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He glanced down at her, and a roar of laughter erupted from him. “I weigh twice as much as you do, not to mention six inches taller.”

“So? I’m a model; I can make anything work.” Biting at her lower lip, she looked up at him, catching his gaze and pleading with her eyes.

“Aren’t you worried about my
special
cream, getting all in the fibers?”

He shot a cocky grin at her. She refused to allow him to embarrass her, which was no doubt his intention. Instead she allowed her eyes to roam over him, from the top of his head straight down to his toes and back up again. “Nope. Not really.”

He frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means either you take me to Walmart or I raid your closet.” She couldn’t believe she was begging to buy Walmart clothing.
Funny how life can change in the matter of twenty-four hours,
she mused.

“Fine.”

She breathed a loud sigh of relief. At least something was going her way.

~*~*~*~*~

“You know, you’re buying clothes to live on a farm. Is it really necessary to spend,” he glanced down at his watch, “over an hour flipping through racks?”

Samantha looked up from the rack of jeans she was flipping through, planted a hand on her hip and rolled her eyes at him. “Look, I’m doing my best to work with what’s here.” She grabbed a random pair of jeans and button-down blouse from the rack and held it up to herself. “This isn’t my style. And this is just a small Walmart, not even a big one.”

“It is now.”

“I’m not going to look good.” She looked down at the outfit in her hands.

“And who exactly are you planning on looking good for?”

She supposed that was a reasonable question. Who indeed? Taking her eyes off of the outfit, she met his gaze. Certainly not for Connor, right? He was sexy, in a rugged sort of way and had a certain amount of charm, she’d give him that. An arrogant asshole, yes, but maybe it was only a matter of getting to know him? She huffed at herself. As if.

“No one, but just because you don’t have anyone to look good for doesn’t give a person the excuse to not look good for themselves.”

He motioned to her shoes and then to her handbag. “Your beauty doesn’t come from thousand-dollar shoes, or Gucci handbags.”

“Beauty is only skin deep,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“No. You’ve got the gift of being naturally beautiful. You don’t need expensive clothing to compete with what you’ve been blessed with already. It’s like trying to trick out a Lamborghini. Anything added only makes it look like you’re trying too hard and cheapens the beauty that’s already there.”

Samantha wasn’t sure what to say to that. She certainly didn’t expect a compliment from the man who’d been calling her
Princess
with condescension in his tone for hours.

“So how about you just grab some of these t-shirts and tank tops, and some of these Levis and let’s go have some supper before heading back.” She watched in amusement as he randomly selected from a pile of graphic t-shirts, featuring characters such as Batman, Pokemon and others.

“Graphic tees, seriously?”

“Seriously,” he confirmed, tossing them into the cart along with several pairs of jeans. “Follow me.”

She followed him through the store and into the shoe section.

“What size?” he asked, his hand hovering between sizes seven and eight, of pairs of blue canvas sneakers.

“Eight.” She wasn’t even going to bother arguing; there was no point.

He grabbed a pair of sneakers and then ugly yellow work boots. She followed him around the store for another half hour before they made their way to the checkout. She began unloading the cart while Connor walked over to the cashier.

“Hey, Connor.” Samantha’s ears perked up at the tone in the cashier’s voice. It was a flirty “I wanna fuck you” tone. She didn’t like it.

Lifting her gaze, she continued to unload the cart as she watched the woman behind the counter. The girl was pretty, short, with a blonde pixie-style hairdo. And she had a wide smile on her lips, her blue eyes gleaming with excitement at seeing Connor standing before her.

“Gina, how’ve you been?”

Samantha’s eyes focused on Connor. He had a big goofy grin on his face and seemed to be enjoying the attention he was receiving from the cashier. Were they dating? Had they dated? For some odd reason, the idea bothered her. Putting the last item on the conveyer belt she pulled the cart behind her and went to stand next to Connor, closer than she normally would.

“You two know each other?” She looked from Gina, who was scanning and bagging items, to Connor and back again.

She could see a flush colouring Gina’s face as Gina stopped scanning and bagging to look up at Connor and smiled.

“We went to high school together,” Connor informed her.

“Yeah, he was my high school sweetheart.” Her grin widened and Samantha had to force herself from rolling her eyes.

Kill me now
, she groaned inwardly.

“But then he decided to move away to the big city and left us small-town folks.”

She cocked a brow up at him. “The big city?”

Connor cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “Yeah, well. That’s the past. I’m home now, happily living the rural life.”

“He’s been a hermit. Won’t even go to the barn dances.”

Samantha feigned outrage. “You’re kidding! Not a single one!”

Gina shook her head. “Nope and not for a lack of me trying. As you can imagine there’s a serious shortage of bachelors in this area.”

“That’s crazy. When’s this barn dance?”

“Every Saturday night, no exception, at the MacMillian farm. There’s one tomorrow night.”

“We’ll go,” she said, tilting her face up to eye Connor. “Ain’t that right Connor? We’d
love
to go.”

“You know, I don’t think…”

She gave him a little playful hip bump. “What else better do we have to do tomorrow night?”

He gave her a warning glare. She ignored it.

“Come on. I’ve always wanted to go to a real live barn dance, it’s totally on my bucket list.”

~*~*~*~*~

He’d been avoiding social events since he moved back a few years ago. He really didn’t have an interest in dating, or meeting someone. And what Gina was saying was true, there was a serious shortage of bachelors there. Most single men moved on; there wasn’t much to offer men with ambitions beyond being a farmer or working at one of the shops in town.

Seeing the mischievous twinkle in her eyes, he knew she was just making fun and it was pissing him off. It was bad enough she was treating his employees and friends like servants, but now the locals were fair game as well? Alas, she had him backed into a corner. He had no choice but to give in and hope the hell she’d behave herself at the dance and not make a complete mockery of it.

He looked from Samantha to Gina’s hopeful stare and back to Samantha.

“Please Connor. Take me to the barn dance. What else do we have to do tomorrow night, stay home and play dominoes?”

Her tone was dripping of sarcasm and it was seriously pissing him off. He looked over at Gina and was relieved to see it didn’t appear she caught on. He gritted his teeth and forced a smile onto his lips. “Fine. We’ll go.”

“Wow, I can’t believe you’ve convinced him to go,” Gina gushed, “I’ve been trying to convince him to go since he got back.”

Samantha wrapped her arms around his waist and gave him a quick side hug. “Oh, I just adore this guy. He goes out of his way to make me happy.” She motioned to the bags of clothing. “He even took me clothes shopping! How cool is that?”

Gina’s eyes caught his and she smiled. “I know, he’s a great catch.”

He really wanted to wring Samantha’s little neck, right then and there. He was just grateful Gina didn’t know what she was really like, otherwise she’d realize Samantha was simply making fun and her feelings would be hurt. Gina had always been a sweet, soft-hearted woman, she didn’t deserve to be mocked.

Did Samantha have no feelings or regard for anyone?

After paying Gina, they quickly said their goodbyes and he grabbed Samantha’s arm rougher than necessary, making her yelp, but he didn’t care. He rushed her from the store before she could make any more of a scene.

“What the hell was that all about Samantha?” he snarled, releasing her arm as soon as they left the store.

She huffed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, Connor. I was just having a little fun, don’t be a buzzkill. No harm, no foul.”

“That was rude whether she realized you were being sarcastic or not. If you can’t conduct yourself properly in public then consider yourself banned to the farm until your time with me is up.”

They reached the Jeep and he opened the back and began to unload the cart into the Jeep, throwing the bags into the back, attempting to keep his temper in check. “You know, what I said earlier about your natural beauty… I was mistaken. You do need the expensive shoes and handbags, you need all the fancy shit you can get your hands on to cover up the ugly within you, Samantha.”

She balked as if he’d slapped her, visibly shocked he’d say something mean to her. “She wasn’t offended. What’s the big deal?”

He shook his head at her. “You’re just not getting it. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to explain it to you. You’ve spent so much time on a pedestal with dozens of trust-fund half-wits worshipping you that you have no grasp on the real world. Or how to treat others.”

“That’s not fair, Connor.” He could see from her expression he’d hurt her. Chances are no one had ever spoken to her that way before.

“It’s not?” He slammed the back of the Jeep closed. “So you’re saying good people who work hard every day of their lives, trying to scrape together enough money to pay the energy bills and put food on their tables are lesser than you and your trust fund pals. So it’s unfair for me to speak the truth, because it might hurt your feelings?”

She lowered her gaze and shrugged. He almost felt bad for her. Almost. If he hadn’t been so angry with her, maybe he would have had enough remorse in him to pull her into his arms and apologize. It was a damned shame someone so beautiful had such a huge chip on her shoulder.

He sighed, thrusting a hand into his hair. “Get into the Jeep. We’re skipping going out for dinner, we’ll eat at home.”

Chapter 4

“I hate this fucking place,” Samantha groaned as she lowered her exhausted body into a warm bubble bath. She’d been pleasantly surprised to discover Connor actually had bubble bath. Connor had barely spoken a word to her the previous night after their blowout at the Jeep in the Walmart parking lot, spending the night avoiding her.

Today had been one demand after another and Connor hadn’t even had the decency to make the requests himself, instead it was his fifty-something assistant William who relayed the orders. At least William had been friendly enough.

“Shovel the shit Cinderella, clean the stalls Cinderella. Ugh.” Grabbing her bottle of shampoo she squirted a large pile into her hands and quickly lathered up her hair. Could she even possibly dream of getting the smell out of her hair? If Connor was trying to punish her and teach her a lesson over the previous day’
s behaviour then he could consider it lesson learned.

Closing her eyes, she sank down deep into the tub, relishing the feel of the hot water surrounding her. She was about to nod off when a knock sounded at the door. Startled she yelped, attempted to straighten up in the tub, slipped and went under. She came back up gasping and coughing on the mouthful of bath water she’d inhaled.

“You all right?” The door swung open to reveal Connor, worry etched in his expression.

Samantha’s eyes widened in horror as she screamed a second time, grabbed the shower curtain and pulled it across. “What the hell Connor! What are you doing walking in on me?” She pulled the curtain back just enough that she could poke her head out and glare at him.

“Shit. Ummm.” He thrust a hand into his dark hair and lowered his gaze. “Sorry. Sounded like you were having… difficulties.” His face began to turn red; it would have been amusing had she not been embarrassed herself.

“What kind of difficulties could I possibly have in a bathtub?”

“For your information ten percent of drownings are in the bathtub.”

“How do you even know that?”

“It was on the news a while back, stuck in my head.”

“Whatever. The only difficulties I’m having is the immense amount of pain in every muscle in my body, thanks for asking by the way.”

He kept his eyes averted, but she noticed a hint of a smile forming on his lips. “Well, we leave in an hour so I suggest you hurry with the bath and start getting ready.”

“Ready for what?”

He lifted his eyes to meet hers. “Geez, darlin’, the MacMillian farm. The barn dance you insisted we were going to, hence obligating us.”

“I wasn’t really serious. Why would I want to go to a barn dance?”

His smile faded and annoyance flared up in his eyes and she cringed. “You’re going, because you obligated us. I tried to get us out of it, but you insisted. There are consequences to your words and actions. This is one of them. The faster you learn that the easier life here will be. Maybe we’ll even begin to like each other.”

She huffed. “And if I refuse, it’s not like you can throw me over your shoulder and force me to go.”

“If you don’t go, tomorrow’s tasks will be worse than today’s. And remember no work, no money, no money, no way of getting home unless you decide to take to hitchhiking.”

Yeah, like that’s going to happen. And not one of my asshole friends stepped up to help me when they found out I was cut off. Not one!
And that hurt more than anything else. The people she partied with, spent her free time with, modelled with… None of them stepped up and offered her a place to stay until she worked things out with her parents and she’d be damned if she was going to ask. It made her realize one very painful fact, she had no real friends. She had people who hung with her because of who her parents were, acquaintances who used her, and that was all. She. Was. Alone.