Free Playing for Keeps/A Tempting Stranger by Lori Copeland

jerked her hand away to spoon the grounds into the basket. As she plugged in the pot to perk she asked grudgingly, "Have you had breakfast?" If he

 

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was going to work for her, she was going to have to get along with him.
''Two hours ago."
"Oh." Jessica sat down opposite him at the table. "All right, then, what do we need to discuss?"
"First of all, I'm going to have to hire at least three more men to help run this farm."
Jessica yawned, laying her head down on the kitchen table. "That's all right with me," she said sleepily.
"SecondJessica, look at me when I'm talking."
Jessica turned bleary eyes toward Jason, her head still lying on the table. "Is this permissible, sir?"
Shaking his head tolerantly, he continued, "Second of all, I won't have room for three more men to live on my farm, so they will have to stay here."
Jessica's head raised slightly as she cocked one perfectly arched brow. "Here?"
"That's right. In fact, if you have no objections, I'm going to move three of my own men in, too. My bunkhouse is too crowded as it is now."
"You want me to live here in this house with six strange men?" Jessica gasped, coming wide awake now.
Jason laughed at the look of consternation on her drowsy face. "No, you'll be coming over to live at my house. Next I'll have to know how much working capital you have on handthere's some fence down in several areas"
" Wait a minute, Jason! " Jessica was wide awake now. "Let's back up to the part where. I come over to live at your house."
Jason looked at her blandly. "What about it?"
"You wouldn't care to humor me and elaborate on that just a hair more, would you?" She smiled with saccharine sweetness, her eyes darkening noticeably.
"Not at all. My housekeeper's sister has had to have major surgery and will need constant care for the next few months. Mrs. Perkins left last week and won't be back for

 

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several months at least.'' He stood to walk over to the coffeepot. "Now, if I have to run two farms, I certainly don't plan on taking the time to find a new housekeeper. So in essence, Jessica, if I'm going to do you a favor, you're going to do one for me."
"But, I'm paying you to run this farm," Jessica said hotly, not liking his logic one bit.
"All right. I'll pay you to run my house," Jason said simply.
Jessica sat staring mutinously at his broad back. What a mess! How could Uncle Fred and Aunt Rainey have done this to her, she asked herself again for the hundredth time. "I don't like it," Jessica told him, getting up to get herself a cup of the freshly brewed coffee.
"Take it or leave it," Jason said indifferently.
"Would you still run the farm if I refused?" she asked hopefully.
"No."
Jessica slumped dejectedly back down in her chair. "Then, I guess I'll take it," she said glumly.
"I thought you'd see it that way," Jason said, sitting back down at the table. "You get your things packed today, and I'll pick you up later this evening and take you over to the house."
"This soon? Why can't we wait for a few days?" Jessica gasped.
"I want to make the change as soon as possible," Jason told her sternly. "As soon as these living arrangements are settled, I can get on with my work."
"I thought you didn't want me around, or to be involved with me in any way, Jason," Jessica reminded him spitefully.
"I don't. But as you pointed out, we are two reasonable adults, and this is too good a proposition to pass up. Ten thousand dollars is a lot of 'mad money,' Angel!"
Jessica felt a stabbing pain of discomfort. Well, what had she expected? She had known all along he was doing

 

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it for the money. Then why did she feel such crushing disappointment?
Rising to his feet once again, Jason reached for her, pulling her up out of her chair. Slipping his arms around her waist, he tipped his head and studied her oval, pixie face in the early-morning sunshine streaming through the kitchen window. Jessica's blood began to pulse hotly through her veins as the faint smell of his aftershave