Billionaire Husband Test (Billionaire Online Dating Service) by Elle James Page A

hollowness she couldn’t fill. She and Marcus had wanted four children. Two boys and two girls. Heck, they’d have taken anything God had seen fit to give them. But that hadn’t been in His plan.
    Emma sighed and closed her dry eyes. After the initial shock of Marcus’s death, she’d refused to shed another tear. Tears were for weak women, not Emma. A soft breeze lifted the filmy curtains around the open window. At times like this, she could almost feel Marcus touch her shoulder and reassure her everything would be all right. Marcus had a way of gentling horses and people that Emma had never mastered and always appreciated.
    Her last thought as she drifted off to sleep was not of Marcus, but of the dark-haired, blue-eyed blind-date she’d spent the day with. An image of him rising out of the water, completely naked, filled her last waking thought and sent her into dreams so erotic she tossed and turned throughout the night.
    By five o’clock in the morning, she’d given up on sleep, slipped into her jeans and boots and headed to the barn. After a long ride across the pasture, greeting the morning sun, she found herself pulling to a halt at Willow Creek where she and Cooper had been skinny dipping the day before. Heat rose in her body before the sun’s rays could warm the ground.
    “Shoot.” She reined around her horse around and rode hard all the way back to the barn, brushed and settled her horse in a stall and headed for the house, entering through the kitchen.
    “Up kinda early, aren’t you?” Ace stood at the stove, frying bacon. “Want a couple of eggs?”
    “I’m not hungry.” She grabbed a glass, poured it half full of orange juice and downed it in one gulp.
    Ace flipped the bacon, his back to her. “Love has a way of ruining your appetite.”
    Anger surged and Emma slammed the glass on the counter. “I’m not in love. I only just met Cooper.”
    Ace shot a glance over his shoulder, a grin spreading across his face. “But he got under your skin, didn’t he?”
    “Why can’t you guys get it through your thick skulls?” She tossed back her wind-tangled hair and braced her hands on her hips. “I loved Marcus and I’ll never forget him. No other banker, insurance salesman or cowboy will ever take his place. Got that?”
    Ace moved the pan off the burner and turned off the stove before gripping Emma’s arms. “I know.” He smoothed a hair out of her face. “You miss him. We get that. We’re not asking you to stop loving him or forget him. We just want you to get on with your life and be happy.”
    “I’m as happy as I can be without Marcus.” Emma stared up into Ace’s eyes, her own so dry, she blinked. “Why can’t you leave me alone?”
    Ace smiled. “Because you’re not happy. You’re still hurting and living an empty life. It breaks our hearts that you’re not willing to think there might be someone else out there for you.”
    She sniffed. “Marcus was the only man for me.”
    “Emma, you’re young, and you have a big heart with a lot of room to love. I mean look at this family.” He waved his hand over his head. “It’s big. Four brothers is a lot for a girl to handle, but you love us all.”
    “That’s different.” She shoved a hand through her tangled hair. “You’re family.”
    “How does a mother love more than one child?”
    “Again, you’re talking family.”
    “And you didn’t consider Marcus family?”
    Emma frowned. “Yes. Again, it’s different. I wanted to marry him and have his children. I don’t want to marry you or have your children.” She shrugged.
    “A comforting thought. But that’s the beauty of the heart—it knows no limits. You have to give yourself a chance.”
    “You mean give Cooper a chance.” She snorted and shook her head. “He’s just another cowboy.” Who’d set her blood burning through her veins when it had no business doing that.
    “If not Cooper, someone else.” Ace tipped her chin and stared into her eyes. “You