The Cowboy

edge of the bed and clasped her hands. The enormity of what he was planning in the name of vengeance nearly swamped her.
    "Rafe, you can't do it," she finally whispered.
    "Sure I can. Code of the West and all that, remember?"
    "This is not funny. Don't try to make a joke out of it. Rafe, I can't have this on my conscience." She shook her head. "An entire company in ruins because of a few nasty remarks made by some male flaunting his latest victory. I can't bear to be the cause of so much destruction. I fully agree Moorcroft shouldn't have said those things to you."
    "Damn right."
    "Look, he was deliberately taunting you because he knew he'd won on the Spencer deal. You know how men are, always pushing, jostling, shouldering each other around. They see everything in terms of victory and defeat and when they see themselves as winners, they like to rub it in."
    "Thank you for giving me the benefit of your deep, psychological insights into the male sex, ma'am. I think I like the Code of the West approach better, though. It's simpler."
    "That's because you like to think in terms of black and white. Rafe, my father himself said that whole mess last year was one big area of gray and he's a great one for preferring things in black and white. If he can let it go, you can, too. We have each other now. That's all that really counts."
    "Moorcroft has to pay, Maggie, and that's all there is to it. Stay out of it."
    "I can't stay out of it. I caused it. You've said so yourself, often enough. Think about what you're doing. Granted Moorcroft was out of line in the things he said, but he doesn't deserve to be destroyed because of it. He's put his whole life into Moorcroft Industries, just as you've put yours into Cassidy and Company. Furthermore, there will be dozens of jobs on the line. You know that. These things always cost a lot of jobs. Innocent people will get hurt."
    "For God's sake, don't try to make me feel sorry for the man or his company."
    "Then try feeling sorry for me," she snapped. "I'm going to have to bear this burden on my conscience for the rest of my life."
    "Hell. I was afraid you'd feel that way. I told you, you're too soft when it comes to things like this, Maggie. This is the way the business world functions and that's all there is to it."
    "You mean this is the way men function."
    "Amounts to the same thing. We still run the business world."
    Margaret leaped to her feet in frustration. "I can't stand it. I have never met such a stubborn, thick-headed, unreasonable creature in my whole life. Rafe, you are being impossible. Utterly impossible."
    "What the hell do you expect me to do? Act like that dim-witted Roarke Cody in
Ruthless
and let a multimillion-dollar deal go down the toilet just to please a woman?"
    Margaret faced him from the foot of the bed, her hands on her hips. "Yes, damn it, that's exactly what I expect."
    Rafe watched her with hooded eyes. "And if I don't agree to do what you want?"
    "I will be furious."
    "I don't care if you get mad. The question is, are you going to walk out on me?"
    "No, I am not going to walk out on you, but I am going to be very, very angry and I will not hesitate to let you know it," she shouted.
    "Prove it."
    "Prove what? That I'm mad? What do you want me to do? Take a swing at you? Break a lamp over your head? Believe me, I'm tempted."
    "No. Prove you won't walk out on me."
    "The only way to prove it is to let you go through with this crazy revenge plan. And I won't agree to do that. I'm going to fight you every inch of the way, Rafe, I promise you."
    Rafe laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back against the pillows. "You still don't understand. I want you to marry me. Now. Tonight. We can take a plane to Vegas."
    Margaret took a step backward, shocked. "Marry you? Tonight? Why? What will that prove? You already know I love you. What's the rush?"
    Rafe's smile was dangerous. "Maybe I still feel a little uncertain of you. Maybe I want to know you won't threaten to postpone the marriage as a means of manipulating me into doing what you want. Maybe I want to know that this time you love me enough to marry me even though you're madder than hell at me."
    Margaret exploded. "You sneaky son of a… You weren't satisfied with the way I bloodied my knees in that little scene down the hall a while ago, were you? You want me to trample my pride right into the dust, don't you?"
    Rafe shook his head. "No. I just want to know that you'll marry me even knowing you can't