Dark Horse: Bad Boy Cowboy Romance by Samantha Westlake

more work to be done with the property's exterior fence. And I've been meaning to clear out some of the brush around here, but I just can't do it all on my own, and I can't afford right now to hire laborers to come in and do it. If you stick around, though, I'll make sure that Shadow gets fed, just like Merlot."
    "So you want me to take care of your odd jobs for you."
    "In exchange for free room and board!" I added quickly. "Or, at least, free room. I'll pay for the food, but you might need to cook it."
    Lance leaned back against the counter for a minute, his arms still crossed across his bare chest, just below his nipples. I tried not to notice how a little trail of hair led down the middle of his chest, down to his belly button, running over the textured surface of his abdominal muscles.
    "I suppose that I could stick around for a few days, at least," he finally allowed. "But your fiancé isn't going to have a problem with this?"
    "Who, Marsden?" To be honest, I hadn't even considered the question. "Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine with it. It's not as if you're sleeping in my bed, after all!" I gave a little chuckle to show that this was a joke.
    Actually, Marsden would probably raise a fuss over the whole thing. He wasn't a fan of me living out here on my own in the first place. Even though I could say that I was letting Lance stay around so that he could keep an eye out and protect me, I couldn't see my fiancé feeling any better about the situation.
    But then again, Marsden didn't own me, and I could make my own decisions. And right now, my decision was to let Lance stick around and help me out with fixing some of the problems around my house. Decision made.
    Lance was speaking again. I quickly pulled my attention back front and center.
    "Well, if I'm staying, you'll need to pick up some stuff," he was saying. "I'll make you a shopping list, but you're going to need some food, for one thing."
    "What do you mean? I've got plenty of peanut butter and jelly," I pointed out.
    I saw the man roll his eyes at me! "Peanut butter and jelly isn't a meal," he groaned. "Listen, I'll handle the cooking. Obviously it's not your strong suit. But if I'm going to stay, we're going to eat some real food."
    I thought about arguing that peanut butter and jelly was most definitely real food - it certainly kept me going just fine! - but decided not to press the issue. "I'll grab you the spare set of my keys, so that if you need to go into town to get any supplies, you can," I replied to him. "And I'll see about making a list of some of the things around here that could use some work, to keep you busy."
    Lance nodded, but as I started to stand up, he held out his hand to me. "To living together, Miss Monteclaire," he suggested.
    I didn't let myself hesitate as I shook the proffered hand. "To a partnership, Mr. Lance."

Chapter ten
    The next few days went better than I expected.
    Somehow, I'd expected that things would feel, well, different, with a man around the house. I expected to be running into Lance all the time, to always feel like I was out in public and couldn't relax, knowing that someone else was around and might intrude on my private time at any moment.
    But in truth, things didn't feel that way at all.
    Sure, they did feel different. But I quickly became used to walking into the living room and seeing Lance sitting on my couch, reading one of the books from my bookshelf. Strangely enough, for a man who spent most of his time out in the wild and working with his hands, Lance had a voracious appetite for books, and I watched in amazement as he steadily chewed his way through my bookshelf.
    But unlike with most of the other people I knew, I never felt any pressure to keep some sort of conversation going with Lance if I didn't have something to say. When I wanted to talk, I could just open my mouth and start talking, and I knew that he'd listen to whatever I had to say. If I didn't want to talk, I could come into my living room, drop into a