wall, when a pounding threatened to cave in her front door. She’d been keeping herself busy all morning, trying to forget about the petition.
“Coming,” she called out, wondering why whoever it was didn’t just let themselves in. Her big foyer served as the lobby of the inn, and people were free to come and go.
She padded down the ladder, set the paint roller in the tray, wiped her hands on a rag and started for the great room.
The pounding came again.
“Come in,” she called out this time, giving the furniture a wide berth in her paint-splattered clothes.
Nobody responded, so she gingerly turned the handle, pulling the door wide, coming face-to-face with Seth.
“Can I help you?” she asked, struggling to banish the guilt she was feeling from their petition subterfuge.
“I sincerely hope so,” he answered, tapping a sheaf of papers against his palm.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what those papers were.
She kept her expression neutral, feigning innocence, inviting him to continue.
“There seems to be a small problem with your paperwork.”
“Oh?”
“Oh?” he parroted, gaze hard and accusing.
“What’s the problem?”
He cocked his head. “Are you really going to play innocent?”
“Innocent of what?”
He moved slightly closer. “You’re a smart woman, Darby. And you know how to rise to a challenge. You don’t have to cheat to get there.”
She recognized her own words from their coffee at the Fall Festival. Okay, now she really felt guilty.
“Are you suggesting we miscounted?”
His eyes glittered with triumph. “Who said anything about the number of signatures being wrong?”
The question tripped her up, and it took her a moment to respond. “What else could it be?” she asked airily.
“About a dozen other things.”
She could feel her face heat. “That seemed the most likely.”
“At least you’re a bad liar.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean, of all your many flaws, I don’t have to add consummate liar to the list.”
“What flaws?” she asked before she could catch herself.
Why would she care if Seth thought she had flaws?
“You’re caught, Darby. Own up to it.”
“We may have miscounted,” she admitted. “But that’s hardly a crime.”
“Punishable by a ten-thousand-dollar fine and up to three months in jail.”
It took her a second to realize he was mocking her.
“Ha, ha.”
He shrugged. “That’s what it ought to be.”
“You actually think I deserve jail?”
“It would keep you out of my hair.”
“You just can’t stand the fact that I’m right.”
“You’re not right.”
She went for broke. “Then why does the idea of a petition scare you so much?”
“Do I look remotely frightened?”
She leaned her shoulder against the doorjamb. “If you weren’t afraid of what I could do, you’d have sent somebody else up here to complain about the signature count.”
“Wild speculation on your part.” He braced his hand against the wall, close to her shoulder.
“Why are you here?”
“I don’t need to send a minion to deal with you.”
She wondered again about the plan to flirt with him. Was it crazy? Would it work? Would it put him off his game?
She seemed to be out of other options, so she tossed her hair back and let her gaze go soft. “Exactly how are you planning to deal with me, Seth?”
He blinked.
She added a coquettish smile for good measure.
He inched ever so slightly closer. “You really think that’s going to work?”
“Do I think what’s going to work?”
He leaned closer still. “You can’t flirt your way out of the missing signatures. And what happened to you not flirting back?”
“Who’s flirting back?”
He reached forward, resting his palm on her hip, his intense blue gaze trapping hers. “You’re flirting.”
“In your dreams, cowboy.”
“Perhaps. But right now in real life, too.”
The timbre of his voice made her chest tighten. Her pulse sped up, and a warm flush made her skin tingle.
His tone dropped to a lower rumble. “How far you going to take this?”
Excellent question.
While she struggled to come up with a reasonable answer, he eased forward. She told herself to back off, but for some reason, she didn’t move. She told herself this was a terrible idea, but still, she didn’t move.
He whispered her name in obvious frustration, and then his hot lips came down on hers.
The searing power of his kiss zipped through her nervous system, bringing her entire body to instantaneous life. He wrapped his arm around her, pressing it against her back. The doorjamb dug into her shoulder but she barely felt it. Endorphins and who knew what else had formed a hormone-fueled cocktail that took over her senses. All she felt was Seth.
He didn’t let up. His lips urged hers open, while his tongue teased, and hers answered in kind. Her nipples tightened, and heat flooded her body, making her pliant and malleable.
When his hands moved to her bottom, urging her against his hard body, she came to him willingly. Her arms snaked their way around his neck, and she tilted her head while he deepened their kiss. His fingers then splayed into her hair, and the friction from his hard chest made her nipples tingle with desire.
Color and light swirled through her brain. The world tipped beneath
