She didn’t back away from him every time he got too close. If he accidentally brushed up against her, or touched her shoulder to get her attention, she didn’t flinch. Spending time together, getting to know each other a little bit at a time while they worked, eased her guard around him. Progress. But the compulsion to touch her grew more and more each and every second he spent with her, which is why he’d resorted to hiding in the office today. He couldn’t work beside her right now, or he’d give in to his compulsion to touch her beyond tapping her shoulder to get her attention.
Not an option. Hands off, man. Keep your mind on work and off her.
Someone knocked on the door. He growled out, “What!”
Gillian opened the door and peeked in. He didn’t get up to greet her from where he sat behind his cluttered desk in the corner of the room; couldn’t really, without revealing the bulge in his jeans. If he saw her, heard her voice, his damn dick snapped to attention, begging for him to bury it deep inside her soft body. God, how he wanted her.
Why wouldn’t she go away and stop unknowingly torturing him for five minutes?
He hit save on the spreadsheet, narrowed his eyes, and scowled at her. He didn’t really mean it. His own damn fault he couldn’t control his thoughts and needs around her. Better to hide out with his numbers than lose everything by doing something stupid like grabbing her, crushing her to his aching body, and kissing her.
“Blake, your mom is downstairs. She’d like you to come down and see her.”
He’d spent half the day avoiding Gillian and all day thinking about her. Now, she’d hunted him down, and all he wanted to do was take her in the other room and lay her out on the bed and cover her with his body and make love to her until morning.
On the other hand, he wanted her to go away. She made him ache. Thoughts of her kept him awake long into the night. He hadn’t slept well knowing that she was only a short walk away and a million miles away emotionally. The bruises on her face had almost faded away. The last of the stitches on her back were probably ready to come out. Each and every day, she got stronger, more confident here on the ranch.
“Fine.” He tried to ignore her, kept his focus on the computer screen, and entered another set of numbers into the machine from hell.
She walked up behind him and leaned over, distracting him with the soft touch of her hand on his shoulder, her sweet, flowery scent, and the silky strands of hair that tickled the back of his neck as they fell over her shoulder and lay down his back. She studied the screen without noticing he’d gone completely rigid beside her. Did she know she touched him more and more often without even thinking about it? Probably not. She was still ignoring the pull between them. She was still ignoring him. He smelled that damn shampoo with its flowers-and-citrus scent. He swore that smell lingered on the air for hours after she left the stable. He smelled it over the horses. He smelled it when he went to sleep.
“Why are you doing the calculations on the calculator and not having the computer do them for you?” Even her sweet voice tempted him.
He sucked in a breath and let it go more irritated, because he could smell her even better now that she had her hand next to his on the desk as she leaned down and stared at the screen. If he leaned back, her breast would press against his shoulder. He remained still. Very, very still.
“Because I need to do several calculations to get this column here.” He pointed to the numbers on the screen, then went back to tapping the keys on the calculator and ignoring his throbbing body, despite the fact he punched in half the numbers wrong.
“What are the calculations?”
Better to think about numbers than making love to her. “I have to add up these columns, take the total, and multiply it by twelve for the year. I take that total and multiply it by this row here, and that gives me the total for this column. Then I have to take that total and use it to do some calculations on another spreadsheet over here,” he said and switched the screen to another complicated spreadsheet. He didn’t know why he kept trying to get the thing in the computer when he could do it faster by hand.
“Why don’t you add a column that has the total of all those columns? Use that to multiply by twelve to get this column. You can use that number to put on this spreadsheet if you have both open at the same time and link them. Do you need to use these figures for projections?” Gillian studied the columns and figures.
He made the mistake of turning his head to look at her and found himself inches from her mouth. He stared into her expectant eyes. Too bad she expected an answer and not a hot, searing kiss to ease the ache in his belly and between his legs.