Heir Untamed - By Danielle Bourdon Page 0,82

than she knew.

“If that's true, Dare, you might as well send the little photographer home and forget about any designs of courtship.”

“No. This time, Mattias, I will at least give myself a shot to see if I can have something close to normal with Chey.”

Chey straightened and took two steps back from the edge of the doorway. She'd heard all she needed to hear. More than she ever meant to hear, too. It was time to escape back to her room and think hard about her decision to stay or go. The obstacles in her path were many and great, and there was every indication she would wind up the one with a broken heart.

Pivoting on a heel, she came face to face with Natalia.

. . .

“Do you make it a habit to eavesdrop on private conversations, Miss Sinclair?” Natalia asked, raising the volume to be heard half way down the hall in both directions.

Chey gasped first, then cringed. There was no way Mattias and Sander could miss Natalia's announcement. How, exactly, would she defend herself this time? To say she hadn't been doing what Natalia accused her of doing would be an outright lie.

A shuffle and shift of muscle under material indicated Mattias and Sander had entered the hallway.

Natalia, tumbler in hand, swirled the amber liquid in the glass before taking a drink. “Brothers, look what I've discovered lurking outside your door. And you actually entertained the idea of courting this bitch, Dare? You can't be serious.”

“Watch your mouth, Natalia,” Sander warned.

Chey turned to face Mattias and Sander. “She's right. I was listening.”

Mattias wore a vague frown. Sander's expression was curiously neutral. Chey knew better than to think he was unmoved by her eavesdropping.

“I don't have to watch my mouth, Dare. This is blasphemy. She's unfit to even consider dating, much less anything else. An American? Really?” Natalia broke into a shrill, disbelieving laugh.

Chey twitched with anger. Natalia's condescending glance made her want to cold cock the woman.

“Mattias.” Sander said his brother's name in a way that sounded like another warning.

Mattias thinned his lips and looked from Chey to his sister. Stepping across the short distance, he grasped Natalia's elbow and firmly guided her away from Sander and Chey.

“Hey, hey! I wasn't done. Doesn't Dare want to hear that I plan to tell mother everything?” Natalia called back.

Mattias muttered threateningly under his voice in their own language.

Natalia had no other choice than to go with Mattias. She threw more threats out as she went, some in her native tongue, others in English.

Stricken by the entire ordeal, Chey looked away from the pair to the floor at her feet, then aside and up to Sander. He was watching her with the same unreadable look he'd had when he came out of the sitting room.

“I didn't know anyone was in the room. I was just looking at all the portraits,” she said in her own defense, gesturing to the long line of paintings down the hall. It didn't explain why she'd lingered to listen, and she knew it.

Sander raised his glass and drained what liquor remained. At first, he said nothing. Finally, he asked, “Do you have feelings for him? Now is not the time to lie.”

“No. I care about his well being, yes, and I think we're friends. We get along well and he did not lie that there has been an attraction between us. But it was never what you and I have. At first, I didn't like you at all,” she confessed in her typical blunt way. “But after you fixed lunch that day, and then with the canoe trip—I got to see a different side of you than the man who tackled me off the mare.”

His lids lowered to cover half his eyes. The corner of his mouth ticked like he briefly fought off a smile. “And?”

Chey brushed away an errant strand of hair from her cheek. She maintained eye contact with him. “And then I looked forward to seeing you. Thought of ways to visit the cabin and spend more time there. And if I'm being really honest, I thought the dress Mattias sent for that disastrous dinner with your family had been sent by you and expected to see you standing there when I opened the door. He caught me off guard and I didn't know how to say no after all that. I would have much rather spent the evening with you.”

Sander laughed and took two steps closer. “See, that's what I like about