Some Like It Ruthless (A Temporary Engagement) Read Free Page A

it has thumbs to rub those nickels together.”
    He muttered, “Tell me how you really feel, Empress.”
    Her eyes flashed, blue edging into the green, and he nearly crowed with delight. That old spitfire was still in there, ready to take his head off.
    He waited with baited breath to hear her say it. Just one little “don’t call me that” and he would agree to any of her terms. Keep her creditors at bay, play the game with her one more time. He’d even let her keep her dignity, although he might not tell her that just yet. He wouldn’t mind watching her sweat just a little.
    He waited. And he waited.
    They stared at each other, the years too thick between them.
    Maggie clutched her bag in one hand and turned toward the door.
    He said, “That was it? You drive four hours to get here, wait an hour to see me, then spend five minutes trying to talk me into it?”
    She looked back at him. “There’s nothing I’m willing to give you that would make it worth your while. But now I can tell Ginny that you won’t help and we can move on to the next possibility.”
    “If your body’s not for sale, I might be tempted by land.”
    She shook her head. “No. Again.”
    He spread his hands wide. “If you’re going to lose it anyway. . .”
    “Even if I would give it to you , it wouldn’t help. It’s all mortgaged.”
    “ All of it?” Her eyes shuttered and he took a deep breath. “Even the ranch house?”
    “All of it.” She said it coldly, as if losing the ranch house wouldn’t rip out her soul, but he knew better. Knew what home and family meant to her.
    “Shit, Maggie.”
    She stood there silently, her back straight, her legs braced as if waiting for an attack from him.
    He said, “For Christ’s sake, sit back down.”
    “Are you going to help us? For nothing in return?”
    “Well. . .”
    She opened the door, stopping when she saw a group of roughnecks pretending to wait for a paycheck so they could check her out.
    She turned around with a genuine smile on her face. “Thanks, Cole. Predictable was just what I needed. I don’t think I could have taken one more surprise from you.”
    He frowned at her and she said, “I hope the vultures make you pay twice what the ranch house is worth.”
    He opened his mouth and she walked out, shutting the door before he could say anything. What would he have said? That he didn’t want the house?
    He’d wanted that house since he was fourteen years old. Since he was old enough to know that he might live in a house bigger than his old apartment building, might have more land, more money than he’d ever dreamed existed, but he didn’t have a family that laughed and played and loved each other.
    He didn’t have friends to make the huge house less empty or to stand next to him in a fight.
    He would roam his father’s acres, none too careful about making sure it actually was his father’s acres, with binoculars glued to his face, watching his new neighbors. Watching what life was like for them.
    And especially watching the Caldwells. Watching Maggie and her sister live in their big, warm house. Watching their father play and laugh and tease with them.
    A man all of Texas feared who let his daughters put a rope around him and lead him around the yard like a pony.
    Watching their mother fussing and grooming and preparing them for life. They’d hated her fussing and he couldn’t help but hate them for having what he so wanted and not realizing their great fortune.
    They’d had everything in life. While he’d had nothing, no one.
    Cole swiveled his chair back around to the window, watching Maggie leave a wake of slack-jawed men behind her. Watched her get into her little coupe, her skirt riding up again, his eyes zeroing in on those straps around her ankles, and thought he’d been just as stupid as those girls.
    He’d had someone once. He’d had someone who stood unflinching next to him when his fists were bloody and bruised. He’d had someone who fussed over