Page 5 of Her Cowboy Prince Charming

“Those things always are.” His friend poured him a cup of coffee and Damien nodded his thanks.

“You ever get tired of all the schmoozing you have to do for the wine industry?”

“Like your job doesn’t require you to schmooze. It’s not like beef isn’t the same sort of business at the end of the day.”

“Fair. But still... I prefer beef people to wine people.”

“It’s not about people. It’s about the land,” said Damien. And that much he meant.

“It’s been too long.”

“Yeah, it has.”

He took a sip of the coffee and turned away from the kitchen, facing the entry door again. And something caught his eye. One of the discarded shoes. All sparkly and impractical. A slip-on.

Holy fuck.There was no way. There was no damned way that he had run away from her. That he had run away from her and...

He heard a thump on the stairs. And he knew. Without even looking, he damn well knew.

He looked up, and there she was, a tumble of brown curls, but wearing the kind of baggy shirt he expected from her.

“Good morning, Jessie,” he said.

CHAPTER THREE

JESSIEWASSTILLHALF-ASLEEP. Jessie was half-convinced that she was dreaming. Actually, Jessie was pretty sure that she had been dreaming since about the middle of the day yesterday, because there was no way... There was no way that she had... And there was really no way...

Because there was Damien Prince. Standing in her house. Well. Her brother’s house. And he was...everything she remembered except...he had a beard. He had not had a beard when he had left two years ago.

Something like panic burst in her stomach. It couldn’t be. It could not be. Except he looked up at her, and their eyes connected. And she knew.

Last night she’d lost her virginity to Damien Prince. Oh, shit. She actually lived her teenage fantasy, and she hadn’t even realized she was doing it.

Did you not, though?

She thought of how quickly she’d come apart under his hands. How greedy she’d been for him. How... Did he know?

His eyes flicked over to the corner, and she saw her shoe. Her damn shoe. And then he looked back up at her. He knew. He knew. Lord in heaven, he knew, and her brother was standing right there.

Oh, no. This was... It was impossible.

“Where were you last night?” Levi asked.

Oh, great. Leave it to her brother to make it weird. To make itimpossible.

“I was nowhere,” she said. “What I mean is... I was here.”

Levi made a face. “You were not here. I looked for you. Anyway, I heard you stumbling around at midnight, so I know you got in late.”

“I just went to Smokey’s,” she lied, hoping he wouldn’t actually ask anyone if she’d been seen at the local tavern, since she absolutely hadn’t been there.

“Really?” He narrowed his eyes over the top of his coffee cup.

“Yes,” she said. “Really. I went to Smokey’s. There’s no law against that.”

He frowned. “If I recall correctly, there used to be.”

“Yes,” she said flatly. “It was called me being under twenty-one. Which you may recall I’m not anymore.”

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