Some Like It Ruthless (A Temporary Engagement) (4 page)

Cole took a shaky breath, remembering how it felt to have Maggie. How it felt to have her only because she loved
him
. “He wasn’t worth it. You couldn’t see he just wasn’t worth it.”

He put his hand over hers, looking into her eyes. “I’ll never be sorry for sleeping with you. But I will be eternally sorry for taking your trust and flushing it down the toilet.”

He willed her to see the truth. That there was nothing in life that he regretted, except for that.

Maggie stared unblinking into his eyes, floated silently next to him, and finally looked away.

She said, “How do you know I haven’t already forgiven you?”

He snorted. “Then say it. Say ‘I forgive you, Cole. And I would love to accept your help.’ And then I will go find a hat to eat.”

Her lips curved. “It would almost be worth it to see that.”

“I’ve learned how to sweeten a deal since we last negotiated.”

She chuckled, unhooking her hands from the ledge and floating away from him. He chased slowly after her, refusing to give her space.

He said, “But before you say anything, know that I’m also going to need a please to go with that forgiveness.”

She narrowed her eyes, shaking her head.

He smiled. A shark smile. “I’ve also learned how to get what I really want when I know I’m going to win.”

“I don’t think you’ve learned when you’re winning a negotiation.”

He didn’t stop smiling. “Oh, I’ve learned it.”

He watched her temper rising in her eyes, watched her fight the knowledge that she couldn’t let this opportunity get away. He’d get her forgiveness, get her in his bed again, and hell, maybe even move into the ranch house with her.

Well, he
was
a bastard. It wouldn’t be any help to let her forget that.

Then he remembered her penchant for trying to drown him and yielded slightly. “But we can split my payment. Half now, half later. Please now, forgiveness at the end. Deal?”

She dove under the water, swimming swiftly to one end of the pool and then back to him.

Her head broke the surface and she took a deep breath. “Bastard.”

He nodded but didn’t back down. “Say it, Maggie, and I’ll do it.”

“
You
say it and I’ll do it.”

He started to back away, then laughed. He’d said please once before. So had she. They could keep things even. He could give her that.

He took her hand. “We’ll say it together. No tricks.” He looked down at the hand he was holding and said, “We’ll say it together and help each other out. And then forget about those other times. We’ll start over.”

“You really think we can?”

He looked back up into turquoise eyes. “I’m willing to try.”

She blinked and swallowed. He counted to three softly and they whispered together.

“Please.”

Cole inhaled deeply, pulling her closer. He said, “Let’s never do that again.”

Maggie’s lips stopped their pinching and she let him tow her towards him.

He said, “Besides, the only place I ever want to hear a Caldwell beg again is in the bedroom.”

“You’re really pushing it.”

“I can’t help it. It’s in my genes.”

Her legs tangled with his and his heart thumped in his chest.

She said, “Don’t remind me of your genes.”

“A man can’t help where he comes from.”

Maggie looked unconvinced and he didn’t want to spend any more minutes defending his parentage. He was done feeling inferior about the mud he’d crawled out of.

He planted his lips on hers, his eyes wide open. Wide enough to see that she wanted him, just not enough. Never enough.

She murmured, “I’m not going to sleep with you.”

“You’re going to. It just won’t be part of our deal.”

This time he wanted her in his bed, begging, because she wanted him. Not because she sold herself too low.

A diabolical gleam entered her eyes and she wrapped her arms around his neck, her breasts prodding him in the chin, and put her mouth next to his ear. She whispered, “If that’s why you’re doing this, it’s only fair to let you know I won’t be inviting you into my bed again. Ever.”

He dropped his chin until his lips touched her skin. He kissed the silky skin on her chest and said, “It’s not why I’m helping you. It’s just a side benefit.”

He slid his hands down her thighs and pulled her legs around his waist. “And who said anything about a bed? This pool works just fine.”

Maggie’s teeth bit gently into the fleshy part of Cole’s ear and his fingers curled involuntarily into her thighs.

“Christ, Maggie. You know I can’t wait to get under you again.”

Her teeth bit a little harder and her low laugh zinged right down his spine.

She pulled back from him, looking behind him. She said, “You’re going to be waiting a lot longer.”

A golden voice behind him said, “Hey, Sis. Who are you entertaining?”

Cole’s body tightened. He turned around, Maggie’s legs still around his waist, his fingers still digging into her thighs but now not with lust.

Tanner pulled a lounge chair toward the pool, sipping from a tumbler and choking when he looked up and saw just who Maggie was wrapped around.

Tanner stopped dead and stared. His hand shook, the ice clinking and his drink sloshing.

Maggie tried to unhook her legs and Cole crushed her tighter to him.

Maggie murmured, “Down, boy. He’s not smirking now.”

No, he wasn’t. Cole had wiped that smirk off his face twelve years ago.

Cole looked away from the sunny-assed shit and into Maggie’s suddenly clear green eyes. Looked to see if there was any love left in there for the man who’d married her sister.

When she didn’t even bother to glance at Tanner, Cole loosened his grip on her thighs, let her unwrap her legs.

Tanner finally choked out, “What is he doing here?”

Maggie looked at Tanner, flicked her eyes to the glass he was holding, then looked back at Cole. She stared at him, all but saying out loud that she didn’t think he would really go through with it. That he’d really help her for just a promise of forgiveness.

Cole smiled at her and said, “Why, I’m marrying the empress here. Congratulate us, Tanner. You’re the first to know.”

Tanner Beaumont sat in the dark, watched the moonlight reflect off the pool, and drank. He’d emptied the first bottle, was well into the second, and had at some point stopped bothering with a glass at all.

Cole Montgomery. Here. And engaged to Maggie.

If Tanner had had any proof that his luck was finally turning, this disproved it. If Tanner had had any hope of seeing respect in society’s eyes again, this ended it.

Cole hated him. Had hated him since they were both seventeen. Cole had destroyed Tanner’s family just to get even with him. Cole would destroy this family as well.

They were already hanging by a thread. Cole must have smelled the blood in the water and come to finish them off. In one fell swoop, he would end both the Beaumonts and the Caldwells for good.

Tanner smelled Ginny before he saw her. Just a slight hint of magnolia to warn him to wipe his eyes, to slide that first bottle under his chair.

She slid her arms around his neck, leaned against his back and pressed her cheek against his. She murmured, “He’s gone.”

“For good?”

She shook her head. “He’s our only hope. You see that, right?”

It was like a fist to the stomach and he stood shakily.

She said, “I know what he did to your family. I know that you can’t ever forgive him. But we need him. He’s the biggest man in Texas now and all of our creditors will do whatever it takes to stay on his good side.”

“We don’t need him, Ginny. We have other options. I have
ideas
.
Plans
.”

She smiled, total trust in her eyes. “I know you do. And this will give us time for one of your ideas to start working.”

A tear slid down his cheek and she wiped it gently away.

He hated crying in front of her. Hated that even with his tears to prove it she couldn’t see what a loser he’d turned out to be.

Maggie saw. Maggie knew.

But never Ginny. She still looked at him the same way she’d looked at him years ago. Still loved him. Still thought he was everything she wanted. Still thought he would give her everything she deserved.

She was the only one who still believed it.

Maggie watched Cole’s taillights disappear down the drive.

He’d crowed to Tanner that they were engaged and Maggie thought maybe she knew why he was going along with this charade. For forgiveness? To tie his name to the Caldwells more like.

She hadn’t seen it coming.

He could still surprise her it seemed and she didn’t like it one bit.

Ginny had invited him to dinner and Cole had stayed. Flirting and telling stories of his oil wells that would make anyone think twice about eating their steak rare. Oil was dangerous business. Dangerous and profitable.

Tanner had stayed outside. Drinking.

Rosa had taken one look at Cole sitting at the table and had let out a stream of uncomplimentary Spanish. And when Maggie had told her they were engaged, Rosa had grabbed for the cross hanging around her neck. She’d stared at Maggie with her mouth hanging wide open and whispered, “Tu padre.”

If her father had been more than a heartbeat, if he’d been lucid enough to comprehend, it would have killed him. Sent him straight on to the hereafter.

And she could have only told him that Cole had taught her yet another lesson. Don’t offer a deal to the devil. Because even if you k
new
he wouldn’t take you up on it, he would.

Cole had merely sat there grinning, as if he’d known exactly what Rosa had said, what Maggie was thinking.

Maggie was getting tired of Cole’s lessons. Twelve years ago, she’d learned that if a contract wasn’t enforceable it wasn’t worth shit. And to always make sure that what you were trying to save was worth it.

Maggie turned away from Cole’s fading taillights and stared at her home.

Were wood and bricks worth fighting for? Now that she had a real chance at saving it, was it worth it?

She loved Dallas. Loved the hustle and bustle, the chaos. Missed her apartment in the city, missed living
alone
. She and Ginny and Tanner had rented out or sold all their properties and had come back to the ranch house to live. To share expenses, to cut costs.

They’d come back because Daddy was here, slowly dying, and they couldn’t bear to move him.

They’d come back because this was home. This was Maggie’s home. And she wasn’t ready to give it up yet. Maybe after her father died. Maybe after they buried him next to her mother, she could sell, move to the city for good. Leave her sister to clean up the mess that was her husband.

But she couldn’t do it yet. Not just yet.

Most likely Cole would make her rue the day she’d asked him to help her. But right now, he was all she had.

And if he was going to make her rue, by God she’d make it worth it.

Maggie arrived at Cole’s just as the sun peeked above the horizon. His truck was parked in front of the detached three-car garage and she breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t have to drive out to Midland again. She knew he only came home on the weekends and was surprised he bothered at all. It made as much sense as Maggie coming home to the ranch house every night from the city, but most people were none too rational about home.