what do you do?”
“I market my business.” He sat up again, leaning forward on his desk, obviously comfortable talking about his company, looking like a lethal combination of sexy rancher and savvy businessman. “This house,” he said, pointing around in a circle, “is a big part of my marketing plan. Remember, during the interview I told you I had frequent guests?”
“Yes.”
“The guests are wealthy people who buy ranches so that they have a private country retreat. Somewhere they can go and be themselves. Be comfortable. But after a year or so of owning a ranch, they realize how much trouble it is to run it, so they go looking for somebody like me. Or a company like mine. We do the work for the ranch. They reap the benefits.”
“I’m still not sure what this has to do with me.”
“If it were just me living here, I wouldn’t have a housekeeper. I’d let the dust pile up. But because of my guests I need the place to be clean. Which means you’re part of the business. You’re not really a maid. You’re more of an extension of the ranch management company, making sure everything sparkles for clients.” He relaxed and leaned back on his chair again. “So that’s all I want you to do.”
Knowing he was waiting for a reaction from her, Sophie stalled for time by running her tongue along her lips. A smart woman would simply say okay. Sophie told herself to say okay. To smile. To accept his order. Not to argue that cooking was her forte and if he’d just allow her cook for him, he’d never let her leave.
She took a breath. Told herself again to simply say, “Okay.”
Just say okay!
She opened her mouth, but instead of her one-word agreement, she found herself saying, “This is because of Brady, isn’t it?” But once the words were out of her mouth, she wasn’t sorry. The guy was going to fire her for something that wasn’t her fault and she’d be damned if she’d roll over and play dead.
“No.”
“Yes. It is.” She rose from her seat and leaned across the desk. “You didn’t even look at him this morning.”
He rose, pressed his hands on his desk and leaned toward her. “I asked you to keep him away from me. If we push everything else aside in this discussion, the bottom line is you disobeyed an order from your boss. Now you’re paying the consequences.”
“But Brady’s a sweet kid!” She paused, drew in a breath. “You know what? Maybe if you’d spend some time with him you might get a little sweeter.”
He gaped at her. “Are you kidding me? After disobeying a direct order, now you’re sassing?”
Sophie reared back and pressed her palm to her mouth. In her zeal to prove that she could work with Brady, she’d forgotten that he didn’t want the baby in the room. But he was right about the sassing. That didn’t help her cause at all. And she knew better. But when it came to Brady, her motherly instincts always surprised her.
He sighed. “Look, I have potential clients arriving in three weeks. What I need… No, what the business needs is for this big house to be clean, looking like the perfect retreat from the hustle and bustle of a busy life. After that you can leave. I’ll even give you the thousand dollars. I just want you and your baby gone.”
Tears filled her eyes. She was being fired because she had a baby. She shook her head in disbelief. “He doesn’t talk. If he makes a sound it’s a gurgle of happiness. How could you possibly be opposed to that?”
“It doesn’t matter. This is my ranch. My business and my home. I set the rules. I told you I didn’t want to see your baby, but you either chose not to keep him out of my way or couldn’t keep him out of my way as requested. The arrangement failed.” He leaned back in his chair again. “Now, you can stay three weeks because I do need the house cleaned for the clients, and I’m even giving you the extra thousand you asked for. But after that you’re gone. I won’t have a baby here.”
CHAPTER THREE
SOPHIE watched television until eleven that night, hoping to make herself tired. But even after hours of mindless TV her upset over losing her job made her too restless to go to bed.
After checking to make sure Brady was in a deep sleep, she slid into her one-piece bathing suit and the matching terry-cloth cover-up then grabbed the portable baby monitor from the bedside table. Slim had shown her a swimming pool when he gave her the tour of the house and said she was free to use it. Of course, that was before she had been fired, but she didn’t care. She was restless and needed to make herself tired. She was having a swim.
She opened the door to her suite slowly, not wanting to run in to anyone since her cover-up was short and she felt uncomfortable walking around only half dressed.
Common sense told her she had no reason to fear. It was late. She was on the first floor. Her boss’s suite of rooms was on the second floor. Slim had a cabin behind the homestead. Only a few hands actually slept in the bunkhouse, but even they were so far from the house that no one would see her. She was perfectly safe.
She took a breath, stole down the short hall that led to the kitchen and then slipped into the family room with French doors that led to the pool. In another two steps, she was standing on the stone patio.
Silence descended on her like a warm blanket. The city always had sound. Background noise. A person might grow accustomed to it and not “hear” it, but it was always there. On this ranch, so far away from civilization, she learned the meaning of the word silence.
Removing her cover-up, she glanced around in awe. Except for dim lights illuminating the blue water of the pool, this world was also inky-black. Remembering something about seeing stars in the country, she quickly glanced up and sighed.
“Oh, my gosh.”
“Oh, my gosh what?”
On a gasp, Sophie spun around to find Jeb walking out of the shadows behind her. Water flattened his thick black hair and droplets cascaded from his shoulders and down his broad chest, making trails through whorls of dark hair leading to six-pack abs. Wet black swimming trucks clung precariously to lean hips and a butt made for a woman to sink her fingernails into in the throes of passion.
Even as her mouth went dry, she groaned inwardly. How could she be attracted to the man who had just fired her?
“Oh, my gosh what?” He repeated his question as he walked over to her, stopping within arm’s reach.
Awareness shimmied through her. With her cover-up in her hand and wearing only her bathing suit, she wasn’t quite as naked as he was, but they were both scantily dressed, alone, in the darkness.
She pulled in a breath. This was ridiculous. Not only were they were both sufficiently covered, but also she was furious with him and he clearly didn’t like her. There was no reason to remind him of that, but she wouldn’t cower from him, either.
She forced herself to meet his gaze. “The stars. There are so many.”
“You have big city syndrome,” he growled, back to being the grouchy boss. “The sky is always lit over a city, blocking one of nature’s greatest gifts. A starry night.”
He
