The Rancher's Runaway Princess. DONNA ALWARD

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СКАЧАТЬ couldn’t help it. At the quiet verbalization of her name, the tears started afresh. Lucy. Who was that now? No one she knew.

      “I hardly know you.” It sounded pitiful to her ears but needed to be said.

      He didn’t answer, just absorbed everything through those black, damnably keen eyes of his. She was losing control and there was nothing she could do about it. But she would die rather than have him witness it.

      “Please let me go,” she tried, willing the words to come out strong and failing utterly. “I’ve embarrassed myself enough already. I shouldn’t have come.”

      He stepped to one side.

      She straightened her back, trying valiantly to gather what little bit of dignity she had left. Lucy blinked, sending teardrops over her lashes and down her cheeks as the homesickness overwhelmed her. She looked at the door. If she moved quickly she could get out and away from him. She’d been foolish to think she could belong here. She took one step, then another, her eyes blurring with tears.

      And stumbled on a crack.

      His arm was there to steady her in half a second, but her breath hitched in her chest and she sniffed. Brody turned her gently and pulled her into his arms.

      The shock only lasted a millisecond. All the surprise of finding herself being held against him was swept away in the warm shelter of his arms, the rough feeling of his jean jacket against her cheek. She inhaled; the scent was somehow familiar. He was strong and steady and as his hand cradled her head, stroking her hair, she let go of all her grief in one sweeping wave.

      He was a stranger. She was there on business. He’d questioned her and her integrity all in less than twenty-four hours. None of it mattered. He was a good man. He was there. That was what was important right now.

      “Shhh.” The sound rippled the hair above her ear, warming it with his breath. “It’s okay.”

      Not in three long months had someone put their arms around her. No one had held her. No one had told her it would be okay.

      Grief hit her, jolting the breath from her abdomen. She felt for a moment like she had the first time she’d been thrown and had hit the loam of the paddock. It had been a harder landing than she’d expected, and it had been difficult to get up.

      Her arms slid around his waist, her fingers reaching up and biting into the denim covering his shoulder blades.

      He tightened his grip around her, and one large hand massaged the back of her neck.

      And all of the desolation Lucy had been holding inside came out in a grand rush of weeping, one that crashed on to the shore like a huge breaker and ebbed away on the tide, leaving her fragile, but feeling as though a burden had been taken from her shoulders.

      She sniffed, sighed. And heard Brody’s voice, rough and quiet.

      “Lucy.”

      Her heart skipped around crazily. Not Miss Farnsworth, but Lucy. Tonight, in the intimacy of the barn, she’d become Lucy.

      She stepped out of his arms. This was madness. She was tired and this was the middle of the night. He was a stranger. A very handsome one. It all jumbled together.

      “I’m so sorry,” she breathed, horrified at the splotches of moisture on his jean jacket. She couldn’t meet his eyes. He already saw far too much. She didn’t want him to see any more. She didn’t want to see parts of him, either. There was a danger that she just might, and she took a step backward.

      “Don’t be.”

      “Forget this ever happened.”

      “Why don’t you tell me what caused you to cry first?

      Oh, where would she begin?

      Pretty stamped behind them. Their presence there was disturbing the horses.

      “There are actual chairs in the office,” he said gently. “A kettle and a can of cookies. We can get to the bottom of this.”

      Lucy shook her head. “I’ve already made things uncomfortable. This won’t happen again.” She was pleased that her voice was coming out stronger with each word. She almost sounded convincing! “I’ll just go back to the house.”

      But Brody persisted. “You’re going to be staying here a while. You might as well tell me, because if you don’t I’m going to wonder and you’re going to hold it inside and it’s just going to create friction. Hardly conducive to a profitable business trip.”

      He held out a hand. “Let me buy you an instant decaf.”

      She straightened her pullover. “Mr. Hamilton, I…”

      But he interrupted. “You’ve just cried in my arms for a good ten minutes. You might as well put away the Mr. Hamilton. And if we go to the house now, Mrs. Polcyk will undoubtedly hear and you’ll have to explain your puffy eyes to her.”

      He held out his hand. She refused to take it, instead feeling her cheeks burn with humiliation that she’d allowed herself to get caught up in what it was like to be held. She swept past him as best she could and heard him follow, ensuring the stall door was latched behind him. He passed her and led the way down the corridor, his boots echoing dully in the quiet of the night.

      Once inside she took a quick inventory. There was a battered old sofa, a chair that looked as if its springs had given out a long time ago and a wooden contraption on casters behind a scarred desk. She took her chances on the springs; the sofa meant he’d sit beside her and she couldn’t take that.

      He filled the kettle at the tap outside and came back, plugged it in and pulled two mugs off a shelf. When the water boiled, he stirred each cup and handed her one before perching against the front edge of the desk.

      She sipped; the brew was hot, strong and with the cardboardy bitter taste of instant crystals.

      “So,” Brody began, sounding very conversational indeed. “Quite a day. First your arrival, and now, not even a day later, here we are.”

      “I am sorry. I don’t usually fall apart like that.”

      “I didn’t peg you as the type to crumble, either. So imagine my surprise to find you lurking around my barn in the middle of the night.

      “You don’t trust me.”

      “Would you, in my position?”

      “No, I wouldn’t,” she agreed quietly. “I’d be suspicious of anyone who felt the need to be around my livestock while she’s supposed to be sleeping. I can only say that my actions were completely innocent, and hope you believe me.”

      “Is there a reason I shouldn’t?”

      Her gaze met his. She thought briefly of the secrets she was keeping.

      “No, there isn’t.”

      Brody considered for a moment, took a sip of his coffee. “Out here, everyone pretty much knows everyone else. There are people I let in and people I don’t. And I haven’t known you СКАЧАТЬ