Page 2 of Her Cowboy Prince Charming

They had been such a happy family. And it had been up to Levi to take care of all the kids in the aftermath. And her oldest brother had.

So she had never wanted to say anything to him about just how difficult this time of year was.

But it was what had driven her here. What had made it feel unbearable now. Maybe it was that all of them were finally adults. Maybe it was Camilla’s leaving to go to college. That probably wasn’t helping. She didn’t like endings. She didn’t like change. Because she had lived through too much of it.

And so she would be bold. Because she wasn’t here to be timid. At the end of all things, she was not here to be timid.

“Hi there,” she said, making her voice a little lower, a little huskier.

The man looked her over, and she couldn’t read his expression. His eyes were shaded by the black cowboy hat, his features obscured by the mask. The dark stubble of his beard made him look dangerous.

Her heart beat harder. Faster.

“Are you here all by yourself?” she asked.

His head tilted to the side. “Yes.” And then she noticed. Noticed the way he looked at her body. And she felt a little bit of a thrill. She didn’t think a man had ever looked at her body. Not like that. Slow and lazy, and interested. But then, she usually covered herself so that it wouldn’t happen. So she sort of made her own invisibility cloak with those T-shirts.

“You?”

“Yes. I came alone.”

“Surprising.”

“I figured it was best to come alone since I didn’t aim to leave alone.”

Her own words made her tremble. She’d tried to proposition a man one other time in her whole life and it had not gone well.

He had, in fact, disappeared after.

Not that his leaving town for two years was directly connected to her, but it felt like it.

And it stung.

She’d had one serious crush in all of her existence. A long, enduring,crushingcrush, fitting of the title because it made her feel like the air was being pressed from her body whenever he was around.

And when she thought of Damien Prince she... Well. It made her wish she were dead. Because she had wandered around mooning after him for most of her life. And he had never noticed her. Not once.

She’d checked.

Little girl, this is above your pay grade, believe me.

Bastard.

He didn’t know what she wanted. She didn’t believe in romance, anyway. She just thought he was hot.

The world had taken too much out of her to believe in fairy-tale endings.

When things were good, she knew they couldn’t last.

The other shoe would always drop.

His thinking she was young and naive...it was offensive.

She didn’t need to be thinking about him, anyway.

She hadn’t even seen him in almost two years. He’d started some wine business up north. She had cried when he’d gone. Twenty-one years old and she’d been crying about a man who’d never seen her as anything other than a little sister. It was humiliating. But this wasn’t humiliating. This was exciting. Electrifying.

Healing, even.

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