His tone of voice brooked no disobedience and the two young men scurried off with apologetic looks in Alexis’s direction.
“Jace?” she asked.
“Yes?”
“Could you bring me a mirror, please?”
He frowned. “I don’t think you want to see it.”
“Oh, yes I do. I need to know the worst.”
He hesitated for a moment longer, then he nodded and said, “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
As three pairs of boots thumped their way across the wooden floor, Alexis lay back and closed her eyes.
Tears welled beneath her lids, especially the puffy one. She was so tired that all she’d wanted to do was rest this weekend and prepare for next week. Now she had to nurse a black eye. She sighed. If she wasn’t careful, she would soon be indulging in self-pity, an absolute no-no in the eyes of the two New England women who had raised her—her mother and her nanny.
Jace was back in a couple of minutes with a shaving mirror. He handed it to her and she surveyed the damage. Sure enough, the area around her eye was puffy and discolored.
She moaned. “It looks just like it did that time I got caught between the paparazzi and a bodyguard. For two weeks, I had to stay out of sight inside the…” Abruptly, she realized what she’d been saying and she clamped her mouth shut.
“Paparazzi?” Jace asked. “Bodyguard?”
Her mouth dry, she stared at him through her one good eye. Why did she let her mind wander like that? “It was…a long time ago, I…” Her words stopped. She couldn’t say anything else without going into lengthy explanations, and she wasn’t ready to do that quite yet.
Jace crouched before her, resting easily on the toes of his boots as he would have done if he was tending a campfire. His hands clasped his thighs and he was very still as his gaze searched her face. He looked as if he wanted to say something to her, but he seemed to glimpse her stricken face and puffy eye and thought better of it.
His voice was low and mortally serious as he said, “Someday soon, Alexis, you need to give me some answers.”
Fear pummeled at her heart. Oh, she really didn’t want to answer those questions. So far she had told only enough about herself and her family to get by. She refused to lie—she was terrible at it, anyway, so it would be pointless for her to try it. Her guilt over the half truth she’d told her father was torturing her.
She was also terrible at bluffing because her fair skin always blushed bright red, but she attempted it. “I’m…I’m sure you know everything you need to about me,” she stammered. Color washed into her cheeks.
“Like hell,” he muttered, and surged to his feet abruptly. He took a couple of prowling turns around the room.
She tried to think of something to say to change the subject, but at that moment, Gil scurried up with a plate in his hand. “Here you go, Jace,” he said breathlessly, then gaped at Alexis, his eyes bulging. “Holy cow, that’s a beaut! What kind of story are you going to tell the kids at school about it? That you got in a fight? That Jace hit you? Maybe it’d be better if you just told ’em you were in a bar fight, that way, with all those fists flying and everything, you wouldn’t have to be real specific about who it was that hit you. They wouldn’t have to know it was Jace, the head of the school board. They all respect him and they don’t need to know that he’s the kind who’d hit a…”
“Will you shut up?” Jace bellowed. He grabbed the plate. Gil, finally realizing how furious his boss was, stumbled backwards, staring at him. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.
“Uh, yeah, sure, Jace. I’ll just…” He turned and loped toward the kitchen.
Alexis gulped back laughter at the way Jace had sent his hired man packing.
Muttering about “boneheaded idiots,” Jace moved to sit beside her on the sofa. From the plate Gil had brought him, he lifted a raw steak and held it up. “This is the advantage to living on a ranch—plenty of raw steak for black eyes.”
Alexis stared at the bloody thing. She wasn’t particularly squeamish, but she couldn’t imagine having it touch her skin. “You’re kidding.”
He shrugged. “Sorry, but it’s the best treatment. I learned it from my dad.”
She gulped and asked faintly, “Oh, did he have a lot of black eyes?”
Jace raised one of his thick eyebrows at her. “Oh, I see. It’s okay for you to ask questions about my family, but I can’t ask about yours?”
Alexis met his curious gaze and couldn’t think of a thing to say. Wordlessly, she reached out, took the steak, and placed it over her eye as she tilted her head to rest against the back of the sofa. The chill of it actually felt good on her skin and she settled back, hoping it would perform a miracle.
“I don’t suppose there’s any chance this will work some kind of magic and completely heal my eye before eight o’clock on Monday morning, is there?”
“Worried about facing your students?” Jace sat carefully back against the cushions so as not to jar her. His arm rested along its high back. Alexis gave him a faintly surprised look. It was the most relaxed pose she’d ever seen him in.
“A little.” She was unwilling to reveal the depths of her distress to him, but she knew it seeped through in her voice.
“Don’t listen to Gil. Just tell the kids it was an accident. Living on cattle ranches as they do, they know all about accidents.”
“I suppose you’re right,” she said slowly, touched by his matter-of-fact approach. “But it still looks awful.”
“Don’t worry about appearances, Alexis,” he said gruffly. “You’ve got substance.”
Turning, she blinked at him through her uninjured eye. Tears welled suddenly and tumbled down her cheek. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Well if saying nice things makes you cry, I guess it’s a good thing I’m such a grouch.” Jace lifted his hips and reached into his back pocket for a clean handkerchief. He took her trembling chin in his hand and gave her face a firm swipe, taking a moment to tidy up the area around the seeping steak, as well.
“Tha…ank you,” she hiccuped.
Jace plucked the raw meat away and gave her eye a careful examination. In spite of her pain and embarrassment, Alexis was impressed by the gentleness of his touch.
She was relieved to discover that the swelling around her injured eye did seem to be receding a little bit, enough for her to be able to look at Jace. As she had the morning after they had met, she admired the strength of his face, offset by his incongruously soft lashes. A sharp pang of longing seared her and she gasped softly.
Jace looked up. “Did I hurt you?”
She gave a slight shake of her head because she couldn’t speak. A faint panic fluttered in her throat. This man was so attractive, so vital that she felt confused and frightened even as she was drawn to him.
Jace McTaggart was nothing like the men her father thought would be suitable for her. Prince Michael had investigated three businessmen and an earl as potential husbands for her because he said they were “real men,” the kind who would take care of her and give her a comfortable life.
How wrong he was. A real man was one who let a woman take care of herself if that was her choice, one who shunned a comfortable life for a satisfying one.
As he looked at her, Jace’s eyes seemed to lighten and soften. A slight smile curved one corner of his mouth. It fascinated her to see him do that. “Alexis,” he said softly. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking about what kind of man you are,” she whispered.
Surprise flickered in his eyes. “Why would you be doing that?”
She smiled at his skeptical tone. “Because I recently received a blow to the head.”
His lips quirked. “What kind of man am I?”
“I…I think you’re hard.”
“I won’t deny that.”
“And honest.”
“I hope so. Anything else?”
She swallowed. “I’m thinkin
g that you like your life here and would never want to leave.”
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “That’s right. My life is here.”
She had no idea where these thoughts and questions were coming from, but she went on. “Is that why you’re not married? Before you hired Gil and Rocky, did you rattle around all by yourself in this place that’s big enough for a family of ten? And did you like it that way?”
He blinked, taken aback by her questions. “Alexis…”
“Because I know what it’s like to live in a big place and to be lonely….”
“Do you, Alexis? I’m sorry.” His hand lifted to touch her cheek. This time, he wasn’t interested in wiping her tears. Lightly, he ran his index finger along her velvety skin. “Being lonely is hell. Have you been lonely since you came to Sleepy River?”
“Not really because I’ve been busy, and…” She looked into his steady, dark eyes. “Some,” she admitted. “And it’s much quieter here than it is in…than what I’m used to.”
“Don’t visits from Gil and Rocky liven things up?”
Alexis shook her head. “Not enough.”
The arm Jace had stretched along the back of the couch came around to rest lightly on her shoulder and draw her nearer to him. His lips quirked in a little smile and his eyes softened with humor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to deprive you of their company, but I thought they were probably distracting you from your work.”
Alexis laughed softly. “They were.”
“It seems that even when I try, I can’t quite do what’s right for you.”
Alexis tilted her head. “Why would you need to?”
“An overdeveloped sense of responsibility, I suppose,” he answered in an ironic tone.
Alexis looked into his eyes and it struck her suddenly that she really had no idea how old he was. She would have said he was in his mid to late thirties, but now she wondered. He actually looked somewhat younger than that. It was the weight of responsibility that he carried that had formed those lines around his eyes. For some reason, she thought about her father, carrying the responsibility for his small principality, and of her grandfather, burying the country’s precious keepsakes with his own hands so that the Nazis couldn’t torture their whereabouts out of an innocent farmer.
These men had spent their lives keeping everyone’s well-being in mind, striving to make sure everyone had everything they needed. It was exactly as Jace dealt with his diverse neighbors—even to having a couple of court jesters in the form of Gil and Rocky.
“Yes,” she answered quietly. “I can see that. I never realized…”
“What?” he asked when she paused.
“How much owning and operating a ranch could be like running your own kingdom.”
He chuckled. “Kingdom? Not with the county, state and federal governments breathing down my neck.”
A spasm of consternation crossed her face. “They give you a lot of trouble, do they? That’s another thing I didn’t know.”
“No more trouble than they give any other rancher. It’s only that they each have their own agenda, and often they don’t correspond.”
She frowned. “It would make more sense if they did.”
This time he laughed, a deep, rich sound that sent unexpected ripples of pleasure up her spine. “Honey, it’s government. It doesn’t have to make sense.” He tilted his head. “Oh, I forgot, your family is in some kind of government work, isn’t it?”
Heat flooded her face. Uh-oh. She would have to be careful of what she said. “That’s right.”
“What, exactly?”
“I’m…not at liberty to say,” she hedged. Oh, how she wished he would drop this. She didn’t want to lie to him, but she had begun her job here on her own terms. Even at that, he seemed to have had a hard enough time accepting her. He was such a straightforward man, she knew he wouldn’t be pleased if she told him the truth now.
He gaped at her. “Is it a secret?”
“Nooo, not exactly. In fact, they’re actually quite well known.”
“Well-known secret agents?” he asked skeptically. “You mean like James Bond? The only people who don’t seem to know who he is are the poor fools who try to help him.”
“No, it’s not like that.” Alexis closed her mouth suddenly and gave him a pleading look. She felt boxed in, unsure what to say.
“I see,” Jace answered, though it was clear that he didn’t. “You don’t want to talk about your family.”
“No.” She gave a small shrug. “I don’t see how it could be important to my short-term job here.”
Jace looked at her for a moment. His eyes went dark and his voice was low. “Did you ever think that maybe my interest isn’t because of your job?”
Her lips formed a silent “O.” The awareness of him that she had been trying to hold off tingled through her. Suddenly, she felt the heat his big body generated, the muscled strength of his arm. She smelled his scent which seemed somehow to be both intimate and woodsy.
His mouth tilted in a way that made her whole world tilt. Following it with her gaze, her head angled to one side and her eyes lifted to meet his. This was a mistake, she thought vaguely. She was now at a perfect angle to kiss him.
Jace seemed to have that same thought. He leaned forward and she could feel the softness of his breath against her lips.
“Hey, Jace,” Rocky called out. His feet thudded across the floor.
Jace and Alexis sprang apart. She gasped for air. What had come over her? Had she been about to kiss him? She saw a flicker of confusion in his eyes that matched hers. He surged to his feet as Rocky barreled into the room.
“Jace, I think you’d better come take a look at these steaks. Gil’s poked them with a fork about twelve times and they’re not bleeding anymore so I think they must be done.”
“I’m coming.” Then he paused and said, “I…I think we’d better try some ice on that eye.” Swinging around, he strode from the room.
Wide-eyed, Alexis watched him go. Her heart sank as she thought of how foolish she must have sounded. She murmured, “Bring me a big bucket of that ice so I can stick my whole head in it.”
When both men were gone, Alexis slumped against the sofa back and groaned. Where was her good judgment? Had she left it behind in Inbourg? She couldn’t be attracted to Jace. She was only here for a short time. He was her boss, and they were from such different worlds, there couldn’t possibly be any future in it.
She had to get a grip here, she thought. She had to keep her goals in mind. Experience was what she’d come here for—teaching experience, and that was the only kind that interested her. Well, maybe that wasn’t strictly true, she admitted with her usual honesty, but it was the only type she was going to pursue.
She touched her fingers gingerly to her eye. Oh, why couldn’t Jace have been an ugly, rough old cowboy with bad teeth from chewing tobacco, and a face burned leathery from the sun? Why did he have to be virile and strong and good-looking? And worst of all, smart?
Uncomfortably, she recalled his questions about her family. She fervently hoped he didn’t ask again. She simply couldn’t lie and she couldn’t tell the truth, either. At least, not yet.
“Here,” Jace said, shoving a plastic bag loaded with ice at Rocky. “Take this to Alexis.”
Rocky looked at Jace as if he was offering the crown jewels, then at the ice, then at his brother. “You bet, Jace.” He grabbed the bag with alacrity.
“Hey,” Gil protested. “I could have done that. Why don’t you let me instead of him?”
Jace’s temper, which had been simmering below the surface since he’d realized how close he’d come to kissing Alexis, hit the top of the thermometer and boiled over. “Now listen to me you two blockheads,” he snarled. “I’ve had it with you. You have been acting like a couple of fools ever since she came to Sleepy River. You’ve harassed her and embarrassed her, and now you’ve caused her to have a black eye.”
“We didn’t do that,” Gil protested.
“It was…”
“Never mind!” Jace thundered even as one part of his brain reminded him how many ways a man could make himself look like an idiot in the space of ten minutes. “What you’re going to do now is give her some space and you’re going to stop fighting over her.”
“Or?” Rocky asked, even though his Adam’s apple was bobbing so alarmingly Jace feared for an instant that he might choke.
“Or you can find work somewhere other than the Running M.”
Both boys’ mouths dropped open and horror bloomed in their eyes. “You mean you’ll fire us?” Gil asked.
“In a heartbeat.” Jace tried for his sternest look. It wasn’t hard since he was feeling as mean as a rattlesnake, anyway.
Hell, it wasn’t their fault they were falling all over her, making fools of themselves. He was doing the same thing.
He wondered how long it took for a man to receive absolute confirmation that he was losing his mind.
Chapter Seven
It took Alexis almost four hours to get to sleep after her evening with Jace and the Patchett brothers, though it wasn’t because of anything Gil and Rocky had done. To her amazement, the boys had settled down and treated her with the utmost courtesy. Best of all, they’d stopped fighting over her. She intercepted an occasional fierce look passing between them, and she was almost certain she had seen Rocky try to stab his brother’s hand with a fork after he had passed the butter to her, but she wasn’t sure.
Jace had been the soul of courtesy, as well, Alexis admitted. She was sitting on her bed, having found a comfortable place to settle between the lumps and bumps of her old mattress. She had her legs crossed and her elbows resting on her knees in as unladylike a pose as she ever assumed. She was staring grumpily into the darkness outside her window.
Jace had been the perfect host, serving the slightly overcooked, but still delicious steak with smooth efficiency. He had been the ultimate gentleman. It wasn’t his fault she had misinterpreted the occasional steely looks he had given her and blushed to the roots of her hair.
The Runaway Princess Page 8
