Page 26 of A Rancher's Bride
“Is there a reason you need asignificant other?” That couldn’t be her voice. It was far too calm and cool.
He nodded. “Family businesses get a leg up far quicker than some flighty dude who is solo and still sowing wild oats. Wearea family business, but I’m the only brother who could go. And I had a fiancée, but that’s over now—”
“Just don’t.Don’ttalk about Penny,” Kelli snapped.
Okay, that was rude on her part, but seriously? The guy was in enough trouble right now. Comparing her even remotely to that cold-spirited woman was not going to make this go easier on him.
Kelli’s heart pounded. She deliberately uncurled her fingers from where they’d squeezed into tight fists. Not that she wanted to plant one in his face, but…
Well, okay, that option wasn’t completely off the books.
She took a deep breath, pulling back to her yoga Zen. She still wanted him, damn him anyway, but this thoughtless act of his was wrong. So very wrong.
“You fucked up big time,” she told him.
Luke gave a quick nod. “I know. I mean you’re right. I mean—” He sighed heavily before twisting to stare up at the Rocky Mountain range that rose to the west of where they stood. “Damn, I’m sorry. I was doing the logical thing. I didn’t think this through.”
Her thoughts darted like river trout on a caddis-fly hatch day. “Then you can think it through with me now. We’re supposed to act as if we’re a couple around a bunch of people we need to impress with the quality of our stables and our skills with horses. And since I work for you, if Idon’tdo this, and thus screw up the event before we even get there, then potentially, there’s a threat hanging over me because you could fire me.”
Luke blinked. “What? I’m not going to fire you.”
“What if I told you I wasn’t comfortable lying about our relationship? That I didn’t want to go through with this?”
He opened his mouth. And wisely closed it.
“What if the only way I would do this was if I didn’t work for you? You know what, maybe you should just go ahead and fire me.”
His eyes flashed.
She moved in closer. “Do it. Say,you’re fired, Kelli.”
“What the hell are you talking about? I’m not going to fire you.”
“But you have to, because this isn’t a work event, is it?”
“It is— I mean, it isn’t.”
“Just fire me, Luke,” she ordered.
“No. Not even if you tell me to turn the truck around and forget the gala.” As he said that, though, he looked sick. His face had gone white, and she was one second away from forgetting the whole thing.
This was killing her, too, it really was, but he needed toknowwhat he’d done was wrong, dammit. “Fire me.Do it,” she shouted.
“Fine, you’re fired,” he shouted back.
She grabbed him by the jacket front, dragging him close enough their faces were on the same level. “Too bad you’re not my boss. You don’t have the authority to fire me, only Ashton does. Besides, Tamara said I’m never allowed to leave Silver Stone, so there.”
Her fingers were still tangled in his jacket, their bodies inches away from each other. Luke looked as if she’d shoved him through an old-fashioned wringer.
“Then what the hell did you make me say you were fired for?” he asked far more quietly, more of the old Luke looking back at her instead of the haunted, worried stranger.
She loosened her grip a little, staying close enough to use him as a wind block. “To prove that Idon’twork for you, so no one can say that you forced me into this. And because you’re twenty kinds of asshole for not knowing this was a fucked-up idea. And because you deserved to suffer a little.”
“Thought I was having a freaking heart attack a minute ago,” he admitted.
She wasn’t done with him. He still might keel over before their conversation was finished.
“Aren’t I your friend? Why didn’t you come to me earlier and tell me what was going on?” she demanded.
