Outlaw Marriage. Laurie Paige

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СКАЧАТЬ his way, she tried to step back but was trapped between him and the chair.

      Panic, strange and harsh and lightning-fast, swept over her. Her breath caught. “Let me go,” she ordered.

      A second, an eternity, went by.

      She was aware of a struggle in him, one as elemental as the hunger in herself that shocked and angered her sense of rightness. He was the enemy. She had to remember that.

      He stepped back, sliding his hands from her back to her elbows to make sure she had her balance. “There now,” he murmured as if soothing a nervous filly.

      Shoving the chair aside, she retreated a full three feet away. “I will present your offer to my father,” she told him stiffly. She sounded breathless, which she didn’t like. It might be interpreted as weakness on her part.

      “We haven’t really discussed an offer yet. We’d better consider every facet and nail the details down before we jump in.” He picked up his hat. “It’s nearly noon. Let’s review it over lunch.”

      “I really don’t have time—”

      “It’s been a long spell since breakfast. I can’t talk on an empty stomach. The Hip Hop okay with you?”

      She hesitated, not sure she wasn’t being rushed into something she would regret. However, her father wanted progress on the case and the courts liked to see a show of cooperation, so maybe she’d better go along with this arrogant Kincaid who seemed to think he could persuade her to his view. Besides, it was noon and her breakfast of toast with peanut butter was long gone, too.

      “Yes, that will be fine.” She was pleased that she spoke in a firm tone. She sounded in charge once more, her panic of a moment ago subdued.

      His ready smile lit his face. “Great.”

      His hat in one hand, he placed the other under her elbow to escort her out. She gracefully eased away and retrieved her purse from the bottom desk drawer. She settled the strap over her shoulder and slipped the file folder into a soft-sided briefcase. Thus armed, she nodded that she was ready.

      He stepped back and allowed her to precede him out of the office. She told her secretary where they would be and reiterated it to Kurt Peters, another full-time attorney with Baxter Development, when they encountered him in the quiet, cool hallway of the executive floor. With Collin observing every detail of the place, she was suddenly pleased with the show of Baxter wealth. While it didn’t match that of the Kincaids, it wasn’t something to be ignored, either.

      “Shall I join you?” Kurt asked, his light blue eyes expressionless as he glanced at Collin.

      Hope knew Kurt had absorbed her father’s dislike of the Kincaids, which bordered on the obsessive.

      A flicker of guilt shot through her at the disloyal thought. At eighteen, her father had been cheated of his birthright as the promised heir to the Baxter ranch, which was owned by his uncle, Cameron Baxter, at that time.

      Jeremiah Kincaid, former owner of the Kincaid ranch and a cousin to the present Kincaids who were trying to buy the place from Jenny’s trustees, had pulled strings to get the bank notes on the Baxter land called, thus forcing Cameron to sell or go into bankruptcy. Jeremiah had then bought the place for a song.

      “This is a private conversation,” Collin said to Kurt before she could reply, taking her arm again and leading her past the other lawyer.

      “I’ll talk to you later,” she called over her shoulder to Kurt. “Don’t push me around,” she said when she and Collin were out of hearing.

      “I wouldn’t think of it,” he returned smoothly and, opening the door, ushered her out into the August heat.

      At his truck, Collin considered helping Hope inside with the simple expedient of putting his hands on her waist and lifting her, but thought better of it.

      Admiration hit him as she solved the problem of the high step by reaching down and unfastening the bottom button of her dress. Then she grabbed the handhold inside the door, stepped up with her left foot and swung neatly inside, her shapely behind plopping gracefully onto the leather seat.

      His libido stampeded all over his self-control.

      He closed the door and went around to the driver’s side. The heat was suffocating. He cranked up the engine and flipped the air conditioner on high. They were silent on the short drive to the main street of town. He pulled over to the curb on a side street beside the town park. She climbed out before he could get around to help her.

      At the Hip Hop Café, they were directed to a table for two by the window where they could look out on the busy street or beyond to the hilly terrain east of town. Ranchers called out greetings as they wound their way through the busy diner. He noted their quick speculative glances at Hope and their equally quick nods.

      Outsiders were viewed with suspicion in these parts. Her father had been buying up land in the county for years, even before he moved back here, which caused resentment among the old-timers. Collin noted the lift of her chin and the way she smiled at one and all. He mentally grinned. This woman had spirit. She wouldn’t be intimidated by a bunch of clannish ranchers.

      A new waitress had replaced Emma Stover, nee Baxter, who was now his sister-in-law by virtue of marrying Brandon Harper, one of his newly discovered half-brothers. The lives of the Kincaid brothers were getting complicated.

      The Baxters seemed to be at the heart of the complications, largely because of the controversy over the ranch and the lawsuit, which threatened to drag on forever. And of course, there was the matter of the new wives and babies being added to the Kincaid family at an awesome rate.

      He felt a hitch in the vicinity of his heart. His granddad had made it plain that he expected Collin to marry and populate their ranch in Elk Springs, Montana, with a new generation of Kincaids. The sooner, the better. Seeing the domestic bliss of his half brothers brought the same thought to his mind. Now all he needed was a willing woman.

      His gaze was drawn to his companion who was studying the menu with the grave seriousness she apparently brought to everything she did.

      He frowned and peered at the menu he held. Getting mixed up with a woman whose father was a sworn enemy of the family would be stupid beyond belief. But, he had to admit, something about her fascinated him, this beautiful enemy who was as aware of him as he was of her.

      “Are you ready to order?” the pretty young waitress inquired, her pad and pencil ready.

      “Hmm, it’s Tuesday,” he recalled. “The blue plate special is elk hash, isn’t it?”

      “Yes, sir.” She read the day’s special, which was written on a chalkboard near the cash register, as if he couldn’t read or maybe couldn’t see that far.

      He frowned. The young woman evidently thought he was ancient. Catching the brief curving of Hope’s mouth before she sternly disciplined the mirth at his expense, he grinned and winked at her before ordering the special and a glass of raspberry iced tea.

      “I’ll have the same,” she said, handing the menu to the teenage waitress and settling back in the chair, her eyes on the traffic moving slowly along the street. “Superior court is in session,” she noted.

      “Mmm-hmm. I see Judge СКАЧАТЬ