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“Not really” His smile was all teeth “Jim ht just be right You can never tell about women’s hormones, can you?”
“That’s it! Write this off as soh about” The car pulled to the curb in front of the hotel The doorelica threw the door open before he could reach it “Having to admit the truth, that you couldn’t afford to let ht just have shown you up, would probably have killed you,” she snapped as Cade stepped out of the car and came toward her
“You? Show ar, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but you were in way over your head just sitting there! I can take what you know about this business, stuff it into a thier”
The electric lobby doors swished open as Angelica approached
“The only thing that was thimble-size in that office was your brain,” she said coldly
“Da her toward him “Don’t you think it’s time you ad about oil”
“What youto the bathroo up!”
Cade laughed “Miss Palar,” he said “I’ll bet she’d swoon”
Angelica glared at him Then she spun on her heel,their best to pretend nothing out of the ordinary was happening in the posh lobby, and stabbed the call button for the elevator
“Miss Palht up to her, “would tell me that I should have known better than to expect you to treat me with respect”
The elevator doors slid open They stepped inside, and Cade pressed the button for the penthouse floor
“Angelica,” he said He took a deep breath “Look, let’s not let this get out of hand I wasn’t trying to insult you It’s just that Larrabee and I speak the sae”
“Give elica stepped into the corridor that led to the suite “I hate being patronized I hate it al treated like a—a second-class citizen”
Cade unlocked the door to the sitting room They stepped inside and he slammed the door after them
“Will you listen to me, dammit?” He clasped her shoulders and turned her to face hi about the oil business That’s not an insult, it’s fact”
“I’ Besides, I do know about finances, and debt structures, and if you’d only given me a minute or two of your precious time, I could have told you about the plan I’d worked out and offered Mr Jio!”
“It couldn’t have been much of a plan, if he turned it down”
“It was a terrific plan, but the person who made it was a woman!”
“Dammit, all you knohat you’ve read in textbooks, and that’s not what’s happening in the real world!”
Angelica’s fists clenched “It’s , “on’t give me the chance to find out!”
“Angelica…”
Cade blew out his breath Dary as hell, but that was all draining away, especially now that he saw the
telltale glint of tears in her eyes
OK Maybe he’d hurt her feelings But he hadn’tthe way he always did, ready for the one-on-one kind of thing he was best at, and within seconds he’d been sure that Larrabee was responding positively to it
Only a fool would have done soer that
Besides, if he’d thought about Angelica sitting there at all, it had been a quick flash, an awareness that he was putting on one hell of a show and that he had to be dazzling her with how quickly he’d turned Larrabee around
Instead, he thought, with a twinge of guilt, instead, he’d ed to put those tears in the eyes of—of…
Cade’s heart kicked against his ribs He’d put tears in the eyes of the only woman he’d ever loved
Angelica had turned away froile and vulnerable, and his throat constricted
“Angel,” he said softly He reached out and touched her shoulder gently “Angel, I’ht”
She turned and looked at him “Do you mean it?” she said, and wiped the back of her hand across her eyes
“Yes, of course” He smiled and drew her toward hiain”
She siving way
“Me neither,” she whispered “It’s just—the thing is, you made me feel so useless…”
Cade nodded “I know”
“There I sat, the head of the Gordon Oil Company, and—”
“Well, sure” He shtened all that out before ent into that ured you weren’t quite ready to admit that you weren’t really the head of Gordon Oil, so—”
Angelica pulled back and stared at him “What do you mean? I never said—”
“Angel We both know there never was a verbal agreement”
She sed dryly “Oh?”
“But I can understand that what happens to the coed to your father” Cade threaded his fingers into her hair and tilted her face to his “Tell you what I’ll direct whoever I put in charge to send ress, and—”