Wild Ride Rancher. Maureen Child

had come up with while he was at MIT and now had enough money to do what his heart had always demanded.

      Funny how that had worked out. Liam’s father had been the Perry ranch foreman for years, and when he died, Sterling had offered to put Liam through college with the understanding that once he graduated, Liam would come back to the ranch and work off the debt as foreman. With no other options, since his father had left more debts than money, Liam had gratefully accepted the deal.

      And it was that college education and what it had enabled him to do that was allowing Liam to finally strike out on his own. He’d come out of MIT with a degree in genetics, and enough money to do what he wanted. Now he was set to undertake the breeding program he’d always dreamed of. By the time he was finished, people would be clamoring to buy mares from his herd.

      There were four prize mares in foal on his ranch right now, the beginnings of that remuda he’d been working toward, and he sure as hell didn’t want some storm coming in and wiping it all away before he had a shot to enjoy it. “I’ll come by once the storm blows over,” he told Joe.

      He hung up and noticed the wild oaks lining the Perry Ranch drive were beginning to do a dip and sway in the rising wind. Scowling some, he cursed Chloe Hemsworth for dragging him away from what was important for a meeting about some camp.

      Liam had never met Chloe, but he knew her type of woman. Money. Pedigree. Always moving from some charity dinner to a luncheon at the “right” place with the “right” people. She’d run with high society until she’d up and decided to open a business in Houston. According to Sterling, Chloe was running her own event planning business out of the city now.

      “Figures,” he muttered, steering his truck onto the road that would take him into the city. “The woman’s been doing nothing but partying most of her life. Who better to throw the damn things?”

      He didn’t know much about her. Only that she’d been calling the Perry Ranch almost daily for weeks to pitch her idea for a cowgirl camp.

      Liam had no problem with women as working ranch hands. Hell, he had a couple women working for him at the Perry place. What he didn’t like was the idea of a bunch of young kids running around a ranch where they would disrupt the workdays and, worse yet, get hurt. But Sterling had ordered him to take the meeting with Chloe and hear her out. If Liam approved her ideas, Sterling would go along with it.

      “Just another good reason to stop being anybody’s foreman,” he muttered.

      His tires whined along the asphalt, and in his rearview mirror, those clouds looked darker and bigger. “This is going to be the shortest damn meeting on record.”

      By the time he hit Houston, Liam was on edge. The hairs at the back of his neck were standing up as the air felt electrified by the coming storm. Or maybe, he told himself, it was just this meeting that was riding him.

      He didn’t much care for rich, useless women trying to carve out a name for themselves. This Chloe had probably never worked a real job in her life, and was no doubt setting up shop in some fancy office where she could pretend to be the boss while she ordered a bunch of minions around. Hell, Sterling should have taken the meeting himself.

      He steered around slower traffic, mumbling to himself. “Just get in, hear her out, say no and get back to the ranch. That’s all you have to do.”

      And it was more than enough. Liam was no stranger to rich women. Hell, before he’d had money of his own, he’d come across quite a few. In Texas, you couldn’t take a step without stumbling across an oil or cattle princess. He’d even hooked up with one for a while when he was in college. Liam had believed she was different. Had thought there was a future for them somewhere down the line. Until he’d had the rug pulled out from under him. After that knock on the head and heart, Liam had learned his lesson. Wealthy, self-involved females were like Christmas ornaments. Shiny, but empty inside.

      He drove into the downtown, cursing every roll of the wheel. Cities were all right for some people, but give him the empty roads of the country any day.

      “Too many damn people,” he muttered, and spotted the building that would be the new Houston home of the Texas Cattleman’s Club.

      They were spreading out from the original site in Royal, and there was already a driving fight for leadership of the new club. As a wealthy ranch owner himself, he’d be joining as soon as the club was up and running, but Liam wasn’t interested in being in charge of the thing. Let the old lions of Texas fight over the club like it was fresh meat.

      “Nice place, though.” Even if it was in the city. He’d been to the TCC in Royal, and it was a low-slung building filled with history.

      This new TCC was once a three-story boutique hotel now being rehabbed by Perry Construction. Liam had a key to the place, since as Sterling Perry’s foreman he often had to come into the city with instructions for the construction crew.

      When it was finished, it’d be impressive. The third floor was bedrooms for the club president and the chairman of the board. The second floor was going to be conference rooms and offices for the TCC officers. There was still a lot of work to do on the place, but Liam knew that at least one of the suites on the top floor was finished, because Sterling had insisted on having a place for either him or other board members to stay if they had to. Sterling’s insistence on his and his friends’ comfort was no surprise.

      Still, he turned his head from the club to the old, brick office building across the street. Liam checked the GPS just to make sure, but yeah. That was Chloe Hemsworth’s address. Surprised, Liam studied the building. It had a lot of years on it, but looked sturdy enough. It wasn’t what he’d pictured. He’d imagined a rich girl would want some plush, sleek, penthouse office in a modern building.

      But wherever the hell she was, he had to take this meeting. Frowning, he climbed out of his truck, and tugged his hat brim down low over his eyes. The wind was still kicking, and the sudden gusts were enough to snatch a man’s hat and send it to Albuquerque. Stepping around the people hurrying along the sidewalk, Liam headed for the office where the words It’s a Party were scrawled across a wide front window in bright pink paint. Shaking his head, he opened the glass door, stepped inside and stopped dead.

      This he hadn’t been prepared for.

      A woman—Chloe?—was bent over, picking something up off the floor. His gaze locked on that luscious curve of behind, showcased in a short, black skirt. She glanced at him over her shoulder, sent him a bright smile and said, “Hi! Can I help you?”

      Slowly, she straightened up and the view only got better. She wore a dark blue, off the shoulder blouse, and her long, light brown hair lay in loose waves that kissed those bare shoulders. She wore sky-high black heels, and her gorgeous legs were tanned. Her amber eyes were wide, her mouth still curved in a welcoming smile, and all Liam could feel was the heat swamping his body.

      He’d seen pictures of her of course. Like every other wealthy woman, Chloe’s face was in the society sections of the Houston newspapers, and splashed all across the news website he checked every day. But she was even more gorgeous in person. Every inch of him felt tight and hot, and when she talked, he realized he hadn’t heard a word.

      “Sorry. What?”

      She stared at him, and Liam saw a flicker of the heat that still had his body at a slow burn.

      “I’m Chloe Hemsworth,” she said just a little breathlessly.

      That voice conjured up all sorts of interesting images in his mind, and his body responded to them instantly. She was exactly the kind of woman he avoided—and he wanted her. Bad.

      Liam knew he was in deep trouble.

       Two

      “What happened?”

       I couldn’t believe it had gone so wrong so quickly. Pacing this stupid room wasn’t helping, but I felt like a caged