Second Chance with the Billionaire

by Janice Maynard

  He’d been half-afraid he would see anger on her face...or stony dismissal. Hearing her agree to the plan eased part of the weight on his shoulders. “The car seat is in my car,” Conor said. “Kirby will follow us up the mountain and help us get settled in.”

  Before Conor could make a move to put Ellie in the car, she took Emory, tucked him in his seat and slid in beside him, leaving Conor to play chauffeur. Over the roof of the vehicle, Conor looked at Kirby with a lift of his shoulders and a shake of his head. One step at a time.

  Conor drove up the mountain with one eye on the rearview mirror and the backseat. It wasn’t so much that Ellie ignored him but that she focused every scrap of her attention on the baby. Little Emory was blissfully happy to have his mother back.

  Once they arrived at their destination, Conor decided to let Ellie move at her own pace. He grabbed the small bag Kirby had packed for her to have at the hospital. The three adults mounted the steps, Kirby following along behind. He was striding more naturally every day, and he seemed more at peace with his life. For Conor, it was a two-way street. He had missed his old friend, and having Kirby back in his life was a shot in the arm. Kirby would be leaving in the spring, so Conor was determined to enjoy the time they had.

  And then there was Ellie. He watched her closely to see how she would react to his home. The house still smelled new. In fact, he had only completed the last bits six months ago. Building this structure had been a labor of love. He was much farther out of town than any of his siblings. But he relished the solitude.

  Though his mother had gifted each of her sons with acreage on the mountain between the Silver Beeches Lodge and the ski resort, Conor had taken some of his own savings and bought property on the south end of the mountain. The terrain was rougher here, the sense of privacy more pronounced.

  Ellie paused on the wide wraparound porch and smiled. “This is beautiful, Conor. I had no idea you had a house of your own.”

  “Well, I lived in an apartment in town for a while...and then a condo. But I suppose I finally grew up and decided I wanted to put down roots. I had lots of help with the architecture and the decorating. But I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.”

  All of Silver Glen conspired to maintain an Alpine theme in the picturesque town. The area was known for its atmosphere and its charm. Conor agreed wholeheartedly, but he’d always been drawn to Western design. He’d made several trips to Wyoming and Montana where he had procured large logs from abandoned buildings for the outer shell of his home.

  His large porch and the floors inside were constructed of wide oak planking. But there was nothing rough or rustic about the place. He planned to live here for a very long time, so he had paid attention to comfort and luxury and, in some cases, outright decadence. He was deeply moved to know that Ellie and Emory would be his first guests.

  In the living room, the three adults paused, no one quite at ease. Kirby spoke first. “I won’t linger. I don’t want to leave Grandpa for too long. Conor has given you and Emory a suite with a bedroom, bathroom and sitting room. Emory won’t be right beside you every night like he was at Grandpa’s house. You’ll sleep better, I’m sure.”

  Conor nodded. “Make yourself at home. Take the tour.”

  “But what about all of our things? Mine and Emory’s?”

  Her brother grinned. “I packed it all up and brought it here yesterday. Turns out, I’m not quite as broken as I thought I was...and you aren’t, either, Ellie. This is only a bump in the road. You took care of me night and day for months. I need the chance to return the favor and to show you I’m as good as new.”

  Conor was ready for Kirby to go. He wanted to be alone with Ellie. The knowledge that she would be sleeping beneath his roof made his pulse jump and his breathing ragged.

  When the door closed behind Kirby, Conor hesitated. “How about some tea?” he asked with forced cheerfulness.

  “I think Emory’s ready for his nap. Will you show me where I can put him down?”

  The baby was indeed yawning. “Of course. Right this way.”

  Conor stood to one side and watched as Ellie toured the quarters he’d given her. It had been important to him to add some finishing touches in the past twenty-four hours. Fresh flowers. A cashmere throw on the end of the king-size bed. A whimsical pair of bedroom slippers that resembled baby rabbits.

  The rooms were done in shades of cream and pale green. With the large windows bringing the outdoors inside, this guest suite reminded him of a springtime forest.

  Ellie tucked Emory in the brand-new crib Conor had bought and covered him with a light blanket. The house was air-conditioned comfortably, but the baby’s arms and legs were bare.

  Emory scarcely stirred as the two adults tiptoed out. To Conor’s surprise, Ellie perched on the corner of her own bed and motioned him into a chair. “I’d like to say something,” she said quietly.

  He sat down and leaned back, trying to feign relaxation, but his gut was tight. “You have the floor,” he teased, trying for a light tone.

  But Ellie’s expression was serious. “Dr. Milledge told me that you and I argued right before my accident.”

  “That’s true.”

  “Conor...” She trailed off, her hands twisting restlessly in her lap. Today she was dressed simply in nice jeans and a white knit shirt with short sleeves. Her beautiful hair was caught up in a ponytail. The style drew attention to her high cheekbones and slightly pointed chin.

  He waited, remembering the doctor’s advice. No pressure. “Nothing to worry about, Ellie. You and I are fine.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said, eyes downcast. “It was probably my fault. That’s the thing that’s bugging me. I can’t remember.”

  She looked up at him, and he saw panic in her eyes.

  Without overthinking it, he joined her on the bed. Hip to hip, but not touching. “It was nothing, Ellie. Really.”

  “I remember the party and the hospital, but in between is a blank.”

  He put his arm around her shoulders and drew her close against his side, unable to resist the need to comfort her. “According to the doctors, that’s entirely normal for a head injury. Those brief hours may come back or they may not, but either way, it’s no big deal.”

  She sighed, her expression hidden as she pressed her cheek to his chest. “It is to me,” she said. “Please, Conor, tell me what we were fighting about.”

  Well, hell. What was he supposed to say? “It was more of a disagreement.”

  “I was running through the forest barefoot. It had to be something.” One second passed. Then five.

  Searching for a believable lie was not easy.

  Ellie pulled free of his embrace and turned sideways so she could look up at him, her blue eyes allowing him no quarter. “You can tell me. I’m not going to shatter into a million pieces. What did we argue about, Conor?”

  He cleared his throat. “Well...”

  “Was it about sex?”

  He felt his neck heat. “Why would you say that?”

  “I’m attracted to you. And I think you are to me. So it seems like the topic might have come up. But I don’t know why it would be the kind of thing to make me so upset.”

  He cupped a hand behind her neck, steadying her...steadying himself...willing her to understand. “You wanted us to be intimate. I wanted that, too. But I was afraid it was too soon...that you hadn’t dealt with Kevin’s death.”

  She went white...so pale he thought for a moment she might faint. And he felt her tremble. “It must be nice to be right all the time.”

  While he struggled for the right words to say, Ellie stood up and went to the window, her back to him. “I’d like to take a nap now,” she said. “If that’s okay.”

  The dismissal was pretty clear. “Of course.”

  He didn’t want to leave her, bu
t he had no real reason to stay.

  The house seemed to close in on him suddenly, and he wondered what in the heck he had done to himself. Ellie was already upset with him, and they hadn’t even made it through the first day. Had he sentenced himself to an interminably long few weeks?

  For half an hour Conor settled himself in front of the muted TV with a beer and his laptop to deal with a few things at Silver Slopes. But none of the business was really urgent. Not to mention the fact that he had an accountant and a host of other employees to handle anything that might come up.

  Finally, he realized that he had to do something physical to diffuse the restless energy that thrummed through his veins. He wanted Ellie badly. And she was ensconced in his home. Close. Available. It was enough to drive him stark raving mad.

  Surmising that Ellie and Emory would sleep at least an hour and a half, he went to his bedroom, stripped down to his boxers and donned a T-shirt and shorts. At the back of his new home he had added a state-of-the-art workout gym.

  In minutes, he was sweating as he pummeled a punching bag. His knuckles would be sore and bruised tomorrow, but it was worth it. After that, he moved to the weight bench. Adding five pounds to his personal best, he lay down on his back, positioned his hands and concentrated fiercely as his arms strained to lift the almost immovable object.

  Salty perspiration dripped into his eyes, making them sting and burn. His lungs ached for air, and his biceps quivered with fatigue.

  The sudden sound of a woman’s voice almost made him drop the weights. Gritting his teeth, he lowered the bar into its resting place. Taking a deep breath, he sat up and wiped his face with a towel. “I thought you were sleeping.”

  Ellie’s curious stare made him restless. “I’m a good power napper.” She crossed the room to stand beside him. “You’re a very masculine man, Conor Kavanagh. I like looking at you.” As sweat rolled down his shoulder, she ran her fingertip from the inside of his elbow up his arm and caught the droplet.

  Her touch on his body burned him from the inside out. “I need a shower,” he muttered, scarcely able to breathe. Arousal bloomed, hot and vicious. Surely Ellie wasn’t this naive. “Will you excuse me?”

  As he started to step around her, she placed a hand, palm flat, on his bare chest. He had stripped off his T-shirt before doing the weights. “No,” she said. “I don’t believe I will.”

  “Stop, Ellie.” As a protest, it was weak at best. But the last time he’d rejected her she had ended up with a concussion and memory loss.

  “I’ve had professional medical care, Conor. You don’t have to be afraid you’re going to shatter my psyche. If you don’t want me, you can say so.”

  He could make her back off. All he had to do was convince her that he looked at her as a sister. Sadly, it would take a hell of a better man than he was to sell that lie.

  He curled his fingers around her wrist, removing her hand from his chest. “I’ll give you whatever you want, Ellie, I swear. But we have to start slowly.”

  She nodded, still with that curious light in her eyes...as if she were already imagining the two of them naked and entwined in the sheets. “That’s fair. So a kiss, then?”

  She made it a question even as she moved against him, heedless of his damp nakedness. Lifting her face to his, she put her hand on the back of his head. “Kiss me.”

  A very long time ago he had danced with her and wondered how it would be to kiss a girl like Ellie. But this was different. In the interim, she’d been married...had given birth to a child. Conor was not into one-night stands, though he’d had his share of relationships.

  Slowly, he lowered his mouth to hers. He’d never really thought of her as a short woman, but they were both barefoot and Ellie seemed small and vulnerable. That vulnerability gave him pause. Should he walk away from temptation?

  When his lips touched hers, the internal discussion ended. His brain shut down instantly and his body took over. God, she felt amazing. His hands roved over her back. He badly wanted to feel her curvy butt in his palms, but protecting her had to come before his own base urges. He had to keep a tight rein on his hunger or it would consume them both.

  “Ellie,” he muttered. “Ah, God, Ellie.”

  Her arms went around his neck. “Hold me, Conor.” Her voice broke. “I need you so much.”

  The need went both ways. He’d always assumed what he felt for one of his two best friends was a crush. Puppy love. The infatuation of a hormonal teenage boy for a beautiful girl. But what if it had been more? What if that emotion had lain dormant all these years? What if every woman he’d met had been judged by the yardstick that was Ellie?

  Her lips were soft and sweet. At first, the kiss was chaste. He wasn’t willing to torment either of them with a prelude that had no second act. In moments, though, her restrained enthusiasm sparked a naughty demon in his gut. A devil’s advocate that said he would cherish her in bed. Make her feel like a queen. A goddess. Where was the harm in that?

  When Ellie parted her lips, he slid his tongue into the recesses of her mouth. The kiss deepened. At some level he was aware that he was hot and sweaty and less than prepared for romance.

  But against all odds, this was something more. Visceral. Honest. Intense. They met as equals. Haunted by the past. Yearning for a future. He wrapped his arms around her back, lifting her onto her tiptoes to better reach her mouth.

  “Are you okay, Ellie?” he asked, the words hoarse.

  Her answer was to press even closer. “Tell me you want me,” she said. “Make me believe it.”

  If that was all he needed to do to please her, the job was easy. “Every damn day since you came back.” He nibbled the side of her neck. “I used to dream about this,” he muttered. “When we were kids. But you were dating your way through half of the boys in our sophomore class.”

  He felt her smile. “That’s not very complimentary.”

  “Of course it is. Every guy I knew would have killed for the chance to be your boyfriend.”

  “Not you.”

  That silenced him. It was true. He’d been too afraid of losing her altogether to risk anything intimate. At least not until the very end, right before his accident. And then afterward, Ellie had asked for what he couldn’t or wouldn’t give. Even now, the secret he was keeping from her gnawed away at him.

  Ellie gasped, probably because he barely gave her a chance to breathe in between kisses. His body was taut and hungry, all the blood racing south. His sex was hard and ready. The evidence was impossible to hide in his current clothing.

  “Ellie, sweetheart. Enough.”

  She clung to him, shaking her head vehemently. “Don’t stop me. I might have an episode.”

  “Brat.” He chuckled helplessly, even as he felt her fingernails scrape over his nipples. “We can’t do this. Not now, anyway. It’s too risky. Too soon.”

  Nine

  Ellie knew he was right. But she was so aroused that she shivered with wanting him. He made her feel alive and whole and happy. And it had been so long, so very long since she had felt any of those things.

  But she wasn’t being fair to Conor. He was a man. With a powerful libido. What she was asking for was something he wasn’t willing to give her. Not because he wasn’t interested, but because he cared. That knowledge healed a jagged hurt in her soul. A raw, angry wound that had existed for a very long time.

  Forcing herself to release Conor, she stepped back, cupping her hot cheeks with her hands. “I’m sorry.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t want to hear those words anymore. Whatever we have...whatever we are...we’ll figure it out.”

  “You sound so sure.”

  “Maybe I’m good at bluffing.”

  His wry grin threatened to melt her into a puddle. Her heart felt more serene than it had in a long time. She was willing to w
ait, content in the knowledge that the world wasn’t going to cave in on her if she didn’t hold everything together.

  Still, they were both only seconds away from doing something they might regret. Especially given the fact that Emory would soon be wailing for attention. To lighten the mood, she shoved her hands in her back pockets. “What does a girl have to do to get fed around here?”

  The relief on Conor’s face was almost comical. To give the man his due, he was walking on eggshells around her. Who knew what the doctors had told him and Kirby.

  “I will talk about things,” she said impulsively. “I swear. I just need time.”

  Conor’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Take all the time you need.”

  * * *

  Considering how the day had begun, Ellie’s first evening at Conor’s home passed extremely well. Emory enjoyed exploring his new environment. The baby kept the dinner hour from being awkward. Afterward, Conor insisted on helping with the very physical parts of Emory’s nighttime routine.

  Ellie stood in the doorway of the bathroom watching the big, muscular man juggle the slippery little naked boy. It was comical and sweet and totally unfair. How was a woman supposed to keep her senses when faced with such a scene of domesticity?

  Emory’s gurgles of laughter when Conor made faces at him were precious and wonderful. She had missed her baby terribly. The hours she spent in Silver Glen’s hospital were the first time she had ever been away from him overnight.

  She had been sobered and abashed when the doctor explained her situation. She’d also been embarrassed. She was a normal, competent, well-educated woman. It was hard to accept that she had let herself get so close to the edge that her reason had momentarily snapped.

  Conor shot her a glance over his shoulder. “Grab me his towel, will you?”

  Reaching for the turquoise terry-cloth wrap with the doggy ears, she held it open in her arms while Conor lifted Emory out of the tub and handed him to her. Emory gave her the sweetest smile as she bundled him up and dried his little body. No matter what happened in her life, this helpless baby was her responsibility.