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Chapter One

John Garrett stuffed his checkbook in the back pocket of his jeans and turned and walked away from the school administrator He swore to God, the next person who asked hiravation I temper

Did the good people of Duluth, Texas believe he wasn’t already sharing his wealth? Did they think he kept his millions to hiave all right, and very generously so

But evidently, it wasn’t enough and the populace of the toas always co up with new and better ways to spend his money Just this month alone, he had paid for a new cafeteria for the local Baptist church A church into which he’d never set foot, and never planned on setting foot, either He’d funded a neing of private roo care to that of a s enough to supply every student in the school district with the latest iPad

What he needed to do, and do quickly, was set up a foundation for the people of the county and hire so hi his interaction with the people to a minimum

He fully admitted to himself that he was unsocial He flat-out didn’t enjoy people Didn’t care for large crowds, didn’t like small talk of any kind

He kept to hiroceries; he did all his banking online He was a loner, and he liked it that way

He had one reason to seek out company, and one reason only And that was for sex If he didn’t have such a rampant sex drive, he’d probably never even feel the need to leave the ranch

But he’d always had a very active libido, and when he showed his face in town, somebody or other was always after his money The problem was, he’d lived here all of his life and the story of his success had grown and spread far and wide Everyone either knew hiht or reputation

He took long strides across the school parking lot and opened his truck door As he pulled away from the school and headed into the town proper, his mind was on the most expeditious way to set up a foundation He truly didn’twith the people and the myriad details that drove him crazy He didn’t want to be bothered with it anymore But the more tiet rid of souy

His as stations the small town of Duluth possessed and idled up next to the diesel pump He climbed down froan pu diesel into the first of the two tanks his truck held

A car pulled in on the other side of the puht and as punize the older h town and not a local citizen

The pu his first tank was full and heof the other tank He pulled back the lever so it would continue to fill automatically and went inside the convenience store to buy a bottle of water

He unscrewed the lid, downed half of it, and walked back to his truck

He had to walk right past the wo trouble Silently cursing incompetent people and women in particular, he stopped and forced himself to speak to the slim line of her back as he came up behind her “Need help?” His voice was rusty fro but helpful, even to himself

Sarah McAlister pressed repeatedly on the pu sound that signaled its readiness to fill her tank

No such luck

She bit the inside of her cheek, stuck her credit card in her back pocket, and knew she was going to have towalk of shaet the pu at puas Every station seemed different; every pump had a mind of its own Why was it that she could control an unruly classroo apart a quadratic equation, but she couldn’t get a siasoline pump to work?

She was about to hang the nozzle back up when she heard the deep, al fro back into the store and listening to the disgruntled instructions of a store clerk and then co help from a man whose deep voice conveyed she was no more than an imbecile?

With those choices in raceful arc to face t

he ed by the tone of his voice As she swung her body around, he stood directly in front of her and her eyes landed on his chest and travelled slowly up to his face She barely asp that tried to leave her throat

Her first thought was that it was a shauy who looked like this had to have an attitude But then, didn’t they all? Didn’t every ift to woht they could get through life being as rude as they wanted and putting not one bit of effort into basic politeness? Orhis help at all, he was doing his duty

His duty, his nod to human kindness

Right He didn’t look as if he had a kind bone located anywhere in his body His indescribably hot body The guy was fine, no question about it There was also no question that he knew it She felt her defenses go on alert and her muscles tense as she stole a few seconds to study hiid posture,him seem even more unfriendly than his tone of voice conveyed His body was lean and muscular, with a solid density that screamed power and capability He exuded an air of self-confidence that caant waves

Looking up into his eyes, Sarah’s breath caught again at the striations of color that ca orbs His eyes were so dark brown they were al directly at hiaze swiftly left his and moved to detail the rest of his face He had olive skin, and the suntan highlighting his features only added to his swarthiness He had a sharply chiseled chin and twin grooves bracketed his mouth There was a frown line on his forehead between his eyes in the shape of a V, and it looked to be perle imperfection in his otherwise completely handsome face, and it only added to his inherent masculinity His hair was cut short and brown in color, but the kiss of the sun had highlighted it with so many different variations that it almost seemed salon-contrived But she knew it couldn’t be

This wasn’t a man who had ever stepped into a salon before She was sure the closest he had ever come to a professional cut was no doubt the proverbial barber-shop

His skin was pulled tautly over his cheekbones and his bone structure was nified by the darkness of his eyes It was an extre sensitive about it This man was no doubt what God had in , it wasn’t good-looking in a way that could be described in any feminine terms He wasn’t pretty, and he certainly wasn’t beautiful He had a guy’s face, with a broad forehead and a too-large, blunt nose For a moment she was hit hat he would have looked like as a boy He would have been pure boy, probably almost plain because he wouldn’t have had a bit of ‘cuteness’ about hirandmother would have made a comment about That’s what a boy is supposed to look like A boy Not pretty like a girl And this then, is what a boy like that would look like when he grew to be athat would soften the rough edges