here.”
She paused and took a sip of her wine and then set the glass down. She eyed the handsome man beside her boldly. “Why, Tyler? Why did you lie for me?”
“Because I knew you were no murderer,” he replied easily.
“Didn’t you hear that my DNA and fingerprints were all over the crime scene? My own brother arrested me.” Pain swept through her as she remembered Ryan placing handcuffs on her and putting her into the back of his patrol car.
“I also know they had a hotel receipt to support the fact that you checked into the Regent Hotel on the night that Kurt was murdered, but since you were alone and had no interaction with the hotel staff, that nobody could substantiate your alibi. Besides, I didn’t care what incriminating evidence they had. I knew you didn’t have it in you to hurt anyone. I lied because you needed an alibi and I knew nobody would question my word.”
It was not arrogance in his tone; it was just a statement of fact that reminded her that Tyler was an important, powerful businessman not just in Oklahoma City but in Tulsa, as well.
“Why on earth would you even involve yourself with my problems?” She knew that he and Mark weren’t particularly close, so she couldn’t believe he’d intervened for Mark’s sake, especially given the alibi he provided of being her lover.
Her cheeks warmed at the thought. She had a feeling when Tyler Stanton made love to a woman, it would be more like a total body-and-soul possession rather than just a pleasant sexual encounter.
Tyler leaned toward her, his nearness seeming to suck all of the oxygen out of the air. His blue eyes were piercing, as if wanting to see something deep inside her. “Do you really want to know why I got you out of jail? Why I involved myself in your life?”
She nodded. She’d never noticed before how easy it would be to fall into the depths of his dark blue eyes and how hypnotic his smooth deep voice could be. She leaned toward him, as if anticipating a secret that might change her life and right her world forever.
“Mark was never supposed to take you for himself. That day in April I sent him to meet with you because I had a troubled horse that I wanted your help with. But I also wanted to get you here and hopefully into my bed.”
She reeled back, shocked by his words. “What are you talking about? Mark never mentioned a horse to me that first day he came to the ranch to see me.” She didn’t even want to address the rest of what he’d said to her. She could scarcely wrap her brain around his bold audacity.
“No, I’m sure he didn’t,” Tyler replied drily. “He simply set out to win your heart for himself and he accomplished that.”
He picked up his wineglass and took a sip and then set the glass back down. “Despite my own desire for you, I was happy for Mark when the two of you got engaged in June. My brother and I see eye to eye on few things, but I wanted him to be happy, and if you were his happiness, then I would have never done or said anything to ruin things for the two of you.”
“Mark is happiest when he’s the center of attention,” she replied. “But he only wants positive attention. I always suspected that when I was at home on the ranch in Tulsa and he was at his town house here in Oklahoma City, he was seeing other women.”
Tyler said nothing, but in his silence Greta recognized the truth. Mark had never really loved her. He had been in love with marrying a Colton, with all the society-page tidbits about their romance and upcoming wedding. But he’d never truly loved Greta, the tomboy who was happiest wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and working with and training horses.
“I thought that the relationship with you might make a man out of him,” he said. “But I guess I was wrong.”
“Do you still have that troubled horse?” she asked, eager to turn the course of the conversation.
“I do. She’s a three-year-old filly who has had no training and very little human contact. Are you interested in working with her?”
“I might be,” she replied. She needed something to focus on besides the fact that the man she’d nearly married wasn’t in love with her and she really hadn’t loved him. She needed a challenge to take her mind off all the strange and frightening things that had been happening in her life and around the Colton ranch.
“I still have the horse and I still have an intense desire for you. Would you also be interested in sharing my bed tonight?” he asked.
* * *
Tyler wasn’t a man who believed in playing games. He believed in going after what he wanted, and he had wanted Greta Colton since the very first time he’d seen her.
It was obvious he’d shocked her with his indecent and unexpected proposal to share his bed. She grabbed her wineglass and downed the contents, her cheeks a becoming pink.
Although she looked lovely now in the tailored slacks that hugged her long legs and the rust-colored blouse that enhanced her hazel-green eyes and her dark brown hair, she had really caught his attention when he’d watched her working with a horse at a rodeo months earlier.
Then her slender figure had been clad in dusty jeans and a T-shirt and she’d commanded the horse with confidence and mastery. That had been the woman who had both captured his desire and intrigued him.
She lowered her glass and tucked a strand of her long wavy hair behind her ear. “You’re something else,” she finally said. “You make up an outrageous lie to get me out of jail, a lie that ruined my engagement, and now you have the audacity to ask me to sleep with you?”
He smiled. “Sleep wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.” Her cheeks flushed once again with color, but she made no move to leave. “Greta, we’re both consenting adults and don’t need to answer to anyone for what we do,” he added.
“I don’t just fall into bed with any man who asks me,” she replied and straightened her back defensively.
“I’m aware of that,” he said. “If you were that kind of woman, then I wouldn’t be interested in you.”
She stared at him and then looked away. “Could I please have another glass of wine?” she asked. “And let’s talk a bit more about this horse you have.”
He got up and refilled her glass, then sat down again, this time a little bit closer to her...close enough that he could smell the fresh scent of her.
It was crazy—he had never felt such a visceral pull toward a woman before or since that first time he’d seen Greta. He’d initially been disappointed when he realized Mark and Greta had become an item, but he’d also been pleased that his younger brother had found somebody and intended to settle down.
It hadn’t taken long for Tyler to realize that Mark had no intention of settling down, wedding or not. Getting engaged and planning a wedding to Greta hadn’t slowed Mark’s womanizing ways or forced him to begin to build a future of financial stability for himself and his wife.
“What else do you want to know about the horse?” he asked.
Her gaze danced down to his exposed chest and then quickly moved back up to his face. “Uh...how did you come to own her?”
That quick glance emboldened him. She apparently wasn’t completely immune
