The Lone Star Cinderella

Three

Dave pulled the collar of his dark brown leather jacket up higher on his neck and squinted as he climbed out of his 4x4. He took a deep breath, dragging the cold air into his lungs with a smile. Just being on his ranch settled him like nothing else could.

Land swept out to the horizon. He took a long look around, taking in the wooded area crowded with wild oaks. The stock watering pond shimmered a dark blue beneath the lowering sun and the grassland was dotted with Black Angus cattle. He tossed a glance at the dark, cloud-studded Texas sky. October was rolling in cold, signaling a rough winter to come.

But he was prepared. No matter what Mother Nature threw at him, Dave was ready. He had the ranch he’d always wanted, more money than he knew what to do with and the future was looking good—except for one small fly in his proverbial ointment. But, he reminded himself, he’d found a way to take care of that, too. Who would have guessed that Mia Hughes would be the solution to his problem?

One thing he’d learned over the years, though, was that sometimes answers came when you least expected them. And he was quick enough to take advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves.

He’d worked for years to get this ranch. He’d sacrificed, wheeled and dealed and risked more than he cared to remember. But he’d finally done it. He’d reclaimed the life that should have been his from the beginning. And he’d done it in style.

Damned if he’d be defeated now.

His ranch would be a success without TexCat and he knew it. But the bottom line was they were the best, and he wanted that contract to prove his ranch was the best. It was a milestone of sorts for Dave and he wouldn’t rest until he’d reached it.

Walking away from his 4x4, he tugged his hat down lower over his eyes, stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and headed for his ranch foreman, Mike Carter. Somewhere in his late fifties, Mike was tall and lean and the best ranch manager in Texas.

“Hey, boss,” he said as Dave approached. “We found those ten yearling calves we were missing huddled together in Dove canyon.”

With this much open land, cattle tended to wander, following the grass. And the young ones were always straying from the safety of the herd, going where they were easy prey for wolves and coyotes. It was inevitable to lose a few head to predators every year, but Dave was glad to hear they’d recovered the stock safely this time. “Good news. You got all of ’em?”

“All but one.” Mike pulled his hat off and tipped his face into the wind. “Wolves got that one. Found the signs.”

Nodding, Dave frowned. The one thing he did not have control over was nature. If wolves wanted to pick off a calf, there wasn’t much he could do about it. Losing one was hard, but they’d saved nine, so he’d have to accept that and be grateful for it.

“Fine. But I don’t want to lose anymore. Let’s move the herd farther from the canyons, make it harder for the young ones to wander off.”

Mike grinned. “Already done. Got a couple of the boys moving cattle to the west pasture.”

“Good.” Dave glanced around, his gaze sweeping across his land, and he knew he’d never tire of the view. Acres of good Texas earth stretched out for miles in all directions. There were rolling hills, meadows that ran so thick with sweet grass the herd couldn’t manage to eat it all. There were wooded acres of oaks, a dozen stock ponds and a couple of lakes with the best damn trout in Texas. It was everything he’d planned for, and now Dave just needed to seal the ranch’s success.

“I bought some first-calf heifers this morning,” Dave said, remembering the phone call he’d made before setting out to talk to Nathan and Mia. “They’ll be here by Friday and should start calving in the next couple of weeks.”

“Good deal,” Mike said. “We can always use new stock. But what about that new beef contract with TexCat?”

Frowning, Dave said, “I’m working on it. Should know something soon. Meanwhile, start culling the herd, separating out the stays from the gos.”

“We’ll do it.”

When Mike went back to work, Dave told himself he should do the same. Ranch work wasn’t all done outside. There were papers to go over, bills to pay, calls to make. Plus, he had a “fiancée” coming over for dinner and he’d better let his housekeeper, Delores, know.

He drove back to the main house, but rather than go inside, he walked to his favorite spot on the Royal Round Up ranch. He skirted the flagstone decking that ran the length of the sprawling ranch house, walked around the massive free-form pool and took the rough-hewn stairs to the rooftop, wraparound deck.

From that vantage point, he could see for miles. His gaze slid across the beautifully maintained grounds, the stocked trout lake that lay just beyond the pool and then to the massive guesthouse he’d had built two years before.

The guesthouse was an exact replica of the ranch house that had been his family’s until he was ten years old. Until his father had lost the ranch and then took off, leaving Dave and his mother on their own. He’d built the damn guesthouse as a trophy. A way of reclaiming the past. And as a way of giving his mom a place to call her own. A place where she could take it easy for a change. But the hardheaded woman refused to leave her small apartment in Galveston. So the completely furnished, three bedroom, three bath guesthouse stood empty.

Until Dave could change his mom’s mind. Which he would manage to do eventually. Hell, he’d gotten Mia Hughes to agree to his proposition, hadn’t he?

The wind pushed at him as it raced across the open prairie, carrying the scent of grass and water and land. His land. He felt like a damn king when he stood up here surveying the stronghold he’d built.

He slapped both hands onto the thick, polished wood rail and leaned forward, letting his gaze move over the view. His hands tightened on the railing in front of him as he eased the jagged edges inside him by staring out at his property. Good Texas pastureland stretched to the horizon and it was all his. He’d come a hell of a long way in the past several years and there was more to do yet.

Landing that deal for his cattle was paramount for the rest of his plans. He wanted his ranch supplying the beef to the best restaurants and organic grocers in the state of Texas. And TexCat would help him accomplish that. Without that contract, Dave’s plans would take a lot longer to come together. And if this bargain with Mia worked as he thought it would, the deal was as good as done.

Smiling to himself, he gave the railing a slap, took one last look at the vista rolling out into the distance and then took the stairs down. He’d head back to the main house and get some work done before it was time to meet with his fiancée.

Scowling, he realized it might take some time to get used to even thinking the word fiancée.

He ducked his head into the wind and muttered, “A hell of a thing to need a wife to make a deal.”

* * *

Mia didn’t know what to wear.

Was there a protocol for having dinner with a pretend fiancé who was paying you to pretend to love him so he could sell cattle? She laughed a little. It sounded bizarre even to her, and she was living it.

“Oh, God. I’m letting him pay me.”

Her chin hit her chest and she took a long, deep breath to try to steady the nerves jumping in the pit of her stomach. It didn’t help. Sighing, she flipped through the tops hanging in her closet and listened to the clatter of the hangers sliding on the wooden rod. She wasn’t finding anything. It had been so long since she’d been on an actual date—she stopped short at that thought.

This wasn’t a date. This was...

“I don’t even know what this is,” she muttered and grabbed a dark blue cable-knit sweater from the closet. Why she was worried about this was beyond her. What did it matter what she looked like? It wasn’t as if she was trying to impress Dave Firestone, for heaven’s sake.

“Exactly,” she told herself. “This is business. Pure and simple. He didn’t ask you to dinner because you swept him off his feet.”

Mia laughed at the very idea. She was so not the type of woman to catch Dave’s eye. No doubt he went for the shiny, polished women with nice hair, beautiful clothes and the IQ of a baked potato.

Potato.

“Oh, God, I hope he has potatoes at dinner.” She sighed again. “And steak. I bet there’s going to be steak. He’s a rancher, right, so he’s bound to like beef.”

Her mouth watered and her stomach rumbled so loudly it took her mind off the nerves still bouncing around in the pit of her belly. Shaking her head, she carried the sweater out of the closet and tossed it onto the edge of her bed.

Since taking the job with Alex Santiago as his housekeeper, Mia had been living in the private suite of rooms off the kitchen of the big house. Living room, bedroom and bath, her quarters were lavishly furnished and completely impersonal but for the few personal touches she had scattered around the place.

Mia had been travelling light most of her life, so she didn’t have a lot of things. There were a few photographs and a ratty stuffed bear she’d had since she was a child. But mostly, there were books. Textbooks, paperback thrillers and romances, biographies and sci-fi novels. Mia loved them all and hated to get rid of a book. She’d recently treated herself to an ebook reader, but as much as she loved the convenience, she preferred the feel of a book in her hands.

“And you’re stalling,” she told herself as she walked to the bathroom. Staring into the mirror, she looked into her own eyes and gave herself a stern talking-to. “You’re the one who agreed to this, so you’re going to suck it up and do what you have to do. It’s only temporary. One month and you’ll have enough money to pay the regular household bills and no school loans hanging over your head. Of course, if Alex isn’t found by the end of the month, then you’re right back where you started....” She stopped that thought as soon as it popped into her head. Alex would be found. And with the money from Dave she could pay pesky things like the water and gas and electric bills. Thank heaven Alex didn’t have a mortgage on the place because she didn’t know how she would have made the payment.

One month. She could do this. And get her life back on track.

Sounded good, she thought as she picked up the hair dryer and turned it on. She ran her fingers through her long, dark brown hair as the hot air pushed at it. Okay, she was nervous. But she could do this. How hard could it be to pretend to be crazy about Dave Firestone?

At that thought, she remembered the buzz of something...interesting she’d felt when he’d laid his hand on her arm. Thoughtful, she set the dryer down onto the pale cream granite counter and stared at her own image in the mirror. “Probably didn’t mean anything,” she assured her reflection. “I was probably just weak from hunger. Any man would have brought on the same reaction. It just happened to be Dave.”

The woman in the mirror looked like she didn’t believe her and Mia couldn’t blame her. It had sounded lame to her, too.

Shaking her head, she walked back to the bedroom, grabbed a pair of dark wash jeans from her dresser drawer and tugged them on over a pair of pale pink bikinis. When she had them zipped and snapped, she pulled on a white silk tank top, then covered it with the dark blue sweater. She stepped into a pair of black half boots, then walked back to the bathroom.

Her hair was still damp, so instead of the tight knot she usually wore it in, Mia quickly did up a single, thick braid that hung to the middle of her back. She didn’t bother with makeup. Why pretend to be something she wasn’t? There was going to be enough pretending for her over the next few weeks. Might as well hold on to some form of reality.

With that thought in mind, she flipped off the light and walked through her apartment. She stopped long enough to snatch up her black leather shoulder bag, then she was out the door and into her car before she could talk herself out of the craziest thing she’d ever done in her life.

* * *

An hour later, she was so grateful she hadn’t changed her mind about coming.

“Steak done the way you like it?” Dave asked from across the table.

“It was perfect,” Mia answered, though the truth was, she had been so hungry, if they had trotted a cow through the living room, she might have gnawed on it raw. At the moment though, she was comfortably full of steak, a luscious baked potato swimming in butter and sour cream and the best fresh green beans she’d ever eaten.

She sighed and lifted her coffee cup for a sip.

Dave was watching her, and she noted one corner of his mouth quirk.

“What’s so amusing?” she asked.

“You,” he admitted. “I’ve never seen a woman enjoy a meal so much.”

She flushed a little, then shrugged. No point in pretending she hadn’t been hungry. He had already checked her out, so he probably knew just how many packages of Top Ramen were left in the pantry. “Maybe you should broaden your horizons a little. Date a woman who eats more than half a leaf of lettuce.”

He grinned. “Might have a point.”

Her eyes met his and in the soft light of the dining room, his gray eyes looked as deep and mysterious as fog on a cold winter night. He wore a black sweater, black jeans and his familiar, scarred boots and he looked, Mia thought, dangerously good.

“I like your house,” she blurted when his steady stare was beginning to make her twitch.

“Thanks,” he said and glanced around the dining room. Mia did the same, taking another long look at her surroundings. Sadly, between her still unsteady nerves and the fact that she’d been so seduced by the scent of the meal, she hadn’t taken the time to really get a good look at the room.

One thing Mia had noticed was that every doorway in the house was arched. There was a lot of wood and a lot of stone throughout—definitely a man’s house. Even the dining room was oversized, and somehow so...male. The table could easily seat twenty. Heavy oak, the table’s thick edges were covered with intricately carved vines and flowers. Each chair boasted the same carvings and the seats were upholstered in dark red leather.

A black wrought iron chandelier provided the lighting, and framed paintings of the Texas landscape dotted the walls. Her gaze slid back to meet Dave’s and she felt that jump of nerves again. Well, she was going to have to get over that.

“Come on,” he said, pushing up from the table and holding out one hand to her. “I’ll show you around. You’ll have to know the place if you’re going to be my fiancée.”

“Okay...” She turned her head toward the closed door leading to the kitchen.

“What is it?” he asked.

Mia looked at him. “No dessert?”

Surprised, Dave laughed and this time it was real laughter, not the sardonic smirk or the condescending chuckle Mia was more familiar with. Amazing how real emotion could completely change Dave’s features from gorgeous to heart-stopping.

Oh, Mia hadn’t counted on this. Okay, yes, she’d felt that mild sizzle earlier today when Dave had touched her. But that could’ve been static electricity, too. In fact, she hadn’t felt any interest in a man in so long, she’d begun to think she was immune.

Now was not a good time to find out she wasn’t.

“Come on,” Dave said again, “I’ll take you on a tour, then we’ll have dessert in the great room.”

“All right,” she said, and stood, putting her hand in his. She determinedly ignored the fresh sizzle she felt when his hand met hers. Instead, she focused on the promise of sugar in her near future.

He kept a firm grip on her hand as they walked from the dining room and Mia idly listened to the sounds of their boot heels on the tile floor. When she’d first moved in as Alex’s housekeeper, she had been so impressed with the flawless beauty of his home. It was elegant and lovely in an understated way that she’d come to admire over the past couple years. But now, seeing Dave’s house, she was bowled over by the sheer scope of the place.

It was lovely in a completely different way from Alex’s home. This was rustic, and as she’d already thought, completely male in an unapologetic, straightforward manner. The floor tiles were beige and brown with splashes of cream to lighten the feel. The walls were a mix of stone and wood and textured, cream-colored plaster. Dark beams bracketed the high ceilings and arched windows boasted leaded glass. Every door was a curved slab of heavy, dark wood that made Mia think of centuries-old English estates.

“You’ve seen the dining room and the great room,” Dave was saying as he led her down a long hallway. “This is the main living room.” He kept walking, then paused to open another door. “My office.”

She caught a quick glimpse before he was moving on again and saw more dark wood, a large desk and a stone fireplace that looked as wide as her living room at home.

“This is the game room.” He stopped again, swung a door open and Mia saw a huge flat-screen TV hanging on the wall, a pool table, a couple of vintage video games and a well-stocked bar.

“You’ve got PAC-MAN.”

“Yeah.” He looked at her. “I’m surprised you know the game.”

“I spent a lot of time in arcades as a kid,” she said and let it go at that. No reason to tell him that while her father was earning a living playing poker in bars and casinos, she was left to her own devices and had become a champion at video games.

A flicker of admiration shone in his eyes. “We’ll have to have a match sometime.”

They passed through the foyer and Mia glanced at the clear panes of glass arranged in a wide arch around the double front door. It was dark out, naturally, but there were solar lights lining the walkway to the circular driveway. When she’d arrived, she had noticed the number of outbuildings. There was a barn, a paddock and several smaller houses all at a distance from the main house. The Royal Round Up was a prosperous, working ranch that no doubt required dozens of employees.

The whole place was huge. Dave was even more wealthy than she had guessed him to be. Which explained how he could offer to pay off her school loans without so much as blinking. She had no idea how to live like this. Not even how to pretend to live like this. Yes, she worked for Alex and he was wealthy, too, but in his house, she was the housekeeper. She wasn’t expected to act as though it was her own home. To act as though living like this was second nature to her. The more she saw, the more anxious Mia became. What had she gotten herself into?

“This hall takes you back around to the kitchen,” Dave said, and she glanced where he pointed. More art on the walls. More miles of gleaming tiles. She would never be able to find her way around this house. Plus, she didn’t even have the kind of wardrobe the fiancée of a wealthy man would wear. She didn’t fit into this world and she knew it. How could she possibly pull this off and convince anyone? Maybe, she told herself, it would be best if she just backed out of this deal right now. It wouldn’t be a complete waste; she had gotten a terrific steak dinner out of it.

An inner voice complained that without Dave, she’d be paying back college loans for the rest of her life. But surely that was the saner approach to take. Nodding, she braced herself to tell Dave that she simply couldn’t do it. She’d thank him and get out fast before she could change her mind.

Just then, he stopped in front of another door and threw it open. “This is the library.”

If he continued speaking, she didn’t hear him. All she could think was books. Acres of books. Floor to ceiling shelves lined with thousands of books ringed the cavernous room. There were couches, chairs, tables and reading lamps. There was a fireplace and giant windows overlooking the front lawn. With sunlight streaming through that glass, the room would be beautiful. The spines of the books lining the shelves must shine like rainbows, she thought, moving into the room and turning in a slow circle to take it all in.

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