Page 70 of Her Boss, Her Rancher: Sunrise On The Ranch

She had hoped to avoid ever getting into a sticky situation with a boss again. Yet going against all logic and planning, she had kissed Blake—but she had no intention of letting that kiss escalate.

There had been attraction with her last boss, Alex Deagens, too, but it had been more about friendship. She’d liked Alex—until the night their relationship changed.

They had worked late at the office and were the only people there. Alex had kissed her. When he paused, holding her, he’d told her he would get her a fancier apartment and promote her to vice president if she slept with him.

Shocked and betrayed by his proposition, she’d refused and left in haste.

Feeling gullible and foolish, she’d spent a sleepless night. First thing at the office the next day, she turned in her resignation. Within the hour she was told by someone from Human Resources that her resignation had been accepted immediately and she did not have to stay the rest of the month as she had offered.

That experience with Alex shook her judgment about men, and afterward she had backed away from getting involved with anyone romantically. She didn’t accept dates.

Even so, she still believed anyone could change. Her new career allowed her to focus on the good in people, and occasionally provided the chance to offer life-changing acts of kindness. That absorbing work, plus moving back to Kansas City to be close to her family, kept Sierra too busy to miss not having a social life outside of her family. But now she was here with Blake. This was a man for her to avoid. Already she knew any emotional entanglement with him would only end painfully. By placing monetary success above helping the less fortunate, he missed out on the best parts of life.

She thought about his father abandoning him when Blake had been a baby—a hurt that had to have left permanent scars. No little child could understand a father who walked away. That had to have been devastating, and perhaps was the reason Blake seemed to be tough and hard. Again, she was thankful for her loving father, a man who had always been a part of his children’s lives.

She needed to get this job done and get home, away from Blake and the consuming attraction that resonated between them.

Business and pleasure didn’t mix well. He was her boss, albeit a temporary one, and she needed to remember that. She had to stay professional, get the work done and go home where she could forget him.

And forget their kiss. Hopefully Blake already had.

Blake left for his gym and indoor pool. He swam laps, hoping the activity, the cold water and the lateness of the hour would combine to drive Sierra out of his thoughts and cool his body.

The hot chemistry they’d felt since the first moment seemed guaranteed to fulfill its promise of passionate, raw sex—at least as far as their kiss was concerned. He still burned with longing to make love to her. Kissing her had not eased his desire for her at all. Instead it set him on fire with need for more. If she was responsive with a kiss, what would she be like in bed?

The thought tied him in knots and promised a night of little sleep.

Of all the women he had known, she was the most unlikely to generate lusty longings. She was the daughter of a minister, a lifelong do-gooder whose goals were foreign to him. How could she give up a brilliant, successful career for one with so little return? Her income would be only a fraction of what it could have been. Why would she want to live that way and make such unnecessary and thankless sacrifices? He knew too well the bad blood that could arise between people, the lasting hurt that could be caused. The only thing he trusted was his bank account—something that gave solid returns, including power and a fortress against hurt from trusting the wrong people.

He didn’t need or want a future with Sierra. All he wanted was to seduce her, to get her into his bed and make love for hours, to find out if that sizzling chemistry would take them all the way.

Thinking about her, about their kiss, aroused him. Never in his life had he experienced the same intensity of attraction, and it made no sense to him.

With a groan he swam faster, trying to get her out of his thoughts, to wear himself out and cool the hot longing that tormented him.

As much as he wanted to make love to Sierra, he knew the sensible thing would be to stay away from her. Let her do her job and go back to her charity work. That was the intelligent thing to do because she would want commitment. This was not the woman for him, not even for one wild night of making love. His body wasn’t listening to his brain, though. In spite of knowing what he should do, he still wanted seduction.

He continued swimming until he was exhausted. After he showered and dressed in the gym, he ran five miles on the treadmill. Hoping he had done enough so he would drop into bed and be asleep in two minutes, he returned to his suite.

He passed her door and remembered both kissing her and her response with vivid clarity. He had a sinking feeling sleep was a long way off.

Blake slept a couple of hours and woke long before sunrise. He dressed, grabbed a bite of breakfast and left the house as if chased by goblins. He needed hard, physical labor, or at least to be outdoors and moving around, to work with others who would take his mind off Sierra.

As he walked his land by the light of the moon, he wondered whether she had slept. Would she be able to concentrate on work? He had to laugh at himself. His kiss might not have unnerved and aroused her to the same extent as it had him. She might have slept peacefully and right now be working away without a thought about him.

“Pompous jackass,” he called himself quietly. “Forget her.”

She was an employee, and he needed to keep a professional relationship with her. Actually, he needed to stay the hell away from her. He had already paid her a ridiculously exorbitant sum and committed himself to donating to her agency for the next three years—he should have left her office and pulled his wits together before he wrote those checks. He could imagine his accountant’s questions. The only honest reason Blake had paid such princely sums was because he wanted to see more of her. There wasn’t any other way to explain it. If he kept pursuing her, what other mistakes would he make?

Blake swore quietly. She had jumbled his thought processes—something he couldn’t recall happening with any other woman. He couldn’t understand himself and the reaction he had to Sierra. She was a gorgeous, appealing woman, but he was friends with more than a few who fit that description. And she was definitely not his type.

But if she was so much not his type, why couldn’t he shake her out of his thoughts?

Later that morning, Blake drank coffee and ate a muffin, leaving the house and intending to find some kind of ranch work that was so demanding, he wouldn’t think once about Sierra.

Shortly after 9:00 a.m., he returned, showered and went to find Sierra so they could go over the blueprints for his new wing.

When he knocked lightly at the open door of her suite, he saw her standing in the office. Smiling, she motioned him to enter.