“Yeah. Thanks.”

  “Oh, my pleasure, bro.” Ethan stressed every word making sure the pleasantries were dripping with sarcasm that even his clueless brother couldn’t miss.

  Wyatt moved closer and reached for Eva’s glass.

  Scowling, Ethan filled the fresh glass he’d just flipped over for her before lifting his own again.

  “Look. Ethan, I’m willing to move past this—“

  “You’re willing to move past this?” Ethan let out a bitter but hearty laugh. “That’s generous of you—considering you’re completely wrong, you asshole.”

  Eva, looking satisfied, and Olivia, looking horrified, appeared in the doorway. To give himself something to do with his hands that didn’t involve punching Wyatt, Ethan picked up the glass and carried it over to Eva.

  “Thanks. You got this?” she asked.

  “How about I start and you finish?” he suggested. He knew himself. He wasn’t going to be able to be in the same room as Wyatt for long.

  She nodded. “Sounds good.”

  He was liking this woman more the more he got to know her. And definitely more than he liked his brother.

  Turning back, he stalked toward Wyatt, crowding the man as he bumped into him as he reached for the glass.

  “What’s going on?” Olivia asked, moving further into the room.

  “You didn’t tell her yet?” Ethan looked to Eva.

  “Didn’t have a chance. Something…came up,” Eva hedged.

  He’d worry about that mystery later. Rejoicing in being the one to expose Wyatt’s idiocy, he said, “Your boyfriend accused Poppy of stealing the corporate square ass’s presentation verbatim even though she and I have been working on hers together for days.”

  “What?” Olivia asked in a tone a good octave higher than her usual speaking voice.

  “Yup.” Eva nodded. “She’s devastated. I half expect to find her packed when I get back to Rosie’s.”

  “Wyatt!” Olivia spun on him.

  Wyatt looked from her to Ethan and shook his head. “This is work. It’s not personal.”

  Ethan was having trouble believing that. It sure felt personal to him.

  “Forget about blind trust, Wyatt. I’m not even asking for that. I’m asking you to look at the damn facts. Those are Poppy’s ideas and mine that we researched and worked on together. Hell, we even took a fucking field trip. She worked damn hard. You should have seen her damn color coordinated notes. Markers and sticky notes of every color in the rainbow…” Ethan’s eyes widened as he realized something.

  He had proof. Visual proof of all the work they’d done that even Wyatt couldn’t dispute.

  After slamming his glass down on the table with a thud, he dug his cell out of his pocket.

  “I have proof, you mother fucker.” His hands shook as he poked at the screen and finally got to the photos app.

  He turned the cell to face Wyatt.

  “This is the day I took her to the two wineries by the lake to convince her not to have a snooty wine class inside the hotel with some expert but to instead bring the guests to the vineyards for the full wine making experience. Hell, call Luca. He’ll vouch for me. I got him to agree to let us bus hotel guests in for the harvest. And he agreed to set up a tasting game for corporate events based on the tests they give their employees during training.”

  Ethan flipped to the next picture.

  “This is Poppy at the haunted schoolhouse. I made her go inside because we were putting it on the ghost tours for October.”

  The next picture showed the papers she’d hung in her office.

  “These are her notes. Her ideas. Hers. Not CEPS.”

  He thrust the cell at Wyatt and waited for him to take it.

  “Zoom in. Yeah, that first column has CEPS’s ideas in it. But just the barebones ideas from the brochure they left on her desk. We barely used any of them. And the ones we did use, we changed completely. Look at the next three columns. Hers. Mine. Yours.”

  Wyatt’s mouth remained clamped shut. Ethan didn’t know if he was more grateful or annoyed by his brother’s lack of response. But as long as his mouth was closed, he might as well take advantage of it. Bombard him with more evidence of their innocence.

  “Honey month idea came to her when I was at the Wilder dropping off the rest of last year’s jars for the gift shop to sell. Rhododendron month was my idea. I told her about the festival in North Carolina. Boot camp was my idea too. Ask Linc when he gets here. I talked to him days ago about what exercises from when he was in boot camp we could adapt for team building. So were the trail rides for guests and having the corporate assholes muck the stalls for a team exercise—mainly because I thought it would be amusing.”

  Ethan shook his head as Wyatt remained expressionless.

  “I can tell you the origin and evolution of every one of those ideas that CEPS submitted as their own just hours before Poppy submitted hers to you. Can Monty do that? Huh? I’ll tell you. No. He can’t. Because he and Caroline stole them from us.”

  “Caroline?” Olivia asked. “Your ex Caroline?”

  Ethan shot a glance at his brother. “Didn’t tell her, huh?” He let out a short laugh and mumbled, “Coward.”

  “It slipped my mind.” Wyatt looked most unhappy as he glanced at Olivia. “Yes. She works for CEPs now. I didn’t know until she arrived.”

  Busted. He was going to be in trouble later. Good.

  Not one to show emotions in public—or in the family living room—Wyatt ignored the Olivia and Caroline issue and turned back to Ethan.

  “How would they have stolen Poppy’s presentation?” Wyatt asked, his tone filled with doubt.

  “Easy,” Eva said, taking a step forward. “I could do it in no time. In fact, if you’d like me to, I’ll log into Wilder’s corporate WiFi and access their accounts and prove it.”

  Eva’s offer elicited a flicker of a reaction from the stone-faced Wyatt. “That won’t be necessary.”

  “Suit yourself.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t mean I won’t do it on my own,” she finished with a mumbled threat that had Ethan almost smiling.

  Wyatt let out a big breath and handed the cell back to Ethan. “I believe you.”

  “Do you? Really?” Ethan asked.

  “Yes. You’re right. Poppy wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t need to do that. And all the ideas had a level of local detail that even Caroline, after working here for a year, wouldn’t have known since she rarely left the hotel. She certainly wasn’t taking trail rides or going to rodeos.”

  “You need to say all that to Poppy,” Eva said. “She’s devastated.

  “I know. And I will. I’m sorry, Ethan. And I’ll apologize to Poppy.”

  “And use her ideas for the Wilder event calendar and send CEPS packing?” Ethan asked, confident that was exactly what would happen now that Wyatt believed the truth.

  His brother drew in a breath. “I wish I could.”

  Ethan frowned. “Wait. What do you mean?”

  “I already signed the contract with CEPS and gave them a deposit. They’re the new event planners for the Wilder.”

  What the fuck? “So you’re firing Poppy?” He glared.

  “No. That was never the plan. Poppy will work with them.”

  Ethan might not be a genius but even he knew that wasn’t going to fly. She was too upset. Too proud. By the look on Wyatt’s face, not to mention Eva’s and Olivia’s, no body else believed Poppy would accept that situation either.

  And then she’d leave. Leave Bitter End and him.

  He needed to prevent that from happening. Now. Before, like Eva said, Poppy packed, loaded up that Jeep of hers and drove out of his life forever.

  Losing his appetite, at least for food but not for Poppy, he said, “Uh, Olivia. I’m sorry. I’m going to miss dinner. I forgot I have to do something.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The hard quick knocking had turned to pounding by the time she’d paused the movie and untangled herself from the blanket she’d burrowed under for comfort.

  “Poppy!” The shout, accompanied by continued pounding hard enough to have the paintings on the wall jumping, came before she’d had a chance to slide her feet into the fuzzy slippers she’d kicked off earlier.

  “Hang on!” she yelled as she sidled between the sofa and the coffee table, and then skirted around the end table, flipping on the lamp there on her way to the door.

  Jeez. This unwelcome interruption to her self wallowing and her feel-good movie was bad enough without him making such a ruckus.

  Anyone downstairs in Rosie’s could probably hear him too. It was hard enough to maintain any modicum of privacy in Bitter End without the locals wondering why Ethan Wilder was bellowing outside her door.

  She yanked the door open to find him bracing both hands on the doorframe. He looked wild-eyed. Crazed.

  He let out a whoosh of breath that visibly deflated his body. “I thought you’d left.”

  She pulled her mouth to one side. “It would serve your brother right if I did.” She was starting to feel more mad than sad over the whole messed up situation. It was a welcome shift.

  Turning away, she shuffled her way back to the sofa, trusting he’d come in and close the door. Or not. She couldn’t seem to rally the energy to care. After pulling the blanket over her legs, she reached for her glass on the table and said, “If you want wine, there’s another glass in the cabinet.

  Since they only had one cabinet, she didn’t have to explain further.

  He glanced around, looking calmer than he had before. Good. She didn’t have the energy to deal with some man-meltdown. “You know, your managerial position at the Wilder entitles you to on site housing. You don’t have to live here.”

  “One, I want to live here. And two, what managerial position?”

  If Wyatt didn’t fire her, she was quitting. And where she lived in Bitter End didn’t matter because she wasn’t staying here either. Summer in the Hamptons was looking better now than it had a week ago. Even a day ago.

  Ethan spun one of the wooden dining chairs around and sat straddling it, facing her. “Wyatt believes you.”

  A part of her leapt at that information, letting hope creep in. “Oh really? Why now?”

  “I remembered I had pictures of our field trips. And of our notes in your office.”

  “So it took irrefutable evidence to convince him I wasn’t a thief and a liar?” She snorted. “Lovely.”

  “I know. My brother’s a little slow sometimes. But he apologizes. Sincerely. He’ll do it in person tomorrow. He’s just got his hands full tonight.”

  “Why is that?” she asked.

  Ethan bobbed his head to the side. “Olivia was looking pretty unhappy with him when I left.”

  Good. She managed to not say that aloud, even with as grateful as she was that Livvie had taken her side. Friends over Wilders, always. It was how they’d begun their friendship.

  “Not just about how he fucked up things at work with you,” Ethan continued. “But she’s pissed he never told her his ex was back at the Wilder.”

  “That was stupid of him,” she mumbled, grumpy to be missing their usual weekly dinner at the Wilder manse with her friends. Not to mention Livvie’s good home cooking.

  Stupid Wilder men ruined everything. First Emmett. Now Wyatt.

  Ethan nodded. “Agreed.”

  His siding with her didn’t negate the fact he was one of those Wilder men, but she’d put up with him tonight since she was running short on allies and company.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Yes?”

  “You’re not going to quit over this, are you?”

  She shrugged. “I guess it depends how good Wyatt’s apology is.”

  Maybe she could stay, if he groveled. New York was too far away from Eva and Livvie. Her heart hurt already just thinking about being separated from them.

  “I’m going to tell you something because I don’t trust my brother to handle it the right way. And I really don’t want you leaving.”

  “All right.”

  “He already signed a contract with the sepsis asshole to run the Wilder events. He can’t get out of it.”

  She widened her eyes. “Even though they’re thieves?”

  “I guess without proof they stole your presentation, he can’t break the contract.”

  Her whole body shook. Her heart pounded so hard her pulse was the only thing she could hear as Ethan sat next to her.

  “But Wyatt wants you to work with them as the Wilder liaison. Nothing else would change with your position.”

  “No. No way. I can’t do it.”

  “You can,” he insisted.

  “I don’t even want to go back in to clean out my office. How the hell can I go in everyday and work with them?” She shook her head. “No. I’m done.”

  “Poppy. Don’t let them win.” He grabbed her hands in his. “Stay. Please.”

  His eyes focused on hers. His blue gaze was intense and filled with raw emotion instead of the usual merriment. This wasn’t the Ethan she’d known since coming here. The cowboy who slid through life with a joke and a wink. This was a man who felt deeply. Cared deeply.

  And the way he looked at her now, it was easy to believe he cared about her. But after what had happened with Wyatt at the Wilder, she couldn’t stay. How could she? Her wounded pride wouldn’t allow it.

  She shook her head but he didn’t let her speak. He pressed her face between his palms.

  “Please. Stay.” Leaning close, he was only inches from her. Close enough she felt the warmth of his breath brush her lips.

  “Ethan—“

  “Stay. For me.” His gaze held hers as he spoke.

  They’d somehow gotten closer which made it seem almost inevitable that his mouth, just a breath away, would eventually brush against hers.

  The impact of that kiss shot through her like an electrical current. Sparking. Awakening parts of her she’d shut down. She’d been tenuous about dating and sex before Emmett. Too many fake friends liked her name and her money more than her, boys included. It had been one reason she’d started online dating. Anonymity. Emmett’s scam had ended that.

  Betrayal was not an aphrodisiac. Although, it seemed Ethan Wilder was.

  The fluttering in her chest was surpassed by the clenching between her legs as suddenly she wanted nothing more than to be filled by this man. The thought shocked her.

  He was the man she’d sworn off for a myriad of reasons. Yet here she was angling her head and spreading her lips to allow him access to the recesses of her mouth. Spreading her legs too as he balanced on one knee between her thighs and moved over her.

  Before she knew it, she’d tipped backward, putting her on the sofa and him on her.

  She could have told him to stop. He would have if she asked. She had no doubt of that. But she didn’t want to ask. And she didn’t want him to stop.

  His hand on her stomach beneath her shirt, he broke the kiss to glance down at her. He slid just his fingertips beneath the elastic waist of her lounging pants. Then he moved that hand a little further, and she felt the heat of his touch lower.

  “This okay?” he asked.

  Swallowing, she nodded. That was all he needed to cover the rest of the distance.

  She gasped, jerking against his hand at first touch. He mumbled an obscenity softly before setting to work pleasing her. Zeroing in on the spot that had her eyes slamming shut and her mouth opening on a stuttering breath.

  Ethan had her crying out, her hips bucking, in seconds.

  It took less than a minute for her to be in the throes of the most intense orgasm she’d ever experienced. One that lasted longer and rocked her harder than in all of her years.

  The college boys she’d been with had never accomplished this. But then Ethan was no boy. He was a man. One with experience. Lots of it if she had to guess. And right now, she was happy for it. Grateful for every girl he did this with in the back of the barn or the cab of his truck or in the hay loft or wherever cowboys had all their sex.

  She was struggling to breathe when she finally came down from the climax and he eased his hand away from ground zero.

  With his head down braced against her torso as his hands wrapped around her waist he mumbled more words she didn’t hear. His arms shaking as he braced above her, he finally raised his head and she could see his face. His nostrils flared as he drew in quick breaths. Those blue eyes were narrow as he looked at her from beneath heavy lids.

  “You want to move to the bed?” she asked.

  His eyes flew wide at that and he scrambled to get his boots on the floor. “Yes.”

  He reached down and pulled her upright until she stood on shaky legs.

  Glancing at the bed he said, “You and Eva share that one bed?”

  “Get any lesbian fantasies you might have out of your head. I sleep on the open up sofa.”

  “So that’s Eva’s bed?” he asked, resisting as she tried to tug him toward it.

  “Yes. So?”

  “So she’ll kill me if she finds out I was in her bed doing—anything.” He actually did look scared.

  She supposed she couldn’t blame him. Eva did have a big bark. And possibly a big bite to match. “We can unfold the sofa bed—”

  “Come here. I have an idea.”

  She was airborne in seconds and soon laid out on the dining table like a virgin sacrifice. An appropriate comparison even though Ethan didn’t know it yet.

  “I want to see you. All of you.” He reached for her shirt. “Can I?”

  Barely able to speak, she managed to say, “Yes.”

  An intensity of concentration she wasn’t used to seeing in Ethan appeared as he began to strip away the clothing she’d happily hid behind until now, baring her to him, body and soul.

  And so it began, her finally giving in and succumbing to Ethan Wilder’s charms.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Working with horses his entire life had taught Ethan a few things. Patience being one of them. How to have a gentle hand, another. He had a feeling he was going to need both to make sure Poppy didn’t bolt because a lifetime of admiring women had taught him something else—they could change their mind on a dime.