Read Online A Seductive Proposal by Caris Roane - Free Book Online Page B

“I’ve solved the dilemma.”
    “There was no dilemma to solve. I’m keeping the winery. Period.”
    Quiet but determined.
    He liked her a lot but decided on a different tack. “I’m ready for a good meal, how about you? They’re holding a table for us. Can I at least buy you dinner?” He heard her stomach growl. He chuckled. “I know you’re hungry.”
    A blush crept up her cheeks vying with all the red Sedona dust still on her face.
    She compressed her lips. “Fine. We might as well get this settled now rather than later.”
    Of course she’d meet things head on.
    “That’s the spirit.”
    She glared at him.
    As the hostess led them to their table, he put his hand on the small of her back, but she jerked away from him and cast him a look from hell right over her shoulder. His face felt scorched.
    He tossed up his hands, but he couldn’t keep from smiling. What was it about her that set his body on fire? Although all this resistance wasn’t helping, kind of like putting one foot on the brake, while pressing the accelerator full force with the other. Now if she’d just let go of the brake, man would this car fly.
    * * * * * * * * *
    Carly felt stretched to the limit and irritable. She accepted the suggestion and ordered the prickly pear margarita on the rocks. After several minutes she realized that Quint no longer talked. He sat adjacent to her on her left and when she glanced at him, she saw that he watched her over the rim of his bottle of ale. “What?” she snapped.
    “I apologize for just showing up. That was rude of me.”
    “Yes it was,” she said, as though she fired her words through a pistol.
    Her margarita arrived.
    Quint grew silent once more.
    “What?” she shot again.
    “Did you have lunch?” He frowned a little. Maybe it was a scowl.
    “No. What does that have to do with anything?”
    “You’re edgy tonight.”
    I’m edgy because you’re here. She sighed. “I didn’t expect to see you again. I thought we’d already wrapped this up.” She sipped her margarita through the straw. She shoved the straw aside and took a deep drink.
    “What’s good here?” he asked, flipping through the menu.
    “The restaurant is called, ‘The Cowboy’. You figure it out.”
    “Yes, ma’am,” he drawled.
    This time she laughed. She sipped her margarita a little more. She scooted down in her seat. She’d been sitting like a soldier at attention and now her shoulders ached. Okay, maybe she’d been a lot edgy.
    After she devoured a salad, baked potato and a beautifully grilled spencer steak, and after Quint had done the same, he asked, “Will you hear me out?”
    “Shoot.” But she didn’t intend to listen.
    She had said no and she meant no.
    She sighed. She leaned her elbow on the table and sunk her chin in her hand. She watched his mouth open. The words of his proposal began to flow.
    Now why was such a gorgeous man still unattached? Oh, yeah. He didn’t intend to go the marriage-and-rug-rat route. But what about love? Probably no time. But why was he like that? How had he gotten to be Quint in the first place? Wounded by a woman once? Scorned? Betrayed?
    “Are you listening?”
    She shook her head. “Sorry.”
    “What were you thinking about?”
    “What made you such a solitary man?”
    He narrowed his eyes. “I wouldn’t use the word solitary. There’s very little about my life and my work that doesn’t involve other people, working together, solving problems, forging ahead. Oh, you mean because I don’t want a wife.” She nodded, her chin still resting on her hand.
    He continued, “I’m just not interested. Not the marrying kind. My dad had three more wives after my mother passed. I thought I’d keep my life simple and forgo the married-and-divorced part of the equation.”
    “But you would make the prettiest babies as handsome as you are.”
    His mouth fell agape. “We’re talking business, Carly.”
    “No we’re not. You are. I’m just not