The Marriage Bargain by Victoria Pade

Author:Victoria Pade
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: American Light Romantic Fiction, Romance: Modern, Contemporary, General, Romance, Fiction, Romance - General, Romance - Contemporary, Love stories, Fiction - Romance
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-10-15T20:11:03+00:00

Six

Adam didn’t say more than six sentences to Victoria all day Thursday. He had her break camp just after dawn and each of them led two horses back home. She brushed down all four stallions and got them settled in, while he spent the remainder of the day and into the evening on the telephone and at the computer and fax machine conducting business.

He managed to not succumb to the urge to talk to her once he finally finished work, the way he had every other night they’d been at the ranch.

And he resisted the even stronger urge to repeat any of those three kisses they’d shared in evenings past—something he considered quite a feat.

But by Friday he didn’t feel any better than he had since their argument Wednesday night.

Of course it didn’t brighten his spirits that Victoria wasn’t speaking to him, either, except out of necessity. But still the things she’d said to him in the heat of anger kept gnawing at him and by Friday when he decided the chore of the day would be for her to repair the cabin roof, he also decided that some hard physical labor might help clear his own head.

The trouble was, once they’d both climbed the ladder and gone to work pounding nails through loose shingles into the rooftop, each beat of the hammer seemed to echo Victoria’s last words when she’d told him off Wednesday night.

I’m beginning to hate you right back….

The sentiment shouldn’t have come as a surprise. But it had. A surprise he didn’t like much.

Not that it didn’t make sense. This wasn’t a popularity contest, after all. He hadn’t started it to win her heart any more than he started takeovers to win friends.

But somehow he’d never factored into the equation that she’d end up hating him.

And he’d sure as hell never guessed it would bother him if she did.

But there he’d been Wednesday night, telling her he didn’t want her to hate him. And meaning it.

Why should that be the case? That was the question that had been gnawing at him ever since. Why should it matter if she was beginning to hate him?

Shouldn’t he count it as a sign that he was exacting his revenge? Shouldn’t she hate him and resent him and feel all the things he’d felt during those years after her silence had nearly put his family on the streets?

Her getting to hate him was an indication that he was succeeding at what he’d set out to do. So, great. Terrific. Hate away!

That was what he should have been thinking. But it wasn’t.

How could it be when he didn’t hate her anymore?

That had been a revelation to him.

It hadn’t even been something he’d realized until the words had come out of his mouth Wednesday night.

My real problem is that I don’t hate you anymore, either.

That’s what he’d said. And he’d meant it, too.

But it was just as tough to accept.

He didn’t hate her anymore….

If that wasn’t bad enough, all he had to do to find something worse was to think about just how far from hating her he was these days.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.