The Cowboy and the Princess. Myrna Mackenzie

to get attached. I don’t get attached. I know the rules and I always live by them.”

      She was pretty sure that he was talking about more than cows. She also knew that he was being smarter than she was, but she was going to be here for several months. This situation—living alone with nothing to do—was unacceptable.

      “I need to do more than lounge around reading,” she said. “You may think that’s what—” she glanced to the side “—princesses do,” she whispered. “But I’m not that useless.”

      “All right.” He placed his hands on those lean hips. “What kinds of things are you used to doing?”

      She thought about that, about the charities and the school and library openings, 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.