Page 29 of Ranch Rules

Chapter Five

When she felt herselfbeing shaken awake, she was reluctant to open her eyes. Murmuring sleepily, she turned away, but the shaking was insistent. Finally cracking an eye, she smiled to see Thomas staring down at her.

So it hadn’t been a dream after all. That was nice.

“Hey, sleepyhead. We’ve got to get ridin’ back.”

Of course, it would be nicer if he would let her get back to sleep. But Thomas wouldn’t be dissuaded and soon she was running her hands through her disheveled hair and brushing her pants free of dirt before they made their way back to the horses.

It didn’t take long to get to the ranch, and the return trip was made less enjoyable than the first because she kept sneaking peeks at Thomas, wondering what he was thinking. Her body was still vibrating with pleasure, but what about him? What did he think about what had happened between them? Did he regret it? Not one thing in his expression gave her any hint, and Natalie had to grudgingly admit that he kept his emotions as secret as she normally contained her own.

He was just as polite, nearly businesslike when they arrived at the ranch and he helped her dismount. He handed both sets of reins off to someone who was on stable duty and told her that if she hurried she had just enough time for a shower before dinner.

“Okay, so... I’ll see you at dinner?” Natalie tried to keep the hope out of her voice.

Thomas opened his mouth to answer, but just then the front door was flung open.

Nate’s eyes zeroed in on her and Natalie stood stock still under the hot accusation of his gaze. “Natalie. Thomas. Can I have a moment?”

“Um, actually I was just going to take a shower. Maybe after dinner—”

He cut off her squeak of a protest with a firm, “Now, please!” before he disappeared, clearly expecting that his demand would be obeyed.

She could feel Thomas’s eyes on her, but she didn’t dare look at him. Natalie’s stomach sank. She couldn’t believe that she’d gone and ruined everything—they’d had such a nice day, and she had a feeling that in mere moments that was all going to be over soon. Of course, she hadn’t known that what happened between them was going to take place, but still...

“Any idea what that’s about?”

“No,” she mumbled, looking at her feet.

There was a long pause. Then, finally Thomas said, “Well, I guess we better go’n find out then.”

Natalie trudged after him, her feet growing heavier with each step. If only she could turn back time.

This is ridiculous. I should be able to check my email, for heaven’s sake! But ridiculous or not, she’d signed a contract agreeing to follow their rules, and she’d broken it. She knew what that meant.

Thomas held open the now-familiar office door and let her enter ahead of him. Once they were both safely inside, he shut it behind them.

When Natalie dared to look up, she was horrified to see Lora huddling in the corner, a sad expression on her pretty face. She had never meant to get her involved!

“I trust you know why I asked you in here,” Nate said, staring at her with an imposing gaze over his laced fingers.

To lie, or not to lie? There was always a chance that she was wrong, that he wanted something else. What that something would be she didn’t know, but there was a chance. But if she gambled on that chance and she was wrong... she had a feeling that lying was every bit as frowned on as breaking the rules was. After all, that had been in the contract, too. What to do, what to do? Her gaze kept darting back to Lora, who wore the most hangdog expression.

Nate cleared his throat, signaling that her time was up.

“No,” she said, doing an impressive job of keeping her voice steady.

“You don’t know?” Those eyes seemed to bore into her, trying to pin her to the spot.

“No.”

“Okay, then I’m happy to tell you. It would seem that this morning while you and Lora were alone in my office, the computer was accessed with my personal password and the internet was used. Do you happen to know anything about that?”

Damn it. So he had her, after all.

“Natalie?” This time it was Thomas who prompted her. “Nate asked you a question.”

“I...”

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