LITMIR.BIZ

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out the springs,” he said easily. “Buck told me the Indians used to camp here.”

      It was a good story, and another woman might have swallowed it without a blink of an eye. But thanks to Nigel, she wasn’t nearly as naive as she’d once been. “Really? And you just happened to show up when I was here?”

      “That’s right,” he chuckled. “Coincidence is a pretty amazing thing, isn’t it?”

      “Coincidence, my eye,” she retorted. “You followed me!”

      “Now, sweetheart, why would I do that?”

      “Don’t call me sweetheart!”

      “Yes, ma’am. What would you like me to call you? Personally I like darlin’. It’s got a nice ring, you know. But I can’t call you that without kissing you first. That’s one of my rules—”

      Frustrated, irritated, fighting the smile that tugged at her lips, she hadn’t said another word. She’d packed up her art supplies and left.

      When he’d gone out last night to one of the local watering holes, she’d told herself she was glad. There was bound to be a woman there who would catch—and keep—his attention for the rest of his stay at the ranch. Then he would stop yanking her chain and pestering her.

      Clinging to that thought, she should have slept the night away. Instead, the darn man chased her into her dreams, and she’d tossed and turned and stared at the ceiling for hours before finally falling asleep around four in the morning.

      Not surprisingly, the rest of the family, including Hunter, had already eaten breakfast by the time she woke at ten, and the house was deserted. Desperate for a cup of tea, she stepped into the kitchen, only to discover a note from Elizabeth on the refrigerator.

      Hey, sleepyhead. Hope you slept well. John and I have gone to the cabin, and Buck and Rainey and Hunter are riding fence on the ranch’s north boundary. If you want some company, take the dirt road west of the barn and it’ll take you to the cabin. I packed a picnic lunch for the three of us, and Rainey left her keys for you on the kitchen table. See you later. Elizabeth.

      So Hunter was with Buck and Rainey. She shouldn’t have been relieved—she liked to think she didn’t care what Hunter Sinclair did one way or the other—but she couldn’t forget the way his eyes danced when he teased her. Why did he have to be so attractive? Why did she have to notice?

      Irritated with herself—she really did need a break from the man!—she grabbed the keys and found Rainey’s SUV parked in the circular drive at the front of the house. Within minutes she was heading west, toward the old hunting cabin in the mountains where Elizabeth and John would live after they were married.

      Nearly forty-five minutes later, she broke through the trees into a small, natural clearing, and there was the cabin right in front of her. Last month, one of the wannabe heirs had torched it in an effort to drive Elizabeth and John away from the ranch, and the damage had been significant. When Elizabeth had told her that she and John were going to rebuild it and make it their home, Katherine had thought they were crazy. She’d assumed it was nothing but a burned-out shell and any attempt to repair it would be nothing but a waste of time and money. She couldn’t have been more wrong.

      Only part of the cabin had been burned, and John had already removed the damaged wood and replaced it. He hadn’t, however, stopped there. The framework for two new rooms and a new front and back porch were already in place, and although the design was simple, Katherine could see that it was going to be charming when it was finished.

      “Hey, stranger, I see you finally decided to join the world of the living,” her sister said with a grin as she parked and stepped from the car. “What do you think?”

      “It’s wonderful! Why didn’t you tell me…”

      From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of movement and turned just in time to see Hunter come around the side of the cabin. Stunned, she gasped, “What’s he doing here?”

      Chapter 3

      He’d pulled off his shirt and hung it on a nearby tree branch, and in the late-morning sun, his bare chest glistened with sweat. Transfixed, Katherine heard a roar in her ears and only then realized that it was the thunder of her heart. And it was all Hunter’s fault, she decided with a scowl.

      No man had a right to look so good dressed in nothing but a pair of worn jeans. Faded, torn, soft from a thousand or more washes, they hugged his lean hips in a way that any woman with any sense of decency would have wanted nothing to do with. And all she could think about was touching him. Were the muscles of his chest as hard as his jeans were soft?

      Shocked by the direction of her thoughts, she wanted to sink right through the ground. Her eyes met his, and the glint of humor she saw there told her without words that he knew exactly what he was doing to her. And he loved it.

      Hot color flooding her cheeks, she hardly heard her sister say, “You mean Hunter? When he heard that John was working on the roof today, he offered to help.”

      “I don’t know what we would have done without him,” John added from the roof.

      “I told you I was a good guy to have around,” Hunter told Katherine with a grin. “Wanna help?”

      Help him? She didn’t think so. “Thanks, but I don’t like heights.”

      “Then you’d better get some Dramamine or something,” he said with a wicked chuckle, “because you’re going to need it when I take you to the moon and back.”

      “Hunter!” Elizabeth gasped, laughing. “Stop that!”

      Up on the roof, John grinned broadly. “He’s just giving her fair warning, honey.”

      “I don’t need fair warning,” Katherine retorted, never taking her eyes from Hunter’s. “In other words, Romeo, I’m not interested.”

      “Are you sure?” he teased. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

      “I’ll chance it,” she said dryly. “I know that must devastate you, but there’s nothing wrong with your ego. You’ll survive.”

      “I might grow on you.”

      “You mean…like a fungus? I don’t think so.”

      “Katherine!” Elizabeth choked on a laugh. “Remember your manners.”

      “Leave her alone,” John said, grinning. “She’s holding her own.”

      “She sure is,” Hunter chuckled. “Be still my heart.”

      Determined not to smile, Katherine said, “You’re wasting your time here, lover boy. Why don’t you check out Mabel at the Rusty Bucket? Last I heard, she was hot for just about any cowboy who walked in the door.”

      “Katherine!”

      “It’s okay, Elizabeth,” Hunter chuckled. “The woman’s crazy about me. Can’t you tell?”

      Katherine just looked down her nose at him. “Don’t let me keep you from your work,” she said coolly. “I have better things to do than drool over you.”

      Not the least insulted, he only laughed and made his way up the ladder to help John.

      Long after Katherine returned to the house, the memory of Hunter dressed in nothing but jeans, work boots and a grin still had the power to make her mouth go dry. And it was driving her crazy. What was wrong with her? It had only been a few weeks since she’d discovered that the man she’d planned to spend the rest of her life with was not only married to another woman but had a child with her. He’d broken her heart in a way no one ever had before, and it would be months, possibly years, before she was ready to move on.

      So why did Hunter only have to grin at her to set her heart pounding?

      She needed a distraction, she decided. She

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