The Cowboy

who will be at the ranch while you're there, by the way."
    "Oh, my God." She felt physically sick as she put the untouched brandy down on the table.
    "Are you all right?" Rafe frowned in concern.
    "No."
    "It's not as bad as all that. They make a great couple, as a matter of fact."
    "When… where… how did they meet?"
    "I introduced them about four months ago."
    "For God's sake, why?"
    "Because I had a hunch they'd hit it off. Your father wasn't too keen on the idea at first, I'll admit. He was more inclined to string me up from the nearest tree. Seems he was under the impression I was the bad guy in that mess last year. When I straightened him out on a few details, including the fact that I still wanted to marry you, he settled down and saw the light of sweet reason. Then he met Mom and fell like a ton of bricks."
    Margaret stared at Rafe in bewildered horror. "I don't understand any of this. What's behind it? You never do anything unless the bottom line is worth it.
What is going on here
?"
    He smiled his thin smile. "If you want to find out you'll have to take a couple of weeks off and come down to the ranch." He reached inside the jacket he'd slung over the back of the chair and removed an airline ticket folder. "I've made the reservations for you. You're scheduled on the eight o'clock flight to Tucson next Monday."
    "You're out of your mind if you think you can just walk in here and take control of my life like this. I'm not going anywhere."
    "Suit yourself, but I think you'll want to find out what's happening and the only way to do it is to come down to Arizona."
    "If my father is crazy enough to get involved with your mother, that's his affair. I'll give him my opinion when he asks for it, but until then, I'm staying out of it."
    "It isn't just their relationship that's at stake," Rafe said calmly.
    Margaret dug her fuchsia-colored nails into the white leather upholstery. "I knew it," she bit out. "With you there's always a business reason. Tell me the rest, damn you."
    "Well, it's true your father and I are thinking of doing a little business together."
    "Good Lord. What kind of business?"
    "I'm going to buy Lark Engineering."
    It was the final bombshell as far as Margaret was concerned. She leaped to her feet. She wanted to call him a liar again, but even as the words crossed her mind, she was terribly, coldly afraid. "My father would never sell the firm to you. He built it from the ground up. It's his whole life. If he's thinking of selling out, it's because you're forcing his hand. What have you done, Rafe? What kind of leverage are you using against him?"
    Rafe rose slowly to his feet, looming over her. He dominated the elegant room—a dark, dangerous intruder who threatened Margaret's hard-won peace of mind as nothing else ever had. She looked up at him, feeling small and very vulnerable. But she refused to step back out of reach. She would not give him the satisfaction.
    "You really don't think very much of me, do you?" Rafe's mouth was taut with his rigidly controlled anger. "It's a good thing I learned something about handling my own pride this past year because the look in your eyes right now is enough to make a man feel about two inches tall."
    "Really?" Her voice was scathing. "And do you feel two inches tall?"
    "No, ma'am," he admitted. "But I probably would if I were guilty of whatever it is you think I'm doing to your father. Lucky for me I'm as innocent as a new foal."
    "Are you saying you're not forcing him to sell out to you?"
    "Nope. Ask him."
    "I will, damn you."
    "You'll have to come down to the ranch to do that," Rafe said. "Because that's where he is and he won't reassure you on the phone."
    "Why not?"
    "Because he knows I want some time with you down there and he's agreed to act as the bait. You'll have to fly to Arizona if you want to convince yourself that I'm not pulling a fast one."
    "And if I don't go?"
    "Then I reckon you'll sit here in Seattle and worry a lot."
    She shook her head, dazed. "I don't believe any of this. Why are you doing it?"
    "I've told you why I'm doing it. I want another chance with you. This is the only way I know to get it."
    "Even if that disaster last year didn't stand between us, we have no business thinking about getting involved again. I've told you that. I could never marry you, Rafe. Not for long, at any rate."
    "I'll make you change your mind."
    "Impossible. I know you too well now. The truth is, I knew you too well last year. That's the reason I