He’d have to appeal to a different side of her. That is, if he
could explain himself before she started shooting.
“Miss Sullivan, I’d like to buy back this property from
you.”
* * *
Tori hung on the steps, the rage slowly uncoiling in her
belly. This man was determined to ruin everything she held dear. He had taken
away her reputation and very nearly her career. His turning on her suddenly had
also damaged her ability to trust men. Out of the blue, he’d accused her of
terrible things and tossed her out. She’d lost her first real apartment after he
fired her.
And now that she was trying to settle down and establish
herself again, he wanted to destroy her plans for her dream home. She just knew
it. Her jaw set firmly, she made her decision before he even asked the question.
If he were on fire, she wouldn’t bother to spit on him.
“It’s not for sale.” She slipped inside and let the door slam
behind her.
She was pulling off her coat, about to toss it onto the foldout
bed, when she heard the door of the trailer open behind her. Tori spun on her
heel and found the bastard standing in her tiny kitchen. He’d slipped out of his
winter coat and tugged off his hat as he entered. He stood there now in a pair
of dress pants and a plaid button-down shirt. The hunter-green of the top made
his own green eyes seem even darker and more intriguing than she remembered.
Because of the stocking cap he’d worn, his short, dark brown hair was messier
than she’d ever seen it.
Without his slick suits and perfect hair, he looked nothing
like the real-estate giant who had ruled over his company from the top floor.
But he still had a commanding presence. She’d forgotten how tall he was: at
least six foot two, with a powerful build. The large man seemed to take up all
the space in her trailer, which had always had the perfect amount of room for
her. It was as though he’d sucked up all the air, making her oddly warm and her
camper uncomfortably small.
And she hated that about him.
Without hesitating, she picked up her shotgun again.
Truthfully, it was loaded with shells full of recycled rubber pellets. She
carried it with her to the compost bin in case she needed to scare off any
foraging critters. She’d caught a black bear in the bin last week. The rubber
pellets would send animals scurrying without seriously hurting them. Hopefully
it would do the same with Wade Mitchell.
“Do you mind stepping back outside? I spent a lot of money to
renovate this trailer and I’m not going to ruin it by shooting you in here.”
Wade had only a momentary flash of alarm in his eyes before he
smiled at her in a way that made her cheeks flush and her knees weaken. She
remembered feeling that way whenever he would walk down the hallway past her
cubicle and greet her with “good morning.” She’d been fresh out of college and
in awe of the two young mavericks with their up-and-coming real-estate
development company. Alex Stanton was the golden playboy, but she was instantly
drawn to the darker, more serious Wade. Then and now, his wide grin and strong,
aristocratic features usually got him his way.
If she wasn’t careful, she might fall prey to them again. She
knew better than to trust a guy like him.
“Miss Sullivan, can we please talk about this without you
constantly threatening to shoot me?”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” Tori kept the gun in one hand
while she pulled off her hat and scarf with the other. She was burning up, and
it had nothing to do with her new propane heating system. It was Wade and her
overheated and long-ignored libido. She hated that the man who’d betrayed and
fired her could still send her pulse racing after all this time. “And it’s rude
to come inside uninvited, so you deserve to be shot.”
“I apologize,” he said, laying his coat across the bench seat
of her dining table. “But it is imperative that I discuss this with you
today.”
Oh, she was sure it was. No doubt he had bought the forty-acre
property beside her and wanted her additional ten to add to whatever ridiculous
project he was developing out here. There might be an army of backhoes and land
movers over the horizon just waiting for her to sign off so they could start
their work. But she wasn’t giving up this land. This purchase had been years in
the making. Her genealogy research had been what lured her up here, but from the
first time she’d set foot in the area, she knew this was where she wanted to
build her home.
Finding out the Edens were selling some property had been the
chance of a lifetime. The lot was perfect. It sloped down, slightly, but would
allow her to design a stilted, multistory home that had a living room with a
wide vista of windows overlooking the valley below. Being surrounded by two
hundred acres of tree farm on two sides guaranteed she wouldn’t have a strip
mall out her back door anytime soon.
She had a couple months in between projects to start designing
and building her house. It was the perfect opportunity just when she had the
time and money to jump on it. And he couldn’t have it.
“I know that you’re used to getting your way, Mr. Mitchell, but
I’m afraid it isn’t going to happen this time.”
On cue, her electric teapot began to chirp on the counter and
spit out steam. She’d turned it on before she’d stepped out to put some trash in
her compost bin, and now it was ready for her to extend some unintended
hospitality. When she turned to look at Wade again, he had seated himself at her
dining-table booth, a look of smug expectation in his eyes.
With a sigh, she set down the shotgun. It was hard to make tea
when you were holding a heavy, loaded firearm.
“May I ask how much you paid for the land?”
“You may not, although I’m sure it’s public record somewhere if
you take the time to have one of the corporate minions you haven’t fired look
for it.” She pulled out two teacups from her bamboo plywood cabinet above the
sink. She shook her loose leaf tea into two infusers, put them in the cups and
poured the hot water over them.
“My guess would be about a hundred and twenty-five thousand.
There’re no utilities run out here yet.”
Tori refused to look at him. Of course the real estate guy
could nail the price within a few thousand dollars. “What’s your point?”
“My point is that I’ll offer you double what you paid for
it.”
At that, Tori fumbled the jar of organic honey and sent it
crashing to the Marmoleum floor. Fortunately, it didn’t shatter. She quickly
crouched down to grab it, but he had reached out for it as well and beat her to
it. He held out the jar to her. Tori looked down at him, only inches away, and
felt a familiar and unwelcome tingle deep in her belly. When she took the jar
from his hand, her fingers brushed his and the tingle turned into a surge right
to her core.
Jerking upright as though she’d been burned by his touch, she
quickly recovered and removed the infusers, then added a dollop of the honey to
each cup. She plunked his tea down in front of him and took a seat on the
opposite side of the table.
“That’s ridiculous.” She said the words knowing she meant both
her reaction to him and his offer for her land. Tori knew better than to let
herself fall for Wade’s good looks or his seemingly good offer.
“Maybe. But that’s what I’m offering.”
“You’re hiding something,” she accused. “You’re the guy who
built your business buying cheap buildings and flipping them for a fortune. No
way you’d pay one penny more than is necessary to turn a profit on whatever
project you’re wanting to build out here.”
Wade turned to look her in the eye. A lock of brown hair had
fallen into his face, giving him a boyish charm she had to steel her resolve
against. “I’m not building anything out here. This isn’t about money.”
Tori scoffed. “You don’t get to be a millionaire before you’re
thirty unless you’re born into money or driven by it. Either way, everything is
about money.”
Wade watched her. He took a sip of his tea before he answered.
“This is about family. That’s more important to me than even money. This
property belonged to my parents. They sold it without telling me or my other
siblings. We never would’ve let them do that if we’d known. They worked too hard
their whole lives for this land. We grew up here. Our childhood was here. If
we’d known they were having financial problems, I would’ve taken care of things
before they resorted to this.”
Tori felt herself being sucked in by his story. The expression
on his handsome face was one of sincere concern. The words sounded so
convincing. But this was the same man who had praised her potential and work
ethic, then fired her the next day. Ryan had also seemed sincere, and nearly
every word out of his mouth over the past two years had been a lie.
She had been raised with a naive spirit by hippies who wanted
only to experience life and culture. They didn’t have a malicious bone in their
bodies and never thought other people did, either.
Life had taught Tori differently. Wade had taught her
differently. He had heard her pleas of innocence and turned his back on them. He
hadn’t believed her. So why should she believe him now?
The people who had sold her this land—Molly and Ken Eden—were a
very sweet older couple. No way they’d spawned a son like Mitchell. They didn’t
even have the same last name. It wasn’t even a well-planned lie. She wanted to
be insulted by his lack of faith in her ability to see through his crap. Did he
think she would just melt into a puddle at his feet the minute he knocked on the
door and flashed those deep green eyes at her? Or started waving cash?
She didn’t need Wade’s money. She’d paid cash for this
property. She was one of the most highly sought after green architects in
America. She’d traveled thousands of miles in this Airstream to build
environmentally friendly buildings, homes and businesses. Tori had several large
and successful projects in Seattle, Santa Fe and San Francisco. She was wrapping
up one in Philadelphia just after the first of the year. She did well enough
that she could laugh at his offer. But it couldn’t hurt to push him and see how
far he was willing to take this.
“What if I said I would sell it back to you for half a
million?” There was no way the land was worth that much unless there was oil,
gold or diamonds hidden beneath her feet. She doubted it, though. She’d never
heard of Wade Mitchell being interested in any of those things. The only thing
about land he cared for was what he could build on top of it.
Wade didn’t even flinch. “I would get out my checkbook and sign
on the dotted line so you could find an even better piece of land and everyone
would be happy. Let me assure you that nothing is more important than preserving
my family and my history.”
Wow. He was certainly desperate for this land. She almost felt
bad for him. Any other person might have immediately given in and made his day.
Four times the value was a great offer. A crazy offer. One that she was probably
crazy to turn down. Even with her success, half a million was quite a lump of
cash. Tori could certainly do a lot with it: buy new land, build her dream house
without a mortgage attached to it, get a new hybrid pickup truck. She had to
admit, if it were any other person sitting across the table from her, she’d
probably take the money and tow her trailer off into the sunset.
But it wasn’t any other person. It was Wade Mitchell. And she
wasn’t about to sell him this land. Not for any price. Just because it was worth
it to watch him squirm. This would be as close to payback as she would ever get.
It was his bad luck that he wanted
her
land.
“You’re really quite good,” she said, nodding and watching her
tea instead of his handsome face. She wouldn’t let herself get pulled in and
swayed by his mesmerizing eyes and fabricated sob story. She’d already caught
herself being a sucker once this year, and that was enough. Maybe if he came
around in a few weeks, she’d let him be her dumb mistake of the New Year. “Did
you practice that speech long or was that off the cuff?”
Wade stiffened, pushing the half-empty cup of tea aside and
shelving the charm. “Is all this animosity over your termination years ago?”
Now it was Tori’s turn to stiffen in her chair. He made her
seem petty for holding that over him all these years later. “Absolutely. I don’t
take affronts to my reputation lightly.”
“You weren’t worried about your reputation when you slept with
one of our suppliers and put my company in jeopardy.”
“I didn’t sleep with anybody. I told you then that I didn’t do
any of the things you accused me of. Nothing has changed. Just because you
didn’t believe me doesn’t mean I wasn’t telling the truth.”
“They were serious charges, and I needed to deal with them as
such. I did what I had to do.”
“And I’m doing what I have to do. I’m keeping this land. It’s
mine. Whether or not I like you or resent what you did is irrelevant.”
“This isn’t about me or you and your damaged pride. This is
about Ken and Molly Eden and everything they worked for. I want to give them
back what’s rightfully theirs.”
Tori straightened and shot him as lethal a gaze as she could
manage. “You mean,
mine.
I signed those papers at
the lawyer’s office two months ago. I didn’t hold a gun to their heads and make
them sell me this land.”
“Wouldn’t have surprised me if you did,” he said bitterly,
glancing over at the shotgun sitting on the counter.
“They sold it all on their own. I paid them full asking price
and covered all my own closing expenses, so it’s not like I cheated them,
either. I don’t know whether you’re their son or not, Mr.
Mitchell,
but let me just tell you that if you
are
their son, you’re a crappy one. They told me about Ken’s heart
attack and all their medical expenses. Where have you been? In Manhattan?
Worrying about making money?”