Texas Cinderella / The Texas CEO's Secret: Texas Cinderella / The Texas CEO's Secret

“Because you’re a bad secret-keeper?”

“Because I wanted to do this and I couldn’t,” he said, surprising her by coming in for the briefest, lightest, faintest of kisses.

A kiss Tanya didn’t even have time to close her eyes for or respond to. And yet, a kiss that still managed to leave her lips tingling and her pulse racing.

But in spite of that, when it was over she shook her head at him. “Engaged or not, you can’t do that,” she said firmly.

“Why not?” he asked, smiling as if it was him who wasn’t taking her seriously now.

“My mother works for you.”

“I know that doesn’t make for the most ideal situation, but—”

“But nothing,” Tanya managed to sound so much stronger in her convictions than she felt. Especially since she was willing him with every ounce of her being to kiss her again…

Tate’s smile went crooked—and almost too sexy and endearing to resist—before he said, “I do love a challenge.”

“I’m not a challenge, I’m the housekeeper’s daughter.”

He nodded but she wasn’t convinced that their very different social positions meant as much to him as it needed to.

Then, rather than address it again, he merely said, “I’ll call you when I finish with rounds tomorrow. Plan on all afternoon and evening.”

“To compile data for my report and that’s it?” she said with a warning note in her voice.

“Nose to the grindstone all the way,” he assured her.

“Okay,” Tanya agreed a second time.

“See you then,” he said.

Tanya nodded and watched him go, trying not to drink in every detail of his backside, of the confident swagger to his walk. Trying not to wish he was still standing in front of her instead, kissing her again. Kissing her more thoroughly than he had. His arms around her. Hers around him. Her hands slipping down to that very, very fine derriere she watched disappear into the shadows of the trees.

He’s not engaged anymore…

The thought ran through her head like a wood nymph, taunting her. Tantalizing her.

But she chased it away.

Engaged, not engaged, it was all the same to her. She had more reasons than that not to give in to the attraction that kept sneaking in and taking over.

But it did keep sneaking in.

And taking over.

And the only way she had to combat it at that moment was to also remind herself that the odds of his not-engaged status lasting were slim to none.

And there was no way she was going to let herself be his hiatus-honey.

Chapter Seven

Tate was still thinking about Tuesday night—and Tanya—on Wednesday as he drove home from making rounds at the hospital.

Not that it was unusual these days for him to be thinking about Tanya. But what had her on his mind today was trying to figure out what had happened last night. One minute they’d been talking and—he’d thought—having a good time, and the next minute the tone had changed and she was up and out of there. In a hurry.

It had been obvious that it was the news about his broken engagement that had put a damper on things. But why? Why should that have caused her to shy away?

Certainly there was nothing about it that should have sent her running into the night. Or reacting like his family, either.

He had no idea what would put Tanya’s response in the same category as his mother’s and Blake’s, but even if it was just in the same general ballpark—even if Tanya had felt some kind of affront to all of womankind—he hated the thought that something about him or something that he’d done had put her off like that.

It didn’t bother him that his family might be disgusted that he was once again not following through with Katie. But Tanya? That was something else entirely. It bothered him that Tanya might think badly of him.

It bothered the hell out of him…

And that was new.

Caring what someone thought of him? He’d gone through his life not really considering what anyone thought about him. Let alone what the staff had thought about him. Or a member of the staff’s family—most of whom he’d never so much as met or heard about.

Yet here he was, being eaten up by the thought that the housekeeper’s daughter might think he was a jerk.

The housekeeper’s daughter—that had been Tanya’s sticking point last night, that he couldn’t kiss her because she was JoBeth’s daughter. But while that was also what he’d been raised to believe—that there was to be no fraternizing with the help and, certainly, not with the help’s daughter—he was wondering now if Tanya had only used that as an excuse. If the real reason had been that she didn’t think much of him and so didn’t want him kissing her. Or doing anything that might make things more personal between them. If the real reason was that her opinion of him was that low…

Oh, yeah, he definitely hated that thought. It was actually something he’d considered to be a possibility earlier, too—when she’d slipped and let him know she thought he’d lived his life wrapped in cotton he’d had the impression that she didn’t think too highly of him then—but he liked it even less now.

So much less that he decided he couldn’t just let it slide. He was going to have to talk to her about it. And if that meant trotting out details of his and Katie’s private relationship to the help’s daughter?

He knew no one would approve of that.

But this was his business and it was important to him.

Although why it was so important he still wasn’t sure.

He wasn’t sure why it was so important. He wasn’t sure if he should let anything personal develop between them. He wasn’t sure what was going on with him when it came to Tanya.

He was only sure of one thing—that kissing her last night had been something he’d been wanting to do and denying himself because of his agreement with Katie to go on pretending they were engaged until she gave him the go-ahead to stop. And last night, when he’d been given the go-ahead, kissing Tanya had been uppermost in his mind the whole time they’d been looking at those old family photos.

Only the fact that he had kissed her hadn’t left him rid of the desire. It had only made him want to kiss her again. And better.

Which she’d told him not to do. And if she’d told him not to do it because she thought he’d been a jerk to Katie, he needed to amend that impression.

Of course if she’d told him not to kiss her again because she just didn’t like him…

It was probably better to find that out sooner rather than later.

But simply telling himself that brought back the caring-what-someone-thought-of-him thing.

Because damn it all, housekeeper’s daughter or not, he did care what Tanya thought of him, and he cared so much it was unsettling.