The Rancher's One-Week Wife

“I know I shouldn’t have kissed you.” He took a deep breath and added, “Either in the barn or tonight in the hot tub. But it felt right and I’ll be damned if I’m going to apologize for it.”

She couldn’t in good conscience allow him to shoulder all of the blame. “You wouldn’t have kissed me if I hadn’t let you.”

His deep chuckle sent heat pulsing through her veins. “Yeah, I noticed you weren’t protesting.”

“That’s the problem.” She sighed. “I should have.”

He glanced over at her. “Why didn’t you?”

“I...wanted you to kiss me,” she admitted.

“But you didn’t want to want me kissing you.” It wasn’t a question.

“No.”

“Sweetheart, a wife wanting her husband to kiss her is allowed,” he said, reaching over to take her hand in his. The moment their palms touched a delightful tingling sensation streaked up her arm.

She did her best to ignore it and tried to focus on what he’d said. “That’s the problem, Blake. Three months from now we’ll be divorced. I shouldn’t want you kissing me, not anymore.”

He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Have you asked yourself why you do?”

His question took her by surprise. But as she tried to think of an answer, she decided it probably wasn’t wise to delve too deeply into the reason behind her wanting his affection. If she did, she was certain she wouldn’t be all that comfortable with the answer.

“You’re only going to be here a few more days, Karly,” he said pragmatically. “And I give you my word that nothing is going to happen between us unless that’s what you want. But I’m not going to lie to you and tell you it isn’t what I want.”

As he drove the truck up the lane to the foreman’s cottage, Karly thought about what Blake had said. What did she want?

Eight months ago, she’d been confident she was making the right decision when she’d said yes to his marriage proposal. She had been certain at the time she married him that she loved Blake and wanted them to spend the rest of their lives together. But when she’d returned to Seattle her practical side had taken over. That’s when she’d known ending things was the right call—for both of them.

She’d questioned falling in love with him so quickly and feared that their feelings for each other might not last. Then she’d thought about her parents. Her mother had been in love with her father, but in the end it hadn’t been enough for her. She’d become bitter and resentful, and Karly had borne the brunt of that bitterness.

Karly loved her own career as an import buyer—loved the travel to foreign countries—and feared that love might not be enough for her, either, if she had to give up all of that. Had she been wrong about her feelings for her job? Could she have been happy being the wife of a ranch foreman in a remote part of Wyoming when all she’d ever known was living in a city with conveniences just steps from her apartment door?

She’d been so sure of everything when she left Seattle to come to the ranch for him to sign the new set of divorce papers. But then she’d seen him—stayed with him, had him treat her like his wife—and the doubts about her decision had set in.

She might have been able to keep things in perspective if she hadn’t been stranded on the ranch by the airport workers’ strike. She’d have gone back to Washington, filed the papers for the dissolution of their marriage and resumed her career with the confidence she was doing the right thing.

The trouble had come from seeing him again, being in his arms and experiencing the magic of his kiss. It all reminded her of what she’d wanted when she’d walked down that aisle in Vegas—what she was giving up—and had her questioning herself at every turn.

Had there been serious flaws in her reasoning? By insisting they continue with the divorce was she making the biggest mistake of her life? Would he even give her a second chance if she did want for them to try to make their marriage work?

Karly glanced over at Blake when he parked the truck beside the foreman’s cottage. The way he held her—kissed her—he seemed open to rekindling what they’d found together in Las Vegas. But he hadn’t once mentioned wanting her to change her mind. He’d even signed the divorce papers without a word of protest or even the slightest hesitation.