This billionaire dad is pure temptation...from USA TODAY bestselling author Katherine Garbera

No way is cowgirl Amberley Holbrook falling for a billionaire city slicker like Will Brady. He’s only in Texas temporarily and he’s a single father to a baby girl—two reasons she should stay away. If only the widower wasn’t so...irresistible.

In town to investigate trouble at the Texas Cattleman’s Club, Will soon finds himself examining his attraction to the feisty beauty, too. Sure, Amberley might be the perfect distraction, but is Will ready for more?

As happy as she was with her life, with the life she’d carved out for herself, she wanted Will.

Maybe it was just lust.

She sighed and then realized that he’d been staring at her.

“Sorry. I guess I’m getting tired. What did you say?”

“I didn’t say anything. I was only watching you, regretting that I didn’t kiss you when we were on our ride,” he said.

Kiss her? “I thought we’d both decided that was a bad idea.”

“I like bad ideas,” he said.

* * *

Billionaire’s Baby Bind is part of the series Texas Cattleman’s Club: Blackmail—No secret—or heart—is safe in Royal, Texas…

Billionaire’s Baby Bind

Katherine Garbera

www.millsandboon.co.uk

USA TODAY bestselling author KATHERINE GARBERA writes heartwarming and sensual novels that deal with romance, family and friendship. She’s written more than seventy-five novels and is a featured speaker at events all over the world.

She lives in the UK with her husband and Godiva (a very spoiled miniature dachshund), and she’s frequently visited by her college-age children, who need homecooked meals and laundry service. Visit her online at www.katherinegarbera.com.

Thank you to all of the Harlequin Desire authors, editors and readers who have welcomed me as part of this wonderful reading family.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Extract

Copyright

One

Amberley Holbrook wasn’t too keen on meeting new people; she preferred the company of her horses and keeping an eye on the stables where she worked. Normally her boss, Clay Everett of the Flying E, was happy to let her do what she wanted. But they had a guest on the property who had told Clay that he liked to ride. So as a courtesy Clay had suggested she stop by and introduce herself and offer to take the guest for a ride.

This held little appeal for Amberley. First of all, the dude was from Seattle, and the last time she checked there weren’t any real cowboys from there, so that meant he was some kind of city slicker. Second...she and city slickers didn’t get along. She would be the first to admit that was all down to her and her lousy attitude, which was something her father had advised her to keep in check if she wanted to keep this job.

Third...well, there wasn’t any third. Digging in her heels and refusing to do as Clay had asked certainly wasn’t an option. Amberley had packed more into her twenty-four years than most of her peers. She knew she needed to keep her job because she loved the horses she took care of and she certainly didn’t want to go back to her family’s ranch in Tyler, Texas.

That was something her daddy had been sure to remind her of when she’d called him earlier and told him about Clay’s guest. She and her father were close. Her mom had died when Amberley was thirteen and she’d had four younger siblings to watch over. She and her dad had worked as a team to make sure everything on the ranch got done and her younger siblings, ranging in ages from four to ten, were taken care of. Sometimes her dad would say he cheated her out of a childhood, but Amberley never felt that way. She had her horse, Montgomery, and her family, and until she’d turned eighteen, that was all that had mattered.

Amberley understood why she was nervous about this new guest. The city guy had rented a danged Ford Mustang to drive around in this rugged Texas landscape. She could see the sports car parked next to the guest house that Clay had assigned him.

The Flying E was a sprawling ranch built in the heyday of Clay Everett’s Professional Bull Riding career. He’d been at the top of his game until a bull named Iron Heart had thrown him. Clay had had a few ups and downs, but landed back on his feet and started a new career as CEO of Everest, a company that provided ironclad cloud infrastructure to companies. Amberley was the first to admit she had no idea what that really was, but it made Clay a nice fortune and enabled him to employ her as his full-time horse master.

She took care of the stables on the Flying E, provided lessons to locals from Royal and the surrounding county and made sure any guest of the Everetts had access to horses. The ranch itself was sprawling, with a large mansion for the main house and several smaller guest houses. Amberley lived in a cottage that suited her to a T. She’d always wanted her own place and lots of ranch land, something that was beyond the budget of a simple barrel racer like herself. So living on the Flying E and working for Clay gave her the best of both worlds.

She took another look at the sports car.

City guy.

As a teen, she’d watched shows like Gossip Girl and longed to be in Manhattan, though she’d have stuck out like...well, a sore thumb, but she had liked the fantasy of it.

So perhaps it wasn’t quite so surprising that this man was making her curious before she’d even met him.

“Are you going to knock or just stand here all day?” Cara asked as she stood in front of the guest cabin that had been assigned to Will. The cabin itself was really a sprawling three-bedroom cottage that was all natural wood and glass.

Cara was seventeen and also worked on the ranch with Amberley, as her apprentice. She’d brought the teenager with her to meet Clay’s new guest to be sure Amberley didn’t do anything...well, stupid.

“Yeah. I was just waiting for the music to die down a little.”

“I don’t think it’s going to,” Cara said. “I thought he had a baby. You’d think the old dude would put on some headphones.”

“You think he’s old?”

Cara raised both eyebrows at Amberley. “Most def. He’s got a kid, right? So, I’m guessing he must be old—”

“Geez, kid, back in my day we had to boot up a big old DOS machine and wait half a day for our computers to start working.”

The voice was deep and rich, like the faux bass line in White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” and Amberley felt a blush starting at her chest and working up over her cheeks as she turned to look at him. Their eyes met. His were forest green and made her think of the meadow she rode past each morning on her dawn ride on Montgomery.

There was a sardonic note in his voice that she totally got.

He wasn’t old.

He wasn’t old at all.

He wore a faded MIT T-shirt that clung to his shoulders and lean stomach. He had on a pair of faded jeans that hung low on his hips, and as she glanced down at his feet she noticed he had on Converse sneakers.

He was exactly what she’d been fearing and, if she was honest, secretly hoping he would be.

“You don’t look too bad for your age,” Amberley said. “I’m Amberley Holbrook, horse master, and this is my apprentice, Cara. Clay asked me to introduce myself and let you know that the stables are available for your use.”

“Thanks,” he said, holding out his hand to Cara. “Will Brady. Ancient one.”

“Geez, dude, I’m sorry. I was just being mouthy. My mom has been warning me about that forever,” Cara said.

“It’s all right. I probably do seem ancient to a high schooler.”

Cara shook his hand. Amberley wiped her hands on the sides of her jeans and took a deep breath and then their hands met. His skin wasn’t dry and rough, the way so many of the hands of the men on the ranch were. They were soft, and as she looked down she noticed that his nails were neat and intact, not split from accidentally smashing one with a hammer.

She rubbed her thumb over his knuckles and then realized what she was doing and dropped his hand.

“Anyway... Come over to the stables anytime. I’ll have to observe you riding before I can clear you to ride alone.”

“No problem. I’ll probably stop by this afternoon,” he said. “I have a conference call with the sheriff this morning.”

“Is this about Maverick?” Cara asked. “I heard you were in town to stop him.”

Will shrugged and gave her a self-deprecating smile. “Just going to see what I can find on the internet to track that SOB down.”

“I know we will all be glad for that,” Amberley said. “I’m pretty much always at the stables, so stop by anytime.”

Cara arched one eyebrow at Amberley but kept her mouth shut, and they turned and walked back toward the stables. She tried to tell herself that he was just a guy...but she knew that he was so much more than that.

* * *

Amberley wasn’t the kind of woman who had time for gossip or staring at hot guys. Yet she’d found herself riding by his place for the last two mornings hoping for a glimpse of him. Instead she’d had a conversation with Erin Sinclair, Will’s nanny, and she’d even cuddled his cute daughter, eleven-month-old Faye.

Will had called down to the stables earlier to say he was going to come by for a ride, but he wasn’t sure when the computer program he’d been running would be done. So it could be anytime between now and sunset. She was trying to focus on the work she had to do. There were horses to tame to the saddle, and she liked it that way. She’d always preferred animals over people. They were easy to predict, she thought. She’d grown up in a very large family, and the thought of having her own, well... She liked kids and men, but having to take care of her own brood made her break out in hives.

“You have to admit he’s hot,” Cara said. “Not old at all.”

“He’s a city slicker who probably can’t tell a horse from steer. Who has time for that?” Amberley asked.

She and Cara were both grooming horses for the newcomers so they’d be able to take a ride around Clay Everett’s ranch and get the lay of the land. When Cara had asked Amberley if she could help her out at the ranch, her gut instinct had been to say no. After all, what exactly did she have to teach the high school girl, but Cara had been insistent and one thing had led to another, and now she was in the barn grooming horses with a chatty seventeen-year-old.

“I’m just saying if a guy like that looked at me—”

“Your boyfriend would be jealous,” Amberley said. Cara was dating one of the varsity football players.

“Yeah, he would be. For now. Next year he’ll be gone and I’ll be... I don’t know where I’ll be. Did you ever wish you’d gone to college?” Cara asked.

Amberley thought about it. At seventeen she’d wanted to get as far away from Texas, her siblings and the ranching life as she could. She’d wanted a chance to be on her own. But her family hadn’t had the money for college and, to be honest, Amberley had only been an okay student. No one had been offering her any money for school and this job with Clay had come along at the right time. She’d met his foreman when she’d been rodeoing during her early teens and he’d offered the job.

It hadn’t been her dream, but it had meant she’d be out of her dad’s house and away from the siblings she’d had to babysit, and that had seemed like a dream.

At times, it was easy to forget she’d once wanted something else from life. She wasn’t a whiner and didn’t have time to listen to herself think of things that might have been. It was what it was.

“Not really. I have my horses and Clay pretty much lets me have the freedom to run the barn the way I want to. What more could a gal ask for?” Amberley said, hoping that some of her ennui wasn’t obvious to Cara.

“I hope I feel like that someday.”

“You will. You’re seventeen, you’re not supposed to have it all figured out,” she said.

“I hope so,” Cara said. Her phone pinged.

“Go on and chat with your friends. I can finish up the other horse. You know he mentioned he didn’t know when he’d be down here.”

“Here I am,” a masculine voice said. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”

Amberley felt the heat on her face and knew she was blushing. She could blame it on her redhead complexion, but she knew it was embarrassment. She could only be glad he hadn’t arrived any earlier.

“Not disappointed at all,” she said, reaching for her straw cowboy hat before stepping out of the stall and into the main aisle of the barn.

She’d sort of hoped that he wouldn’t be as good-looking as she remembered. But that wasn’t the case. In fact, his thick blond-brown hair looked even thicker today and his jaw was strong and clean-shaven. His green eyes were intense and she couldn’t look away from him.

She told herself her interest in him was just because he was so different than the other men around the ranch.

If he had a pair of Wrangler jeans and some worn ranch boots she wouldn’t be interested in him at all. But the fact that he had a Pearl Jam T-shirt on and a pair of faded jeans that clung to all the right spots was the only reason she was even vaguely attracted to him.

She noticed his mouth was moving and she thought she wouldn’t mind it moving against hers. But then she realized he was speaking when Cara, who’d come out of her stall as well, looked at her oddly.

“Sorry about that. What did you say?”

“I was just saying that I’m sorry if just showing up messed up your schedule. I do appreciate you being available on my timetable,” he said. “If you need more time to get ready I can wait over there.”

She shook her head. He was being so reasonable. But she just had a bee in her bonnet when it came to this guy. Well, to all men who came from the city. She wished he wasn’t so darn appealing. That maybe his voice would be soft or odd, but of course, he didn’t have some silly city voice. Instead, his words were like a deep timbre brushing over her ears and her senses like a warm breeze on a summer’s day. Since it was Texas, October wasn’t too cool, but it was fall and she missed summer.

But with him... Dammit. She had to stop this.

“I’m ready. Cara, will you show Mr. Brady to his horse?” she asked her apprentice, who was watching her with one of those smirks only a teenager could manage.

“Sure thing, Ms. Holbrook,” Cara said sarcastically.

“You can call me Will,” he told Cara.

“Ms. Holbrook, can Will call you Amberley?”

That girl. She was pushing Amberley because she knew she could. “Of course.”

“Thanks, Amberley,” he said.

She told herself that there was nothing special about the way he said her name, but it sent shivers—the good kind—down her spine. She had to nip this attraction in the bud. Will was going to be here for a while helping Max St. Cloud investigate the cyberbully and blackmailer Maverick, who’d been wreaking havoc on the local residents, particularly the members of the Texas Cattleman’s Club, releasing videos and other damning stories on the internet. Will was the CTO of the company, so he was more of a partner to Max than an employee, and rumor had it they were old friends.

“No prob,” she said. “How’d you end up here in Royal?” Amberley asked Will while Cara went to get his horse.

“Chelsea Hunt and Max go way back. So she asked for our help to try to find the identity of Maverick.”

Maverick had been doing his best to make life hell for the members of the Texas Cattleman’s Club. He’d been revealing secrets gleaned from hacking into smartphones and other internet connected devices. He’d made things uncomfortable for everyone in Royal.

“I like Chelsea. She’s smart as a whip,” Amberley said. And she seemed to really have her stuff together. No shrinking violet, Chelsea was one of the women that Amberley looked up to in Royal. She lived her life on her own terms, and Amberley was pretty sure that if Chelsea liked a guy she didn’t have to come up with reasons to avoid him...the way that Amberley herself had been doing.

Cara came back with Will’s mount and Amberley went back into the stall and saw her faithful horse, Montgomery, waiting for her. She went to the animal and rested her forehead against the horse’s neck. Montgomery curved her head around Amberley’s and she felt a little bit better. She had always been better with horses than people.

And normally that wouldn’t bother her. But it would be nice not to screw up around men as much as she just had with Will. She didn’t enjoy feeling like an awkward country bumpkin.

* * *

Will hadn’t expected to feel so out of place in Texas. He’d been to Dallas before and thought that the stereotype of boots, cowboy hats and horses was something from the past or in the imagination of television producers. But being here on the Flying E had shown him otherwise.

Amberley was cute and a distraction. Something—hell, someone—to take his mind off Seattle and all that he’d left behind there. All that he’d lost. To be honest, coming out here might have been what he needed. His baby girl was sleeping with her nanny watching over her, and he was someplace new.

Max hadn’t batted an eye when Will had told him he needed to bring his daughter and her nanny along with him to Royal. His friend had known that Will was a dedicated single dad.

He had work to do, of course, but he’d ridden a long time ago and thought getting back on a horse might be the first step to moving on. From his wife’s death.

It was funny, but after Lucy’s death everyone had been comforting and left him to process his grief. But now that so many months had gone by and he was still in the same routine, they were starting to talk, and his mom and Lucy’s mom weren’t as subtle as they both liked to think they were, with their encouragement to “live again” and reminders that he still had a long life ahead of him.

Lucy had had a brain hemorrhage a few weeks before she was due. The doctors had kept her alive until she gave birth to Faye. Then they took her off the machines that had been keeping her alive and she’d faded away. He’d asked them to wait a week after Faye’s birth because he hadn’t wanted his daughter’s birthday to also be the day she’d lost her mom.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Sorry. Just distracted,” he said.

“It happens,” she said. She spoke with a distinctive Texan drawl. It was so different from Lucy’s Northwestern accent that he... Hell, he needed to stop thinking about her. He was getting away for a while, helping out a friend and having a ride to clear his head. He knew he should let that be enough.

“It does. Sorry, I’m really bad company right now. I thought...”

“Hey. You don’t have to entertain me. Whenever I’m in a bad place mentally—not saying you are—but when I am, I love to get out of the barn, take Montgomery here for a run. There’s no time to think about anything except the terrain and my horse—it clears away the cobwebs in my mind.”

He had just noticed how pretty her lips were. A shell-pink color. And when she smiled at him her entire face seemed to light up. “Just what I need. Let’s do this.”

“Well, before we get started I need to know what your horsemanship level is,” she said. “We’ll pick our route based on that.”

“Summer camp and college polo team,” he said. “I stopped playing about three years ago. I’m a pretty decent rider and keep a horse at a stable near my home. But haven’t been riding much since my daughter was born.”

“Sounds like you might be a bit rusty but you’ve got some skills,” she said. “I’ll start ya out easy and see how it goes.”

“I’m yours to command,” he said.

“Mine to command? Not sure I’ve ever had anything with two legs under my command.”

He threw his head back and laughed. She was funny, this one. He wasn’t sure if she’d meant that to be a come-on, but there was something sort of innocent about her so he guessed not. She was very different from Lucy, his late wife. That twinge he always experienced at the thought of her colored the moment.

“Let’s start with a ride,” he said.

She nodded. “There’s a mounting block over there if you need a leg up. I’ll let you go first.”

“Thanks,” he said, leading his horse to the block and mounting easily. He shifted around in the saddle until he was comfortable. The horse she had him on was easily controlled and led and seemed comfortable with him as a rider.

“So why are you here?” she asked as she mounted her own horse.

He told himself to look away but didn’t. Her jeans hugged the curve of her butt and as she climbed on the horse there was something very natural about how she moved. As she put both feet in the stirrups and sat up, he realized she looked more at home on horseback than she had talking to him.

“Ah, I’m here to investigate all the trouble that Maverick is causing. I’m really good at tracking someone’s cyber footprint.”

She shook her head and then gently brushed her heels against her horse and made a clicking sound. “I don’t even know what a cyber footprint is.”

He laughed a little at her comment. “Most people don’t think about it, but with smartphones and social media apps, we all are leaving a trail that can be followed.”

“That makes sense,” she said. “You ready for a run or do you just want to take it slow and steady?” she asked as they left the barn area and reached the open plains.

The land stretched out as far as he could see. It was October, so in Seattle it was rainy and growing colder, but the sun was shining down on them today in Texas and the weather was warm. He lifted his face to the sun, taking a deep breath. It was a good day to be alive.

As the thought crossed his mind, he remembered Lucy again and shook his head. He wasn’t going to cry for the wife he’d lost or the family that had been broken. Not now and not in front of this strong, sunny cowgirl.

“Run,” he said.

“Just the answer I was hoping for. Follow me. I’m going to start slow and then build. This part of the ranch is safe enough for a run.”

She took off and he sat there for a moment stuck in the past until she glanced over her shoulder, her long braid flying out to the side, and smiled at him.

“You coming?”

This ride was just the thing he needed to draw him out of the gloom of the past.

“Hell, yes.”

* * *

Riding had always been Amberley’s escape. But with Will riding by her side, she felt more fenced-in than free. Clay had asked everyone at the Flying E to make Will feel welcome and she tried to tell herself that was all she was doing now. He was just another guest, a city boy, at that. He was here temporarily. She didn’t like to think about her past or about the guy she’d fallen too hard and too quickly for. But there was something about Will that brought that all up.

Mostly, she realized it was superficial. They were both outsiders to her way of life. But where Sam Pascal had been looking for some sort of Western fantasy, it seemed to her that Will was looking...well, for a cyberbully but also for some sort of escape. There was a sadness that lingered in his eyes and when he thought no one was looking she could see that he was battling with his own demons.

Something she battled herself.

She heard him thundering along behind her and glanced over her shoulder. He sat in the saddle well and moved like he’d been born to ride. It was hard to keep him shoved in the city-slicker box when she saw him on horseback. She turned to face the field in front of them, taking a moment just to be glad for this sunny October day.

It was good to be alive.

The air had the nip of fall to it and the sky was so big it seemed to stretch forever. She slowed her horse and waited for Will to catch up to her.

He did in a moment and she glanced over to see a big smile on his face.

“I needed this.”

Two

“Not bad for a city boy,” Amberley told him as they allowed their horses to walk and cool down after their run. “I’m sorry I was judgmental about your skills.”

Will couldn’t help but like his riding guide. She was blunt and honest and it was refreshing. At work everyone treated him like he was the walking wounded and, of course, at home his nanny only discussed Faye. Rightly so. But Amberley didn’t. She’d been treating him like a regular guy.

He hadn’t realized how much he needed to get away and be with people who didn’t know the personal details of his life. There was something freeing about being with Amberley on this sunny October afternoon. He felt for a moment like his old self. Before Lucy.

He felt a pang. Shook his head to shove the feeling from his mind.

“I didn’t realize you were judging me,” he said.

She tipped her cowboy hat back on her head and turned to gaze at him with a sardonic look. Her face was in shadows beneath the straw cowboy hat, but he could read her body language. She was sassy and funny, this cowgirl.

Distracting.

“I was judging you and it wasn’t fair. It’s just the last time I was around city folk was when I worked on this dude ranch in Tyler and a lot of them were...well, not very good riders. So I lumped you in with them. I should have known Clay wouldn’t have told me to give you free rein if you didn’t know what you were doing,” she said. She held the reins loosely in one hand, and pushed the brim of her hat back on her forehead with the other.

Her eyes were a deep brown that reminded him of the color of his mocha in the morning. They were pretty and direct and he was almost certain when she was angry they’d show her temper. Will wondered how they’d look when she made love.

Then he shook his head.

This was the first time lust had come on so strongly since Lucy’s death. And it took him by surprise.

He shook his head again. “To be fair, I’m not sure he knew my skill level. I think Max asked him to make sure I get the full Texas experience.”

“The full Texas? That’s funny. Well, this might be about it,” she said, gesturing to the pastures.

He skimmed his gaze over the landscape and then settled back in the saddle. It reminded him of some of the places he’d visited growing up. His family had some property in Montana and there was a similar feeling of freedom from the real world here.

“I’m sure riding across the open plain isn’t the only thing that’s unique to Texas,” he said. “You mentioned Tyler—did you just visit that dude ranch?”

“Nah,” she said, looking away from him. But before she did he noticed a hint of sadness in her eyes.

“I worked there when I was in high school in the summers. Clay offered me this job after...well, when I was ready to leave my family’s ranch. My daddy said I was losing myself by mothering my brothers and sisters and he wanted me to have a chance to have my own life. I’m pretty good with horses. My daddy has a nice-sized ranch in Tyler. What about you? Where are you from? The Northwest, right?”

“Yes. Seattle area. Bellevue, actually. It’s a suburb,” he said. He’d never wanted to live anywhere else growing up. He loved the mountains and his waterfront property, but after Lucy...well, he’d been struggling to make Bellevue feel like home again.

“I’ve heard of it. I think Bill Gates lives there.”

“We’re not neighbors,” Will said with a laugh.

She shook her head and laughed. “I’ll jot that down. You ready for a ride back or you want to see some more?”

“What’s left to see?”

She rocked back in her saddle, shifting to extend her arm. “Out that way is the south pasture—there’s a creek that runs through it. Down that way is the—”

“Let me guess—north pasture.”

“Ha. I was going to say castration shed. We do that in the spring,” she said.

He shook his head. “I’ll skip that.”

“Guys always say that.”

She was teasing him and he observed that her entire countenance had changed. Her relaxed smile made him realize how full and lush her mouth was, and the way she tipped her head to the side, waiting for his response, made him want to do something impulsive.

Like lean over and kiss her.

He slammed the door on that idea and sat back in his saddle to be a little farther away from her. There was just something about her easy smile and the wind stirring around them. And he was on horseback in Texas, so far away from his normal world, that he wanted to pretend he was someone different. A man who wasn’t so tired from not sleeping and hoping he was making the right choices all the time.

He knew that nothing would come of kissing Amberley. He wasn’t here to hook up. He was here to do a job. Besides that, he wasn’t ready for anything else. He knew that. But for a moment, he wished he were.

“Back to the ranch.”

She didn’t move, but just stared at him—there was a closed expression on her face now. “Sorry, sir, didn’t mean to be inappropriate. Follow me. You want to run back or walk?”

“Amberley—”

“I was out of line. I guess I forgot you were a guest for a second.”

“Who did you think I was?” he asked.

“Just a guy,” she said, turning her horse and making a clicking sound. Then she took off back the way they’d come.

* * *

He galloped after her and reached over to take her reins, drawing both of their rides to a stop.

She took back her reins and gave him a good hard glare. “Don’t do that again.”

“Well, I couldn’t figure out another way to stop you,” he yelled. He wasn’t sure what he’d stepped into, but he could tell something had changed and he was pretty damn sure he was the cause.

“Why would you want to?” she asked. “I’m pretty sure you want to get back to the ranch and I’m taking you there.”

“Don’t act that way,” he said. “I’m sorry. My life is complicated.”

She nodded and then looked away. “Everyone’s life is complicated. We’re not simple hicks out here on the ranch.”

He hadn’t meant to hurt or offend her.

And all of a sudden he felt ancient. Not twenty-eight. Not like a new father should feel, but like Methuselah. And he hated that. He’d always been...a different man. His father had said he was lucky and someday his luck would wear thin. But he knew his father wouldn’t rejoice in the way his luck had run out. Losing Lucy had changed him, and some people would say not for the better.

“I’m sorry,” he said. The words sounded rusty and forced but they weren’t. She didn’t deserve to be treated the way he’d treated her, because he wanted her and he knew he wasn’t going to do anything about it. He wasn’t about to invite another person into the chaos that his life was right now.

“What for?”

“That sounded...jerky, didn’t it? Like I’m trying to imply that your life isn’t complicated,” he said. “That’s not at all what I meant. I just meant I’m a mess and this ride was nice and you are wonderful...”

He trailed off. What else could he say? He thought she was cute. Maybe he’d like to kiss her, if he wasn’t so stuck in that morass of guilt and grief. And then more guilt because his grief was starting to wane. And it’s not like Lucy would have expected him to grieve forever, but moving on was like saying goodbye again.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she said.

“What?”

“Saying I’m wonderful. I mean, I have faults like everyone else,” she said. Her words were light and obviously meant to give him a way back from the dark place he’d wondered into. But in her eyes he saw weariness and he knew that she wasn’t as...well, undamaged as he had believed she was.

“You seem like it from here,” he said at last.

“Then I better keep up the illusion.”

But now that she’d brought it up he was trying to see what there was to the young horsewoman. She seemed uncomplicated. He thought about how when he was her age, life had been pretty damned sweet.

“Tell me,” he prompted.

“Tell you what?” she asked.

“Something that isn’t wonderful about you,” he said.

“Ah, well, I think that would be easy enough. I have a short temper. I believe I gave you a glimpse of that a moment ago.”

“You sure did,” he said with a laugh. “But that could also be called spunk. I like feisty women.”

“You do?” she asked, then shook her head. “What about you? What’s one of your faults?”

“Hell, I’m not even sure where to begin,” he said. And he knew that he didn’t want to open that can of worms. His life was littered with regrets lately. Only spending time with Faye or sitting in the dark working on the computer tracking down code seemed to get him out of his own head space.

“I’m not as clever as I once believed I was.”

She started laughing. “Well, I think that’s the same for all of us. Race you back to the barn?”

“Sure, but since I haven’t ridden in a while I think I deserve a handicap.”

“Really?” she asked. “That is such a load of crap. If I hadn’t seen you ride out here I might have fallen for it.”

“It was worth a try,” he said.

The fall breeze blew, stirring the air, and a strand of her red hair slipped from her braid and brushed against her cheek. He leaned forward in his saddle and gripped the reins to keep from reaching out and touching her.

He’d just shoved a big wedge between them. A smart man would leave it in place. A smart man would remember that Amberley wasn’t a woman to mess with and he had never been the kind of man who screwed around with anyone.

But he didn’t feel smart.

He felt lonely and like it had been too long since he’d been able to breathe and not catch the faint scent of hospital disinfectant. He wanted to sit here until night fell and then maybe he’d think about heading back to the life he had. He wanted...

Something he wasn’t in a position to take.

He knew that.

“Hey, Will?”

He looked up, realizing that she’d been staring at him the entire time.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t sweat it. I’ve got a beef with city dudes and it’s clear that you have something with your baby’s mama to deal with. You’re hot and the way you ride a horse makes me feel things I’d rather not admit to, but that’s it. You’re on the Flying E to work and as a guest and I’m going to treat you like that. So don’t think...”

“What do you feel?” he asked.

Will knew he felt reckless and dangerous and he wasn’t going to stop now. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to pull her off the horse and into his arms and see where that led.

“Like I said, I’m not going there.”

He shifted in the saddle and dismounted his horse, dropping the reins on the ground to check that the horse would stay, and it did.

Will walked over to her and stood there next to her horse, looking up at her. He was closer now, and he could see her eyes, and he wasn’t sure what he read in her expression. He was going to tell himself it was desire and need. The same things he was feeling, but he was afraid he might be projecting.

“Come on down here,” he said. “Just for this afternoon let’s pretend we aren’t those people. I’m not a guest and you’re not a ranch hand. We’re just a guy and his girl and we’ve got this beautiful afternoon to spend together.”

* * *

Never in her life had Amberley wanted to get off a horse more. But her gut said no. That this wasn’t going to be sweet or uncomplicated. And the last time she’d been sweet-talked by a guy it hadn’t ended well. It didn’t matter that she was older and wiser now. She didn’t feel as if she was either.

Riding hadn’t helped to chase away her demons back then, when she’d found herself pregnant and alone at eighteen, and it wasn’t helping now. He stood there in his clothes, not fake-cowboy duded up the way some city guys dressed when they came to Texas, and to be fair he looked like he fit in. He wasn’t chasing a Wild West fantasy, he was here to do a job.

And her job was to make him feel comfortable.

What could be more comfortable than hanging out together?

Dumb.

Stupid.

His hair was thick and wavy and he wasn’t wearing a hat, so she could see the way he’d tousled it when he’d run his fingers through it. She wasn’t getting off her horse. She was going to be sensible.

Please, Amberley, be sensible.

But she never had been.

She suspected it was because she’d had to be so responsible so young. She’d always had to take care of her younger brothers and sisters. But that was in Tyler, and she was away from there now, with no one to worry about but herself.

And this was safe. He just wanted to spend the afternoon together.

One afternoon.

Surely even she could manage that without having it go to hell.

She shifted and started to turn to swing her leg over the saddle and dismount, then she saw the smile on his face and the look of relief.

He was unsure.

Just like her.

Except he wasn’t like her. He had ties. And she hadn’t asked about them earlier. There was so much she didn’t know. Where was his baby’s mother? That baby was pretty damn young to be living with a nanny and her father. Was there any way this could be just an afternoon?

If it was...then the mom didn’t matter... Unless they were still together. That would be—

“Hey, before we do this. Where is your baby’s mother? I don’t want to pry but you’re not still with her, right?” she asked.

He stepped back—stumbled was more like it—and she suddenly wished she’d kept her mouth shut.

There was no denying the way all the color left his face, or how he turned away from her and cursed under his breath.

“No,” he said, walking back over to his horse and taking his saddle with much skill and finesse.

“We’re not still together. She’s dead.” He made a clicking sound and took off across the field as if the hounds of hell were chasing him, and Amberley guessed maybe they were.

She stood there, a wave of sadness rolling over her. A part of her had died when she’d miscarried. Seeing Will...had made her realize that they were two sides of the same coin. She had no baby and no family and he had a baby and no wife or mother for the child. He was trying to deal with the loss the same way she had been.

She knew that riding helped at times but she’d never been able to outrun the pain. Those memories and the truth of her life were always waiting when she’d gotten off the horse.

She clicked her mare and followed Will close enough to call out if he took a path that wasn’t safe, but he had watched their trail on the way out and he made no mistakes on the way back.

She slowed her own horse to a walk as Will entered the stable area and decided that maybe she should just let him go. Give him some space to dismount and leave before she entered the barn again.

She saw the ring that she’d set up earlier to practice barrel racing and rode over that way. Montgomery and she had been partners for the last year or so. And when the Flying E could spare her she took the horse and went and competed in rodeos.

Three

Will had just spent the last ten minutes in the barn trying to avoid a confrontation with Amberley—the woman he’d practically run away from. But he had no doubt she would be avoiding him after his foolish reaction to her harmless question about Faye’s mother.

It was hard to think that at twenty-eight he was turning into his father, but it seemed that way more and more. And it wasn’t Faye who was forcing the change. It was him. It was as if he’d lost that spark that had always driven him. And the therapist he’d seen for two sessions at his mom’s insistence had said that grief took time.

But as he left the barn and spotted Amberley exercising her horse in the ring, he felt that stirring again.

It was lust, because even though he was grieving he wasn’t dead, and the feeling was laced with something more. Something much more. She was one with the horse as she raced around the barrels, her braid flying out behind her as she leaned into the curves and got low over the horse’s neck, whispering encouragement, he imagined.

He watched her and wanted her.

She stopped at the end of her run and looked over toward the barn. Their eyes met and he felt stupid just standing there.

He clapped.

But that felt dumb, too.

It seemed that he’d left his smarts behind in Seattle, he thought. Everything was different here. He tried to justify his feelings—like he needed an excuse to find a woman pretty or be turned on by her. Yet in a way he felt he did.

But that was his issue, not Amberley’s. And it wasn’t fair to her to bring her into the swirling whirlpool that his emotions were at this moment.

She nodded and then turned away from him.

Dismissing him.

He’d had his chance and he’d ruined it.

Maybe it was for the best. He had Faye to take care of and a criminal to catch. In fact, he needed to get back to work. Without another glance at her he turned and walked to the golf cart that had been allocated for his use during his stay on the Flying E. He put it in gear and drove to the house that Clay Everett had been generous enough to provide. To be honest, he knew that Clay had a stake in Will finding Maverick, as did most of Royal.

He shifted gears as he drove farther and farther away from the barn and the cowgirl that he’d left there, but a part of his mind was still fantasizing about the way his afternoon could have gone.

His nanny, Erin Sinclair, was waiting for him at the door when he got back.

“Faye’s asleep and I need to run to town to pick up some more baby food and formula. Are you okay if I go now?” she asked.

He had hired Erin to help with the baby even before Lucy’s untimely death. His late wife had been a product rep for a large pharmaceutical company and traveled a lot for work. Though Will spent a lot of time in his home office, he tended to have a single-minded focus, so he knew that by the time Faye was born, both he and Lucy would have needed help with the baby.

“Yes, go,” he said.

He went into the bedroom they used as a nursery and looked down at Faye’s sleeping face. He tried to see Lucy in her features but he was starting to forget what she looked like. Of course he had pictures of her but he was starting to lose that feeling of what she’d looked like as she smiled at him. The different feeling she’d stirred in him with one of her expressions that a mere photo couldn’t capture.

Dammit.

He turned away from the crib and walked out of the room. He had a monitor app on his phone and had a window that he could keep open on one of the many monitors in his office so he could keep an eye on her.

He walked into the darkened large bedroom that he’d turned into his office for the duration of his stay in Royal. He had four large computer monitors that were hooked up to different hard drives and were all running multiple programs that would determine where Maverick was basing himself online.

Almost all of the attacks had been cyber-based, so Chelsea was working on the theory that he was very internet savvy. In a way that worked in their favor because there weren’t many top computer experts in Royal. But then hackers wouldn’t be known to many.

One of Will’s skills was the ability to look at code and see a digital fingerprint in it. Maverick had habits just like everyone and Will was searching for those, looking for a trail back to the creep’s identity.

He opened his laptop after he checked the progress on the different computers and made sure all of his scripts were still running.

He launched his internet browser and searched for information on Amberley Holbrook. He wasn’t surprised to see her listed in a bunch of small-town rodeos, stretching from Texas to Oklahoma to Arkansas, as a winner or a top-three finisher in barrel-racing competitions. There was a photo of her winning run in a recent event and he clicked to open it larger in his photo application so he could zoom in on her face. There was concentration but also the biggest damn grin he’d ever seen.

That girl was happiest on the back of a horse.

Why?

He noticed how she was when she was off her horse. On her guard and waiting to see how everyone around her reacted. Given that he was starting to behave that way, he wondered what had happened to force her to build those kinds of walls. She definitely had them.

Why?

And why the hell did he care?

Because she intrigued him. She was different. Funny, sexy, sassy. She made him think of things he hadn’t in a really long time.

And he’d just walked away from her. He’d decided he had too much baggage to dally with a woman who was tied to Texas and this ranch. He wasn’t here for longer than it took to find the cyber coward Maverick, then he was out of here. And back in the Pacific Northwest, where he could slowly rot from guilt and grief.

That sounded damn pitiful. He had never been that kind of man and he wasn’t too sure that Faye was going to want a father who was like that.

He knew he had to move on.

Will had come here in part because Max had asked and also because he knew he had to get away from the memories, get away from the guilt and the grief. But he was in no position to move on. He had to keep moving forward until he figured out what he wanted next. Amberley had been a distraction but also something more. She was honest and forthright. He liked that.

He liked her.

If he were in a different place in his life then the zing of attraction that had arced between them...well, he would feel better about acting on it.

But he wasn’t.

And that wasn’t fair to her.

Who said life was fair... The words of his therapist drifted through his mind. He’d been lamenting the fact that Faye would never know Lucy and that it wasn’t fair.

Well, life might not be, but he knew he couldn’t just use Amberley for himself and then leave. That wasn’t right.

And he hadn’t changed at his core.

But she intrigued him...

* * *

Amberley blasted My Chemical Romance as she got ready to go out. It was Friday night and two days had passed since...whatever the hell that had been with Will. She tried to remind herself he was a city dude and she should have known better than to be attracted to him, but that hadn’t kept him out of her dreams for the last two nights.

So when her cousin from Midland had called and said she’d be driving through Royal on Friday and did Amberley want to go out, she’d said yes. Normally she was all for comfy jammies and binge-watching one of her favorite TV shows on Netflix, but tonight she needed to get out of her own head.

She was ready to dance to some rowdy country music, drink too much tequila and flirt with some small-town boys who wouldn’t walk away from her without a word. It had been a long time since she had blown off steam and it was the weekend. Even though she sometimes acted like she was ready for the retirement home, she was still young.

But she didn’t feel it.

There was a weight in her heart that made her feel older than her years. And when Will had said his life was complicated she’d...well, she’d ached because she knew complicated.

She knew what it was like to be a big, fat, red-hot mess masquerading as normal. She’d done that for a year after she’d lost the baby and then gotten the devastating news that she’d never be able to have a child. A part of her should have rejoiced that he’d only seen what she had wanted him to—a cowgirl who was damn good with horses.

But that connection she’d felt with him had made her want him to see more.

And he hadn’t.

He hadn’t.

She was wearing her good jeans—a dark wash that fit like a second skin—and a pair of hand-tooled boots that her brothers and sisters had given her for Christmas. They had a fancy design featuring turquoise and she’d completed her outfit with a flirty peasant top. She’d taken the time to blow-dry her hair and not just pull it back in a braid, so it fell around her shoulders.

She finished her makeup and put a dash of lip gloss on before grabbing her purse and heading out. She was halfway to her truck when she realized someone was in her yard. Not that it was really her yard, since Clay owned all the property, but that little area in front of her place.

Amberley glanced over and realized the someone was a dog. A ragged stray that was making mewling sounds that she couldn’t ignore. He was a rather sad-looking animal with a matted coat. She tossed her purse on the hood of her truck and turned toward the dog, careful not to spook it as she walked toward it. She crouched low and held out her hand for it to sniff once she was close enough.

The animal whimpered and then slowly moved closer to her. She held her ground, noticing that it limped. One of his legs was injured. Just the distraction she needed. Animals were the one thing on this planet that she was actually good with.

She waited until the dog came closer and noticed that there were some briars wrapped around his hind leg, and when she reached for the leg he moaned and moved away from her.

“All right, boy. I’ll let it be. But we are going to have to take you to get that looked at,” she said. She stood up, pulled her phone from her back pocket and texted her cousin that she’d be a little late. Then she went back into her place, got a blanket, a bowl and bottle of water. Then she grabbed a carrot from the fridge and went back outside.

The dog was exactly where she’d left him. Waiting for her.

“Good boy. You’re a boy, right?” she asked.

The dog didn’t answer—not that she expected him to. She put the bowl down in front of him and gave him some water and stood to watch him as he drank, then texted the small animal vet that Clay used to let him know she’d be bringing in an injured dog. Though it was after hours, Clay had an agreement for the ranch that included 24/7 coverage.

She spent the next hour getting the dog settled at the vet. He had a chip and the vet contacted his owners, who were very glad to find him. Amberley waited until they arrived before leaving to meet her cousin. But the truth was she no longer wanted to go out.

The dog—Barney—reminded her of how alone she was. Even the stray had someone to go home to. His owners had been really nice and so happy she’d found him and Amberley was gracious to them, but a part of her had wanted the stray to be a loner. To maybe need her.

She hated that she was feeling down about her life. She’d finally gotten past everything that had happened when she was eighteen and now some dude was making her question her situation. She’d never been this knocked on her butt for some guy. Yet there was something about him that had made her want to be more. Want to be someone she hadn’t thought about being in a long time.

But there it was.

She wanted to see him again.

Her cousin was waiting in the parking lot of the Wild Boar, a roadhouse that served food and drinks and had a small dance floor with live music on the weekends. There were pool tables in the back and a mechanical bull. If you weren’t in the upper echelon of Royal and weren’t a member of the Texas Cattleman’s Club, then this was the place to hang out.

“Hey, girl. You ready to blow off some steam?”

She nodded. Maybe a night out with Royal’s rowdy crowd was what she needed to remind her of where she belonged and whom she belonged with...and it wasn’t a hot guy from Seattle.

* * *

Midnight was his favorite time of night and when he found the most clarity when he was working—tonight wasn’t any different. Faye was a little night owl like he was, so the baby was playing on the floor at his feet while he watched the scripts that were running and tracking down Maverick on the monitor nearest to him.

She’d woken up crying. Erin was worn out from a long day of dealing with Faye teething, and since Will was up at night working anyway, they’d established that he would take the night shift.

Maverick wasn’t the cleverest hacker, but whoever he was, the man was running his internet through a few connections. It would have fooled someone who didn’t have Will’s experience, but he’d been a pirate hunter in high school for a large software company that his dad had helped found and he’d spent a lot of years learning how to follow and find people who didn’t want to be found.

“Dada.”

“Yes?” He looked down at Faye. Her face was so sweet and she was holding a large round plastic toy up to him.

He took it from her.

She immediately reached for one a size smaller and held it up to him. This was one of her favorite new games. She gave him all the toys around her and then he had to sit still while she took them back and put them in a seemingly random order in front of him.

But this time she was done handing them all to him, so she crawled over to where he sat on the floor next to her and crawled onto his lap. He scooped her up and hugged her close.

His heart was so full when he held his daughter. She smelled of baby powder and sweetness. He knew sweetness wasn’t a scent, but when he held Faye it was what he always felt.

He stood up and walked around the house with her while she babbled at him. He set a notification on the computers to alert his phone when the scripts were finished running and then put Faye’s jacket on her so they could go for a walk. He’d grown up in Bellevue, near the water, and some of his earliest memories were of being outside with his mom at night looking at the sky.

He knew that many people would expect Faye to be in bed at midnight, but she wasn’t looking sleepy at all. It was probably his fault for having a long nap with her in the afternoon. He’d been keeping odd hours since they had arrived in Royal.

He walked toward the barn, telling Faye the stories his mom had told him. Will’s mom’s people had been sailors and the sky and the water were a big part of their history.

He heard the rumble of a truck engine and turned as a large pickup rounded the corner. He stepped off the dirt track to make sure he wasn’t in the path of the vehicle.

The truck slowed and the passenger-side window rolled down. He walked over and was pretty sure it was Clay Everett. But Will knew if he had a woman like Sophie waiting for him at home, he’d have a better way to spend his night than patrolling his ranch.

“Hey, Will. You okay?” Amberley asked.

He was surprised to see her. She had obviously been out, as she smelled faintly of smoke. Her hair was thick and fell around her shoulders. The tousled tresses, so different from her neat braid, made his fingers tingle with the need to touch her hair.

He regretted leaving her the other afternoon. One kiss. Would that have been so bad? Even Lucy wouldn’t begrudge him that. But he hadn’t taken it.

So instead a need was growing in him fast and large. Each day it seemed to expand and he knew he was losing control.

“Yeah. Faye’s a night owl like me so I thought I’d take her for a walk.”

Faye heard her name and started babbling again.

“Want some company?” Amberley asked.

“Sure,” he said.

She turned off the engine of her truck and climbed out, coming around by him. Her perfume hit him then—it was sweet like spring flowers. There was a slight breeze tonight and Amberley tipped her head back and looked up at the sky.

“When I was little, my dad told us that if we were really good we’d see a special angel in the sky.”

“Did you ever see one?”

“Yeah,” Amberley said. She stretched out her arm and pointed to Venus. “There she is.”

“That’s Venus.”

“Show some imagination, Brady. That’s my special angel. She watches over me at night.”

“Does she?”

Amberley nodded. But she wasn’t looking up anymore—she was staring at Faye. “She’ll watch over you, too, little lady.”

Faye answered with one of her babbles. And Amberley listened until Faye was done and then she nodded. “I know. It’s hard to believe that someone up there is looking out for you, but she is.”

Faye babbled some more.

“Your mama?” Amberley asked when she was done.

Faye babbled and then ended with “Mamamam.”

“Mine, too. They are probably friends,” Amberley said.

Faye shifted toward Amberley and Amberley looked over at him for permission before reaching for the baby. Will let Faye go to Amberley and watched the two of them talking to each other. She was good with the baby. He was surprised that Faye had wanted to go to her. She was usually pretty shy with strangers.

He noticed that both of the girls were looking at him.

“She’s usually not so eager to go to strangers.”

“Well, we’re not strangers,” Amberley said. “We chatted up a storm while you were holding her.”

“You sure did,” Will said.

Something shifted and settled inside of him. It was a tightness he wasn’t even aware of until that moment. And then he realized that he wanted Faye to like Amberley because it didn’t matter how guilty he may feel afterward, he wanted to get to know her better.

Four

The night sky was clear, filled with stars and the waning moon. Amberley tipped her head back, feeling the emotions of the week fall away. The baby in her arms was sweet and soft. She had been cooing and pointing to things as they walked and Amberley fought against the pain in her heart she’d thought she’d finally gotten over.

She loved babies. Loved their smiles and their laughter. The way that they communicated if you just took the time to listen to them.

Her dad had told her that she shouldn’t give up on a family, but the hysterectomy she’d had at eighteen had pretty much put paid to that. She couldn’t have a baby of her own. So she tended to spoil any kiddos she met.

“You’re awfully quiet over there,” she said, realizing that Will hadn’t said much in the last few minutes. She’d suggested they lie in the bed of her pickup truck and watch the night sky. Will had agreed but only, he’d said, until Faye got sleepy.

“Just trying to get this app to work,” he said.

He’d mentioned having an app that could show meteor and comet activity in the night sky and was trying to get it to work. Amberley had spread a blanket she kept for picnics on the bed of the truck and she and Faye had been playing together while he tried.

“If it doesn’t work we can just make up stories,” she said.

“Like what?” he asked.

“That star over there is Lucky.”

“As in it brings luck?” he asked.

“No, its name is Lucky. Sometimes the star falls to earth and takes on the persona of a rock superstar during the day, and at dusk it’s drawn back up into the night sky, where she stays steady and true so that little cowgirls and cowboys who are out late on the range can find their way home,” Amberley said.

She’d been a huge Britney Spears fan when she’d been about ten and her dad had made up that story about one of the pop star’s songs.

“Okay, let me give it a try,” Will said. He shifted his shoulders and leaned back against the cab of her truck. Faye crawled over to him and he lifted her onto his lap. The baby shifted around and settled with her back against his chest.

They were so cute together, Amberley thought. She ached for little Faye because even though she had her daddy’s love and attention, Amberley knew that one day Faye was going to need her momma. She just felt close to them because she saw herself in the two of them.

“See that constellation?” he asked, pointing to Sirius.

“Yes.”

“That’s Lobo and he is really good at catching the people who skunk around in the shadows. Every night he looks down on the earth for clues and then during the day he turns into computer code and helps track down the bad guys.”

She smiled. “Like you.”

“Yeah. Like me.”

“How’s that going? Is it okay to ask?”

Faye turned in his arms and he rubbed his hand over her back. He lifted her higher on his chest and she settled into the crook of his neck.

“It’s going pretty well,” he said, his voice pitched low so as not to disturb his daughter.

“I’m glad. Will you be here for long?” she asked.

“Probably a month.”

A month...not enough time for anything serious.

“I’d love to know more about what you do,” she said. Sometime between the dancing and talking with her cousin tonight she’d realized that no cowboy or Royal guy could make her stop thinking about Will. Probably not her wisest idea, but she had decided she wasn’t going to just walk away unless he pushed her to.

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