Michelle Celmer - The Millionaire's Club - Connor, Tom & Gavin - Round-the-Clock Temptation / Highly Compromised Position / A Most Shocking Revelation

And the answer was nothing. She done everything right. He was the one with the problem. If only she knew how difficult it had been for him to turn her away last night, how much he still wanted her. He had no idea how she’d made it this far in life thinking that she wasn’t feminine, that she looked like a boy. She had to be one of the most desirable, sexiest women he’d ever met. The kind of woman he typically avoided at all cost, which was a little tough to do living in the same house, shadowing her every move.

“You know,” she said, thoughtfully. “They have some wonderful new drugs out to help men with certain…problems.”

He swallowed a grin. “Not only am I deformed, now I’m impotent, too?”

“I’m only telling you so you don’t think it’s hopeless. There is help out there for men like you.”

“What was it you said last night? Everything seems to be working fine?”

She let out a long, gusty sigh and rolled the chair back from the desk. “If you’re so determined to convince me I’m wrong, I guess I’ll just have to see it.”

Somehow he knew it would come to this. “You will, huh?”

“Drop your pants. Let’s have a look.” She propped her elbows on the armrests and linked her fingers under her chin—the picture of solemnity, but there was no mistaking that impish gleam in her eye. “Come on, don’t be shy. I promise I won’t laugh.”

No, he knew she wouldn’t laugh. He didn’t even want to think of what she might do if she got him out of his pants. But whatever it was, he was sure she’d do it well.

He propped his hands on the desk and leaned forward, looking her right in the eye, so there was no mistaking what he was about to tell her. “I like you, Nita. Too much. Which is exactly why I can’t get involved with you. There’s a lot that you don’t know about me.”

She held his gaze. “Does that mean you won’t be taking off your pants?”

“No, I won’t.”

She shrugged and rolled her chair up to her computer. “Then get lost, I have work to do.”

“So we understand each other?”

“Yes, Connor. We understand each other. Personally, I think you’re blowing this whole sex thing way out of proportion, but I guess it’s your loss.” She made a shooing gesture with her hands. “Now go ‘way. I have things to do before the applicants get here.”

“I’ll be on my bench in the foyer if you need me,” he said, then headed for the door. He glanced back on his way out and saw that she was mesmerized by whatever she was working on.

She’d been awfully agreeable about the whole thing. Too agreeable. He couldn’t escape the feeling that he hadn’t heard the last of this.

“It’s sort of pretty,” Nita said, running her fingers across the photocopy of the map, over scores of tiny hearts, all different shapes and sizes. “What do they mean?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Gavin said. He stood between her and Jake.

Connor stood across from them on the other side of the kitchen table. He’d been keeping his distance all day. Not that he wasn’t still following her everywhere, he’d just been doing it from a couple yards away.

He was a tough one to figure out. She’d told him she didn’t want commitment, and still he’d turned her down, even though he was obviously attracted to her—because there were things about him she didn’t know. Well, heck, there were things about her he didn’t know, either. They didn’t have to be best buddies to enjoy each other’s…company. As far as she was concerned, it was better that they weren’t. She didn’t like it when men got attached to her. That was right about the time they started trying to change her, to mold her into something she didn’t want to be. Something she couldn’t be.

He thought he had issues? Well, who didn’t? That shouldn’t stop them from having fun.

“We’ve been looking for some sort of pattern,” Jake told Nita. “But so far we’ve come up empty.”

There was a time, when she first met Connor, that she’d thought Jake was the more attractive of the two. His stunning smile and cheerful disposition were hard to resist. But there was something about Connor, something dark and exciting, that intrigued her.

And the more Connor eluded her, the more frustrated she grew. Maybe it was the thrill of the chase, but she’d never wanted a man the way she wanted him. It felt almost like an obsession. Getting in his pants was all she seemed to think about anymore, and at the same time, it wasn’t about sex.

She didn’t know what it was about anymore.

“There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it,” Gavin said. “If we knew the location of the land, it might make more sense. All we know is that it’s somewhere in Royal.”

“We thought maybe Connor would recognize some of the markings,” Jake added.

Connor shook his head. “Sorry. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

“It looks old,” Nita said.

“Jessamine Golden disappeared shortly after the turn of the last century,” Jake told her, “making the map at least one hundred years old. Most of the landmarks could be long gone by now. It could be next to impossible to determine its location.”

“Let me have a look at that.” Her daddy hobbled in from the living room on his crutches. “I’ve lived in Royal my whole life, maybe I’ll recognize the land.”

Jake and Gavin nodded and Connor stepped aside so Will could take a look.

Her daddy studied it for all of about two seconds when his brow furrowed and he asked, “You fellas aren’t pulling my leg now, are you?”

“What do you mean?” Nita asked.

“I mean, is this some kinda joke?”

“You recognize it?” Connor asked.

“Well, of course I do. This here is Windcroft land.”

Nita looked at the map again and shook her head. “But Daddy, that’s too big to be Windcroft land.”

“But it used be bigger,” Connor reminded her.

“Before the Devlins stole it from us,” her daddy added bitterly. “I reckon this map was drawn up before the poker game.”

Nita looked over at Connor. “Are you telling me that all that gold is buried here? ”

Connor smacked himself in the forehead. “All this time it was staring us right in the face. I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out before.”

“Figure what out?” Jake asked.

“All the holes dug on the property.”

“Oh my gosh,” Nita said, the truth knocking her for a loop. “They weren’t dug to hurt the horses after all. Someone was looking for buried treasure!”

“And I’ll bet that gold is the reason that someone has been trying to get you off the land,” Connor said.

“But who?” Gavin asked.

“Jonathan Devlin had this map,” Will said. “And he would have recognized the land, too. Probably every one of the Devlins knows about it.”

“But do they know which heart marks the treasure?”

“Considering all the holes we found,” Nita said, “they don’t have a clue.”

“There’s so many of them,” Will said. “It could be anywhere. In the corrals, under the stables or the house. It could take years to find it.”

“And we still don’t know who’s doing the digging,” Nita added.

“But we’re getting closer,” Jake said, rolling the map. “Connor, could Gavin and I have a word with you?”

“Nita, would you mind if we use the office?” Connor asked.

“Of course not,” she said.

“Wait for me here,” he told her, his tone threatening enough to let her know he meant business.

She saluted him. “Yes, sir.”

Shaking his head, Connor led his brother and Gavin into the office, switched the light on and closed the door. “What’s up?”