Cowboys 08 - Luke by Leigh Greenwood Read Free Book Online Page A

you. I needed to take your measurements for a dress." "I have plenty of dresses."
    "None that won't give you heat stroke." He looked at her as if noticing for the first time that she was practically naked. "If you're going to stand here winding yourself up like a corkscrew, you might as well put something on." A knock sounded on the door. "That'll be your breakfast," Luke said. He picked up a sheet from the floor. "Wrap this around you. I don't want the cook to drop the tray."
    "No one is allowed in my bedroom until my maid has finished dressing me."
    "You'll have to get over that," Luke said as he crossed the room and opened the door. "There won't be much privacy on the trail."
    Looking as stunned as Valeria felt, the chef entered the room, his gaze glued to the floor. Pants under a nightshirt indicated he'd been yanked out of bed and thrust directly into the kitchen.
    "You've got one hour to dress, eat, and pack everything you mean to take," Luke said.
    "It will take me longer than that to dress."
    She felt pinned to the wall by Luke's gaze. "You leave this room in an hour with or without clothes on your back. What you haven't packed stays behind."
    "Where are you going?" she demanded when he turned and walked through the open doorway.
    "To see that the rest of the lazy fools in your entourage haven't gone to sleep standing up."
    Valeria fought off the stupor that threatened to swallow her. "I will not be hauled around like a sack of turnips. You're fired."
    Luke crossed the room in the space of a single breath, his face, taut and angry, only inches from Valeria's. "We played that game once. Now you've got me whether you want me or not."
    "I don't want you," Valeria said.
    But she spoke to ambient air. Luke had left the room. She heard the sound of his boots on the stairs.
    For a moment no one moved. Valeria felt weak, powerless. The chef stared at his feet, the breakfast tray still in his grasp. Elvira might as well have been a statue. She hadn't moved-or breathed, as far as Valeria could tellwhile Luke had been in the room.
    Then the enormity of what had happened swept over her. Luke had invaded her bedchamber, stripped the covers from her, and dragged her from the bed in her nightgown. He'd emptied half her wardrobe and strewn her clothes over the floor. But worst of all, he'd put his hands all over her as though he was studying the conformation of a horse he was about to buy. She checked the desire to hurl damning epithets down the stairs after him. She stifled the yearning to scream in helpless frustration.
    "Don't stand there like a dolt," she snapped at Elvira. "Everything must be ready in an hour. Everything."
    Elvira shuddered and came to life. "I locked the door," she said. "I don't know how he got in."
    "There's nothing we can do about that now," Valeria said. "Just start packing."
    "But you're not dressed."
    "Forget me. My possessions are more important. All I have in the world-everything that can make life bearable in this wilderness-is with me. I don't want to leave any of it behind. Put that tray down," she said to the chef. "Find Otto and Hans and send them to me immediately."
    "You can't see them dressed like that," Elvira protested.
    "Luke has seen me like this," Valeria snapped. "Nothing can be worse than that."
    But by the time Hans arrived, she had put on a dress and gotten the worst tangles out of her hair. She didn't look like a royal princess, but she wasn't half naked.
    Hans looked as though he been dragged out of bed, aimed at his clothes, and thrust into the hall.
    "I'm terribly sorry, your highness. I never-"
    "What's done is done," Valeria said, cutting off his almost tearful apology. "I want you and Otto to make sure everything I brought is packed in one of the wagons and ready to go."
    "The wagons are loaded," Hans said. "We're waiting only for your personal belongings."
    Valeria didn't understand. Her possessions filled several train cars.
    "He had men working all night," Hans said. "He said