A Cowboy for Holly. Maureen Child

could hardly breathe as she watched him come closer. Her heartbeat quickened even faster and every breath was rapid and shallow. Her stomach was doing somersaults and her mouth was dry as a desert.

      He stopped in front of her.

Chapter Two

      His jaw was tight, his eyes squinted against the midday sun, and he was oblivious to the stir he was causing. Every woman he passed turned to give him a slow once-over. His long-sleeved white shirt was open at the collar. He wore faded jeans and a pair of scuffed brown boots. He was tall and gorgeous and should have seemed completely out of place in midtown Manhattan. Instead, he looked…dangerous. Sexy.

      Then he was there, standing right in front of her, staring down at her out of eyes as warm and rich as melted milk chocolate. He reached up, pulled his hat off and raked his fingers through his long, dark brown hair. He nodded briefly at Katie and Charlie then locked his gaze on Holly.

      “What’re you doing here?” she asked when she could find her voice again.

      “What the hell do you think I’m doin’ here, Holly?” he demanded. “You left without a word. I’m here to find out why.”

      Ben Gray took just a minute to enjoy the sight of the woman he’d followed halfway across the country. When she’d left, he had been out on the mountain helping his wranglers round up a few lost cows who’d wandered off the pasture. He’d gotten back to the main ranch house only to be told she had checked out.

      She hadn’t left a note. Hadn’t explained why she was taking off. She was just gone, leaving behind an empty guest room and an equally empty space in his heart.

      He hadn’t thought to give chase. After all, Ben Gray didn’t have to hunt a woman down. They were usually throwing themselves at him. But he hadn’t been able to forget Holly Banks. And so, after a week of nursing his own temper, here he stood, in the middle of Manhattan.

      She seemed…different here, he thought. In her pretty dress and high heels. She was still beautiful, and one look into her eyes told him this was the same woman who had so captivated him. But damned if he didn’t miss how she looked in jeans and a T-shirt and boots. He missed her smile—which was notably absent at the moment. And he missed knowing she was there. With him.

      He gazed down into her wide eyes and felt as if he could drown in those lake-blue depths. Hell, he pretty much had from the moment he’d first seen her on his ranch. She had come, as so many people came, to be a guest on his luxury ranch. For ten years, he’d opened his home six months out of the year to people who wanted to experience life in the high country.

      But this was the first damn time he’d had his feet knocked out from under him by one of them.

      “Okay…” one of the women alongside Holly said, “I think we should go back to work.”

      Holly didn’t even glance at her. She kept her eyes locked with Ben’s as she said, “You guys go ahead. I’ll be there in a bit.”

      “Are you sure?” the other woman asked.

      He admired her friends’ loyalty even while he wished they’d teleport to the other side of the planet.

      “It’s okay, Katie,” Holly assured her.

      Ben couldn’t stop looking at her. He hadn’t seen her in a week, and damned if it didn’t feel more like a year.

      No woman had ever walked away from him, and he told himself that it was pride that had drawn him away from the ranch to the middle of Manhattan. But now that he was here, drinking in the sight of her, he knew that it was more than pride. It was want. Hell, need.

      The woman had touched something inside him he hadn’t even been aware of. With her, he’d been a man who could enjoy simple pleasures. Walks in the moonlight. A canoe ride on the lake—a ride that had ended with laughter when she’d tipped them both into the water. Hell, he couldn’t even walk across the ranch now without thinking about her—and how great it had been between them—and he wasn’t going to let her just turn her back and walk away without so much as an explanation.

      When her friends moved off, Ben finally spared them a glance, but only to make sure they were leaving. Then he looked back at Holly and asked, “Why? Why did you run off without even talking to me?”

      “Because,” she said, lifting her chin and straightening her shoulders, “I didn’t want to hear more of your lies.”

      “Lies?” He scowled at her as frustration frothed inside him. “I didn’t lie to you.”

      “There’s another one.” She shook her head. “Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?”

      “Find out what?” He threw both arms wide and let them fall.

      Holly stepped in close and poked his chest with her index finger. “That you’re not just a cowboy…you own that ranch.”

      Ben scraped one hand across his face. “That’s why you left?”

      “Yes.” She stepped past him and tried to walk away, but Ben took hold of her arm and kept her in place. She stared down at his hand with a look hot enough to singe his skin.

      He didn’t let go.

      “I didn’t lie to you about that,” he muttered, dipping his head closer to hers. God, he caught her scent—a fragile blend of flowers, spice and Holly—and dragged it deep inside him. Just being this close to her again…touching her again…made him hungry for more.

      To disguise his own desire, he gritted his teeth and said, “I just didn’t tell you everything.”

      “That’s a lie, in case you were wondering,” Holly snapped and tugged her arm free.