“I’ll do that, too.” The words sounded hollow even as I said them. “As soon as I find the right place.”
“Then I’ve got good news for you.” Damien’s mouth flattened into a hard line.
“Really?”
He didn’t look like a man with good news. He looked stoic. Resigned. Determined. And so damn sexy I almost didn’t hear what he said next.
“I’m selling you the farm stand.”
* * *
DAMIEN FIGURED HE’D make it work. Paparazzi on the lawn, star-gazers rubbernecking around his paddocks and a brand of media attention that flew in the face of everything he’d tried to create at Fraser Farm. But this was Miranda, and he couldn’t let her go.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” She gulped down the rest of her tea and set the cup aside, her fingers jittery as she ran them through her hair.
“You’ve wanted that property since before you even laid eyes on it.” She’d drawn that amazing sketch for what the place would look like when she was done, had brainstormed names and even brought some inventory for the store portion of the business, judging by the cases of tea now in his kitchen. “How is it being ridiculous to accept your offer?”
“There’s a lot of reasons.” She hooked her finger in the collar of her T-shirt and twisted the fabric, a nervous gesture he’d never seen before.
Reaching for her, he untwined the finger and held her hand instead, but he could feel the tension still humming through her.
“Name one.” He breathed in the scents in the air, the spices of the tea, the sweetness of Miranda. Would she answer him or would they avoid the topic by getting naked again?
“You don’t want the kind of negative press I’ll bring.”
His gut tightened, and as much as they needed to figure this out, he half wished they could just go back to touching each other. Forgetting everything else but how much pleasure they gave one another.
“I’ve decided I’m tougher than I gave myself credit for on that score.”
“You can’t afford to lose business because of me.”
“Maybe we can link the Gutsy Girl win with the growing side of my business that’s going to retrain Thoroughbreds. Spin something about the Nebraska Nice Girl’s return to her farm roots to help the horses.” He’d just made that up on the spot, but it didn’t sound half-bad. Miranda did have a natural affinity for animals. And it did take guts to retrain edgy, high-strung Thoroughbreds, so it wasn’t a task for the average horse owner.
“That’s...” Her blue eyes went wide as she digested what he’d said. “...clever but crazy. I don’t know anything about retraining Thoroughbreds.”
“But you’d make a great spokesperson to promote another ‘come from behind’ winner.” He actually really liked the idea. Was it because of her influence that he was thinking outside the box? “I’m going to need to separate the brand identities for the breeding business and the Thoroughbred rehab business soon, anyhow.”
She bit her lip. He could feel her holding back. A deep unease stirred inside him. He’d expected her to go slow in a relationship. Knew she’d had problems in the past and that she had a tendency to run. But he’d thought the property for her tearoom would be his ace...a surefire means of keeping her close.
He didn’t invite people into his world often. Hell, he’d made an effort to keep people out after the invasiveness of the press in his teenage years. Now that he wanted to share this world he’d created with someone, he didn’t know how to make it happen.
“I wanted you to sell that property to me, but I can’t let you do it as a favor. That doesn’t feel right to me.”
“It’s not a favor.” He was certain of that much. He wanted to keep her safe, damn it. That motive was his alone.
“But a few days ago you thought it didn’t make good business sense.” She shook her head, frowning. “I can’t take the deal just because we started a relationship. That will only lead to trouble and resentment down the road if things don’t work out for us.”
How could she be slipping away from him already? She’d just landed in his life, made herself important and knocked a crack in his heart before he knew what hit him. Now she was already talking about things not working out?
“You make it sound like leaving is inevitable.” He had to be misunderstanding her. This was just beginning, not ending. “What happened to wait and see? Not borrowing trouble? Enjoying the freaking moment?”
“I’m still looking at properties in the area.” She fidgeted with the braided corner of a throw pillow, and the sticker on her fingernail made him want to kiss her and forget about any talk of her leaving. “I might find something close by.”