Intimate Surrender. RaeAnne Thayne

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СКАЧАТЬ forget the most erotic night of his life.

      He turned back to her. “A smart man never forgets his mistakes. And, sweetheart, this was one hell of a mistake.”

      “For both of us.”

      “The difference is, you knew exactly what you were doing—and who you were doing it with.”

      “That’s right. I set out to seduce you from the moment I walked into that ballroom. It was a brilliant strategy, wouldn’t you say? All I had to do was convince you to take me home with you, make love all night until you fell asleep, then comb through your office on the chance—slim to none though it was—that I might find some tiny snippet of information in your loft about your super-router that we could use at Crosby Systems. Right. You caught me. That’s me, Katie Crosby, corporate spy. Trent sends his little sister out to sleep with all his business rivals.”

      “I wouldn’t put anything past the Crosbys.”

      Something flashed in her dark eyes, something that looked like anger and hurt and maybe even a little sorrow. “Okay, that’s enough,” she snapped. “I would like you to leave now. I’m sure you don’t want to spend another moment in the belly of the beast.”

      She rose as if to show him out but as soon as she stood, what little color remaining on her face drained out like wine spilling from a tipped glass and she swayed. Peter reached out instinctively to keep her from toppling over, then helped her back onto the couch.

      “What’s wrong? Are you ill?”

      Her chin lifted. “What do you care?”

      “I don’t,” he snapped. “Maybe I just happen to be fond of these particular boots and don’t want you yakking all over them.”

      She glared at him. “Your precious boots are safe. I’m not going to yak, as you so charmingly put it. I stood up a little too soon but I’m perfectly fine now.”

      He only had to take one look at her to know she was lying, but then why should that surprise him? The woman wouldn’t know the truth if it jumped up and bit her in the behind. With hollow eyes, her skin three shades past white and her mouth pinched like a shriveled apple left in the bottom of the bushel, she sat there and expected him to believe everything was fine.

      “I didn’t see signs of anybody else when I arrived. Who else is out here with you?”

      She paused as if she didn’t want to answer him, then she finally shrugged. “Usually the ranch foreman and his wife live in quarters at the rear of the house, but they’re away for a few days.”

      “You’re alone?”

      “Not if you count two dogs, six barn cats, a dozen horses and two hundred head of cattle.”

      He studied her pale features again, suddenly chagrined at himself for bursting in on her, guns blazing. She might be a lying Crosby but she didn’t look well at all.

      Crosby or not, he didn’t like the idea of her being out here alone. A thousand things could happen to an ill woman on her own at an isolated Wyoming ranch, especially with the storm percolating out there.

      “If you’re done yelling at me, I really would like you to leave now.” Somehow she managed to inject regal condescension into her words, even with her pale features.

      “I really think I should stay,” he found himself saying.

      Her eyes widened and he didn’t miss the way her hand clenched over her stomach, as if just the idea of spending another moment with him was enough to make her insides churn.

      “No. No, you shouldn’t. The weather report said a nasty storm is heading this way. You’ll want to fly back to Portland before it hits.”

      “It’s already here. Can’t you hear that wind? The reports I heard before I landed said this area was due for at least two feet of snow. I won’t be flying anywhere tonight.”

      “If you heard the storm reports before you left, why fly out here in such a rush? Acting on a whim like that hardly seems like typical behavior for the cold, ruthless CEO of Logan Corporation.”

      Nothing he had done since he’d seen her in that hotel ballroom had been typical behavior for him. He had seen the reports of an approaching storm in this area before he left Portland, but not even flying into the eye of a hurricane would have kept him grounded.

      He had known he was foolish to leave but he had been so angry he hadn’t cared about anything but running her to ground, after three long months of searching.

      “It doesn’t matter why I left,” he answered. “I’m not going anywhere.”

      “I’m not in the mood for your macho posturing, Peter. I don’t want or need you here.”

      “Fickle little thing, aren’t you? Three months ago, you certainly wanted me around. If my memory serves—and believe me, it does—you couldn’t get enough.”

      She glared at him, though he saw yet another blush heat those cheeks. “Which am I? Ruthless corporate spy or sex-crazed nymphomaniac?”

      “Good question. One I would certainly like to know the answer to myself.”

      Before she could give voice to the heated response he could see brewing, a powerful gust of wind rattled the windowpanes and moaned under the eaves of the log ranch house.

      The two lamps burning in the room flickered in unison then went out, pitching the room into darkness lit only by the fire’s glow.

      Two

      “That settles it. I’m not going anywhere.”

      Even though the only light in the room came from the snapping flames in the fireplace, Katie could see the determination in Peter’s eyes and she wanted to weep. Just when she thought she had hit absolute rock bottom in her life, somehow she managed to cartwheel down another few feet.

      She suddenly wanted nothing in the world more than to curl up on that couch in front of the fireplace, wrap herself in her grandmother’s wedding-ring quilt and sob.

      What had she done to deserve this? Okay, maybe she hadn’t been exactly forthcoming to Peter Logan three months earlier. In retrospect, she knew she should have told him her real name the moment he struck up a conversation with her, at the first sign of flirtation.

      She wasn’t sure why she had kept that important little detail to herself—maybe because she had been so shocked that the gorgeous and sought-after Peter Logan could actually be flirting with someone like her—boring, quiet Katie Crosby.

      Who could blame any woman for being caught up in the magic of the evening? With a glamorous makeover, a new hairstyle, the designer clothes, she had felt like someone else. A stranger alluring enough to catch the interest of one of Portland’s most wanted bachelors.

      The champagne she had overindulged in hadn’t helped any. She hadn’t been thinking with a clear head but she did know she hadn’t wanted the night to end. She also knew that the moment Peter found out her last name that flattering desire in his eyes would have changed to contempt and coldness faster than she could blink.

      Okay, СКАЧАТЬ