Free So Not a Cowgirl by Starla Kaye Page A

idea of feeling his hard hand once again.
    “ Tanya?” she heard Peter’s slightly nasal voice question as she held the receiver inches away from her ear. “Tanya, are you there?”
    “ Yes,” she said briskly, and then regretted her tone. “Sorry. I was in the middle of something.” Thinking of a certain gruff cowboy’s touch. Spanking. Whatever.
    “ So how’s life out in the middle of nowhere?” A lifelong Californian who shared Tanya’s preference for big cities and all the wonders they offered, he clearly thought he was being cute with the question.
    She remembered speaking much the same words to Mandy about the ranch and now regretted them. Oddly enough the ranch and the people who worked here had grown on her. “What do you want?”
    “ Don’t tell me you’re starting to like it there.” He sounded appalled.
    “ Peter, why are you calling?” she pressed, annoyed with him, and annoyed with Drew continuing to stand where she’d left him, watching her, scowling for all he was worth. She couldn’t believe he’d admitted to liking her, even to fantasizing about her.
    “ You got a bum deal here. Everyone here knows it, including the partners. They can’t afford to let you cause grief for the firm, though.”
    She really didn’t want to talk about what had happened. She didn’t particularly even want to talk to Peter right now. What she wanted was to concentrate on her blossoming feelings about the big cowboy now in her life. Well, and, of course, start working on the audit thing that the cowboy didn’t want her to get involved in.
    “ I’m putting all of that behind me,” she said firmly.
    “ I can help with that. I’m ready to leave this firm, too. And I want you to go into a partnership with me. Here. Back in Sacramento, where you belong.”
    Tanya’s heart fluttered. She could go back to a city with Starbucks, with malls, with nightlife. She could do the work she’d been trained to do, more than just bookkeeping. Such a waste of her knowledge base. But did she want to go back there? Really?
    “ We need to talk about this later.” Her stomach was knotting. Pressure. She felt pressured about making a quick choice, from what she sensed in Peter’s excited tone. She didn’t want pressure. “I’ve got work to get to right now.”
    “ I’m serious, Tanya,” Peter stated.
    “ I know. But this is so sudden. I need to think about your offer.”
    “ We need to start making plans. Soon.” He sounded slightly huffy, but agreeable.
    She understood. She really did, but she didn’t want to be pushed into something so quickly. “I really do appreciate your thinking of me.”
    “ We’d make a great partnership,” he stated as if that would be the final selling point on the idea.
    She wasn’t so sure about that, but the offer was tempting. Very tempting.
    “ Just give me a day or two to think about it.” With that she hung up, noting that Drew had finally walked away. Had he heard any of the conversation? Did she care if he had?
    By the time Tanya returned to the main house and the office, planning on talking to Drew about both the audit and Peter’s offer, she discovered Drew had left the ranch. He’d left her a note on the keyboard. A note that plainly said to finish the month’s bookkeeping ONLY. It also informed her that he’d be gone the rest of the day to a meeting on some foundation business. She was annoyed with herself for taking time after the phone call to go back to her little house and sit down to mull over the partnership idea for a few minutes.
    Pursing her lips, she wadded up the note and tossed it into the trash can beside the desk. Fine. She’d talk to him later about Peter.
    She sank down into the big leather chair and spun slowly around a few times. Finish the month’s bookkeeping. She was already up to date with that. She’d already straightened every darn file, too. Thanks to her disastrous project of searching for a certain invoice the other day. She had