Millionaire on Her Doorstep. Stella Bagwell

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СКАЧАТЬ mite hasty! Whom was she kidding? A normal person didn’t go out and buy the first house they looked at! And as for her going crazy, she had to be cracking up to think she could ever have a real home here in southern New Mexico or anywhere. When her husband had walked out on her, she’d seen the last of her hopes and dreams vanish. Since then, she’d finally come to the conclusion that it was foolish of her to ever plan on having a real home with a family.

      The long, graveled lane curved, then made one last switch back before the house came into view. The split-level structure had been built on a rough ledge of the mountain. There was hardly a yard to speak of. Unless you counted the rocks and clumps of sage clinging tenaciously to the ground sloping down to the driveway.

      Tall pine and aspen dappled the pink stucco walls and red tiled roof with gently moving shadows. The prickly beauty of blooming cholla cactus guarded the front entrance.

      Maureen parked the pickup on the graveled circle driveway and slipped quietly to the ground. The mountain air had already grown incredibly cool for midsummer and she wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the chill as she climbed a set of simple rock stepping stones up the sloping yard.

      This wasn’t Houston by any means. From now on she would have to remember she was seven thousand feet or more above sea level and needed to keep a jacket with her after dark. And compared to the busy, humid city, the quietness here on the mountaintop was nearly deafening. Other than the wind whispering through the pine boughs and rattling the aspen leaves, there were no other sounds.

      She smiled to herself as she imagined what her friends back in Houston would think about her buying such a secluded home. Probably that she was asking for trouble. And she doubted any of her female friends would have driven up here alone at this late hour. But Maureen wasn’t afraid.

      For nearly ten years she’d been on her own. Alone. Facing the world without her husband or her child. She couldn’t possibly be hurt any worse than when they’d gone out of her life.

      Maureen wandered around the house, studying its strong walls and gracefully arched windows trimmed with dark wood. It was a lovely structure, but the house or even the wild, beautiful tangle of forest growing around it was not the thing that had called to her when she’d first seen the place. Job or not. Family or not. She’d simply felt a deep intuition that here in New Mexico was where she belonged. And in spite of Adam Sanders, this was where she was going to stay.

      

      The next morning, Maureen was already at work when Adam arrived at Sanders Gas and Exploration. He found her in the small lab behind his office. She was standing at a cabinet counter, the sleeves of her blue striped shirt rolled above her elbows, a pair of gold-framed glasses on her nose. Once again her brown hair was braided. The single rope reached the waistband at the back of her jeans. He wondered how long her hair would be if she let it loose, or if she ever did.

      Hearing his step, Maureen glanced up from the seismographic chart she’d been studying and peered at him from behind the lenses of her glasses.

      “Good morning,” she said warmly.

      Encouraged by her greeting, he joined her at the counter. Just because the woman stirred his libido didn’t mean he lacked manners or enough sense to accomplish a day’s work, he assured himself. If she could be civil and productive, he certainly could.

      “Good morning,” he replied, then inclined his head toward the charts on the counter. “I see you’ve already found something to work on.”

      “These are the first tests from several sections of land in eastern Oklahoma.” She tapped a set of papers with her forefinger, then reached for another stack lying nearby. “These are from an area in northern New Mexico. Both I’d wager to produce gas. I just don’t know how much yet.”

      One corner of his mouth curved wryly. “Wager? You’re not here to make bets, Ms. York. You’re here to show us scientific evidence.”

      Maureen glanced at the small watch on her wrist. “I’ve been at work forty-five minutes. How quickly am I supposed to produce this scientific evidence? Within an hour? Or are you going to be considerate and give me until the end of the day?”

      He grinned slyly. “I’m not a patient man. I like things done yesterday. But since this is your first day here at Sanders, I’ll make allowances.”

      A closer look at his face told Maureen he was teasing, and that surprised her about the man. The only way she’d ever seen him was serious and driven. She’d expected his biting attitude of yesterday to be his usual disposition and she wasn’t sure this warmer, more congenial Adam was any easier to take than the infuriating man she’d confronted in Wyatt’s office.

      Pulling her glasses from her face, she placed them gently atop the charts. “Your father tells me several more seismograph holes are going to be shot this week on the Oklahoma land. He wants me to read those before we fly back there for a look.”

      “We” more than likely meant Adam and Maureen. He didn’t know how he was going to manage traveling with her. But he had to. It was a big part of their job going from one potential well site to the next. Hopefully, the strong reactions he had to her now would quickly fade. Maybe tomorrow or the next day, he’d be able to look at her and not wonder what it would be like to have her in his arms.

      “It’ll be rough, mountainous terrain. Have you been there before?”

      With a shake of her head, she moved away from him. “I’ve been mostly doing overseas or offshore work.”

      Adam watched her walk over to a long table and pick up a paper cup filled with coffee. From a paper sack on the counter, she pulled out a raspberry Danish.

      “There’s a doughnut left in the sack if you want it,” she offered as she took a seat on a folding metal chair.

      “Thanks, but I’ve already had breakfast.”

      No doubt, Maureen thought. He’d probably had a regular meal sitting in a kitchen or dining room. “I suppose you wouldn’t stoop to putting something like this in your system,” she said.

      A faint smile tilting his lips, he shook his head. “Not near enough grease to suit me. Give me chorizo or bacon and eggs.”

      “Surely you know that isn’t good for you,” she said, her gaze following him as he went over to the small coffeepot sitting on the cabinet counter. He was dressed not as a businessman who worked in oil, but as a rancher, in black boots and faded blue jeans that hugged his hips and thighs. A denim shirt of deep green covered his muscular torso. The rugged clothing emphasized his fitness and mocked the fact he didn’t eat health food. It also mocked Maureen’s vow never to look at another man in a purely physical way.

      “My mom tells me that very thing every morning,” Adam said, “but she cooks the stuff for me anyway.”

      The cup in her hand stopped midway to her lips. “You still live at home?”

      He grimaced as he poured himself a cup of the strong brew. “You make it sound like a crime.”

      She didn’t know where the defensive tone in his voice was coming from. She hadn’t accused him of being a pup still latched onto his mother’s teat.

      “Not at all.” She studied him carefully as he took a seat across from her. “I just thought...well, you seem like a man who wouldn’t want to be hampered СКАЧАТЬ