His Ring, Her Baby / His Bride for the Taking. Sandra Hyatt

“I don’t believe you said that!”

      His mouth tightened. “Don’t argue, Vanessa. You eat in there with me from now on, or I eat in here with you. Take your pick.”

      “But … but … this is crazy. You don’t even want me working here. Why would you want to eat with me?”

      He looked inflexible. “I’m not going to sit in the living room and eat by myself while you sit in here and eat. You and Josh are to join me. End of argument.”

      He was including Josh in this?

      All at once she wondered something. Kirk obviously had plenty of friends in town, and he had plenty of staff on the cattle station, and by the look of his study he was a very busy man there as well. But despite appearances, was he lonely living here in this big house by himself? Did he miss his family? She didn’t want to be a family substitute for a man, not even inadvertently. Her own family had already been decimated by the loss of her husband. She couldn’t do this again.

      Then she looked at the unforgiving look in Kirk’s eyes and realized she’d gotten it wrong. This man didn’t need her company. He had a full life. He was just determined to make it difficult for her.

      Her chin rose as her anger reached its limit. “If you think I’m going to be your whipping boy for the next six months then you have another think coming, Mr. Deverill. You either treat me with the respect you afford any employee or I leave tomorrow and I don’t care what Linda’s reaction will be.”

      He appeared a little taken aback.

      Then he slowly inclined his head with a look of grudging admiration. “You have my word I’ll treat you with respect.”

      She released a breath. “Thank you,” she said, recognizing he hadn’t forgiven her for thinking she’d used him. He wouldn’t forgive her that, but at least now he wouldn’t be in her face all the time. “Okay. Now please go in there and I’ll bring in the food.”

      He made a point of grabbing the knife and fork she’d set out for herself. “I’ll take these in for you, shall I?”

      She nodded. As she watched him leave, she was wondering how she was going to cope eating her meals with him. Her emotions were already being tossed around like clothes in a dryer. Feelings she wanted tucked away nice and neatly in a drawer where no one could see or touch them.

      Definitely not Kirk.

      Taking a deep breath, she gave him a generous serving of casserole and herself a smaller portion, then took off her apron and smoothed her hands down her skirt. She was glad now that she’d changed into something more formal than jeans.

      She groaned inwardly when she saw where she was expected to sit. Kirk had placed her next to him on his right. She’d half hoped he’d put the length of the table between them.

      “Everything fine with your rooms?” Kirk said, after she got settled.

      “Yes, thank you.” She remembered the extra items and she softened toward him. “And thank you for arranging all that baby furniture for Josh. I can’t pay you back in one lump sum, but please give me the total amount and I’ll make some arrangement to pay by installments.”

      “Don’t worry about it.”

      “But I don’t expect you to supply baby furniture for my son.”

      “It’ll get plenty of use in future,” he dismissed, and began eating.

      She grasped what he meant. “Oh, of course. If you marry you might use them again.”

      His face hardened as he swallowed his food before speaking. “No, I meant they can be passed on to someone else in the family eventually.”

      She picked up her fork. “Oh, I see.”

      Obviously his future wife wouldn’t want secondhand things used by the housekeeper. Grace certainly would never have used anything secondhand, and Nadine would certainly never have to worry about using secondhand furniture, either. Grace wouldn’t let her.

      “Is there anything else you need?”

      “No, the list Martha left was very thorough.”

      After that they ate their way through dinner while Kirk explained about his routine and more about her duties. At all times his tone was courteous but detached.

      Then she brought out the parfaits and tried not to blush at the reason for so many chocolate sprinkles. She had gone a bit crazy with them while she’d been thinking about Kirk in the shower.

      “You’re a good cook,” he said after he’d finished eating and placed his spoon in the empty parfait glass.

      “I really only made the dessert,” she said, hoping any blush in her cheeks would be put down to the compliment and not her wayward thoughts.

      “Then I look forward to future meals.”

      She looked at him to see if he was being sarcastic but his features were calm and controlled.

      “By the way, your duties may be more extensive than you thought.”

      She tensed. Was he going to want bed as well as breakfast?

      With a knowing look in his eyes, he placed his napkin on the table and stood up. “Leave the cleaning up for now. I have a surprise for you in the barn.”

      That got her attention.

      She looked up at him suspiciously. “What sort of surprise?”

      “It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you,” he drawled.

      She went with him out the kitchen door and along the path that led to a large barn. She’d seen a couple of horses in the fenced paddock connected to the back of it earlier today, but she was wary of horses and had decided she wouldn’t be going near them any time soon.

      Just like she was wary of Kirk, she reminded herself, not relaxing until she stepped inside the barn and saw the puppies. They were playing in an area cordoned off so that they couldn’t escape.

      “Ooh, aren’t they’re gorgeous?” she said, instinctively falling to her knees to pat their soft fur, forgetting to be guarded with Kirk. “How old are they?”

      “About six weeks.”

      She laughed as the puppies surrounded her and a mediumsize dog came trotting up and sniffed her hand. “Is this their mother? Is she some sort of sheep dog?”

      A wry smile coated his mouth. “She thinks she is, but no, little Suzi’s what we call a ‘bitza.’ A bit of this and a bit of that.” He crouched down and patted the dog’s head. “I suspect that’s why someone dumped her.”

      Her heart saddened. “They dumped her? Out here?”

      He nodded. “She turned up here one day a few years back, starving and her paws bleeding. She’s been with me ever since.”

      Her assessment of the man went up. She stood and brushed the dirt from her knees. “I guess you need someone to take care of them.”

      He got to his feet. “If you want to.”

      “I’d love to,” she said sincerely.

      He looked almost surprised by her response. “Good. One of my men has been looking after them while I’ve been away but I’m sure he’ll be happy to pass the job to you.”

      They were standing close and instantly she felt all tingly and aware of his strength. “Er.” She stepped back. “Well, I’d better go clean up the dinner things.”

      She hurried away without waiting for a response, aware of him watching her. Lord, the attraction was still there between them and if she thought eating together was going to be hard, then how was she going to cope with moments like these?

      Right now she didn’t have the answer.

      Ten minutes