Harlequin Desire January 2021--Box Set 1 of 2 by Maisey Yates (inspirational books .TXT) 📗

Really, if it didn’t bother her, it shouldn’t bother him.

“Because there are things you don’t know about why I agreed to come and work here.”

“You lost a bet, cowboy. Seems pretty straightforward to me. Though, the bet had nothing to do with this, so don’t go and try to cheapen it now.”

“I’m not going to,” he said, his eyes level. “Cricket, why do you think I bet myself as your ranch hand?”

“You thought you were going to win.”

“No. I thought I was going to lose. I knew I was going to lose. Your level of bravado was not that of a woman who had an iffy hand.”

“How…” She felt utterly aghast. “How can that be?”

“It just is, sweetheart. I knew for a fact that you were going to win, and I agreed to these terms because I wanted to be here. Because I wanted to… I wanted to show you that you didn’t have the chops to be a rancher.”

“You what?”

“I wanted to talk you out of it. Because I wanted to buy this place.”

She frowned. “You… You were tricking me?”

“Yes. Though, in fairness, I never lied to you, not once. I never lied about how much work it takes to run a place like this. Everything I said to you was the absolute truth. The morning wake-up time was real. The amount of work and money and time that is going to be needed for this place is all real. And nothing I said to you was off base there. But I certainly didn’t do anything to encourage you. Not really. Because what I wanted was for you to give up and throw in the towel, and for me to be there ready to buy you out.”

“Jackson…”

“Yeah. And now I feel like an ass. Because I didn’t know that all this was going on. That you thought we might be related. And I…”

“So wait a minute, were you going to…seduce me to try to get the ranch away from me?”

“No.”

“Just please tell me this was real. If nothing else, Jackson, just tell me this was real.”

“It was real. But that doesn’t mean it can be anything but tonight.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s a disaster. Because I’m not the kind of man who can give you what you want. You’ve already been hurt by too many people in your life, Cricket, and I don’t want to be another one.”

“Well, too bad. Because this is hurtful.”

“I’m sorry about that. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“No. You just wanted to crush my dreams and make me think that I wasn’t up to them, and then buy my dream piece of property out from under me. Jackson, you did want to hurt me. It was just that you didn’t know me, so you didn’t particularly care. And if you feel guilty now, it’s only because you’ve seen what a pathetic human being I am, and I was a virgin on top of it.”

“I don’t pity you.”

“Then what is it?”

“Having seen you naked, having been inside of you, I can’t take advantage of you. Okay? Because yeah, I can stand here and justify my actions, and say that I didn’t lie to you like that makes it all okay, but I know it’s not, Cricket. I know it was a shady thing to do. And the fact of the matter is, I could ignore what a shady thing it was when I wasn’t personally involved with you, but after tonight I think it’s pretty safe to say that personal involvement has happened. From dragging you in front of my dad to getting into bed with you.”

“Well, then how can you stand there and say it can’t be anything else? If we are already personally involved…”

“It’s a mess.”

“Oh, no argument here. Believe me. I’ve been pretty much mired in the mess this whole time.” She let out an exasperated sigh. “Don’t you know that I have had a crush on you the size of the Willamette River for… I don’t know, years? So finding out that you were possibly my brother was about the worst thing I could think of. Do you have any idea what it’s like to spend years lusting after somebody, and then find that you might share a dad? It was horrifying. I’m sorry, but I needed to know, and then once I did know… I needed to be with you. Because I felt so wrong, in so many ways, for so many years—I think this had to happen for me to…get over it. To start feeling some things that are…a little bit more normal. Like, believe me, none of this was how I saw…the hookup between us going. But that whole trying to get my ranch thing… That was pretty awful. And, you know, not something I thought you would do.”

“Cricket, I didn’t know you had a crush on me. But I’d venture to say that you might have a slightly better view of me than is realistic. I’m just who I am. I’m not a particularly bad man, but I’m not a really great one either.”

“Why my ranch?”

“I’m right next door. It just makes sense. If I want to expand…”

“Why do you need to expand?”

“It’s what people do.”

“I mean, to what end? For more money?”

“No,” he said. “For more of something that’s mine.”

“Oh. Well, I mean I understand that. Wanting something that’s yours. But this ranch is mine. And you can’t have it. And I don’t really care how hard it’s going to be to make it work. It’s going to be mine. You underestimated me. You had no idea about everything that was going on in here.” She tapped her temple. “Honestly, it’s been a wasteland of horror for the past…six months at least. So, don’t go trying to scare me away.”

“I’m going back to my place tonight. Let’s just…cool off.”

She sputtered. “I don’t want to cool off.”

“I need to.”

She stared at him. “We had a deal,” she said. “And none of that’s changed because of what