The Rebel Tycoon Returns. Katherine Garbera

      “I remember you cheering me on to many touchdowns.”

      “I sure did. My squad was the best … That sure was a long time ago. I thought the sun rose and fell on Royal and that the rest of the world was missing out on something,” she said.

      “Did you ever leave?” he asked, and realized aside from the accident he didn’t really know much more about the “new” Macy.

      “No. I like it here. I guess I’m just a small-town Texas girl at heart. I probably seem a little unsophisticated for the likes of you now that you’re a city slicker.”

      “No one would ever call you unsophisticated,” Chris said. He thought that Macy hadn’t left Royal because she hadn’t needed to. She had always been part of the upper crust and she’d had more opportunities than he’d had.

      “Well, I do read all the fashion magazines,” she said with a slight flush.

      “And shop at the big stores?” he asked.

      “Not recently. I … I really haven’t left the house much,” she said, putting a hand up when he would have interrupted. “I’m not saying that to make you feel sorry for me. I just read Vogue and Cosmo and InStyle and dreamed of a time when I’d look in the mirror again.”

      He reached over and took her hand. Holding it in his bigger one. He stroked his thumb over her knuckles as a wave of strong emotion washed over him. Macy wasn’t putting up any barriers between them. He was getting the real woman and that made him want to protect her. To make sure that the vulnerable woman who was slowly rediscovering herself had the chance to grow. And he knew he would have to tread carefully with Harrison because he didn’t want Macy’s father to be an obstacle between Macy and him as he had been in the past.

      “Surely you don’t have those doubts after today,” Chris said.

      “I … I wish it were that easy, Chris, but to be honest, a part of me is still afraid of seeing the scars when I look in the mirror. Not sure I believe the reflection I saw was real.”

      He reached up and stroked her cheek, though he knew better than to let this go too far in public. There was something fragile … almost broken … about Macy and he couldn’t let it go. No matter that she’d broken his heart in the past, he saw that she was a different woman now. “Let me tell you what I see.”

      She nodded and held her breath, her pretty white teeth biting her lower lip as he stared at her face. And he wondered how bad her scars had been before the plastic surgery. He’d never met anyone who’d been in a life-threatening accident before.

      He traced the high line of her cheekbone over her smooth alabaster skin. Her eyebrows were dark blond. “I see skin like the palest marble, so pretty and smooth.”

      He moved his finger over her lips. They were full and plump, utterly kissable, and he longed to taste her again. “I see a mouth so pink and delectable it’s all I can do to resist kissing you.”

      He rubbed his finger over the line of her jaw. “This strong jaw tells me that you still haven’t lost the stubbornness that’s always been a part of you.”

      She gave him a little half smile. He ran his finger over the arch of her eyebrows—first one then the other. “These pretty green eyes watch me with a combination of weariness and curiosity. I don’t want to disappoint you.”

      She captured his hand and held it to her cheek. “Thank you, Chris.”

      He knew whatever else happened between the two of them that he wasn’t leaving Royal until Macy was the beautiful flirt she used to be. Confident of herself and her ability to attract every man in the area—especially him.