A Daring Vow (Vows) by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online Page B

troubling matter of Taylor Matthews. She reminded herself that nothing was likely to start up with Taylor again unless she allowed it. She told herself that pride alone ought to keep her from forgiving him too quickly for the way he’d treated her. And then she conceded dryly that Taylor hadn’t exactly looked as if he was interested in spending eight hours a day in an office with her, much less pursuing anything more personal.
    The last thought fueled enough anger that she left the porch and grabbed up all the old hooked rugs in the house and took them out to the clothesline in back. Then she proceeded to beat the daylights out of them. Clouds of dust swirled around her and left her sneezing. She backed up in search of fresh air and bumped straight into something solid. She knew from the way the goose bumps instantaneously rose all over her that the something was Taylor. His low chuckle confirmed it and sent sparks scampering straight down her spine.
    “Taking out your frustrations on the carpet?” he inquired in a lazy drawl that was friendlier than just about anything else he’d said to her since her return.
    “Just cleaning,” she said. She kept her tone curt so he wouldn’t guess how that drawl of his affected her. “What are you doing here?”
    “I’ve been thinking about something ever since you left my office this morning.”
    “Oh?” She glanced up and looked into troubled gray eyes that immediately cut away from hers. “What would that be?”
    He started to say something, then stopped. Finally, after some internal struggle she couldn’t begin to fathom, he said, “We never discussed salary. I can’t afford to pay what you were making in Los Angeles.”
    Zelda could tell from his uneasy expression that her pay was not what had brought him out here. “You trying to wriggle out of our deal?”
    “No, but this arrangement’s going to be difficult enough without any misunderstandings. I just wanted to be up-front with you about a potential problem.”
    “That would be a pleasant change.” The sarcasm crept out before she could stop it.
    Looking guilty, he shoved his hands in his pockets. “Damn it, Zelda, you’re not making this any easier.”
    She regarded him evenly. “Is there some reason why I should?”
    He groaned. “Okay, I can see you’re still angry. I suppose you have every right to be.”
    “Suppose?” she echoed incredulously. Ten years’ worth of rage exploded. Caution flew out the window. She poked a finger in his chest. His rock-solid chest. She tried not to let that distract her from her fury.
    “You suppose? Taylor Matthews, I was in love with you,” she blurted out to her regret. Once she’d said that, there didn’t seem to be much point in holding back. “You led me to believe you felt the same way. Then the minute your daddy suggested I might be a liability to the long-range political ambitions of the Matthews family, you dumped me with no more concern than you would have felt swatting a fly. I’d say that gives me cause to be angry.”
    He leveled a gaze at her that almost took her breath away. It seemed he was looking straight into her soul. “It’s been a long time now,” he reminded her.
    His apparent conviction that time should have healed her wounds just riled her up all over again.
    “Being told you’re not good enough isn’t all that easy to forget,” she informed him. “I thought you were the one person in town I could count on, the one person who didn’t give a damn about my mama’s eccentricities, the one person who cared about
me,
no matter what. Instead, you bailed out on me when my reputation got a little inconvenient, a reputation, I might add, that you had contributed considerably to creating.”
    “It wasn’t your reputation… I mean, not exactly,” he began unconvincingly, then held up his hands. “Never mind. I can see coming by here was a bad idea. I’ll see you on Monday.”
    Watching Taylor turn around and start to walk away in