Royal Trouble Read online

  What she was doing here out in the country, applying to be his vet assistant he had no idea. There was a story there, and he was sure he'd eventually hear it, but until she decided to tell him, he wasn't asking. And until she did something to make him feel otherwise, he was going to give her the benefit of the doubt, and a chance.

  He owed it to Rocky, and if the woman was anything like her sister, she would work out just fine as his assistant. But Wes used his private thoughts to brand the reasons he needed to avoid her on a personal level in his brain.

  "Okay, but don't say you weren't warned. When ya'll finish up, just come up to the house and I'll show you the room."

  CHAPTER FOUR

  After a week of both working and living with Leigh Ann Baker, Wes realized he had made a mistake. Probably the biggest of his life, second only to marrying Laura Jepson. He had survived a week, but he wasn't sure he was going to last much longer.

  Wes hadn't had sex in over a year, and Leigh Ann Baker was temptation incarnate, sex on a stick, and as sweet as the cotton candy his dad had bought him at the county fair when he was a kid. Visions of joining her in that big bed in his spare room across the hall had tortured him every night, since she had been under his roof.

  Cold showers hadn't touched the yearning in his gut, so strong now it was almost a physical ache. Jogging hadn't helped either, or avoiding her all together. He was a case study in pent up sexual frustration. A man pushed way beyond his tolerance. And Leigh Ann hadn't done a damned thing to provoke him, other than breathe.

  Wes had known it was going to be rough, but the reality of the situation was so much worse. There wasn't a corner of his life she hadn't invaded with her honeysuckle scent. Even his damned bathroom smelled like her. How that happened he didn't know, but it was driving him nuts. Wes flicked on the shower spray and hastily shed his clothing then stepped under the cool spray.

  He couldn't even explain his reaction to her. Leigh Ann wasn't one of those flirty women, like Laura had been. But every moment of the day, he knew exactly where she was in proximity to his dick. And he was with her twenty-four hours a day. Something had to give soon, or Wes really was going to go blind like his mother had warned him as a teenager.

  If that wasn't bad enough, his son seemed to be just as smitten with her. Last night, when he came home, he found the house spotless and Trey curled up in her lap in his recliner sleeping. She had handed him off to Wes, but not before kissing his son good night. Since she wasn't going to be permanent in their lives, Wes didn't want either of them getting too attached to her.

  He had to get her out of his house, before any of them got too comfortable with her living here. Maybe if he just saw her in the office, he could put some distance between them. For now, he was just going to have to keep avoiding her. Find reasons to be out of the office. But that wasn't very easy to do at home, without coming off as rude. Wes was running out of excuses to hide out in his room like a coward, after they had dinner at night. It was getting old too, being a prisoner in his own home.

  He had to find some relief soon, and get some sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, all he thought about was the woman across the hall, and how easy it would be to join her in his spare bed. He knew exactly how many steps separated their rooms, he had actually paced them off the other day, after she left to go to the office before he did.

  Last night had been the worst.

  Pictures in his mind of her in a lacy black concoction waiting for him there, her soft smooth skin cocooned in the cool cotton sheets left him hard, hot and frustrated. At five in the morning, he finally gave up on rest, and untangled himself from the sheets to go down to his office and run on the treadmill. Four miles hadn't touched his edginess, so he ran two more before giving up to come back to his room to shower.

  Wes wasn't much on one-night stands, but right now that was probably exactly what he needed to take the edge off. With someone other than his new house guest and assistant.

  Huffing out a frustrated breath, Wes walked out of the bathroom toweling his hair dry as he strode across his bedroom toward the clothes he'd laid out on the bed earlier. For a minute, he thought something was wrong with his eyes, because the room looked hazy.

  Blinking twice to clear his vision, Wes suddenly realized the haze was actually smoke floating near the ceiling. The overpowering smell burnt his nose and sent a knife-sharp pain through his skull, right between his eyes. Panic had his heart pounding, as Wes quickly wrapped the towel around his hips and ran out into the hallway.

  "Trey! Get out of the house!" he shouted, running to fling open his son's bedroom door. Trey stirred, and Wes jerked his arm to drag him out of bed and into the hallway with him. "Hurry, son, get out of the house!"

  Wes ran behind him to the stairs, his feet skidding across the polished wood floor as he scrambled downstairs. The smoke got thicker with every step, the acrid smell more intense. In the kitchen, the fire alarm blared and the smoke was thick enough to cut with a knife.

  Covering his nose, Wes sprinted to the stove, grabbed a towel then slid the flaming skillet to the back burner, before twisting the knob to shut off the stove. Flames from the still-burning skillet licked at the bottom of the cabinet, so he grabbed the fire extinguisher from under the cabinet to give the skillet one blast of white powder to smother them. When the dust settled, Wes saw that the bottom of his upper cabinet was coated in soot and grease, the edge of the wood charred.

  "Shit!" he cursed using the towel on the edge of the cabinet to make sure it wasn't smoldering too.

  Over the screaming fire alarm, he heard Leigh Ann Baker's somehow calm, but firm voice as she talked into her cell phone, "No, Lester, I told you I'm not going to marry you, I don't care what my mama says. I'll pay you back for the ring, as soon as I have the money. Yes, I realize when the wedding is supposed to be. I'm sorry it isn't happening. I told mama that six weeks ago, she should have sent out notices already."

  On the other side of the breakfast bar, Leigh Ann stood with her back to him, apparently oblivious to the fact she had almost burned down his house. Even though the fire in the skillet was out, more smoke filled the kitchen. Wes spun back toward the counter and saw smoke billowing out of the toaster.

  With a growl, he ran over and yanked the cord out of the wall, then stomped around the breakfast bar to jerk the cell phone from Leigh Ann's hands. He disconnected the call before demanding, "Are you trying to burn down my damned house?!?"

  Her tawny brows shot up over her blue eyes and her mouth dropped open. Trey ran up beside him and yanked on the towel around his hips. Wes caught it just before it fell to the ground. "Daddy what's burning?" Trey asked rubbing his eyes.

  Wes closed his eyes and gathered his out of control adrenaline, then hugged Trey to his leg and said calmly, "It's okay now, go open the doors to the patio, and sit out there with Silas for a few minutes."

  "Yes, sir," Trey replied with a cough, as he walked toward the French doors that led to the back deck. He grabbed Silas's collar and pulled him out with him.

  Wes ground his teeth and handed the phone back to Leigh Ann. She covered her mouth with her hand and coughed too. "Oh, God, what's burning?"

  "I don't think you'd have noticed if the house burned down around you," Wes hissed then coughed as the smoke closed off his airway. Picking up the towel from the counter, he fanned it toward the patio doors, hoping the smoke would dissipate quickly.

  "I'm sorry...I was just trying to cook breakfast," she said in a wobbly voice that was followed by a moan as she scanned the kitchen. "I'll clean it up."

  "Just go outside with Trey, and don't cook anymore. I'll clean it up," he barked, as he grabbed the skillet to carry it to the sink. He turned on the tap without thinking and hot grease jumped up onto his forearm. With a curse, Wes clamped his hand over the burn, gritting his teeth against the pain.

  "Oh, Lord," Leigh Ann yelped. She ran to the refrigerator to pull out a couple of ice cubes, then ran back over to him. "Here, move your hand!" she de
manded trying to pry his fingers from the wound.

  She held the cold ice cubes to his skin, which eased the stinging, but nothing was going to extinguish the fire in the pit of his stomach fueled by his anger and fear. Leigh Ann Baker needed to get the hell away from him before he said something he wouldn't regret.

  The best thing she could do right now was go outside.

  "Wes, I'm so sorry...the phone rang and I should have ignored it, but I couldn't. He would have just kept calling."

  "You could have killed us all, because you weren't paying attention, Leigh Ann," he admonished. "My son could have died."

  A low-pitched whimper reached his ears and Wes looked down to meet her sorrow-filled gaze. Her full lips trembled as she told him again, "I'm very sorry, I promise to be more careful. I got that call and forgot about the bacon."

  That call was the problem, in more ways than one. Who the hell had she been talking to? Was she engaged? Running from someone? Using his place to hide out? Wes had said he wouldn't ask questions, but he reconsidered that decision. If this guy was a nut case and after her, his son could be in danger too. "Who was that on the phone?"

  "Um, Lester Fallon," she replied then grabbed his uninjured hand to drop the ice cubes in his palm. He put them back on the burn.

  "Lester Fallon? The oil tycoon?" Wes roared in disbelief.

  Her chin dropped to her chest and she wouldn't meet his eyes. "Yeah, that Lester Fallon."

  Good God, the richest man in Texas wanted this woman to marry him? And she was refusing? Even though he was a lot older than her and said to be an abrasive ass, most women would jump at the chance to marry the old bastard and live the high life. To date, four other women had done just that and were now former Mrs. Fallons.

  But Leigh Ann just told him the wedding was off, and obviously not for the first time. Smart girl. "How do you know Lester Fallon?" Wes asked gruffly.

  To his knowledge Rocky, and by relation her sister, did not come from a moneyed background. Lester Fallon traveled in those circles. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous circles. He had bodyguards, hung out with celebrities, so it was unlikely that someone not in his circle could access him. That made Wes damned curious about how Leigh Ann Baker wound up in the position of almost marrying him.

  "He's a friend of my mama's and because I won--" she stopped midsentence and her eyes made two slow blinks, before they widened as her lips pinched together.

  "You won what?" Wes asked when he realized she wasn't going to finish.

  "Um, my mama introduced us, and wanted me to marry him," she corrected and through the hazy smoke he saw her cheeks redden.

  "How does your mama know him?"

  "Uh, I'm not sure," Leigh Ann lied, and he knew she was lying, because he could see it written on her beautiful face. What the hell is she hiding?

  "Is he harassing you?" Wes asked, still not convinced that his son wasn't in danger.

  Lester Fallon had the money to do just about anything he damned well pleased, and Wes had heard he was a shark of a businessman. Not many people crossed the man, but it looked like Leigh Ann Baker had done just that.

  "It's no big deal, he just isn't used to someone telling him no, to not getting what he wants," she said with a flutter of her hand.

  "And he wants you."

  "Apparently, so," she agreed with a huffed breath. "Go sit out on the porch and keep that ice on your arm. I'll clean up in here," Leigh Ann insisted as she shoved him toward the patio door.

  Maybe if she could get him outside, he would stop asking questions she couldn't answer. Leigh Ann had promised Roxanne she wasn't going to tell him she was a former Miss Texas, and it was a promise she was going to keep, even if it meant lying to Wes Jepson. But damn, she felt guilty about it. He was helping her, letting her stay here, giving her a chance to start over again, and here she was lying to him. He had to know she was doing it too. Leigh Ann was a terrible liar, because she didn't do it often enough to be good at it. And because she hated liars. Now she was one.

  Wes held the towel at his hip, as he walked toward the patio door. Leigh Ann couldn't keep her eyes from following his tight butt. They traveled up his broad muscled back to the sexy wet curls at the nape of his neck, then back down over his rear, down his firm thighs to his bare feet. She had never before thought a man's feet were sexy, but his were. Everything about the sweet man was sexy. And off limits.

  Roxanne said Leigh Ann needed to focus on reinventing herself, getting her life together, not catching a man. She was right, but this man, the first she had actually been attracted to in years, was entirely too tempting. If he were interested, she would definitely be interested in him. But Wes Jepson hadn't sent her one signal he was interested in her. He was avoiding her like she had a communicable disease or something.

  He probably thought she was a ditz, and she couldn't blame him. Other than spit-shining his house and cleaning out some of the clutter, the best thing she had done for him while she was here was almost burn his house down.

  Or it could be because of what his ex-wife had done to him. Maybe he wasn't over what she had done to him. But damn, it had been seven years, according to her sister. How long did it take a man to get over a woman? She had never had that kind of relationship with a man, so she wouldn't know.

  One thing she did know was she didn't want to hurt Wes or his son. The best thing she could do was try and find a place of her own soon. His adorable son had already charmed her, it wouldn't do to let his dad do the same, since he didn't seem to want a relationship, or even a friendship with her. She wanted to leave with her heart in tact.

  Leigh Ann sighed and accidentally sucked in a lungful of smoke, which made her cough violently.

  "You okay in there?" Wes yelled from the patio.

  "Fine, I'm cleaning up. I made coffee you want some?" She yelled back.

  "That would be great," he replied

  Leigh Ann walked to the cabinet and pulled down a cup, filling it with the hot liquid from the pot. At least she had managed to make the coffee right, the only success in her attempt to fix breakfast for them.

  "Cream and Sugar?" she asked loudly.

  "Black," he replied and she took the cup and carefully brought it to him at to the wooden picnic table outside.

  She sat the cup down in front of him, then met his hazel eyes. Twisting her hands in front of her, she apologized again, "I really am sorry, Wes."

  The birds chirped, Silas looked up at her expectantly from near Wes's feet, but he didn't respond. Wes sat there for a moment staring at the cup of coffee. After he picked it up, he took a long sip and swallowed, before saying, "Don't worry about it, just be careful next time."

  "Why did the pigs go to New York City, Miss Leigh Ann?" Trey interrupted with a gapped-tooth smile.

  Roxanne had forewarned her that Trey loved to tell jokes. She had been here a week and he hadn't tried one on her yet, so Leigh was ready for him. With every day that passed, she wondered why he hadn't tried one on her, but finally guessed that he reserved his jokes for people he trusted. To finally be included in that group was a relief for her.

  Leigh Ann's eyes swung to him and she grinned back. "I don't know, why did they go to New York City?"

  Annie was right, the kid was adorable. He had his daddy's hazel eyes and square jaw, and a toothless smile that stole her heart.

  Wes's rare smiles looked a lot like Trey's, just with nice even white teeth. It lit up his whole face and made him look alive. But the man didn't smile much. At least around her. He didn't seem real comfortable when she was around for some reason, definitely not like he felt around her sister. Wes smiled at Roxanne, a lot. And it made her a little jealous.

  "To see the Big Apple," Trey replied and his grin got wider, as he followed up with, "How did they get there?"

  "I don't know?" she responded with a lifted eyebrow.

  "Pigup Trucks," he said proudly.

  "Did your daddy teach you that joke, baby boy?" she drawled, and felt the heat of Wes's
eyes on her.

  "No, ma'am, my grandpa did. He has a lot of jokes."

  Leigh Ann had a few of her own. She knew every blonde joke ever written, had heard them all firsthand. "Why do blondes always smile during lightning storms?"

  Trey's eyes lit up, as he asked with excitement, "I don't know, why?"

  "Because they think they're having their picture taken," she told him with the widest smile she could manage.

  Trey shook his head looking confused. "I don't get it."

  "He's too young for blonde jokes," Wes grumped with a curl of his lip, before taking another gulp of his coffee and flinching.

  Self-disgust shot through her for not realizing that. "Oh, sorry..."

  Leigh Ann hadn't been around kids much, so she didn't know what was appropriate and what wasn't. She had just been trying to make a connection with Trey, and had failed miserably.

  "He's only ten, and those kind of jokes are over his head," Wes told her.

  Evidently connecting with his ten-year-old was over her head, because that feeble attempt was all she had. Tears that had nothing to do with the smoke inside the house burned her eyes. Leigh Ann nodded, sucked in a breath then darted toward the sliding glass door. Silas had moved and she didn't see him laying by the door, so she stepped on his tail on her way inside. He let out a long pained howl then slunk off to hide underneath the picnic table.

  "Oh, God, I'm so sorry!" she yelped as she staggered into the wall of the house, before righting herself and running to make sure the dog wasn't injured. Shooting her a frightened look from beneath the table, Silas hid behind Wes's legs.

  Leigh Ann straightened to look at Wes. He shook his head, then with tight lips, reached under the table to scratch the dog between the ears, before running his hand along the dog's tail. Staggering back, Leigh Ann turned and ran inside. She went to the sink and leaned over it. The burnt offering in the pan there mocked her. Grabbing a scrub pad from the dish beside the faucet, she turned on the tap and went to work on cleaning it.