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herself against his teasing!
    No, she needed time to repair herself. And prepare herself for whatever he had to propose.
    She was going to meet him on her own ground.
    After she’d had a chance to regain her composure. Not to mention have her hair done and her best outfit on. The next time she saw Rory Adams she would have her best foot forward! She would not be a woman flustered by the insinuation of a kiss!
    She smiled with as much professionalism as she could muster. “I’d be delighted to discuss that with you. If you’ll call my secretary, Beth, she’ll make an appointment for you.”
    He looked shocked that she was putting him off. He wasn’t used to not having his way, and that was just too damned bad.
    She turned and limped away with as much dignity as she could muster.
    “Hey, Gracie-Facie.”
    She looked over her shoulder and glared at him.
    “You could say thanks for the help.”
    For a delicious moment, she thought she had gotten to him. That he had expected her to fall all over herself in gratitude for being rescued by him, that he was actually flustered by a woman who did not succumb to his charms.
    But she saw, in that glance back, that he was not the least perturbed by her lack of gratitude.
    That he was amused by it. And by her. The same way as he had been when she was that little girl he had tormented by calling her Gracie-Facie instead of falling madly in love with her.
    Gracie-Facie, indeed!
    Well, next time they were meeting on her turf, and everything was going to be under her control. She would be completely cool, calm, collected, professional. Completely.
    But for a woman who wanted to be completely cool, calm, collected and professional, she actually had to bite down on her lip to keep from sticking her tongue out at him.
    And his shout of laughter, as if he could see right through her, shivered along her spine.
    Rory did not look as if he laughed like that very much anymore.
    Grace recognized it as a dangerous weakness, that after all the fun he’d had at her expense, she was actually glad she had made him laugh, glad she could pull from him, even for a second, a shadow of the carefree young man he had once been.
    * * *
    Rory watched her go, the smile still tickling his lips.
    Given that he considered himself a man generally unencumbered by touchy-feely sentiments like guilt, he was just a little amazed by how relieved he was to be turning the little white lie he’d told her secretary into a truth.
    Offering to do something for Warrior Down was the carrot Grace Day could not resist.
    The fact was, he already knew it was not going to be that smart to tangle their lives together. She was sensitive, sweet, feisty, smart—in other words, way more complicated than the kind of woman he was used to.
    She also was way more innocent than anybody he was accustomed to dealing with. Her face had turned the color of a fire hydrant when he had said he knew just how to wipe that prissy look off her face!
    His own reaction to the thought of kissing her had been anything but playful.
    On the other hand, she was in way over her head with the whole Serenity thing, and he was not cutting her loose to deal with it herself. Warrior Down would be the perfect excuse to keep tabs on her.
    And he hoped she would never find out what he had just asked that cowboy.
    She probably would have no objection to the fact he had asked to be informed about where Serenity and Tucker and their eight ponies were living and how, but it was the other part that would probably put her nose seriously out of joint.
    Buy the kid a can of soda pop on the way to wherever they’re going. Keep the can.
    Grace wanted to play it one way with Serenity and that was okay for her. But Rory needed to have a backup plan in case hers didn’t pan out, which he was fairly certain it wasn’t going to.
    Serenity was going to play her hand close to her chest and milk it for all it was worth. If Tucker was Graham’s, wouldn’t Serenity have said so