“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice shaky.
He came around the desk and took the present out of her hands. “Turn around.”
She did, and for a long moment everything in the room went quiet. Her heart skipped a beat. She could feel him standing there looking at her, his warm breath flowing over the nape of her neck, making her light-headed. If she leaned back, his arms would snake around her and then…Oh, for heaven’s sake, Kia, get a grip on yourself, she scolded inwardly.
The package rustled and then the gold chain came around her neck. The medallion lovingly touched the base of her throat, cooling her skin.
He placed his hands on her shoulders and slowly turned her around to face him.
“Merry Christmas, Kia,” he said hoarsely, moving in to kiss her.
She lifted her lips. She had to. An avalanche could be coming their way and she’d still wait for that kiss.
His lips touched hers briefly. So brief that it should have been a chaste kiss. But every pore of her skin felt him there, acknowledged him, cried out for more.
He moved back and their eyes locked. Her throat seemed to close at the intense desire written in his eyes and the struggle within him not to take her.
He stepped back with a low sound in his throat that seemed to wrench from deep inside him. It broke the spell of the moment.
She drew in a shaky breath. “Merry Christmas to you, too, Brant.”
A muscle knotted in his jaw as he walked back around to the other side of the desk. “I hope you get everything you want.”
If ever there was a time for not getting what she wished for, it was now. When she wanted him.
She spun around and hurried toward the door, needing to get out of there.
“Have a good holiday, Kia…even without your fiancé.”
Kia stopped to glance at him and saw the look in his eyes was harder than ever. She tensed. They were right back where they’d started. And that was fine with her.
“I intend to,” she said coolly and left the room.
Kia normally loved being with her family at Christmas. Neighbors dropped by for a Christmas drink in the morning, and her sister, Melanie, came around for lunch with her husband and young son. The weather usually proved to be hot at this time of year, so a variety of seafood and salads was the order of the day, followed by an English-style trifle that her mother made to perfection. A treat her stepfather loved. All very normal and comforting. Usually.
So why did she feel as though something was missing this year? It was a nagging thought inside her that remained there throughout the day and began again when she woke on Boxing Day. She felt restless. As if she should be some place else but didn’t know where.
It wasn’t until a barbecue lunch in the backyard, where she was playing peekaboo with her six-month-old nephew, that she looked up and her heart dropped to her feet. The laughter died on her lips. And suddenly she knew what had been missing. Brant. He stood near the corner of the house, watching her, his eyes piercing the distance between them. Her family faded from her mind.
“Who’s that?” she heard her mother say, and all at once Kia realized he was there. He wasn’t a figment of her imagination. And here she was dressed in denim jeans and a stretch knit top, far from the businesslike persona she kept for the office and even for Phillip.
She handed Dominic to her sister and jumped up. “It’s okay, Mum. It’s one of my bosses. I’ll be right back.”
She raced toward him, her hand going to her throat as something occurred to her. Something must be wrong. Terribly wrong.
“Phillip?” she croaked as she got closer.
Irritation flickered across his face, then disappeared. “Relax. He’s okay, as far as I know.”
She moistened her lips. “Then what are you doing here?” It had to be something important if he’d flown from the north of the continent to the south, over three thousand kilometers.
“The Anderson project needs redoing. Phillip must have been having a bad day when he met with them, because he got all their instructions wrong. If we don’t present them with another option by Thursday morning, we lose the account.”
Kia remembered she’d been a bit uneasy about that particular project. She’d even said something to Phillip about it and gotten her head snapped off at the time.
“I’ve got a ton of work ahead of me and I need a PA.”
She frowned. “What about Evelyn?”
He smiled without humor. “Remember that medallion I gave her that was supposed to keep her safe? It didn’t work. She came down with a stomach virus yesterday morning. It looks like she’ll be out of action for the rest of the week.”
She grimaced. “Poor Evelyn.” But why did she suspect he was pleased about this? Not about Evelyn being sick but about needing her as replacement. Probably because he was enjoying ruining her holiday like this.
Her eyebrow lifted. “Why not hire a temp?”
“This project is too important, Kia. The company will still survive if we lose them as a client, but I’m not sure about Phil. How do you think he’s going to feel if he finds out what’s happened? He’s pretty down at the moment.” He had her with that and they both knew it. “No, I need you to come back to Darwin and help me out. I flew down last night and I’ve got a jet waiting at the airport now. I’ll pay you triple time, of course.”
She waved a dismissive hand. “I don’t care about the money.”
“Then think of it as repayment for the security alarm.”
Her shoulders tensed. “You said that was already paid in full,” she reminded him, though she still had every intention of paying off the debt herself, and in cash. “Or is this one of those debts that only seem to compound interest?”
A half smile crossed his face. “Perhaps.”
“Kia, love,” her mother’s voice said behind her, and Kia froze. “Why not bring your boss over to meet the family?”
Kia leaned toward Brant. “Please don’t mention Phillip,” she whispered.
“What?” he muttered.
“They don’t know about him.” She saw his flash of surprise just before she swung around to face her mother to make the introductions.
But surprised or not, he soon recovered. Kia watched him turning on the charm, but she knew he’d be asking some hard questions when they were alone.
“I can certainly see where Kia gets her looks,” he told her mother with a warm smile that only seemed to be available for other women.