until her mother’s terrible secret had come out this summer.
That her mother had once loved his father, Rex Foley. Her curiosity had driven her to the Internet and the photos she could find. She’d skipped right over the brothers and zeroed in on the father instead.
His father had slept with her mother and fathered a child with her. Paige’s little brother, Charlie.
How could that be?
She still couldn’t quite believe it, couldn’t make sense of it, couldn’t…
And all that time she’d been glaring at pictures of Rex Foley, trying to understand, trying to see something of her little brother in him and wondering how it was that they’d managed to keep that secret all these years, how no one had known…
All that time, she should have been looking at the Foley brothers, arming herself, protecting herself against what was to come.
Then she might have known, she might have recognized him from the first. It was just that every time in the past when she’d met him he’d been in a tuxedo, all polished manners and cool, sophisticated charm, dismissive as could be of anyone in her family and disapproving, as well. And while that arrogance might work for some women, Paige had grown up with men like that.
It was old hat to her, a nice-looking man in a tuxedo who acted like he owned the world.
Men like that really didn’t do a thing for her.
They just didn’t seem real.
That man working the ranch, checking the mine, catching her there…He’d seemed interesting and very real.
So different from any version of Travis Foley she’d ever seen.
Sweaty, a little dirty, in worn jeans and well-worn boots.
A working man.
Real.
Right now he was also furious.
“What?” she asked, lost in her thoughts.
“Before, you said you thought I was a ranch hand, that I was…What? What were you going to say?”
That it would be nice to have someone who looked like you walk right into my life. That I was lonely. That I hadn’t had anyone special in my life for a long time and…And…
Oh, God. What did it matter now?
It could never be.
He was Travis Foley.
“I thought you looked like a nice guy,” she told him, laughing with as much disgust as she could muster. “How ridiculous is that?”
That seemed to satisfy him for the moment. They retreated to opposite corners of the small room, him leaving her by the fire to get warm while he brooded in the corner by the bed.
A single bed, maybe a single and a half, if there was such a thing.
Paige looked away. She had to forget what happened between them the night before, just completely erase it from her mind. It didn’t mean anything, and really, it was nothing. A little flirtation, a little…more than flirting.
Cuddling, kissing, his big, warm body rocking erotically against hers, and all those promises of so much more to come.
Her face burned at the memory.
And then she had a terrible thought.
She got up and glared at him. “You really didn’t know?”
“Know what?” he said, his tone biting.
“That it was me? That I was a McCord?”
“No.”
She wasn’t sure she believed him, although when she thought about it, she honestly wasn’t sure how it would have benefited him to lie about it, to pretend. To flirt with her the way he had, and to get her pants off of her and yet still not take it all the way.
Why be a nice guy at that point? If he was looking to just…mess with her head or her body or…
No, it didn’t make any sense.
“Red, if I’d wanted you last night, I could have had you a half a dozen times by now, and you know it. So don’t go playing the outraged, violated woman with me. It won’t fly.”
Okay. He could have. And they both knew it.
“Then, I don’t understand,” she said.
“Understand what?”
Who he was?
Who that man last night had been?
He stared at her from across the room, still angry, but looking more than a little confused now, uneasy, suspicious and maybe even a little vulnerable.
“Nothing. Forget it.
That her mother had once loved his father, Rex Foley. Her curiosity had driven her to the Internet and the photos she could find. She’d skipped right over the brothers and zeroed in on the father instead.
His father had slept with her mother and fathered a child with her. Paige’s little brother, Charlie.
How could that be?
She still couldn’t quite believe it, couldn’t make sense of it, couldn’t…
And all that time she’d been glaring at pictures of Rex Foley, trying to understand, trying to see something of her little brother in him and wondering how it was that they’d managed to keep that secret all these years, how no one had known…
All that time, she should have been looking at the Foley brothers, arming herself, protecting herself against what was to come.
Then she might have known, she might have recognized him from the first. It was just that every time in the past when she’d met him he’d been in a tuxedo, all polished manners and cool, sophisticated charm, dismissive as could be of anyone in her family and disapproving, as well. And while that arrogance might work for some women, Paige had grown up with men like that.
It was old hat to her, a nice-looking man in a tuxedo who acted like he owned the world.
Men like that really didn’t do a thing for her.
They just didn’t seem real.
That man working the ranch, checking the mine, catching her there…He’d seemed interesting and very real.
So different from any version of Travis Foley she’d ever seen.
Sweaty, a little dirty, in worn jeans and well-worn boots.
A working man.
Real.
Right now he was also furious.
“What?” she asked, lost in her thoughts.
“Before, you said you thought I was a ranch hand, that I was…What? What were you going to say?”
That it would be nice to have someone who looked like you walk right into my life. That I was lonely. That I hadn’t had anyone special in my life for a long time and…And…
Oh, God. What did it matter now?
It could never be.
He was Travis Foley.
“I thought you looked like a nice guy,” she told him, laughing with as much disgust as she could muster. “How ridiculous is that?”
That seemed to satisfy him for the moment. They retreated to opposite corners of the small room, him leaving her by the fire to get warm while he brooded in the corner by the bed.
A single bed, maybe a single and a half, if there was such a thing.
Paige looked away. She had to forget what happened between them the night before, just completely erase it from her mind. It didn’t mean anything, and really, it was nothing. A little flirtation, a little…more than flirting.
Cuddling, kissing, his big, warm body rocking erotically against hers, and all those promises of so much more to come.
Her face burned at the memory.
And then she had a terrible thought.
She got up and glared at him. “You really didn’t know?”
“Know what?” he said, his tone biting.
“That it was me? That I was a McCord?”
“No.”
She wasn’t sure she believed him, although when she thought about it, she honestly wasn’t sure how it would have benefited him to lie about it, to pretend. To flirt with her the way he had, and to get her pants off of her and yet still not take it all the way.
Why be a nice guy at that point? If he was looking to just…mess with her head or her body or…
No, it didn’t make any sense.
“Red, if I’d wanted you last night, I could have had you a half a dozen times by now, and you know it. So don’t go playing the outraged, violated woman with me. It won’t fly.”
Okay. He could have. And they both knew it.
“Then, I don’t understand,” she said.
“Understand what?”
Who he was?
Who that man last night had been?
He stared at her from across the room, still angry, but looking more than a little confused now, uneasy, suspicious and maybe even a little vulnerable.
“Nothing. Forget it.
Similar Books
