Tough Enough Read Online Free PDF Page B

me,” Margaret said desperately. “I won’t let you.”
    “Let me stay tonight.”
    “No.”
    He drew back slightly, releasing her. “I had a hunch you’d say that but I had to ask. Don’t worry about it, I’ve waited this long, I can wait a little longer.”
    “You’ll wait until hell freezes over,” she said crisply. “You’ve said what you had to say, Rafe. Now leave.”
    He hesitated briefly. Then he nodded and picked up his hat. He jammed it down low over his glittering eyes. As he reached for his jacket, he glanced at the airline ticket he’d left on the table. “Next Monday. The eight-o’clock flight.”
    “I won’t be on it.”
    “Please.”
    Margaret’s mouth fell open in amazement. “What did you say?”
    “I said
please
. Please be on the eight-o’clock flight. Come to Arizona to talk to the woman who will probably be marrying your father. Come to Arizona to find out what kind of evil deal I’ve cooked up to get your dad to sell his company to me. Come to Arizona to see if I really have changed. Come to Arizona to give us both a second chance.”
    “I’d be a fool to do it.”
    “There hasn’t been anyone else for either of us for the past year, Maggie. That should tell us both something.” He hooked the jacket over his shoulder and strode to the door.
    “Rafe, wait, I’m not going to do it, do you hear me? I won’t be on that plane.” Margaret managed to unstickherself from the carpet and go after him, but she was too late.
    The door closed softly behind him before she could ask him how he knew there had been no one else for her during the past year.

CHAPTER TWO
    I T HAD BEEN THE LONGEST YEAR of his life, Rafe thought savagely, and Maggie looked as if she’d spent it sleeping on rose petals and sipping tea. It was almost more than he could take to see her looking so serene and untouched by the past twelve months.
    He clung to the knowledge that she had been as celibate as he had. It was the only thing that gave him any real hope. On some level she had been waiting for him, he told himself. On some level she was still his and knew it.
    Outside on the street in front of her apartment building he managed to find a cab for the ride back to his hotel. Knowing he was heading toward a lonely hotel room when he should have been spending the night in Maggie’s bed did nothing for Rafe’s temper. Still, the players in the game were finally in position at last and the first moves had all been made. The action was ready to start.
    She was as striking as ever, he admitted to himself as he sprawled back against the seat in the cab. More so. She was a little more sure of herself now than she had been a year ago. And a hell of a lot less willing to accommodate herself to his schedule, he thought with grim humor.
    The sight of her tonight had nearly shattered his carefully honed self-control. He had promised himselfhe would remain in command of the situation, but when she had walked through the door his first instinct had been to pull her down onto the carpet of her elegant living room and make love to her until she was wild. He needed desperately to feel her respond to him the way she had the last time on that memorable night before everything had gone up in smoke. Lord, he was starving for her.
    He had never been so hungry in his life and he had to be patient. He stared moodily at the cheerfully garish lights of the public market as the cabdriver turned east on Pike Street. It had been a year since he had seen Seattle at night.
    The cab halted in front of the lobby of the expensive hotel and Rafe got out. He reached for his wallet.
    “Nice boots,” the cabbie remarked as he pocketed the excessive tip.
    “Thanks.” Rafe turned toward the lobby.
    “Hey, if you’ve got nothin’ else to do this evenin’,” the cabbie called after him, “I can give you a couple of suggestions. I know where the action is here in town. No sense spendin’ the night alone.”
    “Why not? It’s the way I