Millionaire on Her Doorstep by Stella Bagwell Read Free Book Online Page B

that?” she asked, inclining her head toward the pink drink.
    â€œSome of my aunt Rose’s special punch. She knows how much I like it, so whenever she makes a batch, she brings some by the ranch for me.”
    â€œDo all the women around here spoil you?” Maureen slipped off her short cover-up and sat on the chaise next to Adam. Immediately, she could feel his eyes all over her loose hair and bare skin.
    â€œSpoil me? What makes you think that?”
    She made a sound of disbelief. “Your mother cooks you chorizo and eggs every morning. Your aunt makes you a special punch. That sounds like spoiling to me.”
    Grinning, Adam leaned over in the chair, then poured both glasses full of punch. “What can I say? I’m a loved man.”
    What must that feel like? Maureen wondered. After her grandmother died, there’d been no one to coddle or cluck over her. Just a list of foster parents who’d seen to her physical needs but hadn’t come close to
meeting the emotional void left by her parents’ and grandmother’s deaths. She supposed that was the reason she’d clung to David for so long after their baby daughter had succumbed to crib death. She’d been devastated and desperately needed her husband’s love to help her get past the loss of her baby. But his love, if he’d ever had any for her, had stopped after little Elizabeth had died. He’d blamed her for the death, then walked out on her.
    Mentally shaking away the black memories, Maureen accepted the proffered glass from Adam’s hand and took a careful sip. The concoction had the consistency of a milk shake. It tasted of strawberries and pineapple with a heavy dose of banana. “This is sinfully rich.”
    â€œAnd very good.”
    â€œAnd very good,” she agreed.
    Several moments passed as they drank in silence. All the while, Maureen could feel his eyes studying her as though she were a test paper and he was trying to figure out the answers.
    Placing her glass on the low table, she looked at him. “Have you found any yet?”
    His forehead wrinkled with confusion. “Excuse me?”
    â€œCellulite. Do I have any? Or should I stand and let you inspect the back half of me?”
    He didn’t appear to be the least bit embarrassed. Amused was more like it
    â€œYou look...different without your clothes.” And oddly enough, he decided seeing her hair free from its braid and rippling to her hips was just as intimate a view as the upper swells of her beautiful bosom.
    â€œMost of us do,” she said dryly.

    Different was not the description he was actually thinking. Luscious was much closer. Her swimsuit was a white one piece with high-cut legs and a low-cut neck that showed a generous amount of cleavage. Her body was the same golden tan as her face. The image of a toasted marshmallow drifted into his mind and he wondered if the inside of her would be as soft and sweet.
    â€œYou still don’t like me much, do you?”
    His question had her reaching for her drink. She swallowed down a sip before she answered. “You’re not bad. For a company man.”
    She couldn’t know how much Adam disliked that term. True, he was technically what people in the oil and gas business called “a company man.” But he knew a roughneck or driller or tool pusher classified him in the same loathsome way a private did his drill sergeant. Adam wasn’t a man who necessarily needed or wanted that much authority. But it was something that went with the job.
    â€œWhat made you want to be a geologist?” he asked curiously.
    Leaning back in the chaise, she stretched her long legs out in front of her. The night air was balmy. Adam had been right. This was the best time of the day.
    â€œEver since I was a little girl, I wanted to know why. Why was the grass green? Why did the stars shine? Why did sodium bicarbonate make buttermilk bubble? I looked forward to