Courting the Enemy by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online

I’ve laid all my cards on the table. What about you? What motivates you?” He noticed that the travel brochures had been gathered up and tossed into a basket on the counter. “Dreams of faraway places?”
    “Dreams can be a motivation,” she conceded, though it wasn’t a direct answer to his question. Her gaze met his. “Or merely a fantasy.”
    “Which are they for you?”
    “Fantasy at the moment, nothing more.”
    She was fibbing, he decided, noting that the brochure for London was already dog-eared from handling.
    “If you could go anywhere in the world you wanted, where would you choose?”
    “London,” she said at once, then seemed to regret it. “Any particular reason?”
    “Lots of them, but I’m sure you’d find then all boring.”
    “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know.”
    She hesitated, then shrugged as if to concede his point. “I studied literature the one year I went away to college. I love Jane Austen and Charles Dickens and Thackery. I love Shakespeare’s sonnets. And for me, London is permeated with the spirit of all the great British authors. Some of them are even buried in Westminster Abbey.”
    “You’re a romantic,” Grady concluded.
    “You say that as if it’s a crime.”
    “No, just a surprise. Romantics don’t always dowell in the real world. Ranching can be a hard life. There’s very little romantic about it.”
    She gave him a pitying look. “Then you’ve been doing it with the wrong person. I found my share of romance right here.”
    “Is that why you don’t want to leave? Nostalgia?”
    “You already know why I won’t sell this ranch—at least not to you.”
    Rather than heading down that particular dead-end road again right now, Grady concentrated on his meal for a moment. “You’re a fine cook,” he said as he ate the last bite of meat loaf on his plate.
    “Thank you.”
    “You’ll have to let me return the favor sometime. Not that I’ll cook, but I’d be happy to take you out for supper.”
    “I don’t think so, but thank you for offering.”
    That stiff, polite tone was back in her voice. Grady couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to see her defenses slip, to hear her laugh.
    Whether that ever happened or not wasn’t important, he chided himself. He only needed her to trust him just a little, to persuade her that she wasn’t cut out for the life of a rancher. And then to coax her into selling this land to him and not someone else.
    He shoved his chair back and stood up. “Thanks for the meal. I’ll see you in the morning.”
    She seemed startled. “No angling for dessert?”
    “Not tonight,” he said, then hesitated. “Unless you’ve got an apple pie warming in the oven.”
    She shook her head, amusement brightening her eyes. “No, just more oatmeal cookies.”
    He considered that but concluded, good as they were, he didn’t dare risk staying. Sitting here withlovely Karen Hanson in her kitchen was entirely too cozy.
    “I wouldn’t mind taking one or two along for the drive,” he said.
    “After my cookies, then, and not my company? Should I be insulted?” she asked, but she put a few into a bag for him.
    “I’ll leave that to you,” he said, giving her a wink that clearly disconcerted her. “See you in the morning.”
    “Yes,” she said with what sounded like resignation. “I imagine you will.”
    Grady closed the door quietly, then stood on the other side feeling a bit disconcerted himself. He was already looking forward to morning, and that wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all, because he knew that this time it had less to do with the land and more to do with the woman who was keeping it from him. And that hadn’t been part of his plan at all.

Chapter Four
    K aren woke before dawn, did the necessary chores, left a note in the barn for Pete and Dooley and hightailed it away from the ranch. She headed straight for Winding River, though she didn’t have a specific destination in mind.
    Okay, so