Billionaire Boss Read Online Free

be professional and everything would be fine.
    But as tired as she was, she still couldn’t get the picture of him out of her mind.
    And despite how well everything had been laid out in her mind, she hardly slept at all that night.
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    Kirsten and Seth had been out on the trail for more than an hour. “Over there is Blue RockCreek where I used to go swimming in the summer.” Kirsten pointed to the west of the trail.
    She sat atop a plump dappled mare named Sterling, and Seth rode a tall dark stallion more Thoroughbred than quarter horse, named Noir. Both animals were the best-trained horses Kirsten had ever seen, and so it was a pleasure to venture forth on the trail until they were beyond the tree line and well into high country.
    â€œDid you take your horse up here then? Back when you were younger?” he asked.
    Shaking her head, she said, “I never had my own horse. We could never afford it, but sure, I trailed here. Hazel was always willing to lend a good rider a horse. Whenever I had a down moment as a teen, all I had to do was ask and she’d give me one of her best barrel racers. And after a long ride up here to heaven, nothing seemed so bad anymore. Nothing.”
    She glanced at him and smiled. Still nervous from the encounter the night before, she’d been reluctant to open up, but once on the familiar trail with a good horse beneath her, she was in her element again and she felt in control once more.
    â€œI even saw a grizzly up here once,” she confessed. “She scared me half to death. And youknow, it was a worst case scenario. The grizzly even had two cubs with her.”
    â€œYou were lucky she didn’t come at you,” he said, turning a concerned eye to her.
    Shrugging, she dismissed the danger. “She was on the other side of the creek, and I’m sure she wanted as little to do with me as I did with her. In fact, I can still remember what I thought back then. I thought of my own mother, who was protecting her cubs by bringing them back to Mystery.” She released a dark ironic smile. “It’s funny. I guess I’m the mother with the cubs now.”
    He seemed to freeze in the saddle. Slowly he queried, “How many children do you have?”
    She wasn’t sure if she’d heard him right. “Did you ask how many children I have?”
    â€œYes,” came the wooden reply.
    â€œDoes that factor into the job description?” she asked, unsure where he was going with the questions.
    â€œIf you have children, I will understand that you may not want to stay at the ranch. I can give you a bungalow instead—”
    Laughing, she shook her head. “Thanks for the offer, but the only child I have is an eleven-year-old sister named Carrie.”
    And a mother who’s weak from a successful dose of chemo, she added to herself.
    â€œI like children.” His expression was scrupulously washed of all emotion.
    â€œDid you come from a large family, then?” The question, she thought, was perfectly appropriate and not out of line.
    He surprised her when he laughed. “I was the only child, raised—if you could call it that—entirely by my mother.”
    â€œMy parents divorced, too,” she mentioned, gaze trailing to the jagged purple horizon iced with snow.
    â€œMy parents weren’t divorced. That would have been too honest.” Giving her a penetrating stare, he added, “My father was a successful financier. He was absent from our lives, always away, having too much fun without us.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” she offered, her hand stroking Sterling’s salt-and-pepper mane as if to comfort. “But at least your mother was there for you.”
    He gave her an amused, jaded look. “You know that old joke about the couple going into the restaurant—the husband sees another woman there and gives her a big French kiss?”
    She shook her head.
    He continued. “Well, when