Page 4 of Winning His Wager

He pulled her closer.

“You are going to be nothing but trouble, aren’t you? I am going to regret this.” He lowered her to her feet slowly. Until they were almost pressed together and everything.Definitelynot what she had expected.

“Completely.”

Dylan just gave him her best grin.

Were words even necessary?

2

This wasthe dumbest damned thing he had ever done in his life. Fletcher knew it the instant he felt her pressed against him. The instant the scent of berry lotion and Dylan surrounded him. This woman was insane. Or…he was. For even considering this for a moment.

He didn’t even really know how it had happened—one minute, they’d been arguing about her and her family, and the next, she’d challenged him to hire her as the housekeeper everyone knew he had been looking for recently.

At less than he’d been intending to pay.

She’d said she’d be a real bargain and no need to check her references. And it wasn’t like she would try to seduce him, since she wasn’t areal womanor anything.

Now, here they were.

He had no business bringing Dusty’s sister into his house like this. Being alone with her like this. Wicked green eyes were watching him—laughing. She was laughing at him—again.

If nothing else, he was going to go mad just listening to her constant chatter. Fletcher wasn’t one whochattered.Far from it.

Dylan never seemed to stoptalking.

And he had signed on for six months of this? She smirked at him again. It got under his skin every time she looked at him like that.

Hell, he was going to do it.

He was going to prove a point to the little green-eyed devil woman.

He wasn’t about to give in. Give up. But damn it, September couldn’t come fast enough for him now. He just had to get through to September, and then he’d win. And then he’d march her little ass to the inn and give herbackto her damned family.

They could keep her with the rest of the Talleys forever then.

“So, if I can’t stay out all night while I work here, what’s my curfew? I mean, my dad always tried that whole curfew thing with me, but after I was eighteen, I just sort of stopped listening, you know? And, well, I am young enough to want some sort of nightlife. Somehow, when I have time, I mean. I already have sixteen hours per week at the inn to cover and sixteen to cover at the diner. But don’t worry, I can still do the twenty hours we agreed on. So, since I get two days off, that’s four hours a day here. And eight hours at the diner two times a week and eight hours at the inn two times a week. But I might have to fill in there some. Especially with Charlotte in and out all the time. You good with that? I kind of think I have to do it, whether I really want to or not. If I am going to keep on being a real Talley and everything.”

That was four twelve-hour days and one four-hour day. Fifty-plus hour weeks. Hell. That was going to be exhausting for her. But if she was busy for most of the waking hours, he wouldn’t have to deal with her directly. Fletcher could handle that. “When are you going to do your classes?”

A look passed over her face. She was a cross between Dusty and her older cousin Marin through the face. That had thrown him a bit at first. Seeing so many parts of those incredible women in this annoying little package.

Hell, he still had his hand covering her back. The heat of her practically scorched his palm.

“Class?” She batted her eyelashes at him. She had ridiculously long, blond eyelashes. “What’s that?”

“You were supposed to be doing online classes, right? To finish your degree?” He’d heard Dylan and her father arguing about that very thing. Fletcher hadn’t been mistaken. Her father’s twin brother had gotten involved too. The argument had finally ended when the two men had finally realized Dylan had snuck out the back door.

“I am going to finish my degree—whenIcan pay for it. And no one else. Not those two identical buttheads named Arthur and Gerald, that’s for sure. I won’t be the weapon they use against each other. I don’t play that game.” A look of pure, stubborn obstinance crossed her face. “No matter what.”

“Don’t you only have like a year to go?” She should let her father pay for it. The old bastard at least owed her a decent education. Fletcher hadn’t even considered college—the money just hadn’t been there, nor the desire. But hell, if he’d been more forward-thinking, he’d have managed to take a few business classes or ranch management or something. To help himself now.

“Eight classes, but so what? It’s business administration. Not like it’ll change that much before I get there. I am an adult. I am now working three jobs, right? Who has time for school during all that? I can take care of myself.”

“Sure you can. That’s why you are living inmyhouse now. You are a Talley. You belong at the inn.”

Her face tightened.