The Reckoning by Christie Ridgway Page A

college.”
    â€œI thought that was because you wanted to be a secret agent accountant.”
    She made a face. “I should have known I’d live to regret telling you that. More than being a secret agent, I was looking to be part of a team…a family of sorts.”
    â€œInteresting. I did my best to run away from my family.” The animosity between his two older brothers and the tension it had brought into his parents’ home had been something he’d wanted to escape from for as long as he could remember.
    â€œBut going undercover at Fortune TX, Ltd. left me on my own.”
    â€œAnd prey to Cameron.” Emmett instantly regretted the words.
    Linda only looked thoughtful. “Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t think I’ll ever know, since I can’t remember much about that time and since I’m not that same twenty-two-year-old, no matter that the years passed without my really living them.”
    They were still chest to chest and, oddly, it felt like the right way to be when trading confessions. Except… “Why are you telling me this?”
    â€œI don’t think I’m any good with men.”
    He blinked. “Inexperience isn’t quite the same as not being any good.”
    She shrugged. “I don’t have enough experience to know.”
    â€œWhat are you getting at, Linda?”
    Her breath came in, then released in a long exhale. Itpushed her soft breasts against his chest. His body hardened and he was grateful for the stretchy fabric of his sweats. This would have been hell in a tight pair of jeans.
    â€œI’m saying, Emmett, that I think I know why we’re lying here on the floor together, but I’m not sure exactly what to do about it and whether where it’s leading would be very satisfying for either one of us.”
    Did she mean leading to sex? Or to a relationship? One he was pretty damn confident he could handle; the other was completely out of the question.
    So he put her away from him and sat up. “Okay, then, it’s like I said. Combat as a last resort.” He stood.
    â€œYes,” she murmured as he left the room. “It is like you said. Awareness first, running like hell second.”

Six
    E mmett figured that if Linda could drive herself—something she was working toward—she wouldn’t have allowed him to chauffeur her to Ricky’s soccer game a few days later. Earlier, on their way to another appointment, Nan and Dean had dropped the boy off for a quick pregame practice, so there was no one to interrupt the steady, heavy silence between Emmett and Linda.
    Though they’d continued to coexist in the guest house without argument and had even practiced on the mat once again, the tension between them was rising with each hour.
    He still didn’t know if she thought he’d rejected her when they’d been breast to chest that afternoon on the mat. But even if she did, he wasn’t going to correct her impression. Anything that kept them apart and kept them from unleashing this latent sexual energy on each other was something to be nurtured, not destroyed.
    He glanced over at her. “I’ll drop you off and then I’m going to pick up someone else. I think she’ll like to see the game.”
    Linda kept her gaze trained out the window. “She? You’re bringing a date?” Her voice was chilly, and very, very polite. “That’s nice, but please don’t think you have to spend your time with a woman babysitting me. Ricky and I can find someone to bring us back to the house.”
    He rolled his eyes. “It’s not—” Deciding against explaining, he closed his mouth. In a few moments, they’d reached the field and she exited the car without a smile, a second glance, without anything beyond a thank-you. It left him free, however, to watch her walk away from him without her knowledge.
    She looked damn good, mouthwateringly good, in a