Darius bit his tongue to keep from grinning as Nicole hoisted herself into the wagon. He managed to keep the smile contained until he stepped aside to allow Wellborn to assist his wife. The moment he turned his back on the little minx, however, he let it loose. She was making it awfully hard to keep up the disgruntled employer pretense that he'd started last night. He usually had no trouble being disgruntled around people, especially when he was trussed up in a jacket with ridiculously tight sleeves and a collar that made his neck itch. His bad temper was legendary in the Thornton household. 'Twas why his mother finally stopped forcing him to attend parties and why his father put him in charge of King Star's accounting records. Yet a few teasing comments from Nicole had him mighty close to whistling, for pity's sake. He actually liked the chit. Outside of his sister and mother, he couldn't remember ever actually liking a woman before. Oh, he'd been attracted to several and even admired a few, but he'd always felt pressured to put on an act for them, to cover up his flaws so they wouldn't see his true self. When the act became too tedious, he simply forfeited the chase. Without much regret. Nicole, however, had already seen his flaws. He'd paraded them before her since the moment she arrived for her interview. Yet instead of turning up her nose, she'd come to accept them as part of him, even teased him about them. It left him with no tedious act to maintain, only a growing hunger to learn more about her, to prove that he could accept her flaws, as well. Starting with that bullheaded stubbornness that kept her from asking for help.