His smile warmed her inside and out, and she realized that whatever wariness she’d been feeling had disappeared. For the first time since she’d looked across the terrace and seen him, she was totally at ease with him.
He turned onto a highway, then gunned the car so that it zoomed ahead. Given Nick’s special affinity with the sun, she wasn’t surprised to see that they were still heading west. But given the time of evening, the sun had disappeared, leaving behind only trails of muted reds and oranges on the horizon as a reminder of its existence.
“You said you’re a professor at the university?”
“That’s right.”
“So then you have a home in Austin?”
“Yes. Do you know Austin?”
“I went to school there. It was a requirement for me and my two sisters.”
“Requirement?”
She smiled dryly. “Oh, yeah. It had to be the University of Texas or it would be nothing.”
“Sounds as if your father had very definite ideas.”
“That’s one way of putting it.” Dictatorial was another.
“One thing about it—no one can make a mistake by going there. What was your degree in?”
“Petroleum engineering.” Such a shame, she thought. She’d never had a professor who looked even remotely like Nick. She could only imagine the clamor of the young, attractive women lining up, trying to get into his classes. In fact, if he’d been a professor there when she’d attended, she would have been clamoring right along with the others. She smiled to herself at the thought. “Austin’s a really great city.”
“It’s also a wonderful place to live and relatively easygoing.”
“Not like Dallas, huh?”
His head swung around. “You don’t like living in Dallas?”
Even she had heard the wistfulness in her voice, so she wasn’t surprised that he had. “Oh, I love it. There’s always something happening there, and it’s a great base for international dealings.” It was the truth. Only the word easyging had caused her wistfulness, though she wasn’t sure why. Her life was made up of discipline, drive and ambition. She’d never known any other way.
“In this day and time of faxes and modems, I imagine you could work anywhere and still maintain international ties without any problems.”
“I’m not sure that’s entirely true. For the type of business I do, it’s almost imperative to have an international airport close by, and Dallas does.”
He turned off the highway onto a two-lane country road. “DFW is a short flight away from Austin.”
“Uh-huh.” His Chamber of Commerce-like promotion of Austin was interesting, but it didn’t affect her one way or another. Her home was in Dallas because her uncle and her father had decided the offices of Baron International should be there. And as soon as she’d graduated from college at the age of twenty, she’d dived headfirst into the deep end of the high-tech, high-stress world of the oil business. She loved it. She thrived on it. She was good at it. She’d never minded the long hours or the pressure of risking huge amounts of money on what, in the end, came down to her instincts.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
