“My apologies,” he said, mop and duster in his hands. “But would you do me the honor of becoming my wife? I think we could help solve each other’s problems. I’ve been told I’m not a bad man to have around. Amusing, clever, agreeable, not too demanding. I’m not a playboy, but I’ve also been told I’m not bad in the sack-”

Lori held up her hand. “That’s the thing. I’m not sure I want to have sex.”

“Oh,” he said, pausing for a long moment. Then she would swear he was mentally calculating how many years of abstinence would be required. He cleared his throat. “It might be difficult, but I suppose-”

“It might be okay with me if my husband-” She hesitated, searching for the right words. “If he took care of his needs with someone else, as long as he was discreet.”

“Ah, well, as you know we British are the epitome of discretion.”

She felt an odd lump in her throat. Marriage. Did she really want to go through with this? With him? “Would you mind if I think this over?”

He shook his head. “Of course not. It’s a big decision. For six years. You probably have some questions for me.”

“Right,” she said.

They stood staring at each other, awkwardly silent for a long moment.

The doorway swung open and Maria appeared. She lifted her eyebrow. “You haven’t finished yet?” she asked.

Lori hated the suggestion that she wasn’t good enough. “Three down. One to go. Getting faster.”

Maria tossed her hair. “So you are. With help from your English boy.”

“He’s not a boy. He’s a man,” Lori cooed, just to see if she could poke even a tiny hole in Maria’s thick hide. “But I guess since you don’t get many gentlemen around here, you wouldn’t know how to treat them.”

Maria blinked and gave Geoffrey a second assessing look. She opened her mouth and worked her jaw, but nothing came out. “Just finish the other cabin,” she finally blurted and stomped away.

“Moody,” Lori said.

“Fiery,” Geoffrey said, staring after Maria.

“She has zero patience,” Lori countered.

“She’s stacked better than the Oxford Library,” Geoffrey added.

Lori met his gaze, unable to keep her lips from twitching in humor. “Can’t argue with that.”

Geoffrey suddenly seemed to realize that he’d practically drooled over another woman in front of the woman to whom he’d just proposed. He grimaced. “Bloody hell. Well, you’re very well stacked, also,” he said. “Very well stacked. Better than Oxford. You have some kind of enormous library here in the States. What is it?”

“Library of Congress,” Lori said.

“Exactly,” he said with a firm nod. “You’re stacked better than the Library of Congress.”

“Thank you,” she said. “We still need to clean the last cabin.”

“Right-o. Lead on.”

That evening, Lori read another letter from her mother as usual before she went to bed, but her mind kept wandering to the prospect of marrying Geoffrey. After thirty minutes, she gave up, got dressed, and headed for the barn.

Did she really want to do this? Could she really go through with a business marriage? She thought of her sisters and their happy and passionate marriages. Maybe this was a weird twist-of-fate payoff. Since they’d had the tough upbringings, they were due love happily-ever-after. If the flip side were true, since she’d had the cushy childhood, she wouldn’t get the love connection.

It was terribly naive to think all her secret wishes would come true. And when she thought about it, if she got everything she wanted, she’d probably be exactly what Jackson had thought she was-a spoiled brat.

She wandered inside the darkened wooden building and inhaled deeply, wanting to recapture the way she had felt before the accident. Back then, there had been something peaceful about the barn at night. The horses rested easily. It was almost like watching a baby sleep, she thought as she looked into Lady’s stall.

She heard footsteps behind her and felt her heart kick a little as Jackson came into view. He was such a man. A man’s man. Strong, no-nonsense, sexy. The last description stopped her. Sexy? He was just different, she told herself, because he wasn’t falling all over himself to be with her. If she was attracted to him, it was just some sort of sick thing about wanting something she couldn’t have. But something had changed between them since they’d kissed. She couldn’t look at him without being aware of him as a man.

“Is this becoming a habit?”

She shrugged, leaning against the stall door. “There are worse habits.”

“I thought you’d be spending the evening with the English lord,” he said, standing beside her.

“Duke,” she corrected. “I spent a good part of the day with him,” she said.

“He must be very interested if he was willing to drive down here to see you.”

“I’m sure he is. I’m loaded and can solve most of his financial problems,” she said.

She felt his gaze on her. “You want to expound on that?”

“Not really,” she said with a breezy smile and moved toward the next stall. “I came here for the peace and serenity of the barn at night. Don’t feel you need to stay.”

He gave a rough laugh. “Dismissing me already?” he asked, joining her. “Are you sure you want to do that? I have some sugar in my pocket,” he said in a seductive voice.

She whipped her head around to meet his gaze, and then she was unable to stop herself from looking at his pocket. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard it called that before.”

He laughed again, this time more loudly. “Sugar cubes,” he said. “Get your mind out of the gutter, sweetheart.”

She scowled, but he ignored her, moving farther into the barn. “Let’s see who is awake,” he said.

“Probably Rowdy,” she said, curious.

“Peace is peaceful as usual,” he said. He walked a few steps farther and there was a sound of a hoof on the floor. Seconds later, Rowdy poked his head out of his stall door. “Looks like you were right. You want to give him a sugar cube?”

Lori immediately felt herself stiffen with fear. The dark feeling circled around and inside her, sucking away her breath and nerve. She took a careful breath and tried to appear nonchalant. “That’s okay. You brought the treat. You can give it.”

She moved closer, though, and watched as Jackson stretched his hand out flat for the horse. Rowdy politely took the sugar cube with his mouth instead of his teeth.

Jackson glanced at her. “You sure you don’t want to give him one? I have more.”

She considered the offer and felt her palms immediately go damp. It wasn’t riding, she reminded herself. It was just a damn sugar cube. She took a deep breath. “Okay.”

“Come here,” he said and put the cube into her open palm. He slid his arm around her back, and Lori felt a sliver of tension leave her body. Willing herself to remain calm, she tentatively lifted her hand toward Rowdy.

When he nodded his head and whinnied, she stiffened but kept her hand steady. She watched as the horse moved his super-soft lips over her hand and took the sugar cube.

She looked at Jackson and couldn’t help smiling. “I’d forgotten that their mouths feel like velvet.”

“Yeah, velvet,” he said, but he was looking at her mouth.

She felt as if she were going up the down elevator. She met his gaze and another crackle of electricity snapped between them. Was it just her? Was it some kind of masochistic tendency inside her that drove her toward him? Because he clearly didn’t think much of her.

Lowering her gaze to grab her equilibrium, she bit her lip. “Thanks for sharing your sugar,” she said, hoping she bothered him at least a fraction as much as he bothered her.

Geoffrey was bored out of his mind. He joined Lori to help clean the cabins and tried to engage in conversation, but she seemed distracted. After lunch, Lori announced her plans to muck stalls, and he bailed. She hadn’t accepted his proposal, and he was getting dishpan hands from his cleaning chores.