Millionaire on Her Doorstep

“Find me someone else to work with and you can cut my salary in half.”

Wyatt’s brows shot up. “You’re serious!”

“Damn serious,” Adam told him.

Wyatt studied him for long moments. He’d seen that look on his son’s face before. Stubborn, defiant, even a little reckless. And he felt as if thirty years had rolled back and he was staring at himself in the mirror.

“Well, I’m serious, too,” Wyatt told him. “I can see you’re letting your personal feelings get in the way of the real purpose here. To get gas and oil from the ground and eventually to the consumer.”

Ducking his head, Adam jammed his hands in the front pockets of his jeans and stared at the toes of his cowboy boots. His ruined cowboy boots. But he tried not to think about that now. He could probably forget that Maureen had slung him out of that open-topped Jeep, too. But could he bear to be around her day in, day out? The woman bothered him in ways he didn’t want to think about.

“I have no personal feelings for Maureen York,” he said bluntly.

“It didn’t sound like that a few moments ago when you were practically biting her head off,” Wyatt pointed out. “Did the two of you...you didn’t come on to the woman down there in South America, did you?”

Adam appeared shocked by his father’s question. “Dad, Ms. York is probably getting close to thirty!”

Wyatt’s expression grew wry. “Since when did a few years’ difference in ages ever stop you?”

Adam had the grace to blush. “Well, maybe she isn’t that much older than me. But I can safely say she’s...far from my type.”

“Good.” Wyatt gave Adam’s shoulder an encouraging pat. “Then it won’t be a problem for you to go back into my office and assure her you’re looking forward to working with her.”

“I’ll do my best to lie like hell.”

Wyatt chuckled. “Trust me, Adam, in a few months’ time, you’ll be thanking me for hiring the woman.”

Maureen had almost decided not to wait another minute when the door to the office swung open and Adam Murdock Sanders entered the room. She immediately rose to her feet and clasped her hands behind her back.

“Where is Mr. Sanders?” she asked him without preamble.

“I’m the Mr. Sanders you’ll be working with. My father has gone home to our ranch.”

Maureen moistened her lips and told herself to remain calm. She’d never been an emotional woman. It was one of the reasons she was successful in spite of her gender. But there was something about this young man that got under her skin like no one ever had.

“Look, Mr. San—Mr. Murdock Sanders,” she corrected pointedly, “I believe you and I both know we could never work together.”

Adam totally agreed. But as his father had voiced a few minutes ago, this was one time he was going to have to put his personal feelings aside. This earthy-looking woman was a highly intelligent scientist. He’d been around her for less than a day, but the short time had been enough for him to conclude she’d known her business.

He walked to the desk and propped one hip on the corner. “I’m willing to try.”

“Because your father is forcing you to?”

Adam tried not to bristle at her question. “Wyatt doesn’t force me to do anything. He isn’t that sort of father. And I’m not that sort of son.”

Looking at him, Maureen could well believe he wasn’t a man to be pushed around. In spite of his young years, he already had more presence than a man had a right to possess. And it wasn’t just his physical appearance. Though heaven knew how the sight of his lean, broad-shouldered body shook her right to the marrow of her bones.

“Yes, I can believe that. I can’t see you bending to anyone.”

Adam’s gaze searched her face for a clue as to where her thinking was headed. Yet somewhere along the way he forgot why he was looking. Instead, he began to take account of her high cheekbones, smooth golden skin and chocolate-brown eyes. Her wide, full lips were stained with cherry-red lipstick, and the bright contrast against the rest of her bare face was the most erotic thing Adam could remember seeing on a woman.

Deliberately clearing his throat, he said, “Look, Ms. York, I realize we don’t know each other that well and—”

“Four hours at the most,” she interrupted.

Adam nodded, then feeling as if the office was closing in on him, he turned and walked over to a small table holding a coffee machine, paper cups and other fixings.

“Would you like coffee? Or there’s a soda machine at the front of the building,” he offered.

“Coffee will be fine,” she accepted. “Leave it black.”

He poured two cups and carried one to her. He’d intended to simply hand it over, then move away. But as he’d discovered in the short time he’d been with her in South America, his intentions went awry whenever he was near Maureen York. Instead, he remained less than a step away from her, his eyes going once again to her red lips. “I...understand you really weren’t trying to kill me. It just seemed that way.”

“Believe me, Mr. Sanders, if I’d been trying to murder you, I’d have found an easier, more thorough way than slinging you out of an open-topped Jeep.” She sipped the coffee, grimaced at the bitter taste, then leveled her eyes on his face. He had strong, bony features, darkly tanned skin and eyes as green as a wet emerald. His hair was the rich color of polished mahogany and flopped onto his forehead in a thick wave. If she had to describe his looks in one word, it would have to be sexy.

“Do you actually believe we can work together?” she asked him.

Adam couldn’t imagine getting any sort of work done while in this woman’s company. But he was going to keep that opinion to himself. Sanders Exploration needed a good geologist in a bad way. If it had to be Maureen York, then he’d do his best to be a professional about it.

“I can forget our first meeting if you can,” he said.

She smelled like lilacs on a warm summer night, and before Adam could stop them, all sorts of questions about her were running through his mind.

“How generous of you,” she replied.

A pent-up breath drained out of him. If his memory served him right, she’d told him she was divorced and that she’d worked as a geologist for nearly ten years. Other than that, he knew nothing about where she’d come from or how his father had managed to ferret her out of a long list of potential candidates for the job.

“I’m trying to be,” he agreed.

Maureen took another sip of coffee. “I, uh, the next day after the accident, I was on my way to the hospital to check on you, but an unexpected call forced me to turn around and head to the airport to catch a plane back to the States. I called the hospital later, and a nurse assured me you were going to be fine. I was glad.”

Back in the hospital, Adam had told himself he didn’t care if Maureen York had the courtesy to see if he was going to live or die. But now...well, hell, he felt like he was fifteen instead of twenty-five. It was downright ridiculous how much better her explanation made him feel.

“I have been...fine. Just hampered with a cast.” He forced himself to move away from her.

At the corner of the desk, he picked up his coffee cup and carried it over to the glass wall. The pineand spruce-covered mountains spread in a panoramic view to the south. Reluctantly, he kept his eyes on their beauty rather than Maureen York’s.

“What brought you here to Sanders Exploration?” he asked. “Six weeks ago, you obviously had a job with a good company.”

Maureen was wondering the same thing herself. She hadn’t been unhappy with her former employers. Their headquarters were based in Houston and you couldn’t get any closer to the oil and gas industry than that. She’d been paid a top-notch salary and the people she worked with had been easy to deal with. But she’d been feeling stifled by the city. And though she hated to admit it, she’d had to face the fact that her life had grown stagnant. She wanted and needed a change. Still—if she’d had any idea this man was a part of Sanders Exploration, she never would have agreed to hire on.

“For one thing, I wanted to get out of Houston. I didn’t dislike the city, but I was tired of living in an apartment and dealing with the fast pace. I want a house with a yard and trees.”

He couldn’t stop his eyes from cutting over his shoulder at her. “Sounds like you want to settle down rather than gear up for work.”

Squaring her shoulders, she walked around the desk and joined him at the windows. “I guess you could say I’d like to slow down. But not in the way you’re thinking.”

His dark green eyes met her brown ones. “I didn’t know there was any other way for a...woman.”