What's Cooking? Read Online Free PDF Page A

chocolate, and in her life that was saying something.
    "Where are you, Maggie?" he asked, sounding as if his patience had already been tested beyond its limits. "Why did you take off?"
    She ignored the questions and asked one of her own. "How did you find my sister?"
    "You mentioned her a couple of times. She works for a high-profile law firm. It wasn't all that tricky," he said, a familiar wry amusement threading through his voice. He was clearly awfully damn proud of himself.
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    "1 meant, why did you go looking for her?" Maggie revised. "You know how to reach me if you're that anxious to talk to me."
    "I know your number," he corrected. "I can't speak to you, though, unless you pick up. After leaving a dozen messages?'"
    "Thirteen," she corrected, without thinking of the implication.
    He chuckled. "Then you did get them."
    "Yes, 1 got them, but only a few minutes ago. Ashley's seemed more urgent."
    "Then you did intend to call me back?" he asked skeptically.
    "Eventually."
    "That's what 1 figured. It wasn't nearly soon enough to suit me. I decided I needed to be more proactive, so I came looking for your sister."
    "I'll ask again?why?"
    "To find out where you ran off to and why you left without a word to me."
    "I did not run off. I'm on vacation," she said, sticking to her story.
    "Do you usually take totally unscheduled vacations?"
    "What makes you think this was unscheduled? I could have been planning it for months."
    "Were you?"
    "No," she admitted, "but you didn't know that."
    "Actually I did. Veronica told me. She said this was highly unusual."
    "My assistant doesn't know everything," Maggie said defensively, because the truth was, she was not normally an impulsive person, except when it came to love.
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    And that was a habit she was trying very hard to break. "Why does any of this matter to you?"
    "Because something tells me that this sudden vacation has something to do with me."
    "Your ego needs a reality check."
    "Does it really? Okay, then, since you didn't run off to avoid me, you won't mind tel ing me where you are, so I can join you. I have a few d ays off."
    "As a matter of fact, I do mi id," she said emphatically, ignoring the fact that hex blood had suddenly started humming with anticipation.
    "Because you're with another man?"
    Maggie sighed. They both knew she wasn't. She'd made the mistake of telling Rick it had been months since she'd dated anyone else. That stretch of celibacy had been her last drastic attempt to keep frdm making another mistake in the romance department. Sleeping with Rick had ruined a six-month track record she'd been very proud of.
    "That's not the issue," she said. "I don't want to see you."
    Rick chuckled. It was the laugh of a man who knew better. "Give me a couple of hours. I'll bet I can make you change your mind. If 1 can't, I'll leave."
    It wouldn't take him ten minutes, Maggie thought with self-derision. She had to keep him far, far away from Rose Cottage.
    "Sorry," she said. "I'll call you when 1 get back. Maybe we can go out for drinks and catch up."
    She hung up before he could try to convince her to change her mind. She'd simply have to have faith that Ashley wouldn't fall victim to Rick's chann and draw him a blasted map.
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    WHAT'S COOKING?
    * * *
    It was dusk when a car pulled to a stop in the driveway at Rose Cottage. Filled with a sense of dread?and okay, maybe just a tiny little, traitorous zing of anticipation?Maggie peered out the window. Sure enough, Rick emerged from his low-slung Jaguar. Maggie's pulse zipped straight into overdrive. Apparently her body hadn't gotten the message that this man was bad for her. She couldn't seem to drag herself away from the window. It had barely been a week since she'd last seen Rick, and she was drinking in the sight as if it had been months.
    The man was seriously gorgeous. He moved like a sexy, predatory cat, radiating confidence and danger.
    He was also the kind of low-key man who could carry off