William Shakespeare’s tale. If there was the slightest chance that Emmaline could find love, then he was going to make it happen.
Chapter One
“Are you sure you’re okay, Emma? You don’t look well.”
“No, really. I’m fine.” Emmaline clutched her book tightly and hoped her cousin Holly wouldn’t notice how rigid her body had gone at the announcement. In truth, she didn’t feel at all well. Panic was setting in fast at Holly’s announcement.
She placed the research book she had been studying on a nearby table. “Are you absolutely sure Chris is bringing Ryan Benedict with him? To stay here?” Emmaline asked.
Holly’s eyes lit up when Emmaline said Christopher’s name.
“I’m totally sure,” Holly said with a laugh. “Ryan and Chris are business partners. Why wouldn’t he stay here?”
Because I don’t want to see him, Emmaline thought . Because the last time I saw him we shared the most casual of kisses, and I—well, I don’t even want to think about my embarrassing reaction to the man. She had been flustered, like some virginal woman from a bygone era who had considered it a sin to even think of kissing a man. Thank goodness her family knew she didn’t want a husband. Otherwise, they might have thought she was actually interested in Ryan.
“I’m not saying Ryan shouldn’t stay here,” Emma said. It’s just that Chris is coming because you’re engaged and planning your wedding, but Mr. Benedict’s reasons are related to business with Uncle Gilbert’s hotel chain. I thought perhaps he’d stay at the hotel.”
Holly rolled her eyes. “Don’t be silly, Em. Ryan is Chris’s best friend, so of course, Dad invited him to stay. He made a special point of asking him. Why? Don’t you like him?”
Careful, Em, Emmaline warned herself. She turned what she hoped was a placid smile on her younger cousin. “How can I dislike him? Except for that brief meeting a few weeks ago, I’ve barely even met Ryan Benedict.”
Holly frowned at her cousin. “But I know you, Em. You’re trying too hard. There is something wrong, isn’t there?”
Against her will the memory of that meeting forced itself into Emmaline’s memory. Her uncle had called her into the living room to drink a toast to the business partnership his company had just entered into with Chris and Ryan’s company. The first person she had seen had been Ryan. With that dark hair, lean GQ looks and military bearing that was still with him years after he had left the service. He had turned those navy-blue eyes on her, and her breath had caught, a fact that had irritated her to no end.
She was not the kind of woman who allowed herself to be swayed by a man’s looks or magnetism, having learned all too well how dangerous that kind of thing could be.
Then Holly and Chris had announced their engagement, the result of a courtship that had begun two months ago when Holly had gone to St. Louis with Gilbert to check out C&R Technologies and had met Chris. Holly had spent a lot of time in St. Louis since then. Emma and barely seen her and had only met Chris once or twice. Not that it mattered.
Suddenly Chris had shaken Uncle Gilbert’s hand, pounded him on the back and hugged him, and then everyone in the room was kissing and hugging. Emmaline, who had never been a very physical kind of person, had found herself standing next to Ryan, looking up at him as he gave her a wicked grin. “May I, Ms. Carstairs?” he had said. His voice had been low and husky and dangerous, as if he was inviting her to remove all of her clothing rather than to share in Holly and Chris’s celebration. In the next second, while she was getting her bearings and without waiting for her to answer, he had lightly placed his lips on her cheek. Idiot that she was, awkward with this very physical man, she had jerked, turned and just for a second his mouth had brushed against the corner of her lips.
The room and all its occupants had fallen away. Her skin burned. She’d wanted to…she didn’t know what she had wanted to do, but it surely involved placing her hands on him, having him place his hands on her. Rational thought had proven impossible.
Later she had reminded herself that it had been a celebratory kiss, no more. A meaningless gesture of the kind that people took part in every day. But that was later.
In the brief time when Ryan Benedict was touching her lips, accident though it may have been, heat had rushed through, her breathing had gone rough and shallow, her mind had gone blank. She had the horrifying suspicion that she might have actually swayed toward him, maybe—please, no—even placed a hand awkwardly on his chest.
For half a second after he stopped touching her, a crazy thought had gone through her head. He would make beautiful babies, and she wanted a baby.
Immediately reality had stepped in. What on earth was she thinking? After all these years of fighting to keep her emotions in a jar, she was not going to allow herself to act girlish and irresponsible now.
She had already done that. At a hotelier’s convention several years ago she’d met, dated and fallen for a man who claimed to want her, but who had really wanted her to help him with Uncle Gilbert’s business for his company. So…hadn’t she learned about men who pretended to care but didn’t? Hadn’t her mother been betrayed by her weakness for Emmaline’s faithless father? Emma wasn’t going to make those kinds of mistakes. If she wanted a baby, there were ways. Pursuing a man, especially one like Ryan who probably had women lining up to sleep with him, wasn’t one of the ways.
“Em?”
Emmaline realized that her fists were clenched and she was gritting her teeth. She looked at her cousin. “I’m sorry, Holly. What?” she asked, as casually as possible.
“Are you really okay? I just suggested that you might not like Ryan, and you practically disappeared on me. It’s not—that is, I saw him kiss you and the way you looked afterwards—”
Emmaline quickly shook her head. “That was nothing.”
Holly looked unconvinced. “Em…”
“Holly,” Emma managed to say. “Don’t even go there. You know that I gave up the hunt for the right man the way other women give up wearing their hair in pigtails. I’m beyond that stage of my life and I’m happy about it, so you don’t have to worry about me, okay?”
“You sound like you’re ancient.”
Emmaline managed a laugh. “Where men are concerned I am. But seriously, I’m sorry if I zoned out on you. There’s so much going on now that we’ve decided to renovate the hotel. I’ve been…brainstorming new decorating ideas,” she said, pointing to the book her uncle had unexpectedly given her the other day.
She was sorry about the white lie, but she truly didn’t want Holly to worry, which brought her to another thought. Holly’s recent engagement had made Emma realize she needed to concentrate on her own goals. She would be more alone now, and she did want a child, someone who would belong to her and to whom she would belong. Just as soon as Holly was married, Emma hoped to begin checking into the possibility of adoption.
“Em, can I ask a favor of you?” Holly said, a trace of worry in her voice, her pretty brow bunched.
Emmaline looked at her cousin, waiting.
“Ryan is like a brother to Chris. If there’s
