Millionaire on Her Doorstep by Stella Bagwell Page A

she’d left you behind?”
    He shook his head. “No. It’s a long story, but eventually she was found and placed in a mental facility. She died there shortly afterward.”
    â€œSo Chloe and Wyatt stepped in as your parents,” she said, stating the obvious.

    â€œBecause of us twins, they met and fell in love. After they married, they adopted us as their own children. But they never tried to keep our true heritage a secret. In fact, Dad has a diary of Belinda’s, which was written during the time she was having the affair with Tomas. Perhaps you’d like to read it sometime. The entries aren’t always happy. But it’s interesting. She was an intelligent woman. Until the love affair broke her heart and sapped her spirit. But that oftentimes happens when one person cares too much for another.”
    Maureen wondered if he was speaking from personal experience. And she wanted to ask him if he’d ever cared about a woman too much for his own good, but she couldn’t bring herself to utter the question. Somehow she didn’t want to think he’d ever truly given his heart to any female.
    â€œSo you think that’s what happened to your mother? She cared too much for your father?”
    He didn’t answer immediately, and she studied his profile as he gazed out at the endless plain stretching below them. He was not the man she’d first thought him to be. He was more. Much more.
    The faint smile on his face as he turned to look at her was both wry and sad. “I’m certain of it.”
    So that was how Adam thought of love, Maureen concluded. He believed it was something that ruined people, that it had killed his mother and perhaps even his father.
    For years now, Maureen had held the same notion. Caring about someone too much could only lead to destruction. She’d chiseled the wisdom into the stone that used to be her heart, and for all this time, even in her loneliest of moments, she’d not forgotten it
    But now as she looked at him, she thought how sad it was that he didn’t want to give his heart. Maureen had a right to feel jaded and ruined. Adam didn’t. Or did he? she wondered.
    â€œIs that why you’ve never married? Because of what happened all those years ago to your birth parents?” she asked before she could stop herself.
    The moment the question was out, she could see a door slam shut inside his dark green eyes.
    â€œWhy I’ve never married is none of your business.”
    His words stung even though she told herself they shouldn’t. “I told you about my divorce,” she reminded him.
    â€œLook, Maureen, I have my own private demons just like you. And they’re not something I want to share with anyone.”
    Not even with her. He’d made that perfectly clear, and she had to let it go at that, Maureen told herself. She was supposed to be his friend, nothing more. And as his friend, she had to respect his privacy.
    â€œSure. I understand,” she murmured, then forced herself to smile up at him.
    Something flickered in his eyes and he looked away from her and out toward the distant horizon. “The sun has already set,” he said gruffly. “We’d better start back to the ranch before it gets too dark.”
    He rose to his feet and reached his hand down for her. She took it, then he tugged her gently up beside him. Tilting her head back, she looked up at him, and for a moment the longing to kiss him was so strong she could scarcely breathe.
    â€œThank you, Adam.”

    His eyelids lowered as his gaze lingered on the moist curve of her lips. “For what?”
    She swallowed and swiftly glanced down at the toes of his boots. “For this ride. And for telling me the story about your parents.”
    He grimaced. “I don’t know why I did. I’m sure you found it boring.”
    She forced herself to laugh, then pulling her hand free of his, she started back to the