nice to meet all three of you and it was good of you to include me in your family moment.”
“Do you think my unsentimental brother would care who he shares family news with?” Will remarked dryly, grinning at Zach.
As they left the room, Emma stayed back and returned to her desk. She didn’t go back to work, but sat staring into space, thinking about Zach. What a waste of someone’s life to take away the fabulous moments shared with family and friends. How could he turn down Ava’s invitation to spend Thanksgiving with Will and his family? Instead, he would sit in isolation at home on the ranch—a sad choice.
She sat by the box to read a letter, finally concentrating on her work.
When Zach returned, her pulse jumped. He was off-limits, a danger to her peace of mind because her volatile reactions to him had not dwindled even a degree.
“I enjoyed meeting your family. They’re great and that’s fantastic news they shared.”
“My brother amazes me. He’d been as opposed to marriage as any of us, yet he is so in love with Ava, it’s ridiculous. And he’s great with Caroline. None of us have ever been around children and to become her guardian was really tough for him.”
“Well, from what little I saw, Caroline is a very happy little girl.”
“Ava and Will have been terrific for her. Ava was the one who suggested Muffy, a little puff of a dog that brought Caroline out of her grief from losing her father more than anything or anybody else.”
“Did I hear her call him ‘Daddy Two’?”
He nodded. “We’ve gotten used to that. Will is her second dad since her blood father died and I think she wanted a mom and dad. You noticed she calls Ava Mom?”
“Yes, I did. They seem incredibly happy. How could you not want to be with them for Thanksgiving?”
“I’m my own company. I get along fine.”
She shook her head. “Amazing,” she said, reaching for another letter. “Do all of you get together for Christmas?”
He gave her a lazy smile and she guessed his answer. As shocked as she was over Thanksgiving, her surprise was greater this time. “You’re spending Christmas here alone? You can’t do that.”
“Of course I can,” he replied with laughter in his voice.
“I’d think all of you would gather here since this is the family ranch. Isn’t this where you had Christmas celebrations when you were growing up?”
“Maybe twice when Granddad lived here. Never, after he was gone. My mother hated the ranch. Any ranch. If we celebrated together, it was in Dallas. After Mom walked, we didn’t even come home for Christmas.”
“Zach—”
His jaw firmed and an eyebrow arched. She realized she should stop talking about his personal life. She shrugged and turned away, going back to work without saying anything else. He did the same and she fought the urge to stare at him. How could he spend Christmas all alone? She couldn’t imagine anyone doing that through choice.
They worked for the next hour and Zach stood, stretching again.
“Enough of this,” he said. “Let’s break. I’ll go lift weights and do what I can do without involving my foot. We have treadmills or the track. Or an exercise bicycle. Nigel will be there because if any of us lift weights, he appears. He doesn’t want us alone if we’re working out with weights. That’s a long-standing rule and he walks around the track, which is probably good for him. If you prefer, you can sit in the family room and have a lemonade or a cup of hot tea or anything else you want.”
“Enough choices,” she said, putting down a letter. “I’ll change quickly and get on a treadmill. I’d rather sit on the terrace after work.”
“Good enough. See you in the gym.”
She left him, hurrying upstairs to change.
If only Zach felt about holidays the way Nigel felt about working out. That one shouldn’t go it alone.
With Nigel walking on the indoor track, Zach hoisted a bar, lifting it high and lowering it slowly when he saw Emma enter the gym. He set the bar in place and wiped his forehead with a towel while watching her. She wore blue shorts and a blue T-shirt that revealed lush curves, a tiny waist and heart-stopping long legs.
She smiled and waved, going to a treadmill to start it.
He should have let her go back to Dallas. She was a great secretary, as well as pure trouble. Their kisses were dynamite and the last kiss—when she wanted to prove their kisses couldn’t be called casual—had ignited fires that still blazed. Her sudden kiss had shocked and electrified him. It had been a spunky, devil-may-care, I’ll-show-you challenge that he would never have expected from her. If he could have burned to cinders from a kiss, he would have with that one. His reaction had definitely not been casual and she knew it. She had more than proven her point. She had driven it home with a wrecking ball.
She had a backbone and he suspected she was as strong-willed as he. Not his kind of woman in any manner except physically. She had been aghast over his plans for a solitary Christmas. He would bet the ranch he hadn’t heard the last on that one. She would want to take him home with her for Christmas. The whole thing would be humorous and he could ignore it easily, except she was getting to him in a manner he hadn’t thought possible. The hot kisses he had labeled “casual” blasted his peaceful life with constant fantasies about holding her and making love to her.
He wasn’t concentrating well on his work. It took real effort to avoid eating lunch or dinner with her. He had offered this exercise time when he should have left the office, worked out with only Nigel and let her continue with her secretarial duties. Common sense said to either practice more self-control or get rid of her.
His lusty body just wanted to seduce her.
Frustrated, he returned to working out.
At one point he paused, glancing over to see Emma running on the treadmill. She was going at good clip, had an easy stride and looked as if she had done this before. She looked fit and tempting. The T-shirt clung, the blue darker where it was damp with perspiration. She had a sexy bounce as she ran and her long legs were as shapely as he had imagined.
With a groan, he returned to his weights. When he stopped, she had finished and had a towel around her neck as she stood talking to Nigel. He smiled, glancing at Zach who waved Nigel away as a signal he was leaving the gym. Since Zach was finished, Nigel headed for the door and, without a glance, Emma followed close behind.
Zach hung behind. He hobbled out of the gym, wanting his foot to heal so he could get back to normal. He went to shower, wrapping his foot in a plastic boot and keeping it out of the shower to avoid getting it wet.
He constantly thought about taking her out when his foot healed and taking her to bed even sooner. If he didn’t want to complicate his life, that would not happen. She definitely would have her heart in an affair, something he had always avoided. In spite of what he knew he should refrain from doing, he could not keep from wanting to be with her and fantasizing about it.
Heat climbed, erotic images of Emma in his arms tormenting him. She was getting to him in
