She’d been raised in Montana. It was a great state, a beautiful state, but there was no way she could return to live there now, and definitely not as part of Sheenan Media.

“I don’t think so,” she said quietly. “I love Denver. This is home now.”

**

The email from Cormac Sheenan arrived in her inbox at precisely nine thirty a.m.

The man himself entered her office at ten.

Cormac didn’t knock or make a sound. The only indication that someone was there—that he was there—was the prickle at her nape and the woosh of awareness that she wasn’t alone.

Lifting her head, Whitney spotted him standing across from her desk, hands in his pockets, expression faintly mocking.

“Good morning,” he said.

She laid her pen down, regarded him steadily. It was almost two years since she’d last seen him and he hadn’t changed. If anything, he was even more ruggedly handsome. Still tall, fit and tan, his dark blonde hair now had bits of white gold in places from the hours he spent in the water.

This morning his square jaw was clean shaven, highlighting the masculine angles, but she knew how much he loved to skip shaving on the weekends, as well as how good he looked with day-old stubble.

“Morning,” she said coolly, biting down on the inside of her lip to keep the emotion from her voice. Not just because Cormac valued reason, not emotion, but because she refused to show weakness in front of him. He’d use any weakness to his advantage, as he always had. It was the Cormac Sheenan way.

“It’s been awhile,” he said, crossing the floor to drop into one of the leather chairs flanking her desk.

She opened her mouth to tell him she hadn’t invited him in, or offered him a seat in her office, but checked the words. They’d just sound angry. Bitter. Which would immediately put her at a disadvantage. Better to think this through. Choose her words with care. “Yes, it has.”

“Almost two years,” he said, extending his long legs out, his elbows propped on the arms of the chair, the fabric of his shirt straining over his thick biceps.

She didn’t want to notice his biceps. Or his gray-green eyes. Or the hard beautiful lines of his face.

Instead she focused on what he’d taken from her. On how he’d cheated her.

The lawsuit had been horrendous. It had been devastating to not just lose April, but then to lose her best friend’s daughter, too. Daisy had been in her life since birth. And then suddenly she was gone. Suddenly everyone was gone.

After the disastrous conclusion to the custody battle, Whitney wanted out, away from Cormac, but the publishing group, headed by Jeff, didn’t want to lose her. He’d fought to keep her and she agreed to stay on, as long as she didn’t have to work with Cormac. Cormac promised to keep his distance. And he had, until today.

Just seeing him lounging across from her made her insides rise and fall, and she’d never liked those loop-de-loop rollercoasters. She didn’t enjoy that much adrenaline. And Cormac Sheenan was pure adrenaline.

Once upon a time that had been a good thing. But not anymore.

“This is a….surprise,” she said, struggling to slow her pulse.