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me a brief and impersonal glance, his attention focusing immediately on Liberty.

    To my astonishment, Liberty regarded him with no awe or curiosity whatsoever, only a resigned grin. She stopped and folded her arms across her chest. “A pony, for a wedding present?”

    A smile touched his wide mouth. “Carrington liked him when we went riding.” His accent was a little more pronounced than it had been in the wine cellar, melting into the hot-tar drawl you mostly heard in small towns or trailer parks. “Figured you already have everything you need, so I got a little something for your sister.”

    “Do you know what it costs to stable that ‘little something’?” Liberty asked without heat.

    “I’ll take him back if you want me to.”

    “You know Carrington would never forgive us. You’ve put my husband in a difficult position, Hardy.”

    His smile turned gently mocking. “You know how I hate to hear that.”

    Hardy.

    I turned my face away and closed my eyes sickly, just for a second. Shit. Just . . . shit. Not only had I kissed someone other than my boyfriend, he also happened to be an enemy of the family. My brother’s worst enemy, who had deliberately ruined a huge biofuel deal that had meant a lot to Gage personally and professionally.

    From what little I knew, Hardy Cates had once been in love with Liberty, but he’d left her and broken her heart, and now he’d come back to make trouble. That kind always did.

    It was humiliating to realize that he hadn’t been attracted to me at all, that his proposition in the wine cellar had been designed as another strike against the Travises. Hardy Cates wanted to embarrass the family, and he had no problem using me to do it.

    “Haven,” Liberty said, “this is an old friend of mine. Hardy Cates, this is my sister-in-law, Haven Travis.”

    “Miss Travis,” he said softly.

    I braced myself to look at him. His eyes were an astonishing blue-upon-blue in his sun-cured complexion. Although he was expressionless, I noticed the tiny laugh lines that whisked outward from the corners of those eyes. He extended a hand, but I couldn’t take it. I was actually afraid of what might happen, how I might feel, if I touched him again.

    Smiling at my hesitation, Hardy spoke to Liberty while his gaze remained locked on mine. “Your sister-in-law’s a mite skittish, Liberty.”

    “If you’re here to make a scene — ” she began calmly.

    His gaze moved to her. “No, ma’am. Just wanted to give you my best wishes.”

    Something softened in her face, and she reached out to clasp his hand briefly. “Thank you.”

    A new voice entered the conversation. “Hey, there.” It was my brother Jack, looking relaxed. But there was a glint in his hard black eyes that silently warned of trouble to come. “Mr. Cates. I’ve been told you weren’t included on the guest list. So I have to ask you to leave.”

    Hardy gave him a measuring glance.

    In the silence that followed, I went tense in every muscle, praying silently that a fistfight wouldn’t break out at Gage’s wedding. Glancing at Liberty, I saw she had mined pale. I thought vengefully that Hardy Gates was a selfish bastard, turning up at her wedding like that.

    “No problem,” Hardy said with soft insolence. “I got what I came for.”

    “Let me show you out,” Jack said.

    Liberty and I both let out our breaths as they departed. “I hope he’s gone before Gage sees him,” Liberty said.

    “Believe me, Jack will make sure of that.” Now I understood why she had chosen my brother over that rascal. “Cates is obviously a guy on the make,” I said. “He could probably sell butter to a cow.”

    “Hardy’s ambitious,” Liberty admitted. “But he came from nothing. If you knew some of the things he had to overcome . . . ” She sighed. “I bet within a year, he’ll marry some River Oaks debutante who’ll help take him to the top.”

    “He’d need a lot of money for that. We River Oaks