The Barons of Texas: Jill by Fayrene Preston Read Free Book Online Page B

and she was standing, their eyes were almost even. “I’m simply trying to find out if I can confide in you without you running off to Des and telling him everything I say to you.”
    “I would never betray you.”
    She got the impression his words had a deeper meaning, but perhaps it was her imagination. But there was another problem that had nothing to do with her imagination. She was standing so close to him that she could smell him, could smell the scent she had awoken to just hours before. As unobtrusively as possible, she moved a couple of feet away.
    But it didn’t do her any good. Last night was indelibly etched in her brain, which was odd, since half of it had been spent in severe pain and the other half in sleep. When she had time, she needed to figure that one out.
    “Okay, then, see what you think about this idea. You know Des. You know women. Would you consider teaching me how to attract Des and become a—” she swallowed against a hard lump in her throat and prayed he wouldn’t laugh at her “—femme fatale?”
    She paced farther away from him, then turned and came back to him, unsure what she would see on his face. But to her surprise, he was eyeing her thoughtfully.
    “Say I did. What would be in it for me?”
    The idea was so new she hadn’t considered that part, but it made sense that he would want some formof compensation. “I don’t know. What would you want? Money?”
    “I’ve got plenty of money.”
    “Then what?”
    “Something that wouldn’t cost you a dime.”
    “And that would be?”
    “Your agreement that we work together in developing our land.”
    She hadn’t even seen it coming. “Damn you, Colin. You know—”
    “I do know,” he said, cutting her off. “Family custom. So you’re going to have to decide which is more important to you—the teachings of a father who is long dead or getting Des.”
    With a sound of anger, she whirled away and began pacing the conference area of her office. Comfortable chairs surrounded a long meeting table. Couches flanked a fireplace. A refreshment center was in a corner. But she barely noticed any of it. It seemed her brain would only hold Colin, and to think clearly, she had to get away from him, away from his smell that was still in her sheets at home, away from his smile that kept diverting her.
    The funny thing was that she wasn’t a pacer. The new habit seemed to have started since last night. Damn, she had done it again. Even the two words—last night—had the power to bring memories flooding back. As firmly as she could, she pushed those thoughts aside and tried to train her mind on the problem at hand.
    Thinking rationally and adding up everything she knew to be true, she could come to no other conclusion. Colin would be an enormous help to her in hereffort to gain not only Des’s attention but, more importantly, his agreement to marriage.
    What was more, without even looking at his ideas, she knew he was right. If they developed their properties together, they stood to make more money. It made sense. Everything he had said made sense. She would make millions and gain the skills to achieve her greatest goal.
    So why did she feel there was something she hadn’t thought of in this bargain to which she was about to agree? But even if there was, the positives far outweighed any possible negatives. With Des’s wedding band on her finger, she would at last control Baron International, something she had wanted for as long as she could remember.
    She stopped and looked across the office at Colin. “Okay, it’s a deal.”
    He slowly smiled. “Good decision.”
    “When do we start?”
    “On you, or on our two pieces of land?”
    Impatiently she closed the distance between them. “I’ll look over your ideas and come up with some of my own. Then we can make another appointment to discuss the land. But for now, I’d like our focus to be on turning me into whatever you think I need to be in order to attract Des.”
    He came off