Once Upon a Time in Tarrula / To Wed a Rancher. Myrna Mackenzie

      ‘Stacie, how about introducing us?’ The words came from a woman who approached their table.

      The brunette had a load of inquisitiveness in her gaze that sharpened even more as she got a good look at Troy. ‘Oh, you know what? We can do it for ourselves.’

      Her glance became coy. ‘I’m Aida Gregory, the sister of Dan Gregory from your plant. And you’re obviously the gorgeous new plant-owner.’

      The woman pulled up a chair. She laid her fingers over his arm as she offered some confidence or other.

      Troy leaned back in his chair, removing himself from her reach without making the action too obvious.

      ‘I should go mingle.’ Stacie started to get to her feet.

      ‘We both should.’

      Troy would have joined her, but before either of them could move, another two people pulled up chairs. Conversation became general. Troy welcomed it; He didn’t like the pushiness of Aida’s type.

       You’re only interested in one woman, and she has a much more refined presentation.

      

      He wanted to deny that interest, but Troy forced himself to acknowledge it was true.

      Under cover of conversation in the group, Stacie let her gaze wander again in Troy’s direction. He didn’t seem interested in the gorgeous Aida. Other men were clearly smitten by the brunette’s stunning looks, but not Troy.

      Why hadn’t he succumbed when Aida poured on her particular brand of interest? Or was he secretly interested, but waiting for the right moment to reveal that interest? As Andrew had done with Gemma.

      ‘This was a good idea.’ Troy’s breath brushed her ear as he added, ‘People are different outside of the work environment, and they seem a good bunch. It’s halfway like off-duty time—’ He broke off to answer someone’s question about future plans for the plant.

      Stacie was rather glad of the interruption. She needed a moment to regain her equilibrium after that feeling of his breath in her ear.

      The conversation went on around them and Stacie told herself to just try to be on her guard. At least to keep her reaction to Troy from everyone else until she could get it under control for herself.

      But guarded did not equate to unaware; Stacie acknowledged that when she and Troy left the pub an hour later. In the few short steps to their cars, Stacie felt Troy’s presence at her side, registered every movement of his body, every breath, his body heat, the scent of his cologne. She’d done so from the time he had stepped into the office at the plant this afternoon but, now that they were alone, all her reactions came to the surface much more strongly.

      ‘I hope you enjoyed—’

      ‘I think the evening without Carl there was probably a good chance for me to—’

      They stopped and faced each other beside her car. In the semi-darkness beneath the street light, his face seemed to be all shadows, harshness and mystery rolled into one, and Stacie wanted to search out all of his secrets, to know him.

      And she couldn’t, because she’d been hurt, and her reaction this evening as she’d braced herself for Troy to return Aida’s interest made it clear that she’d allowed herself to become too interested in him.

      The smart thing seemed to be to get some distance from Troy. Right now!

      ‘Well, the dogs will be hungry.’ Stacie fumbled until she got her car-door open and slid into the seat, only to then look up into Troy’s face and not be able to shift her gaze away.

      ‘Yes. We should get home.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Each of us to our own homes, I mean.’

      Not going home together, of course, although they would be driving at the same time and headed in the same direction.

      Words wouldn’t come so she simply started the engine while he moved to his car, and they both got out on the open road.

      His headlights followed from a distance. It was silly, but she felt oddly secure knowing he was there. There was something about Troy that simply made her feel that way. Stacie aspired to be strong, but she wasn’t managing very well when it came to overcoming her attraction to him.

      She was starting to wonder whether she would get past it, and that was about the stupidest thought she’d had since she’d believed Andrew must love her.

      A jerk in the speed of her car was the only warning Stacie got before the engine cut out and the car coasted to a stop. She only just managed to get it off the road.

      ‘What happened?’ Troy drew in behind her, got out of his car and strode straight to join her as she stepped out of the vehicle.

      ‘I don’t know. I had plenty of fuel. It just stopped.’ She popped the bonnet, took the torch she kept in the glove compartment and held it while they tried to look for any possible problem.

      After a minute he turned to her. ‘It’s too dark. I think we might have to leave it until daylight.’

      ‘The mechanic’s shop won’t be open again until Monday. It’s probably not worth phoning roadside assistance at this hour. They’d potentially only tow it into town and leave it on the street anyway.’ Stacie locked the car. ‘It’s been serviced recently.’

      ‘Things happen with machinery sometimes. It’s not your fault. Let’s get home; it’s cold out here.’ Troy led the way to his car. It was a spacious vehicle, yet for Stacie it felt like no space at all as the darkness enveloped them in their own private world and he turned the heater up to warm her.

      It was probably just as well that they arrived outside her home within minutes.

      ‘I’ll see you to your door.’ Troy got out of his seat before she could argue.

      ‘Thank you.’ Stacie swallowed hard before she reached for the handle of her car-door and opened it.

      Troy finished that task for her, tugging the door fully open and standing there with his hand extended to help her step out.

      It was just that, a hand stretched out towards her. It could have been any courteous gesture between any two people. But it was Troy, and it was Stacie’s hand that fit into his as though it belonged there. It was Stacie’s heartbeat that thundered suddenly as his fingers wrapped around hers.

      For a moment she felt ridiculously like Cinderella stepping down from the golden coach and into a moment of magic as their gazes locked in the dim light.

      ‘Troy?’ His name was a question, and a hope she shouldn’t have had. Maybe he understood that, or perhaps he simply reacted without understanding anything at all, but he did react.

      His gaze linked with hers. Hooded shadows were in his eyes, yet welcome too. Oh, she saw that, and it melted her so that when she stepped right out of the car, his hands clasped her upper arms and his head lowered towards hers, Stacie lifted her face; her eyelids drooped and she waited with an anticipation that stripped away her barriers and self-protective mechanisms.

      ‘I don’t know why …’ He didn’t finish the sentence. Rather, his lips lowered to hers and brushed across them in a touch that was shocking in its delicacy, a delicious, sensitive caress of lips upon lips that washed through her, drove all thought away.

      Her eyelids lifted because she needed to look into his eyes. Stacie found something within the dark orbs to which she could cling, and so she did. He kissed her truly then, covered her mouth with his, and she sighed within herself as she took that kiss and gave it back.

      Firm lips on hers, giving with sensuality, sipping at her lips as though he couldn’t get enough of the taste of her. Her hands rose to his chest and lay flat against firm muscles as though, if she let her fingertips spread against him in this way, she could absorb more of him through that delicate touch.

      Stacie didn’t