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place was attractive, on a professional level, and she knew that she would learn much from Adam. Still, how did she know that he was telling the truth? How could she be certain that he wasn’t doing exactly what he had accused Temple Royce of doing?
    “Where would I live?” she asked, reasonably.
    “This is a big house, O’Brien. You could live here.”
    The prospect was alarming. Banner O’Brien was a woman of principle and upright morality, but how long would these qualities last if there were more kisses like those just shared? Heaven help her, she’d shrunk fromSean’s kisses, and he with a legal right to them, but Adam’s were of a different ilk entirely. They stirred longings for the thing she had most hated in marriage.
    “I don’t think that would be a good idea,” she said.
    Adam shrugged. “Whatever you say, O’Brien,” he tossed back as he opened the door and strode out, leaving Banner the bitter choice of following after him or staying behind and looking just as much the fool.
    She followed grudgingly, avoiding Francelle’s eyes, only to feel their scorching glare on her back as she left the office.
    Adam’s strides were long and furious as he traversed the long walkway back to the main house, and Banner scrambled after him angrily, her face flushed, her heart bruised. Damn you, she thought, with tender malice.
    As if he’d heard the words, Adam turned his head and grinned. “Well, O’Brien,” he wheedled, as they entered the dining room again. “What’s your answer?”
    “Yes,” intruded another masculine voice. “What’s your answer?”
    Banner whirled and was greeted by the benign amusement of Melissa and the tall, pirate-handsome man beside her.
    He had glossy, butternut-colored hair, this man, and his shirt had flowing sleeves and was open at the throat. His laughing eyes were the same impossibly dark blue as Adam’s, and his teeth were perfect.
    “Hello, Jeff,” said Adam, in somewhat weary tones.
    “Some greeting, after six months,” retorted Jeff, with mock indignation. He turned and looked down into Melissa’s bright eyes. “Don’t you think that’s a shame? My own brother—”
    Melissa tried to look just as annoyed. “I’m not surprised. He didn’t even bother to meet my steamer. What do you suppose he’ll do when Keith and Mama get here? Yawn?”
    Adam laughed. “Stop it, you two. You’ll have O’Brien thinking I’m without family loyalty.”
    Jeff’s blue eyes came with gentle humor to Banner’s face. “’O’Brien’? Trust my elder brother to address a beautiful woman as though she were a lumberjack. Tell me your given name, my lovely, for I do perish to know it.”
    Adam made a rude sound.
    Banner laughed and executed a curtsy befitting Jeff’s playfully formal remark. “My name is Banner,” she said.
    Adam was quietly furious. My name is Banner, he mimicked, in his mind. Damn it all to hell, he hadn’t yet dared to call her by her first name, even after those two ill-advised but patently delicious kisses stolen in the examining room, and here she was offering it to Jeff in a way that could only be called coquettish.
    Suddenly, he couldn’t bear the way she was looking at his brother—he had to have her attention. “Shamrock,” he said crisply. “Shall we eat? We aren’t finished with our rounds and—”
    Jeff swung a knowing smirk in his direction and broke off his words by taking one of Banner’s hands in his, bending slightly, and kissing it.
    Adam seethed.
    “We’re having an all-day skating party the day before Christmas,” said Jeff smoothly, ignoring his brother. “After that, we’ll trim the tree and enjoy one of Maggie’s magnificent dinners. Won’t you join us, Banner?”
    Banner’s clover green eyes were bright as she looked up at Jeff and nodded shyly. “I don’t have skates, though,” she said.
    Melissa was quick to leap in with, “Don’t worry, Banner, I have an extra pair. Maybe they’d fit you—let’s go up