Page 24 of Stranded with a Bossy Rancher

I search her eyes, looking for an indication of what she’s about to tell me. “What is it?”

“I don’t want to leave you.”

“Good. Because I’m going to do everything I can to make you want to stay. I want forever with you, Cammy, and even then won’t be long enough.”

She leans down and kisses my chest before putting her cheek right over my heart. Yeah, forever won’t be long enough.

CHAPTER 12

CAMILLE

After beingin bed for three days, I know I need to get up. I lift my head and look around the room, waiting to see if Elliott is going to be around to stop me. I literally haven’t been out of this bedroom in three days. I’ve showered, but that’s it. Elliott has brought all my meals here to eat, and he’s had to run out on the ranch to help Matt and the others, but before he goes, he does everything in his power to exhaust me so I do nothing but sleep while he’s gone. Well, it’s time I get up and get back to work.

It’s finally stopped raining. I can no longer hear the ping of the rain hitting on the roof, and thank goodness because I wasn’t sure how much more rain we could handle.

I’m just stepping out of bed when the bedroom door opens. “What do you think you’re doing?”

I don’t even worry about hiding my body. He’s seen, touched and licked every crevice, so it’s futile to hide from him now. “I’m getting up to go to work. I’ve slacked off enough.”

He sets a tray on one side of the bed. “Slacking off? That’s not what I’d call what we’ve been doing.”

I slap my hand to my leg. “Well, you know what I mean. I need to work.”

He gestures to the food on the tray. “Come eat first. I want to show you something.”

I laugh. “Oh I know what you want to show me.”

He grins, and I can’t help but smile back. In the last three days, we’ve become closer and more relaxed with each other. He grabs the newspaper off the tray and holds it up. “I was wanting to show you this. But I can show youthatlater if you want.”

As soon as I see the name of the paper, my stomach starts to recoil. I jut my chin at him. “I don’t want to hear anything they have to say.”

He tilts his head to the side. “Do you trust me?”

I nod, and he gestures to the bed. “All right, have a seat. Eat some toast, drink some decaf, and let me read to you.”

I move slowly to the bed and sit down, pulling the cover up over my body. Elliott lies across the bed with the paper in his hands and stares up at me. With my arms crossed over my chest, I nod at him. “Well, go ahead.”

He laughs. “Eat first.”

I start to eat, and after a few bites, he opens the paper and starts to read.

“It’s true. Elliott Barnett is off the market.”

He pauses and looks at me, and a smile starts to form on my face. Okay, so far so good. And just as quickly, I frown, wondering if somewhere in the article it’s going to call me a homewrecker. “Go on,” I tell him.

He continues to read. “We got it straight from the source. That’s right, Mr. Elliott Barnett, millionaire rancher, agreed to an interview, and we got the scoop. The lovely woman on his arm in the picture is Camille Trotter….”

He continues to read, and it talks about how we met and he hired me from the Feed Haven because he had to get close to me. It’s all the truth, but it’s how it happened through Elliott’s eyes instead of any of the negatives.

“And when asked if there are wedding bells in the future, Mr. Barnett says absolutely. We’re excited to bring our son or daughter into the world and we’re concentrating on that right now but as soon as I think she’ll say yes, that’s the first question I’ll ask her.”

He waves his hand across the paper. “And it goes on to talk about the history of the ranch and Maddie’s going to be excited because it mentions her and Rhett’s whirlwind romance too.”

I push the tray of food to the side and lean up. “You just told the world you plan on marrying me.”

He smiles and nods. “I told you that these last few days if you’ve been listening.”

I put my hand over my belly. “And you claimed my child.”

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