It Takes Two: Deep in the Heart, Book 1 Read Online Free Page A

with Annie, in many a blue-and-white gingham kitchen. He was making it harder than it had to be.
    Zach looked into Annie’s eyes, knowing that his words would quickly chill the admiration he’d seen there. “I understand your reluctance,” he began.
    “Do you?” she asked, her eyes appraising. “Do you really?”
    He hesitated, knowing he was treading on dangerous ground. “I understand probably as well as anyone can. However, I’m prepared to buy your land at a fair price. My job is to make certain that you feel good about this deal.”
    “You can’t possibly make me feel good about selling my land.”
    “Then you’re aware that Ritter International may take you to court on the premise that your refusal could be blocking a major state project. A court battle would be emotionally involving, not to mention costly.”
    The reference to cost had to be made. It was obvious from looking around at Annie’s furnishings that she wasn’t a wealthy woman. She was probably scraping by, crop to crop, like so many other farmers in Texas. The threat of legal hassles was doubtful, but one Zach wanted to mention anyway. He was fairly certain Carter had an eye on his presidency at Ritter. One poor little farmer like Annie wasn’t going to stand in Carter’s way of impressing the board with his finesse.
    “I will do whatever it takes to make certain that this land stays in my family,” she vowed with quiet assurance.
    “If you sold your land, you’d be well off financially—”
    “That might play a part in your consideration, but it doesn’t in mine,” she assured him. “Not where my heritage is concerned. Can’t you understand that?”
    Instantly, Zach realized she was referring to his obvious Hispanic background. Zach looked at his tea glass for a moment, unwilling to discuss that with Annie. How he felt about his heritage was a personal topic he wouldn’t talk about with someone he was trying to broker a deal with. “What if you lost your land? You’ll always have that fear, that threat, hanging over your head. At least my way, you could sleep at night, knowing Mary’s future was secure.”
    That was probably his trump card, he thought. If Annie was this loyal to her heritage, she’d most likely be fierce where her family was concerned.
    “Mr. Rayez—”
    “Please, call me Zach,” he inserted smoothly.
    She swallowed and glanced away for a moment, seemingly reluctant to use his name. “Zach,” she said, “I realize that growing up in the city and being city-bred, you may not understand about land. But there’s a history involved. I’m one-quarter Indian. I feel honored to have a piece of America. I own a piece of the land the Native American people were deprived of. That means more to me than you might be able to imagine.”
    She measured him with a glance and took a sip of her tea. He watched, fascinated. Her natural, berry-colored lips were full and endlessly pouty in the center. Just right for sealing themselves around a man’s mouth and hanging on for a good, long kiss. LouAnn was a practiced kisser, but her little doll-baby lips didn’t quite fit his much wider mouth. And when she pouted, it was downright unattractive.
    “Secondly,” Annie said, bringing him out of his musings, “there is my family to think about. My parents lived in this house, as did my grandparents. In fact, the land comes through my grandmother, who was white. My grandfather was full Comanche Indian. They fell in love, much to the dismay of my grandmother’s family, who once owned a great deal of this valley. Their wealth and social position made it unbearable that their daughter would fall in love with an Indian, and they cut her out of their lives and out of their will, giving her this one-hundred-acre parcel and nothing more. ‘Good riddance, and don’t come back, as long as you have that Injun slavering after you,’ they told her. When I think about giving up this land, I think I would be betraying my