Free One Track Mind by Bethany Campbell Page B

and—ugh!”
    “What a pessimistic imagination you have,” he marveled. “I never knew. What if somebody just wants it for a home?”
    “Probably some rock star with a bunch of wild friends and hangers-on, getting hammered and climbing up on the battlements to shoot squirrels and deer and throwing wild parties…”
    “Puritan,” he teased. “Don’t make up such scenarios. Wait and see what happens.”
    “Well,” she fretted, “what if it’s somebody who hates the speedway? You can hear it very clearly from up there. Uncle June didn’t mind, because he loved racing, and, of course, he was pretty deaf, so the noise wouldn’t have bothered him anyway…” Her voice trailed off.
    He wanted to reach over, unfasten her seat belt and draw her to him, kiss that enchanting little nose and then her lips. His mind tumbled backward to the nights they’d met on the castle grounds, remembering how completely he’d lost himself in her kisses…how he felt his body couldn’t get close enough to hers.
    He hadn’t broken her spell at all. He’d come back only to fall under it, almost as completely as before. She was still a princess. She was born to it.
    And he was still only the gypsy rover. He was born to that.
    But this time he wasn’t going to try to win the lady. It could never be the same. Somehow he knew this. He had a keenly developed sense of survival, and it was sending him strong warning signals.
    He settled back against his seat, his blood thudding in his ears, his body tingling with suppressed desire.
    “Okay,” he said. “I guess we’re caught up. Let’s talk business.”
    “Wait,” she said, turning to him. “I’ve got a question for you.”
    The warning signals amped up, shrill yet silent. “What?”
    The moonlight had turned her face into a poem of silver and shadows. “Didn’t you ever marry?”
    He went very still. “No,” he said.
    He could feel her eyes searching his face and he kept it blank, implacable.
    “Ever get close?” she asked.
    He felt her presence like a mesmerizing energy surrounding him, invading him.
    “No.” He said it very shortly.
    “Why not?” she asked.
    Because I never got over you, he thought. But I should have. Long ago.
    He said, “Because there are too many beautiful women in the world for me to stick to just one.”
    She seemed to think about this. She didn’t seem put off by it. She certainly didn’t seem disappointed.
    “Okay,” she said. “Just curious. Now, let’s talk business.”

CHAPTER FIVE

    O F COURSE , she thought. His world is full of beautiful women. Young women. Eager to please and well-versed in the art of doing so.
    If he wanted to make her feel unglamorous and past her prime, he’d succeeded. Did he think she deserved it? She’d been high-handed enough with him once upon a time. But they’d been very young, and the statute of limitations should have run out.
    She cast him her coolest glance.
    “Well?” she said pointedly. “Talk.”
    He took a deep breath, one hand clamped on the steering wheel. “For one thing,” he muttered, his voice tinged with disgust, “something needs to be done about this parking lot. It’s full of grass. It’s full of potholes. It’s full of weeds.”
    “I’m all too aware of that. Next item.”
    “The track needs to be reconfigured,” he said, not looking at her. “That exit off Turn Four is a problem. Your dad tried a quick fix, and it didn’t work.”
    “I’m aware of that, too. He did what he could.”
    “It wasn’t good enough.”
    She fought against bristling. She knew her father had increasingly made bad decisions, but she didn’t want to hear Kane criticize him.
    He irritated her again by seeming to know what she thought before she thought it. “It wasn’t his fault,” he said. “I know. But still a problem that’s got to be fixed. That’s first.I’m going to have plans drawn up. And the whole track needs resurfacing.”
    “I know.”
    “I’d like it fast, really