The Great Texas Wedding Bargain

She backed away and he grabbed for his towel, afraid his modesty was about to disappear.

MEGAN TRIED TO look anywhere but at him, but her gaze kept returning to that magnificent expanse of chest. The muscles were big and brawny and coated with dark hair that tapered down to the white terry cloth towel.

“Are…are you eating without any clothes on?”

“No! At least, I hadn’t planned on it. But all my things are missing from the bedroom.”

“Sorry, I should’ve told you. We moved you to the downstairs bedroom. You said—”

“That’s fine. I just hadn’t realized the extent of your efforts. The house looks great, by the way.”

She couldn’t look him in the eye. She was acting like a teenage girl who’d never seen a man’s body before. She was a nurse, for heaven’s sake. “You’d better get dressed.”

“Okay. Did you decide to stay and eat with me?”

“No, my car won’t start. I wondered if you could look at it.” She hated asking, but she’d called the one mechanic in town, and he couldn’t come out until morning. Her mother had the children already in bed, and Megan had decided the only practical thing to do was ask Rick for help.

“Before I eat?” he asked, his voice filled with despair.

“No. No, I’ll eat with you, if you don’t mind. Could you look at it after?”

“Sure. Be glad to. Now that I don’t have to do any cleaning tonight, I have lots of time,” he agreed, giving her a smile that sped up her breathing.

“Okay,” she agreed, turning her back on him. “Dinner will be ready when you’re dressed.” She had to get away from the near naked man before she reached out to touch that warm flesh again.

He reappeared only a couple of minutes later, taking a deep breath as he came through the door. “That smells like enchiladas.”

“One of the ladies made it after I mentioned you liked enchiladas. It’s some kind of enchilada casserole.”

Megan was surprised when Rick held her chair for her. She hurriedly slid into the seat, then he took the chair across from her.

He offered no conversation until after he’d eaten at least half of his helping of the casserole. Megan remained silent also. He’d put in more than a twelve-hour day and she knew he must be exhausted.

So when he finally spoke, it shocked her. “This is great. Great food, and the house looks wonderful. You must’ve worked hard today.”

She smiled her thanks. “Not as hard as you. If delivering calves is anything like babies, you must be very tired.”

“There were a couple of hard deliveries. Have you ever pulled a calf?”

“No. And I think I’m glad. That doesn’t sound pleasant.”

He grinned. “Maybe not, but a healthy newborn is worth the effort. The crop today looks good.”

“Congratulations, then.” She remembered something she wanted to ask him. “When we cleaned and everything, I noticed all the computer equipment in your bedroom downstairs. Are you sure you’ll have enough room?”

“Yeah.” He continued eating, apparently unconcerned.

“Mother and I can share a room, leaving you the master bedroom.”

He stopped eating and frowned at her. “That’s not necessary. I want you to be comfortable. If today’s any example, you and your mother are going to make me a lot more comfortable.”

“We’ll try.”

“Think you could get this recipe?”

She rolled her eyes. The man thought with his stomach. Her gaze dropped to that flat, muscular area of his body. When she lifted her gaze again, it slammed into his. “Uh, probably.”

“Good.”

She struggled for another topic of conversation. “Uh, you must like computers.”

His fork stopped halfway to his mouth.

Megan raised an eyebrow when he glared at her before taking a bite. “Is something wrong?”

“No. I like computers, okay?”

His aggressive attitude bothered her. “I didn’t mean to intrude. But you’ve got a lot of expensive equipment in that room. Maybe you shouldn’t leave the door unlocked.”

“No one locks up out here in the country.”

“Oh. Do you…do you spend a lot of time on the computer?”

He put his fork down. “Not now. In the winter, I do a little—that is, I work at the computer. I’m developing a system that helps me keep track of things here on the ranch.”

Relief flooded Megan, surprising her. She hadn’t realized how worried she’d been. After all, she was going to marry the man. “Oh, good. That could be helpful to a lot of people.”

“Yeah,” he assured her with a grin. “But I don’t have time for much right now. Not with calves being born day and night.”

“At night? Are you going back out again tonight?”

He rubbed the back of his neck, then shrugged his shoulders. “I brought a couple of cows in for the night. I’ll check on them later.”

“What about the vet?”

His brown eyes looked puzzled. “What about him? Are you interested in him?”

“No!” Megan returned, her cheeks flushing. “I meant did you call the vet to help with the calves.”

“You don’t know much about ranching, do you?”

“No, I’m from the city,” she said defensively, stiffening her shoulders. “And it doesn’t matter. After all, I’m not really going to be a rancher’s wife. It’s just pretend.”

He looked away. “Yeah, pretend.”

Megan stared at him in alarm. “You still want to do this, don’t you?”

RICK STARED at the beautiful woman across from him. She really needed to rethink her question. This could mean a lot of different things, including some highly stimulating—he halted his thoughts before he got carried away.