the power in her gaze hadn’t lessened a bit. “You’ve already blackmailed me once,” he reminded her.

“For a good cause,” she pointed out.

“I really don’t think that’s an excuse the legal system would smile on.”

“Hey, I’m the mayor. Would I do anything illegal?” She smiled at him again, and damned if Nathan’s body didn’t do a quick lunge. His arm tightened around her waist, tucking her in even closer, and when she moved in the dance, she did things to him he didn’t want to think about.

So he didn’t. To distract himself, he let his gaze sweep the town, and it didn’t escape him that he could see the whole thing in a matter of seconds. The buildings were old, but well cared for. Fresh paint shone in the lights and sidewalks were swept clean. Flower boxes jutted out from window fronts and he presumed that if spring should ever come to the mountains, those boxes would be full of bright flowers.

A couple hundred people crowded the blocked-off streets, and he saw everyone from old couples sitting quietly holding hands to teenaged lovers gazing at each other so intently, he half expected to see tiny cartoon hearts circling their heads.

Keira fit right in here. She was greeted by hugs, kisses, teasing laughter and shouts, and Nathan wondered briefly what it must be like to so thoroughly belong somewhere. He hadn’t known that feeling since he was a kid. And he had, over the years, done everything he could to keep from belonging anywhere in particular. Yet he could see that Keira thrived on the very kind of life he’d avoided.

Overhead, the moon peeked through a wisp of clouds and shone down onto the town, bathing it in a silvery glow that made it look almost magical. Which was a ridiculous thought, since Hunter’s Landing was clearly no more than a tiny town in between a couple of bigger ones.

If Hunter Palmer hadn’t chosen this town—no doubt for the pleasure of building a mansion in a town that shared his name—Nathan would never have known of the place’s existence. He wasn’t a man to go wandering down unbeaten paths.