Mornings happened early for Daphne Evans. She always hit the gym before going to the office. The four o’clock CrossFit class helped burn off the extra nerves and energy and even the calories from anything that might have happened the day before. She enjoyed the combination of weight training and cardio that made up her daily workout. Rowing until her shoulders were screaming in protest was therapeutic. And knowing that she could dead lift almost two hundred pounds was validating. It absolutely washed away the comments made by faux attractive twenty-one-year-olds who insisted on calling Daphne short and ugly.

By the time she walked into work in her low heels, slacks, and flattering fitted black blazer, she was ready to take on the day and get something done. Her hair was still wet from the shower, and she had put it up into a spiky knot on top of her head. Her makeup was minimal, and she felt like a million bucks. Of course, that was until she noticed that Laredo Hernandez was her first appointment of the day.

“Who put this on my schedule?” Daphne turned around and glared at the two secretaries sitting just outside her office.

Not that either of those formidable ladies gave a shit what Daphne thought about her schedule. Both Phyllis and Ruth had been at the firm longer than Daphne had been alive. They sometimes acted like mothers instead of secretaries or administrative assistants. And if you called them administrative assistants to their faces, they both rolled their eyes and told her they didn’t want anything to do with that “PC crap,” which was absolutely hilarious when you considered that was what the Abernathy Firm did.

Phyllis leaned in Daphne’s door. “He requested you personally, honey. Sorry. I will say that Mr. Abernathy laughed himself silly when he told me that though. I think he’s just glad not to have that fiasco dumped in his lap.”

“Fiasco is the least of it,” Daphne muttered.

The Hernandez family was notoriously difficult to deal with, mostly because of ego. The rest of the problem came from the fact that the family patriarch—Joe Hernandez—should have been put out to pasture years ago. He was a gender-biased public relations nightmare who generally did more damage to the company image by opening his mouth than his plethora of sons did with their constant drinking and carousing around Denver.

“So, what are you going to do about them?” Phyllis asked the question as though she were genuinely curious. The woman leaned her ample hip against the doorjamb and crossed her arms over her bosom. “They’re quite the bunch, you know. I hear they’ve gotten themselves into a real pickle with this whole private war against the Flying W.”

“Why does the city of Denver care about this crap?” Daphne wondered out loud. “Seriously. Why do we care? Why do we let these old ranching families remain in the upper rungs of our polite society? They are all a bunch of pushy drunks!”

“That’s harsh.”

The words did not come from Phyllis. In fact, Phyllis leaped out of the way as Laredo Hernandez came striding through the doorway of Daphne’s office. Phyllis hustled back to her seat a few feet away, and that pretty much left Daphne to deal with the man helping himself to the coffee pot on her credenza.

“And for the record,” Laredo Hernandez continued, “I quit drinking almost two months ago.”

“All right, then.” Daphne refused to be intimidated. She crossed her arms over her chest. “That makes one out of five.”

“Cal doesn’t drink either.” Laredo gestured at her with his coffee cup. “That would be two out of five. And Darren really doesn’t drink much. He’s careful. Self-medication and all that, you know? So, we’ll call that three out of five. And actually”—Laredo’s expression grew thoughtful—“you cannot possibly fault my brother Cisco with overindulging in drink or carousing. The man is a well-respected lawyer.”

“You’ve made your point!” Daphne growled. “Can we get on with this?”

“No.” Laredo glanced at his watch.

About that time, Daphne heard Phyllis give a girlish squeal of surprise that did not sound anything like the woman’s normal no-nonsense behavior. Moments later, a hand grabbed the doorjamb. Then a body appeared. The musculature on that body made it seem like it had come straight from the sculptor’s studio. Then a battered black cowboy hat appeared, and Daphne had a horrible feeling she was experiencing the worst sort of déjà vu.

“Ah,” Laredo said, obviously amused. “Now we can begin. The brother with the drinking problem has appeared.”

“And this is what we need to continue a discussion about how to improve your family and company image?” Daphne tried to control her voice but found it nearly impossible not to freak out. “You bring a drunk into my office and expect me to fix something?”

“Oh, hey.” The drunk Hernandez brother looked up at her from underneath his hat. He finally managed to stand straight up. When he arched his back, the popping sound was almost painful to experience secondhand. Then he gave her a lazy smile she would have remembered anywhere. “I remember you.”

“You remember her?” Laredo raised his eyebrows at his brother. “From where?”

“This is the woman!”

“The woman?” Laredo’s brow knit together and then cleared abruptly. He gestured to Daphne. “Wait. The woman? From the bar? Daphne is your pretty one?”

“Excuse me, gentlemen,” Daphne said drily. “I do not appreciate being talked about as though I’m not here.”

“Sorry.” Laredo waved his hand dismissively at her. “We’re not trying to be rude. I just have difficulty imagining you in the role of this particular woman that Met is referring to.”

“It was you at the bar!” “Drunk Cowboy” was gesturing emphatically to Daphne. What had Laredo called him? Met? What kind of a name was Met? “You stepped out of the way, and I got punched in the face. Remember?”

Oh God. How could she forget? She’d been trying to forget for twenty-four hours or more, but it seemed to be impossible. Even while three sheets to the wind, this cowboy had been one of the most attractive men she’d come across in a long time. Like underwear ad attractive. And now she had “drunk cowboy” in her office and she was supposedly going to make him respectable. Or something.

“None of this is productive,” Laredo said, waving his coffee in the air before taking a drink. “Let’s talk about fixing the whole Hernandez family image problem. Shall we?”

“You’re joking, right?” Daphne could only hope this was a joke. There was the remotest possibility that someone was going to pop into her office and tell her that they’d played a horrendous prank on her and that she was not really tasked with making this family seem respectable.

“Nope.” Laredo was beaming. It looked strange. She’d never actually seen him smile before. The guy had approached her boss about four years back with a request to change their company image from traditional ranch to that of an up-and-coming real estate and livestock producing firm. Laredo was a hard-nosed man who never smiled. What was happening? He looked almost congenial. “I’m not joking. I’m dead serious. And now that we’ve gotten that out of the way. Can we just get on with it?”

Daphne did not like this feeling. She hated being off-balance. She wanted to be in control at all times. She wanted to know what was going on and how best to handle any given situation. This did not feel like one of those times. She was stranded in the ocean without a life vest or any hope of rescue. At this point, there wasn’t even a sinking ship to climb onto!

“I’m sorry.” Daphne spread her hands before her. “I understand that there are negative rumors floating around town about your family and your business practices. We’ve been keeping abreast of those rumors because it is our job as your public relations firm. I will say that none of these lies—at least I hope they are lies—have actually hurt your stats for the quarter. Your real estate offices are seeing a big boom, which is typical of the housing and land markets at this time. None of your agents have reported any kind of backlash or customer comments regarding these rumors, and we have surveyed them all in the last week or two via e-mail for just this purpose.”

“Thank you.” Laredo gave her a nod. “I very much appreciate your keeping up with things. But we need to focus on the livestock contract at the moment.”

Daphne didn’t know a damn thing about livestock. She didn’t know anything about buying it, selling it, or even what went into the practice of—well, she just didn’t know anything about it! What was he suggesting? “Mr. Hernandez, I would not be able to tell you the first thing about proving your stock is the best—er—stock for the job.”

The snicker from “drunk cowboy” did not make her feel any happier about the direction this meeting was going. The ass was smirking at her as though he were having trouble not bursting into laughter right there in her office. Not just laughing. More like wrapping his arms around his belly until he gasped for lack of air while he cackled at her.

Of course, this was not actually true. It was more a figment of her insecurities. Daphne knew her own baggage too well to be taken in by something that was happening in her head and simply being exacerbated by a situation she did not like or feel comfortable in.

Laredo was nodding though. It seemed as if he understood her dilemma at least. Good. Maybe he would leave. No. No. He was now pointing to his brother. “This is why I want you working with Met.”

“I’m sorry.” Daphne looked at “Met.” “What kind of a name is that? Did your parents just run out of names?”

“Demetrio,” the man supplied. “And no. They didn’t run out of names. It was my great-grandfather’s name.”

“Oh. Sorry.” She actually felt kind of bad for poking at him. That had been more for her own pride than anything else. Ugh! It was like this guy brought out the worst in her or something.

“Not a big deal.” Met flashed a smile at Daphne that nearly stopped her heart. Those eyes were so very intense that she could not look away.

Laredo cleared his throat. Daphne jumped and ripped her gaze away. She studied the folder on her desktop and wondered how she could make these men go away. That wasn’t good. She did not typically turn down requests from established customers, especially not when her boss had specifically asked her for something.

“Ms. Evans,” Laredo said graciously. “I realize that you are not well versed in livestock. Met is. He is also a former rodeo rider. This contract revolves around rodeo stock. We need some interviews with good magazines. Not just the typical stockmen’s magazines. We need some newspapers across the state. Some human interest stories. Something. We need people to start looking favorably on our family. You know? That’s what will put some of these rumors to rest.”

“That isn’t going to fix it,” Daphne blurted out. “Captain Paul Weatherby of the Denver Police Department has been speaking very badly about you all.”

“We’re aware.” Laredo’s tone was grim. “Believe me, this is not the only angle we’re working. Is that clear? We’re doing our level best to combat that line of bullshit from an entirely different quarter.”

“Right.” Daphne had a feeling that she didn’t want to know the particulars of that operation. These people were so unorthodox it made her head spin. “So, all you need from our firm is some media exposure?”

“Yes.” Laredo seemed very certain.

Daphne felt her anxiety level begin to decrease drastically. This was doable. She could manage this kind of damage control without too much trouble. A couple of phone calls and it would all be over. She would never have to look into this man’s cerulean blue eyes again.

Cerulean? What the hell was wrong with her? She was waxing poetic about the eye color of a man who had pestered her all night at her favorite bar because he wanted attention and she wouldn’t give it.

“He has to be sober,” Daphne said quickly.

“What?” Both Met and Laredo looked alarmed. That was not a good sign.

Daphne put her hands on her hips. “The reputation of our firm is at stake here too, gentlemen. I am not calling favors and getting you human interest pieces written in the top magazines and publications in Colorado and Southern Wyoming if I’m going to be showing up with a drunk, slobbering, spitting, stinking cowboy in tow.”

Both brothers drew back, but it was Met who finally spoke to Laredo. “Man, that is a lot of hostility. Right?”

“No doubt,” Laredo agreed. “I think you need to agree to no slobbering, spitting, or stinking.”

“No drinking!” Daphne put as much emphasis on that one word as possible. “Why on earth do you need to drink twenty-four seven anyway? I get going out and carousing with your friends or getting drunk so you can attempt to get laid. I might not approve of that behavior, but I get it. The drinking all day long thing does not make sense to me. Who wants to be fuzzy headed all day?”

Met’s face was utterly expressionless. He drew his lower lip between his teeth, and she watched in complete fascination as he bit down. His lips were so pliable. What would they feel like if she lifted her fingers to his mouth and gently slid them over that firm surface?

Dammit! She was getting totally distracted again. This was not good. Then Met nodded his head slowly. “If it means that much to you, I’ll be sober.”

“It means that much,” Daphne said quietly.

Laredo grunted. “Then it’s settled. You’ll be in touch when you have some things lined up?”

“I have to do some research first, but then, yes, I will be in touch.” Daphne wished she could have wormed out of this. Maybe she could delegate it. She was a busy woman after all. She could find someone else to shuttle this grumpy cowboy around to his interview appointments.

The two brothers turned to leave her office. Laredo nodded his head. “Thank you for meeting with us on such short notice, Ms. Evans. It’s very much appreciated.”

That was when Daphne realized that nobody had ever answered her question about why a man would want to be fuzzy headed all day. “Mr. Hernandez! I’m sorry, but neither of you mentioned a reason why you would want to be fuzzy headed all day long.”

“Pain.”

The word came from Met. It was a simply stated and very casual answer. Somehow, the implications behind it were anything but. The cowboy tipped his hat and left her office. Daphne stood there a long time watching them walk down the hallway until the elevator at the end of the hallway swallowed them up and they were gone.