Twin Ties, Twin Joys: The Boss's Double Trouble Twins / Twins for a Christmas Bride / Baby Twins: Parents Needed. Raye Morgan

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СКАЧАТЬ adventurer.” He said the word as though that startled him, as though he wasn’t sure he liked it.

      “That’s not the way you see yourself?”

      He shook his head, looking distracted. “No. Actually I see myself more as a human rights worker.”

      She looked at him in astonishment, then had to swerve back into her lane. A human rights worker? And here she’d thought he was some sort of modern day mercenary. Maybe they had different ways of defining that term.

      “You’re kidding. Right?”

      He sighed. “Never mind. For now, I guess I’m a businessman.”

      “So that’s for sure, is it?” she asked, turning onto a smaller two-lane road. “You’re saying that this return to your home town isn’t permanent? That it’s just something temporary in order to make your mother happy for a while?”

      That seemed to offend him. “Leave my mother out of this,” he said gruffly.

      She looked at him in surprise. After all, he was the one who had originally brought the subject up. She hadn’t realized it was out of bounds.

      But he seemed to recognize what she was thinking.

      “Sorry,” he said. “I’m sort of defensive about my mother right now. I’m feeling a little protective.”

      Mitch protective toward his mother. She’d thought rebelling against his family situation had been the whole point. That was the impression she’d had from what he’d told her in Paris. Obviously she didn’t have a handle on the full picture.

      She pulled the car into the parking lot at the construction site. The twin mobile trailers, which served as the administration and engineering offices, sat in front of where they’d parked. Switching off the engine, she turned to look at the man beside her.

      “I’m not sure why you came back,” she told him candidly, “but since you did, we need to settle the business about the twins. We can’t leave it up in the air the way it is now. Just what is your role going to be in their lives?”

      He didn’t answer right away, but he was studying her face, his gaze sliding over her lips, her nose line, her smooth skin, then tucking into the protected area around her ear. When his gaze finally rose to meet hers, she saw a sort of storminess there. But only for a moment.

      “We’ll talk,” he promised. “Later today. Right now, we’ve got work to do.” He turned away and reached to open the door. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

      She followed more slowly, wondering what she was going to do with this man who wanted her to “show him the ropes.” She should resent him, but somehow she just couldn’t do that. Still, she had to be careful. “Give him an inch and he’ll take a mile,” she whispered to herself, shaking her head. That was just it. Keep track of your inches!

      It was over an hour later when they emerged from the trailers. Darcy was feeling a bit shell-shocked. The meeting had started as usual. She and the contractor had gone over some figures and discussed a timetable. She’d brought up a few minor issues she’d had problems with and he tried to smooth over her concerns. All the while, Mitch had watched silently. And then he asked a question about the Heartland Project.

      It was like he’d lit a fuse. The contractor seemed to take his question as a challenge, and before Darcy knew what was happening, the two men were shouting at each other and arguing about things she thought were pointless. She tried to intervene, but they didn’t seem to hear her. They argued sharply, then came to an agreement about something. What it was she couldn’t have said.

      Then, as quickly as it had started, the firestorm was over. The two men had found a point in common and were talking like—well, maybe not old friends, but old acquaintances, at least. And as they left the trailer, the contractor shook her hand warmly and told her he would take care of all her little items, no problem.

      “Thanks, Darcy,” Mitch was saying as they walked back toward the car. “I learned a lot.” He grinned. “I especially learned that I’d better leave the talking to you whenever possible.”

      “On that point,” she said, sliding in behind the wheel, “I think I agree.”

      He glanced over as she started the engine. In truth, he’d been impressed by the way she’d handled herself. She was good at what she did, good at talking to contractors, good at holding her own when the going got tough. Funny how that opened a whole new side of her to him, a side he’d never thought about during that weekend in Paris.

      But it didn’t change anything. It didn’t help him to get over this weird fascination. He still wanted her with a deep, throbbing ache that wouldn’t go away, no matter how much he tried to ignore it.

      He’d spent the last two days trying to figure out a way this was going to work. At first he’d thought maybe he would get used to having her around all day. After all, there were plenty of other beautiful women at ACW. Just that morning he’d flirted with a lot of them. Unfortunately, as pleasurable as it had been to be lionized by a group of lovely ladies, he’d found himself looking at his watch and wondering whether Darcy had come in to work yet long before his welcome party was over.

      Which just went to prove that this situation was impossible. He couldn’t work with her. It was slow torture to see her and not be able to touch her. He looked at her now as she turned onto the highway. She was wearing a short, tailored skirt that rode up enough to display a nice view of her gorgeous legs. Just watching the interplay of muscles as she worked the accelerator made his blood begin to race a little faster.

      It was a bittersweet reaction that came up all the time. A part of him reveled in his instant response to this woman, and another part rejected it, trying to turn it back before it caused him to make another mistake.

      But it still happened every time she walked past him and he caught a hint of her fresh, sweet scent, every time she spoke to someone else in the outer office and he sat with his eyes closed listening to her cool, rich voice, every time she got up from her desk and he watched surreptitiously as she walked away toward the elevator, her silky hair rippling sensually, her round little bottom swaying impertinently, while sweet desire surged in his body, and cold, hard reproach stirred in his brain. No other woman had ever played with both his mental and physical response the way Darcy Connors did. He loved it and hated it at the same time.

      And that was why he should be working to get her out of his daily life.

      “How close are we to the perimeter of the Heartland Project?” he asked suddenly, realizing they must be passing near it.

      She looked at him sideways. “There’s a pullout at that hill ahead that gives a pretty good overview of the eastern boundary,” she said. “I’ve got a pair of binoculars in the glove compartment.”

      “Great. Let’s stop and take a look.”

      “Sure.”

      She pulled off the highway at the viewing area, rolling up to the thick guardrails.

      “Here we are,” she noted.

      “Great,” he said. “I really want to get a good look at this.” He gazed at her earnestly. “But first I want to talk about our situation for a minute.”

      She СКАЧАТЬ