A Cowboy in Disguise by Victoria Ashe

his hand instead of a pile of mail, a feeling of foreboding crept over her.
    His hair was rumpled from where he’d run his hand through it too many times and his expression was far too serious. He tossed his jacket and the fax onto her sofa and pulled Alexandra into his arms, burying his face in her hair.
    “I should never have joined this project. I never should have said yes. I should have known she wasn’t capable of professionalism. What you were afraid of has happened, and I—”
    “Scott …” she started to say as his mouth came down over hers. Her knees weakened as he kissed her until her strength dissolved.
    “Alexandra, do you know what you do to me?”
    She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, her body moving of its own accord tighter against him. “I couldn’t stand seeing her touch you like that,” she whispered. As soon as the words were spoken, a tiny voice in the back of her mind wondered why she’d confessed that. She pulled slightly away and fought to catch her breath.
    “I would never hurt you, Alex. Never.”
    She leaned in to kiss him again and he moved away reluctantly, remembering the reason he had come before she pushed him past the point of being able to think at all. He traced her lips with his finger. “I hate this. I really do, but you need to take a look at this fax.”
    Still shaking from his touch, Alexandra drew another deep breath and picked up the fax. Slowly she scanned the words on the paper, scarcely believing what she read with her own eyes. There in black and white, her greatest fear from the beginning had taken shape. She’d let down her guard, and somehow, somewhere along the way, this man had infiltrated her project and taken away something she’d put half a year of her life into.
    She sank down onto the sofa. “Get out of here,” she said calmly. “I need to be alone for a while.”
    It all made sense to her now. She remembered Scott and Mac Stevens together at the party. The too-familiar touches, the secret discussion in the corner, their laughter—all of it fit together. Had they intended from the very beginning what she now suspected? Scott knew that securing a multi-million-dollar contract with Rio would be a feather in the cap of any executive. But to steal her project away from her, all the while professing feelings of love? It was unimaginably cruel, this scheme he and Mac must have planned.
    Scott looked at her in confusion. “I knew you’d be angry, which is why I wanted to tell you as soon as I could. We’ll figure out a way to either get around this or fix it. Somehow.”
    His words rang hollow inside her cloud of hurt. “Well, I hope you and the presentation will be very happy together,” she said.
    “Alexandra, surely you don’t think I had anything to do with this?”
    “I saw you two. This was planned all along, wasn’t it? Congratulations.” She sighed as she opened the door behind him.
    “Alex, this is all Mackenzie. I had no idea she’d try something like this.”
    “I asked you to leave.”
    She shut the door behind him and locked it for good measure. Mackenzie Stevens could have him. The two of them were obviously a match made in Hades anyway.
    •
    Alexandra settled into one of the posh leather chairs in David’s office as he leaned on the corner of his desk. She’d thought about her request all morning long and waited until the end of the day to talk to David about it.
    “You want a new assignment?” he asked in surprise.
    “Yes. Considering the way the Rio project has shaken out, it seems my involvement is to be rather limited. I’ve given Falconer all the information I can and short of actually presenting, there’s not much more I can do.”
    David studied her for a moment. So she was back to calling him Falconer, was she? “I was as surprised as you were when Mac Stevens sent that fax limiting our team to one presenter, so I can understand your request.”
    “I’d like to find something to put my