Men to Trust: Boss Man / The Last Good Man in Texas / Lonetree Ranchers: Brant

“Violet might come back.”

Grier pursed his lips. “I thought she was keen on having you for a barbecue as the entrée.”

Kemp shrugged. “We’re speaking again.” He tried not to let it show that they were doing a lot more than that.

“If you say so.”

“I can get another secretary whenever I need one,” Kemp added doggedly.

“Does the employment agency know this?”

Kemp gave him a glare. “Just because they hung up on me doesn’t mean they don’t want my business.”

“I’m sure.”

“Anyway, if Violet comes back, all my problems will be solved,” he said. “And now that I’ve got Riddle Collins’s secret stash in that suitcase, Libby and Curt Collins will be out of debt and back in their own home again.”

“That won’t suit Julie Merrill,” Grier murmured coolly. “She’s hot after Jordan Powell’s money. Poor Libby.”

“Poor Julie, if you can get her where we all want her,” Kemp said.

“I’m working on that,” Grier assured him. “One way or another, I’m going to put the last of the drug cartel out of business in Jacobsville.”

“With my blessing,” Kemp replied, smiling.

Kemp came into his office early the next morning with Riddle’s stash and showed it to Libby, who’d come in early for the occasion. She was ecstatic as they went over the proof of her father’s love for her and Curt.

A few minutes later, Kemp started out for the courthouse to file the revised will Riddle had left. When he walked into the outer office, the first thing he saw was Violet, sitting at her desk.

His expression was enough to feed Violet’s hungry heart. She smiled, flushed and beamed up at him.

“You said I could come back,” she reminded him brightly.

“Yes, I did,” he replied, smiling. “Are you staying?”

She nodded.

“How about making a fresh pot of coffee?” he asked.

“Regular?”

“Half and half,” he replied, averting his eyes. “Too much caffeine isn’t good for me.”

He went out the door, leaving Violet with her jaw dropping.

“I told you he missed you!” Libby whispered mischievously as she followed the boss onto the sidewalk.

As the day went on, Kemp found himself looking for excuses to go to the front of his office. He went through two pots of coffee, because that was the best excuse he had. Violet was wearing a sassy blue dress that emphasized her nice, rounded figure. It was fairly low cut in front, and with her frosted dark hair and her improved use of makeup, she was enough to turn any man’s head.

Libby and Mabel noticed his sudden interest in the coffeepot with subdued humor. They didn’t want to embarrass Violet, who flushed every time the boss came close.

It was almost inevitable that Violet stayed just a few minutes longer than Mabel and Libby at the end of the day.

She tidied up her desk and slowly gathered her purse and sweater. Blake came out to the front office and stood, openly staring at her, with his hands in his pockets and an odd, intent look in the blue eyes behind his trendy spectacles.

“Are you in a rush to get home? Can you phone your mother and tell her you’ll be a few minutes late?” he added.

“Of…of course,” she stammered. The way he was looking at her made her tingle from head to toe. She fumbled the phone to her ear and dialed, her eyes eating her handsome boss all the while.

She told her mother she’d be a few minutes late, trying not to react obviously to her parent’s amusement.

Blake held out his hand. Violet dropped her purse and sweater on her chair and went to him, letting him lead her back to his office.

He closed the door and pulled her hungrily into his arms. She sighed with pure delight as his hard mouth found her lips and he lifted her into an even more intimate embrace.

“I’ve missed you,” he ground out against her responsive lips.

“I’ve missed you…too,” she whispered back.

“Come home with me,” he suggested huskily.

She knew what he was really suggesting, and it wasn’t supper. She wanted to go with him. She wanted to be with him. But she was hesitant.

He felt her hesitation. He let her slide down his hard body and he stared into her eyes hungrily. “Well?”

She swallowed. Her gaze was on his broad chest, because she couldn’t look him in the eye and refuse him.

“What are you offering me, Blake?” she asked quietly.

He scowled. “Are we bargaining for sex?”

She stared up at him, dumbfounded. “Is that all you want from me?”

He was confused. Usually logical and cool in his thinking, now he was like a young man on the brink of his first affair.

“I don’t want to get married, Violet,” he said gently. “You know that.”

She swallowed hard. “Yes. You’ve already said that. But I don’t want to be your mistress.”

His jaw tensed. “I don’t recall asking you to be.”

“What would you call it, then?” Violet asked sadly. “You want to sleep with me, with no ties, isn’t that the truth?”

He stuck his hands in his slacks pockets and let out a long sigh.

“My mother is old-fashioned,” she continued. “She raised me to think of sex as something that goes hand in hand with love and marriage. It would break her heart to have me settle for a purely physical liaison with any man, especially you.” She looked up at him miserably. “Jacobsville is a small town, Blake. Everybody would know.”

“I’m not a slave to public opinion,” he said harshly, feeling himself lose ground.