Free An Outrageous Proposal by Maureen Child Page A

couldn’t have sat
still for that long. Instead, she took the shortcut. Straight across a sunlit
pasture so green it hurt her eyes to look at it. Stone fences rambled across the
fields, and she was forced to scramble over them to go on her way.
    Normally, she loved this walk. On the right was the round tower
that stood near an ancient cemetery on Ronan’s land. To her left was Lough Mask,
a wide lake fringed by more trees swaying in the wind. In the distance, she
heard the whisper of the ocean and the low grumbling of a farmer’s tractor. The
sky above was a brilliant blue, and the wind that flew at her carried the chill
of the sea.
    Georgia was too furious to feel the cold.
    Her steps were quick, and she kept her gaze focused on her
target. The roof of Sean’s manor house was just visible above the tips of the
trees, and she headed there with a steely determination.
    She crossed the field, walked into the wood and only then
remembered Sean saying something about the faeries and how they might snatch her
away.
    “Well, I’d like to see them try it today,” she murmured.
    Georgia came out of the thick stand of trees at the edge of
Sean’s driveway. A wide gravel drive swung in a graceful arch in front of the
stone-and-timber manor. Leaded windows glinted in the sunlight. As she neared
the house, Sean stepped out and walked to meet her. He was wearing black slacks,
a cream-colored sweater and a black jacket. His dark hair ruffled in the wind,
and his hands were tucked into his pockets.
    “Georgia!” He grinned at her. “I was going to stop to see you
on my way to hospital to check in on my mother.”
    She pushed her tangled hair back from her face and stomped the
dew and grass from her knee-high black boots. She wore her favorite, dark green
sweater dress, and the wind flipped the hem around her knees. She had one short
flash that for something this big, she should have worn something better than a
dress she’d had for five years. But then, she wasn’t really getting engaged, was
she? It was a joke. A pretense.
    Just like her first marriage had been.
    “Are you all right?” he asked, his smile fading as he really
looked at her. Walking closer, he pulled his hands from his pockets and reached
out to take hold of her shoulders.
    “Really not.” Georgia took a deep breath of the cold Irish air
and willed it to settle some of the roaring heat she
still felt inside. It didn’t work.
    “What’s wrong then?”
    There was real concern on his face and for that, she was
grateful. Sean was exactly who he claimed to be. There was no hidden agenda with
him. There were no secrets. He wouldn’t cheat on a woman and sneak out of town
with every cent she owned. It wouldn’t even occur to him. She could admire that
about him since she had already survived the man who was the exact opposite of
Sean Connolly.
    That thought brought her right back to the reason for her mad
rush across the open field.
    “You offered me a deal yesterday,” she said.
    “I did.”
    “Now I’ve got one for you.”
    Sean released her, but didn’t step back. His gaze was still
fixed on her and concern was still etched on his face. “All right then, let’s
hear it.”
    “I don’t even know where to start,” she said suddenly, then
blurted out, “I just got an email from my cousin Misty. The woman my ex-husband
ran off with.”
    “Ah.” He nodded as if he could understand now why she was so
upset.
    “Actually, the email was an e-vite to their wedding. ”
    His jaw dropped, and she could have kissed him for that alone.
That he would get it, right away, no explanation
necessary, meant more to Georgia than she could have said.
    “She sent you an e-vite?” He snorted a laugh, then noted her
scowl and sobered up fast. “Bloody rude.”
    “You think?” Shaking her head, Georgia started pacing back and
forth on the gravel drive, hearing the grinding noise of the pebbles beneath her
boots. “First, that she’s tacky enough to use e-vites as