Purebred Read Free Page A

loved you, Jack, I can’t remember. You drove any good feelings out of me long ago.”
    “Is that your excuse—?”
    “I need no excuse for anything where you’re concerned. You lost the right to my good will when you took up with that…” She wanted to say that bimbo, but she bit it back since the other woman’s father was still a good client. “…woman.”
    “You mean my fiancée.”
    “Now you’re marrying her?”
    “Of course I am. I can’t live without her. We’re getting married as soon as possible.”
    The snide note in her ex-husband’s tone rankled. Though they’d lived apart for the better part of a year, more than half as long as they’d been together, the divorce had only been finalized a few weeks before. To her shock, she’d been summoned back from her buying trip in Ireland for a final court date. Jack hadn’t been able to wait to openly be with Simone Bradley.
    Simone obviously didn’t see Jack for the cheater and liar that he really was. He was good, really good, at fooling people. Women. Her. Undoubtedly Jack considered Simone a step up and had somehow convinced the young woman that he’d been the injured party in the marriage.
    “As soon as possible?” Cat asked, unable to keep the sarcasm from her voice. “Is it because she’s pregnant?”
    “Would you be jealous if she was?”
    “No, although I’m sure you would like that. The only blessing in our marriage is that I never brought a poor child into this world.”
    “Another reason I left you.”
    Cat swallowed hard and didn’t respond. She wouldn’t let him see how it bothered her. At thirty, she was completely aware of her biological clock. Being a breeder made her doubly aware of the irony of not conceiving herself. When Cat had learned of Jack’s affair, she’d felt like a fool, and had tried to see the positive side of not having children. Betrayed by the man she’d loved, Cat had not only thrown his ring back at him but his name, as well. She’d since done her best to get Jack Murray out of her life forever.
    But here he was again, on her doorstep.
    What would he demand of her this time?
    “I have work to do. Whatever it is, make it fast.”
    “I hear you’re backing an Irish colt, bringing him here to race, paying the entry fees. Thousands upon thousands of dollars.”
    “Which is none of your business.”
    “That’s big bucks. Obviously, you were hiding assets.”
    “I’m not the liar here, Jack. You are.”
    “Give me my cut and I won’t take you back to court.” Jack’s demand was muted by the sound of another vehicle pulling up.
    Cat looked past him to see her horse trailer being driven in by Raul Ayala, one of her workers. The Irish colt in question had arrived. Why now of all times? She’d waited anxiously for the two weeks it had taken to run blood tests to make sure the colt was healthy, then days while he’d been quarantined in New York. Ironic that Jack had to ruin his highly anticipated arrival…just as he’d ruined so many things for her.
    Jack looked, too, and then grinned at her. “Maybe I should talk to your new partner—”
    “Jack, just get off my property. Now!”
    “You can’t kick me out, Cat. If I give Martin the word, he’ll pull his broodmares and stallion from your barn, and where will that leave you?”
    Cat gaped. He might be able to do it, too, since apparently he was going to be Martin Bradley’s son-in-law.
    “It might be worth it to get you out of my life once and for all!”
    Although it might break her financially. And she’d always gotten along with Martin, if not with his daughter Simone.
    Aidan McKenna jumped out of the passenger seat of the truck, and with a terse nod at her, went around back to check on the colt. Her stomach clenched. She didn’t want him embroiled in the middle of her troubles with her ex-husband. Not a pretty way to start a business partnership.
    “I see George hasn’t returned,” Jack noted, as if he hadn’t just dropped a bomb