Happily Ever His (Singletree #1)

should have been looking where I was going, because I bumped into a solid form in the doorway. Ryan had been standing there, watching me.
“Woah,” he laughed, his hands catching me by the arms, steadying me.
Walking while looking in the other direction was not one of my advanced-level skills, evidently.
I spun, and suddenly I was two inches away from him, his hands on my arms and our faces close enough that I could feel his breath on my forehead. All the rushing blood and butterflies I’d managed to banish while we’d been setting up tables came slamming back into me, making me feel giddy and warm.
“Sorry. Thanks,” I breathed. My mind spun deliriously, but at the same time, a calm overtook me—a focused calm that had me staring at Ryan’s lips, feeling them pull me near despite my best intentions.
He stared at me, his blue eyes darkening and something in his face changing from a question to an answer.
His hands slid from my arms to my waist, his big fingers wrapping around me, his thumbs slipping low over my belly. Warmth spread through me at his touch, and those intense blue eyes burned as they stared into mine.
As if in a dream, he angled his head down slowly until our lips were centimeters apart.
I didn’t breathe. I didn’t move. I didn’t think.
Until I did.
I took a step back, forcing my body out of his reach, away from the magnetic pull of his orbit. This was not some fantasy. Ryan was my sister’s boyfriend, and my sister had been hurt enough. Plus, I was about as far from my sister as a guy could get. No one was interested in us both. It didn’t happen. Which meant I was definitely losing my mind.
I narrowed my eyes at Ryan. He hadn’t been about to kiss me, clearly. Had he? What the hell was happening?
I took a deep breath. “I’m uh …” I could barely form words. I shook my head. “Okay, well. Thanks,” I pushed past him out the door and seated myself on the tractor. I needed to escape, get some space to think and regain control of my traitorous body. I’d just started the engine when I felt the whole machine jolt beneath me. Ryan had jumped into the cart and he was grinning again.
With no idea what the hell had just happened, I engaged the gas and drove us back to the barn. We spent the next hour loading chairs and running them across the lawn in the tractor. Neither of us mentioned the strange moment in the doorway or said anything else, and I pointedly kept my eyes and body focused in one direction to keep from crashing into him again.
By the time we finished up and Ryan told me he’d meet me in the kitchen to bake the cake after he took a quick run, I had almost convinced myself I’d imagined the whole thing.
And I hoped I had, because if I hadn’t imagined it, that meant I’d almost kissed my sister’s boyfriend, and my sister didn’t need anyone else in her life being shitty at the moment. It would also mean her boyfriend had almost kissed me.
And that was pretty shitty too.

Chapter Seven


Ryan
I ran along the road leading back out of the Manchester property, my mind reeling. On one hand—the primal side of me that had just been close to kissing a woman I had a very chemical attraction to—I was stoked.
Being close to Tess was heady and exciting, and imagining her body beneath my hands, her sharp wit and sparkling eyes close to me, it only made me want so much more of her. There was something intense and old and complicated in the air around me and Tess, something demanding to be explored.
But on the other hand, I’d made a commitment to her sister. And while the relationship was fake, my promise was not. I was a man of my word in a world where those seemed pretty rare. I wanted to be a man of honor, even if everyone else in the world thought that was old fashioned.
Even if our game of pretend was stupid, there was something in it for me. And blowing this would mean potentially blowing my chance at reinvigorating my flagging career, and gaining the financial security I needed to take care of my father. And exposing Juliet to the ugly rumors and speculation that had surrounded her since her sudden divorce. That didn’t seem very honorable.
My feet beat a steady rhythm down the unfamiliar road as my heart and lungs pounded along. Lush greenery arched overhead, and a surprising variety of critters scattered as I passed—fat little groundhogs nosing at the edges of the road, more birds than I’d ever be interested in identifying, rabbits hopping beneath the towering trees, and a few deer who paused in the road to watch me approach before loping gracefully into the protection of the dense woods beyond. I was completely charmed by Maryland. I’d thought this backwoods location might be boring, but instead it was full of surprises.
Not the least of which was Tess Manchester.
I continued down the road, picking up my pace until my mind could do little but focus on the run. Sweat trickled over my skin and my lungs screamed, and finally I reached more water—by way of a wooded property that led to a sloping sandy beach at the end of the road. I stood for a time on the beach, watching the water lap at the shore as the sun reflected off the liquid surface in flashing diamonds.
By the time I’d returned to the big house, I’d settled with myself. I had to behave myself while we were here, and that meant being true to Juliet and our arrangement. But I also planned to get to know Tess—through conversation only—in an effort to see what this thing was that was undeniably between us. I’d follow the rules, which would mean