“And if both roads end up in the same place?”
“I’ll quit before I become your mistress. Is that clear enough?”
“Quite.” He leaned his shoulder against one of the beams supporting the wooden canopy that shaded the patio and folded his arms across his chest. “There’s only one small problem.”
“Which is?”
Her poise wasn’t as secure as she’d like to pretend. He’d always been excellent at reading people and Annalise proved no exception. He caught the slightest quaver of her voice and the helpless balling of her hands. Even more telling, the pulse in her throat fluttered like a moth struggling to throw itself into the flames. And like that moth, she was irresistibly drawn to something guaranteed to deliver her into the arms of certain disaster.
His arms.
“I have a strict policy forbidding interoffice fraternization.”
“I don’t work in your office.” The instant the words escaped, she inhaled sharply, aware of how much she’d given away with that single thoughtless comment. “I mean—”
He cut her off without compunction. “That policy extends to all my employees. I’ve never treated anyone who works for me with anything other than complete and utter professionalism.” He paused deliberately. “Until today. Until you. Why is that, do you suppose?”
Her eyes darkened and she shook her head in open denial. “I have no idea.”
“Yes, you do.” He hadn’t budged an inch, and yet for the first time since they’d met, she took a step backward. “Something unexpected happened between us. Something that caused me to ignore one of my cardinal rules. Do you have any idea how unusual that is?”
“If CPS suspected we were involved, it would cause untold problems,” she was quick to say. “You can’t afford to risk that, not if you’re sincere about keeping custody of your niece.”
“I’m dead serious.”
“Then her needs must come first.”
“I agree. But that doesn’t change what happened today.” He straightened and took a step in her direction. “Nor does it change what’s occurring between us right now. If our reaction to one another is this bad after one day, what will it be like after a week … a month … a year?”
“Stop it, Jack.” He could see she wanted to continue her retreat, wanted it with an intensity that flowed off her in hot, desperate waves. A painful vulnerability settled over her, one that affected him more profoundly than he thought possible. She held up her hand to halt his forward progress. “Are you trying to convince me to quit? If that’s your goal, you’re succeeding.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want you to quit. But I’m not going to pretend that the attraction between us doesn’t exist. In order to make our relationship work, we have to deal with what we’re experiencing and decide how to handle it.”
“Fine. That’s easy enough.” She sucked in a quick breath while scrambling to take charge of the situation. Not that he’d let her. “We ignore it. We are careful to never be alone together. And we absolutely, positively keep our hands off each other.”
“My hands were only a small portion of the problem.”
Her gaze flashed to his mouth. “Hands. Arms. Lips. And every other part of your body.”
He continued toward her, booting her chair out of his path. It skittered across the flagstones with a squeak of surrender. “That’s one option, I suppose.”
“Oh, God,” she whispered. “Please, Jack. It’s the only option. If we can’t control ourselves, I’ll quit. I won’t have any other choice. I can’t lose control. I can’t. Not ever again.” She ground into silence as he halted a mere foot away.
Curiosity consumed him. “What happens when you lose control?” he asked softly.
To his concern, her chin quivered. “Nothing good.”
“A lesson hard learned?”
“Exactly.”
“Then I won’t touch you first.”
Jack hated making the promise. He was a ruthless man. A man who let nothing stand between himself and his goals. A man who’d learned the hard way to give no quarter. But a single anguished look from a pair of tumultuous golden eyes had him relenting. Softening. Clearly, he’d lost his mind.
Annalise’s relief was palpable. “Thank you, Mr. Mason,” she said formally.
He turned from her, furious with himself for not taking advantage of what he’d been able to accomplish so far. Time was still of the essence. He needed to move her from the role of nanny to the role of wife as soon as possible. Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to hurt her in the process.
“No problem.” He glanced over his shoulder, forcing out a teasing smile. “If you change your mind, feel free to say something.”
Her mouth relaxed into a shadow of her old grin. “You’ll be the first to know, I promise.”
His cell phone vibrated and he checked the caller ID. “It’s my lawyer,” he explained to Annalise before distancing himself from her and taking the call. “What’s gone wrong now?”
“Aren’t we in a glass-half-empty mood.”
“Do I have reason to be?”
“Only if you haven’t found someone,” Derek admitted. “I found someone.” He spared Annalise a brief glance. She’d joined Isabella beneath the tree, sitting close enough to participate in his niece’s play, without invading the little girl’s territory. “The trick will be keeping her. I may have pushed too hard, too soon.”
“That’s not like you.”
“There’s a reason for that,” Jack responded wryly. Like having difficulty keeping his hands off her. “What’s wrong now?”
“Actually, it’s mixed news. I managed to postpone Mrs. Locke’s next visit. Told her you and the new nanny and Isabella were all going off on a little trip together so you could bond.”
Bond. The word continued to haunt him and had him clamping his back teeth together. “I thought you said the news was mixed. That sounds like good news to me.”
“It would be if Locke hadn’t also informed me that she plans to make a final report after her next visit.”
“What?”
“Calm down, Jack. I’m going to fight it and I’m pretty certain I’ll be able to delay things again. But it would help if you had a loving wife cum nanny in tow the next time the Locke woman comes calling.”
“I’m working on it.”
“Work harder. Does this one have the qualifications I suggested?”
“Yes. Not a lot of experience, but she does have the appropriate educational background.”
There was a delicate pause, then Derek asked,
“What’s she like?”
Jack’s focus strayed in Annalise’s direction again. “Different,” he stated succinctly.
“Good different?”
“Let’s just say that our marriage won’t be dull.” A sudden thought occurred to him. “Before I forget, I need you to contact our private investigator and have her thoroughly checked out. I know he did a preliminary run on all the applicants. Tell him to dig deeper on Annalise Stefano. I don’t want any surprises that might come back to bite us.”
“I’m on it. So, where are you going for your vacation?”
The question caught Jack off guard. “Come again?”
“I told Locke you were going away. That wasn’t just hot air. You’re going to have to actually do it.”
“I can’t afford the time right now.” He felt like a broken record.
“Find a way.” Before Jack could argue, Derek added, “What the hell do you think will happen if Locke discovers you’ve been going into work? She won’t be happy.”
“Damn it, Derek.”
“It’s either that or you take my earlier suggestion. Let Isabella go. You can find a good home for her. Then you can give your business all of your attention. You don’t have to marry. You don’t have to deal with CPS. No more headaches. No more stress.”
No more Isabella.
Jack closed his eyes. “Enough. I’ll do it.”
“Have a nice vacation.”
Jack snarled a final comment before flipping his phone closed and crossing the yard in long, ground-eating strides. Annalise and Isabella peered up at him with identical looks of curiosity.
“Good news,” he announced. “Pack your bags. The three of us are going on vacation.”
Chapter Four
Bright and early the next morning, Jack had all the luggage loaded and Isabella and Annalise installed in the car. She turned to him as they pulled down the driveway and smiled brightly.
“So, where are we going?” she asked.
He eased into the boulevard traffic before sparing her a brief glance. “You’ll be pleased to know that I took your advice. I’ve arranged for us to stay at a small bungalow on the beach.”
He was careful not to use the word vacation. When he’d said it the previous day, Isabella had reacted with something approaching hysteria. It wasn’t until Annalise made the connection between the word and the accident that had claimed the lives of Joanne and Paul that she’d been able to figure out a way to comfort his niece.
Annalise grinned. “A bungalow on the beach, huh? Sounds fantastic.”
“It’s not quite as modest as you requested,” Jack warned. “But I think it’ll do.”
“I’m sure it’ll be perfect.”
Her quiet confidence in his abilities affected him more than he cared to admit. He was thirty years old with a first-class education. He came from one of the oldest families in all of Charleston. He owned and operated a billiondollar international company with countless employees at his beck and call, most of whom were confident in his overall abilities. But for some reason, he responded to Annalise’s admiration like a cat being presented a bowl of cream. If he wasn’t careful, he’d start purring.
“Part of the problem is that I need someplace that will allow me Internet access so I can stay in touch with the office.”
“Of course,” she agreed. “Perfectly understandable.”
“And a location that protects our privacy.”
“An unfortunate aspect of your position in life.”
“Luckily, I have a friend who owns an estate with a guesthouse right on the water. He’s in Europe for the summer, so we’re welcome to stay for as long as we want. It’s only two bedrooms, but it has a kitchen.” A sudden thought struck. “Do you cook?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, now for the important question. Are you willing to? I realize it’s not part of your duties, but I’d be happy to compensate you for the additional work.”
“That’s not necessary.” Annalise turned her head to stare out the window. “I’m happy to help out.”
“And yet, you sound annoyed.” A sudden thought struck, one he could scarcely credit. “Have I offended you by offering to pay you extra?” he asked.
Annalise released a sigh and shifted in her seat to face him again. “Yes. The ridiculous part is, I can’t figure out why.”
Maybe not, but he could. “It’s because of what happened yesterday. In the playroom,” he clarified.
She stiffened. “You mean when we—” She broke off and spared Isabella a quick look. “You know.”
“Yes, I mean when we you know. The ‘you knowing’ blended business with personal.”
“Then I suggest we unblend them since there won’t be any more of either ‘you,’ let alone ‘know,’ ever again.”
He shrugged. “We can try, though I doubt we’ll succeed. How do you take the color green and turn it back into blue and yellow? We can say we’re going to keep all the colors separate, that we’ll resist the temptation to … er … blend. But I can’t even offer to compensate you for the extra duties you’ll be taking on these next couple weeks without it offending you.”
“I’ll get over it, just as I’ll get over the urge to do anymore blending.”
“Be sure to tell me how that works for you. I’m afraid I’m still a vivid shade of green.”
An attractive blush tinted her cheeks. She deliberately twisted around and engaged in a one-sided conversation with Isabella. He didn’t push. There’d be plenty of time over the next couple of weeks to tempt her with more blending. Even if he couldn’t engage her on a personal level, he hoped she’d become so attached to Isabella that she’d be willing to accept his proposal for his niece’s sake. He just needed to find the right lever that would tip the scales in his favor.
He ignored the small prick of conscience that prodded him for his cold-blooded plan. He couldn’t afford a conscience, not if he wanted to keep custody of Isabella. If his father had taught him nothing else in life, Jonathan Mason had proved himself an expert instructor on how to pursue one’s goals with ruthless disregard. Nothing mattered but the end results. Not compassion. Not kindness. Not any of the gentler emotions.
Jack had been brought up with a single motto: No matter what it takes. And that was how he would respond to his custody battle. When it came to Isabella, he would do whatever he had to, no matter what it took.
He pulled into a broad drive, guarded by a ten-foot-high stone wall and a high-tech electronic security gate. He keyed in the code Taye had given him and, once the wrought-iron doors swung open, drove toward a mansion even more elaborate than his own. Beside him, Annalise’s jaw dropped. He turned down a narrow, graveled pathway, just wide enough for his Jag, and followed it for several hundred yards to a bungalow snuggled between beach and marsh.