“If you bought what you’re wearing now, I’d say it was worth the price.”

A reflection of her flattered grin greeted her as she gazed out the window once he’d left the main road.

Her breath caught as they turned off the main road and hit the drive leading up to the house.

Royal’s house. A place he’d built along with several of his friends, sat up on a rise so it looked over all fifty acres of what was now Watson Organics.

“I bet you have some pretty great sunrise-watching from your place.”

“I do. Sunsets too, from the front of the house.” He hoped she’d be around a lot. Enough to see exactly what he meant. Sunrise from his bed was one of his favorite things about the house. He bet it looked marvelous on her naked skin.

He parked and helped her down, liking the excuse to touch her. “Come on in. I’ll give you the tour. Watch out for Spike, he likes to get under your feet.”

“Spike?”

“Spike is my cat. He’ll be at the door. He knows when the truck pulls up, and he’ll be annoyed I locked him out of the back of the house where the kitchen is.”

When he unlocked the front door, there was indeed a pretty, fat tortoiseshell cat waiting there.

The cat chattered at Royal, who bent to scoop it up and scritch under the chin. “I know. But you’re a stone-cold chicken thief and you can’t be trusted with my dinner.”

This was given a snort and a purry sort of last chiding sound before two different colored eyes shifted to Caroline.

“Caro, this is Spike.”

Caroline moved slowly, giving the cat enough time to register his displeasure, before she stroked her fingertips over the cat’s head and then scratched him behind the ears.

“Hey, Spike, what’s up?”

There was something very charming and utterly disarming about the way Royal reacted to his cat. It was sweet and funny, and that he was good with animals wasn’t that much of a surprise to her. But it was sexy anyway.

Royal gave her a grin before putting the cat on his feet. “Now that the introductions have been given, would you like a tour of the house?”

She nodded. He took her coat and hung it in a closet just off the entry, along with her bag. Then he slid his hand into hers and drew her down three steps and into a large, open room. Slate tile in varying shades of earthy red lined the floor and a large, cream-colored rug was the base of a seating arrangement. Two couches faced one another with a low table between. A fireplace framed the far wall.

“Wow, the blue of those couches is fantastic.”

“Thank you. I wasn’t convinced it would work with the tile in here. But a friend pushed me on it and I’m glad I listened.”

There was a slight pause before he said friend, and she knew he meant Anne. She wanted to sigh. She wanted to not think about this woman who clearly was a big part of his life even now. She wished it didn’t matter. Wished she was mature enough not to be bothered.

For the moment though, she’d sweep it under the rug. Her feelings or not, it was too early to discuss it.

He led her to the left. “This is my office.”

Wow, if only her home office was this nice. Large windows fronted it, leading out to a big, wraparound porch. A big, L-shaped workspace dominated the room, with a computer on one part and a flat desk/worktable taking up the rest. File cabinets were neatly built into the far wall along with bookshelves filled with binders and books about farming techniques.

At that moment she realized, truly understood, just what this land and farm meant to Royal. And how big a job it was. Cowboy boots and wranglers or not, this man was a CEO in his own right.

“I’m out in the earlier part of the day. In the fields I mean. But I come back here in the afternoons to escape the heat and the noise. Always work to be done, but this room gives me a perfect view over the hoop tunnels and the orchard.”

“This is a great workspace. I have workspace envy right now.”

He grinned. “I just finished that worktable a few weeks ago.”

“You made that?” Good gracious, he did woodworking too?

“I did. I like to be busy I guess. The table I wanted was ungodly expensive so I was able to do it exactly how I wanted for like a third of the price.”

“I’m super impressed.”

“Good. Come on.”

He took her hand again and led her through a set of doors he’d closed off. “These are great at keeping the house cooler and also locking Spike out of the kitchen if I’m cooking in the slow cooker and not around.”

Spike wound through their legs and then shot into the hall when the doors opened up.

“This is what I think of as the heart of the house. When I’m done working, I come back here.”

More windows, these took up pretty much the entirety of the back of the house. An open space, the large kitchen flowed into the dining area to one side and a living room with a television and media center on the other.

“It smells really good in here.”

“I’m a pretty good cook. I’m roasting a chicken. I have a barter going on with some of the other organic operations in the area. The chicken is free range, fed organic feed. It’s fresh, which makes such a difference. I didn’t make the bread though. Picked that up at the Honey Bear.”

She grinned. “I’m addicted to their sourdough twists. Also did you know they had cinnamon rolls without the raisins if you ask?”

He barked a laugh. “I’m going to have to introduce you to Lily Murphy. Nathan’s wife. She hates raisins but ordered the rolls with the raisins and picked them out because they had more frosting on them. Now William makes the raisin-free ones with just as much icing.”