The Billionaire's Christmas Desire. Janice Maynard

If you did, you would never return to spending it the way you do now.” She yawned and stretched. “I’m ready to turn in, Zach.” She stood and he came to his feet. She walked to the tree and carefully lifted free a glass Santa to show to him. “This is my favorite.”

      He looked at the ornament and her delicate, warm hand. “I hope you have years of wonderful Christmases,” he said quietly.

      “I hope you do, too.”

      “This is turning into one so far.”

      “It’s Thanksgiving and the start of the Christmas holiday. There’s a month to go.” She returned the Santa to the tree. “I love each ornament, Zach.” He came to stand beside her and put his arm around her waist. “Look at our reflection,” she said, touching a shiny green ball.

      “I’m going to start carrying a sprig of mistletoe in my pocket,” he said, turning her to him to kiss her.

      His arm tightened around her waist and she slipped her arms around him, kissing him while her pulse drummed. She quivered while desire ignited. Finally, she raised her head. “We should go to bed.”

      “If only you would always say that at the ranch,” he replied. He smiled and kept his arm around her waist to walk beside her as they headed toward the stairs.

      “Night, Zach,” she said and disappeared into the room where she slept. In his own room, he lay in bed with his hands behind his head, thinking about the day and the evening with her and her family. He couldn’t imagine spending every weekend this way, but sometimes it would be fun. He still thought she was missing out on a wonderful world and when his foot was healed, he would try to show her some place exciting out of Texas since she had never even been beyond the boundaries of the Lone Star state. As soon as he thought of traveling with her, he knew it would never happen. When the job ended, she would go out of his life. She had been correct when she said they had vastly different lifestyles. Neither one was the right person for the other in even a casual way.

      In spite of that knowledge, his common sense, caution and experience, he couldn’t stop wanting her and he couldn’t shake her out of his thoughts.

      He finally drifted to sleep, still yearning to be alone with her.

      After Sunday dinner, Zach and Emma left for the ranch.

      She drove again while he sat with his foot propped up across the backseat and resting on bags placed on the car floor.

      “You have a nice family. I see why you value your weekends. Your family shows they enjoy being together.”

      “Thank you. You seemed to like being with your brother and his family.”

      “I do, but I don’t think my brothers and I have the closeness your family does.”

      Emma could see Zach in the rearview mirror. “You can have that closeness. From what you’ve said, you’re all congenial. Maybe you are alone so much because you keep up your guard, Zach. It might carry over from childhood and times you were alone. Life’s different now. You don’t have to keep everything all bottled up. You can enjoy your brothers and now there’s a half sister. You and Will seem very close.”

      He sat in silence. She met his gaze when she glanced at him, but then she had to turn her attention back to the road. “You might be right,” he said finally. “I’ve never looked at it that way. I was disappointed as a kid. So were they. We were dumped and couldn’t even be home together some years. I don’t know—maybe my feelings are a guard left from childhood hurts. As a little kid, I couldn’t keep from resenting it.”

      “Well, the nice thing now is that you don’t have to be alone,” she said, smiling at him.

      “Maybe you’re right. I’ll admit it’s fun when my brothers are together. And now I enjoy having Caroline and Ava there, too. Your family certainly has a great time together.”

      “We do and in a crunch, we can count on each other too. I’m happy you came with me.”

      “I enjoyed the weekend. Neither of your brothers were thrilled. I got looks from them the whole time. If they intended to send me warnings, they succeeded.”

      “Pay no attention to them. You’ll never see them again.”

      Zach smiled and looked at her as she glanced in the rearview mirror at him. “I’m not invited back?”

      Emma felt her cheeks flush. “Of course you are. Whenever you would like to go home with me. I just figured you wouldn’t want to again. I sort of trapped you into this time.”

      He grinned. “I’m teasing you.”

      “Zach, would you like to come home with me for Christmas?” she asked sweetly. “We’ll have the whole family and they would be delighted to have you.”

      “No, they wouldn’t be delighted. Thank you for asking me. I’ll stay home and give my foot a rest.”

      “They would be pleased to see you again, except perhaps Connor, but you can ignore him.”

      “Home on the ranch is where I belong.”

      When they stepped inside the empty ranch house, Zach dropped their bags and switched off alarms. As she picked up her bag, he turned to take it from her and set it back on the floor. He slipped his arm around her waist. “Now what I’ve waited all weekend to do,” he said in a husky voice. “You do owe me.”