Thornton (Secret Tycoons of Wyoming 2)

“Ms. Golding?”

She immediately stopped speaking and flashed him a smile. “Yes, sir?”

“You’re hired.”

“So that’s how it happened,” Blake finished ruefully. “I think he was just so tired of hearing me talk, he decided to hire me just to shut me up.”

Frankie knew her friend was just joking, but she had a feeling there was a grain of truth in Blake’s words. She had once admitted to Oliver that Thornton was a little too intimidating for her, and her boss had told her that the bookstore owner was far from what most people imagined him to be. What didn’t help, however, was Thornton’s lack of patience and interest to correct everyone’s first impressions of him.

Could that be why he had ended up hiring Blake over all the other candidates? Many of them had better qualifications than her friend did, and there was also the fact that he had been expecting Blake to be a guy.

He had every reason to reject Blake, but instead the opposite had happened, and the more she thought about it, the only reason Frankie could come up for this was the fact that Blake was the only one who wasn’t intimidated by the ex-SAF billionaire.

There was just something about these two. Something undefinable but tremendously palpable…that it had all the locals talking. Like Frankie, everyone couldn’t help noticing the way Blake was always all smiles whenever her boss was around, and how she tended to, well, glow a little less brightly when he wasn’t.

While Hartland’s secret tycoons and heiresses seemed able to easily shrug off Thornton’s occasionally sinister ways, Frankie and the other ordinary folks working in town couldn’t find it in themselves to be just as unconcerned. Or at least that was how it used to be…until Blake, who from the very first day appeared completely immune to the frightening impact of Thornton’s scowls or the menacing softness of his voice.

Blake was just so obvious about so many things, so careless with having her heart so blatantly worn on her sleeve, that everyone in town became certain of two things.

All the signs pointed to Blake’s infatuation with her boss…and Thornton saw all those signs, too.

Chapter Three

Hartland Flowers. Although Ethan had borrowed a page from his older brother’s book by keeping things simple when naming his flower shop, HF’s facade had a more Parisian feel to it, with its remodeled store front. While the upper half of the historic two-story brick building maintained its original appearance, the lower half consisted of umber-colored wood frames and floor-to-ceiling glasses.

Compared to most other establishments in town, Ethan liked to open and close late, with his hours starting at eleven until eight in the evening. This left him free to do pretty much anything in the morning, and for today, anything happened to be having breakfast with Thornton…and catching the older guy with his hand in the most incredibly amusing cookie jar.

“What the hell?” Having come up from behind with two cans of coffee in his hands, Ethan was able to catch a glimpse of whatever it was Thornton appeared intently watching on his phone, and he started laughing when he saw the deep flush in his brother’s face. “Are you stalking your assistant?”

“No.” Thornton’s voice was extremely stiff…and just the slightest bit defensive.

“But you’re watching real-time footage of your store’s CCTV,” he pointed out.

“Because I’m concerned.”

“Over what?”

“Take a look.” Thornton passed his phone to Ethan and was unsurprised when he saw the younger man’s brows shoot up.

“What’s she doing?” Ethan was genuinely bemused. The girl was standing on a stool – and in danger of falling off it – while trying to take photos of…scattered books on the floor?

“All for the ‘gram,” Thornton said gruffly.

“All for the what?” Ethan echoed blankly as he gave Thornton his phone back.

“That’s what she calls it.” Thornton’s voice was a mixture of resignation and disgruntlement. “She created an Instagram account for the store two weeks ago, and online sales have tripled ever since.”

Ethan whistled. “Nice.”

“Not if she’s going to end up breaking her neck for a few hundred dollars,” Thornton muttered.

Their talk moved on to another topic then, dwelling in particular on the various challenges they had to overcome just to keep the film crew from accidentally stumbling on their business.

“Leander has it worse than any of us,” Ethan commented wryly. The Texan native took on the role of resident mechanic whenever he was in town, and since majority of the film was being shot in Leander’s repair shop, the other man had no choice but to stay in character every second of the day.

“Interestingly enough, there’s been some talk in town…” Ethan started to share with Thornton how some locals had seen Leander and one of the movie’s female leads kissing when he realized that his brother was no longer listening.

Thornton was back to stalking, and with an even grimmer look on his face this time. Since they were seated next to each other, Ethan subtly leaned back to take a look: a zoomed-up shot of Blake, who was chatting gaily like she always did…with a male customer.