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Cade Landon was the most arrogant, egotistical male she’d met in the entire state of Texas, and that was saying a lot.
He’d humiliated her in front of her banker and her business associates, embarrassed her in front of her crew, made her look like a fool in front of the staff of the hospital—and why? Because she was female, and that made her a lesser creature.
Her father had treated her mother the same way. Oh, he’d claimed he was just being protective and loving, but Angelica could still remember how her mother had chafed and fumed. Who could have blamed her? No intelligent woman would let herself be treated as if she were a well-trained, obedient dog.
Men understood how to deal with women back East. But here—Angelica’s lip curled. Here, in Cade Landon’s world, they were too busy being macho to figure out what a woman wanted.
Well, she’d had it! She wasn’t up to a confrontation tonight but tomorrow she was going to do what she should have done from day one, she was going to stand up to Cade Landon and tell him that either he accepted her right to head up Gordon Oil or—or…
Or what? Or she’d see him in court? Landon Enterprises probably had a trillion lawyers on retainer. They probably had another trillion dollars to spend disputing her claim.
She had nobody on retainer, not even a cleaning service, as Cade had so generously pointed out. And the last time she’d checked, she had exactly fifty-three dollars and eighty-four cents in her checking account—
“Are you awake?”
Angelica looked at Cade. His eyes were on the road.
“Of course I’m awake,” she snapped. “Why?”
He shot her a quick, humorless smile. “Just checking. You slept straight through the flight from Notrees.”
“I pretended to sleep,” she said, tossing the hair from her eyes. “It was preferable to being forced to endure your company.”
“You sure had me fooled, sugar. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have carried you to the truck.”
Angelica flushed but said nothing. Had he carried her to the truck? He must have, because she certainly didn’t remember walking. Now that she thought about it, she did remember the brush of his hand across her breasts as he unfastened her belt, the feel of his arms as they swept around her and lifted her…
“How do you feel?”
Awful. Her hand hurt, and her arm, and, now that she thought about it, so did her head.
“Fine,” she said coldly.
“Maybe you ought to take another couple of pills.”
“Maybe you ought to mind your business.”
“That suits me.” He looked at her and smiled tightly. “In fact, it suits me so well that I won’t ask if you need anything from that all-night market on the corner up ahead.”
Angelica bit down on her lip. Of course, she needed things. She hadn’t shopped in days, hadn’t even thought of it, to tell the truth, because she’d been so caught up in the disaster Cade Landon had brought down on her head.
She opened her mouth to say that she’d changed her mind, that she needed some frozen dinners, so she wouldn’t have to worry about cooking while her hand healed, that she was out of tea and coffee and bread and that, given the way she felt right now, the odds of her getting out to shop on her own ranged from slim to nonexistent.
On the other hand, it would be better to starve than ask Cade for help.
“The only thing I need,” she said, “is to be in my own house and to see the last of you.”
“My thoughts precisely,” Cade said, and pulled into her driveway.
Angelica fumbled at her seat belt with her left hand.
“Thank you for your help,” she said in a way that made the words a lie.
“You’re welcome,” he said, his tone as sarcastic as hers. Then he doused the headlights, turned off the engine and got out of the truck.
“What are you doing?” she said as he came around to her door and opened it.
“I’m seeing you in.”
“I don’t need anyone to see me in.”
Cade tipped back his Colorado Rockies baseball cap. “No?” he said pleasantly.
“No,” she said, not so pleasantly.
He laughed softly. “The way it looks to me, sugar, you need somebody just to see you out of this truck.”
It was true, unfortunately. It was one thing to open a seat belt one-handed, but now she was having trouble grasping the door frame for leverage, and she was feeling too unsteady to risk simply dropping the short distance to the ground without hanging on to something.
“What do you say, sugar? Shall I help you?”
Angelica glared at him. “Yes,” she said through her teeth.
“Yes, what?”
“Dammit, Cade, this isn’t funny!”
He reached into the cab of the truck, gathered her into his arms and shouldered the door closed. “You know,” he said, as he started across the narrow strip of lawn, “I’ve been thinking—”
“I can see the headlines now,” Angelica said sweetly. “‘Cade Landon thinks!’”
“I’ve been thinking,” he continued without missing a beat, “that I must have the wrong idea about that fancy school you teach in.”
“I don’t teach there,” she said stiffly. Was it possible to loop your arm around a man’s neck, to feel his arms around you and pretend none of it was happening? “I’m a careers counselor. And I’ve no doubt you have the wrong idea about Miss Palmer’s. It’s not fancy, it’s simply a place where young women can learn in an atmosphere conducive to the development of their full potential.”
Cade chuckled as he mounted the porch steps. “Meaning, no boys allowed?”
“Miss Palmer’s is gender exclusive, yes.”
“Tell me something, sugar. How can you spout such nonsense and still toss off so many dammits?”
Angelica frowned. “It’s not nonsense. And I don’t—”
“Yeah, you do. For a lady who probably drinks her tea with her pinky stuck out, you sure curse a lot.”
Her cheeks reddened. “Perhaps it’s because I was unfortunate enough to have spent my early years in Texas.”
“And that’s something else I don’t understand.” Cade lowered her to the porch floor. “If you despise Texas, why did you come back?”
“I don’t despise Texas,” Angelica said. A frown creased her forehead. Standing on her own, her legs felt amazingly wobbly. She reached back and grasped the porch railing for support. “I just think that anyplace where time stands still is unappealing. And you know why I came back. To run Gordon Oil.”
“To run it into the ground, you mean.”
“I have not run it into the ground. The company wasn’t in good shape before, and—and…” Lord, she felt shaky. She took a breath and tried for a nonchalant shrug. “It’s late, and you already have all the answers. So good night, and—”
“And thank you for your help. Yes, I know.” He stuck out his hand. “Keys, please.”
“What?”
“You heard me. I want your house keys.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not leaving until I’ve seen you safely inside.”
Their eyes met, and Angelica stiffened with anger at what she saw in his, the steely determination and masculine arrogance.
It was obvious that saying no wouldn’t get her very far.
Gritting her teeth, she dug her left hand into her pocket, pulled out the keys and dropped them into his outstretched palm.
“Fine. Go ahead, Cade. Open the door. I can see we’re going to have to go through this ‘Me Tarzan, you Jane’ charade or I’ll never get rid of you!”
“Clever girl.”
“Clever woman.” Her chin lifted in defiance. “There’s a difference.”
To her surprise, he laughed. “OK, woman,” he said, “let’s get you tucked away for the night.”
She didn’t argue as he swung her into his arms again. Arguing with him was useless; besides, she had the awful feeling she might fall down if she tri
ed to get through the door on her own, and heaven only knew how she’d get rid of him then.
Angelica frowned as he stepped into the darkened entry hall and kicked the door shut after him. What had he meant, tucked away for the night? There was a ring to that phrase that she didn’t much—
“Where’s the light switch?”
“On the wall, to the right, but you needn’t—”
She blinked in the sudden glare as the overhead light blazed on.
“You can put me down now,” she said, “and thank you for—”
“Did you know that you have a way of making ‘thank you’ sound like an insult?” Cade shifted her in his arms and looked at the narrow, sharply inclined staircase rising ahead. “Where’s your bedroom? Upstairs?”
“Will you put me down? I am perfectly capable of—”
