Canyon

She glanced over at him. He was holding a sleeping Beau in his arms while standing in the middle of what she figured was his living room, although it was three times the size of hers. “Can I ask you something, Canyon?”

“What?”

“Why would a single man need such a large place?”

When he smiled she felt a stirring in her belly. “At the time, I didn’t think of needs, just wants. Four of my brothers and I were building our homes practically at the same time, and we all wanted something different and unique. You think this place is big, you ought to see Micah’s Manor, Derringer’s Dungeon, Riley’s Station, Stern’s Stronghold and Zane’s Hideout.”

She couldn’t help grinning. “I gather all of your places have unique names.”

“Yes. It was Bailey’s idea.”

“I think the names are cute,” she said, reaching for Beau.

“Whatever,” he said, handing their dozing son to her.

“Those were some pretty nice neighbors to take care of him like they did.”

Keisha agreed. “Yes, and I appreciate them.” Janice and Everett Miles were super. Not only had they fed Beau, but they’d given him a bath and put him in a pair of the twins’ pajamas. Now she held her sleeping child in her arms as she looked around a house that was too large for one person. And it was decorated for a king...and a queen. The furniture was expensive and the decor perfect.

“You must have paid a lot in decorating costs,” she said.

Canyon, who was moving around turning on lights, looked over his shoulder at her and chuckled. “I wish I could say my cousin Gemma came cheap but she didn’t. She made plenty of money off her brothers and cousins and wasn’t guilty about doing so.”

“She did a great job.”

“We got what we paid for. And if you ask me, we even paid for what we didn’t get. I think she deliberately overcharged us because she figured she could get away with it.”

Canyon’s gruffness wasn’t fooling Keisha one bit since she heard the fondness in his voice. That was one thing she’d always admired about him and his family—their closeness. He had told her all about his family, and it had been her choice not to get to know them better. While Canyon had been great company, and the sex had been off the charts, she hadn’t thought their relationship would last. Initially, she’d thought their physical relationship was all she’d wanted or needed.

But Canyon had had a way of growing on her, and it had seemed she had started growing on him, as well. Within six months, she had invited him to move in with her. While living together they’d gotten along fabulously and things had been going really well...until the night he’d betrayed her.

“My guest rooms are furnished but with no kiddie beds,” he said, interrupting her thoughts.

“No problem, he can sleep with me.”

Canyon nodded. “Okay. Right this way.”

There were two spiral staircases. He moved up one and she followed, thinking his house looked even more impressive when seen from the stairs. High ceilings, crown moldings, colorful walls, hardwood and tile floors as well as intricate lighting. Everything served the purpose of complimenting the grace and style of the house. Definitely not anything a man would have had a hand in.

“Unfortunately, my place isn’t childproof either.”

She didn’t say anything. It didn’t matter since she and Beau wouldn’t be staying here that long anyway. When they reached the next floor he moved into a hallway that seemed to branch out in three directions. Even this area was beautifully decorated and a huge light fixture hung from the ceiling.

He moved down a corridor containing three bedrooms. Opening the door to one of the rooms, he stood back for her to enter. This guest room, she thought, was simply stunning. There was no other word for it.

“This is the blue room,” he said.

She could see why. The walls were painted sky-blue with white billowy curtains around the windows. Plaid blue-and-white coverings were on the king-size bed. A white leather love seat was on one side of the room and two beautiful white ceramic lamps sat on nightstands on either side of the bed.

“It’s pretty,” she said.

“Thanks.”

She walked across the white marble tile to the bed, pushed back the covers and placed Beau in the center. She glanced down at their son who looked so peaceful while sleeping. Little did he know that his mother’s world had just gone topsy-turvy.

“I used to do that.”

She nearly jumped. She hadn’t known Canyon had followed her over to the bed. “What?”

“Sleep curled up with my face resting on my hands.”

She smiled. “And he makes those sounds in his sleep like you used to do.”

She watched Canyon’s brow rise. His eyes, normally so dark and intense, seemed even more so in the bedroom’s low light. “What sounds?”

Those sounds you used to make that turned me on whenever I woke up to hear them, she thought. Not a snore—more of a groan, as if you were having some hell of a dream.

“So, what sounds?” he asked again.

“Not important,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck. This was not how she’d planned to kick off her busy weekend. With everything she’d had planned to do Saturday and Sunday, tonight she’d hoped to curl up on her sofa with a bowl of popcorn and a movie after putting Beau to bed. Instead she was here, at the home of the one man she didn’t want to deal with again.

Yes, she’d run into him occasionally since returning to Denver. Her law firm represented several of his company’s clients, and she would admit that the first time they’d sat across from each other as opposing council in a legal proceeding had been difficult.

All she could think about that day, and the ones that followed, had been his betrayal. So when he’d approached her, asking if she would join him for dinner so they could talk through their issues, she had turned him down. After that it had seemed that the more she turned him down the more persistent he got. And to think he’d assumed he could follow her home to force a conversation with her!

But now she would admit she was glad he had been there when she’d walked into the house and found her home in shambles. His take-charge attitude had helped when she’d become too emotional to think straight.

“Do you think he will fall out of the bed?”

Keisha chuckled softly. “No. He’s out for the night. And he’s not a wanderer so don’t worry about him tumbling down the stairs during the night either.”

“Good, because if you’re up for it, we need to go downstairs and talk.”

She appreciated that he was giving her the option to say no. But she knew they needed to talk, and she wanted to get it over with. “Okay,” she said, turning around.

He was standing too close, and as she looked up into his face lust shot through her. She wasn’t surprised. Canyon had that effect on women. It had been that way for her the day they’d met in the courthouse lunchroom. And it had been that way a month later when she’d attended a meeting regarding a land dispute with his company. Every time Canyon glanced across the table at her she felt her insides sizzle.

“I’ll need to use the ladies’ room first,” she said, rubbing her hands down the sides of her skirt.

“Every bedroom has a private bath. I’ll see you downstairs in a few.” He then turned and walked out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him.

She let out a deep breath when she heard his footsteps move down the stairs. When she’d made the decision not to tell Canyon about Beau she had been pretty comfortable with it. But she had a feeling that when Canyon finished with her she was going to wish she had decided differently.

* * *

Canyon stood at the window in his living room and looked out. It was dark, but he didn’t need to see to know what was out there: the one hundred acres he had inherited.

From the time he’d been a kid, he’d known he wanted to claim this spot, the one with a perfect view of Whisper Creek Canyon. He didn’t have to be on Gemma’s Lake—the one named after his grandmother—or any of the other lakes and streams in Westmoreland Country. Nor did he have to be close to the valleys and meadows. This was where he wanted to be.