Oklahoma Moonshine (The McIntyre Men #1) (26 page)

“Ahem!”

Maya jumped and the stranger spun.

“Your cocoa is here,” Selene said, her mysterious silver eyes sliding from one of them to the other. She put the pot on the table, set a cup
beside it and tossed a Denver Broncos sweatshirt over the back of the chair. “It belongs to a friend of mine, so make sure I get it back.”

“Thanks,” the man said. He took the sweatshirt and pulled it on over his T-shirt, arms first then poked his head through and sat back down.

Selene stood there watching the two of them intently.

“That’ll be all, Selene,” Maya said.

Sighing, looking very deep in thought, Selene turned and left them.

“Selene, hm?” the stranger said. “Fits her.”

“You think?”

“Sure. Mystical. Lunar. Isn’t it the name of some Greek moon goddess or something?”

“Could have been. Mom used to read lots of mythology.”

“So?”

She blinked, saw him looking at her, and, finally, read his eyes. “Oh. Maya. My name is Maya Brand.”

His brows went up.

“As in the Earth Mother goddess,” she explained.

“And does it fit?”

“Oh, I’m a long way from being anyone’s mother. I’m still…I mean, I…” She bit her lip. “You haven’t
told me your name yet.”

He averted his eyes. “Caleb.”

“Just Caleb?” He didn’t answer.

Then she looked at her watch. “I have to go start the line dancing lesson.”

He met her eyes, held them. Then, slowly, he got to his feet. “That’s great. I’ve always wanted to learn line dancing.”

Oh, hell.

This was not good, whatever it was. She was waiting for a respectable man, with a position of authority. Someone so established that being his wife would
set her firmly into the midst of the “good people” of Big Falls and no one would ever think of brushing her off again. She didn’t want to
get involved with a dirt-poor drifter who couldn’t even afford a decent pair of boots. And especially not a man who was just passing through.

Above all else, Maya wanted a man she could depend on. A man who would be there for her, no matter what. One who would climb mountains, swim oceans, if
that was what it took to be there when she needed him. A man who would be as honest and loyal and true as…as some silver screen cowboy from days gone
by. What she
didn
’t
want was a drifter or a liar or a cheat. A man like her father, who had never once been around for her mother
when the chips were down. A man whose exploits had shamed his entire family so much they were still trying to live them down—even though he’d
been dead for over twenty years.

And yet
this
man—who was already hiding something, keeping some secret behind his blue, blue eyes, and who was obviously a drifter and poor
as a church mouse—this man was the one to come along and cause her circuits to overload. Go figure!

It must be physical attraction, she reasoned. Some chemical thing that she had no control over. But whatever it was, it was powerful. And its timing was
damn near uncanny. Especially when she’d only just tonight been bemoaning the fact that she was a year from thirty and still a virgin. Untouched.
Untempted…until now. Now she was extremely tempted to forget her morals and her ethics and her goals in life for one brief fling with a man whose
eyes told her clearly he would be willing to oblige.

She’d never been so powerfully drawn to a man in her life.

Or maybe it was just the beer.

New York Times bestselling author Maggie Shayne has published more than 60 novels and 23 novellas. She has written for 7 publishers and 2 soap operas, has racked up 15 Rita Award nominations and actually, finally, won the damn thing in 2005.

Maggie lives in a beautiful, century old, happily haunted farmhouse named “Serenity” in the wildest wilds of Cortland County, NY, with her husband and soul mate, Lance. They share a pair of English Mastiffs, Dozer & Daisy, and a little English Bulldog, Niblet, and the wise guardian and guru of them all, the feline Glory, who keeps the dogs firmly in their places. Maggie’s a Wiccan high priestess (legal clergy even) and an avid follower of the Law of Attraction

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