The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

anything." Her writing, which had been part-time until last year, had become full-time after the disaster and she didn't regret it for a moment.

    "You dropped out of sight. Found a new apartment. Took your listing out of the phone book." Rafe leaned back in his chair and crossed his ankles once more on the coffee table. He sipped reflectively at his Scotch. "Took me a while to find you when I started looking. Your publisher refused to give out your address and your father was not what you'd call cooperative."

    "I should hope not. I told him I never wanted to see you again as long as I lived. I assumed the feeling was mutual."

    "It was. For a while."

    "When did you start looking for me?"

    "A few months ago."

    "Why?" she demanded bluntly.

    "I thought I made that clear. I want you back."

    Her stomach tightened and her pulse thrummed as it went into a primitive fight-or-flight rhythm. "No. Never. You don't want me, Rafe. You never wanted me. You just used me."

    His fingers clenched the glass but his face betrayed no change of expression. "That's a lie, Maggie, love. Our relationship had nothing to do with what happened between Cassidy and Company and Moorcroft's firm."

    "The hell it didn't. You used me to get inside information. Worse, you wanted to taunt Jack Moorcroft with the news that you were sleeping with his trusted manager, didn't you? Don't bother to deny it, Rafe, because we both know it's the truth. You told me so yourself, remember?"

    Rafe's jaw tightened. "I was mad as hell that morning when I found you warning Moorcroft about my plans. As far as I was concerned, you'd betrayed me."

    The injustice of that seared her soul. "I worked for Jack Moorcroft and I discovered you were after the company he was trying to buy out; that you'd used me to help you try to outmaneuver him. What did you expect me to do?"

    "I expected you to stay out of it. It had nothing to do with you."

    "I was just your pawn in the game, is that it? Did you think I'd be content with that kind of role?"

    Rafe drew a deep breath, obviously fighting for his self-control. "I've thought about it a lot during the past year. Every damn day, as a matter of fact, although I told myself at the time that I wasn't going to waste a minute looking for excuses for you. It took me months to calm down enough to start assessing the mess from your point of view."

    "Since when did you ever bother to examine anything from my point of view?"

    "Take it easy, Maggie, love. I realize now that you felt you had some legitimate reason to do what you did. Yes, sir, I've given it a lot of thought and the way I see it, the whole thing was basically a problem of confused loyalties. You were mixed up, that's all." His mouth curved ruefully. "And a multimillion-dollar deal went down the drain because of it, but I'm willing to let bygones be bygones."

    "Oh, gee, thanks. Very magnanimous of you. Rafe, let's get one thing straight. I never asked you to make excuses for me. I don't want you making excuses for me. I don't need your forgiveness because I didn't do anything wrong."

    "I'm trying to explain that I don't feel the same way about what happened as I did last year," he said, his voice edged with impatience.

    "If you're feeling a twinge or two of guilt about the way you used me and the way you treated me afterward, I hereby absolve you. Believe me, if I were in the same situation again, I'd act exactly the same way. I'd still warn Moorcroft. There. Does that make you feel justified in treating me the way you did?"

    He stared at her, his leonine eyes brilliant with some undefined emotion. "You weren't his mistress, were you? Not before or afterward."

    She wanted to strike him. It took everything she had to maintain her self-control. "Why should I confirm or deny that?"

    "Moorcroft said you'd been sleeping with him up until he realized I was interested in you. He saw a golden opportunity and decided to take advantage of it. He told you to go to me, let me seduce you, see what you could learn."

    Margaret shuddered. "You and Moorcroft are both outright bastards."

    "He lied to me that morning, didn't he? You were never his."

    "I was never any man's."

    "You were mine for a while." Rafe took another swallow of his Scotch. "And you're going to be mine again."

    "Not a chance. Never in a million years. Not if you were the last man on earth."

    Rafe ignored each carefully enunciated word. He frowned thoughtfully as he stared into the darkness. "From what