Billionaire Boss by Meagan McKinney Page A

simply nodded and cantered away.
    Heartbroken, she was dismissed.
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    Three days passed. Three days of living hell as far as Kirsten was concerned. She and Seth were barely on speaking terms. Desperately she wanted to demand why he was so closemouthed, but she was afraid of facing the answers as much as she was lonely and confused.
    Worse than that, she needed her job now more than ever in order to pay back the huge loan she was taking out on “her” house. If she were fired, there was no way she could manage those payments.
    Frustrated, she told Viola she was going to take Sterling for a little exercise. Seth had gone to town, and he’d left no work for her to occupy her time.
    The mountains always worked to clear the mind and free the soul. Determined to cleanse both, she took off toward the high country, the late-afternoon sun slanting red-gold lacquer onto the granite face of Mount Mystery and the Continental Divide beyond.
    Choosing the horsepacker’s trail in order to find solitude and really think, she loped Sterlingeasily through the foothills, her thoughts as dark as the thunderheads in the distance.
    She had to get over Seth.
    It would be difficult, to say the least, but she had no business falling for him in the first place. He was way too powerful to wrangle with, and even if she could make demands on him, he would never bend to her terms. The warning signs had been fluorescent, and she’d wilfully ignored them. He was a rich man, used to manipulation and getting what he wanted. The sale of her mother’s house proved that. She was out of her league pretending she could be his match, out of her league in thinking he could be more than James or her father, men who viewed women as compliant dolls. Men who rebelled at the first sign of will in a woman.
    Her gaze grew clouded. Even the beautiful stag that jumped through the field ahead of her didn’t take her mind from her woes.
    But that she was falling in love with Seth was without question. The other night had only cemented her growing feelings. Certainly she was no virgin, but the night with Seth, even on the confines of the couch, had meant more than all her lovemaking experiences combined.
    But loving him wouldn’t make him love her back. And there had never been any talk of lovewith him. His cynicism with Nikki was enough to make Kirsten never, ever broach the subject. She knew she wasn’t strong enough to take the answers.
    She got to the steep path that ultimately led to the pass and the Continental Divide. Guiding Sterling expertly along the narrow rocky ledges, she was so immersed in her thoughts, she barely took notice of the rain until heavy plops of water began to pockmark the dust on the trail ahead.
    The wind picked up. The sun hadn’t set, but it might as well have, given the opaque black clouds that hid it.
    Sterling held her ground even when a spider vein of lightning cracked across the sky, followed immediately by earsplitting thunder.
    â€œWhat a gem you are.” She soothed the animal, patting Sterling’s dappled neck.
    Kirsten knew if she headed back to the ranch she’d just get soaked and perhaps even break Sterling’s leg in a mud slide, given the storm’s sudden downpour.
    Her better judgment told her to ride it out. There was an old miner’s lean-to along Blue Rock Creek. It was still ten minutes away, but it was the best she could do under the circumstances.
    Turning Sterling around, she headed down the path to Blue Rock Creek.
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    â€œViola, I’d have thought you’d have gone to bed by now. I’ve never seen you up this late. You’re pacing like a caged bobcat. What’s wrong?” Seth asked, having come down from his suite to pour his own coffee from the coffeemaker on the kitchen counter.
    Viola looked hesitant. Her gaze flickered from the storm to her boss.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” he demanded.
    â€œI don’t know, sir. I don’t