He’d just hadn’t realized how damn amazing it would be to join the Garrisons and Jefferies into one family.
BARGAINING FOR
KING’S BABY
Maureen Child
About the Author
MAUREEN CHILD
is a California native who loves to travel. Every chance they get, she and her husband are taking off on another research trip. An author of more than sixty books, Maureen loves a happy ending and still swears that she has the best job in the world. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two children and a golden retriever with delusions of grandeur.
You can contact Maureen via her Web site:
www.maureenchild.com.
Dear Reader,
The KINGS OF CALIFORNIA came about because I was thinking of writing about royalty. My mind whirling around with different ideas, I suddenly thought, what about men who aren’t royal, only think they are?
The King brothers are arrogant, bossy, sure of their own place in the world and utterly gorgeous. Needless to say, I fell in love with all three of them.
In this book, you’ll meet the oldest of the King brothers, Adam. He’s been burned by love and has lived to tell the tale. Now he concentrates on the family ranch, building it into the biggest holding in the state. Until, of course, his neighbour Gina Torino comes to him with an offer he can’t refuse.
I hope you fall in love with the King family, too. And I’d love to hear from you!
Happy reading,
Maureen
To Carter, for bringing so much love into our lives.
We wish for you all the good things life holds
and we’re grateful to be able to watch you
discover the world around you.
One
“You’re obsessed.” Travis King looked at his older brother and smiled. “And not in a good way.”
“I agree,” Jackson King said, with a shake of his head. “Why is this so important to you anyway?”
Adam King looked from one of his brothers to the other and paused for a few seconds before answering them. When he did, he used the tone he usually reserved for his employees—the tone that precluded arguments. “We agreed when we took over the reins of the family businesses from Dad that we’d each be in charge of our own areas.”
Then he waited, because Adam knew his brothers weren’t finished. Every month, the King brothers held a meeting. They’d get together either here at the family ranch, at the vineyard Travis operated or on one of the executive jets Jackson owned and leased to the mega-wealthy of the world.
The King family had holdings in so many different areas, the monthly meetings helped the brothers keep up with what the tangled lines of the King dynasty were up to at any given moment. But it also gave the brothers a chance to catch up on each other’s lives. Even if sometimes, Adam thought, that meant putting up with interference—no matter how well meant.
Picking up his Waterford crystal tumbler of brandy, he swirled the amber liquid in the bottom of the glass and watched the firelight from the hearth wink in its depths. He knew it wouldn’t take long to get a comment from his brothers and he silently bet himself that it would be Travis who spoke first. A moment later, he was proven right.
“Yeah, Adam, we each run our own areas,” Travis said, taking a deep sip of a King Vineyard Merlot. Travis preferred drinking the wines his vineyard produced to the brandy Adam enjoyed. He shot a look at Jackson, who nodded at him. “That doesn’t mean we won’t have a question or two.”
“Have all the questions you like,” Adam told him. He stood up, walked to the massive stone hearth and stared down into the crackling fire. “Just don’t expect me to answer them.”
Jackson spoke up as if to head off a budding confrontation. Holding his glass of Irish whiskey, he said, “We’re not saying that the ranch isn’t yours to do with as you want, Adam. We’re only trying to figure out why it means so damn much to you to get back every inch of land we used to hold.”
Adam turned his back on the fireplace, looked at his brothers and felt that tight bond they’d always shared. Only a year separated each of them and the friendship they’d formed when they were kids was every bit as strong now. But that didn’t mean he was going to explain his every move to them. He was still the oldest, and Adam King didn’t do explanations.
“The ranch is mine,” he said simply. “If I want to make it whole again, why should you care?”
“We don’t,” Travis said, speaking up before Jackson could. Leaning back in the maroon leather chair, he kicked his feet out in front of him, balanced the fragile wineglass on his flat stomach and looked at Adam through slitted eyes. “I just want to know why you care. Hell, Adam, Great-Grandpa King sold off that twenty-acre parcel to the Torinos nearly sixty years ago. We already own nearly half the county. Why’s that twenty acre plot so important?”