Willow Smoke Read Online Free PDF Page B

yet.”
    Daisy frowned. “Well, you sure as hell have complicated mine.”
    “Yeah, but aren’t they nice complications? A week ago you didn’t even know I existed. You didn’t own a race horse. And you were probably planning to waste time you could spend educating me playing around with some college guy.”
    Brushing hair off her brow, Daisy chewed on her lip. She wasn’t experienced at this kind of repartee. She only knew how to tell guys no , not how to give
them a let’s-wait-and-see signal.
    “Cat got your tongue,
kid? Am I really going to complicate your life that much?”
    He sounded
far too pleased with himself. “I don’t know. Depends on how much time you
require, I suppose. I not only have my job—I do have to study, too.”
    “Will
I be imposing on your social life? Do you have a steady man in your life?”
    “Not
hardly. Well, I mean,” she stammered, “not one.”
    “Still
playing the field, huh? Well, I shouldn’t get in the way too much, then . If you’rea good teacher, this may not require a lot of time.”
    “You mean if you’re a good student, don’t you?”
    “Now, that’s more like the woman I remember with straw in her hair. Do you realize that you are drop dead gorgeous with a half dozen pieces of straw sticking out of your hair? The guys must be lined up around your block with their tongues hanging out. I’m sure they won’t like my intruding on their time, but I won’t let that deter me. Are you still there?”
    “I’m here.” Daisy tried to keep her voice steady while her heart raced wildly.
    “Maybe you’ll just have to put some of the guys on ice for a while. I can be quite demanding, and I make no apologies for that. There never is enough time to do everything I want to do. But this horse thing is now at the top of my to-do list.
And that includes you. Remember, you’ve been paid in advance.”
    “I remember. Owning a
part of Rainbow far exceeds any of my dreams.”
    “Listen kid, if you hang around me much you’ll have to get used to expanding your dreams. I don’t dream small. It doesn’t take any more time
to dream big than small.”
    “Maybe, maybe not.”
    “What do you mean maybe? Weren’t you listening to what I just said?”
    “I heard you. It’s just
that some folks can dream all they want to, work as hard as they can, and still nothing happens.”
    She heard Underwood swallow. “Guess you’re right,” he said, “sometimes I get
sowrapped up in what I’m doing that
I forgetwhere I’ve come from and
what I’ve seen.”
    “What?”
    “Some other time. Good
to hear your voice,kid. There’s a
quality about it that I can’t quite name. Maybe its youthful exuberance. Anyway, I’ll see you next Thursday at two o’clock. Don’t be late.”
    “I’ll be there.”
     
    - o -
     
    Nicholas Underwood sat staring at the cell phone long after he’d set it on the massive oak desk at the center of his study in his fourteen room Kenwood house. The woman stuck to his hide like a sandbur. Sultry described her voice. She probably didn’t have a clue how sexy she sounded or looked.
    He leaned back in his swivel chair and propped his feet on the desk. She had to be his employee. It was safer that way. But she might be right. He hired Sam Gallagher, and Sam hired Daisy Matthews. So what did that make Willow to him? One could probably cut it either way.
    Who was he kidding? He didn’t want to regard the tall, slender woman with the deep smoky voice as an employee. He closed his eyes. T wenty-five fromforty-two equals seventeen. Shit. He slammed his feet back to the carpet and strolled over to one of the floor-to-ceiling bookcases that nearly ringed his study. He reached for a slim volume and turned the pages until words leapt out
at him . Let the world slip: we shall ne’er be younger. It was from Taming of the Shrew.
    Would that he could. What he really wished was that he could forget how Daisy Matthews’ soft breasts crushed against his chest or how