Free Millionaire on Her Doorstep by Stella Bagwell Page A

Forget he’d kissed her with a hunger that still had the power to burn her memory.
    â€œNeither do I,” she agreed. “And you’re right. We have to—make sure last night never repeats itself.”
    An agreeable woman had never annoyed Adam before. But hearing Maureen calmly allow that the two of them should never lay their hands on one another again was not exactly good for his ego. Or any other part of him.
    â€œGood,” he finally managed to say. “I’m glad we’ve got this all settled.”
    In Maureen’s mind, nothing was settled, but during the past ten years, she’d gotten good at pretending and hiding her true feelings. She had to do it now.
    â€œNow, about well fifty-five,” she said, determined to get back to business. “If you think my decision is
wrong, just say so. I’ll be glad to go over the report again. But I won’t promise it will change my opinion.”
    He leaned over and gathered up the papers Maureen had carefully laid out for him to see. Once he had them all back inside the manila folder, he said, “That won’t be necessary. I’m going to tell Dad to pull the plug.”
    Maureen’s mouth fell open as her eyes searched his face. “But you—you were just arguing.” Her mouth snapped shut and she shook her head at him. “You were questioning my judgment.”
    A wry grin twisted his lips. “Not really. I just wanted to see if you were really sure of yourself. You are. So I’m satisfied.”
    She wanted to slap his face and kick his shins until he howled in pain. Instead, her expression turned icy. “I’m so glad you’re satisfied. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”
    Maureen didn’t wait for a reply—she just turned and walked away from him. She was at the filing cabinet, pretending to search for a folder, when she heard his footsteps leaving the room. Once the door closed behind him with a soft click, she sagged against the metal drawers and let out a long breath.
    Dealing with Adam Murdock Sanders was going to be much harder than she’d thought. Much harder.
    Â 
    â€œHave you eaten a bucket of nails or something?”
    Adam glanced up from the saddle he was cleaning. His twin sister, Anna, was striding up the alleyway of the horse barn, tugging a reluctant sorrel yearling behind her. At the moment, the animal’s ears lay pinned against his head, his nostrils were flared and
the whites of his eyes were showing. Apparently, his mood wasn’t any better than Adam’s.
    â€œI haven’t eaten anything since lunch. What’ve you done to him?” he asked, nodding toward the colt.
    â€œNothing yet. He just knows something is about to happen and he’s afraid he isn’t going to like it.”
    Adam knew the feeling. It hit him every time he walked into the same room with Maureen York. Not that he’d had any more confrontations with the woman. Quite the contrary, in fact. Not one cross word had passed between them. Whenever the two of them had anything to discuss, she was cool, polite and professional. He should be pleased about their newfound relationship, but in truth, he despised her indifference and his phony reaction to it.
    By now, Anna had reached his workplace, a little secluded area just off the tack room. Pausing, she gave her brother a puzzled frown. “What’s your problem?” Anna persisted.
    Adam turned his attention back to the saddle resting on the hitching rail. The task was mundane, but bringing the leather back to life was something he enjoyed. Especially when he was out of sorts and needed time to ponder things. For the past hour, he’d been asking himself why he’d not been content to be just a rancher. He loved the life. The outdoors, the livestock, the hard manual labor of it all. But something had driven him on to be an oilman just like his father. And he wondered what had driven