Ten years ago, he would have been able to name every employee. He’d worked twenty-hour days, struggling to make the company profitable, then to grow it as quickly as possible. For the past few years, he’d had contact with his senior management team, his assistant and no one else. He didn’t have time.

Who were these people who worked for him? Why had they chosen this company and not another? Did they like their jobs? Should that even matter to him?

He looked back at the note and the plate of cookies. Annie would be a disaster as a boss, giving away more than the company made. But maybe it was time for him to leave the confines of his office and remember what it was like to know his employees. To listen instead of command. To ask instead of demand. Maybe it was time to stop being the meanest CEO in the country.

Nine

Duncan had never really enjoyed his board of director meetings, but this was worse than usual. Not because they were complaining-that he could handle. It was the way they were all smiling at him. Beaming, really, as if with pride. What the hell was up with that?

“The last two articles on you have been excellent,” his uncle said. “Very positive.”

“Just doing what we agreed.”

“This reporter…” One of the board members adjusted his glasses and frowned at the business journal. “Charles Patterson seems to think you’ve had an awakening. Who’s this Annie person?”

“Annie McCoy,” Lawrence said, before Duncan could answer. “The woman Duncan’s seeing.”

The other board members looked at him.

“You told me to find someone nice,” he reminded them. “She’s a kindergarten teacher. Very pretty. Charles has a crush on her.”

“Well done,” the oldest board member said. “You should bring her around here so we can all meet her.”

“There’s no need for that,” Duncan said, thinking the last thing Annie needed was a bunch of old guys trying to flirt with her.

“Annie’s special,” Lawrence announced. “Good for Duncan, too.”

Duncan narrowed his gaze. “I’m seeing her through the holidays. It’s a business arrangement, nothing more. You told me to find someone nice and clean up my act. I did. Don’t make it more than it is.”

“It didn’t look like a business arrangement to me,” Lawrence said.

“Looks can be deceiving.”

There was no way he was telling his uncle or anyone on the board that he also thought Annie was special. They didn’t need to know how she’d wormed her way into his life. The kicker was he didn’t think she’d even been trying. But regardless of his feelings for her, when the holidays were over, so was their relationship.

The board moved on to other business. When they were finished, Lawrence lingered in the conference room until the other men had left.

“Are you serious about ending things with Annie?” his uncle asked. “I saw you two together, Duncan. You like her. You should marry her.”

Duncan shook his head. “I’ve been married.”

“To the wrong woman. I don’t know what Valentina wanted, but it wasn’t you or a real marriage. Annie’s different. She’s the kind of girl you spend forever with.”

This from a man who’d been married five times? “You know this how?”

“I’ve lived a lot longer than you. I’ve seen things, made bad choices. There are few regrets more painful than knowing you let the woman of your dreams get away. You’ve always been smarter than me about most things. Don’t be an idiot now.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Duncan said, standing up to leave.

“But you’re not going to take it.”

“I did what the board asked. That’s all you’re getting from me.”

Lawrence stared at him for a long time. “Not everyone leaves.”

Duncan didn’t react to the statement, even though he knew the old man was wrong. Nearly everyone who mattered left. He’d learned that a long time ago. It was better not to care. Safer.

“Annie doesn’t leave,” his uncle added softly. “Look at her life.”

“What do you know about it?”

“What you told me. She has her cousins and their friend living with her. She’s helping to pay for their college educations. She agreed to date you to help her brother, after he tried to throw her under the bus. She’s not a person who gives up easily.”

True, Duncan thought uneasily. Annie took responsibility, hanging on with both hands. “That’s different,” he said.

“It’s not and you know it. Annie scares the hell out of you because with her, everything is possible. Don’t let what happened before ruin this for you. Don’t live with regrets about letting her go. They’ll eat you alive.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You can keep telling yourself that, but it won’t be true. You’ve never been afraid of anything but risking your heart. Annie’s the closest to a sure thing you’re ever going to find.”

Duncan found himself wanting to listen, which would only lead to trouble. “Annie got into this to save her brother. It has nothing to do with caring about me.”

“Maybe it didn’t, but it does now. Just pay attention. All the signs are there. She’s falling for you. Maybe she’s already in love with you. Chances like this don’t come along very often. Trust me, you don’t want to blow this one.”

Lawrence walked out of the conference room. Duncan stood there, alone, wondering if the old man was telling the truth. Would he regret letting Annie go? In time he would find out. His uncle was also right about Annie scaring the crap out of him. There were possibilities with her. Great ones.

But he’d already given his heart to someone. He’d already believed in forever, and he’d learned a hard lesson. Love was an illusion, a word women used to sucker punch men. Maybe Annie was different, but he didn’t know if he was willing to take the chance.

Despite three late nights at the office, getting by on minimal sleep and a workout schedule that would exhaust an elephant, Duncan still couldn’t get his uncle’s words out of his mind. He couldn’t stop thinking about Annie.

Taking a chance violated everything he knew to be true and yet…he was tempted. It was the only possible explanation for his being in a mall less than a week before Christmas, fighting the crowds and looking for presents for her cousins and Kami.

He should have had his assistant buy something online, he told himself, as yet another shopper stepped in front of him without looking. What did he know about the wants and needs of college-age girls? He was about to leave the department store when he saw a sign that proclaimed every woman loved cashmere.

There was a display of sweaters in an array of colors. A well-dressed salesperson came up and smiled. “Are you buying something for your wife or girlfriend?”

“Her cousins,” he said. “And a friend. They’re in college. Does cashmere work?”

“Always. You don’t happen to know sizes, do you?”

He shrugged, then pointed to a young mother walking by. “About like that?”

“Got it. Do you want to pick the colors?”

“No.”

“Should I gift wrap?”

“That would be great.”

“Give me fifteen minutes and it will all be done. There’s a coffee bar over by shoes, if you want to get away from the crowd.”

He nodded and wandered in the direction of coffee, only to be stopped by a display of Christmas trees. They were small, maybe two feet, covered with twinkling white lights and miniature ornaments. The one that caught his eye was done in white and gold and decorated with dozens of angels.

They were all blonde and innocent, with big eyes. For some reason, they reminded him of Annie. He picked up the tree and carried it to the register.

Annie glanced anxiously at the box of fudge next to her. Despite her sudden stop at the unexpected light change, the box stayed firmly on the passenger seat of her car. Normally she was a careful driver who anticipated stops, but tonight she couldn’t seem to get herself together. Probably because Duncan had completely rattled her with his invitation to “drop by.”

They were in a lull-a four-day stretch with no parties-right before the last-minute craziness started. On Thursday, there was a party every night through Christmas Eve. When she’d first seen the party schedule, she’d been excited about the break, but now she found herself missing being around him. The four days, and nights, had seemed endless.

And then he’d called, inviting her over.

Why? She wanted it to be because he was missing her, too, but she couldn’t be sure. There was no reason to think anything about their relationship had changed-at least not from his end. She was in serious danger of falling desperately in love with him, which, if she’d thought things through at the beginning, shouldn’t be a surprise. Handsome, smart, funny, caring man suddenly in her life. What was there not to like?

If only, she thought, before shaking her said. No. She was going to be sensible. Falling in love might be inevitable, but she wasn’t going to let herself be swept away by her feelings. When this was over, pride might be the only thing she had left. She needed to remember that.

She parked in the guest spot, then took the elevator to his penthouse condo. Duncan opened the door right away.

“Thanks for coming,” he said, his gray eyes dark with a smoldering need that made her thighs tremble.

“Thanks for asking me.” She held out the box of fudge. “I made this. I don’t know if you like chocolate. If not, you could take it into the office or…”

Instead of taking the candy, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her inside. The second the door closed behind her, she was in his arms, his mouth on hers.

She hung on as the world began to spin. There was only the heat and the man and how she felt pressed up against his strength. He was already aroused, his hardness flexing against her belly. She managed to shove the fudge onto a table by the door and drop her purse, before hanging on to him with both hands.