The Cowboy And The Debutante

“Don’t you know those things aren’t good for you?” Letter to Reader Title Page Dedication STELLA BAGWELL Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Copyright

“Don’t you know those things aren’t good for you?”

Anna nodded at the rich breakfast Miguel was making.

His head turned slightly and his gaze settled on her lips. “Lots of things aren’t good for me.”

Heat flared inside Anna like the instant spark of flint against steel. It seemed incredible that only a month ago she had thought she would never want another man. But standing by Miguel, she knew she was only just now learning what wanting a man was all about. Certainly she’d never felt this raw, aching attraction for her ex-fiancé. Or any man. Except Miguel. The idea was both exhilarating and frightening.

“Then why do you...indulge yourself?”

He grinned and looked away. Anna was relieved to find she could breathe again.

“A man only has a short time on this earth. To deny life’s basic pleasures is foolish.”

And Anna shivered at the thought of Miguel’s pleasures.

Dear Reader,

You’ll find the heartwarming themes of love and family in our November Romance novels. First up, longtime reader favorite Arlene James portrays A Bride To Honor. In this VIRGIN BRIDES title, a pretty party planner falls for a charming tycoon...whom another woman seeks to rope into a loveless marriage! But can honorable love prevail?

A little tyke takes a tumble, then awakes to ask a rough-hewn rancher, Are You My Daddy? So starts Leanna Wilson’s poignant, emotional romance between a mom and a FABULOUS FATHER who “pretends” he’s family. Karen Rose Smith finishes her enticing series DO YOU TAKE THIS STRANGER? with Promises, Pumpkins and Prince Charming. A wealthy bachelor lets a gun-shy single mom believe he’s just a regular guy. Will their fairy-tale romance survive the truth?

FOLLOW THAT BABY, Silhouette’s exciting cross-line continuity series, comes to Romance this month with The Daddy and the Baby Doctor by star author Kristin Morgan. An ex-soldier single dad butts heads with a beautiful pediatrician over a missing patient. Temperatures rise, pulses race—could marriage be the cure? It’s said that opposites attract, and when The Cowboy and the Debutante cozy up on a rustic ranch...well, you’ll just have to read this TWINS ON THE DOORSTEP title by Stella Bagwell to find out! A hairdresser dreams of becoming a Lone Star Bride when a handsome stranger passes through town. Don’t miss the finale of Linda Varner’s THREE WEDDINGS AND A FAMILY miniseries!

Beloved authors Lindsay Longford, Sandra Steffen, Susan Meier and Carolyn Zane return to our lineup next month, and in the new year we launch our brand-new promotion, FAMILY MATTERS. So keep coming back to Romance!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor, Silhouette Romance

Please address questions and book requests to:

Silhouette Reader Service

U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

The Cowboy And The Debutante

Stella Bagwell

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Jason and Carmen,

may love be with you always.

STELLA BAGWELL

sold her first book to Silhouette in November 1985. Now, more than thirty novels later, she is still thrilled to see her books in print and can’t imagine having any other job than that of writing about two people falling in love.

She lives in a small town in southeastern Oklahoma with her husband of twenty-six years. She has one son and daughter-in-law.

Chapter One

Anna Murdock Sanders shook her finger at the nervous mare. “Ginger, I can see we need to have a girl-to-girl talk. That stallion is no good. He’ll just take what he wants from you, then be on his merry way. Males are just naturally like that. Believe me, I know. That’s why I’m swearing off men forever!”

Ignoring the warning, the mare nickered flirtingly at the stallion prancing around in the stall directly across from her.

A few feet farther down the long horse barn, Miguel Chavez stopped in his tracks as the young woman’s words echoed back to him. He hadn’t known anyone was in the stables, much less a woman who hated men!

Leaving the stall, he stepped into the alleyway and immediately spotted her lifting a saddle onto the paint’s back. Tall and slender, she was dressed in black jeans and a moss green camp shirt. As she moved about the horse, adjusting blankets and latigo, copper curls danced like flames in the wind against the middle of her back.

She had to be his employer’s daughter. Though Miguel had never seen her before, he’d heard Chloe and Wyatt Sanders speak of her. Anna and her twin brother, Adam, had been adopted as babies years ago by Chloe and Wyatt. Their actual birth parents had been Chloe’s father and Wyatt’s sister, both of whom had died shortly after the twins were born.

From what he’d heard, Anna was unlike her down-to-earth brother, who worked in the oil and gas businesses with his father. She was an accomplished pianist who’d spent the past few years traveling all over the States and abroad, playing concerts with big bands and symphony orchestras—a real debutante, who needed excitement, admiration and bright lights to make her happy.

The news that she was coming home hadn’t reached Miguel. He didn’t know why she was here, but he’d . bet his last dollar it was because she wanted or needed something from her parents. Girls like her were always spoiled. He knew from firsthand experience.

Clearing his throat to warn her of his presence, Miguel moved down the alleyway toward her. Anna glanced up just as he came to a stop a few steps away.

“Hello,” she said coolly as her eyes discreetly traveled up and down the lean length of the cowboy before her. He was dressed in jeans and chinks. Spurs with sunburst rowels were strapped to his black boots, and the sleeves of his heavy, brown cotton shirt were rolled up, exposing his thick forearms. Without a doubt, she’d never seen him before on the Bar M. He was a man not easily forgotten.

“Are you one of Mother’s cowhands?” she asked forthrightly.

A wry twist to his mouth, he stepped forward and offered her his hand, then in a slight Mexican accent, he said, “I’m Miguel Chavez, the ranch foreman. And I don’t think you’ve convinced Ginger that all men are bad,” he said, inclining his head toward the mare. “She still appears to be interested.”

As if to underscore his observation, Ginger once again nickered longingly at the stallion. Trying not to glower at the mare, Anna squared her shoulders and reluctantly reached to shake Miguel Chavez’s hand. “She’ll get past her infatuation.”

Miguel raised his brows at her remark, but he said nothing. No doubt this woman had been infatuated many times. And gotten past it, he thought drily. With her looks she’d probably had men begging for the simple touch of her hand.

The repugnant idea had him quickly releasing her fingers, yet he still couldn’t quite force his eyes to leave her face.

Her smooth ivory complexion told him she was young and also that she was vain enough not to let the bright sun ravage her luminous skin. Her full lips were dusky pink and slightly tilted at the corners. She had a straight patrician nose and pale green eyes that reminded Miguel of a spring aspen leaf. She wasn’t exactly the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen, but she possessed an earthy, sultriness about her that made the man in him want to keep looking. However, the cool expression in her eyes assured him she was not a woman for the taking. By him. Or any man.

Anna’s auburn brows lifted quizzically as she watched the cynical twist to his lips deepen. She didn’t know what the man was thinking. But if it was about her, she certainly didn’t like the idea that he found her amusing.

“I didn’t realize mother had hired a new foreman,” she admitted.

“I’ve been working on the Bar M for nearly a year now,” he told her.

Pink color bathed her high cheekbones and she hated herself for letting him see her discomfiture. “Other than the holidays, I haven’t spent too much time at home these past few months.”

Anna hadn’t deliberately planned it that way. One booking after another had kept her constantly on the road, and she’d been forced to postpone her trips home to a later date. And then, in the midst of all her work, she’d become involved with Scott and she supposed she’d gotten a little crazy after that. More than a little crazy, she thought with a megadose of self-deprecation. Thank goodness she’d gotten over him and canceled the wedding before her father had wasted an exorbitant amount of money on the ceremony...and she’d wasted herself on a man who had never really loved her.

“I don’t need explanations, Miss Sanders,” Miguel replied. “I didn’t expect you to know me. I’m just the foreman around here.”

Was he being impertinent or sincere? Anna’s eyes scanned his dark face beneath the brim of his straw hat. She couldn’t quite gauge his age, but she suspected he was somewhere near thirty-five. His face was lean and angular and had that hard-edged look that assured her his boyish days had long since passed. His nose was hawkish, his chin slightly dented. His eyes were a deep hazel, full of green and brown flecks that glinted beneath thick black lashes. Yet it was his lips that drew Anna’s full attention. The top one was thin and cruel looking while the bottom was full and sensual. It was a hard, masculine mouth and for some illogical reason Anna wondered how many women it had kissed.

Drawing in a deep, needy breath, she glanced away from him and turned back to the mare she’d been saddling. This wasn’t like her, she thought wildly. She didn’t look at any man and think the things she’d just been thinking.

“Call me Anna,” she said curtly. “I’m sure you call my mother Chloe. She doesn’t want anyone to be formal with her. And when I’m here at home, neither do I.”

But when she was out among her fellow musicians, dazzling the crowd, she expected and demanded to be addressed formally. She hadn’t come out and said as much, but Miguel could read the unspoken words very clearly. “Then you must be far more accustomed to being called Miss Sanders.”

She couldn’t stop the parting of her lips or the flare of her nostrils. “Are you always this impertinent?”

So she wasn’t made of pure ice, Miguel decided as his gaze took its time studying her face. “I wasn’t being impertinent. Just stating the obvious. You’re hardly ever home. Otherwise you would have known about me. And I, you.”

Shaking her thick red mane away from her face, she said, “You seem awfully sure of yourself, Mr. Chavez.”

He shrugged, then grinned goadingly at her. Her spine immediately stiffened, and she glanced away from him.

“Are you thinking about getting me fired?”

Her head swung back around and she stared at him in surprise. “I don’t interfere in my mother’s business! She obviously wants you around here. So you must be good for something.”

If Anna had been any other woman, Miguel would have already put her in her place. But she was Wyatt and Chloe’s daughter and because they were such kind, wonderful people, he would not hurt them in such a way. Besides, Anna was from a whole different world than his. For his own sake, he needed to overlook her attitude.

“Oh, you might be surprised at the things I’m good at, Miss Sanders.”

She turned away from him, but not before Miguel could see her lips compress to a thin line. No doubt she thought him vulgar and disgusting, but that was all right, too. He could make it just fine without women like Anna Sanders. And maybe it would be better for both of them if she understood that right now.

“Are you planning to stay long on the Bar M?”

She didn’t answer immediately and Miguel watched her adjust the throat latch on the bridle. Like her mother, she had small hands. They moved with graceful dexterity and he could easily imagine them dancing over a set of ivory keys or a man’s chest. The latter he tried not to dwell on.

She glanced over her shoulder at him and Miguel was intrigued by the knowing tilt to her lips. “I’m not sure yet. It depends on my job. Six weeks perhaps,” she said.

“Then you’re not... home to stay?”

Miguel didn’t know why he’d asked the question, but he was irritated at himself because he had. Hell, it didn’t matter how long the woman was going to be here. If he never saw her again after this moment he would survive just fine.

Home to stay. Miguel Chavez had no idea how wonderful those words sounded to Anna. She’d had years of extensive training in piano, and her parents and the rest of her family were proud of her accomplishments. They would surely be disappointed if she suddenly turned her back on her career.

“No. Only for an extended vacation,” she said bluntly. Then, realizing the saddling was finished and there was no need for her to tarry here in the stables any longer, she led the mare ahead three or four steps and swung herself into the saddle.

Miguel stepped back out of the way and gave her a little salute from the brim of his hat. “Adios, Anna. Maybe before your vacation is over you’ll have Ginger convinced to swear off the male gender, too.”

Pausing, she looked down at him from her lofty perch and hoped he couldn’t spot the faint pink on her cheeks. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone or anything had made her blush. This man had managed to do it twice in less than five minutes. Damn him!

“If Ginger is as smart as I think she is, I’ll have her turning her nose up at that stallion over there.”

“Poor Ginger.”

To Anna’s amazement, she wanted to climb down from the mare, poke her finger in the middle of Miguel Chavez’s chest and tell him exactly what she thought of his raw remark. But she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of letting him know he riled her. For years Anna had trained herself to be a cool, sophisticated woman. It was an image she projected to her audience and even her family. She wasn’t about to let this man know he could make her lose control.

“Goodbye, Mr. Chavez,” she said bluntly, then touched her heels to the horse’s sides and left him and the cool, dim interior of the stables behind.

She rode south, forging across the shallow Hondo, then up into the mountains where the pines grew thick and the carpet of needles beneath them silenced the mare’s hooves.

At a rocky ledge halfway up, she reined Ginger to a halt and gazed back down on the valley below.

To Anna there was no place like the Hondo Valley. Santa Fe, where she’d played her last engagement, was known for its art and culture and mysticism, but this was the New Mexico Anna loved. There was everything in the valley. Horses, cattle, fruit orchards, forest and desert and something mixed of the two. And it was home. Nothing was better than that.

Ginger shook her head as a mosquito buzzed around her ears. Anna swatted the insect away, then patted the mare’s neck. As she did, the lean, dark image of Miguel Chavez skipped through her mind.

The man had been a complete surprise to her. Not that having a Mexican-American working on the Bar M was anything unusual. Quite the contrary. Her parents normally hired more Hispanics than Anglos and they were as much a part of this area as the Apaches. When she’d looked into his handsome face, his ancestry had been the last thing on her mind.

There was something about Miguel that had made her feel different in a way she’d never quite felt before. When he’d looked at her and grinned that outlandishly sexy grin at her, all she’d been able to think was that she was a woman and he was a man. It was ridiculous!

But Anna had far more important things to think about than a tough cowboy who was at least ten years older than her and probably married, besides. She had to gather herself together, refuel her mind and her body. Otherwise, after these next six weeks passed, she didn’t know whether she could make herself go back on the road again.

She loved playing the piano, but she was growing weary of the nomadic life and the demands of performing for an audience. The weight of her job was taking a toll on her body. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept the whole night through. Fatigue was her constant companion and her once-healthy appetite had almost vanished.

To please her parents last week, she’d gone for a medical checkup. When the doctor had assured Anna there was nothing physically wrong, both her mother and father had quickly assumed she was still grieving over her breakup with Scott. And Anna had found it easier to let them go on thinking she was simply suffering from a broken heart.

Truth was after she’d gotten over the initial shock of walking in and finding Scott in another woman’s arms, Anna had come to realize she had never loved him with the same wild, deep need that her mother and father felt for each other. She hadn’t been devastated when their relationship ended. She’d been relieved. And that in itself worried her. She was beginning to fear she was going to be like her birth mother, who’d flitted from one man and one bad relationship to the next.

With a heavy sigh, Anna reined the paint away from the ledge and headed her back down the mountain. The sun was dipping lower in the west, and her father would soon be home for supper. For his sake she was going to change clothes, put on her cheeriest face and make herself eat a whole plate of food.

Back at the stables there was no sign of Miguel Chavez. Although there were several wranglers working around the ranch yard doing last-minute evening chores, she unsaddled her mount, then brushed and fed her herself. The last thing she wanted was for word to get back to the foreman that she was a spoiled little rich girl. In her opinion the man was already far too smug. She didn’t want to give him reason to be even more so.

Later that evening after supper, Anna helped her mother clear away the dirty dishes, then Chloe carried a pot of coffee out to the courtyard at the back of the ranch house where redwood furniture was grouped beneath a stand of piñon pines.

Her father had taken about two sips when his pager beeped. Mumbling his annoyance, he checked the number, then rose to his feet. “Looks like I’m going to have to leave you two beautiful ladies. Sander’s Gas Exploration is calling.”

“We’ll try to do without you for a few minutes, darling,” Chloe told him.

Anna watched her father head back into the house, then with a little sigh, snuggled deeper into the cushioned chair.

“Are you cold, honey? Would you rather go back in?” Chloe asked her.

Cooler air had moved in with the night, but Anna had pulled on a sweater before she’d left the house. “No. I’m fine. It’s beautiful out tonight.”

A few feet away an oval swimming pool was edged with huge terra-cotta pots filled with geraniums, marigolds and zinnias. Anna wished the water was warm enough to dive into. She couldn’t remember when she’d taken the time for a leisurely swim. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone at anything in a leisurely way.

A few feet away, Anna’s mother, Chloe, studied her daughter’s quiet profile for several moments, then said, “I wish you were enjoying yourself more. You’ve been back on the ranch for three days now, and I don’t think I’ve heard you laugh yet.”

Anna twisted her head around to face her mother. “I’m enjoying myself, Mother. You know how long I’ve wanted to come home.”

Chloe didn’t look a bit convinced. “Yes. But now that you’re here I’m not so sure it’s what you were really needing.”

Grimacing, Anna rose from the chair and strolled over to the swimming pool. “Mother, please don’t tell me I’d be happier if I were out looking for a man. Men are off-limits!”

Chloe laughed, then just as quickly apologized. “I’m sorry, honey, I’m not laughing at you. I realize you’re miserable, but to hear you say your love life has ended is...ridiculous.”

Kneeling down near the edge of the pool, Anna trailed her fingers through the clear water. Just as she expected, it was still freezing. “I mean what I said earlier, Mother. I’m swearing off men. This last thing with Scott proved to me that they’re not to be trusted.”

She walked back over to where her mother sat stretched out on a chaise lounge, studying her with troubled eyes. “Believe me, Anna, I felt just as you did before I met your father. You haven’t forgotten that a man left me after we’d already planned to get married.”

Anna hadn’t forgotten the story Chloe had related to her years before. “I remember. You told him you couldn’t bear children and he ran out on you. How could you have wanted to marry a piece of scum like that?”

Chloe chuckled. “I could ask you the same thing about Scott? Why fret over someone who isn’t worth it?”

Sighing again, Anna lifted her eyes to the sky. The night was clear, and stars blazed by the millions over the mountains. Deep in her heart Anna was beginning to think this was where she really belonged, not in some civic center a thousand miles away.

“Believe me, Mother, Scott opened my eyes. If it wasn’t for seeing how much you and Daddy adore each other, I think I’d quit believing in love altogether.”

“Anna! You’re just angry now. Besides, what about your aunts, Rose and Justine? They’ve both had long, wonderful marriages. And now your cousins Emily and Charlie are both happily married.”

Chloe was right. Most of her relatives had been lucky in love. But her mother hadn’t mentioned Anna’s birth parents, Belinda and Tomas. The two of them had been terribly unlucky. In fact, Belinda had more or less died from a broken heart and so had Tomas. But Anna loved Chloe too much to bring up that painful part of their lives.

“Mother...I think it’s time I told you...I haven’t been totally honest with you and Dad.”

Chloe’s brow arched with surprise. “What do you mean? About you and Scott?” Before Anna could respond, the older woman’s mouth parted as another thought struck her. “Are you pregnant, darling? Is that why you’re not eating? If you’re worried—”

Anna quickly shook her head before her mother’s assumption got out of hand. “No. I’m not pregnant. Scott and I never... well, I guess deep down, something kept telling me not to sleep with him. But as for a baby, I would love to have a child. Just not by Scott. I’d at least want to respect the father.”

Chloe frowned with bewilderment. “If you’re not pregnant, then what—”

“I’m talking about me being so...so melancholy. I’m not grieving over my ended relationship with Scott. That’s all over and done with. I’m just overworked.”

The tense expression on Chloe’s face eased. “Of course you are, honey. That’s why you’re here on vacation. So you can rest and recuperate. And you will. You’ve only just gotten here. Give yourself time.”

Anna sighed. “I’m not so sure I want to go back, Mother. I’m not so sure I want to keep playing the piano professionally.”

Several moments passed in silence. Then, just as Anna was expecting her mother to burst out with shocked dismay, Chloe gentle smiled.

“Why haven’t you said anything about this before?”

“Because I didn’t want to upset you and Dad. I knew you would think I was losing my mind if I did.”

Chloe shook her head. “Anna, you must live your own life as you want to live it. Not as you think we want you to.”