Tempted by the Billionaire: A Hometown Hero Series Novel by Clare Connelly Page A

expression was rich with interest, but Willow didn’t so much as look in his vicinity.
    “Deadline?” Anna clucked sympathetically, lifting the remaining dinner plates and circling the table.
    “Something like that,” she said with a shrug, encompassing Isaac and Matt in one short nod. “Good night.”
    She wanted to get out of there as quickly as she could, but once she and Anna were in the privacy of the kitchen, a sixth sense made her linger a little. She placed her dish into the machine, then looked at her best friend with undisguised curiosity. “Are you okay, Anna? You seemed a little distracted earlier.”
    Anna’s face was pale, as her eyes flew to the dining table.
    “I’m fine.” She shook her head slowly from side to side. “That’s a lie. I’m not fine.”
    Willow frowned. “What is it?”
    Anna’s eyes were moist, and she lifted her fingers to the lashes and blotted them. “Nothing. I’m being silly.” She bit down on her lip. “It’s just this baby stuff.”
    Willow’s expression resonated with sympathy. “Has something happened?”
    Anna nodded, aiming for stoicism and falling just short. “Just another month with no baby.” She arranged her features into a thick smile. “But I can’t… I just can’t talk about it. It’s so hard to come to terms with the idea that this might not happen for us. I’ve known I wanted to be a mom since I was a kindergartener.” Anna bit down on her lip, and mentally tried to pull herself back together. “You sure you won’t stay for coffee?”
    Willow shook her head, and squeezed her friend’s arm comfortingly. They’d had this conversation so many times, but with every month that passed, it got harder and harder to know what to say. If there was any way people could fall pregnant based on their suitability to parent, Anna would have been a mother ten times over. “We don’t have to talk about it, but we can, if you want to.”
    Anna shook her head. “There’s no point.” The hopelessness in her tone almost broke Willow’s heart.
    “Well, let’s catch up soon though. Just the two of us.”
    Again, Anna flashed an overbright smile that spoke of a deeper inner-sadness more than any howling burst of tears could have. “Sounds good.”
    Despite the fact that Anna was clearly suffering, Willow was relieved as heck to escape Number Eleven. She shut her own front door gratefully and reclined against it. She felt a huge pity for Anna and Ike. And she would focus on that another time. But in that moment, her own emotional drama was making it hard to concentrate on anything else. Her eyes drooped shut.
    Married .
    And unfortunately for Willow, this sense of pain was not a new one. The certainty that she’d been desiring another woman’s husband. And now, as then, it filled her stomach with lead-like gravel. Like the silly, naïve child she’d been years earlier, she had let herself get swept away in the romance of how simply gorgeous Mattias McCain was.
    She groaned, and pushed off the door, just as it reverberated with a resonant, persistent thud.
    And her heart answered. Oh, her heart. It beat in time with the door, heavy and expectant in her chest.
    Her heart didn’t seem to understand that some doors were better left closed.
    CHAPTER FOUR
    “What do you want?” She demanded. She didn’t need to see who was standing there. She just knew . Of course it was Mattias.
    He pushed past her, into her home. It was the first time he’d been properly inside, and he took a moment to take stock of the hallway, and beyond it, the lounge.
    “I need to talk to you,” he said seriously, his face intense, his eyes wary as they scanned her expression.
    Willow frowned, and her heart raced inside her chest. “Why?” She closed the door behind her, and brushed past him, moving to the lounge. He caught her hand as she walked past, holding it in his and rubbing a thumb along her knuckles. Willow’s body reverberated in responsiveness, but she refused to