the things she was good at and would continue to be good at for the rest of her life. But…
Delfyne shook her head. She didn’t want to tell him what she did, because she was sure that he would consider it to be inconsequential. The hilarity of that—that a princess should be concerned that a commoner might not think well of her—didn’t escape her, but it didn’t change the truth, either.
She wanted Owen Michaels to respect her. She hated the fact that he considered her a bit of a pest, an obligation, his friend’s annoying little sister who had been foisted on him. She knew now that he would never send her elsewhere. His sense of duty to her brother was too great. But neither would he be happy until he had carried out his duty and sent her back to her family. He wanted her gone…preferably yesterday.
Anger rose up within her. Wanting a man to like her had gotten her into major unforgettable, never-get-past-it trouble before. She wouldn’t play that role again, and she wouldn’t ever allow a man to make her cower and cringe and beg again.
So, she stepped closer to him. She dared to do what she wouldn’t have done a few minutes earlier. She placed her hand on his bare chest.
It had been meant to be an imperious gesture, a way of showing that she was beyond being affected by him and a way of emphasizing what she was about to say. Instead, instant heat pulsed through her body and it was all she could do to keep herself from leaning toward him. She could feel his heartbeat beneath her fingertips, strong and solid and powerful. There was something very masculine about it, and something much too personal about what she was doing. But if she pulled away too quickly, he would know that he had unnerved her.
“I just want you to know that I’m not going to play the part of the prima donna, lounging around drinking champagne, eating chocolates and giving air kisses to everyone.” She fought to keep the angry edge to her words, to hold on to what she hoped would pass as imperiousness that could not be denied.
“Air kisses?” His hand covered hers, and now her own heart was thundering.
“You know,” she said, losing the battle, her voice coming out soft and strangled. “Where you bring your face close and pretend to kiss someone but you really don’t?”
Now he smiled. “I know what an air kiss is. I just… Do you really think that I believe you do all those things? You don’t, do you?”
Slowly, she shook her head. “Hardly ever.”
“So you’re going to continue not to do those things you don’t do, anyway. Delfyne, I have absolutely no experience with princesses, so tell me…what are you going to do? What do you want to do?”
“Everything,” she said. And for some reason she couldn’t explain, she looked at his lips. Longing washed over her, and she knew darn well that it was completely wrong. The one thing she knew she wasn’t going to do was develop a crush on Owen Michaels. Or on any man, for that matter. But especially not this one. He would hurt her. She knew that…so clearly.
It was that thought and only that thought that enabled her to step back and away from him.
“Just so you know,” she told him. “I want to do everything.”
For several seconds he said nothing, but his eyes said it all. He was not a happy man.
“Define everything,” he finally said.
But she had had enough. Besides, she didn’t have a clue about the specifics of what she had meant.
“I’ll make it up as I go along,” she said.
“Don’t make me regret saying yes to Andreus’s request,” he said.
Which was the perfect thing to break the tension. Delfyne laughed and headed for the house. “Too late. I know that you’ve regretted it from the start, haven’t you?”
He didn’t answer, and for some reason that fact was still bothering her hours later.
CHAPTER FOUR
ALL RIGHT, Owen thought the next day while he was freeing a cow that had gotten stuck in a broken bit of fence. Delfyne had been here only a few days and already she was playing havoc with his world and also—he didn’t even want to think about this—his senses.
It had been a mistake to touch her. Her skin had been soft, softer than any woman’s skin he could remember. And her lips had been so close that he’d wanted to swoop in and taste. He’d wanted his hands on more than just her chin.
“Get a grip, Michaels,” he ordered himself. He was fantasizing about kissing a princess, one who was going to marry a prince. Besides the fact that finding himself with some sort of fatal attraction was really on his list of things never to do, a man would have to be some sort of idiot to put his hands on a forbidden woman.
“That frown on your face can’t mean anything good. Do you need help with that cow?”
Owen looked around to see Ennis approaching in an old open-top Jeep. The man stared at the cow, who was bawling loudly but standing still.
Owen was glad that he wasn’t a man to redden up with embarrassment. “No, my mind was just wandering,” he admitted as he freed the patient animal. “I do need you to mend this fence, though.”
“Done.”
“I thought you were changing the oil in the truck.”
“I was. Lydia sent me to get you.”
“Lydia?” She’d worked for him for years and had never sent for him unless there was an emergency. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know, but I gather it has something to do with your gorgeous, exotic visitor.”
Owen’s head swiveled around and he looked at Ennis, who had worked for him for five years and been the most circumspect of men. “Gorgeous, exotic visitor?”
Ennis held up his hands. “I’m just saying…”
“Yeah, well, you better not let Alice hear you ‘just saying…’”
Grinning, Ennis went to the Jeep and got his tools. “Alice was the one who told me Delfyne was gorgeous and exotic.”
“Really? What else did your wife say?”
Ennis gave him a look. “She said that if any woman could jolt you out of your ‘idiotic ways with women’ Delfyne could.”
Owen scowled. “What idiotic ways?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Ennis mused, squatting to get closer to the fence. “Maybe the ones where you bed them but never wed them.”
“Is that right? Well, Ennis, you know how much I adore your wife, but she’s dead wrong on this one. Delfyne is getting married when she goes home.”
“Hmm, Alice isn’t going to like that. She was hoping for the chance to go to a wedding. Your wedding.”
Owen smiled. “Send her my condolences, but it’s not happening. She’ll have to find some other wedding to attend. You’re sure you don’t know what Lydia wants?”
“She just said that she had some important questions to ask you. And she said that you needed to give her a raise if she was going to have to worry about Delfyne hurting herself or setting the house on fire. Maybe you’d better hurry.”
Ennis chuckled as Owen swore, hopped on his ATV and started to take off.
“Oh, Alice says she wants you to come to dinner on Saturday, and she wants you to bring Delfyne, too.”
“Tell her thank you, but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it.”
“She’ll be disappointed.”
Owen stopped and looked at Ennis, his employee and friend. “I’m sorry.”
He