Colton's Ranch Refuge

Gunnar shook his head. “Don’t let Sawyer get to you.”

She scoffed. “I don’t. It’s just …”

“Piper, look at me.” Gunnar stopped the Suburban at the double gate to the Colton family ranch, the Double C, and Sawyer hopped out to open the gate without being asked.

Gunnar drilled his younger sister with a hard gaze. Her cornflower-blue eyes held the vulnerability of youth along with a keen intelligence beyond her years. Gunnar felt a rush of protectiveness for his sister. The Amish girls from Paradise Ridge who’d been kidnapped were about Piper’s age.

“What?” she asked when he lapsed into silence for too long.

“You are perfect just as you are. And you are beautiful. I’m going to be busy fighting off all the boys who’ll be beating down your door in the next few years.”

She gave him a lopsided smile. “You have to say that. You’re my brother.”

Gunnar drove through the gate Sawyer had opened and shook his head. “I have to say it, because it’s true. You are beautiful, and I’ll bet you a new pair of jeans that Heath Hamilton not only knows who you are but is working up the courage to ask you out.”

She snorted and laughed. “Yeah, right.”

Sawyer climbed back in the SUV and leaned over the front seat. “What’s with all the cars and buses and stuff?”

“Huh?” Gunnar looked through the windshield where Sawyer pointed. Sure enough, the driveway to the main ranch house was full of unfamiliar vehicles, and the side road to Gunnar’s cabin was blocked by a large tour bus. Irritation prickled Gunnar. He hated having his privacy invaded, and from the looks of it, the ranch was under a full-scale assault.

Piper gasped and rocked forward in her seat. “No way!”

“What?” Gunnar and Sawyer asked at the same time.

The teenager pointed to the small cluster of people standing near the front door of the house, talking to their brother Derek. “See the woman in the green dress? The one with short blond hair?”

Gunnar spotted the woman in question. In a purely visceral reaction to the lady’s feminine curves, a flash of heat swamped him, and his body hummed with lust. Yeowsa.

“What about her?” Sawyer asked.

“Don’t you recognize her? That’s Violet Chastain!”

Gunnar rolled up his palm. “Never heard of her.”

Sawyer opened his door and jumped out, while Piper goggled at Gunnar. “Are you kidding? She was nominated for an Oscar this year for The Journey Home. People magazine voted her one of their most beautiful people this year. She’s in town to film that new movie called Wrongfully Accused.”

Gunnar cut the engine and stared through the window at the curvy blonde. “Doesn’t ring a bell.” But he had to agree with the staff of People magazine. Violet Chastain was a stunner.

“Geez, what rock have you been living under?”

Gunnar cut his sister a dry look. “An Afghan rock, until six months ago.”

Piper winced, looking contrite. “Sorry. That came out wrong.”

“Don’t sweat it, kiddo. So I take it this Violet person is a big deal to the media?”

“Oh, yeah. The biggest.” Piper turned her gaze to the gathering of people on the lawn and shook her head in wonder. “I can’t believe that Violet Chastain, the hottest star in Hollywood, is at my house!”

Gunnar grunted and climbed out of the Suburban. “Yeah, and her huge-honking bus is blocking my driveway.”

The sound of car doors slamming pulled Violet’s attention from her director’s discussion with the Double C’s owner about the scenes the production crew wanted to film at the spacious ranch.

“Well, there’s some of the family now,” Dr. Derek Colton said. The handsome African American nodded toward the newly arrived SUV and grinned. “Before I sign off on this deal, I’d like their opinions. This is their home, too.”

Violet turned to greet Derek’s family, and her practiced smile faltered for a moment. The teenage girl crossing the yard was as fair featured as Derek was dark, and Violet blinked her surprise at the incongruity.

The doctor chuckled. “I see your surprise. They’re my adopted brothers and sister. All of the Colton children were adopted, so we’re something of an eclectic mix.”

“So you are,” Violet said, putting her meet-the-public smile back in place as the lovely blonde girl and a sandy-haired boy of ten or eleven trotted up with eager grins.

“OMG! You’re Violet Chastain!” the girl gushed. “I love your movies!”

“Smooth, Piper,” the boy said. “Try not to drool on her.”

Derek thumped his younger brother lightly on the shoulder, then introduced the kids to Violet and the rest of the assembled movie crew.

“Nice to meet you, Sawyer, Piper.” Violet and the other crew members shook their hands.

“You’re back early,” Derek called to the man who’d been driving the SUV.

The brawny man bringing up the rear met her gaze, and an unexpected tremor stirred deep inside her. Whether her gut reaction was good or bad, Violet couldn’t say. Derek Colton’s brother could have been responding to a casting call for a nightclub bouncer … if the producers were looking for someone who oozed sex appeal along with his intimidating glower. He stalked toward the assembled group with his stubbled jaw set, his broad shoulders squared and his sexy lips pulled in a taut frown.

Violet tore her gaze away from the brooding man and gave herself a mental shake. Why was she noticing the guy’s lips? She never paid attention to a man’s mouth unless he was playing opposite her in a scene and she was expected to kiss him. The odds that she’d ever kiss this scowling linebacker were so slim as to be laughable.

As the dangerously good-looking Colton brother approached like a brewing tempest, Violet had to call on all her cool reserves, the practiced composure she drew from when facing a horde of merciless paparazzi, to not take a step back when he stormed up.

“We decided to skip lunch,” he told his brother, then sent a suspicious look around the group. “What’s going on?”

“Gunnar, this is Mac Gremble, the director of Wrongfully Accused, the movie that’s filming in the area. They’re scouting the ranch to use in a few scenes.”

Mac shook the bouncer wannabe’s hand. Then Derek turned to her.

“And I guess I don’t have to tell you who this is.”

The older Colton brother’s hazel gaze slid to her. “Only because Piper just told me.” Though he offered his hand in greeting, he didn’t smile, and Violet’s mouth dried when his large fingers swallowed hers in a tight grip.

She forced a polite smile. “Not a fan of the movies … Gunnar, is it?”

“I just don’t follow Hollywood hype.” He dropped her hand and shoved his fingers in the pockets of his jeans. “That and I’ve been out of the country until about six months ago.”

“Oh?” Violet tipped her head. “Where? Europe? Japan?”

His gaze narrowed. “Afghanistan.” His tone was grave and held a note of challenge, as if he dared her to comment on his military status. Though startled by his gruff attitude, she opened her mouth to thank him for his service to the country but didn’t get the chance before he aimed a thumb at her bus. “That your behemoth?”

Violet cut a quick glance to Mac and Dr. Colton, uncertain what to make of Gunnar’s rudeness. “It’s my dressing room when we’re on location and my—”

“Well, your dressing room is blocking the road to my cabin. You’ll have to move it.”