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

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.

He’d lost his best friend to war. He’d spent a miserable year himself in the Middle East. He’d come home unable to look at anything the way he had before. But today this was what was bothering him?

Regardless of how he tried to dismiss it, though, yes, this was what was bothering him. Over and above everything else, he couldn’t shed the idea that Tanya Kimbrough, the housekeeper’s daughter, might not like him.

That was the long and the short of it.

Unfortunately, coming to that conclusion didn’t get him any closer to understanding it.

Or to understanding why it seemed as though Tanya’s effect on him was growing by the day…

“Okay, okay, I get it—the McCords are generous, civic-minded, caring people who have funded, or partially funded, or raised money for, or sponsored innumerable things that all benefit the citizens of Dallas!” Tanya said, crying uncle as Tate pulled into the parking lot of a planetarium that was named for the McCords.

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