I pick up my Kindle and start flipping through the carousel again, trying to find the perfect screenplay book. I’ve already read Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, Story by Robert McKee, and The Screenwriters Bible by David Trottier. I probably don’t need to read anymore since this is now just borderline procrastination.

In fact, yesterday was Monday and I was supposed to write Will something, but instead I spent the whole day reading and learning. Which was actually really nice and I was quick to remember all that I’d learned in the past. Every now and then Patty would look over the divider at me, wondering what the hell I was doing since I wasn’t typing, and I would just smile at her and read on.

Then Will would walk past and he wouldn’t say anything either, just give me the eye that either says, “keep it up” or “I want you naked right now in my office.” It’s hard to tell with him sometimes.

Either way, that look always made Patty grumble since my boss obviously approved of my reading and her boss—my father—had her working extra hard, maybe to make up for all that time he took off when he went to Bermuda a few weeks ago.

That said, I can’t be too annoyed with Patty since the entire office is packing up and leaving in about thirty minutes to make their way down to my house to do the team-building exercise with my mother.

Honestly, I’m regretting this idea of mine. Now that I’ve got a ton of stuff to read, now that I have a project and a goal that entices me, the last thing I want to do is hang out at the riding ring with my co-workers. I actually just want to work. And how the hell does a team-building exercise even work with horses?

It doesn’t help that by the time we’re ready to go, I’m torn between going on the chartered bus with Alyssa and Tiffany and everyone else, going in Will’s car, or going in my father’s. It’s like Sophie’s Choice.

But even though I’d love to ride with Will—or ride Will—I end up going with my father. I don’t think anyone would be suspicious of Will and I in the same car, but someone has to figure out by now that we spend an awful lot of time together.

Besides, I haven’t spent a lot of time alone with my father, and Patty has been delegated to ride with Will now.

“So Jackie-O,” my father says as we slowly creep along the traffic on Granville Street. “Feels like I haven’t seen you all that much. You’re home for dinner some nights, gone other nights. It’s not my business what you’re doing. I just want to make sure everything’s fine.”

“Everything is fine. I’ve been hanging out with Alyssa a lot.” A lie, but I know Alyssa will cover for me if need be.

“Good. She’s good people. And how are you and Will working out?”

“Great.”

“He speaks very highly of you, you know.”

“Good. He should. I’m an awesome assistant.”

He chuckles. “I have no doubt, cupcake.” He pauses. “You’re not getting bored or anything?”

“Bored? No way.”

“He keeps you busy?”

I’m trying to detect if there’s another layer to these questions, but it’s hard to tell with my dad. He’s the kind of guy that rarely smiles, and yet always seems to be joking. “It’s just the right amount of workload.” Damn. Am I diplomatic or what? “Enough to keep me challenged but not too much that I’m flustered and overwhelmed.”

“Good, good, good,” he says. “That’s what I want to hear. Sorry I haven’t been much of a help since you started. I’ve been traveling to LA so much with Will being up here.” He glances at me through the side of his glasses. “You know I was worried for him for a bit.”

“Will?”

“He didn’t want to come back to Vancouver. Of course when he first moved to LA, he didn’t want to leave Vancouver, but you know how it is. He had a life there, one outside of his marriage, and I think it was hard for him to leave it behind.”

“I bet,” I say and my mind is immediately drawn to what Will’s life was like before. Until I saw him on his friend’s boat this Saturday, I had a hard time seeing him outside in the sunshine, driving around LA. But now I know it suits him, just as his suits do. The man seems to fit in everywhere.

“That can ruin a man, you know? Divorce. Sasha put him through hell. I was worried he wouldn’t snap out of it. But he did. And fast. I was surprised. It was almost like you showed up in his life and all the cobwebs blew away.”

I swallow hard and give my father a tight smile.

“Just let me know if you get tired of the position,” he goes on to say. “I can easily move you elsewhere.”

I sit up straighter. “Why would you do that?”

“Maybe there’s a job you’re better suited for at the company.”

“But I love my job, I love working for him.”

He studies me for so long that I fear he’s going to rear-end the car in front of him. “I know you do.” He clears his throat. “So, let’s talk about this damn team-building exercise. I heard this was all your idea. You know the last thing I want to do is bring work home with me, and this is literally bringing the whole office home with me.”

I’m barely listening to him though. I keep tripping over what he said, the way he said it. He knows I love my job, love working for him.

But how much does he know?

Certainly if he knew what Will and I were doing it, he wouldn’t be so calm. And I’m pretty sure I’d see Will with a black eye.

He might just be testing the waters. I’m going to have to be extra careful around Will for the next while. Maybe even stay home a bit more, cancel our date for tonight, though the idea of having less sex, less Will, makes my chest ache.

“You know I’m proud of you, Jackie,” my father says to me when we pull down our street as he gives wide berth to a pair of horseback riders on the side of the road.

I have to admit, the sincerity touches me. “Thank you.”

“I mean it. I don’t say it enough. But you’re doing good. You’ve done a great job with Ty and you’ve got your mind in the right place at work. I think if you keep working forward with no distractions, if you have a goal in sight, you can really get somewhere.” He pats my leg. “Just don’t fuck it all up or you’ll be living with us for the rest of your life.”

He’s smiling at me like it’s a joke.

But I know he’s not joking.

At all.

Fortunately, when we pull up to the house, the charter bus is already there and the entire office has gathered in the front yard.

Automatically my eyes go to Will and his go to mine.

It doesn’t matter where we are, how big the crowd, I’m always looking for him and he’s always looking for me.

And I can feel my father watching the whole thing.

I promptly look away and go and join Alyssa, the conversation having shaken me up. I suppose that was my father’s point. The fact is, I’ve been saving up like a madwoman so I can eventually afford a place of my own with Ty, it’s just hard right now because I need to live in the same area because of Ty’s school, and this area isn’t cheap. On top of it, my mother takes care of Ty when I’m at work. I’m not sure how that arrangement would work if I lived somewhere else.

And it’s not really about living at home or not. It’s about that other warning. That my dad is proud of me, that I have something good going on, and he’s afraid it won’t last, just as much as I’m afraid of the same.

There isn’t much time to dwell on it though because my mother comes out of the house dressed in her riding gear, along with two other people that I recognize as instructors at the riding club down the street.

There’s thirty of us here. Some are still back at the office, mainly the animators, and a few others who cited a horse allergy as a reason to back out. It’s too bad I couldn’t have pulled that same shit.

My mother divides us into three groups of ten. I’m not surprised when I don’t end up with Will. Nor do I end up with Alyssa and Tiffany. Instead I’m with Casey and Patty. Oh joy.

Even though I pulled the idea for team-building out of my ass, it turns out the concept with horses isn’t a new thing and Francesca, the instructor we get, tells us that working with horses can teach us about each other and make us a stronger office.

“There are always co-workers that have problems with communicating, right?” she asks, leading us into the stable. She comes to a stop in front of my mother’s horse, Jeopardy, in the cross-ties. “They might not be able to pick up on the signals from other co-workers or may come into situations with their own ego and baggage. Just like people, you have to approach a horse a certain way. Approach with stress and anxiety and that horse is going to back off.”

One by one she gets us to approach Jeopardy. Now with me it’s not really fair since I’m used to horses and this horse in particular. But it’s interesting when both Casey and Patty approach him. Jeopardy’s ears go back, the whites of his eyes showing. Patty has too much negative energy and Casey is just . . . Casey. Whatever it is he has, the horse knows all. Probably thinks he’ll hit on him.

Still, as it goes on and Francesca gets everyone discussing their behaviors and ways to bring good energy into the office, my attention is focused outside, in the ring.

Will is standing beside my mother’s other horse, Duke, staring up at it, completely perplexed. My father is holding onto the reins and laughing. I have no idea what’s going on with their group but I want to be a part of it.

I watch as my mother appears and encourages Will to get on.

And low and behold, I’m discovering that Will McAlister is a big fat liar. He might know how to sail, but he definitely doesn’t know how to ride a horse. In fact, he’s putting his foot in the stirrup the wrong way.

I can’t wait to bug him about this later. He probably thinks I’m not watching the whole fiasco but I totally am. I just wish he was wearing riding pants instead of jeans, so I could ogle him freely. Then again, the whole office would have the same show. Then again, they often do.

But even though Will is now sitting on top of Duke and has no clue what he’s doing, he doesn’t look it. He’s laughing as he tries to hold the reins properly, that infectious smile of his lighting up the space around him. So beautiful, so devastatingly handsome. Everyone, my father, my mother, my co-workers, everyone is staring at him with that same kind of smile because that’s the kind of man he is.

And he’s mine, completely. I’m the only woman he comes inside of, the only woman he spends his time with, the only woman he’s giving his heart to.

So why can’t I tell him this?

And why can’t I give myself to him as easily as he gives himself to me?

My father’s words ring through my head. A warning. And it shouldn’t matter, yet it does.

I don’t want to fuck up my job. I don’t want to make things horribly awkward between Will and my father. I don’t want to lose any respect that I’ve worked so hard to gain. I really don’t want to get hurt. And I know that if the truth came out, that if I told the world that Will and I were together, all of those things would come crashing down.

So where does that leave us?

It leaves us with secret trysts and endless lies and the fact that every moment I am with this gorgeous man, I am trying so desperately to not fall in love with him.

I’m not sure how much longer I can last.

It’s not long before the groups rotate and my group goes from communication issues to something else, and as they head outside the stable, I linger back in one of the tack rooms at the end of the aisle. The moment I see Will enter with his group, gathering around the cross-ties, I wave him over.

He looks behind him to see if anyone is watching—they aren’t—and quickly makes his way over to me.

I grab his shirt and yank him into the tack room with me.

“What are you doing?” he asks, but his mouth is already ticking up into a devious smile, so he at least has some idea.

But not yet. I kiss him quickly and then place my hand at his chest, holding him back. His heart is already beating hard beneath my palm, his eyes heavy-lidded with lust.

“Hey, so I think I need to cancel tonight.”

He looks crushed. Crushed and horny. “Why?”

“I think my dad suspects something.”

“About us?”

I nod.

“Why do you say that?”

“I don’t know, just the way he was talking in the car.” I replay the conversation to him pretty much verbatim.

Will puts his hand at my waist, tugs at the end of my tank top. “I’ve known your father a long time. He’s always had that way about him. Cryptic, you know? Like everything is both a joke and not a joke at once. I wouldn’t read too much into it, Jackie. We might not talk as much as we used to, we’re just so busy these days, and I’m definitely not as close with him as I was when I was with Sasha, but I do know that if he knew something, even thought something, and had a problem with me, he would say it.”

“I just want to put some distance between us for a bit. That’s all.”

“I really don’t like this idea.”

“I don’t either,” I admit as Will steps closer, the warmth of his sun-soaked skin radiating toward me.

“It doesn’t exactly help that your father is out there in the stable.”

I give him a tiny smile. “I guess that means you’ll have to hide out with me until the coast is clear.”

“Yeah,” he says, putting his fingers through my hair until I moan softly from the sensation. “We better not waste any time then.” He brings his lips to my neck, sucking gently. “Oh, fucking Dream Girl. This is what I love about you,” he says.

My breath hitches. My eyes open, focusing on the bridles hanging from the wall. He didn’t say he loved me but it was damn close.

“What do you love about me?” I whisper.

“How quickly you turn to clay in my hands,” he says. “I kiss your neck, pull your hair, and it’s like I feel you melting into me, becoming me. You’ll do anything I want.”

“And what do you want right now?” I ask softly, my eyes closing again as his hands cup my breasts, his thumb brushing over my nipple until everything inside me sings, my thin bra providing no protection.

“Aside from you, from all of you?” he murmurs into my neck. “I want to fucking nail you to the wall.” He pauses. “And I’m a bit angry that you’re wearing pants.”

I laugh softly. “I wasn’t about to ride side saddle.”

“You should have known you’d be riding me,” he says as his hands go to my jeans, unzipping them. “Especially when you’re about to withhold sex for an undisclosed amount of time.”

“Just until the end of the week,” I tell him as he pulls my jeans and underwear down to my ankles, bends down to take off my boots. I glance down at the ground. There is hay and sawdust and either dirt or horseshit everywhere.

“Don’t want to get dirty?” he asks, and with one swift movement he picks me up, my legs wrapping around his waist as he pushes me back into the wall, in between a row of dressage saddles. “A little too late for that.” He reaches down and starts unzipping his jeans. “You’re coming away with me this weekend,” he informs me, like I don’t have a choice.

“What?” I ask but I’m distracted by the sight of his hard, long cock as he takes it out of his pants, positioning the tip against me. Good lord, how can he be so perfect?

“This weekend. If you’re going to withhold sex, then we’re going to make up for it.” He slowly rubs the tip over my clit, determination and lust fighting on his brow. “I won’t give you what you want until you agree.”

“We’ll talk about it later,” I tell him, trying to pull him toward me with my calves, but he’s got a strong stance and doesn’t budge.

Damn it.

He runs his tongue down the length of my neck, making me shiver. He knows what he’s doing. He knows I’m powerless, that I’m clay in his hands, that he can do whatever he wants. He knows and he’s about to exploit it.

The smug bastard.

“Get a sitter or ask your mother,” he says, his voice growing huskier with lust. “Tell her you’re going away with Alyssa. She’ll cover for you. I know she knows what’s going on.”

I shoot him a reprimanded look.

“It’s okay,” he says, gnawing on his lip for a moment as he continues to slide the tip of his cock over my clit and back again as I get wetter and wetter. “You should have someone to talk to about me. As long as it’s only good things.”

I let out a moan as he slowly starts to push himself in, then open my eyes in frustration as he stops.

“Please,” I tell him, aware of how desperate I sound. My nails dig into his shoulders.

His grin is wholly amused. “We don’t even have to leave the city. I just want you for a whole weekend. No leaving me after sex. I want you day in and day out and all night long. Breakfast in bed, lunch, dinner, I want it all.”

I grumble with impatience.

“Tell me you’re up for this and I’ll give you what you want.”

“You’re a dick.”

“No, this is my dick.” He pushes in another excruciating inch. “And it could all be yours . . .”

“Ugh,” I say through a groan. “Fine. Yes. I’ll spend the weekend with you. Or I’ll at least try. Now will you please just fuck me?”

“I thought you would never ask.”

His eyes turn to fire and with a hard thrust he pushes himself into the hilt.

I practically yelp, my eyes rolling into the back of my head and then the pain turns to pleasure as it always does, dissipating in waves of warmth throughout my body. In a second I’ve gone from greedy and desperate to getting what I need, and yet I’m still insatiable. I want more of him somehow, more of this, more of everything.

I don’t know if it’s the setting or the fact that the whole office is around the corner but this is so incredibly hot. Will wastes no time in fucking me hard against the wall, enough so the stirrups are rattling in their saddles. I can barely hold on, my nails digging into him through his shirt, my heels pressing against his firm ass as he flexes, pounding, thrusting. He really is trying to nail me to the damn wall.

My eyes close as the orgasm starts to build, a knot of fire and flames that twists and twists inside me, ready to unfurl.

When it hits, I open my mouth to cry out and Will is quick to shove his palm over my mouth, muffling my scream. I moan helplessly against his hand and he comes with a grunt, a few final pushes until we’re both completely spent.

My legs are shaking from the strain as he gently pulls out and lowers me to the ground. I have to prop myself up against the saddles as he slips my underwear and jeans back on, practically dressing me.

Then he zips up his pants, giving me a lazy grin. A dark lock of his hair has swooped down, sticking to his damp forehead, making him look positively boyish.

“Remember your promise about this weekend,” he tells me, kissing the tip of my nose.

I sigh. I can’t say no to him.

“I’ll remember,” I tell him as he removes a piece of hay that somehow got in my hair. The both of us wait a few minutes until the groups rotate again before we sneak out and pretend that nothing had happened.