The Rebel (The Millionaire Malones Book 3) by Victoria Purman Read Free Book Online Page A

Evan? It was the next best thing. It was whathe craved, after so many years of his own family’s dysfunction and so many years on the road in lonely hotel rooms, with women whose names he didn’t remember.
    ‘Well, the universe seems to have granted you that wish, hasn’t it, because you’re stuck here with us until that knee is better.’
    ‘There could be worse things than being stuck with you.’
    ‘But I’m bossy, remember?’ There was a hint ofvulnerability in her smile, which tugged at him.
    ‘How could I forget that?’
    She looked up at him, the tiredness in her face transforming into something else, then chuckled on a sigh. ‘Evan’s fast asleep now but he’ll be up early. Like six o’clock early. So, I’m heading off to bed. I might read for a while if I can keep my eyes open.’
    He reached for her, stroked his fingers up and down her arm,so soft. ‘Thanks for dinner.’
    She glanced at the spot where his fingers were on her skin and then met his eyes, her smile cynical and so, so Maggie. ‘Toasted cheese sandwiches. My gourmet specialty.’
    He reached for the hem of her T-shirt, his fingers grazing her hip. ‘Hey. They were excellent toasted cheese sandwiches with just the right bread-to-cheese ratio.’
    Then he stopped touching herand put his hands in his pockets where they belonged.
    She glanced down at his left leg. ‘Will you need a hand with anything? Clothes, getting into bed …?’
    ‘No. Thanks. I’m good.’
    ‘Well. Goodnight,’ Maggie turned and walked to her office with the small sofa bed.
    ‘Night night, Maggie,’ Cooper said quietly as he watched her go.
    *
    Maggie stripped off her clothes, tugged on a camisole top that accidentally matched her sensible white knickers and got into bed. She pulled up the blankets to her chin and lay there in the dark, on the slightly uncomfortable mattress, willing sleep to come.
    It had been the only decent thing to do, to invite Cooper to stay so she could make sure he looked after himself and didn’t do anything stupidwith that knee. More stupid than he’d already done, that is. It was the least she could do because if she was honest, she knew she could never repay him completely for what he’d meant to Evan over the years.
    It had been a hard decision to make, to have a baby on her own. As a young woman with the travel bug, Maggie had already decided she didn’t want to have children because it would keep hertied down. She didn’t want anything to keep her from the next adventure or the next experience. But once she’d found she was pregnant, completely unplanned and unexpected, everything within her changed. In a flood of hormones and with a million possibilities swirling in her head, she allowed herself to imagine what being a mother would be like, and she found herself unable to contain the joy shefelt at the prospect of becoming a mother.
    Everything about her life from then on had been her choice, and she was happy with it. She really was.
    But sometimes … sometimes she still wondered where she and Cooper might be now if she’d walked into that bar in Bali on her own that night six years ago. She’d noticed him as soon as she’d seen his blond hair above the crowd and when he’d turned toher, as if he’d known the second she’d walked in, his blue eyes shone and something had shivered up her spine. But then Vance appeared at her side, snaking his arm around her, and Marion arrived with a loud laugh, and she’d ended up pregnant and on her own, with Cooper as a friend instead of a lover.
    What if Cooper hadn’t set his sights on Marion and had turned his attention to her instead? Oh,she could understand why anyone would fall for Marion. She was loud and so full of Irish craic that everyone was drawn to her.
    She asked herself the question once again: what if Cooper had chosen her that night?
    She turned on her side and shoved her face into her pillow. It was no use going back, she knew that. Things happened because