The Billionaire's Christmas Son - Leslie North Page 0,5

an A for effort.

He looked at her, gaze steady. “Don’t I?”

“No.”

Jonas nodded slowly. “I’m making a mess of this.”

“Life is a mess.” She shrugged. The defensiveness had fallen away, and now she saw Jonas exactly as he was—a man in charge of everything, who couldn’t take charge of this. Not yet. “It’s always a mess.”

“You don’t make it look that way in your photos. Always so neat and clean.” A smile flickered onto his face and disappeared.

“It’s my talent.” Rachel took a deep breath. She felt a pull toward him, the same pull as before, only this time she wanted to kiss him, not just be held. Would the same spark ignite between them as it had once before? Energy already thrummed beneath her skin, making her heart beat fast. Even looking at Jonas was an adrenaline rush. “I have a proposal.”

His eyebrows shot up, a questioning expression on his face.

“Not that kind of proposal.” She laughed, her cheeks heating. Scott stopped pushing the truck and grinned up at her, giggling too. It was infectious, irresistible, and Jonas joined in the laughter. “I’m being serious.”

Jonas put on a straight face. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”

Rachel wanted to tell him everything, absolutely everything that had happened over the last two years, but it was Christmas Day, and they’d lose the light soon. That wouldn’t make for the best pictures. And now she knew the stakes were high for them both.

“You can’t afford to miss any more of Christmas Day with your family,” she said briskly. “And neither can I, if you want more lifestyle shots, which you know you do. So, I’m going to get to work.”

Jonas stood, and she followed him to his feet. He was so tall, almost imposing, and Rachel was torn—she didn’t feel on guard, exactly, but not relaxed, either. It was a delicious tension. Why did she like it so much? “And the rest?”

“We’ll figure out what we need to do when it’s not the biggest holiday season of the year,” she told him. “There’s time.”

“There’s not much time,” he countered.

“Enough to make a plan. You hired me to do a job—let me do it.”

Jonas nodded. “Consider me out of your way.”

Yeah, right. He’d be in her way with every step she took on the resort. And Rachel didn’t hate the thought. She stepped forward and reached for Scott, scooping him up into her arms.

Jonas walked the two of them to the door and opened it.

Rachel crossed in front of him, her arm brushing the front of his shirt, and she paused, her face mere inches from his. Blue eyes heated her from the inside out, and her breath hitched. He was close enough to kiss.

Scott wriggled his legs, kicking against her. “Go, Mama.” He reached out one chubby hand and pointed into the hallway. “Go, go, go.”

Her exit cue.

3

Landscape photos were not Rachel’s thing.

The sunlight was perfect, filtering down through the trees at the ski resort, and she snapped photo after photo, trying to make magic. Jonas didn’t just want her to capture the family at Christmas. He wanted a time capsule of the entire resort and all their favorite places in it. That included the trees and the ski hills and everything.

“Mama.” Scott barreled into her legs, knocking her off balance. Her lens cap fell out of her pocket, disappearing into the snow. “Mama. Pway. ”

“Oh, buddy,” she hissed under her breath, pulling off a glove to dig in the snow, hoping to retrieve the lens cap. This job was only slightly impossible. Why she ever thought it was a clever idea to take a toddler with her for landscape shots was beyond her. It would be so much easier to quit, aside from the complications with Jonas. She tipped her face to the sky and let the winter air cool her cheeks.

The problem was the text message she’d received this morning.

Her next big gig had been a wedding in February, and the couple canceled the wedding. A sick relative that required them to fly out to India with an unknown date of return. There went the rest of her fees.

“Sit. Sit,” Scott said, tugging on her jacket.

Her heart ached for them—it did. But it also ached for herself. Losing the money from the wedding made it impossible to leave the Elk Lodge and give up her income from this job. She couldn’t quit no matter how awkward things got between her and Jonas.

Rachel was kicking her past self for not asking more