Seth couldn’t concentrate on the paperwork in front of him. He tossed the small rubber ball against the wall beside his desk, rhythmically catching it and throwing it again. He hadn’t slept well last night. He missed Em. The two nights up at the cabin had changed things, brought them closer. Sex up till then had always held a sense of urgency—they’d had a lot of catching up to do—but making love up at the cabin had taken on a richer, deeper connection. Waking up with her in his arms had brought home to him just how vital December was to his happiness.
She was his weakness. She made him want to hope, and hope was an emotion he’d long ago done away with. Hope hurt. He’d learned that the hard way as a kid. He hoped this year maybe he’d get a Christmas present from Santa.
He hoped maybe Mum would come to school like the other kids’ mums did and listen to him read or show up for the end-of-year concert. He hoped that when he got home from school his dad wouldn’t be there beating up his mother.
Hope was a bitch. And yet here he was now, daring to hope again. A life with December was something he hadn’t allowed himself to hope for. She had been lost to him until that accident gave him a second shot at happiness. Had McPherson been anyone else, maybe he would have felt a ripple of guilt that his happiness resulted from another man’s death, but Dan McPherson deserved everything he got and Seth wasn’t about to waste another second thinking about him.
The only thing that stood in their way now was Jack Doyle.
Seth threw the ball a bit harder, his hand shooting out instinctively to catch it only inches from his face. He swore, pushing to his feet and stalking to the window. He knew December wanted him to bury the hatchet with her father, and maybe he would, but it took two to make sure the past stayed buried and Jack Doyle clearly wasn’t prepared to do his part of the digging. He knew he’d been stirring the Doyle family pot of hatred for him. Of course he knew opening the hardware store in Rollings would have an impact on the Doyles’ store, and maybe that sweetened the deal just a little for him, but had it not been a profitable and worthy venture he’d never have gone through with it. He genuinely cared that his business would support new jobs in the region—the fact that they came at the cost of some of Doyle’s business was a happy coincidence.
Jack Doyle was not a victim in all of this, Seth reminded himself when December’s sad face flashed before his eyes. The bond she’d shared with her family had always been something Seth had envied. He’d never had that growing up, never had someone watching over him and ready to protect and defend him if need be. December had been the only person who’d believed in him, made him feel as though he could be someone. He’d seen McPherson as a kid, being accepted into the Doyle family, and remembered the pain he’d felt but kept hidden from December. He’d never sat at their dinner table or been invited in to watch movies; they’d made their mind up about what kind of kid he was.
When December had started being picked up from hockey training by her father, it had been pretty clear that word had gotten around that Seth Hunter was getting a little too close to Jack Doyle’s daughter. The quiet talk Jack had with him a few nights later left him in no doubt that he was never going to be welcome at the Doyle house. He’d die before ever admitting to anyone how much that had hurt him, but it had. He hadn’t known how badly he’d wanted that dream of sitting at the dinner table with a family, of being part of something, of belonging, until it was ripped away from him.
He knew December was caught in the middle of this feud but there wasn’t anything Seth could do about that. He wouldn’t deliberately go after her father now, but he wasn’t going to knock on the guy’s door and say all was forgiven, either. There were some wrongs that weren’t so easy to forgive.
With her plan more or less formulated, December bypassed her office and headed straight for Seth’s early the next morning.
The two nights up at the cabin had played on her mind after she’d returned home. She loved Seth. Dan had shaken her confidence and trust, but she had to let go of that now. She needed to believe in herself, to listen to what she really wanted and then be brave enough to embrace it. She was happy. She hadn’t been this happy in a long time, but she knew that someone needed to make the first move between her father and Seth if they were ever going to have a hope of clearing the air between them, and it looked like that someone was going to have to be her.
She gave a firm knock and waited until she heard his call to come in before taking a deep breath and pushing open the door.
‘Good morning,’ she said, striving for a professional yet friendly tone.
‘It is now,’ he said, coming across the room to close the door, then pressing her up against it as he lowered his head to kiss her. His kiss was intoxicating—that had to be the reason her knees suddenly felt weak; had it not been for the fact he was holding her up, she probably would have melted at his feet. She couldn’t get enough of the man—she tasted the faintest hint of the expensive South American coffee he favoured, and felt the heat of his body as it floated through her senses in a wave of sandalwood and soap. A prickle of goosebumps exploded from her skin as his hands explored from her waist to her rib cage.
He deftly undid the top three buttons of her blouse and the cool breeze from the airconditioner touched her overheated skin. At the first brush of his hand, December’s breath caught and he swallowed her sigh, kissing her deeper, their mouths greedily feasting in a hunger that refused to be sated.
She threaded her fingers through his short hair, pulling him closer to her, but it wasn’t close enough—it could never be close enough, she needed to be part of him.
The phone on his desk rang and December froze, feeling like a deer caught in headlights. What was she doing? Being pinned up against the door while making out with your boss was about as far from professional yet friendly as you could get!
‘The phone,’ she said nervously, pulling her mouth away from Seth’s.
‘Can wait,’ he finished, lowering his head once more.
December dodged his tempting lips and placed her palms against his chest. ‘Seth, we’re at work. If you don’t answer your phone Sasha will come looking for you,’ she told him sternly—well, as sternly as she could given half her buttons were undone.
‘So? I’m the boss, who’s going to fire me?’
December rolled her eyes but refused to let him near her again while she restored some kind of order to her clothing. ‘We can’t stand around here all day doing . . . this.’ She tried for a prim tone, but judging by his self-satisfied grin, she wasn’t fooling anyone. ‘I actually came in here for a reason,’ she said, trying her best to ignore how sexy he looked with his hair all rumpled.
‘So not just to molest me then?’
‘No. I was wondering if you’d like to come over for dinner tonight.’
Apparently a dinner invitation was the last thing he’d been expecting. ‘You’re asking me to dinner? At your place?’ ‘I’d like to cook for you—it won’t be anything as spectacular as you could cook, mind you.’
‘I’d like that very much,’ he finally said.
‘Great,’ she nodded briskly, reaching up to smooth down his hair. ‘Come over at seven.’
‘Seven,’ he agreed, catching her hand and bringing the palm to his mouth as he held her eyes.
The phone on his desk sounded again. ‘You better answer that,’ she said, surprised to hear her voice sound relatively normal, considering inside she felt like popcorn exploding in every direction.
‘I’ll see you later.’ She didn’t wait for a reply, and she didn’t glance up at his face; she was struggling to force her legs to hold her up. Damn that man. He was determined to get under her skin at any opportunity. Granted, she wasn’t exactly an innocent bystander but, still, she was trying her best to keep things professional here in the office at least.
Her thoughts turned to the night ahead and some of the glow she’d been feeling dimmed. She hoped she was doing the right thing. What else could she do? If she and Seth were ever going to have any kind of future, she needed to make sure the two most important men in her life could at least stand to be in the same room as one another. Small steps . . . First she had to actually get them in the same room together.