In The Tycoon's Bed: One Night, Two Heirs. Maureen Child

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СКАЧАТЬ and showed her the enormous diamond he’d picked out for her, making sure the rest of the crowd got a good look, too.

      Their audience took a breath and the sound was audible. Sadie just blinked at him. When he had everyone’s attention, he spoke, in a loud, clear voice, “Sadie Price, will you marry me? Will you let me be a father to our children?”

      Then he waited for her quiet acceptance.

Eight

      “You son of a—” Sadie bit off the last word, but no one in the room had any doubt of what she meant.

      Rick slowly stood up and watched as glints of raw, gut-deep anger erupted in her usually placid blue eyes. Okay, maybe he might have made a tactical error here.

      Abby was chuckling, covering her mouth with one hand to hide her smile. The rest of the room was blistering with questions and comments. He only caught a handful.

      “What’ll she say?”

      “That’s Sadie Price. She’ll do the right thing.”

      “If I was her, I’d slap him for embarrassing me like that.”

      “Well,” another woman mused aloud, “if she doesn’t want him, I’ll take him.”

      He didn’t care what any of them had to say. The only opinion he was interested in was Sadie’s. And it didn’t look to him that he was going to get the answer he wanted.

      Rick scowled as Sadie pushed herself out of the maroon leather booth seat, grabbed her purse and flung a look back at Abby. “Thanks for lunch but I have to go now.”

      “I can see that. I’ll call you later.”

      She jerked a fast nod, then fired another look at Rick. “You, I want to talk to. Outside.”

      Then she marched across the crowded dining room like a young queen. People’s heads turned to watch her pass and a few of the men shot Rick sympathetic glances.

      He wasn’t interested in sympathy. Snapping the ring box closed, he stuffed it into his pocket and followed his woman out of the club.

      The door hardly had a chance to swing shut behind them when she turned on him like a snake.

      “What were you thinking?”

      The summer sun hammered them both the minute they stepped outside. It was like trying to draw a breath through a wet electric blanket. But the vicious heat had nothing on the fury stamped on Sadie’s face.

      Gritting his teeth, Rick scrubbed one hand across his face. “I was thinking that I want to marry you. Just like I’ve been thinking for more than two weeks now.”

      She threw her hands high then let them fall to her sides again in complete exasperation. “And the fact that I’ve turned you down countless times didn’t enter your head?”

      “No,” he snapped, irritated as all hell that his plan had fallen so flat. He would have bet cold, hard cash on Sadie Price coming down on the side of decorum. It had never occurred to him that she might not leap into his arms for the sake of the watching crowds.

      He could see now, it should have.

      “I can’t believe you did that in front of half the town.”

      “Seemed like a good idea at the time,” he muttered and flashed a glare at a man who stopped to stare at them. Quickly, the bystander hurried on down the sidewalk.

      “And I can guess why,” she said, stepping close enough that she could poke her index finger into his chest. “Now that the word’s out around town and everyone knows that you’re the girls’ father, you figured they’d all be on your side. And you thought that I’d say yes to avoid making a scene.”

      His mouth worked as he fought to keep back the words that would damn him.

      “You’re a worm for trying to use that against me.”

      “Darlin’, I’m gonna use every weapon I’ve got when I’m facing down a hardheaded opponent.”

      “I am not hardheaded just because I don’t want the same thing you do.”

      “You are if you refuse to see sense just to prove a point.”

      She sucked in a gulp of air and stared at him as if he’d just sprouted two heads. “Do you really think I’m that small and petty?” she demanded.

      A couple of people strolled past, caught a whiff of their argument and picked up speed.

      “I didn’t say that,” Rick told her.

      “You might as well have.”

      “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

      “Why the hell not? That’s exactly what you were trying to do to me.” She glared at him with a fire that should have scorched him.

      “All I did was ask you a question!”

      “In public! Was that your idea of a romantic proposal?”

      “I tried romance, Sadie!” He loomed over her, but to give her due, she didn’t back down an inch. “I had you naked in the moonlight, remember?”

      “Well, I never heard such a thing!” An older woman stopped dead as she passed them and slanted Rick a horrified look.

      “Mrs. Mulaney,” Sadie muttered, never taking her gaze from Rick’s.

      The older woman gave Rick the evil eye. “You should be ashamed of yourself, Rick Pruitt,” she snapped. “Sadie, dear, do you need me to call a policeman?”

      “No, ma’am, thank you.”

      “We’re fine, thanks,” Rick told the older woman with the iron-gray hair and the sucked-on-a-lemon expression. Mrs. Mulaney was the town librarian and lived her life as though it were her duty to tell people “hush” everywhere in town.

      “I wasn’t speaking to you, Rick Pruitt! But I should think a United States Marine would know better how to conduct himself.” She hurried on as if dogs were chasing her.

      “That’s just perfect,” Sadie muttered. “Now Mrs. Mulaney knows that I was naked in the moonlight with you. Just great. That should take about ten minutes to get all over town.”

      He smirked at her, knowing he’d just scored a point. “Thought you don’t care what anyone thinks about you anymore.”

      “I don’t,” she snapped. “Not enough to say yes to a marriage proposal that I know you don’t even really want to make.”

      “You are crazy,” he countered. “I’ve been straight up with you, Sadie, right from the beginning. I told you I want to marry you. Be a daddy to our daughters. You’re the one holding back here.”

      She СКАЧАТЬ