Sara Orwig - The Forbidden Texan

Thane.”

When she looked up to meet Jake’s gaze, he looked away, but she had seen how the letter had refreshed the pain of losing his friend. Silence stretched between them for a few moments until she spoke. “I suppose you better tell me what it is you want me to do.”

“I have a letter, too, with very specific instructions, which we can get into later. In the meantime,” he said, removing another envelope from his briefcase, “Thane instructed me to open this envelope, which is from him to you. It’s his gift to you for taking the job and he wanted me to know about it. In addition to what’s in this envelope, I’ll pay you the regular fee for your work. Let me know your fee and we’ll go from there.” He held out the envelope to her. “Just so that you know, he wrote that Vivian knows and approves of what’s in here.”

When she took the envelope from him, his fingers brushed hers again and that sharp awareness made her glance up into an intense brown-eyed stare that caused her pulse to jump. What chemistry did they have between them? Unwanted chemistry. She didn’t want to be attracted to a Ralston or have her heart flutter by a simple brush of fingers. And he felt it, too. It showed in a revealing flicker in his eyes. Sparks flying between them would make working for him challenging. And definitely something she shouldn’t do.

There were a dozen reasons to turn down this job. She had great respect for Thane Warner, but this wasn’t a job she could accept.

She looked down at a brown envelope that was wrinkled, smudged, had small tearstains, but was still intact. She pulled open the flap that wasn’t sealed and withdrew a cashier’s check. “You said you know what’s in here.”

“Yes, I do. I still have Thane’s note that said to open it and look.” He paused as she looked down at the check in her hand.

Stunned, she stared at the check, unable to process the zeroes she was seeing. “Good heavens. Is this real?”

“Absolutely. Thane has paid you a million dollars to do this job.”

“I can’t accept that much money for a job like this.”

Jake shrugged. “Thane’s not alive. He can’t use it. Vivian has inherited his estate worth multimillions. Besides, she’s a billionaire heiress with a successful art career and Thane’s thriving ranch that her new husband, Mike Moretti, will make even better. She won’t need the money. It’s yours if you’ll take this job.”

Stunned, Emily looked at the check, thinking about what he had just said, about where else the money might be used to benefit others. “I’m shocked. I can’t even grasp this. Why would he do this?”

“He wanted you to take this job. My guess is that he thought you would turn me down without a good reason to do the appraisal. If we work together, our families will know it. If you take this job, this is the beginning of the end of a feud that is over a century and a half old.”

In that moment, Emily realized she could not possibly turn down this job. Her gaze met Jake’s. She was going to live under the same roof with the handsome rancher facing her. A charmer, a man who loved beautiful women, parties and no ties. Could she live in the same house with him, work with him every day for the coming month or however long it took, and keep from falling in love with him? Could she work with him and avoid a broken heart? Could she do this and avoid seduction?

Two

Jake had watched her read the check and when all color drained from her face, he had known Thane would get part of what he wanted. She would take the job. Jake was poised to catch her because for a moment she looked on the verge of fainting, which surprised him since she was well-fixed in her own right. Not only did she have her own successful appraisal company, but her family had old money. They had Kincaid Energy, an oil company, and her dad was still CEO, her brother Doug was COO and her brother Will was an executive, too. Lucas had a ranch, but was on the board and was in Dallas nearly every week.

“This job is a life changer and will make me a millionaire all on my own without family money,” she said, looking up with her wide light brown eyes. “You know I can’t turn down this job now,” she said.

“I think that was Thane’s intention.” Jake noticed she didn’t have the look that his usual dates possessed. Except now that he was paying close attention, she did have thickly lashed, big light brown eyes, very smooth skin and full rosy lips. She wore no jewelry or makeup. His gaze flicked over her loose-fitting black cotton shirt and black slacks. The shirt hung to her hips, hiding her waist. So why was there some chemistry between them that kept the air around them electric? He was certain she felt it as much as he did.

“I can’t believe this. Why would he give me a check this size? Why would he do this at all? There are others in this business who are successful.”

“Thane was wealthy. He didn’t want to leave loose ends and that meant hiring us. To pay that much, he obviously thought you’re the best person for the job. Either that or he was hell-bent to try to put an end to the feud and having a Ralston and a Kincaid stay together on a ranch and work together is a start.”

“Oh, yes, it is. This is like a dream,” she said, looking down at the check again as if she still couldn’t believe it. “I wasn’t going to take this job. I didn’t think there would be any way you could persuade me to accept your offer. There is a way and Thane found it. There are too many good things I can do with this money, plus help my own career along. I have to tell you, yes, I’ll take the job.”

Sitting back in his chair, he smiled at her, wondering how well they would work together. “Good. I want to do as much as I can to keep my promises to him. You get a million. I get another ranch, a chunk of West Texas—all to take care of an old house, private belongings that he didn’t want to fall into the wrong hands and, at the same time, we’ll at least be the first blow against the feud. Hopefully, when others see us work together and live under the same roof, they will lighten up about the feud.”

“I hope my brothers don’t cause any problems. They aren’t going to like this. And neither will a lot of my relatives.”

“This is a working ranch and from what Thane told me in the past, he has plenty of security, plus the cowboys and staff who live there. You can warn your brothers.” He sat back and crossed his legs again. “Thane took very good care of things, but he hadn’t gotten around to dealing with the house and its contents when he went into the service. I want to get out there as soon as possible and get the job done. I plan to go look at the house this week. Do you want to come along?”

“Yes. I’d like to see what we’re talking about.”

“Today is Wednesday. I have appointments tomorrow. Friday morning I’m going to see Thane’s parents. That’ll be tough, but I practically grew up in his house. Mr. Warner spent hours with Thane and me. He taught me how to fly-fish, how to use a knife so I wouldn’t cut off my fingers, how to rope a calf. He came to our ball games. I need to go see him.”

“That’s fine.”

“So how about Friday afternoon to go to Thane’s ranch? Then we can fly back to Dallas and I’ll take you to dinner that evening.” While she was not his type, he wanted to show his appreciation for her taking the job and allowing him to keep his promise to Thane. “I’ll pick you up here and we’ll fly to the ranch. We’ll look the house over and decide when we can start.”

“If you want, I can get the cleaning crew started early because I have someone I work with often and they’re reliable. I also know a couple of painters who can get the house painted inside and outside if you’d like.”