âAfraid You Canât Keep Up With Me?â
The dare in Leannaâs eyes stirred his competitive blood. âSweetheart, the question isnât whether or not I could keep up with you. Itâs whether or not Iâd leave you eating my dust. I am good.â
For three dances he spun, dipped and twirled her, using every intricate dance move he knew, and he knew âem all. Leanna never missed a step. Itâd been ages since heâd had a partner who could keep up with him. His breathing became unsteady and he felt a little feverish. He had a serious hankering to kiss that sassy smirk right off her lips.
Mischief sparkled in her eyes. âDid I mention my former employerâs last lover was a dance instructor?â
Heâd been hustled twice by a wet-behind-the-ears gal. Heâd underestimated her abilities as a hostess and a dance partner, and he had to wonder if she had any more surprises in store for himâ¦.
lives in North Carolina with her college-sweetheart husband and four sons. This bestselling authorâs love for romance novels developed when she was twelve years old and her mother hid them under sofa cushions each time Emilie entered the room. Emilie grew up riding and showing horses. Sheâs a devoted baseball mom during the season and can usually be found in the bleachers watching one of her sons play. Her hobbies include quilting, cooking (especially cheesecake) and anything cowboy. Her favorite TV shows include Discovery Channelâs medical programs, ER, CSI and Boston Public. Emilieâs a country music fan because thereâs an entire book in nearly every song.
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One cowboy.
One final request.
Fifteen million dollars.
Leanna Jensen smiled and congratulated herself on finding a way to tie all three into a neat package. âYou wonât regret giving me the job, Ms. Lander.â
âCall me Brooke. If youâll follow me into the kitchen Iâll introduce you to my brother-in-law.â Leannaâs new boss led the way across the expansive common room, calling over her shoulder, âI forgot to mention when we spoke on the phone that Patrick will be managing the dude ranch while my husband and I are away.â
Leannaâs steps faltered. She hadnât expected to meet the star player of her adolescent daydreams so soon. Would he measure up to her high expectations or disappoint her like every other man? âPatrick is here? Now?â
âIn the flesh.â The deep voice drew her gaze to the cowboy already occupying the spacious dude ranch dine-in kitchen. Slumped over a glass of iced tea at the end of the long pine table, he slowly straightened. His twinkling dark eyes and charismatic grin stole her breath.
Brooke motioned her forward. âPatrick, this is Leanna Jensen. Sheâll be filling in for me as hostess for the next month. Leanna, Patrick.â
Pressing a hand over her leaping heart, Leanna moved farther into the room. Her feet practically floated above the floor. Sheâd waited nine years to meet the son Carolyn Lander had described in her letters to her lover.
At thirty-six, the man unfolding inch by muscular inch in front of her was ten times more potent than the lean and lanky sixteen-year-old heâd been in the last photo Arch had received.
âI-itâs n-nice to meet you.â She never stuttered or stammered, but Patrick in the flesh was much more manly than sheâd imagined. Taller. Broader.
Sexier. She pushed that unwelcome thought aside.
Her gaze raced over his features like a runaway roller coaster. Patrickâs dark, smoldering looks were the complete opposite of his biological fatherâs, but his classically honed features and sensuously full mouth were the same ones Arch Golden had parlayed into a fortune on the big screen. Heâd left that fortune to Patrick, the son heâd never met, but had worried about up until his last breath.
The ache in her heart over losing Arch momentarily overshadowed the thrill of finally meeting his son. Perhaps once she and Patrick became friends they could curl up by a campfire and exchange storiesâhis exciting tales of life on a ranch, rescuing animals and fighting wildfires and hers about the incredible man whoâd fathered him. She especially wanted to make sure Patrick knew that his fatherâhis real fatherâhad loved him even though the two had never met.
She hadnât been as lucky.
Squaring her shoulders, Leanna met the gaze of the man sheâd driven over a thousand miles to meet, and eagerly reached for the hand he extended. Sheâd read so much about him in his motherâs letters that meeting him was almost like meeting an old friend, and yet an old friend wouldnât make her fingers tremble.
As if he knew the unsettling effect his good looks had on her, Patrickâs grin deepened, crinkling the laugh lines around his dark eyes and deepening the grooves bracketing his mouth. His warm, slightly rough grasp seemed to reach right down inside her and squeeze her already nervous stomach tighter.