"Will you shut up?"
"Only if you call me what you used to call me."
"Damian! Be serious!"
"If you don't—-"
"Dom."
"That's not quite it."
Oh God.
"Last chance," he warned.
She took a deep breath and whispered, "My handsome Dom."
A devastating smile curved over her lips, and oh God, it was like seeing the sun shine for the first time—-aaah!
Damian had bent down to brush his lips over her mouth and had already pulled away before she could do a thing.
She looked around, horrified, embarrassed, and aroused all at once, and while none of the locals were acting any differently, there were various out-of-state guests who were now staring at them with scandalized expressions on their faces.
She turned to Damian, hissing, "Do you see what you've done? If Mom's guests start walking out—-"
"Let them," the billionaire dismissed with a Gallic shrug. It was Damian Fox at his cockiest, and she hated it. Hated, hated, hated it so much because it was also times like this when he looked his sexiest in her eyes.
Aaaaargh! Control, Sarah! Control!
Yanking her hand out of his hold, she shot him a quelling look, saying, "Whatever it is you think that's going to happen between us—-"
"It's already happening," he corrected her gently.
"No, it's not—-"
"Sarah? Oh gosh, it is you!"
Sarah quickly whirled around at hearing her name called out, and then she found herself grinning with genuine pleasure at spotting a familiar face.
"It's been so long, Harry!" She rushed forward to give her friend a quick, warm hug while Damian went on to shake hands with Harriet's husband, who had their five-year-old son up in his arms.
"Does this mean you're back in Jackson Hole for good?" Harriet asked hopefully.
"I'm not sure," she admitted.
"And...him?" Harriet subtly nodded towards Damian's direction. "Are you two in good terms again?"
"We're civil," was all Sarah allowed herself to say. "My mom wrote to me—-"
"Wrote? Not text?"
"Yes, wrote," Sarah confirmed with a snicker, "and I bet you love that, don't you?" A little-known secret about Harriet's marriage was the fact that she had arrived at Texas as an honest-to-goodness mail-order bride, and even now, Sarah was still blown away by how much courage it took for Harriet to bet everything on love and marry a stranger. Fortunately, things had worked out pretty well, with Harriet happily married to Devon Montgomery, a Texan billionaire who was a "first-generation" member of San Antonio's Finest Eligibles, aka SAFE.
After escorting dropping five-year-old Jamie Montgomery at the play area, Sarah went back to the lobby to see Damian talking with Olivier Winterbourne. There was a pretty woman standing next to the mayor, and Sarah quickly moved forward with a smile.
"It's nice to see you again, Frankie," she told the mayor's secretary. "You, too, Mayor O."
"It's good to see you back in Wyoming," Olivier commented.
A sly smile curved over Frankie's lips. "You mean back together with Mr. Fox. Right, mayor?"
Sarah was about to protest when Damian answered, "I'm working on that."
Frankie flashed him a thumbs up sign. "Good for you."
And then the two were off before Sarah could even make her position clear.
Aaaaargh!
She tried stomping on Damian's foot again, but this time he was able to sidestep her efforts to make him limp. "Did I make you mad, love?"
"You know you did!" His arm slipped back around her waist as she spoke, and Sarah jerked in shock when she saw his head bending down.
Oh my God, what was he thinking?
But instead, his lips only brushed over the top of her head. "Try leaving my side again," Damian promised lightly, "and I'll do something worse next time."
Her eyes flew up to him in horror. "Are you—-"
"Serious about winning you back?" the billionaire asked pleasantly. "Yes. Crazy over you? Yes. Any other questions?"
Sarah's mouth opened and closed. Shit, shit, shit. The sound of footsteps reached her, and she quickly turned her gaze away from Damian, relieved to have something else to focus on. "Hello. Welcome to Fox Lodge—-" Her jaw dropped. "Pippa? Acheron?"
"I hope you're happy to see us," Pippa teased.
After exchanging quick hugs with her former employer, Sarah pulled back, demanding, "But seriously, what are you guys doing here?"
"You'll have to thank your stepbrother for that," Pippa's Greek billionaire husband drawled. "He insisted that we come as a surprise to you." A pause. "Or is he no longer just your stepbrother?"
Sarah's eyes widened.
"A little bit premature, my friend," Damian commented, "but I am actively working on it."
The level of comfort and familiarity between the two outrageously handsome men was just too obvious, and she asked suspiciously, "Do you two happen to know each other?"
"Yes," Acheron confirmed without a shade of discomfort. "But as you made no mention of him, I thought it best not to make mention of Damian either." The explanation was a little too slick for her taste, but Pippa's huge all-women brood had popped up behind the couple by then, and since she was friends with all of them, Sarah soon found herself busy catching up.
Acheron watched his wife's family carry Sarah off, figuratively of course, and turned to his friend, saying bluntly, "The last time we spoke, you were determined to stay away from her."
"Things have changed," Damian said evenly.
"I see." Acheron's gaze turned contemplative. "And does she—-" Warning glinted in Damian's eyes as he spoke, and without missing a beat, Acheron went on to ask, "—-enjoy seeing the two of her children together again?"
Sarah, catching her former boss's last words, said with a smile, "Are you talking about Mom?"
"We are, although I must say, your mother is very much like my mother-in-law. The two of them could be easily mistaken as a big sister to their own children."
"I know, right?" Sarah was pleased as punch at the compliment since Pippa's mom was an incredible beauty. "Oh, and Frankie—-"
"Olivier's secretary? I didn't realize they were here already." At her nod, Acheron said with a smile, "Then I'll have to beg to be excused. I try to sneak in as much work as possible while the wife's not looking."
While watching her former boss stride off, Sarah couldn't help commenting, "It's true, you know. When I was working for them, the other employees told me about how Acheron used to be a workaholic, and he only started taking days off when he married Pippa."
"I promise to be the same," Damian murmured, "when we marry."
"Ha!"
"You don't want to?"
"Ha!"
The billionaire chuckled. "That's not exactly a no, love."
She knew that, but since to say yes would be sheer stupidity while to say no would be another pathetic lie—-