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the room.
    Although she’d awakened to the sun rising often over the last two years, this one was different. It was as though it was embracing her, filling her with a “newness” that she hadn’t felt in a long time.
    She shook her head at her flightof fancy, but the smile on her face lingered as she stretched her back.
    For once it didn’t scream at her in pain. The muscles weren’t tensed up as they usually were from a night spent on a bed that was either thin as paper or so lumpy it felt as though she’d slept on a bed of rocks all night.
    Raising her arms above her head, she released a long, satisfying breath.
    The bed she’d been sleepingon for the past week was queen-size with a thick, plush mattress, pulling a deep sigh of bliss from her lips.
    She’d almost forgotten what it felt like to live decently.
    No loud neighbors wakened her, either from cries of passion heard through the thin walls or screams and fighting, either. Nothing stopped her from getting a full eight hours of sleep. Not even her own mind.
    After a week of thistype of living, she knew she could get used to it.
    The thought brought her eyes wide open and caused the smile to slip from her face. That kind of thinking was what she had to avoid.
    Getting too comfortable in one place was something she couldn’t afford to do. With a sigh, she placed her hands on the side of her and pushed herself into an upright position.
    She’d used the alarm to wake her,realizing after the first three nights the ease with which she’d slept, surprised when her personal inner alarm allowed her to sleep past dawn, was both surprising and disturbing.
    Her glance slid over the room.
    She spied her baseball bat across the room, propped up against the wall. She’d even forgotten to place it near her as she’d gone to sleep last night.
    She flipped her feet over the sideof the bed androse. “Girl, you’re getting soft,” she murmured aloud to herself.
    Althea headed toward the small, brightly lit kitchen to make tea, her bare feet sinking into the thick carpet, her mind on the changes in her life over the short time she’d lived at the ranch.
    She’d been relieved when, after hiring her, the brothers had informed her she’d be staying in the guest cottage. It wasclose enough that the walk to the main house was only ten minutes but far enough way that she had a semblance of privacy.
    It was an eclectic yet beautiful blending of rustic and contemporary design. Although no larger than fifteen hundred square feet, the open floor plan maximized the space, making full use of the living area and giving the cottage a larger feel.
    The bedroom was sectioned offby five large floor-to-ceiling wood posts, and in the center of the room the queen sleigh-style bed was the focal point, its rich deep mahogany wood and scrolled etching unlike anything Althea had seen before.
    In one corner was a stone-covered fireplace, similar to the one in the living area although slightly smaller, flanked by an antique-looking cheval mirror and Victorian-era chair that completedthe furnishings.
    There was a distinctly feminine touch to the room, making Althea wonder if a woman had had something to do with the decorating. Immediately she discounted the thought. With the way Nate Wilde had reacted to her, she doubted any woman, save Lilly, ever set foot in the cottage. At least not if he had anything to say about it.
    The man obviously had issues.
    As she walked throughthe cottage on her way to the kitchen, she glanced around the main living area. Although more rustic…masculine, in design, it too had a hint of softness, with its oversize furniture and ornately carved tables. As in the bedroom, there was a stone-covered fireplace, with a large, plush chocolate-brown rug set in front of it.
    Althea paused, then walked over to the fireplace. Hunching down, sheran her hand over the soft pile, her fingers sinking deep into the