At The Texan's Pleasure. Mary Baxter Lynn
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anyone ever tell you it was rude to sneak up on a person?”
Go to hell.
She didn’t say that, but oh, how she wanted to. To speak her mind in that manner, however, would only incite a verbal riot, and she didn’t want that. Too much was at stake. She merely wanted to talk to him in a civil manner.
“Sorry,” Molly finally said in a moderate tone.
“No, you’re not.”
She hadn’t meant to sneak up on him without warning. She just happened to walk by the door leading onto the porch and saw him there, a booted foot propped on one of the iron chairs. He seemed to have been staring into the waning sun, far in the distance, as though deep in thought.
Molly guessed she should have coughed, or done something to reveal her presence, only she hadn’t thought about it. She had just walked onto the porch and waited, seeing this as an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.
“Look, Worth, I don’t want to fight with you,” she said at last. She’d meant what she’d said, too, especially when she watched him set the empty beer bottle down on the table, making more noise than he should have, which spoke volumes about his mood.
She couldn’t let Worth see the effect he had on her. Not now. Not ever. And entering into another verbal skirmish with him would put the power in his hands, power that could end up destroying her and what she held dear. At all costs, she had to maintain her cool.
“Is that what we’re doing?”
“I don’t want to play word games with you, either.”
He jammed his hands into his pockets which pulled the fabric tighter across his privates. For a moment, her gaze lingered on the mound behind the zipper. Then realizing what she was doing, she jerked her head back up to his face, praying that he hadn’t noticed anything amiss.
If he had, he didn’t acknowledge it. Instead, he continued to stare at her through those blank eyes.
“What do you want, then?”
“To take my mother’s place.”
His head bolted back at the same time he went slack-jawed. “As my housekeeper?”
“Yes,” Molly said with punch in her tone.
He pitched back his head and laughed. “Get real.”
“I’m serious, Worth,” she countered with an edge in her tone.
“So am I, and that’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?”
He smirked. “Come on, Molly, you know why not. You’re a nurse, and that’s what you need to be doing.”
“I can do both. I can take care of the house and my mother.”
“What about Trent?”
“I’ll put him in day care, and he’ll be just fine.”
“No.”
She ignored that terse rejection and went on, “My mother’s mind is her own worst enemy right now. She thinks you’re going to replace her.”
“That’s hogwash. She has a job here as long as she wants one. And I’ll tell her that.”
“I appreciate that, but I still want to take her place. I can take care of Mom, encourage her and she will see that my job as housekeeper is temporary. This way she won’t worry about someone permanently replacing her. She’ll know I’m only filling in. Not only that, but I’m good. I grew up helping her clean houses.”
Worth looked astounded. “Are you nuts? Besides, you don’t have to do that anymore.”
“I know I don’t have to. I want to.”
“Dammit, woman, you haven’t changed a bit.”
Molly raised her eyebrows. “Oh?”
“Yeah, you’re still as stubborn as a mule.”
She wanted to smile but didn’t. Instead she held her ground. “So are you.”
Worth cursed at the same time their eyes collided then held tighter than magnets.
Suddenly the oxygen in the air seemed to disappear, forcing Molly to struggle for her next breath. She could tell Worth was also affected as his face lost what little color it had left. And something else happened, too, though she couldn’t identify it.
What it hadn’t been was hostility. So had it been blatant desire? No. She’d been mistaken. He despised her and that wasn’t about to change. She didn’t want it to, either, she assured herself quickly, though the undertow of his sexy charisma was pulling on her.
Forcing her panic aside, Molly sucked in a deep breath and stared at him with an imploring expression.
“I’ll think about it,” Worth muttered on a sour note, cramming his hands further down in his pockets, which pulled his jeans even tighter across that area.
Molly averted her gaze and muttered, “Thank you.”
He laughed, but again without humor.
Feeling heat rush into her face, Molly knew she should leave before insult was added to injury. She was about to do just that when his next words froze her in her tracks.
“Why did you run out on me?”
Five
She whipped back around and stared at him, feeling as though she were strangling. “What did you say?” she finally managed to asked.
“Don’t play the deaf ear thing on me.” Worth’s tone was low and rough. “It won’t work. You heard every word I said.”
“I used to admire your badass attitude,” Molly responded with fire. “In fact, I thought you were the stud of all studs because of it.”
His eyebrows shot up as though that shocked him.
“But now I know better.”
His features darkened. “Oh?”
“That attitude sucks big time.”
The look that crossed Worth’s face was chilling, and he took a step toward her, only to stop suddenly as though he were a puppet on a string and someone had jerked that string. She knew better. Worth was no one’s puppet and never had been. Then she recanted that thought. His parents apparently knew how to pull his strings and get away with it.
“You know I really don’t give a tinker’s damn what you think about me or my attitude.” Worth’s voice had grown rougher.
“Then why ask me that question?”
“Curiosity is the only thing I can figure,” he said in an acid tone, fingering an unruly strand of light hair that grazed his forehead.
Molly was suddenly tempted to reach out and push it back in place, something she had done on many occasions that long-ago summer. That sensual memory was so vivid she felt like a piece of broken glass was slicing through her heart.
“Your curiosity can go to hell. I’m not answering you.”
He smirked. “That’s because you don’t have a satisfactory explanation.”
“I have no intention of swimming through the muddy waters of the past. With your cynical judgment of me, I’d just be wasting my time anyway.”
No doubt she was on the defensive and probably sounded as cynical as he did, but she didn’t care. If she were going to survive and keep her secret from him and his parents, she had to best him at his own game, or at least match him.
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