The Colton Bodyguard

“Mark is happiest when he’s the center of attention,” she replied. “But he only wants positive attention. I always suspected that when I was at home on the ranch in Tulsa and he was at his town house here in Oklahoma City, he was seeing other women.”

Tyler said nothing, but in his silence Greta recognized the truth. Mark had never really loved her. He had been in love with marrying a Colton, with all the society-page tidbits about their romance and upcoming wedding. But he’d never truly loved Greta, the tomboy who was happiest wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and working with and training horses.

“I thought that the relationship with you might make a man out of him,” he said. “But I guess I was wrong.”

“Do you still have that troubled horse?” she asked, eager to turn the course of the conversation.

“I do. She’s a three-year-old filly who has had no training and very little human contact. Are you interested in working with her?”

“I might be,” she replied. She needed something to focus on besides the fact that the man she’d nearly married wasn’t in love with her and she really hadn’t loved him. She needed a challenge to take her mind off all the strange and frightening things that had been happening in her life and around the Colton ranch.

“I still have the horse and I still have an intense desire for you. Would you also be interested in sharing my bed tonight?” he asked.

* * *

Tyler wasn’t a man who believed in playing games. He believed in going after what he wanted, and he had wanted Greta Colton since the very first time he’d seen her.

It was obvious he’d shocked her with his indecent and unexpected proposal to share his bed. She grabbed her wineglass and downed the contents, her cheeks a becoming pink.

Although she looked lovely now in the tailored slacks that hugged her long legs and the rust-colored blouse that enhanced her hazel-green eyes and her dark brown hair, she had really caught his attention when he’d watched her working with a horse at a rodeo months earlier.

Then her slender figure had been clad in dusty jeans and a T-shirt and she’d commanded the horse with confidence and mastery. That had been the woman who had both captured his desire and intrigued him.

She lowered her glass and tucked a strand of her long wavy hair behind her ear. “You’re something else,” she finally said. “You make up an outrageous lie to get me out of jail, a lie that ruined my engagement, and now you have the audacity to ask me to sleep with you?”

He smiled. “Sleep wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.” Her cheeks flushed once again with color, but she made no move to leave. “Greta, we’re both consenting adults and don’t need to answer to anyone for what we do,” he added.

“I don’t just fall into bed with any man who asks me,” she replied and straightened her back defensively.

“I’m aware of that,” he said. “If you were that kind of woman, then I wouldn’t be interested in you.”

She stared at him and then looked away. “Could I please have another glass of wine?” she asked. “And let’s talk a bit more about this horse you have.”

He got up and refilled her glass, then sat down again, this time a little bit closer to her...close enough that he could smell the fresh scent of her.

It was crazy—he had never felt such a visceral pull toward a woman before or since that first time he’d seen Greta. He’d initially been disappointed when he realized Mark and Greta had become an item, but he’d also been pleased that his younger brother had found somebody and intended to settle down.

It hadn’t taken long for Tyler to realize that Mark had no intention of settling down, wedding or not. Getting engaged and planning a wedding to Greta hadn’t slowed Mark’s womanizing ways or forced him to begin to build a future of financial stability for himself and his wife.

“What else do you want to know about the horse?” he asked.

Her gaze danced down to his exposed chest and then quickly moved back up to his face. “Uh...how did you come to own her?”

That quick glance emboldened him. She apparently wasn’t completely immune to him. “I was driving to work one day and passed a field where the horse was tethered to a post. She was half-starved and appeared to have been whipped. I couldn’t just drive by and forget about her obvious distress, so I stopped at the closest ranch house, and the man living there told me the horse was his. I offered to buy her, and after some negotiation, he agreed. Since then she’s filled out and healed from her physical abuse, but neither of my ranch hands have been able to work with her. She won’t let anyone near her.”

“It sounds like you probably saved her life,” Greta replied, more than a hint of approval in her voice.

“If I did, she isn’t showing any gratitude,” he replied drily. He was rewarded by her short but melodic laugh. “And speaking of gratitude, I haven’t heard you thank me for getting you out of jail.”

“I am grateful, but I’m not sure I’ve forgiven you for the particular lie you told. Didn’t you consider what it might do to my reputation? What it would do to your relationship with your brother? Didn’t you consider any of the consequences of your lie?”

“Nothing has gone public, so your good reputation remains intact.” He paused and thought about his brother. “Mark and I have always had a difficult relationship. To be honest, I knew that you’d already told the authorities that you were in a hotel room on the night of the murder. It just seemed easiest for me to tell them that I was in that room with you. I wasn’t thinking of consequences. I just couldn’t stand the thought of you having to spend another day and another night in that jail cell.”

She sighed and took a drink from her glass. “It would have been so much easier if Mark had been the one to come forward and say he was with me that night.” Her eyes narrowed. “But he did absolutely nothing to help me. He didn’t even come to see me or make a phone call to check on me.”

“If all this hadn’t happened, then you wouldn’t have known that you were about to marry the wrong man,” Tyler countered. “Not that I’m suggesting I’m the right man.”

She tilted her head slightly and looked at him curiously. “Why haven’t you married? You’re handsome and successful and I’m sure plenty of women would be happy to become Mrs. Tyler Stanton.”

“The women who want to be my wife aren’t the kind of woman I’d want for a wife. They want it for all the wrong reasons,” he replied. “I got close to marrying once, but it didn’t work out and since then I haven’t found the right woman. Besides, I work long hours and don’t have a lot of time to do the whole dating thing.”

“So you just invite emotionally vulnerable women to share your bed for the night and then move on to the next woman.” She stared at him boldly.

A small laugh escaped him. “You don’t appear to me to be an emotionally vulnerable woman, and no, I don’t make a habit of inviting women into my bed. In fact, you’re the first who has gotten an official invitation.”

She eyed him dubiously.

He leaned closer to her, so close that if he wanted to, he could wrap her in his arms and take full possession of her lush lips with his. It was tempting. It was oh so tempting.

“It’s true, Greta,” he said and watched her eyes spark with gold and green hues. “I don’t invite women into my bed. I wait for them to invite me into theirs. But you’re different, and the desire, the passion, I have for you is stronger than anything I’ve ever felt for any other woman.”

Her mouth trembled slightly and he continued, “In all of my life I’ve never been jealous of Mark, but when he hooked up with you, I was jealous of him for the first time. He had what I wanted...what I still want.”

“I should go,” she replied in a breathy voice, but she made no move to get up.

“You should stay,” he countered. “It’s a long drive back to Tulsa. You should stay here with me tonight and then tomorrow morning you can see the horse.”

Her eyes looked slightly glazed and he didn’t know if it was from the wine she’d drunk too fast or the blatant lust he knew shone from his own.

“Greta, if you want, you can spend the night in one of my guest rooms.” It wasn’t what he wanted, but he also didn’t want to coerce her in any way. He’d laid his cards out on the table and the next play was hers.

“I’ll stay,” she said slowly. “I’ll stay in one of your guest rooms and take a look at the horse in the morning and decide if she’s a project I want to take on.”

Disappointment winged through him, but he tamped it down. He knew he’d been forward and he really wasn’t surprised by her answer. He’d definitely been too open too quickly. It had been out of character for him, but when he’d seen her standing on his front porch, all of his desire for her, which had simmered for so long, had roared to full life.

“Then whenever you’re ready, I’ll show you to your room,” he replied.

“I think I’m ready now.” She stood and finished the last drink of wine in her glass.

He got up, as well, and took the glass from her and carried it and his own to the bar. He felt her gaze on his back and cursed himself for being a fool.

He should have just told her he’d alibied her because he’d been sure of her innocence and then told her about the horse he wanted her to work with. He should have never come at her with the open and honest passion that was in his heart and beat through his veins.

“I’ll get you a T-shirt to sleep in,” he said as he led her down the long hallway. They passed several bedrooms and two baths before he finally turned into a room that was located next to his master suite.

“This is lovely,” she said. She offered him a small smile. “My bedroom at home is decorated in shades of blue, too.”

“Then you should feel right at home here. There’s an en suite bathroom, where you should find whatever you need. There’s several new toothbrushes beneath the sink, and if you need something else that you can’t find, just ask.”