Page 3 of River Legacy
He turned off his phone, having seen more than enough. Well, at least her fear of being forced into a marriage with a man chosen by her father appeared to be true and explained her apparent desperation, Ryder thought as he pocketed his phone and walked the rest of the way to his pickup. He remembered something she’d said back at the airport. He’d just bet she’d never come close enough to kiss a cowboy. She’d only picked him because she knew it would upset her father. Well, this cowboy knew trouble when he saw it. He wanted nothing to do with the woman even before he’d known who she was. Now that he did, he planned to clear this up as quickly as possible and be on his way. He wasn’t going to let her pull him into her problems. He was only here to solve his own.
Sliding behind the wheel, he took a moment tocatch his breath. He hadn’t expected this turn of events. But he would handle it. He would straighten it out at the hotel. Then he would hopefully get his business with Forester settled and go home.
Ryder was no fool. While he wanted Forester to know who he was dealing with, Ryder also knew whohewas dealing with—a rich and powerful man who believed he could buy anything he wanted because money was no object. He thought about the man’s daughter and chuckled. They seemed to be cut from the same cloth.
With Forester determined to have the Stafford Ranch at any cost, the man was dangerous. The question was, how far would the tycoon go to get it?
And how far would Ryder go to stop him?
He worried he’d already gone too far as he started his pickup and drove along the top of the rock cliffs that rimmed the city before dropping into downtown on his way to the Northern Hotel.
Once in the two middle seats of the hotel’s large SUV, Victoria had expected her father to immediately demand answers from her. Or at the very least reprimand her. Instead, he was busy looking at his phone. She leaned toward him a little to see what was so interesting on his screen.
With a shock, she saw that he’d called up information about Ryder Stafford and the Stafford Ranch. She hadn’t even known the cowboy’s name until he’d introduced himself to her father. From what she could see online, the Stafford Ranch wasbeautiful and huge and exactly the kind of property her father would want to snatch up.
She groaned inwardly as she saw her father’s expression. He was pleased with whatever he’d been reading. She hurriedly looked out her window, glad he was satisfied with even her pretend choice of fiancé and at the same time sorry she’d put Ryder and his ranch in jeopardy. Once her father saw something he liked, he went after it.
Was he actually taking her engagement seriously? He couldn’t really think that the cowboy was her fiancé, could he? Clearly, he didn’t know her at all. Which had already been established.He’d picked Claude Duvall for her!
She realized that all of this was about to blow up in her face. Once they reached the hotel, Ryder Stafford would out her. She hoped it wasn’t in front of Claude. He would enjoy her embarrassment way too much.
If only she could have ridden in the cowboy’s pickup with him. She was sure she could have talked him into playing the fiancé role at least for the weekend. It would only postpone the problem because her father wasn’t going to change his mind about her getting married. But this pretend engagement would maybe finally send the message to Claude that she wasn’t interested. She thought they had settled this the last time they’d been thrown together.
Claude was exactly the kind of man her father would choose for her, she thought, watching him talk to the valet. Not bad-looking, but dull as dirt. Not to mention he was one of her father’s yes-men.Clearly, her father wanted her to marry a man he could handle. She gagged at the thought of Claude as her husband. Never going to happen no matter what her father offered her—or threatened her with.
Not that she could imagine the cowboy as husband material either, she thought with a silent chuckle. Ryder Staffordwasdrop-dead handsome in a rough-around-the-edges sort of way and certainly more interesting than Claude, even if she had been in the market for a husband.
But if her father believed she was engaged, at least for the duration of this weekend, he might send Claude back to Dallas on his private plane. If she could get Ryder to play along, this pretend engagement could be beneficial for both of them. She didn’t doubt if she could get him alone she could talk him into it. She was her father’s daughter. All she had to do was find his price.
She smiled to herself at what her father had thought when she’d first introduced Ryder. A handsome cowboy dressed in Western shirt, jeans and boots, a gray Stetson shoved down over his curly blond hair who was nothing like the men she’d ever even consider dating.
At first, she’d been joking around—until he’d met her gaze. A frisson of something close to electricity had raced through her at those jade-green eyes—so like her own. What were the chances that their children wouldn’t inherit them?
Victoria chuckled at the thought. She could never live in Montana. It was too remote. She’d thoughtDallas was dull before she and her father had moved there from New York City after her mother’s death. She’d been raised in the big city where things were happening, and that was where she needed to be.
She also liked her men in three-piece suits smelling like the latest men’s cologne—not boot leather and cow manure. Yet she had to admit that Ryder in those butt-hugging jeans and that Western shirt stretched across his broad muscled back might just change her mind. But as her father knew, she was always up for an adventure, and Ryder Stafford just might be it.
The more she thought about Ryder, she realized that it wasn’t even the cowboy’s looks or the way he was dressed that had made her notice him. It was his confidence. She found that very attractive. He was his own man—nothing like Claude. She smiled to herself at the thought of Ryder Stafford. He was definitely the kind of guy she could be serious about—if he wasn’t a cowboy. No thanks, she thought even as she worried how long she’d have before everyone who mattered knew Ryder wasn’t her fiancé.
Her only hope was to get him alone at the hotel before he spilled the beans, as her grandmother would have said. But convincing him to stay through the weekend wouldn’t be easy. She’d pay anything, something she’d learned from her father. As Wendell Forester always said,Everyone has a price. You just had to find it.
Ryder Stafford might be the exception, though. So, what would it take to keep him from telling everyone the truth and leaving?
“Here we are.” Her father put away his phone and smiled at her. He was always working. Most of the time, Victoria thought that he forgot he had a daughter. It had gotten worse after her mother had died. She’d feared the reason he seemed to ignore her was because she looked so much like his deceased wife.
Now lately, instead of ignoring her, he was trying to marry her off. Same thing. He was just passing her off to another man to take care of her.
As the hotel came into view, he said, “Let’s see what your fiancé has to say for himself, shall we?”
She returned his smile even as she knew that once Ryder Stafford arrived at the hotel, he was going to blow her cover. As if the multibillionaire developer wasn’t already suspicious.
That was why he was grinning, wasn’t it?
Claude Duvall had never been this furious in his life. He’d been humiliated at the airport. How dare Victoria snub him, let alone pretend she preferred some cowboy over him.
Being forced to hide his fury only made it worse. No one would think the cowboy was the better candidate for that spoiled brat’s hand. Just as no one treated him like this, he’d told himself as he’d ignored her and her father riding in the back. Not that Victoria Forester even noticed him ignoring her. Or if she did, she was enjoying it.
She’d been playing hard to get from the first time they’d met. She seemed to think that being rude tohim was going to send him packing. Ha! He wanted to tell her that he only considered her rudeness foreplay. But wait until they got to the real event. She was in for a surprise.
