Undeniable Demands Read Free Page B

her? Or started waving cash?
    She didn’t need Wade’s money. She’d paid cash for this
property. She was one of the most highly sought after green architects in
America. She’d traveled thousands of miles in this Airstream to build
environmentally friendly buildings, homes and businesses. Tori had several large
and successful projects in Seattle, Santa Fe and San Francisco. She was wrapping
up one in Philadelphia just after the first of the year. She did well enough
that she could laugh at his offer. But it couldn’t hurt to push him and see how
far he was willing to take this.
    “What if I said I would sell it back to you for half a
million?” There was no way the land was worth that much unless there was oil,
gold or diamonds hidden beneath her feet. She doubted it, though. She’d never
heard of Wade Mitchell being interested in any of those things. The only thing
about land he cared for was what he could build on top of it.
    Wade didn’t even flinch. “I would get out my checkbook and sign
on the dotted line so you could find an even better piece of land and everyone
would be happy. Let me assure you that nothing is more important than preserving
my family and my history.”
    Wow. He was certainly desperate for this land. She almost felt
bad for him. Any other person might have immediately given in and made his day.
Four times the value was a great offer. A crazy offer. One that she was probably
crazy to turn down. Even with her success, half a million was quite a lump of
cash. Tori could certainly do a lot with it: buy new land, build her dream house
without a mortgage attached to it, get a new hybrid pickup truck. She had to
admit, if it were any other person sitting across the table from her, she’d
probably take the money and tow her trailer off into the sunset.
    But it wasn’t any other person. It was Wade Mitchell. And she
wasn’t about to sell him this land. Not for any price. Just because it was worth
it to watch him squirm. This would be as close to payback as she would ever get.
It was his bad luck that he wanted her land.
    “You’re really quite good,” she said, nodding and watching her
tea instead of his handsome face. She wouldn’t let herself get pulled in and
swayed by his mesmerizing eyes and fabricated sob story. She’d already caught
herself being a sucker once this year, and that was enough. Maybe if he came
around in a few weeks, she’d let him be her dumb mistake of the New Year. “Did
you practice that speech long or was that off the cuff?”
    Wade stiffened, pushing the half-empty cup of tea aside and
shelving the charm. “Is all this animosity over your termination years ago?”
    Now it was Tori’s turn to stiffen in her chair. He made her
seem petty for holding that over him all these years later. “Absolutely. I don’t
take affronts to my reputation lightly.”
    “You weren’t worried about your reputation when you slept with
one of our suppliers and put my company in jeopardy.”
    “I didn’t sleep with anybody. I told you then that I didn’t do
any of the things you accused me of. Nothing has changed. Just because you
didn’t believe me doesn’t mean I wasn’t telling the truth.”
    “They were serious charges, and I needed to deal with them as
such. I did what I had to do.”
    “And I’m doing what I have to do. I’m keeping this land. It’s
mine. Whether or not I like you or resent what you did is irrelevant.”
    “This isn’t about me or you and your damaged pride. This is
about Ken and Molly Eden and everything they worked for. I want to give them
back what’s rightfully theirs.”
    Tori straightened and shot him as lethal a gaze as she could
manage. “You mean, mine. I signed those papers at
the lawyer’s office two months ago. I didn’t hold a gun to their heads and make
them sell me this land.”
    “Wouldn’t have surprised me if you did,” he said bitterly,
glancing over at the shotgun sitting on the counter.
    “They sold it all on their