Under the Millionaire's Mistletoe

“Great.”

He grinned and she knew he was enjoying her discomfort. Deliberately, she turned her back on him and went to work. If she could keep busy enough, she told herself firmly, she’d forget he was near.

Sadly, even Anna didn’t believe that.

She sang when she worked.

Sam groaned and banged his head on the uplifted hood when he straightened abruptly. Rubbing the aching spot on his skull, he shot a glare toward the woman taking up far too many of his thoughts. He’d thought having her here would be a good idea. He could watch her. Find out who she really was.

Sam had thought about calling his brother to let him know that Anna actually did have a price. But he decided against it. He knew Garret was over her, but Sam didn’t want hard feelings between him and his brother. If Garret brought up her name again, Sam was simply going to point out to his younger brother that Anna had said flat-out that even though she hated him personally, she was going to take his money.

Wouldn’t that prove once and for all that the gorgeous Anna was as mercenary as she was beautiful?

Wouldn’t that prove to his brother that Sam had been right all along?

Only problem?

Sam wanted her.

Bad.

When his cell phone rang, he lunged for it, eager for a distraction. “Hale.”

“You sound like you want to hit somebody.”

Sam scowled at his brother’s cheerful tone. It was Garret’s fault that Sam was, at the moment, tied into knots. “You volunteering?”

“Hell, no,” Garret said, laughing. “Just wanted to tell you I’m leaving town for a while.”

“What?” Irritated, Sam wondered when the hell his younger brother was going to grow up. “You can’t leave town. You’ve got a job.”

“Oh, that didn’t work out,” Garret dismissed it easily.

“Damn it, Garret-”

“I didn’t call for a lecture,” his brother interrupted. “I’m heading to Aspen for a few days. Just wanted you to know, is all.”

“Great,” he muttered. “Thanks.”

Garret sighed, clearly as irritated as Sam felt. “I don’t want to fight with you, Sam. I just need some time, okay? That job you got me at the advertising firm was making me nuts.”

Sam thought about the favor he’d called in with a friend in San Jose and realized he’d have to make another call to his old friend. To apologize for his brother. “Garret, you said you wanted that job.”

“It just wasn’t me.”

“What is?” Sam asked, unable to understand his younger brother’s inability to find something he had a passion for. So far, all the younger Hale had been really good at was women and snowboarding. “What’re you going to do for a living, Garret?”

His brother laughed shortly. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll think of something.”

That was what worried him, Sam told himself silently.

“Look, I’ll be back for Christmas. Promise.”

“All right,” Sam said, lifting his gaze toward the office where Anna’s singing had quieted. “I’ll see you when you get back.”

Anna stepped out of the office. When he hung up, she asked, “Problem?”

“No,” he said flatly. He wasn’t going to discuss his brother with the very woman he’d forced Garret to stop dating. “How’s it coming?”

She watched him for a second or two, then said, “Great. Want a look?”

He walked to the office, brushed past her and stared at the wall where blue painter’s tape was applied in a series of arches and straight lines. Sam couldn’t see where she was going with this, but she seemed happy enough with it. “That’s good?”

“It is,” she said, coming up beside him. “I’m almost ready to start laying down some background color along with the outside detail lines.”

“What is it?” he asked, watching her face rather than trying to make sense of the taped wall.

She looked up at him. “A surprise.”

She was too close and smelled too good. Her dark red hair pulled back in a ponytail at the base of her neck, her bright green eyes glittered with excitement. Her blue denim jeans and oversize blue work shirt over a paint-stained black T-shirt somehow looked…perfect.

Sam had never seen a more beautiful woman. He was in deep trouble here and he knew it.

He just didn’t care.

Before he could think better of it, he reached out, took her arm and dragged her close.

“Sam…” Her voice was a whisper.

“Don’t talk, Anna,” he told her and slowly bent his head to hers. He had to see if everything he’d felt when he first kissed her was still there.

She lifted one hand to his chest and he could have sworn he felt the heat of her palm slide down inside him, easing away the chill. “This isn’t a good idea,” she told him.

“You’re still talking,” he said.

“Right,” she agreed, lifting her face to his. “Shutting up now.”

Then he took her mouth with his, felt the hard punch of desire and knew that Anna Cameron was going to be way more trouble than he’d first believed.

Six

The next few days settled into a routine. Anna worked in the office, Sam worked on his cars and they met in the middle for lunch provided by his housekeeper. By silent agreement, neither of them referred to the blisteringly hot kiss they’d shared in his office.

But the memory was there. Haunting them. Keeping each of them so tightly wound that just being close to each other sent up sparks.

Anna didn’t know what to do. She hadn’t wanted or expected to like Sam, but he was getting to her. Slipping beneath her radar, worming his way into her thoughts. Heaven knew he had already breached her body’s defenses. Anytime he came near, her heartbeat sped up and every square inch of her jolted into electric life.

But it wasn’t just the desire, the passion; it was more. Over the last few days, they’d talked and even laughed. He’d told her about some of his more “eccentric” customers and she’d shared a few of the truly hideous murals some of her clients had asked for. She actually liked working in the office, listening to the sound of power tools as he refurbished one of his cars.

At the bottom of it, though, she had to keep in mind that he didn’t trust her. He thought she’d been willing to seduce his brother to save her father’s company and what did that say about him? But he’d also given her free rein to paint whatever she wanted in his office. That was trust of a sort, wasn’t it?

Yet, she remembered all the things Garret had told her the night he broke things off with her. Along with the whole out-to-get-my-money speech, Sam had also told Garret that he considered artists to be flaky and emotionally unstable. So what was she supposed to make of that?

“None of this makes sense,” she told herself, glad that the day was almost over. Sam had gone up to the main house half an hour ago and she’d heard Mrs. Soren leave shortly after. As soon as Anna finished this one section of the mural, she’d be leaving, too. Christmas was getting closer and she still had shopping to do. Besides, one of her own traditions was to wander through Crystal Bay at night to enjoy all of the Christmas decorations. She hadn’t had a chance to do that yet and she figured tonight was as good a time as any.

She reached up and with her fingertips, quickly brushed the line of paint she’d just laid down, softening the edge and blending the paint into the other background colors so that it became a pale wash of blue and gray that