Thirty Day Affair

She wondered how happy they’d all be to meet Nathan Barrister if they knew just how close he was to ruining those plans.

Pulling the car off to the side of the road, Keira threw the gearshift into park, yanked up the emergency brake and turned in her seat to look at him head-on.

“Problem?” he asked.

“You could say so,” she said. In the darkening light, his pale blue eyes shone like chips of ice—and were just as welcoming. “This might not mean much to you,” she said, “but your staying here for the entire month can mean a huge difference to the people here.”

“I didn’t say I was leaving,” he pointed out.

“You didn’t say you were staying, either,” she countered.

“I am for right now,” he said.

“That’s supposed to make me feel better? Right now?”

“It’s all I can give you.”

Keira wanted to grab him and shake him, but she knew that wouldn’t do any good. He was so closed-off, so shut down from anything other than his own feelings, she’d need a hammer to pound home her point. Tempting, but probably not logical.

“You’ve been here only one day. Give it a chance. Give us a chance.”

He looked at her in the waning light and, just for a second, Keira thought those eyes of his warmed a little. But she was probably mistaken since an instant later, they were cool and distant again.

“If you do,” she added, “who knows, you might just like it here.”

One dark eyebrow rose. “I’m not expecting to like it.”

“Well,” she said, smiling as she turned to shift the car into gear again and head into town, “surprises happen every day.”

“Whether I stay or go is really none of your business.” His tone clearly stated that was the end of the discussion.

Well, Keira wasn’t sure who he was used to dealing with, but she wasn’t about to back down under that king-to-peasant attitude.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Nathan.” She paused and threw him a smile designed to either put him at ease or worry him half to death. “You don’t mind if I call you Nathan, right? Well, Nathan, it is my business to see that you stay here. As mayor, I can’t let you walk away from something that will mean so much to us.”

He studied her for a long minute. She felt his gaze on her and forced herself to keep her own gaze focused on the road ahead of her. As they got closer to town, she heard the still-distant sounds of the band playing and steeled herself for whatever he was going to say next.

“Just so you know, Keira, if I decide to go, there’s no way you’ll be able to stop me.”

She took the last turn in the road and saw Hunter’s Landing spilling out ahead of her. Party lights were strung across the street, tiny blazes of white in the gathering darkness. People crowded the whole area, and a few couples had already started dancing.

Her heart swelled with love for the place and the people she’d grown up with. Determination filled her as she turned to glance at the man beside her. She smiled and said, “Nathan, never issue a challenge like that to me. You’ll lose every time.”

They were swept into the party the moment she parked the truck, and Keira watched with some amusement as Nathan was dragged unwillingly into the center of things. The man was so stiff, so aloof, he stood out from the crowd like an ostrich in a chicken coop.

With the band’s music pouring over them in a continuous wave of sound, Keira stood to one side and watched Nathan’s features tighten as a few of the older men gathered around him to give Nathan some advice on fly-fishing.

The devil inside her told Keira to leave him to it. To let him be surrounded by the townspeople she’d so wanted him to meet. But a rational voice in the back of her mind drowned out that little devil by pointing out that if he hated it here, he’d have little reason to stay for the month to insure the town’s bequest.

So she walked up to the group of men, smiled and said, “Sorry, guys, but I’m going to steal Nathan away for a dance.”

“Aw, now, Keira, we’re just telling him about the best spots in the Truckee River for fishing,” one of them argued.

“And it was fascinating,” Nathan said, dropping one arm around Keira’s shoulders and dragging her in close to his side, as if afraid she’d change her mind and leave him there for more fishing advice. “But if you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I did promise the lady a dance.”

Keira hid her smile and told herself that the warmth of Nathan’s arm around her had more to do with body heat than sexual pull. Although she wasn’t easily convinced, since parts of her that hadn’t been hot in a very long time were suddenly smoking with sizzle and warmth.

When they moved away from the crowd toward the dance floor, Nathan bent his head and muttered, “I don’t know whether to thank you for rescuing me or throttle you for bringing me here in the first place.”

His voice was nearly lost under the slam of sound, so Keira leaned in closer to make sure he heard her response. “But you looked like you were having so much fun.”

“I don’t fish,” he muttered.

“Maybe not,” she pointed out, “but thanks to Sam Dover and the others, you could now if you wanted to.”

He stopped and, since his arm was still wrapped around her shoulder, she did a quick stop too and slammed into his side.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Would it be wrong to say yes?”

He frowned down at her. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like you before.”

“Nathan! A compliment?”

“I’m not sure that’s how I meant it.”

She grinned. “That’s how I’m taking it.”

“Big surprise.”

Keira wasn’t fooled. There was a twitch at the corner of his way-too-kissable mouth that told her he was fighting the urge to smile. In the last day or so, she’d noticed he fought down smiling a lot. And she wondered why.

“So,” she asked, “are you really going to dance with me?”

He sighed. “If I don’t, are you going to sic the fishermen on me again?”

She lifted her arms into the dance-with-me position and said, “Nothing wrong with a good threat.”

Four

The music slowed down into as close as a rock band could get to a romantic ballad, and Nathan reached for Keira. The instant his arm went around her waist, he felt a charge of something that jolted him from the soles of his feet straight up through the top of his head.

She smiled at him and he knew she’d felt it, too.

Her right hand felt small in his and the featherlight weight of her left hand seemed to be branding his shoulder. The air was icy and the street was crowded with people, yet he felt as if he and Keira were alone in the tropics, heat pouring through them with enough intensity to kindle a white-hot flame.

“What’re you thinking?” she asked as he steered her around the makeshift dance floor in the middle of town.

“I don’t think I’ll tell you,” he said and deliberately raised his gaze from the sparkling beauty of her green eyes. “I have a feeling you’d find a way to use it against me.”

“Oh, you’re a sharp businessman, aren’t you?” she asked, and suppressed laughter colored her voice.

He risked a glance down at her and found that the power in her gaze hadn’t lessened a bit. “You’ve already blackmailed me once,” he reminded her.

“For a good cause,” she pointed out.

“I really don’t think that’s an excuse the legal system would smile on.”

“Hey, I’m the mayor. Would I do anything illegal?” She smiled at him again, and damned if Nathan’s body didn’t do a quick lunge. His arm tightened around her waist, tucking her in even closer, and when she moved in the dance, she did things to him he didn’t want to think about.

So he didn’t. To distract himself, he let his gaze sweep the town, and it didn’t escape him that he could see the whole thing in a matter of seconds. The buildings were old, but well cared for. Fresh paint shone in the lights and sidewalks were swept clean. Flower boxes jutted out from window fronts and he presumed that if spring should ever come to the mountains, those boxes would be full of bright flowers.

A couple hundred people crowded the blocked-off streets, and he saw everyone from old couples sitting quietly holding hands to teenaged lovers gazing at each other so intently, he half expected to see tiny cartoon hearts circling their heads.

Keira fit right in here. She was greeted by hugs, kisses, teasing laughter and shouts, and Nathan wondered briefly what it must be like to so thoroughly belong somewhere. He hadn’t known that feeling since he was a kid. And he had, over the years, done everything he could to keep from belonging anywhere in particular. Yet he could see that Keira thrived on the very kind of life he’d avoided.

Overhead, the moon peeked through a wisp of clouds and shone down onto the town, bathing it in a silvery glow that made it look almost magical. Which was a ridiculous thought, since Hunter’s Landing was clearly no more than a tiny town in between a couple of bigger ones.

If Hunter Palmer hadn’t chosen this town—no doubt for the pleasure of building a mansion in a town that shared his name—Nathan would never have known of the place’s existence. He wasn’t a man to go wandering down unbeaten paths.

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