“I was under the impression that you aren’t pleased about coming here.”

Delfyne’s exact words had been that she would rather rot in the royal dungeon than spend a summer on a secluded cattle ranch. “I hadn’t fully researched the situation at the time,” she said pleasantly. “I hadn’t examined the upside of the location. Now I have.”

Owen gave a terse nod. He looked down at her hand. “I’m rusty on my royal etiquette. Do I shake your hand, or kiss it?”

His deep voice rumbled, and something primal and earthy and terribly unnerving simmered through Delfyne. She lowered her hand. “I think we’ll settle for hello for now.” This man, after all, was her jailer, even if he was a reluctant one. She could not and would not feel an attraction for him. He was her brother’s friend. He was a commoner. And she was soon to marry.

Still, despite the fact that she should feel nothing for him, she and Owen Michaels were going to be stuck together for a while. She glanced into his flinty, wary eyes. Maybe he had limits, and if she pushed them he’d send her away. She wondered just what Owen Michaels’s limits might be.

She would soon find out.

Myrna Mackenzie is a self-proclaimed ‘student of all things that concern women and their relationships’. An award-winning author of over thirty novels, Myrna was born in a small town in Dunklin County, Missouri, grew up just outside Chicago, and now divides her time between two lake areas, both very different and both very beautiful. She loves coffee, hiking, cruising the internet for interesting websites, and attempting gardening, cooking and knitting. Readers (and other potential gardeners, cooks, knitters, writers, etc…) can visit Myrna online at www.myrnamackenzie.com, or write to her at PO Box 225, La Grange, IL 60525, USA.

Dear Reader

My first thought when I decided to write this book was How incredibly awesome to be able to marry two of my favourite fantasies into one book! Because as a child (and way past the time when I could be called a child), I was in love with stories of princes and princesses.

I read them all—from those with happily-ever-after endings to those with sad endings, the fairy tale stories and the real ones. There was just something about a world so different from my own that enthralled me. It was a world of privilege, but also one closed off from so many of the ordinary pleasures most of us know on a day-to-day basis.

Then, when I grew up and visited the American West for the first time, I fell in love with that part of the country. It’s big, beautiful, rugged and still untamed. There are gorgeous mountains and there are ranchers—hardworking rough, tough guys who never know what hand they’ll be dealt from day to day.

So…a princess and a cowboy? Two people whose worlds would ordinarily never intersect—one tied to the crown and one tied to the land—who could never marry? What a challenge! What fun! I had to write Delfyne and Owen’s story. It begins something (but not exactly) like this:

There once was a princess who was rather disobedient, so her family sent her off to a part of the world where she couldn’t get into trouble…or so they thought…

This book is for those of us who have imaginary princess centres. You know who you are—and, yes, if you still like to play dress-up, even though you’re a grown-up, you are a princess at heart.

I hope you enjoy the story!

Best wishes

Myrna Mackenzie

THE COWBOY AND THE PRINCESS

BY

MYRNA MACKENZIE

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

“OH MAN. There are good ideas and bad ideas, and believe me, sending your sister here so that I can chaperone her is an unbelievably bad idea.” Owen Michaels leaned back in his chair and propped his boot-clad feet up on his desk.

“Nonsense, Owen, it’s a master plan,” the voice on the other end of the line said.

Owen glanced out the window at miles of empty space. Beautiful stuff, if solitude was what you craved. He did. Most people didn’t. No denying that. “You been hitting the cognac, Dré? Or…it has been a long time since you’ve been to Montana. Maybe you’ve forgotten that while I may be a wealthy man, the Second Chance is a working ranch. It’s pretty isolated. Your sister’s a princess. This isn’t what she’s used to.”

Oh no, Owen thought. A woman like that is used to a heck of a lot more. She would crave culture and the excitement of being at the hot, happening center of things. She’d expect to take part in events that involved the cream of society. He already knew too much about women like that. Women didn’t transplant well here, as evidenced by his mother, who had run away, and his wife, who had divorced him after—

Owen swore beneath his breath, halting the painful thought. The point was that everything he knew told him that bringing a princess here was a recipe for doom and disaster. “Nope, buddy. What you’re asking…it’s just not happening. You can’t send her here.”

“Owen, stop. Let’s talk. Or I’ll talk. You listen. This plan is perfect. Absolutely perfect,” Owen’s former college roommate said, excitement evident in his voice. “And in answer to your question, I’ve never been more serious, and no, I haven’t been drinking even a little. At least, not since I came up with this solution. Before that, I was going mad trying to figure out what to do with Delfyne.”

Andreus’s groan brought a frown to Owen’s face. “Why do you have to do anything with her?”

His friend sighed. “Because she is a princess, one who’s getting married soon. As such, she’s demanding the summer of freedom from royal life that the rest of us had. It’s her right. We all get that opportunity to shake off our bonds once—just once—before we settle in to live our fate.”

Owen watched as the almost-too-bright-to-look-at sun began to sink over the landscape, painting the work vehicles red as it began its retreat. When it was finally gone, the darkness would be a black blanket, thick and impenetrable out here where there were no streetlights of any kind, no neighbors for miles. And the silence…well, a person couldn’t get much farther from the royal life than this, but Owen was pretty darn sure that that wasn’t the kind of vacation Andreus’s sister had in mind. “She wants a few months off before she gets married? A trip away from her life? So, what’s the problem? Send her on some exotic retreat, or on a cruise or a trip to Manhattan.”

“No.”

The word seemed a bit too emphatic, and Owen swung his feet off the desk and stood up, dragging the telephone over to the window where he stood in the gathering darkness, watching the clouds turn fiery oranges and purples. “Why?”

Andreus uttered an audible sigh. “Delfyne…is…”

Owen was getting a bad feeling. He turned away from the setting sun and gave all his attention to his friend. “What about Delfyne?” He vaguely remembered meeting Andreus’s sister seven years ago when he had been twenty and visiting Andreus in Xenora on spring break. All he remembered was that she had been seventeen, thin and pale, with a posture that had been far more perfect than that of any seventeen-year-old he had ever met. She’d left to visit a cousin in Belgium soon after his arrival. He’d had the feeling that she’d been sent away so that she wouldn’t be tainted by the American cowboy running loose in the palace. Even he had to smile at that. Still.

“Delfyne…” Andreus was saying. “My younger sister is… The problem is that Delfyne isn’t like our other brothers and sisters. She’s lived a sheltered life—a spoiled life in many ways—and she’s impetuous and naive. She knows no boundaries and doesn’t believe that anything bad can happen to her. She’s the girl who had to learn that fire is hot by touching it. Warnings were never enough. Send her out into the world with a total freedom pass and…well, I’m pretty sure you can imagine what could happen.”

Silence settled in. Owen could imagine all kinds of things, none of them good.

“Owen?”

“So what you’re asking me to do is to babysit your little sister,” he said finally.

“Well, I wouldn’t put it that way. At least, not to Delfyne’s face. She has a temper.”

Great. Owen wanted to groan, but, sensitive to the fact that this was his good friend’s sister they were talking about, he held back. Just what he needed. A princess with no common sense and a bad temper.

“Andreus…” he tried. “Hell, Dré, you know how unpolished and rough I am. I’m not cut out to take care of a princess.”

“Nonsense. Your rough edges will be a boon. You won’t let her get into trouble.”

“You want me to ride roughshod over a woman?”

Andreus hesitated. “I want you to restrict her a bit.”

“Sounds like major babysitting.”

“She won’t be a problem.”

“You just said she was a handful.”

“With other people. Not with you.”

Owen couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “Are you trying to snow me?”

His friend sighed. “Owen, buddy,” he said in that stilted way he had. Andreus was a prince through and through. Americanisms didn’t come easily to him. “My friend, I’m sure it sounds terrible, but I’m not trying to…to snow you, as you say. You’re very good at getting your way and barking orders, aren’t you? Remember when I showed up in your dorm room when we were freshmen at the university? I’d been raised a prince, destined to take over the throne. Power was in my blood, but I’d barely made it through the door when you told me which bunk was going to be yours, that you liked quiet when you studied and that you intended to study a lot.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t know you were a prince.”

“Maybe, but my being a prince didn’t seem to matter to you. You treated me like an equal. Like an ordinary person. I appreciated that more than you can ever know. You became my friend. My best friend,” he stressed.

Owen finally gave in and groaned. “And you saved my butt when four guys jumped me outside a bar. You flew halfway around the world when…”

The pain was still searing even though years had passed. Owen still couldn’t say the words. “You helped me when I needed you to,” he finished lamely. “I owe you.”

“You owe me nothing,” Andreus said. “You know I don’t operate that way. That’s not what this is about. I’m not calling in a favor.”

No, that wasn’t the kind of man Andreus was. And, Owen remembered, he wasn’t the kind of man who asked for favors lightly, either. Despite the lightness of his tone, this couldn’t have been easy for him.

“You’re really worried about your sister, aren’t you?” he asked his friend.

“She holds a special place in my heart, Owen. Delfyne is…sunshine. She’s special. And then, too, I know just what she’s feeling right now. Being royal has many benefits, but it also provides iron bars that separate a person from the world. Permanently. Freedom to choose one’s life is an illusion for a prince or a princess. Her life will never be her own after this time. She knows that.”

And what was a man to say to that? Owen valued his freedom and his open spaces above all else. He’d sacrificed other peoples’ happiness to that freedom.

And even if his friend would never call his cards in, he owed Andreus his sanity.

“Send her,” he said. “Do it. I promise you I won’t let anything happen to her and I’ll return her to you just as she is now.”

“Thank you, Owen. You’ll never know what this means to me. You are a saint, my friend.”

Owen couldn’t help chuckling. “If you think I’m a saint, then you’re delusional. But then, I must be delusional, too, saying yes. I hope neither of us ends up regretting this decision.”

Of course, it was too late for that, Owen thought as he hung up the phone. Regrets were already pouring in. He’d been called many things in his life. Stubborn, arrogant, rough, a loner. Despite his millions, which would have enabled him to live anywhere he wanted to, he liked his silence and the relative peace he found on the ranch. He’d sacrificed everything for this and he always would.

His peace and his loner status were about to end. A princess was coming to visit the Second Chance Ranch.

“A princess?” Owen muttered when he hung up the phone. “On a ranch? That’s crazy talk. Maybe she’ll hate it and go back home right away.”

A man had to have his hopes and dreams.

Delfyne emerged from her family’s private jet, took one look at the very tall man waiting for her and instantly knew that she was in trouble. It wasn’t because she found him physically attractive, although she did. What woman wouldn’t respond to long legs encased in form-fitting denim, broad shoulders, dark hair and silver-blue eyes? But good looks could be ignored.

What couldn’t be ignored was something much more difficult to describe. The expression on his face…this man was a wall, even more of a wall than she remembered from the time he’d visited Andreus years ago. He was a warrior. Stubborn. What’s more, he didn’t look especially pleased to see her, and she was pretty sure she knew why.

Her brother had told Owen Michaels to look after her. There was no question of that. Because, despite the fact that for her entire life she had been promised this time outside her princess skin, when it came to actually granting her this freedom, every member of her family had been nervous. They’d fussed, they’d tried to give helpful advice without looking as if they were giving helpful advice. Delfyne had come upon her father and Andreus whispering and then acting as if they hadn’t been whispering all too often. Because of that and because all her suggestions for places she wanted to stay had been brushed aside with carefully planned criticisms, she’d known months ago that no one was ever going to let her have a true taste of freedom.

They were afraid she was going to make an impetuous mistake…again. Like the time she had slipped away to go swimming alone in the middle of the night and nearly drowned, or the night when one of her maid’s daughters had talked her into going to a local town party unescorted and she’d almost been abducted. And yet they didn’t know even half the mistakes she’d made as she struggled against the bonds that had always kept her from joy and freedom. She was never going to let them know the very worst thing that had happened to her. She didn’t want to think about it herself and she wouldn’t, Delfyne thought as the old panic began to rise up.

Still, that didn’t mean she was going to spend her life hiding away from the world and from life. She needed this time away from who she was. Just this once to live in the real world, to experience the heady freedom of normalcy, to know what ordinary people knew. She craved that desperately.

But now they had assigned her two bodyguards and a reluctant babysitter and… She glanced at Owen Michaels’s square, solid jaw, noting the tension visibly coiled in every muscle in that lean, tough body.

For a moment she felt sorry for him for being stuck watching over her, but she was never going to say that. That would be admitting that he was in charge of her. That wasn’t acceptable. She appreciated his hospitality even if it was done as a favor for an old friend, but he was standing between her and her dreams. At least until she could come up with a plan.

Taking a deep breath, Delfyne pasted on the smile she had been trained to wear almost before she had learned to walk and talk. She lifted her head, automatically slipping into regal mode.

“You’re Owen, aren’t you?” she said, moving toward the man and holding out one hand in a gracious, queenly gesture. “How very kind and generous of you to offer me lodging during my time here in your United States.”

A hint of an amused look lifted the warrior’s lips slightly before his grim expression returned. He raised a brow. “You’re Delfyne? I was under the impression that you weren’t especially pleased about coming here.”

Her exact words had been that she would rather rot in the royal dungeon than spend a summer on a secluded cattle ranch. Even though it had been a childish statement to make and even though there was no royal dungeon and never had been. It was simply an expression she and her siblings had used to protest parental rule. It had seldom worked and obviously hadn’t worked this time.

Andreus had sung the praises of Montana’s wide-open spaces, blue skies, starry nights and the proud, nurturing nature of the people, especially Owen. Her parents had been completely sold on “the Montana plan.”

Delfyne had wanted to protest, but a part of her had also been won over, at least a little. She couldn’t help being curious about Montana, too, after she’d heard that parts of this place were still wild and untamed. Like me, she’d thought.

“I hadn’t fully researched the situation at that time,” she said pleasantly. “I hadn’t examined the upside of the location. Now I have.”

“Ah. The upside. You’ll have to tell me later what you think that is.” The warrior gave a terse nod loaded with meaning, if only she knew what that meaning was. He looked down at her hand. “Meanwhile…I’ve never actually touched a princess and I’m a bit rusty on my royal etiquette. Do I shake your hand or kiss it?”

His deep voice rumbled, and something primal and earthy and terribly unnerving simmered through Delfyne. She lowered her hand to her side. “I think we’ll settle for hello for now. Touching isn’t really necessary.” This man, after all, was her jailer, even if he was a reluctant one. She could not and would not allow herself to feel an attraction for him. That would be wrong and foolish in so many ways. He was her brother’s friend. He was a commoner, and she was soon to marry a man she barely knew but who would bring great connections to her people. She would, of course, do her duty…after she had her taste of life.

Still, despite the fact that she knew she could feel nothing for her brother’s friend, she and Owen Michaels were going to be stuck here together for a while unless she could talk him into letting her go off and do all the dazzlingly wonderful and normal things she’d been waiting to do all her life. And unless she could also convince him not to tell anyone about her plans.

She glanced up into his flinty, wary eyes and knew that this wasn’t a man who could be convinced easily.

Delfyne withheld a sigh. “Is it very far to your home?” she asked.

He smiled then, and this time his smile looked genuine. And far too dazzling. His silver-blue eyes lit up, and something hot and sparkly zinged right through Delfyne’s body, heating up parts of her she preferred to ignore. “Everything is far around here if you’re not used to driving distances,” her captor-babysitter said. “Are you ready to go?”

She nodded. “Yes.” The sooner she assessed her surroundings, the sooner she could figure out how she was going to manage these next few months and what she intended to do either to make this situation palatable or to change it.

Turning toward the airplane, she gave another nod. Immediately, two members of the royal guard appeared. Stoic. Big. Their expressions gave away nothing.

“Who the hell are they?” Owen asked, his voice quiet but deadly. She thought she heard him say something worse than hell beneath his breath.

“My escort,” she said simply.

“Your escort,” he repeated as if she’d just said she’d traveled here accompanied by flying pink ponies. “They’re going home?”

She wished. “If you think you can convince them to leave, you’re welcome to try. They follow me everywhere. It’s their job.”

Owen Michaels frowned. “Any other members of your entourage I should know about?”

For the first time since she’d left home, Delfyne felt like laughing. “I see Andreus didn’t tell you about my guards,” she said with a smile. “I wonder why.”

But they both knew why. Owen didn’t want her here, and friendship only went so far. If he’d known he was going to have to house a brooding pair of guardsmen in addition to a princess for months on end, she wondered if he would have agreed to let her stay.

Maybe the man would have said no. Maybe he had limits, and if she pushed them, he’d send her away to where she wanted to go. That was definitely something to think about. Delfyne wondered just what Owen Michaels’s limits were.

She would soon find out.

CHAPTER TWO

SO ANDREUS’S kid sister wasn’t a kid anymore, Owen mused as he led Delfyne to his SUV. She’d been skinny before. Now she was willowy and curvy and stunningly gorgeous, with sable hair and violet eyes. And her legs… He swept his gaze down those sweet legs, ending at a pair of barely there lacy stiletto heels that would have looked at home in a ballroom, a boardroom or…oh yes, they would have looked very fine in a bedroom, but they sure didn’t belong on a rough, tough ranch or anywhere near a man like him.

It was all he could do to stop himself from banging his fist on the Land Rover. This was going to be a hellish mistake of an experience. He certainly had no business imagining his calloused palm skimming over a princess’s legs.

Frowning, he glanced at her and saw that she was studying him with dismay. And no wonder. He realized that in addition to blatantly eyeing her curves, he had been slamming her bags around and had been silent for several minutes.

“I apologize,” he said.

Those pretty violet eyes blinked. “For what?”

Oh, she was good. Her parents had probably trained her to maintain that cool princess aura in the face of bad manners from birth.

Owen shook his head. “I’m supposed to be your host, to make you feel welcome. I don’t think I’ve done that.”

She studied him for a moment and then reached out and placed her hand on his arm. Heat shot through his skin and sank deep into his body. Great. Just great. He was lusting after a princess, one who was destined for a prince. What’s more, Delfyne was his best friend’s little sister, a woman he had sworn to protect, not seduce.

Owen took a deep breath. He forced himself not to look at the point where his skin connected with this beauty’s soft palm. She was smiling. No, she was practically dancing, her eyes lit up like twin candles.

“Enough,” she said. “Let’s not pretend anymore, all right?”

He waited.

She shook her head and, as if she had just realized that she was touching him, looked at her hand and slowly eased it from him. “My brother forced me on you. He and my parents sent me here so that I couldn’t be tempted into trouble or so that trouble couldn’t be tempted into finding me and hurting me. I’m not your guest, Owen. I’m your short-term obligation. I don’t expect you to pretend otherwise.”

He considered that. “You didn’t want to come to a ranch. This can’t be fun for you.”

“Well, it’s not at all what I’d planned when I planned it.”

“When was that?”

She looked to the side and for a second he thought she wasn’t going to answer. “I started making my plans when I was eight, when I realized that no matter how carefully I planned my birthday party and no matter how many commoners they reluctantly allowed me to invite, my guests would always be screened, some wouldn’t be allowed near me and those that were admitted would be coached on etiquette before they came into my presence. It would never really be a truly free experience completely of my own choosing…except for this one summer.”

“I see,” he said. And he did. He was another one of those people who was playing the game that kept her from her goals. “Well then, I really am sorry.”

She looked at him. “You could let me go my own way.”

Owen chuckled. He gestured toward her bodyguards.

“Well, of course I’d take them with me,” she said.

And probably ditch them as soon as she was able, Owen thought, remembering what Andreus had told him and trying not to think about the wistful sound in her voice when she’d told him how long she’d been planning her princess prison break.

“Sorry, Princess. I don’t lie to my friends, and Andreus is the best. You’re mine for a while.” Which was such a poor choice of words. “Guest-wise, that is,” he added.

“You’re not going to do that, are you?”

Okay, she had him there. “Do what?”

“Call me Princess as if it’s my name.”

“It’s what you are.”

She raised her chin. “Please.”

And there was such longing in her voice that he couldn’t keep from pursuing the subject. “Please what?”

She hesitated. “I know you’ve made promises to my family, and Andreus says that you’re a very honorable man—the best of men.”

Which only showed how deluded and blind Andreus could be, but Owen didn’t need to share that information with Delfyne. There was no need to explain his own flawed soul and even more flawed character to her. “I sense a however coming on,” he said.

The beauty took a deep and visible breath that lifted the pale blue silk of her blouse and made Owen wish that he could do as she asked and send her away.

“All right. You’re an honorable man. However, I would like to ask one favor of you that would not necessitate you breaking your word to my family,” she said in a quiet voice. He could see that, although she was brazening it out, she had no real sense that he was going to do whatever she intended to ask of him. Dread filled him. He had a history of failing women. His mother, his wife and Nancy, who had sought him out last year and only wanted him to give her a baby…and now? Damn Andreus.

“Ask,” he said, his voice terse. He believed in facing the difficult stuff.

“I… How many people know that I’m here for a visit?”

Owen blinked. “My employees know that I’m having a guest. That’s it.” He wasn’t exactly a sharing kind of man.

“Do they know who I am? What a question. Of course they do, but still…” She seemed distressed.

Frowning, Owen realized what this must be about. Of course. She was royalty, sent to what must seem like Siberia. And yet she would be used to special treatment, the kind she wouldn’t think she could get here.

“I’m afraid they don’t know you’re a princess. At least not yet. I only told them this morning that I would be having a guest. I haven’t shared any of the particulars.” Because he’d hoped, right up until the last possible moment, that Andreus would realize that this was a bad idea and call the whole thing off.

“But don’t worry,” he told Delfyne. “I tend to be a bit closemouthed and that can be a problem at times, but the Second Chance has guests frequently. Usually, they’re businesspeople who like the novelty of staying at a ranch, but even with someone more exalted, my employees are up to the task. You’ll be treated well.”

“That’s not my concern. I just… If they don’t already know, that’s a good thing. I don’t want to be a princess.”

Owen blinked. He wanted to groan. Surely she wasn’t asking him to help her break free of her birthright? “Excuse me?”

A sad look eased into those lovely eyes. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. Of course I’m proud of who and what I am and glad I’m a member of the royal family. My heritage is important to me. It’s just that while I’m here I’d like to remain anonymous,” she clarified. “If people know I’m here, there will be newspapers and…”

“And someone might try to harm you or kidnap you,” Owen said, looking at the bodyguards, who were standing around trying to fade quietly into a landscape where they stood out like red ink on white paper. He remembered the man who had gone everywhere with Andreus when they had been in college. “I meant what I said when I told Andreus that I’d look after you,” Owen said. “No one is going to harm you, and I’m not talking about letting your keepers take care of things. I’m talking about me. I wouldn’t let anyone get near you.”

She shook her head. “But I want people near me. That’s the point.”

Her consternation was clear. However, Owen suddenly noticed Suze Allen driving by and giving him and Delfyne a good looking-over. Suze was a generous creature whom Owen had known for most of his life, but she was like a sieve. Any news that came her way instantly flowed through and out, and a stranger who looked like Delfyne conversing with Owen was definitely going to be news.

“We’d better go,” he said suddenly. “Get in the car.”

Delfyne looked toward Suze’s white pickup, which was circling to come back their way, and to Owen’s relief she didn’t argue. She let Owen hand her into the Land Rover, and her entourage piled into a black car that arrived from out of nowhere.

“A girlfriend?” she asked when they were on the road to the ranch.

Owen laughed at that. “A gossip, and nothing like a girlfriend, though she’s very nice. Suze is married to a man who would punch any man who looked twice at his wife.”

Delfyne was silent. For almost five seconds. “Has he ever punched you?” she finally asked.

Owen immediately turned to look at her. “I don’t pursue other men’s wives, no matter how nice the women are. But that’s beside the point. I haven’t forgotten what we were talking about before Suze came along. You said that you wanted to be anonymous.”

“And you said you wouldn’t let anyone near me.”

He sighed. “Maybe I phrased that badly.” He remembered a time when his ex-wife, Faye, had accused him of keeping her trapped in a box. “What I meant was that I wouldn’t let anyone or anything hurt you, in case you were worried about that. People from the city sometimes worry about life in a place like this, which is a bit wild. I won’t let any harm come to you.”

“I never thought you would! Andreus knows you and he trusts you implicitly. That’s absolutely good enough for me. I am most certainly not challenging your ability to protect me.” Now she was indignant…and cute. Somehow he didn’t think he should mention that. The word cute and royalty probably didn’t go hand in hand. “But I meant something more than that. I just— If people know I’m here, there will be reporters, of course, the paparazzi and all that. But that’s not my main reason for wanting to stay in the shadows. Ordinary people will treat me differently if they know I’m a princess. I hate that. I really hate that.”

He could tell. Her voice was terribly sad.

“And I know that’s kind of selfish and spoiled,” she went on. “I have so much. I’ve always had so much. I live in a world that most people can’t even imagine, but—”

“But you want more,” he said. He’d heard that before. Heard his mother telling his father that as she dragged her suitcase out, packed it full of clothes and left him behind, telling Owen to be a good boy before the door closed and she disappeared from his life forever. He’d heard it from Faye as she’d begged him to sell the ranch, take all his money and go somewhere fun and fine. He’d almost decided to do it, too, until his son’s death and the total disintegration of his marriage. After that, it had been too late and now he would never leave the Second Chance.

“You’re wrong, Owen,” Delfyne was saying, and for a moment he thought she’d read his mind. “I don’t want more. I want less. Just for this summer, I want to be like everyone else. I want to see what other people see and to live like they do. If people know I’m a princess I can’t do that. All right?”

He frowned. Although he could see her point… “I may have kept your visit to myself but now that you’re here, this plan sounds like a recipe for disaster. I’ve never been good at pretense.”

“You don’t have to pretend. Just leave a few little things out. Like my title.”

He couldn’t keep from smiling. “Not exactly a little thing.”

“Just for this summer. After that—”

They would never see each other again. She would marry her prince, and he would go on with life here at the ranch that had sustained his family for generations. His life would be just the way he liked it. What happened at the end of her time here wouldn’t be a problem. But what was happening right now…

“If you’re worried about Andreus being upset—” she began.

Now he did laugh. “I promised to keep you free from harm, not to keep from upsetting your brother. He might not have told you this, but I pretty much drove him nuts most of the time we were room-mates. I’m stubborn, and so is he. Andreus isn’t the problem. I’m just trying to envision the pitfalls if I agree to keep your identity a secret.”

A light came into her eyes, and her lips lifted into a smile that made Owen’s breath catch. “Think of the pitfalls if you don’t keep me a secret. You said that your friend—Suze?—was a talker. If she talks and tells a few friends and they tell a few friends and then the newspapers find out, you’ll have half the population of Montana lining up outside your ranch.”

“You think?” he said, holding back a smile, wondering how far she would take this.

“At least,” she said, “Andreus told me that you like your privacy. I’m to behave and not annoy you.”

“Are you now?” Owen seriously needed to smile, but he fought the urge.

“I tend to be a bit impetuous at times, and that always annoys my family. Andreus asked me not to do that with you.”

“And you don’t think pretending you’re someone you’re not is impetuous?”

Delfyne bit her lip. “Do you?” She twisted her hands in her lap, and suddenly Owen was tired of teasing her. This situation hadn’t been created by her or by him. This had been Andreus’s idea, and much as he loved the man and owed him, it was a terrible one. Besides, she was right about all of his neighbors and the press coming to call if the truth came out. Heck, he had a ranch to run. He couldn’t spend his time dodging reporters. He did like his privacy.

No, he needed his privacy. If the press came calling, they would want to know about Delfyne but also about the man keeping her here. Then they would want a little history, and if they delved into his background, the tragedy of his past… He didn’t want anyone writing sob stories about how he’d lost his child and his wife and now a beautiful, unattainable princess had come to call.

Owen’s blood chilled at the thought.

“Who do you want to be?” he demanded suddenly.

She stared straight into his eyes. “Just Delfyne. That’s all. Just an ordinary woman.”

Oh yeah, people were going to believe that this woman was ordinary. She had a foreign lilt to her voice, skin like expensive silk and a body that would make even the tamest of men take notice. But he hadn’t been lying when he’d said that he wasn’t good at pretending. He’d leave that part to her.

“Here we are,” he said as he made the last turn and the house came into view.

“Oh my.”

Yes, that just about said it all, didn’t it? “Not exactly what a princess is used to.”

“It’s built of logs!”

“You noticed that, did you?”

“But…it’s also very big.”

That was being kind. The house meandered and had a huge wraparound porch. It filled up a lot of space.

“I have a habit of building when I need to think. Or not think.”

“You must need to think—or not think—a lot. Andreus never mentioned this.”

“Yes, well, I guess the subject of architecture doesn’t come up a lot in royal conversations.” But it was more than that, Owen knew. Andreus knew of the depth of the private pain that had triggered Owen’s building craze. He wouldn’t have spoken of Owen’s feelings to anyone without asking his friend’s permission first.

“And this is all for one person? I mean…that is…”

Owen held up one hand. “You know I’m divorced and that I lost my son. I have a housekeeper and cook, Lydia Jeffers, who comes by, but I’m the only one who lives here. The hands live in the bunkhouse. And yes, it’s a lot of house for one person. I justify the space by having a few gatherings here each year. The local cattlemen’s association holds their annual conference here and if my neighbors need overflow housing for their guests, I’ve been known to oblige them. Which means you probably make a good point about staying here incognito. I have a feeling that if your status becomes known, I’ll be overrun with unexpected guests.”

He parked in front and blew out a breath, then climbed from the Land Rover and circled around to assist Delfyne from the vehicle.

She beat him to it. “All right. If I get to be who I want to be, then I’m an independent woman for the next few months. No special considerations. I’ll open my own car doors and do…oh, whatever I like. All the things princesses aren’t allowed to do.”

The excited smile she gave Owen caught him by surprise, full-force. Damn, but what had Andreus been thinking sending his sister here to stay with a bad-tempered recluse like himself? The woman clearly belonged in the sunshine. Her smile practically sparkled. She all but danced up the porch stairs, then turned, tipped her face up to him and held out her hands. “Thank you so much, Owen.

You don’t know what this means to me. I’m going to be an anonymous, blend-into-life woman!”

Blend in? Owen didn’t think so. On this ranch she was going to stand out like a rose among thistles, and the way she was looking at him as if he’d just offered her the keys to a long-sought treasure…

Don’t even think about her that way, Owen told himself. He’d learned he didn’t have much other than money to offer most women, so getting entangled with a woman with a crown would be an act of major stupidity. No, the best thing he could do was to get Delfyne set up as he had promised her brother and then put a lot of space between himself and her.

“I’ll get your things inside and show you where your room is,” he said. “Your bodyguards can stay in the bunkhouse. I’ll tell my employees that they’re friends of yours who want to experience ranch life. It won’t be the first time I’ve had that type of guest.”

“All right. Owen?”

He looked up. She was staring at him in that direct, unnerving way she had. “What?”

“I know I said thank you already, but I want you to know that it wasn’t just a cursory expression of gratitude. I really do know how much my family owes you for allowing me to stay here. Beyond the difficulties of hiding a princess in your house, Andreus told me that you don’t like women much.”

Her voice was soft, the expression in her eyes even softer. Something low in Owen’s gut shifted. His body went on full alert, and he felt a growl coming on. His conviction earlier that having this woman at his house was a bad idea deepened. Because Andreus was dead wrong. It wasn’t that he didn’t like women. He just couldn’t offer what most of them wanted, so it was better to keep his distance most of the time.

With this woman he could tell that it would be better to keep his distance all of the time. Too bad that was going to be impossible.

“So…thank you very much for giving me a place to stay,” Delfyne finished. “That was very kind of you.”

Oh yeah, he was going to start letting her think that he was kind. That wasn’t going to happen. If he did, she’d turn those mesmerizing violet eyes on him and then…he wasn’t going to think about what he might do then. Something idiotic and wrong. He had his limits.

“So Andreus told you that, did he? That I was being kind?”

She slowly shook her head. “No, he told me that you thought you owed him something because he came over here when…when you needed a friend. You’re doing this out of a sense of obligation.”

Which was the truth, so he said nothing.

“But agreeing to pretend I’m someone other than who I am…that took guts. Andreus and my family won’t like that at all. They think that pretending to be an ordinary citizen will leave me vulnerable.” For a second she looked a bit uneasy. “My family thinks that if men don’t realize who I am or what my destiny is, they’ll try to take liberties.”

Great. Now Andreus was going to want to kick his butt, and the man would be right. Owen hadn’t actually thought of this particular problem.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let anyone near you,” he reiterated. Including me.

Which didn’t exactly bring a smile to her face.

“I told you I don’t want to be a prisoner here.”

He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Let me amend my last statement. I won’t let the wrong kind of people near you. You can have total privacy.”

Still, no smile.

“Delfyne, I’m doing my best. Princesses aren’t exactly my area of expertise.”

She nodded. “Okay, that’s fair. What is your area of expertise?”

“Ranching and making money. That’s pretty much it.”

“And building,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, well, that’s not an expertise. That’s an obsession.”

She did smile then. “Ah, obsessions. I understand those. I have a few of my own.” But she didn’t elaborate.

And there they stood, the princess and the rancher. Owen looked at the beautiful, cultured woman who had dropped into his world. He wondered how he was going to survive this experience. He glanced out into the distance, to his land. To his cattle. To the roots and the history that kept him mostly sane.

“I’m sorry. You have work to do. Andreus warned me not to be a pest. If you show me to my room, I’ll get settled in. And, Owen, don’t worry. I know you didn’t exactly want me here and I didn’t want to be here, but you’ve given me the gift of a chance to be myself and I intend to take it. Don’t worry about the privacy. I don’t need it. Now that I know we’re agreed that I can take a vacation from being a princess, I can’t wait to let loose and be who I want to be and do what I want to do. I won’t be a bother at all. You’ll barely notice that I’m around.”

Owen wanted to throw back his head and howl at that. Oh yes, he had made a big mistake saying yes to Andreus, Owen thought as he showed the two guards to the bunkhouse then strode toward the ATV that would take him out to where the rest of his hands were mending fence.

This woman was unpredictable. She wanted things she couldn’t have, and Owen had far too much experience with women who wanted things they couldn’t have. It always turned out badly.

He was going to spend as little time as possible with the princess who was inhabiting his house. A man would be insane to do anything else.

CHAPTER THREE

DELFYNE had gone online and ordered some “ordinary-woman” clothes, but two days hadn’t been enough time for them to arrive, so this morning she opted for the least glamorous things she owned. The pale blue slacks and white silk blouse weren’t exactly casual, but they would have to do.

She delved into her jewelry box and came up with what she wanted. “Finally! A chance to wear these!” She placed the yellow, blue and white bangle bracelets on one wrist and the cute bracelet with the gaudy pink elephant charms on the other.

Then she slipped bone-colored ballet flats on her feet and ventured out into the house, wandering the massive hallways. This was very much a man’s house. Everything was big and spare with clean lines and no frills. Golden wood was everywhere.

There was art on the walls. Expensive art, she noted, but no personal items. No photographs, no mementos of any type. And most of the rooms looked as if they were seldom used, which was probably the truth. Altogether there was little here to tell her about her host, about the man.

She knew some things, of course, the little that Andreus had told her in the past or had felt she needed to know now. Owen had once had a wife, a gorgeous blonde he’d met in college. They’d married and he’d taken her back to the family spread. Eventually, they’d had a son who had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Then the marriage had dissolved. That was all Delfyne knew other than the fact that Owen was very rich. He’d spent his alone time doing more than just building this house. He’d invested his money in a mix of risky ventures and conservative stocks and had earned a fortune. But he seldom left the ranch. Andreus had tried to get him to visit their palace on Xenora several times to no avail, other than that one trip when the two of them had been in college. So Owen was a man of mystery.

And now he was her man of mystery, temporarily.

Delfyne’s breath caught at the expression. She knew better than to have those kinds of thoughts. Much as she wanted to have some adventures, she didn’t want to have romantic ones. Already she’d learned that being a princess—an impetuous princess—had its downside. Men had taken advantage of her and misread her enthusiasm for life as something more. The fact that she was destined eventually to marry a royal and couldn’t ask for a commitment had encouraged the few men she’d known to try and take advantage of her. So no, no man of mystery for her. No men at all in a romantic sense.

The fact that Owen was rugged and good-looking with fierce, compelling eyes had to be immaterial. He was her host, no more, and he was a reluctant host at that. He didn’t like having her foisted on him.

That was probably why, during the two days she’d been here, she’d barely seen him at all. When she got up in the morning, he was gone. Apparently he ate his meals elsewhere, and she had no idea when he came in or what he did all day.

What she did know was that her glorious plans for independence were fading away. She’d spent the two days alone or bugging Lydia Jeffers just so she would have someone to talk to. Lydia, while she was a very nice woman, had work to do and she seemed suspicious of who and what Delfyne was.

None of this was getting Delfyne what she wanted—a taste of real life.

Something had to happen soon. Something good and exciting and different. The hourglass held only so much sand and once she returned to Xenora, her life would never be her own again. Not a minute of her time here could be wasted.

“So, that’s it, then. Owen may not like having me here, but I won’t be locked away in the house reading books and eating bon bons. The man is just going to have to put up with me,” she declared to the empty walls. Pushing open the door, she wandered out into the green and misty morning.

Immediately, her bodyguards, Theron and Nicholas, stood up from where they’d been sitting. She waved them away. Yesterday she’d explained to them their role as greenhorns trying a taste of ranch life, but they didn’t seem to be getting into the spirit of things.

“Go. Do something,” she said.

“What?”

“I don’t know. Eat.”

Theron laughed. He sat down again. She ignored him and continued on her way.

The scent of growing things and something animal filled her nostrils and she breathed in deeply, acclimating herself to the unfamiliar. This was the perfume of life, not the palace.

Staring around her, Delfyne took in the endless miles of land, the buildings that were clearly not living space and a number of big, hulking, unfamiliar vehicles.

She smiled as Jake and Alf, two of the ranch dogs, ran around barking as if vying for her attention, jumping around so much that Alf nearly stepped on the paw of a little orange cat that came too close.

“You two behave yourselves,” she ordered affectionately, scratching Jake behind the ears. “And watch where you’re walking. You nearly squashed this little guy.”

Indeed, the cat was limping slightly, but when Delfyne tried to pick him up he gave her a look that said, “I’m a rough tough ranch cat. I don’t need coddling,” and continued on his way.

She knew the cats here had no names. They were working animals, not pets, and there were too many of them. “But I’m calling you Tim,” Delfyne announced to the cat’s retreating back. “As in Tiny Tim.”

Her parents would have groaned. Her father in particular had worried about her tendency to request bedtime stories with happily-every-after endings. He’d taken to giving her warnings about the tales, telling her that in the original story of The Little Mermaid, the heroine had not married her prince, and that in her favorite Xenoran legend, King Vondiver, the hero, had given up his crown to pursue his love of a common woman and had suffered a terribly alarming, sad and lonely ending. Surely she didn’t want to end up like that.

Her parents needn’t have worried. Delfyne knew that stories weren’t real, and she had absolutely no desire to have her life turn out like the endings of those tales. She just liked hearing them. Vondiver’s story in particular always left her misty-eyed.

“Getting teary over a silly story can be downright embarrassing, Tim,” she said.

The cat continued to ignore her, and Jake and Alf had already run off, attracted by something else.

“On my own again,” Delfyne said with a sigh. “But I refuse to feel sorry for myself. Princesses don’t. When we find ourselves in less-than-ideal circumstances, we do something about it!

“So stand tall,” she said, quoting from that ever-present supply of lessons that had been fed to her as a child.

Some princesses might take that a step further and take action, she thought. Okay, that had never been part of her lessons. It was from her own personal, flawed guidebook…which meant she was on the verge of doing something ill-advised. “But I have to do something,” she muttered.

She looked around again. Owen was nowhere to be seen, so Delfyne continued on toward one of the large structures. Was it the barn, perhaps? She had no idea, but she wasn’t about to be deterred now that she’d made up her mind to escape the house. She was almost to the door when she heard a rustle and a shout.

“Damn it, Ennis, stop messing around and get over here and help me!”

That was unmistakably Owen’s voice. It was coming from the structure next to this one. Delfyne didn’t hesitate. She followed Owen’s voice, slipping inside the building.

What she saw stopped her in her tracks.

There was Owen, all broad shoulders and lean hips, his damp shirt plastered to his body as he bent over a cow that had its head in some sort of contraption. He shook his head toward the man standing beside him. Ennis, Delfyne assumed.

“Get Len. We’re going to have to operate,” Owen said. “This calf isn’t coming, even with the chains. And when you get back, wash up. Make sure this area is disinfected. Come on. Hustle. She’s suffering.”

His words brought Delfyne’s attention back to the cow, which did appear to be in serious distress. And that contraption…

A small sound escaped Delfyne, and Owen looked up. A curse word escaped him.

“Go back to the house,” he told her.

His tone brooked no opposition. She bit her lip.

“What are you going to do to her? That machine doesn’t look comfortable.”

Was that a growl? “It’s not, but it’s necessary so she doesn’t hurt herself or kick out and kill one of us while we help her. Now go. You don’t belong here.”

“Will she be all right?”

He grimaced and started to answer. She was pretty sure he wasn’t going to offer her any platitudes, but she’d never know that for sure because a man shrugging into a pair of pristine coveralls came loping in at that moment and started barking orders. He must be the vet.

“Ready, boss?” the man asked.

“She’s yours, Len,” Owen answered, but he didn’t move away. Instead, he deftly assisted the man, following Len’s orders quickly and efficiently, as if he’d done this hundreds of times before.

“She’s bleeding too much,” Len said. “Give me the hemostat. Come on. Quick. Quick, dammit.”

Owen slapped the object in the man’s hand and Len went to work. There was so much blood.

Delfyne felt light-headed and weak. She reached for the wall and tried to stay quiet. Apparently unsuccessfully, because Owen swore and started toward her. “You look like you’re going to faint. I’m getting you out of here now.”

But when he moved toward her and away from the cow, Delfyne realized that the animal might not survive because “the princess” had drawn Owen’s attention and hands away from the task at hand.

“No. No, I’m all right. Go help.” She motioned him back, gulping in air. Her voice was shaky but she remained standing.

He hesitated.

“Owen!” Len was yelling.

“Go!” Delfyne yelled, too. She had a crazy urge to say, “I command you,” even though she’d never said that in her life.

Without another word, Owen returned to his place with Len and the distressed creature. Side by side, the two men barked orders at each other and worked in concert, a team that had obviously done this together before.

They made another incision and eased out the calf. Owen checked it over and gently laid it aside. Then he turned back to its mother. Based on the men’s brief, guttural exchanges, Delfyne caught the merest hint of what was happening. Antibiotics were involved. She heard the word antiseptic. Stitches were made. Finally, Ennis took the apparently healthy calf away and then came back for the woozy, tipsy but on-her-feet mother, promising to keep watch over both of them. He glanced at Delfyne, a question in his eyes, but he said nothing.

Len was obviously less cautious about asking questions. After washing up and changing his coveralls for a clean shirt, he came over and held out his hand, flashing her a devilish smile that she was sure he reserved for women he was interested in. “Well, hello there, pretty mystery lady. You must be one of the visitors we were told about. I’m Len Mayall. And you’re…”

“None of your business, Len.” Owen’s words were quiet but firm as he came up behind them. He had shed his shirt and put on a new one but he hadn’t had time to button it yet. Delfyne tried not to notice what a fine, muscular chest he had, but her fingertips tingled. And he had said—

Delfyne frowned sternly and gave Owen a pained look. “I’m Delfyne,” she said.

Which clearly wasn’t what Len had wanted to know, by the questioning look he gave Owen. Now she got it. He wanted to know what her relationship to his boss was.

“Yes, I’m a visitor,” she said with a smile. “I’ll be staying for quite a while.”

Len’s eyebrows rose. “I see.”

Owen moved closer to the man who had been wielding a scalpel moments before. He had deferred to Len then, but now he towered over him. There was no question who was the boss.

“No, you don’t see. Delfyne is—”

Uh-oh, Owen was going to say “a princess,” wasn’t he? Or something of that nature. Because he wanted to make it clear to Len that he was not romantically linked to Delfyne.

Delfyne couldn’t let him say that. “Owen was kind enough to take me in when I needed a place to stay,” she said, rushing in. Which still didn’t seem to do the trick. Len’s eyes opened even wider.

He looked at Delfyne’s expensive clothes. “Pardon me, Delfyne, but if you’re from around these parts, I’ll swallow my scalpel. You’re just too darn beautiful for me to have forgotten you. So where in the universe did Owen find you? And are there any more like you? You say he…took you in?” His tone was incredulous.

Delfyne blinked. Yes, she supposed that did make it sound as if she’d been plucked from the streets. Owen’s brows drew together in a scowl.

“Len,” he said, his voice low and gravelly and cool. “You’re a fine veterinary student and a good hand, and you know that I would be hard-pressed without you, but right now you’re skating on ice so thin I can hear it cracking beneath your feet. Delfyne is a friend, a new one, and I’d prefer that you not act as if your mother never taught you any manners by asking her a lot of nosy questions.” Owen paused, his hands on his hips, his scowl deepening. “The truth is that Delfyne wanted to see some of the world, and she’s never been to Montana. She and her friends Theron and Nicholas will be visiting for a few months. As to where their home is, that’s none of your business. I don’t like having my guests interrogated. I also don’t like them to be talked about…by anyone. I hope I’m clear on that.”

Len held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Got it, Owen. You’re right. I was out of line, ma’am,” he said, backing away but not looking all that sorry. “I’ll just get my sorry rear out of here before I get fired. Morgan and a couple of the boys will disinfect everything here, boss,” he said. “You see to your guest.”

But as she and Owen walked away, she could swear she heard something very low that sounded like “A few months?”

She glanced back over her shoulder and saw that Len was grinning. “By the way, nice meeting you, Delfyne. Your secret, whatever it is, is safe with me, but I have to tell you, you’re the prettiest guest this ranch has had in…oh, just about forever.”

When she turned back around, Owen was striding away, his white shirttail flapping around his hips. She ran to catch up with him. When she drew even with him, she could see that his mouth was drawn into a thin line. His jaw looked granite-hard.

“I came in at a bad time, didn’t I?” she asked. “And I embarrassed you with your friend.”

He turned that ice-blue stare on her. “Len is a pain in the—he’s a pain, sometimes. But he’s a good vet, or he will be when he finishes his training. He knows he’d have to do something pretty heinous for me to fire him, and he likes mouthing off. He especially likes women,” he pointed out.

“I could tell.”

Owen chuckled. “I’m sure you could. I’d like to see Len’s eyes roll back in his head if he found out he was trying to flirt with a princess. That would shut him up.”

“Don’t be so sure. Sometimes knowing a woman is forbidden brings out the worst in men.”

Owen studied her carefully. “I don’t intend for you to see the worst side of any man around here. I owe Andreus a great deal. Letting his little sister be harassed isn’t in the cards while you’re here. I’ll keep Len away.”

She frowned. “You don’t have to. Len seems harmless.”

Owen’s frown intensified. “If he thinks he can get you into bed, he’ll use all the charm he has to do it. Women tend to fall for Len. Sometimes I think that’s why he’s taking so long to finish his training. Not being licensed yet leaves him with more time for his love life. None of those middle-of-the-night calls that full-fledged veterinarians get.”

“You think I’d be susceptible to someone so obvious?”

“I think I don’t know you at all, so I can’t answer that. I do know that friend or not, Len’s just the kind of man Andreus would want me to protect you from.”

She raised her chin.

To her consternation he smiled.

“What?” she asked.

“Your identity may be a secret, but your manner is purely royal.”

“I’ll have to work on that, then. My manner…these clothes… Len knew I didn’t fit in, and I don’t. I want to become part of the woodwork, to be a part of my surroundings.”

“Sort of an experiment,” he suggested.

“No. A life experience. I want to immerse myself.”

“Well, you certainly got a good start with what happened back there with that cow and her calf.”

“It was…interesting.”

He laughed out loud then. “Did they teach you diplomacy before you learned how to walk? You nearly fainted. And…I understand your desire to have some fun and live a little before you get on with your life, but Andreus must have taken leave of his senses. This is no place for someone like you.”

And even though he was right in some ways— this ranch was not the place she would have chosen to spend this summer—Delfyne couldn’t help but bristle a bit.

“I didn’t faint. I’m not just fluff.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You implied it.” She couldn’t keep the slight edge and the hint of hurt from her tone, and to her surprise he reached out and gently grasped her chin.

“I guess I did, and I’m sorry about that. Len would tell you that I’m more of a pain than he is, and I guess I’m the one who should be told off for having bad manners instead of him, because no, you didn’t faint.”

His hand was warm against her skin, his touch was doing terrible, wonderful things to her senses. As if he suddenly realized his effect on her, he released her. “Timing is important when life hangs in the balance. The fact that you sent me back to work enabled us to get the job done, for which I’m grateful, but that doesn’t change things. It doesn’t mean that I think this is a good place for you. And yes, I can be silent about who you are, but I can’t ignore it.

“This is a ranch, Delfyne. It’s a big ranch and a prosperous one, but even the biggest ranches revolve around cattle. Animals. Heavy, dangerous machinery. There’s a lot of dirty work, some blood, a ton of sweat and a fair amount of muck. Most of my men are regulars, but sometimes for the short term there are rough, transient workers about, and there are plenty of things a woman like you wouldn’t ordinarily be exposed to. I can’t like that. What were you doing out there, anyway?”

She hesitated. Her first instinct was to say that she had spent two days alone and wanted company. But that sounded a whole lot like, “I’m bored,” the whining of a pampered princess.

“I need to do something,” she said instead.

“In the calving shed?” Was he smiling? Was he laughing at her? Somehow the thought didn’t offend her. It cheered her up.

She laughed. “Oh, is that what you call that place? I had no idea. Will the cow and her baby be all right?”

She expected him to say yes automatically, the way people did. “Probably,” he said instead. “Len is careful but there’s always the danger of infection. One of the men will check in on the two of them round the clock tonight.”

It occurred to her that in his line of work he probably saw a lot of sickness and more. “Did you ever…I don’t know…keep one of them? Name it?”

He stopped and faced her, his shirt still hanging open, his bare chest gleaming in the sun. For a second she felt faint again and she fought not to sway. “This is a ranch, Delfyne. It’s not smart to get attached. I don’t get attached. I know the rules and I always live by them.”

She was pretty sure that he was talking about more than cows. She also knew that he was being smarter than she was, but she was going to be here for several months. This situation—living alone with nothing to do—was unacceptable.

“I need to do more than lounge around reading,” she said. “You may think that’s what—” she glanced to the side “—princesses do,” she whispered. “But I’m not that useless.”

“All right.” He placed his hands on those lean hips. “What kinds of things are you used to doing?”

She thought about that, about the charities and the school and library openings, the things she was good at and would continue to be good at for the rest of her life. But…

Delfyne shook her head. She didn’t want to tell him what she did, because she was sure that he would consider it to be inconsequential. The hilarity of that—that a princess should be concerned that a commoner might not think well of her—didn’t escape her, but it didn’t change the truth, either.

She wanted Owen Michaels to respect her. She hated the fact that he considered her a bit of a pest, an obligation, his friend’s annoying little sister who had been foisted on him. She knew now that he would never send her elsewhere. His sense of duty to her brother was too great. But neither would he be happy until he had carried out his duty and sent her back to her family. He wanted her gone…preferably yesterday.

Anger rose up within her. Wanting a man to like her had gotten her into major unforgettable, never-get-past-it trouble before. She wouldn’t play that role again, and she wouldn’t ever allow a man to make her cower and cringe and beg again.

So, she stepped closer to him. She dared to do what she wouldn’t have done a few minutes earlier. She placed her hand on his bare chest.

It had been meant to be an imperious gesture, a way of showing that she was beyond being affected by him and a way of emphasizing what she was about to say. Instead, instant heat pulsed through her body and it was all she could do to keep herself from leaning toward him. She could feel his heartbeat beneath her fingertips, strong and solid and powerful. There was something very masculine about it, and something much too personal about what she was doing. But if she pulled away too quickly, he would know that he had unnerved her.

“I just want you to know that I’m not going to play the part of the prima donna, lounging around drinking champagne, eating chocolates and giving air kisses to everyone.” She fought to keep the angry edge to her words, to hold on to what she hoped would pass as imperiousness that could not be denied.

“Air kisses?” His hand covered hers, and now her own heart was thundering.

“You know,” she said, losing the battle, her voice coming out soft and strangled. “Where you bring your face close and pretend to kiss someone but you really don’t?”

Now he smiled. “I know what an air kiss is. I just… Do you really think that I believe you do all those things? You don’t, do you?”

Slowly, she shook her head. “Hardly ever.”

“So you’re going to continue not to do those things you don’t do, anyway. Delfyne, I have absolutely no experience with princesses, so tell me…what are you going to do? What do you want to do?”

“Everything,” she said. And for some reason she couldn’t explain, she looked at his lips. Longing washed over her, and she knew darn well that it was completely wrong. The one thing she knew she wasn’t going to do was develop a crush on Owen Michaels. Or on any man, for that matter. But especially not this one. He would hurt her. She knew that…so clearly.

It was that thought and only that thought that enabled her to step back and away from him.

“Just so you know,” she told him. “I want to do everything.”

For several seconds he said nothing, but his eyes said it all. He was not a happy man.

“Define everything,” he finally said.

But she had had enough. Besides, she didn’t have a clue about the specifics of what she had meant.

“I’ll make it up as I go along,” she said.

“Don’t make me regret saying yes to Andreus’s request,” he said.

Which was the perfect thing to break the tension. Delfyne laughed and headed for the house. “Too late. I know that you’ve regretted it from the start, haven’t you?”

He didn’t answer, and for some reason that fact was still bothering her hours later.

CHAPTER FOUR

ALL RIGHT, Owen thought the next day while he was freeing a cow that had gotten stuck in a broken bit of fence. Delfyne had been here only a few days and already she was playing havoc with his world and also—he didn’t even want to think about this—his senses.

It had been a mistake to touch her. Her skin had been soft, softer than any woman’s skin he could remember. And her lips had been so close that he’d wanted to swoop in and taste. He’d wanted his hands on more than just her chin.

“Get a grip, Michaels,” he ordered himself. He was fantasizing about kissing a princess, one who was going to marry a prince. Besides the fact that finding himself with some sort of fatal attraction was really on his list of things never to do, a man would have to be some sort of idiot to put his hands on a forbidden woman.

“That frown on your face can’t mean anything good. Do you need help with that cow?”

Owen looked around to see Ennis approaching in an old open-top Jeep. The man stared at the cow, who was bawling loudly but standing still.

Owen was glad that he wasn’t a man to redden up with embarrassment. “No, my mind was just wandering,” he admitted as he freed the patient animal. “I do need you to mend this fence, though.”

“Done.”

“I thought you were changing the oil in the truck.”

“I was. Lydia sent me to get you.”

“Lydia?” She’d worked for him for years and had never sent for him unless there was an emergency. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, but I gather it has something to do with your gorgeous, exotic visitor.”

Owen’s head swiveled around and he looked at Ennis, who had worked for him for five years and been the most circumspect of men. “Gorgeous, exotic visitor?”

Ennis held up his hands. “I’m just saying…”

“Yeah, well, you better not let Alice hear you ‘just saying…’”

Grinning, Ennis went to the Jeep and got his tools. “Alice was the one who told me Delfyne was gorgeous and exotic.”

“Really? What else did your wife say?”

Ennis gave him a look. “She said that if any woman could jolt you out of your ‘idiotic ways with women’ Delfyne could.”

Owen scowled. “What idiotic ways?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Ennis mused, squatting to get closer to the fence. “Maybe the ones where you bed them but never wed them.”

“Is that right? Well, Ennis, you know how much I adore your wife, but she’s dead wrong on this one. Delfyne is getting married when she goes home.”

“Hmm, Alice isn’t going to like that. She was hoping for the chance to go to a wedding. Your wedding.”

Owen smiled. “Send her my condolences, but it’s not happening. She’ll have to find some other wedding to attend. You’re sure you don’t know what Lydia wants?”

“She just said that she had some important questions to ask you. And she said that you needed to give her a raise if she was going to have to worry about Delfyne hurting herself or setting the house on fire. Maybe you’d better hurry.”

Ennis chuckled as Owen swore, hopped on his ATV and started to take off.

“Oh, Alice says she wants you to come to dinner on Saturday, and she wants you to bring Delfyne, too.”

“Tell her thank you, but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it.”

“She’ll be disappointed.”

Owen stopped and looked at Ennis, his employee and friend. “I’m sorry.”

He was, too, he thought as he sped away on the ATV. Alice was a sweetheart and she was good for Ennis. She was good to everyone, and she tried to fix people’s troubles, including his. She’d started inviting him to dinner not long after Faye had gone, but…Ennis and Alice had two kids, sweet little munchkins. The very sight of them seared his soul and hurt his heart. How could you tell a man and his wife that the children that gave light to their lives ripped your world apart even as you thanked God for putting them on the earth? He begged off on dinner as much as he could, especially since Alice tended to invite women she thought might fill what she perceived as a hole in Owen’s life. Now, if he went with Delfyne, after what Ennis had said…

“I’m really sorry, Alice, hon,” he said out loud to the wind. “It isn’t happening.” What was happening, he saw as he hopped from the vehicle and strode into the house, was that something had exploded in his kitchen.

“Come on. Let me do that,” Lydia was saying.

“No. I messed everything up and I will fix it.” Delfyne’s lilting accent floated out, its sexy timbre sending his body into full alert. Don’t react, he ordered himself. Don’t feel. Don’t desire.

Instead he moved further into the mess, catching both Lydia’s and Delfyne’s attention. They both looked up, and Owen saw that Lydia, while clean, was flustered and concerned. Delfyne’s face was radiant…and covered in numerous smudges of white. Her dark satiny hair had traces of white here and there, too. The kitchen was coated in what appeared to be flour.

“Problem?” he asked as innocently as he could.

“I’m trying to cook,” Delfyne declared, “but I hadn’t quite realized just how heavy a twenty-pound bag of flour could be.”

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