Dream's End by Diana Palmer

grumbled.
    â€œThey are—but you’re forgetting, I don’t keep a ranch manager, I keep an assistant manager. Nobody manages this spread except me,” he added.
    â€œAs if I didn’t know.” She sighed. “You manage everybody on it, too, when they’ll let you.”
    â€œYou used to let me,” he said.
    â€œI grew up,” she said smugly.
    â€œNot quite,” he said with a meaningful lift of his eyebrow.
    She glared at him across the table. “Maybe it depends on the man, did you ever think of that?”
    The smile got deeper. “Or maybe theman just didn’t try hard enough. Next time, I won’t be so impatient.”
    Her eyes widened and she dropped them to her plate with volcanic eruptions taking place in her blood. “There won’t be a next time,” she said firmly, although her voice wasn’t quite steady.
    â€œAre you coming with me? You’ll have to change. That pretty pantsuit will be ruined if you wear it.”
    She glanced down at the white slacks and matching top. “More likely it’d turn red,” she mused. “Jeans and a cotton shirt okay, boss?”
    He smiled at her. “And boots. Got yours?”
    â€œOf course. I do ride, you know,” she reminded him.
    â€œI haven’t seen you on a horse in two months.”
    â€œYou haven’t looked in six months to see what I was on,” she teased.
    He didn’t smile at that. His pale eyes caught hers and held them for a long timewith a searching look that made her forget the blistering heat of the cup in her hand.
    Bessie came in noisily with the coffeepot and broke the spell. Eleanor held her cup out with a smile while she fought to calm her stampeding pulse.
    â€œHaven’t touched your breakfast,” the housekeeper scolded. “He ruining your appetite?” she nodded toward Curry.
    â€œMaybe it’s the other way around.” Curry grinned, winking at Bessie.
    â€œWell, aren’t we in a good mood this morning!” Bessie said brightly as she filled his cup again. “What’d you do, foreclose on somebody?”
    â€œYou,” he told the buxom woman, “are pushing your luck.”
    â€œNot likely. Who’d you find with the gumption to put up with you?” she shot back.
    Eleanor smiled. “She does have a point,” she put in.
    â€œLook who’s talking,” Bessie scoffed.“You only just got the good sense to leave after three years of it.”
    The smile faded as Bessie went out again, and she felt an aching emptiness inside her that breakfast couldn’t fill.
    â€œDon’t think about it,” Curry said suddenly, his jaw set, his eyes somber. “Let’s take it one day at a time, honey.”
    â€œI’m still going, Curry,” she told him gently.
    He met her eyes. “We’ll see.”
    â€œ We won’t see anything,” she returned, putting the cup down. “I’m not taking any more orders, and you’re not going to bulldoze over me…oh!”
    He’d moved out of his chair while she was in midsentence to stand by her chair. All at once his head bent, and he pressed a hard, quick kiss against her open mouth.
    â€œStop talking and get your clothes changed,” he told her. His lean hand ruffled her hair. “I can’t wait all day.”
    He was gone out the door before shecould come up with a lucid sentence. Her fingers went involuntarily to her parted mouth. She could still feel the warm, hard pressure against them.
    He was on the phone downstairs when she got changed into faded jeans, boots, and a blue-patterned cotton blouse. She’d tied her hair back with a blue ribbon to keep it out of her face and left off her makeup. The prospect of spending a whole day with Curry had been too tempting to turn down, but when she heard him call Amanda’s name while he spoke into the receiver, all the color went out of the day for