“Sure,” Bett agreed, and added demurely, “sir.” She did like a dominating man. And in the meantime, knowing that Grady had a penchant for long-winded conversations, she figured she could at least get the bills opened and the house in livable order before Zach came in.

“I mean it,” Zach said roughly.

She kissed him on the cheek. Grady packed his pipe a mile a minute. After a moment, the two men strode off toward the shop in the barn. Bett stood for just a minute longer in the yard, surrounded by fading sunlight and the dust of an impossibly hot day.

The huge old barn cast gray shadows on the yellow farmyard. Every muscle in her body ached from weariness, yet Bett’s mind was on the semi due in after dinner to load up their peaches from the morning’s pick. Only Zach looked tired. Overtired.

Scolding him would do no good at all. Seducing him directly after dinner might-yes, a nice, totally degenerate, wanton, explosive interlude of lovemaking should do the trick. She could guarantee that Zach would fall asleep afterward. Then she could load the truck by herself and finish up the rest of the next day’s work preparations. He’d never even know.

The plan was excellent. Bett nodded approvingly and headed for the house. She was hotter than an iron, her feet were killing her, and the nape of her neck was prickly under the weight of her shoulder-length hair. But handling her difficult-to-manage husband took priority over her own physical discomforts.

They took care of each other. They had that kind of marriage. Zach was her strength, her laughter, her entire definition of love. There were times when it took every ounce of imagination she had to subtly keep him in his place. Next to her.

Chapter 2

Bett slipped out of her work boots and her socks at the door, wiggled her toes and padded barefoot on the cool terra-cotta floor toward the kitchen. Ignoring a disgraceful layer of dust and casual clutter, her eyes swept over the rest of the downstairs en route, loving it. Their underground house was in the shape of a half-moon, and except for the structural dome and the glass, she and Zach had built it all themselves last winter.