Free Dark Horse: Bad Boy Cowboy Romance by Samantha Westlake

property," I said, doing my best to keep my tone of voice light and breezy. "He needed a place to stay, and he's great at fixing some of the broken appliances and fences around here. I'm letting him stay here in the spare bedroom in exchange for his help around the property."
    At my explanation, I saw Marsden's face darken slightly, although he kept a mostly blank expression on his face. He turned back to Lance, and I saw him put on a broad smile that couldn't be anything but forced.
    "Well, that sounds like a very nice thing for you to do, Jillian," he boomed out in a louder voice, as his eyes roamed up and down Lance's figure. "And this fellow gets to stay for free, huh? Seems like a pretty nice deal for him!"
    "I pull my weight," Lance responded immediately, leaning forward a little and straightening his spine. Lance was perhaps an inch or so shorter than Marsden, but his shoulders and arms were broader, likely from the physical work around the property on which he spent most of his time. The two men seemed pretty evenly matched, overall - and both of their glares appeared equally hot as they burned from above false smiles. "And it's probably good for Gilly to have someone watching out for her."
    Once again, the two men shook hands, but this time I could see both of their knuckles whitening as they tested each other's grip. Rolling my eyes in the background, unnoticed, I groaned to myself. Of course they'd sink to macho squabbling!
    After another minute, Marsden disengaged from the handshake with a huff. "Well, I'm taking Jillian out tonight, and we had better be going if we want to make our table," he said stiffly. "It's at quite the elegant restaurant. I'd invite you, of course, but we only made the reservation for two."
    "Not to worry," Lance replied, still glaring back at Marsden from above his own fake smile. "I've got plenty to read, here. I'm sure I'll hear you when you come back in, later. If you are coming back, that is?"
    For a moment, I saw Marsden's jaw working back and forth for a second, grinding his teeth, before he put his smile back on. "We'll be back later, both of us," he replied in tones far too sweet to be real. "And hopefully you'll be turned in by that point - we'd hate to keep you awake with any noise."
    For a minute longer, the two men glared at each other, shooting invisible daggers back and forth across the short distance between their faces.
    I finally decided to interject, before they eventually agreed to settle the matter with a pistol duel right outside my house. "Well, it's good that you've now both met each other!" I announced brightly, pushing myself in between the two men. "Marsden, I'm glad you've gotten to meet the man who's HELPING me as a kind FRIEND. And Lance, it's nice that you've finally gotten to meet the man I'm going to MARRY." I leaned on the words as hard as possible, trying to drive them through these two testosterone-bound idiots' thick skulls.
    I don't know if it was my words or my physically inserting myself between the two men, but Marsden finally blinked and backed down, at least slightly. "Yes, well, very good," he said, still sounding stiff and too formal. "Let's head out to dinner, Jillian."
    I grabbed my fiancé's arm and tugged him out of the house before he could change his mind and go back inside to get into a full-on brawl with Lance.
    Once out in the night air, at least, I saw Marsden take a deep breath, and he seemed to calm down a little. As soon as I climbed into the passenger seat of his Mercedes, however, he turned to confront me.
    "Listen, Jillian, I'm not exactly comfortable with that man staying in your house," he began, jumping straight to the point. "I don't trust him."
    I glared back at my fiancé. "Excuse me?" I asked. "You don't trust him? What do you think he's going to do, exactly?"
    "What's he going to do? I don't know!" Marsden burst out, tossing his hands up and bumping them against the ceiling of his car. "Maybe he's just trying to get your