CHRISTMAS AT THE CARDWELL RANCH by B.J. Daniels Page B

thrown her into a tailspin. She’d felt all the hurt and betrayal and a part of her had wanted to forget—and possibly even the score.
    Lily laid her head on her arms on the table. She knew it had been a lot more than just escape or getting even with Gerald. She’d wanted Tag. Wanted him in a way she hadn’t even been able to imagine. He was everything Gerald wasn’t. She’d known instinctively that their lovemaking would be nothing like what she’d known with her former fiancé.
    “Boy howdy,” she said, repeating an expression she’d picked up from Tag. As she heard Tag come out of the bedroom, she lifted her head and pushed away those embarrassing thoughts. She hated lying to him. Fortunately Tag had remembered just enough with the pills she’d given him to think he’d dreamed their wanton night of passion. Best leave it that way since it was never happening again.
    The thought gave her a dull ache at her center.
    What made her angry with herself aside from lying to Tag was that she felt as if she’d cheated on Gerald. She knew that made no sense. She owed him nothing—less than nothing. But she also knew that he wouldn’t have come all the way from California and driven up to her house in a blizzard last night if he wasn’t planning on asking her to take him back.
    She told herself that she and Gerald belonged together. They were perfect for each other. Both math nerds, they had their careers in common. Last night had just been one of those crazy things that never happened to a woman like her.
    Lily convinced herself that she would put it behind her. Gerald was her future. She would forgive him and they would get married—just as it was meant to be.
    She quickly straightened as Tag came into the room. But she kept her eyes on the computer screen even though she’d memorized the letters there since she’d looked at them so many times. Remembering she’d said she would pour Tag a cup of coffee, she jumped up and bumped into the edge of the table.
    Her coffee sloshed over onto some of the papers. She lunged for them and, off balance, stumbled into Tag—the very last thing she wanted to do.
    * * *
    “E ASY ,” T AG SAID as he caught her.
    “I was going to get your coffee,” Lily said, more nervous than he’d ever seen her.
    “I can get my own coffee. Are you all right?” Holding her like this, he could feel her soft, full curves. He recognized every one of them, he thought with a start. His imagination was great, but not this good. Something had happened last night. But why would she lie?
    Because you let her think you couldn’t remember, you damned fool .
    She pulled away as if realizing he was remembering last night. Or was he still deluding himself? She turned her back to him as she poured his coffee. He could see that her hands were shaking.
    Tag wanted to call her on her lie, but when she turned back to him, he saw the glow in her cheeks. Could she be embarrassed about last night? She’d definitely let her hair down, so to speak. How innocent was this woman? Surely there were other men besides dull Gerald.
    “Thank you,” he said as he took the coffee cup she offered him. Lily was clearly rattled. Maybe she regretted last night and really was embarrassed.
    What was it she had said? “Do I seem like the kind of woman who would fall into bed with a man I hardly know?”
    “So, what’s this about a code?” he asked, and took a sip of his coffee. He saw Lily’s instant relief as she hurriedly sat back down at the computer. He could see where she had been writing a series of numbers and letters on scratch paper.
    “After I came back here, I began to play with the letters. I know they appear to be random, but I don’t think they are,” she said, eyes bright. She clearly loved this stuff. “They appear to be part of a code. Julius Caesar invented one like it nearly two thousand years ago. He was invading countries to increase the size of the Roman Empire and he needed a way to communicate