“Thanks. It’s a learned but very useful skill.” She opened the door and stepped into the hall that led to the mudroom on the other side of the kitchen. She could hear the sound of Kade’s heavy boots behind her. Ignoring the uptick of her heartbeat, she turned into her room and firmly closed the door.

Ellie leaned back against it. Her pulse was throbbing, and heat tugged low in her belly. She hadn’t dated in months, hadn’t had a relationship serious enough to include sex in years. She would have to be careful. She couldn’t afford to indulge her off-the-charts attraction to Kade.

Ellie sighed. The last thing she needed was a controlling man like Kade Logan, a man used to running his domain with an iron hand. She needed to do her job and get back to Denver.

Before she made another mistake.

* * *

As he strode down the hall to his study, Kade’s mind went back to the moments he had spent with Ellie in the barn. Watching her with the mare, her gentle touch and the softness in her voice, he’d wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her until her legs went weak.

It wasn’t like him. He didn’t mix business with pleasure. But as he’d followed her out of the barn, his gaze slid down to her hips, and his palms itched to cup that round behind. He was still hard beneath the fly of his jeans.

He sighed. He wasn’t exactly sure how he felt about Eleanor Bowman. He sure as hell knew he’d like to take her to bed.

He walked down the hall into his study and closed the door. It was past time he made a trip to Vail. He usually stayed at the Four Seasons when he needed to get away, needed a place to escape the burdens of running a ranch the size of the Diamond Bar. Or when he needed a woman.

The resort wasn’t cheap, but he didn’t indulge himself often, and he could afford it. Kade had never brought a woman to the ranch. The ladies he had sex with weren’t the kind you brought home.

Grace Towers was the exception. She was classy and smart, a woman he had met in the bar at the resort. Grace was thirty-four, wealthy, a pretty blond divorcée who lived in Denver but also owned a condo in Vail. He’d been up front with Grace from the start. He’d already had one disastrous marriage. He wasn’t interested in anything serious.

For almost a year, Grace was okay with that. They’d seen each other whenever their plans coincided, enjoyed a non-exclusive, no-strings relationship. Then she’d wanted more.