Cowboy Rescue [Men for Hire 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read Free

loved the place anyway. It was hers, and after sharing a bedroom with her sister until she’d moved off to college where she’d shared first dorm rooms then apartments with various friends, she was happy to have a place of her own.
    But living alone hadn’t come about until recently. She’d tried sharing the place with a roommate to help with expenses, but once Sharron Watkins had accused her of stealing her boyfriend, that was the end of that. Sharron had moved out less than a month earlier, still owing last month’s rent. But Maria didn’t care. She’d paid Sharron’s part of the rent, then turned the second bedroom into an office. She loved living all alone. At least until the e-mails had started.
    Now she would’ve welcomed even Sharron’s blunt and sometimes hurtful way of talking and even the fact that she’d rarely bought food or cleaned the place. Having someone else with her would make her feel more secure.
    She drew in a breath then let it out as she typed. “You’re not outside. Where are you?”
    “Does that mean you’ll come to me? Will you meet me now?”
    Now she answered fast. “No.”
    “Ah. So you want me to come to you. In due time, my sweet. In due time.”
    She jerked her hands away from the keyboard. Will he take my refusal to come to meet him as another invitation to come to my home?
    “Maria. Ah, how I love the name, Maria. It is so much lovelier than Torrie.”
    “But the person you fell in love with is Torrie. I’m not Torrie. Nothing about me is like Torrie. She just used my photograph on a fake Friends Face page. She’s the woman you fell for.”
    “I know that now. But it doesn’t matter. Words are only words. Your beauty transcends everything else.”
    She’d been wrong to answer him, to try and find out about him. “But I don’t want to have anything to do with you. Please. Stop e-mailing me.”
    Her body grew stiff, her fingers aching with the need for him to leave her alone.
    “But why? We are having a wonderful discussion. I don’t ever want to stop.”
    “You don’t know me and I don’t want to know you.”
    When he didn’t answer for several minutes, she dared to hope that she’d finally gotten through to him.
    “I’m sorry, my sweet. But I love you. And, in time, you will learn to love me. I’ll make you love me.”
    Her hands shook as she typed. “You can’t make someone love you. Now leave me alone, or I’ll call the police.”
    “You already did.”
    She gasped. He knew she’d gone to the police? She sat back, her hands fisted in her lap. What do I do now?
    “Maria, I like the way you wore your hair today.”
    Her breath caught in her throat. She usually wore her hair tied back so she could lean over her students’ shoulders and check their work without it falling in her face. Today was one of the few days she’d worn it loose.
    “You’re watching me?” She’d paused before adding the question mark. After all, didn’t she already know the answer?
    “Of course I do. I watch you all the time. How could I not watch someone as captivating as you? I must say, you’re so good with children. Perhaps we can have one of our own someday. Or perhaps one of each? You’re going to be stunning carrying my child.”
    Her stomach did a sickening flip-flop. “Are you watching me now?”
    “Yes.”
    She let out a cry and pressed the back of her hand to her mouth.
    “How?”
    “I have my ways.”
    “You have to stop. You have to leave me alone. Don’t e-mail me again. Stay away from me.”
    “I can’t and I won’t, Maria. I’m coming for you soon. Once I do, we’ll be together forever.”
    She clicked the e-mail program closed, then moved as fast as she could to the purse on the kitchen counter. Digging through the contents, she searched for the card the woman had given her.
    “Please. I know I put it in here.” A whimper escaped her. “Find it, damn it.”
    She almost wept when her fingers found the small rectangular card and held it up.