Millionaire on Her Doorstep Read Free Page A

had to be Maureen York, then he’d do his best to be a professional about it.
    â€œI can forget our first meeting if you can,” he said.
    She smelled like lilacs on a warm summer night, and before Adam could stop them, all sorts of questions about her were running through his mind.
    â€œHow generous of you,” she replied.
    A pent-up breath drained out of him. If his memory served him right, she’d told him she was divorced and that she’d worked as a geologist for nearly ten years. Other than that, he knew nothing about where she’d come from or how his father had managed to ferret her out of a long list of potential candidates for the job.
    â€œI’m trying to be,” he agreed.

    Maureen took another sip of coffee. “I, uh, the next day after the accident, I was on my way to the hospital to check on you, but an unexpected call forced me to turn around and head to the airport to catch a plane back to the States. I called the hospital later, and a nurse assured me you were going to be fine. I was glad.”
    Back in the hospital, Adam had told himself he didn’t care if Maureen York had the courtesy to see if he was going to live or die. But now...well, hell, he felt like he was fifteen instead of twenty-five. It was downright ridiculous how much better her explanation made him feel.
    â€œI have been...fine. Just hampered with a cast.” He forced himself to move away from her.
    At the corner of the desk, he picked up his coffee cup and carried it over to the glass wall. The pineand spruce-covered mountains spread in a panoramic view to the south. Reluctantly, he kept his eyes on their beauty rather than Maureen York’s.
    â€œWhat brought you here to Sanders Exploration?” he asked. “Six weeks ago, you obviously had a job with a good company.”
    Maureen was wondering the same thing herself. She hadn’t been unhappy with her former employers. Their headquarters were based in Houston and you couldn’t get any closer to the oil and gas industry than that. She’d been paid a top-notch salary and the people she worked with had been easy to deal with. But she’d been feeling stifled by the city. And though she hated to admit it, she’d had to face the fact that her life had grown stagnant. She wanted and needed a change. Still—if she’d had any idea this man was a
part of Sanders Exploration, she never would have agreed to hire on.
    â€œFor one thing, I wanted to get out of Houston. I didn’t dislike the city, but I was tired of living in an apartment and dealing with the fast pace. I want a house with a yard and trees.”
    He couldn’t stop his eyes from cutting over his shoulder at her. “Sounds like you want to settle down rather than gear up for work.”
    Squaring her shoulders, she walked around the desk and joined him at the windows. “I guess you could say I’d like to slow down. But not in the way you’re thinking.”
    His dark green eyes met her brown ones. “I didn’t know there was any other way for a...woman.”
    Her nostrils flared as she wondered why anything this man could say or think should matter to her. True, she would have to work with him, but she’d dealt with far worse. So why did she let his little innuendos fire her temper? It was silly.
    â€œYou might be interested to know that all of us women aren’t pining to get married. We can have a life without a man.”
    â€œReally? My mother thinks a woman has to be with a man and a man has to be with a woman before they can ever be truly happy.”
    Something about his voice, the way he talked about men and women made her feel as if she were a very young teenage girl just learning how it felt to be flirted with by a handsome boy. Yet Adam Sanders was far from being a boy, and she had long since passed the flirting teenage years.
    â€œYour mother must be a hopeless romantic,” she murmured, then turned