The Rebel Tycoon Returns

“I’ve never seen anyone quite as beautiful,” he said.

“That’s not true but I’m going to say thank you anyway.”

“It is true,” he said. “How can I convince you of what I see when I look at you?”

She shrugged and nibbled on her lower lip, which drew his eyes to her mouth. He loved her mouth. The full lower lip which made him want to lean down and taste her. He wanted her.

No big shock there. She was stunningly beautiful, even though she seemed to have forgotten that. He was here for business, but now he didn’t want to think about that.

Macy dominated every thought.

Dear Reader,

I was so excited to be invited to write another MILLIONAIRE’S CLUB book and to be given two characters who were so juicy! I have always struggled with image issues and when I started creating Macy I was able to tap into that to breathe some real life into her.

The story takes place in the heat of summer and I tried imbuing each scene with that heat. Not just the weather but also the tension between these two characters who are struggling to distance themselves from their own pasts and the relationship they once had.

The story was a lot of fun for me to write and I hope that you enjoy it.

Happy Reading!

Katherine

About the Author

KATHERINE GARBERA is the USA Today bestselling author of more than forty books. She’s always believed in happy endings and lives in Southern California with her husband, children and their pampered pet, Godiva. Visit Katherine on the web at www.katherinegarbera.com, or catch up with her on Facebook and Twitter.

The Rebel

Tycoon Returns

Katherine Garbera

www.millsandboon.co.uk

This book is dedicated to my sister Linda for always

having my back. I love you, Linda.

One

“Go ahead and look, Macy, you are even more beautiful than before,” Dr. Justin Webb said.

Macy Reynolds held the mirror loosely in her left hand and slowly lifted it so she could see her face, but she closed her eyes at the last second before she could catch a glimpse. Three years ago she’d been beautiful. She’d even been crowned the Rose Queen of Royal, Texas, as an eighteen-year-old girl. But all that had changed in one fateful car accident. She’d lost her looks, her man and her confidence.

This had supposedly been the last surgery she’d need, but her looks, which she’d once taken for granted, were now the bane of her existence. She was never going to be that beautiful girl again.

Dr. Webb put his hand on her shoulder. “Trust me, Macy.”

She wasn’t sure she trusted any man but her daddy. He’d stood by her through everything.

Macy and Harrison were all each other had, but she knew she couldn’t spend the rest of her life sitting in Dr. Webb’s office with her eyes closed.

She thought of the courageous kids in the Burn Unit at this hospital where she volunteered. They weren’t afraid to look in the mirror and she shouldn’t be either.

She opened one eye and then, surprised by her reflection, she opened the other. Her skin was pale and flawless, the way it used to be. No scars marred the surface. Her pixie nose had been restored to its former shape; she reached up and touched it. Her eyes hadn’t been injured in the car accident and her clear green gaze remained the same.

Her lips were the only thing that were really different. A piece of glass had cut her upper lip and now she had a tiny indentation where there used to be none.

“Thank you, Dr. Webb,” she said. Still not perfect, but at least she was done with surgeries.

“See. I was right, you are more beautiful than before,” he said.

She just smiled and nodded. She put the mirror facedown on the bed next to her. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Doc, but I’ll be glad not to have to see you again.”

Dr. Webb laughed. “Me too, Macy. I’ll send the nurse in with some paperwork and then you will be free to go.”

He started to leave, but she called him back. “Thank you, Dr. Webb. All your hard work has really made a difference to me.”

“You are very welcome,” he said and then left.

Her cell phone vibrated as she received a text message and she glanced down at it. The message was from her dad.

How did everything go at the doctor’s?

Macy thought about her looks, but she knew she was so much more than just a pretty face now. And Dr. Webb had been a miracle worker to get her face this close to how she’d looked before the accident. She was never going to be exactly the same, but Dr. Webb had done a really good job.

Just fine, Daddy.

I bet you look better than fine. I’ll see you when you get home tonight.

Yes. See you then.

Love you, baby girl.

Love you, Daddy.

She and her father were closer now than ever. After her fiancé, Benjamin, left her while she was in the hospital, she’d had no choice but to lean—and lean hard—on her father. The accident had taken everything from her.

But now she was back to her old self. Or at least she really hoped she was. She was ready to stand on her own and she knew she had to get out of her daddy’s safe little world and back to her own.

She finished up with the nurse and left the office. And for the first time since then she didn’t immediately put on the large sunglasses that covered half her face.

She opened the lobby door and walked right into a man. He caught her shoulders as she tottered on her heels and almost fell over.

“Thank you,” she said, looking up into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. Christopher Richardson … her high school sweetheart and the man she’d broken up with when her daddy had demanded it.

It had been almost fourteen years since they’d last seen each other and she … well, she felt as if no time had passed. Chris looked just as handsome as he had in high school and just as tempting.

“Macy. Some things never change and you get more beautiful each time I see you,” he said. There was more than a hint of irony in his voice.

She flushed, remembering how she’d dumped him all those years ago. “You haven’t seen me since high school.”

“True enough. When a woman tells me to hit the road I tend to do that and not look back,” he said. “What are you doing here?”

Should she apologize for what she’d done years earlier? She knew that she owed him way more than a casual “I’m sorry” though. “Um … I had an accident a few years ago,” she said. Dang it, why hadn’t she lied and said she was here for her charitable work with the Burn Unit.

“I heard about that. Are you okay now?”

She nodded. “Better every day.”

“And you, Mr. Big City, what brings you back to Royal?”

“My mom is in the hospital. But I’m back in Royal to bid on rebuilding the Texas Cattleman’s Club headquarters.”

“Oh. I think I heard something about how you’re in real estate like my father,” she said.

“I’m bigger than your father, Macy. In fact, Richardson Development is the biggest developer in Texas.”

“Wow,” she said. She didn’t know how to respond. Did he think that she’d be impressed—that she still measured people by their bank accounts?

So she changed the subject. “I hope your mom is okay,” Macy said.

She remembered Margaret Richardson as a very kind woman who thought Chris hung the moon.

“She’ll be fine. She has a recurring heart problem but the doctors are taking good care of her,” Chris said.

An awkward silence lagged between them. He was standing there in front of her looking very sexy and she felt bruised and battered.

“Where are you living now?” Chris asked at last.

“With my dad on our ranch.” It had been a hard time when she’d had the accident, and moving back to the ranch had been her only option.

“I never suspected you’d stay with your daddy, but I guess that makes sense,” Chris said.

“I moved back to town a little while ago,” she said. She didn’t have to justify her choices to anyone, but Chris made her feel as if she should explain.

“Go figure. I guess I always thought you’d find a nice rich boy and settle down,” Chris said. He rubbed a hand through his shaggy blond hair and gave her that charming grin of his that made her want to melt.

“I did. But he ran away when I proved not to be the Texas beauty queen he’d hoped for,” she said, and thought she didn’t sound bitter at all.

“Loser,” Chris said.

She laughed. “He was a very respectable man from a good family.”

“If he couldn’t make you happy then he’s a loser. I always loved your spirit.”

“Why, thank you, Chris. I think you are just what the doctor ordered.”

“While I’m here, I could use the insight of someone who’s been living here. Maybe you can tell me a little about what’s going on at the club. Would you join me for dinner tonight?”

She thought about it for a minute, but she knew she wanted to go. “I will. If you’re lucky I will introduce you to the next president of TCC, Ms. Abigail Langley.”

“I’d heard all the wives and daughters were campaigning for Abby. That’s the kind of information I need before I put in my bid to do the development,” Chris said.

“We are. It’s about time women had an equal stake in the Texas Cattleman’s Club. My father and his cronies aren’t sure what they are going to do. It completely threw them when Abby’s husband died and for the first time since Tex Langley founded the club a hundred years ago they didn’t have a male-Langley heir as a member. That’s the only reason Abby’s an honorary member.”

“That’s not my fight. I’m just the developer they’re thinking of hiring. What do you say to six-thirty? If you’re staying with your dad, I have the address.”

“Sounds perfect. I’ll see you then.”

Macy walked away very aware that Chris was watching her. The confidence she lost when Benjamin left her was finally coming back. She wanted to pretend that it was because the last of her surgeries was over, but she knew that it was because of Chris.

Chris Richardson had been on the high school varsity football team, which had made him something akin to a god in the tiny town of Royal, Texas. And it hadn’t taken Macy too long to set her sights on him. She was used to getting what she’d wanted back then, so he was hers just as junior year ended. They dated over the summer and through homecoming, but then her father had put his foot down.

Harrison Reynolds didn’t want his daughter dating a boy whose dad worked for the oil companies instead of owning one. A man who wasn’t a member of the Texas Cattleman’s Club, ensuring his son would never be one either.

Looking back now, Macy wished she’d been a different sort of girl and had maybe stood up for Chris. But she hadn’t been and she wondered sometimes if the accident was what it had taken to really shake things up for her.

One thing she knew for sure was that she’d never really gotten over him and she was glad he was back in Royal.

Chris watched Macy walk away. The sway of her hips and those gorgeous legs going a long way toward reminding him why he’d gone after her in high school. It hadn’t mattered to Macy’s dad that he was a star wide receiver back then, because he came from the wrong side of town.

But today he was here to visit his mom and to do a little work on the Texas Cattleman’s Club project. It was one of the most exclusive luxury country clubs in Texas. Only families with the right pedigree and the right amount of money could get in. And Chris’s working-class dad hadn’t provided either for Chris; though today he had more than enough money to buy himself a place in Royal’s exclusive club.

He took the elevator to the sixth floor and asked at the reception desk for his mom’s room. He walked down the hall to her room and opened the door to see her sitting up in her bed watching TV.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Chris! I didn’t think you were ever going to get here,” she said.

She fumbled around for the remote, but he was at her side before she found it. He leaned down to give her a big bear hug and a kiss. Then handed her the remote. She muted the television, which had been at high volume. Her hearing wasn’t as good as it used to be.

“This is extreme, Mom, even for you. Falling down so I’d come and visit you. You knew I’d be here on Texas Cattleman’s Club business this weekend.”

She shook her head and smiled at him. “I guess the good Lord thought I needed to see you before then. What took you so long to get up here?”

“I ran into Macy Reynolds.”

His mom sat up a little straighter. It had never sat right with her that Macy had dumped him just before the senior prom.

“What did you say to her?” Maggie asked.

“Just chitchat. I’m having dinner with her tonight,” Chris said. He tried hard to sound casual, but this was his mother and she knew him better than anyone else in the world.

“Is that wise?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea. But it will definitely be fun. She’s changed.”

“I heard about the accident,” Maggie said.

“What happened?” Chris asked as he pulled a chair up close to his mom’s bed. She had the same thick blondish hair he did, but she wore hers straight. It hung around her pretty face in a fashionable style. Her eyes were blue like his, but she had a pert little nose and a full bow mouth.

“It was all over the news. Her little BMW convertible was hit from behind in traffic and her car slammed into an eighteen-wheeler. The car was engulfed in flames. She’s lucky to be alive. But horribly scarred. At least that’s what I heard down at the Royal Diner.”

“That place is a hotbed for gossip, but it doesn’t mean that any of that is true,” Chris said. The diner had the best greasy food in West Texas, but some of the stories to come out of there weren’t always the whole truth.

“It was real enough. She had to move back in with Harrison and has spent the past few years having a series of surgeries. It was heartbreaking, Chris, to see that pretty girl in bandages. She couldn’t walk for the first six months.”

Chris felt weak in the stomach at the thought of Macy in so much pain. He shook his head. “She seems much better now.”

“I think she is,” Maggie said. “But what about you? Tell me about your work with the Texas Cattleman’s Club.”

“There isn’t much to tell right now, Mom. I’m going to meet with Brad Price and then start working on my bid to develop and build a new headquarters for the Cattleman’s Club. I have a basic idea of what they want, but that’s it.”

“Are you going out there today?” Maggie asked.

“Yes, I am. I’ve been granted full privileges to the club while I’m working on the project.”

“Where are you staying?” she asked.

“With you. I think you might need someone at home with you when you get out of the hospital. Plus, the doctors still can’t figure out why you have these episodes,” he said with a grin.

“Good. You don’t have to stay with me, but I’m glad for the company. I miss you, Chris.”

He stood up and smiled down at his mom. Her face so familiar and dear to him, he brushed a kiss over her forehead and then tucked the covers more closely around her body. “I’ve missed you too, Mom.”

He chatted with her for a few more minutes but then had to leave. He was due to meet Brad. Brad was determined to be the next president of the Texas Cattleman’s Club and, given his background as the son of one of Royal’s banking families, most people thought he was a shoo-in to win. Chris wanted to take a look at the existing buildings and the property so he knew exactly what he was working with on this project. Everyone who’d grown up in Royal was aware of the club, but Chris wanted to get up to speed on the details of the property.

“I’ll stop by tonight before my dinner date,” he said to his mom.

“Perfect. Good luck with your business,” Maggie said.

Chris left with the impression that his mother had no idea how successful he was at what he did. But that didn’t bother him. He was really only interested in making sure that Macy and Harrison knew how successful he was. And before he went back to Dallas, the Reynoldses definitely would.

As soon as he stepped out of the hospital he was reminded it was August in West Texas and hot as Hades. He loosened his tie and pulled out a pair of sunglasses and hit the remote start button on his Range Rover HSE. He was having his Porsche transported to Royal so he could use that while he was in town.

He wanted the locals to know that Chris Richardson was back and he had plenty of money this time. He may not be a full-fledged member of the Texas Cattleman’s Club, but he took a lot of pride in knowing that he had enough money in his bank accounts to be one if he pushed.

He wondered what kind of car Macy drove. He should have asked a few more questions about her accident. It was hard for him to imagine the girl he’d known, who’d lived a decidedly charmed life, having to go through that kind of painful recovery. But then life seldom turned out the way that most people thought it would. Chris had proved that by making a success of himself in the same field as Harrison Reynolds. And tonight he’d be sitting in the dining room of the Texas Cattleman’s Club with Macy. Life was sweet.

Macy couldn’t stop looking at herself in the mirror and she knew that was a recipe for disaster, so she forced herself away from it and back to her computer. She had a lot of work to get done before her dinner with Chris.

Chris Richardson. Dang, she’d never expected to see him again. She wished she could say that the years hadn’t been good to him, but they had. If he’d developed a beer belly and lost some of his hair maybe she wouldn’t be quivering in anticipation waiting for six-thirty to roll around.

The doorbell rang and Macy sat up a little straighter, leaving her home office. She heard Jessie, her dad’s housekeeper, talking to someone. Macy rose from her chair, and went out into the hallway. She smiled at Abigail Langley.

Abby and Macy went way back to high school, but they had really become closer after Macy’s accident when Abby had become her rock. Then last year, unexpectedly, Abby’s husband had died of a brain aneurysm and Macy had had a chance to return the favor.

Abby had long wavy red hair and bright blue eyes. She was pretty and tall and walked into the room as if she owned it. Macy envied her friend that confidence. She’d thought the surgeries that restored her looks and her ability to walk would be enough, but this afternoon she’d realized they weren’t.

“Hi, there, Abby,” Macy said.

“Hello, gorgeous! You look wonderful. No need to ask how the doctor’s appointment went.”

Macy flushed. “I still don’t look like me.”

Abby wrapped her arm around Macy’s shoulder. “Yes, you do. This is the new you.”

“You are right. So … guess who I ran into at the hospital?” Macy asked as she led Abby into the den. The room was richly appointed with deep walnut paneling and oversize leather couches and chairs. This was where her father hosted football parties for his college buddies and where, when Macy had turned sixteen, she’d hosted her first boy-girl party.

On the wall was a portrait of her that her father had commissioned when she was eighteen, and Macy took a seat that deliberately kept her back to the picture. She hated looking at old pictures of herself. She didn’t like being reminded of who she used to be.

“Christopher Richardson,” Abby said with a twinkle in her eye.

“How did you know?”

“I have my sources. What did he say?”

“Nothing much. We’re going to dinner tonight so I can catch him up on all the gossip about the club. He’s in town to consult on developing the new clubhouse.”

“Well, that’s news to me. I’m going to have to have a little discussion with Mr. Bradford Price.”

“I wasn’t sure if you knew about it or not,” Macy confessed. Abby was rumored to be the descendant of infamous Texas outlaw Jessamine Golden and was making history herself as the first female member of the Texas Cattleman’s Club.

Abby and Macy had bonded over their shared tragedies. When Macy had been so badly injured and struggling to recover, Abby had been there for her, something Macy would never forget.

Abby didn’t say anything else, and Macy was a little worried about her friend. She suspected that Abby was using the connection and campaign to become the next president of the club to distract herself from the fact that Richard was really gone.

“Whose house are we placing the flamingos at next?”

“Mrs. Doubletree has been selected, but we are going to hit TCC first.”

“Great. What time and when?”

“Tonight, but if you can’t make it due to your dinner date, I will understand. In fact, I think we might be moving them while you are dining. You can help out the next time.”

Macy hated to miss out on helping Abby with the flamingos. Since she’d been so badly scarred and had frequently had bandages on to help her healing body stay infection free for the past three years, helping place pink flamingos in the yards of wealthy community members under cover of night had been the only thing she’d really felt comfortable doing to help out.

They placed the flamingos in the yards of different community members, and then the recipient of the flamingoes paid at least ten dollars a bird to have them relocated to another yard. The money was being raised for Helping Hands, a women’s shelter run by Summer Franklin in nearby Somerset.

Macy had always been big into causes, having been on the board of the Reynolds Charitable Trust since she turned twenty-one. But normally she just wrote checks and organized galas. Actually getting out and doing things was new to her.

“I will try to make it. It’s the only thing I’ve really been able to do to help,” Macy said.

“You’ve done more than that,” Abby said. “You’ve been helping me out a lot with my campaign.”

“I think it’s about time that the Texas Cattlemen had some women in their ranks. The shake-up last year helped change it from Daddy’s stuffy old men’s club into something that our generation can really be a part of.”

“I agree. And when I become president of the club, that’s not the only change we will be making.”

“Good to hear it,” Macy said. She and Abby chatted a few minutes longer before Abby had to leave.

After her friend’s departure, Macy went upstairs and had a long bath. She didn’t want to be nervous about tonight, but it was the first date she’d been on since her fiancé had left her. And that made it important.

She thought about her scarred body and how she still felt like the mess she’d been after that first surgery. She didn’t want to stare at herself in the mirror, but her psychiatrist said that she had to accept what she looked like now if she was ever going to move on.

She let the towel drop and stood in front of the mirror, letting her gaze drift down her own body. She saw the scarring on her right side, then the muscle she’d lost on her inner thigh.

She felt tears stir in her eyes and she bit her lower lip. Her body wasn’t going to get any better. This was how she’d always look. She glanced back at her face and for a moment almost resented the fact that her face was back to “normal” because the rest of her wasn’t. Not even inside was she the same woman she used to be.

She didn’t dwell on the fact that the date was with Christopher Richardson. He’d been her first love and she wasn’t sure she’d ever really gotten over him. She’d been young and impetuous when they’d met and he’d been forbidden fruit. She’d wanted him because her father hadn’t wanted her to have him. It wasn’t lost on her that she’d used him and now she was going to have to apologize. The girl she’d been pre-accident would have handled it with her normal panache, but Macy wasn’t that woman anymore and she suddenly dreaded the coming evening.