Sons Of Australia: The Mackays: Australian Boss: Diamond Ring/Surprise: Outback Proposal/Tempted by Her Tycoon Boss

by Jennie Adams

  ‘I thought you’d like doing that.’ He gave a nod of his head. ‘And I can guarantee the food will be amazing and there’ll be plenty of it. Our family’s housekeeper, Rosa, is an excellent cook.’

  His family called greetings and, in the middle of it all, Cecilia found herself swept up into the heart of this gathering where she might have felt like an intruder and yet they made her so welcome that she simply couldn’t.

  Cecilia wanted to stay on her guard, but instead she relaxed as the family made her welcome. It was wonderful to be here, and if Linc’s presence at her side contributed to that more than it should—well, she would simply have to worry about that later. She had no answers right now, anyway!

  ‘Isn’t it nice to enjoy the sounds of nature and this feeling of open space?’ Brent’s wife, Fiona, asked the question of the group. She glanced around. ‘What a great way to relax.’

  They all did exactly that. Cecilia examined the vintage train sets and toys they’d found and felt all of them had potential. ‘I’m sure that some attention from a restorer would bring them right back to life.’

  ‘That’s what I thought.’ Fiona returned a set of carriages to their faded box.

  Conversation flowed across a range of topics after that and ended up rather randomly in a discussion about pet adoption before Cecilia began to notice the passage of time.

  Linc had repeatedly drawn her into the conversation, as though he truly valued her thoughts and opinions. Somehow that made her feel safe.

  Great.

  That was all she needed—to start feeling safe around him. Self-delusion alert! She found the man attractive and interesting, but he was the owner of the business she managed—a millionaire, totally out of her reach. Did she even need to go on? What was safe about any of that?

  Yes, but he’d also kissed her.

  I don’t believe he’s not interested, said one side of her thoughts.

  She pushed that side down, with the other side called common sense, and said in a bright tone as she forced her gaze around the group to encompass everyone there, ‘This picnic food is delicious.’

  ‘It is, isn’t it?’ Alex’s wife, Jayne, encouraged Cecilia to take another lettuce cup, deliciously filled with seafood and a spicy dressing.

  ‘It’s nice to see you outside of a working environment, Cecilia,’ Fiona said. ‘We’re so glad you could join us.’

  ‘I was certainly surprised to see Linc when we bumped into each other at the fair.’ Cecilia glanced at the man in question, where he half reclined in a very unmillionaire-like sprawl beside her.

  How could one person look so alluring just by existing?

  As she was about to turn her glance away again, Linc’s mouth lifted at the corners. Just that and Cecilia’s heart lifted right along with the turn of his lips.

  She might have made her excuses and left then, but instead she became embroiled in a conversation about her refurbishing. Initially, it was with the whole group, but one by one they dropped out of the conversation to talk among themselves until it was only Linc and Cecilia left discussing the topic and she lost herself completely in it.

  ‘If you outsourced the refurbishment work, that aspect of the nursery might increase its financial viability.’ Linc made the statement laconically.

  ‘At the moment it wouldn’t,’ Cecilia hedged, not really wanting to explain just why that would be the case.

  ‘You’re doing some of the work at home, aren’t you?’ Linc shook his head. ‘I might have guessed you wouldn’t stop at simply buying items on your own unpaid time.’

  ‘It’s a manager’s privilege to donate time to the business.’ She jumped in quickly to justify this. ‘Besides, it’s soothing work. I benefit from it as much as I give to it.’

  ‘As much as I want to, I can’t really argue with that.’ His expression sobered as he went on. ‘But I can encourage you not to let the work be a burden to you.’

  ‘I enjoy it too much for that to happen.’ Cecilia pursed her lips. ‘You could be right about the outsourcing, though. Even if one of the lower paid staff took care of some of the basic work.’

  ‘I was only teasing you.’ Linc’s gaze followed the movement of her lips. ‘It’s profitable enough as it stands now, and I’m sure part of the charm for customers is your ability to sell the items on as the person who breathed life back into them in the first place.’

  ‘That does help.’

  She realised then how close they were to each other, that at some point each of them had leaned towards the other, and her heartbeat skipped. Her breath caught in her throat. She had the sense that maybe he wasn’t as impervious as he was making out, and it made her want to test that theory.

  But they were here with all his family. This was not the time for her to indulge in a state of superawareness of Linc yet again.

  She glanced guiltily around them, to discover that she and Linc were now alone!

  ‘Did we cause them all to leave with our—?’

  ‘Our long-winded work-related discussion?’ A spark of devilment danced in his eyes, and this time he didn’t bank it down or try to stop her from seeing his thoughts. ‘Trust me, they’re all just as bad—and, no, we didn’t drive them off.’

  Cecilia fell into those eyes then and there. She simply softened to Linc and that was that.

  Something had got into her that she couldn’t seem to control. It felt rather too much like anticipation, happiness or maybe even hope.

  ‘I find our discussions very enjoyable.’ His words seemed to emerge in a very deep tone.

  Before Cecilia could fully register the pleasure in his voice, he went on. ‘My family have wandered off to try to find an ice cream parlour somewhere, and then head for their homes. There was some sign language about all that just before they went, but you had your back turned at the time.’

  ‘Going on about my refurbishing without noticing anything around me.’

  She still felt a little mortified, but more than that she felt their shared consciousness of each other. She had to be sensing that correctly, surely?

  ‘I should get back to the fair, too.’ She forced herself to put more distance between them on the blanket and began to gather together the remnants of the family meal. ‘Please thank the others for including me when you see them again.’

  A part of her wished she hadn’t made that belated decision towards self-preservation, but she had courted enough danger around Linc for one day. She didn’t know how he felt, and until she could understand her own emotions better, she should keep her distance. The exact opposite of what she’d done today up until now.

  Linc watched Cecilia gather plates and napkins and replace them tidily into the wicker picnic basket. With each movement she seemed to gather her barriers more closely about her.

  Conversely, Linc’s seemed to be slipping further away from him. Even as he watched her, he noted that she had beautiful hands, with slender fingers that were stronger than they looked—somewhat like Cecilia herself.

  He’d gained great pleasure in drawing her out today. Knowing that she’d relaxed enough to forget her surroundings pleased him, too.

  In all of it he’d told himself he wasn’t thinking about their shared kiss, that his thoughts hadn’t turned again and again to those moments and the emotions they had made him feel. Tenderness for her, and interest, a strong desire to know more of her—who she was and what made her tick and everything about her.

  Those reactions didn’t fall under the category of passing interest. He shouldn’t have allowed any interest at all.

  In truth, he shouldn’t have invited her to this lunch. He’d told himself it would be a way to get them back on to a comfortable footing with each other, to leave that Valentine’s Day kiss behind them, but that had been quite delusional—for him, at least.

  He wan
ted even more to kiss her again.

  Great going, MacKay.

  And then, as though he had no control whatsoever over his own behaviour, he opened his mouth and added to the temptation.

  ‘I’d hoped you might let me tag along this afternoon while you look over the rest of the stalls. There may be more train sets that I can pick up.’

  Linc loved his brother. He totally did. And he’d cheerfully continue to buy Brent train sets if Brent continued to enjoy collecting them.

  But why would Linc stay all day here, browsing for them, when the rest of the family had already left?

  ‘You’d be more than welcome to join me.’ Cecilia said it and bit her lip, but her eyes were luminous.

  Immediately, Linc felt ridiculously pleased by that fact.

  Fine. So he’d extended the time they would spend in each other’s company today. So what?

  He did what any good man would do in such circumstances, when he couldn’t figure out which way was up or down in his life since a kiss had completely altered his perspective.

  He pretended not to notice any of it.

  * * *

  The afternoon proved wonderful for Cecilia. She and Linc wandered the remaining stalls. Linc very quickly worked out the kinds of items that attracted her eye and pointed out several things to her that she would have otherwise missed. In turn she found two more vintage train sets that he purchased for his brother.

  They laughed and made silly comments, and Cecilia remained constantly aware of him. Each time they bumped shoulders or had their heads close together over some item, her breath would catch.

  Yet still she told herself that this was okay, that things were under control. That her attraction to him and interest in him weren’t running full steam ahead.

  Right or wrong, Cecilia felt happy for the first time in a long, long while, and she let herself relax fully into the feeling.

  Maybe that was why at the end of the day, as they stowed the final item into her car and Linc turned to her, she remembered her sister in a sudden guilty rush and words poured out before she could stop them.

  ‘I’ve had such fun today I forgot about Stacey completely.’ Her words were low, almost inaudible and filled with guilt.

  How could she have forgotten her sister so thoroughly? Especially now, when she should be waiting every moment for the call that would let her know when she could go to visit her?

  Linc heard Cecilia’s confession and she didn’t need to say anything else, because those few words showed it all. The deep love, and the guilt that she had lived her own life for a few hours while her sister was shut away, only half living hers.

  But there was a difference between a woman forgetting her sister for a few brief hours, when she couldn’t do anything further to help her than she already was, and a man who’d completely neglected his brother’s welfare for weeks at a stretch when he’d been charged with looking out for that brother.

  While Linc acknowledged that he couldn’t change his own past, he could offer comfort to Cecilia now. He opened his arms and pulled Cecilia inside them. ‘It’s okay. You haven’t done anything wrong.’

  His lips were in her hair, and for a brief moment her arms stole about his middle before she drew back. ‘Thank you.’

  Again, he watched her put herself back together, shore herself up and square her shoulders.

  A feeling of pride in her welled. It may not be his place to feel it, but he did.

  ‘Linc...’

  In her beautiful eyes, and on her face, her appreciation for these moments showed. She seemed to be struggling to find words.

  Linc struggled, too—against wanting to draw her close again. He knew he had to fight this awareness of her, that he should have fought it and won before they’d shared that Valentine’s Day kiss.

  Today he hadn’t even controlled his urge to gain as much time with her as possible once their paths had crossed. In no reality could he justify that, when he knew there could be no future in pursuing that interest.

  Linc needed to get his own boundaries back in place. That meant sticking to their working relationship. He shouldn’t ever have allowed himself to waver from it.

  ‘If there’s anything I can do in terms of workload or freeing up your time to help with the situation with your sister, please tell me.’

  Cecilia heard Linc’s words and tried not to let them hurt her feelings. They came from the perspective of a business owner to one of his managers. She and Linc were those things, but even so...

  She forced her chin up.

  ‘Thank you. If there is anything I need in that respect I will let you know.’ She gestured to her car. ‘I must be going. It’s been a nice day. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.’

  She couldn’t be any more businesslike than that.

  Cecilia congratulated herself all the way home. And if she also felt miserable and confused and unhappy in the middle of that congratulating, she buried those feelings in a flurry of repurposing work from the moment she stepped inside her front door.

  It was good that she’d spent the day with Linc, because now she really did know that somehow she had to stop her thoughts and, yes, some of her feelings from running away with her any further when it came to her millionaire boss.

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘HELLO, CECILIA? I’m just calling to seek your response to our invitation to attend the opening gala this evening.’

  The words came from the president of the Silver Bells flower show organising committee.

  ‘We don’t seem to have heard anything back from you.’

  The woman had called Cecilia at the plant-nursery office, and now Cecilia frowned with complete mystification as she registered the request. ‘I’m sorry. I haven’t received any invitation for the gala opening. I assumed it was for VIPs and organisers only when nothing came through.’

  Cecilia had wondered but had put the thought from her mind as time had passed and the gala night had drawn nearer and still no invitation had been received.

  ‘Oh, dear. I suspected that might be the case.’ The woman’s disappointment rang in her words. ‘The invitation was to you and the business’s owner. I’m afraid we outsourced the sending of our official invitations and a number of them appear to have been overlooked. That’s a process that will definitely be changed for next year, but in the meantime we really did want to see you and Linc MacKay there tonight.’

  ‘At such short notice I’m not sure—’

  ‘It’s so important to us, my dear.’ The president sounded determined.

  Well, the committee hadn’t got such an amazing event into its inaugural year by hanging back, Cecilia supposed.

  Cunningly, the woman went on. ‘The masked ball will be one of our premiere events this year, and as its hosts we’d like to honour you. Surely there’s a chance you could both make it?’

  ‘I’ll be delighted to be there.’

  Cecilia would. This was an opportunity for her to promote the nursery and perhaps to gain some useful insights into the hopes the committee held for the rest of the month-long event.

  Would Linc want to attend, though?

  Cecilia’s glance lifted and sought him out, where he sat at the other desk. As she glanced his way, Linc straightened from his computer, stretched his arms over his head and gave his shoulders a good roll. His head was turned, his gaze focused out of the window, so he wouldn’t be aware of her eyes on him.

  She was taking in the strong lines of his upper torso before she realised what she was doing.

  ‘I...um...let me check and I’ll get back to you. What exactly are the details?’

  She scribbled down the return phone number, the start time, all the other information she needed, ended the call and turned to Linc, who was now working at his computer again.

 
‘Linc?’

  He looked up. ‘Mmm?’

  ‘An invitation that should have gone out asking both of us to attend the opening gala for the Silver Bells flower show was somehow overlooked. That was the president of the organising committee on the phone just now.’

  A ridiculous flutter started up in her tummy as she went on.

  ‘They are hoping we can both be there. There’s just one problem. It’s tonight.’

  Cecilia refused to dwell on the prospect of spending an evening in Linc’s company, if indeed he decided to attend. This was work related. He would either go or not go, depending on his level of interest and his schedule, and Cecilia wouldn’t care one way or another. She had her feelings about Linc completely under control now.

  Maybe he had a date with some beautiful woman tonight, anyway.

  Worse, maybe he would bring one as his date to the gala!

  Cecilia shouldn’t care but, oh, she did. She cared about that possibility far too much. Suddenly, she wasn’t at all certain that she did want Linc there.

  ‘It’s short notice. I understand if you have other plans.’

  ‘There’s nothing on my schedule that can’t be changed.’ His gaze showed only businesslike interest. ‘If it will be helpful to your cause then I’m happy to make an appearance with you.’

  With her.

  Okay, so that was good.

  In a purely business way.

  Right.

  So it was agreed that they would attend the event together. As colleagues.

  Which was how it came about that just hours later Cecilia stood waiting inside her modest cottage home for Linc to arrive and collect her.

  She didn’t feel businesslike at all, no matter how much she tried to talk herself into feeling that way.

  She wore a rose-pink evening gown with a soft cowl neck and fitted bodice. The gown fell from a high waist in gentle folds. Pearl drop earrings and her hair piled high on her head completed the look, and she had classic white high heels on her feet. Maybe the evening clothes were the problem...causing the flutter of excitement in her tummy right now.