What's Cooking? Read Online Free PDF

jeans and a T-shirt with a wrinkled dress jacket and move from work to a cocktail party and never appear out of place. Maybe it was because the faded jeans fit in a way that kept all eyes on his trim butt and excellent thighs. No one?no sane woman, at least?ever gave two figs what he was wearing. Not that he didn't look fantastic in a tux, as well. He did. He'd accompanied Maggie to a black tie event one night, and it had required all of her willpower not to attack him in the back of the limo he'd rented for the evening. She also happened to know for a fact that he looked pretty spectacular in nothing at all.
    His brown, sun-streaked hair was a little too long and his jaw unshaven, but the careless look, too, suited him. The impression he exuded was one of total self-confidence, which, of course, he had. In spades, as a matter of fact. Who else would show up where he'd
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    been told only a few hours ago that he was most definitely unwanted?
    Resigned to dealing with him, Maggie opened the door and waited on the threshold. Rick grinned when he saw her.
    "Hi, honey, I'm home."
    "I'm not your honey and thi > is absolutely not your home," she said, blocking the w ay when he would have walked right in. She was trying really, really hard to muster the strength and indignation necessary to keep him on the other side of this door. Once he crossed the threshold, she could no longer be held accountable for her actions.
    His grin never faltered. "NoJ happy to see me?"
    "No."
    "Not even a tiny bit?"
    "Absolutely not."
    He chuckled. "Liar."
    "I am not lying. How many ways do I have to say it?"
    "Until you can do it without those telltale patches of red in your cheeks."
    "If my cheeks are red..." She could tell they were. Her skin was burning, in fact. "Tf they are, it's because I find you infuriating. It takes a lot of nerve to come here after I told you not to."
    "Bravery should be rewarded, don't you think?"
    She had to fight to keep from smiling. The man was impossible, to say nothing of impossibly sexy.
    "Go away, Rick. Please."
    His expression turned serious. "Only if you tell me why you're so anxious to have me gone. Make me understand and I'll go."
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    WHAT'S COOKING?
    She studied him skeptically. "Seriously? You'll really go if I just tell you why I don't want you here?"
    "Promise," he said solemnly. He even sketched a little cross over his heart.
    Maggie regarded him with undisguised suspicion, but decided to take a chance that he would honor his promise. "Okay, then," she said. "I don't want you here because I don't want to see you anymore."
    He nodded slowly. "In other words, it was great while it lasted, but it's over, Rick."
    "Exactly," she said, relieved that he'd caught on so quickly. "That was the rule from the very beginning, wasn't it? Either of us could walk away at any time?"
    He looked perplexed. "Did we discuss that?"
    She thought back to the first night they'd tumbled into bed. There hadn't been a lot of conversation, much less any outlining of the rules of engagement. "It was understood," she asserted loftily.
    He shook his head. "I guess I missed that. Besides, I'm not buying your act," he said. "You may not want me here, but it's because you're running scared, not because you don't feel any desire for me."
    Of all the times in the world for a man to suddenly develop insight, it had to be now, Maggie thought, beginning to feel trapped and desperate. She had to make him leave before she did something totally insane and jumped right back into bed with him. Her hormones were all but pleading with her to cave now and damn the consequences.
    "You said you'd take my word for it," she protested. "You promised to go. I expect you to honor that."
    He shrugged. "I lied. Well, I didn't exactly lie."
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    "Yes, unless you turn around and walk away right this second, then you lied," she corrected.
    "No," he insisted. "I just wasn't clear enough. I want more than a two-second explanation. I want the truth, the whole