LITMIR.BIZ

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if they could drill deep enough they’d hit a big well. As soon as he decided which lease had the most potential, he’d get Kid out there to inform the lease holders. In this economy he was hoping they’d be grateful for some extra income. Roscoe had sat on those leases for a reason and now Cadde had to make it work.

      Reading through the engineers’ notes, he glanced at his watch. Dammit! He didn’t have time to go out to dinner. Irritated, he found himself looking at the time every few minutes. At first, Jessie’d balked at the real marriage thing, but then she’d caved. His moment of victory was short-lived, though. Living up to his own demands wasn’t going to be easy.

      The luxury of having an apartment down the hall from his office was something he was used to. Now he had to make the drive in every day. What was he thinking? At the time he was angry and wanted to get back at her. After cooling off, he realized some things were not going to work in his favor.

      He slept about three nights a week at the house to keep an eye on Jessie, as he’d promised Roscoe. But he rarely saw her. He worked long hours and she was usually in bed when he came home and still asleep when he left. Through Rosa he knew she was okay and everything was running smoothly. If he needed to talk to her about business, he’d call and come home early.

      “Damn you, Jessie, for screwing up my life,” he said under his breath. Her biological clock was ticking and she’d zeroed in on him, her husband, like a buzzard on a carcass. But he was the logical candidate. They couldn’t continue to live in their farce of a marriage. It would have been so much simpler if she had wanted a divorce or an annulment. Then they could have gone their separate ways. Still, he wouldn’t have felt good about that. He’d made a promise to Roscoe and, unlike his father, his word meant something to him.

      Closing the files he got to his feet and headed to the apartment to get ready for a date with his wife. And God help him, it was the last thing he wanted to do.

      JESSIE WENT THROUGH ALMOST every dress in her closet and finally shimmied into a black slim-fitting one with a V-neck. Looking in the mirror, she frowned. The V showed too much cleavage and she actually had some to show off. For so long she’d been flat-chested.

      Taking another glance, she decided to wear the dress. After all, tonight she was starting a new role—being a wife and hopefully a mother. She sighed. Why did it have to take a business deal to bring them together? Why couldn’t they have magically fallen in love? Because Cadde never saw her as anyone other than Roscoe Murdock’s daughter.

      Pushing the depressing thought aside, she sat at her dressing table. With her olive complexion, dark hair and eyes she needed very little makeup. She applied liner to her eyes and brows and then added some lip gloss. That would do. She brushed her long tresses until the static electricity almost ate her brush. Rarely did she wear her hair loose, but tonight she let it flow down her back.

      She glanced at herself in the mirror and wondered like she had so many times in her life—who did she favor? Her father had blue eyes and blond hair. Without a doubt she took after her mother. When she’d asked about her, he’d say, “Jessie, baby, your mother left us a long time ago. You’ve got me, so put a smile on that pretty face.” Then she’d feel guilty for asking about a woman who would leave her child. It didn’t keep her from wondering, though.

      She’d even asked Rosa, but Rosa had come to work for them after the tragedy. She’d never met Jessie’s mother.

      As a child she’d dream about the mysterious woman coming back, but she didn’t. In her teens Jessie had finally accepted that. Her mother had made her choices for whatever reasons and Jessie seldom thought about her these days.

      Glancing at the crystal clock on her vanity she saw it was after eight. Damn! Where was Cadde? If he bailed on her, she’d make his life a living hell. She laughed out loud. She really was her father’s daughter. But she wasn’t making anyone’s life a living hell. If he didn’t come, they’d go back to the status quo of ignoring each other. That would be her living hell.

      “Get a grip, Jessie,” she said to herself as she reached for a long strand of pearls her father had bought her in New York. Slipping into high heels, she hurried downstairs to wait.

      CADDE WAS RUNNING LATE, but he couldn’t help it. He’d had a call from one of his engineers and they talked about the Louisiana leases.

      He rushed through the back door and found Jessie pacing in the living room, her dog trailing her every step.

      “I’m sorry I’m late.” The rest of his excuse evaporated as he stared at his wife. He knew the poised Jessie in business suits and the casual Jessie in jeans, but the sexy siren in front of him was someone else entirely. He could feel his blood pressure taking a hit.

      She looked at the gold watch on her arm. “Fifteen minutes, to be precise.”

      “I told you I had a lot of work to do and I got away as quickly as I could.”

      “And so gallant about it, too.”

      “Let’s go then.” He struggled to look anywhere but at her cleavage. He felt like a teenager seeing breasts for the first time.

      Jessie bent to pat the dog. “Go upstairs to your bed, Mirry. I’ll be back later.” The little thing trotted away as if she understood every word.

      “Where did you get her?” he asked to focus his attention on something beside her. If it was up to him, they’d just go upstairs but he knew that wasn’t what she wanted—just yet. Damn! Why did women have to be so picky?

      “I found her on the side of the road,” Jessie was saying. “Someone abused her severely and left her for dead.”

      He experienced a moment of guilt for not liking the little dog. The cruelty of people floored him, but Mirry seemed to have found a savior in Jessie.

      “You’re staring,” she said.

      He blinked. “I’ve never seen you with your hair down.”

      She called his bluff immediately. “My hair is here.” She touched her head.

      “Okay, I was staring at your breasts,” he admitted like the honest Christian boy that he was. “I never realized you had…”

      “Breasts,” she finished for him.

      He nodded, wishing they’d never started this conversion.

      “They’re pretty much standard equipment, Cadde.”

      He sighed. “Could we go?”

      “Sure.” She picked up a small purse from the coffee table.

      “Do you want to go in my truck or your Suburban?”

      “Your truck,” she replied. “My vehicle has feed in it and it’s smelly.”

      “What do you feed?”

      “Animals that would starve if I didn’t.”

      They talked as they walked through the dining room to the kitchen. Rosa had said something about animals and now he was curious.

      “What kind of animals?”

      “I have five horses from the Houston SPCA. Their owner left them to starve to death in a pasture. I know someone there and she calls me when they have an animal that’s been mistreated or abused and needs a home. I also have a donkey that had an infected eye and a ram with one horn. Gavin cut off the other one and operated on the donkey’s eye. They’re doing very well. The horses were skittish at first, but between Gavin, Felix and me we’ve managed to gain their trust. Gavin doctors their sores every week or so.”

      “Who’s Gavin?”

      “The vet.” He opened the back door and she asked, “Do you want to know who Felix is?”

      “No. I sign his damn paycheck. Why isn’t he picking up the feed?”

      “Felix was busy and I was in town at a board meeting, as you may recall, so I picked it up. No big

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