Chapter Five

      Tyler cleaned up as best she could before they left the barn, but her wet clothes felt icky and no doubt she resembled a half-drowned cat. The rain continued to fall, soaking her hair and clothes even more, although Alex tried to shield her with his body. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she slid her arm around his waist as they started toward the house.

      Normally she cared a lot about how she presented herself, but a world-shattering orgasm had mellowed her out tremendously. Even so, she still didn’t like the idea of tracking the rain and mud onto the ranch’s gorgeous hardwood floors.

      “Are you sure there’s no back entrance that leads to a mudroom?” she asked as they approached the front porch. “I’d think a ranch would have something like that.”

      “Um...well, it does.”

      “It does? Then why didn’t you say so before?”

      No answer.

      She gave him a whack on the arm, but considering how solid his biceps were, she didn’t think he felt much of anything.

      He yelped in protest, anyway. “What was that for?”

      “You know perfectly well! You lured me back into that barn on false pretenses!”

      “Maybe.” He didn’t sound the least bit repentant. “Mad at me?”

      “I should be. That was a very underhanded way to get me alone and naked.” She heard the smile in her voice and was sure he could hear it, too.

      “You’re right. I’m thoroughly ashamed of myself.”

      “Yeah, I’ll bet you are.”

      “I deserve to be sent straight to bed.”

      She laughed. “Stop it. We have things to do.”

      “We certainly do.” He walked faster, urging her to keep up. “For one thing, I need to count the condoms stashed in my bedside-table drawer.”

      “You’re getting carried away.” And she was getting carried away right with him. Her wet panties had nothing to do with the rain and everything to do with the prospect of spending the night in bed with Alex.

      Warnings whispered through her mind, threatening to erase her glow of satisfaction, and she pushed them away. Good sex was healthy and life affirming, like a trip to a spa. She’d soak up all the joy she could and not spoil it by anticipating the inevitable parting scene. It wouldn’t rip her heart out. She wouldn’t allow that.

      “Getting carried away feels great,” Alex said. “I haven’t felt this good since...”

      “Last August?” That would have been her answer. She hadn’t felt this giddy since the night in the hayloft.

      “’Fraid so. But that doesn’t mean I’ll get hung up on you. I can play by the rules.”

      “I know you can,” she said with determined optimism. “It was naive of us to think we could keep our distance from each other while I’m here. I think facing the attraction and dealing with it is a realistic approach, don’t you?”

      “Absolutely. We both would have been on edge the entire time, which wouldn’t have been fair to everyone around us.”

      “Right.” She glanced at the ranch house as welcoming light shone through its many windows. “So where is this back entrance?”

      “In the back.”

      “Very funny. Why are you still heading for the front door?”

      “Because the utility room is right off the kitchen. Not only will we run into Mary Lou serving dinner, but the family dining room isn’t far from the kitchen. Judging from the trucks parked in the driveway, everyone is gathered for the Friday night meal. Someone will hear us.”

      “But what about the mess we’ll make in the main part of the house?”

      “We’ll take off our shoes—or in my case, my boots, on the porch. It’s not that far to go through the hall and up the stairs. We can change clothes and come back down with nobody the wiser.”

      “I doubt that. I say somebody’s going to pick up on the fact that we have more than friendship going on.”

      He pulled her to a halt. “And how do you feel about that?”

      “It’s not for me to say. I’ll be leaving on Wednesday.” She gazed up at him as rain dripped from her hair and eyelashes. Thank God for waterproof mascara. Although the rest of her might be a disaster, at least she wouldn’t go into the house with raccoon eyes. “I guess we need to discuss this. Do you care if they figure out that we’re involved?”

      He hesitated briefly. “I guess it’s none of their business unless it affects my work.”

      He was so adorably sincere that she chose not to mention how it had already affected his work. They still didn’t have a plan for tomorrow. She’d make sure they did have one, but they’d become seriously sidetracked from working out the details of the open house.

      “It may be nobody’s business,” she said, “but we each have a sister sitting at the dining table. I don’t know about your family, but mine tends to think they have a right to an opinion about my behavior.”

      Alex combed his wet hair back from his forehead. “I’m sure Josie will say something to me. I made plenty of comments when she started seeing Jack, who had already broken her heart once. Okay, you’re right. Let’s get this out of the way. Josie will notice eventually, anyway.”

      “I’m not sure if Morgan will or not. She’s so focused on this baby that she might be oblivious, but Sarah’s nobody’s fool. I get the impression she keeps pretty close track of what goes on around here.”

      “She does.” He frowned. “In fact, I wonder if she already suspects something and that’s why she put us in the same wing...”

      “You think she’s playing matchmaker?”

      “No, probably not.”

      “I don’t think so, either. She seemed really happy for me that I was up for this big promotion. Anyway, we won’t confirm or deny that we have a connection and let people think whatever they want. But let’s not sneak in as if we have something to hide.”

      He nodded. “The back door it is. There’s a stairway from the kitchen to the second floor, so we can go up that way to change. If anybody intercepts us, so be it.” Wrapping his arm more securely around her, he started around the house.

      “We have been out in the barn a fair amount of time, though.”

      “So?”

      “So rather than let their imaginations run completely wild, let’s tell them we’ve been cooking up alternate plans for the open house while we waited for the rain to stop. Finally we realized it wasn’t going to stop and came ahead.”

      “All right.” He navigated around a puddle. “By the way, do you have any alternate plans for the open house? Because I have zip.”

      She noticed that the rain had let up a little, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t start up again during the night. “The barn is definitely an option, but I still think we need to suggest using the living room and the big dining room.”

      “I thought you were worried about tracking up the floors just now? If you open up the main house and it’s raining, that will—”

      “Oh, geez.” Talk about being distracted and missing the big picture. “Okay, scratch that. I’ll figure out something else. Maybe it won’t rain all that much.”

      “We can hope. But what about the entertainment? I’m not sure one lone guitar player is going to cut it, especially if he has to be talked into performing. I wanted something guests could