you’re quite good-looking yourself.”
He grinned. “Thanks.”
She laughed again. He was so different from Wayne. So carefree. She ought not to be here. She ought to be home, wearing black. Mourning.
“What are you thinking, Princess?”
The Cowboy’s voice ripped her from the melancholy that threatened her peace. “What?”
He smoothed the furrows on her brow with his thumb. She had to purposely hold herself still for the caress. It was the first one she had received in so long her skin seemed to come alive beneath his touch. When his fingers trailed into the hair at her temple she leaned away, and his hand dropped back to the grass.
“You looked worried,” he said. “I wondered what you were thinking.”
“That I shouldn’t be here.”
“No time for regrets now. We made a deal. Only happy thoughts.” Faron sat up and leaned his wrist on one bent knee. “Let’s see. What should we talk about?”
“When was the happiest time in your life?” she asked.
“It’s all been pretty good,” he admitted. Until lately. “I guess I’d choose the day I made love to a woman for the first time.”
Faron was both surprised and delighted by the blush that stained her cheeks at his revelation.
“I can’t believe you said that,” Belinda protested with a laugh.
“I warned you I was honest,” Faron said. “It’s your turn now.”
“The happiest time?” she asked. There was a long silence while she thought about it.
“It wasn’t that tough a question, was it?” Faron asked.
She grimaced. “I suppose the happiest time would have been before my parents died, although life was such a struggle on the ranch…” She shrugged.
Belinda could see the Cowboy was about to ask questions she would rather not answer, so she asked, “What did you want to be when you grew up?”
“That’s easy,” Faron replied. “The best.”
“At what?”
“Something. Anything.”
“That certainly gave you a lot of room to succeed,” she said teasingly. Apparently he hadn’t liked the idea of being tied down to any one thing. “Are you the best at something?”
Faron grinned. “I’m a damned good cowboy, ma’am.” He leaned back so she could see the rodeo belt buckle he was wearing.
Belinda laughed and realized suddenly it had been a long time since she had done so. “I should have known.” She leaned over and traced the writing on the buckle with her fingertips. Rodeo Cowboy All-Around Champion.
No wonder he had called himself Cowboy!
Faron held his breath as Belinda traced the face of the silver buckle with her fingertips. It was as though he could actually feel her touching his skin. He wanted her hand lower. His body was doing a helluva good job of imagining all by itself.
He cleared his throat, distracting her attention. “How about you? What did you want to be?”
“I never let myself dream. I couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
She draped a chain of flowers around the brim of his Stetson. “My sisters and I were orphaned when my parents were killed in a car accident. I was eighteen and had just graduated high school. Dori and Tillie and Fiona were still in school. The ranch went to the bank for debts. I found a job in Casper that paid enough to feed us and keep a roof over our heads. That didn’t leave much time for dreaming.”
“Let’s pretend you’re a real princess, and you can have anything you want. What would you wish for?” Faron asked. He laid a handful of flowers he had broken off just below the bud in her lap.
She scooped up the white, yellow and blue flowers and lifted them to her nose to see how they smelled. “I’d wish for a man to love me. And for children. I’ve always wanted to have children.”
“How many children?” he asked in a quiet voice.
“More than one,” she said definitely. “I liked having sisters. I grew up knowing I never had to be alone.”
“Do your sisters live close?”
“Unfortunately they’re scattered across the country. Every Fourth of July we get together. That’s the only time everyone can get free.”
Which meant she spent the rest of the year alone, Faron deduced.
Her lashes fluttered down to conceal her eyes. “You’re not wearing a ring. Are you married?”
“No.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“No.”
“But you’ve had lots of them, I suspect.”
Faron eyed her askance. “What makes you say that?”
“You’re awfully charming, for one thing.”
He shrugged. “If you say so.”
She smiled. “I do. For another thing, you don’t seem in any hurry to…” Her cheeks felt warm. “I don’t know exactly how to say this.”
“Jump your bones?”
Her flush deepened. “Well, I wouldn’t have said it quite that way, but—”
“The afternoon isn’t over yet.”
She swallowed hard. “Then I’m not safe with you?”
“As safe as you want to be,” he said in a husky voice.
His eyes were more green than gray as they sought hers. Belinda was aware of a frisson of desire that began in her belly and spiraled upward. She could feel herself being drawn to him. She had already begun to lean toward him when she realized what she was doing. She jumped abruptly to her feet, scattering flowers around her. “It’s getting late. I have to go.”
She had already started toward her horse when he caught up to her and grasped her arm, stopping her. “Are you sure you can’t stay a little longer?”
Belinda looked at the sun lowering in the western sky. Why, several hours must have passed! Where had the time gone? The Cowboy had cast some sort of spell on her to make her forget who—and what—she was. She would be lucky to get back to The Castle before suppertime. Madelyn would worry if she wasn’t home by then. “I have to leave. Really, this has been lovely, but I have to go.”
“Where do you live? When can I see you again?”
“You
