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  Charlene pressed her hand to her lips to prevent her from saying more than she should. She suspected he wouldn’t appreciate her pity.

  “I hate that it had to end that way.” He glanced at the crayon drawings decorating his fridge. “She was a good woman. She loved our little girl, but…”

  “But what?” She knew she shouldn’t ask. Getting to know him wasn’t part of their deal. This was supposed to be about sex, nothing more.

  “We were two different people.” He cleared his throat. “She pretended to like the lifestyle for my benefit, but after a while, I knew she was just goin’ through the motions. She wasn’t gettin’ off on it and I didn’t know how to get off any other way.”

  Charlene frowned, trying to make sense of what he was telling her. “You were going to end your marriage because you weren’t sexually compatible? But you had a little girl together. Weren’t you thinking about what was best for her?” The look in his eye when he turned to face her had her taking a step back. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…”

  “No, you shouldn’t have.” He walked back to the foyer where they’d left their clothes. Without another word, he picked hers up and thrust them into her hands. “No one, and I mean no one, questions my love for my little girl. She means everything to me.”

  “I didn’t mean—”

  “Just go.” He raked his hand through his hair. “This was a bad idea. You just need to go.”

  Stunned and hurt by his dismissal, she forced her trembling hands to work so she could replace her clothes. With hatred in his eyes and remorse in her heart, she couldn’t utter a word as she brushed past him, praying she had the strength to wait until she was far away from him before she gave into the tears.

  Chapter One

  Cole had anticipated this day ever since he found out who his daughter’s second-grade teacher would be. Shortly after she walked out on him, he did a little digging and found out that his one-night stand was also the little sister of one of his best friends. She’d been away at college, so they never crossed paths before, with the exception of that one night. The night he couldn’t seem to forget.

  As soon as her tail lights started fading into the night, he’d regretted his decision to send her away. He knew he overreacted to her question about his marriage, but he felt guilty about his role in his wife’s death for years. Was he the reason she got behind the wheel while drunk? Was she trying to punish him or teach him a lesson, or was she just so terrified at the prospect of losing the child they both loved that she did something completely out of character and paid with her life? He would never know the answer to those questions, but he knew it would haunt him for the rest of his days.

  That was the reason Charlene’s innocent question had set him off. A rational person would have calmly explained his reasons for wanting out of a marriage that no longer worked, or better yet, he could have told her he didn’t want to talk about it and carried on with their evening. Instead, he overreacted and threw her out of his house, practically naked, with a pained expression on her face and hurt and confusion clouding her eyes.

  They’d seen each a few times since she returned to accept the teaching position in her hometown, at the grocery store, the post office, and once at a barbeque at the mayor’s house. But she wasn’t interested in picking up where they left off, that much was obvious. In fact, she told him if he ever told anyone about what happened that night, she’d deny it, making him look like a desperate, delusional fool.

  So he’d kept his mouth shut and tried to keep his fantasies in check. But every time he saw her, his mind wandered to what it felt like having her bent over her car, at his mercy…

  “Daddy, do you think my new teacher’s gonna be nice?” Cassidy asked, bouncing up and down in the back seat of Cole’s big truck.

  He eased into the crowded parking lot of the only elementary school in town. All of the little boys and girls looked happy and excited as they bounded through the doors, ready to take on the challenges ahead.

  “I’m sure she will be, honey.” He couldn’t very well tell his seven-year-old daughter that he knew her new teacher intimately. “You just be a good girl, like we talked about, and you and your teacher will get along just fine.”

  “I can’t wait to see all my friends again.” She pouted. “I just wish Stacey could be in my class this year.” Stacey was his daughter’s best friend, and both little girls were devastated to learn they would have to settle for seeing each other during recess and lunch breaks.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Cole said, climbing out of the truck. He unfastened Cassidy’s seat belt and lifted her down, setting her on the ground. “You girls will still see each other plenty.”

  She looked positively angelic with those soft blond curls and big, blue eyes. He knew it wouldn’t be long before all the little boys were beating a path to their door. Just the thought of losing his little girl made his gut clench. She was the only person he’d ever loved more than himself, the only person he would consider sacrificing his own happiness for.

  “Are you sure I look okay?” she asked, frowning as she looked down at the soft pink jeans with matching pink sweater. She wrinkled her little nose. “Maybe I should’ve worn the white sweater instead.”

  God help him. He was ill-equipped to deal with so many of his daughter’s problems. He was grateful he had a mother to lean on, but he knew Cassidy would start to yearn for the mother she’d lost before long. Cassidy was only two when her mama died, so she didn’t remember much about her. Cole didn’t know if that was a blessing or a curse. He still kept a framed photo of his wife by his daughter’s bedside to remind her that her mama was up in Heaven, watching over her, but he knew it wasn’t enough. Ever since she started school, she commented about her friends’ mothers, and he knew she wished for a mama to call her own.

  “You look beautiful, baby.” He reached into the truck for her brightly colored backpack and helped settle the straps on her shoulders. Reaching for her hand, he asked, “You ready to do this, Princess?”

  She shrugged, looking a little scared and uncertain. “I guess so.”

  His daughter was rarely apprehensive about trying new things, but he suspected every kid experienced butterflies on the first day of school. “You’ll be fine once you get settled. Come on, let’s go. We don’t want to be late.”

  Cassidy squeezed his hand as they walked toward the double doors. With only a few hundred students, the school was small. Every time Cole walked through the steel doors and saw the peeling paint, he thought he really should talk to the principal about making a donation, but he never seemed to get around to it.

  Real estate had been good to him. He started small, investing when he was young, and by the time he turned thirty, he owned enough properties to ensure he never had to work another day in his life unless he chose to. Then he got the call from his mama. She needed him to help her run the ranch, or she would be forced to sell it. Since she didn’t want to consider that option, Cole did the only thing he could: he packed up his daughter and committed to being a rancher in a small town.

  Most days, he enjoyed his new life, but days like this, when his mistakes threatened to come back and bite him, he wished for the anonymity that came with living in a big city. Back home, he could have a one-night stand and never worry about seeing her again, unless he chose to. But things were different in Brant County. Here, everyone knew everyone else’s business, and if you wanted to keep a secret, you had to put on an award-winning performance to hide the truth.

  They rounded the corner into a cheerful-looking classroom already buzzing with excitement.

  Charlene was bent over a desk, talking to a little girl, and a shot of lust had Cole buzzing with excitement too. Seeing her like that reminded him of the last time he’d had her bent over, begging him to fill her…

  As though she sensed his eyes on her, she turned around. Smiling when she looked at him seemed to take supreme effort, but as soon as her eyes fell to his daughter, her enthusias
m was genuine. “Well, hello there,” she said to Cassidy as she walked toward them. “And who might you be?”

  Cole rolled his eyes. As if she didn’t know. He had to hand it to her. A casual observer would never guess they had once engaged in hot, no-holds-barred sex under the clear night sky. He hated that she seemed able to hold it together while he was losing his mind over her.

  “My name’s Cassidy Braxton,” she said quietly, looking down at the denim running shoes with bright pink laces.

  Charlene crouched down so she and Cassidy were at eye level and something in Cole snapped. Seeing her on her knees in front of him had his mind wandering to places it had no business going. Especially not in front of his daughter.

  “That’s such a pretty name,” Charlene said, smiling. She offered her hand. “And I’m Miss McCoy. I’m really excited to be here; how about you?”

  Cassidy bit her lip. “I guess so.”

  “We’re gonna have a great year, I just know it.” Charlene stood up and pointed to one of the desks in the middle row. “That one is yours. Why don’t you get settled? We’re going to get started in just a few minutes.”

  Cole was aware of several mothers hovering with their children at the front of the classroom, obviously waiting to greet the new teacher. He offered his hand with a wicked glint in his eye, daring her to shun him in front of their audience. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Miss McCoy.”

  She hesitated a fraction of a second before she slipped her hand into his and looked up into his eyes. She squared her shoulders, obviously trying to send him the message that she wasn’t intimidated by him in the least. If not for the hitch in her breath when he caressed her wrist, he may have actually believed her.

  “You as well.” She withdrew her hand from his, running her palm down the length of her black skirt. “I’m sure Cassidy will be fine now. Don’t let us keep you.”

  Cole began to think having Miss Charlene McCoy as his daughter’s teacher was the best thing that had happened to him in at least a year.

  Charlene struggled to catch her breath as she tried not to watch Cole leave the room. Everything about him was big, menacing, and over-bearing. At well over six feet tall, he seemed to effortlessly dominate every room he was in and everyone in it. She shivered when she thought about how she’d let him dominate her that night. Bent over her car, in plain sight, where anyone driving by could see them. Okay, so Cole’s ranch was at the end of a dead end street on several thousand acres, but that wasn’t the point. She risked her reputation and her dignity for a quickie with a man who proved himself unworthy of the risk. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  He was one of the main reasons she’d thought about refusing the school’s offer and moving to the city. Just the thought of facing him again was humiliating, but this was her hometown, and she’d be damned if she let him run her off as though she was the one who wronged him. Sleeping with him was obviously a mistake, but she was only human; she was entitled to make a few. The important thing was to forgive herself, forget about it, and move on. So far, she struggled with all three, and she feared seeing him every weekday for the next ten months might make it impossible.

  “He’s gorgeous, isn’t he?” Lynda Connor whispered, following her eyes to the door Cole had just passed through.

  She and Lynda had gone to high school together, and while they weren’t the best of friends, they were always friendly acquaintances. Getting caught ogling one of her students’ fathers was embarrassing, even if Lynda, who was supposed to be happily married, was doing the same. “It’s nice to see you, Lynda,” Charlene said, pasting a smile on her face. “How was your summer?”

  “Same old, same old.” She sighed heavily. “You know how it is around here, Charlene. Not much ever changes.”

  That was true, but Charlene was starting to believe that danger and excitement wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, especially if a certain broad-shouldered cowboy was the one offering to shake things up. She just needed a nice normal man to make her stop thinking about all this nonsense with Cole. Someone she would be proud to take home to her parents. She’d start thinking about her prospects, putting some feelers out there, just as soon as she settled into a nice routine at work. Maybe one of the teachers at the school had a single brother or friend…

  “Are you happy to be back?” Lynda asked, pulling her from her musings.

  “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “I don’t know. Like I said, there’s not much goin’ on around here.”

  Charlene turned her attention to Lynda’s son, a dark haired, wide-eyed terror the grade one teacher had warned her about. “You must be Charlie.” She offered her hand and smiled when the little boy looked at her skeptically. “I’m Miss McCoy.”

  “I know who you are,” he said, crossing his arms.

  Lynda nudged her son. “Go on, shake Miss McCoy’s hand.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  Lynda blushed and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. It looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”

  Charlene knew how he felt. She was starting to feel that way herself. Of course, if she’d had a certain sexy cowboy crowding the other side of her bed, she might feel differently. Damn Cole Braxton… what was it going to take to erase the memory of that one night?

  Never before had Cole counted down the hours until he could pick Cassidy up from school. In fact, he usually had to set the alarm on his watch to remind him in case the three fifteen dismissal slipped his mind when he got busy tending to his daily duties on the ranch. But today, he was parked in front of the school watching the agonizing seconds tick by until he could see her again. She taunted him all day, slipping into his mind when he should be working.

  It had been like that in the days after their night together too. He couldn’t get her out of his head. Then he asked the owner of the bar, Dixie, if she knew anything about some girl named Charlene. He told her she’d been in with her girlfriends and proceeded to recite off the names of her companions. Dixie informed him that Charlene McCoy was a hometown girl who’d gone away to school. McCoy. Cole put the pieces together quickly and realized that the woman he took was the little sister of one of his closest friends, a local cop named Jake McCoy.

  Cole winced just thinking about what his friend would say if he found out how his so-called friend had treated his precious sister that night. Now that Cole knew about the family connection, he hung on Jake’s every word when their tight-knit group of friends met at Dixie’s for beers. He hoped to glean information about Charlene. Was she involved with anyone? Planning a visit home? Was she happy… well… lonely? He finally hit pay dirt last spring when Jake mentioned his little sister was planning to move home and accept a position teaching second grade at the elementary school. He had counted down the days ever since.

  As Cole got out of his truck, he exchanged greetings with a few of the other parents waiting for their kids. He usually parked in the pick-up line and waited for Cassidy to come out, but today was different. He reasoned it was because it was his daughter’s first day, but there was only one reason he was venturing inside: Charlene.

  At the start of the day, he’d dreaded her reaction to seeing him, but now that they got the first meeting out of the way, he relished the thought of seeing her every day. He sensed she was unique during the brief time they spent together. She was so responsive, so brave when he asked her to take a chance on him. He hadn’t responded to a woman like that in… Hell, who was he trying to kid? He never responded to a woman like that in his life.

  Cole waited outside the classroom until some of the kids started to wander into the hall. He spotted Cassidy at her desk. When Charlene crouched down beside the small desk, smiling at a picture his daughter had drawn, Cole’s heart expanded in a way he never expected. Whenever he’d thought about her in the past, he imagined what would happen if they were allowed to pick up where they left off. But today he saw her in a different light. He saw how good she
was with the kids, especially his daughter.

  Cassidy looked up and smiled when she saw him. “Hi, Daddy, I didn’t know you’d come in to get me today. I thought you’d wait out in the car, like always.”

  Leave it to a seven year-old to blow his cover. “I, uh, just wanted to make sure you didn’t forget anything.”

  Charlene smirked as she stood and smoothed her straight black skirt. His feeble excuse obviously hadn’t fooled her. “I think she has everything she needs,” she said, pointing to the small pile of books on her desk.

  “Daddy, look! We’re goin’ to Chester’s farm on Friday.” She bounded out of her seat and ran toward him, clutching a sheet of white paper in her hand. “They want parents to come too. Can you come?” She pressed her palms together and batted her eyelashes at him. “Please, please, please?”

  “Cassidy, you shouldn’t pressure your father into volunteering,” Charlene said, walking around the room, straightening chairs. “I’m sure plenty of other parents will be willing to come with us to supervise.” She stole a glance at Cole before bending to pick up a scrap piece of paper.

  He tried not to notice when her royal blue blouse gaped at the neckline, but he was only human. Any man in his position would have done the same. He looked down into his daughter’s eyes and felt like a cad for letting his mind wander in front of her. Ruffling her soft curls, he said, “Count me in, Princess.”

  Charlene frowned at him, obviously trying to send him a silent message that he wasn’t welcome. “I’m sure you’re very busy, Mr. Braxton. We wouldn’t want to take you away from your work just to attend a class field trip.”

  He winked at her and grinned. “I employ plenty of people to help out at the ranch. I don’t think the place will shut down if I play hooky for a day.”