Mom for the CEO's Daughter

She scrolled through her titles, found it and peeked up at him with a radiant smile. “I’ve wanted to read this for weeks. Thanks.”

His chest puffed with pride, and that confused him, too. He wasn’t someone who usually needed credit for doing nice things. He certainly didn’t need to impress Kara.

All this weirdness with her had to be the fault of their out-of-the-ordinary workplace. Not his fault or Kara’s, but the beach’s. Being together only half dressed had to be what had him thinking such strange thoughts. The book could help fix that.

“You’ll have a chance to read it when I take Stacy to the beach.”

“Oh… Um, okay. I have been dying to read it.”

The disappointment in her voice sent waves of self-recrimination through him. He had just deliberately cut her out of his next break with Stacy. And she knew it. And it had hurt her.

Hurt her? Usually on trips, she loved having time away from him to catch up on work. Add that to the way she’d never worn anything other than drab suits, and a strange possibility rattled through him. He didn’t want to even consider she’d worn a bikini to tempt him. But, damn it, he was a billionaire. His ex-wife had baldly admitted that in the end she’d loved his money more than she’d loved him. Plus, women threw themselves at him constantly. He recognized the signs. Disappointment at being excluded was one of them.

Still…Kara, his perfect assistant, putting the moves on him?

No. It didn’t make sense. They’d worked together an entire year without as much as a flirtatious glance. She was not putting the moves on him.

He pulled the hamburger from the refrigerator and began making patties.

She slid off her stool and walked beside him. “I can help.”

The light scent of her perfume mixed with the scent of the sea and wafted to him. He almost closed his eyes and inhaled again, deeper this time, to really enjoy it.

Damn it! There he went again!

She was not coming on to him. He was attracted to her. That was the real problem. His body liked hers.

But she was an employee and he was a good boss. He wouldn’t put her in an uncomfortable position. So it was wise— responsible, in fact—to exclude her from his beach excursions with his daughter. Actually, it would be smart to limit any private moments together until he got this unwanted attraction under control.

He subtly shifted away from her. “Why don’t you make these patties and I’ll start the grill?”

She laughed. “It’s gas. You don’t need to warm it up.”

“It also hasn’t been used for a few months. I should check it out to make sure it still works.”

He ducked out of the kitchen to the huge deck behind it. Five steps took him to a ground-level stone patio in front of the glistening pool and blessedly away from her.

***

Kara watched him through the big kitchen window. Like her, he hadn’t changed out of his swim trunks. He’d simply put a T-shirt over them. The sun sparkled off his black hair and brightened the red of his shirt. A shirt that hid perfect pecs and washboard abs. Abs she’d love to touch one day.

She picked up more hamburger meat to pat into a ball. Gabe had just run from her after cutting her out of going to the beach with his daughter. Putting the patty onto a plate, she sighed. Had he figured out she was coming on to him and bolted?