The Cowboy and the Princess

“I know I said thank you already, but I want you to know that it wasn’t just a cursory expression of gratitude. I really do know how much my family owes you for allowing me to stay here. Beyond the difficulties of hiding a princess in your house, Andreus told me that you don’t like women much.”

Her voice was soft, the expression in her eyes even softer. Something low in Owen’s gut shifted. His body went on full alert, and he felt a growl coming on. His conviction earlier that having this woman at his house was a bad idea deepened. Because Andreus was dead wrong. It wasn’t that he didn’t like women. He just couldn’t offer what most of them wanted, so it was better to keep his distance most of the time.

With this woman he could tell that it would be better to keep his distance all of the time. Too bad that was going to be impossible.

“So…thank you very much for giving me a place to stay,” Delfyne finished. “That was very kind of you.”

Oh yeah, he was going to start letting her think that he was kind. That wasn’t going to happen. If he did, she’d turn those mesmerizing violet eyes on him and then…he wasn’t going to think about what he might do then. Something idiotic and wrong. He had his limits.

“So Andreus told you that, did he? That I was being kind?”

She slowly shook her head. “No, he told me that you thought you owed him something because he came over here when…when you needed a friend. You’re doing this out of a sense of obligation.”

Which was the truth, so he said nothing.

“But agreeing to pretend I’m someone other than who I am…that took guts. Andreus and my family won’t like that at all. They think that pretending to be an ordinary citizen will leave me vulnerable.” For a second she looked a bit uneasy. “My family thinks that if men don’t realize who I am or what my destiny is, they’ll try to take liberties.”

Great. Now Andreus was going to want to kick his butt, and the man would be right. Owen hadn’t actually thought of this particular problem.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let anyone near you,” he reiterated. Including me.

Which didn’t exactly bring a smile to her face.

“I told you I don’t want to be a prisoner here.”

He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Let me amend my last statement. I won’t let the wrong kind of people near you. You can have total privacy.”

Still, no smile.

“Delfyne, I’m doing my best. Princesses aren’t exactly my area of expertise.”

She nodded. “Okay, that’s fair. What is your area of expertise?”

“Ranching and making money. That’s pretty much it.”

“And building,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, well, that’s not an expertise. That’s an obsession.”

She did smile then. “Ah, obsessions. I understand those. I have a few of my own.” But she didn’t elaborate.

And there they stood, the princess and the rancher. Owen looked at the beautiful, cultured woman who had dropped into his world. He wondered how he was going to survive this experience. He glanced out into the distance, to his land. To his cattle. To the roots and the history that kept him mostly sane.

“I’m sorry. You have work to do. Andreus warned me not to be a pest. If you show me to my room, I’ll get settled in. And, Owen, don’t worry. I know you didn’t exactly want me here and I didn’t want to be here, but you’ve given me the gift of a chance to be myself and I intend to take it. Don’t worry about the privacy. I don’t need it. Now that I know we’re agreed that I can take a vacation from being a princess, I can’t wait to let loose and be who I want to be and do what I want to do. I won’t be a bother at all. You’ll barely notice that I’m around.”

Owen wanted to throw back his head and howl at that. Oh yes, he had made a big mistake saying yes to Andreus, Owen thought as he showed the two guards to the bunkhouse then strode toward the ATV that would take him out to where the rest of his hands were mending fence.

This woman was unpredictable. She wanted things she couldn’t have, and Owen had far too much experience with women who wanted things they couldn’t have. It always turned out badly.

He was going to spend as little time as possible with the princess who was inhabiting his house. A man would be insane to do anything else.

CHAPTER THREE

DELFYNE had gone online and ordered some “ordinary-woman” clothes, but two days hadn’t been enough time for them to arrive, so this morning she opted for the least glamorous things she owned. The pale blue slacks and white silk blouse weren’t exactly casual, but they would have to do.

She delved into her jewelry box and came up with what she wanted. “Finally! A chance to wear these!” She placed the yellow, blue and white bangle bracelets on one wrist and the cute bracelet with the gaudy pink elephant charms on the other.

Then she slipped bone-colored ballet flats on her feet and ventured out into the house, wandering the massive hallways. This was very much a man’s house. Everything was big and spare with clean lines and no frills. Golden wood was everywhere.

There was art on the walls. Expensive art, she noted, but no personal items. No photographs, no mementos of any type. And most of the rooms looked as if they were seldom used, which was probably the truth. Altogether there was little here to tell her about her host, about the man.

She knew some things, of course, the little that Andreus had told her in the past or had felt she needed to know now. Owen had once had a wife, a gorgeous blonde he’d met in college. They’d married and he’d taken her back to the family spread. Eventually, they’d had a son who had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Then the marriage had dissolved. That was all Delfyne knew other than the fact that Owen was very rich. He’d spent his alone time doing more than just building this house. He’d invested his money in a mix of risky ventures and conservative stocks and had earned a fortune. But he seldom left the ranch. Andreus had tried to get him to visit their palace on Xenora several times to no avail, other than that one trip when the two of them had been in college. So Owen was a man of mystery.

And now he was her man of mystery, temporarily.

Delfyne’s breath caught at the expression. She knew better than to have those kinds of thoughts. Much as she wanted to have some adventures, she didn’t want to have romantic ones. Already she’d learned that being a princess—an impetuous princess—had its downside. Men had taken advantage of her and misread her enthusiasm for life as something more. The fact that she was destined eventually to marry a royal and couldn’t ask for a commitment had encouraged the few men she’d known to try and take advantage of her. So no, no man of mystery for her. No men at all in a romantic sense.

The fact that Owen was rugged and good-looking with fierce, compelling eyes had to be immaterial. He was her host, no more, and he was a reluctant host at that. He didn’t like having her foisted on him.

That was probably why, during the two days she’d been here, she’d barely seen him at all. When she got up in the morning, he was gone. Apparently he ate his meals elsewhere, and she had no idea when he came in or what he did all day.

What she did know was that her glorious plans for independence were fading away. She’d spent the two days alone or bugging Lydia Jeffers just so she would have someone to talk to. Lydia, while she was a very nice woman, had work to do and she seemed suspicious of who and what Delfyne was.

None of this was getting Delfyne what she wanted—a taste of real life.

Something had to happen soon. Something good and exciting and different. The hourglass held only so much sand and once she returned to Xenora, her life would never be her own again. Not a minute of her time here could be wasted.

“So, that’s it, then. Owen may not like having me here, but I won’t be locked away in the house reading books and eating bon bons. The man is just going to have to put up with me,” she declared to the empty walls. Pushing open the door, she wandered out into the green and misty morning.

Immediately, her bodyguards, Theron and Nicholas, stood up from where they’d been sitting. She waved them away. Yesterday she’d explained to them their role as greenhorns trying a taste of ranch life, but they didn’t seem to be getting into the spirit of things.

“Go. Do something,” she said.

“What?”

“I don’t know. Eat.”

Theron laughed. He sat down again. She ignored him and continued on her way.

The scent of growing things and something animal filled her nostrils and she breathed in deeply, acclimating herself to the unfamiliar. This was the perfume of life, not the palace.

Staring around her, Delfyne took in the endless miles of land, the buildings that were clearly not living space and a number of big, hulking, unfamiliar vehicles.

She smiled as Jake and Alf, two of the ranch dogs, ran around barking as if vying for her attention, jumping around so much that Alf nearly stepped on the paw of a little orange cat that came too close.

“You two behave yourselves,” she ordered affectionately, scratching Jake behind the ears. “And watch where you’re walking. You nearly squashed this little guy.”

Indeed, the cat was limping slightly, but when Delfyne tried to pick him up he gave her a look that said, “I’m a rough tough ranch cat. I don’t need coddling,” and continued on his way.