A Groom for Maggie
Elizabeth Harbison
A delightful trip on the tangled path of true love.–New York Times bestselling author Nora RobertsGREEN CARD WEDDINGGREEN CARD WEDDINGThe only way nanny Maggie Weller could remain in the country was by marrying her hardheaded boss, who was exactly the kind of irresistible bachelor she needed to avoid. But she would do anything to ensure his little girl's happiness–even if it meant things would be a bit steamier around the Harrison household.Alex had never considered himself husband material, but he knew his daughter couldn't handle losing her cherished nanny right now. So he vowed to stick to their short-term marriage contract and ignore the longings his new bride stirred in him. Unfortunately, he was beginning to realize his daughter wasn't the only one who might be needing Maggie on a more permanent basis….
Table of Contents
Cover Page (#uae5f8877-afb0-5e99-88ac-b208526623f8)
Excerpt (#ua668e51c-27d7-5d56-9a54-2e59ef5132d1)
Dear Reader (#u1dccea69-c733-563c-898c-abf7738fe9c6)
Title Page (#u30681c53-9c0d-572d-ba24-593831e6a6ff)
Dedication (#u35a5df81-a547-5810-a12e-145abd2c505c)
About the Author (#u72f290d6-d94f-5a0f-a32d-d351fa289a23)
Chapter One (#u620ae265-568f-5653-99c3-e9eecfd48d35)
Chapter Two (#u90e8c14c-1d27-53c3-9753-58bf40edb87e)
Chapter Three (#uad8e6dba-2794-5712-b36f-9718f1a0ea06)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
Alex Harrison was offering her marriage as a cold-as-marble business proposition.
Maggie couldn’t have heard him correctly. She sighed, looking into those cryptic blue eyes. “Your wife?”
He held up a hand. “My wife in name only. Kate’s nanny in fact. A simple business arrangement that solves all short-term problems.” Alex reached out and touched Maggie’s arm. “Is it so terrible?” he asked.
An electric current passed between them at the unexpected touch. Maggie was aware of a quickening of her pulse.
For several long seconds they sat in silence. “If it weren’t for Kate, I’d walk away from this ridiculous conversation.”
“If it weren’t for Kate, we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all.” Alex stood.
She took a deep breath, met his eyes and held out a hand to seal the deal.
“You’ve just bought yourself a wife. When’s our wedding?”
Dear Reader (#ulink_51f987fe-8577-5031-af0a-853eb1daeb13),
This July, Silhouette Romance cordially invites you to a month of marriage stories, based upon your favorite themes. There’s no need to RSVP; just pick up a book, start reading…and be swept away by romance.
The month kicks off with our Fabulous Fathers title, And Baby Makes Six, by talented author Pamela Dalton. Two single parents marry for convenience’ sake, only to be surprised to learn they’re expecting a baby of their own!
In Natalie Patrick’s Three Kids and a Cowboy, a woman agrees to stay married to her husband just until he adopts three adorable orphans, but soon finds herself longing to make the arrangement permanent. And the romance continues when a beautiful wedding consultant asks her sexy neighbor to pose as her fiancé in Just Say I Do by RITA Award-winning author Lauryn Chandler.
The reasons for weddings keep coming, with a warmly humorous story of amnesia in Vivian Leiber’s The Bewildered Wife; a new take on the runaway bride theme in Have Honeymoon, Need Husband by Robin Wells; and a green card wedding from debut author Elizabeth Harbison in A Groom for Maggie.
Here’s to your reading enjoyment!
Melissa Senate
Senior Editor
Silhouette Romance
Please address questions and book requests to:
Silhouette Reader Service
U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3
A Groom for Maggie
Elizabeth Harbison
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To Barbara K. Atkins; I’m so glad you left your
country to join our family.
Thanks to Natalie Patrick, Dani Sinclair and
Jo-Ann Power for reading and advising. Special thanks
to my sister Elaine Fox, and Marsha Nuccio aka
M.L. Gamble, inspiring writers and wonderful friends.
ELIZABETH HARBISON
first thought of becoming a writer in sixth grade, when she would stay up well past midnight reading Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon books under the covers by flashlight. The idea became a decision when she discovered the books of Mary Stewart and Dorothy Eden, and realized that writing would be a really fun thing to do for a living.
She studied literature and art history at the University of Maryland and the University of London, Birbeck College. She’s been back to England once since college and is eager to return again, and possibly even set a book there.
Also the author of several cookbooks, Elizabeth spends her spare time cooking, reading, walking and shopping for new books. As for romance, her fairy-tale dreams came true in 1994 when she married her real-life hero, John, a musician and illustrator. They currently reside in Germantown, Maryland, with their daughter, Mary Paige, and dog, Bailey.
Elizabeth loves to hear from readers. You can write to her c/o Silhouette Books, 300 E. 42nd Street, 6th floor, New York, NY 10017.
Chapter One (#ulink_1bfcc1fc-faea-53aa-80d7-02f11d7e571e)
“Maggie, I don’t know how else to say this. There was nothing I could do. You’re going to have to leave the country next week.”
“Next week?” Maggie Weller touched her fingers to her lips and sank slowly into the chair behind her.
“Next week. When my people were digging around to try to get an extension, they discovered that your visa expires even sooner than we thought. I have the information here.”
“No.” Maggie’s eyes never left those of Alex Harrison, her employer and the father of her charge, five-year-old Kate. “That can’t be,” she said, feeling more an outsider than at any other point in the past year. For the first time, her own British accent sounded foreign even to her. “You’re mistaken.”
He concentrated on the papers in front of him. Was he avoiding her eyes? “It’s all right here in black-and-white.”
The cliché and his casual use of it hurt her. But of course this was just a little business glitch for him. Sensitivity wasn’t called for. Regardless of her feelings for him, to him she was just a commodity called “nanny.”
She’d learned to ignore her feelings for him long ago. He would never see her as anything but an employee.
“Then they’ve obviously made a mistake,” she said.
“I wish that were the case.” For a moment he sounded as if he really meant it, but then he added two simple, yet dismissive words. “It’s not.”
Maggie wrung her hands in her lap. “I was very careful about timing when I signed up for my courses and committed to this position here with Kate. Even without the extension, I should have had at least six weeks before I had to go!”
He shook his head, his cool blue eyes sending a message Maggie couldn’t read. Interest? Her heart pounded. Sympathy? Or was it anger that she had put him in a tight spot?
The paneled walls of his office closed in around her, and the leather-back chair suddenly felt hot and slick against her skin. Maggie had put too much faith in his ability to get her an extension. Somehow the possibility that she would have to leave had never seemed real. Now it seemed her departure was imminent. The house, young Kate, him…How would she ever say goodbye?
“You can see it for yourself.” Alex passed her a document and their fingertips touched for a long moment when she took it. His eyes stayed on her.
It was Maggie who drew away first. She bit her lower lip, fighting the tingle that shot up her arm from his touch. In all the months she’d lived in this house with Alex Harrison, she’d been constantly on edge, as acutely aware of him as he’d seemed unaware of her.
For a second she sensed a change in his awareness, but only for a second.
Alex continued speaking as she read the paper. “I’ve already spoken with your embassy and my attorney. There’s nothing that can be done.” For a fraction of a second he hesitated, as if he were going to say something but changed his mind.
“I could immigrate,” Maggie said without hope.
“My secretary checked into that. The waiting list is long. They are still working on applicants from…” He looked down at the papers on his desk.
“Nine years ago,” Maggie finished dully. She looked at him, this time taking in everything, from the tailored DuBose suit, to the strong chiseled cheekbones and chin, and those unreadable eyes. A trace of dark beard shadowed his jaw and his gleaming dark hair was uncharacteristically ruffled, as though he’d been running his hand through it in that way he did when he was working on an important business deal.
“Nine years,” she repeated. “I know. I’ve spoken with them myself. I just can’t believe I could make this sort of error. My classes don’t end for three weeks.” She stopped, thinking of how close she was to receiving certification from the Maryland Montessori Institute. With that in hand she could get a good teaching job almost anywhere in the world.
Anywhere but the U.K., that is, where the unemployment rate in her village was astronomically high.
Most importantly, there was Kate Harrison to consider. How could Maggie leave Kate in the lurch? She’d spent countless hours studying the delicacy of the child’s heart, and how best to nurture it. Abandonment was not part of the plan. “I promised Kate I’d be here for her birthday in July. I can’t just disappear.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I’m sorry.”
“She’ll feel abandoned. It’s not like she has that many people she can depend on.” And it’s not as if you are going to be much comfort to her, she wanted to add.
In the five months she had been working as a live-in nanny for Kate, she had debated with Alex Harrison more than once about his lack of personal attention to his daughter. If she hadn’t known how coldhearted workaholics like him tended to be about family, she would have thought he was afraid to get close to his daughter.
But Maggie knew better. Work came above all else for him.
“What with her mother gone and you…so busy.” The word tasted like a lie, even though she knew he believed it. “I can’t do this to her. There has to be something I can do. Can’t I apply for another extension?”
He shook his head. “You’ve already had one. It is virtually impossible to get a second, even though you’re employed.” He shrugged, letting her hopes drop like a lead ball. “I’ll have to get Kate a new nanny. Again.”
Maggie felt like he’d slapped her. He was reminding her of her place, whether he meant to or not. She was only an employee, hired to perform a function. For the thousandth time she realized Alex Harrison didn’t see her as a woman. Or as human—with a heart. “Am I so easily replaced?”
His eyes clouded and Maggie instantly regretted the level of emotion in her voice. “Of course Kate will miss you,” he said. “I was simply stating a fact. If you’re leaving, I’ll need to find a replacement.”
“Of course.” What was she hoping for? An eleventh hour claim of love from him? “But let me state a fact of my own. It’s going to be very hard on Kate if we can’t find a better solution.”
Alex sighed. “Maggie, since her mother died a year ago, Kate has had six nannies, none of whom worked out for longer than four weeks. Two of them stole things from the house, one of them nipped at the bottle and three of them couldn’t handle what they called Kate’s ‘temper tantrums’—”
“Cries for help,” Maggie said, interrupting him. This was the side of Alex that she wasn’t so crazy about—the side that refused to see the painful obviousness of his daughter’s emotions. “You can’t expect a five-year-old not to be traumatized by her mother’s death, and to act that trauma out. Then to be shipped off to live with a father she’d barely seen since a divorce when she was two…it must have been tremendously difficult for her.”
“I agree.” Alex tried to keep his tone matter-of-fact, but he couldn’t help the tremor of emotion that crept in. “I hated seeing her go through that, and I hated feeling powerless to help. You are the seventh nanny this year and believe me, the fact that you’ve been here for five months has been a miracle. Kate’s been doing great with you—I did everything in my power to keep you here.”
Maggie didn’t seem to hear him, or at least the last part of what he said. “It took more than a month for her to calm down to one outburst a day. Now she hasn’t had one in months. My leaving and someone new coming in is going to undo all that progress.”
“Possibly. But there are no options.” Alex shrugged, shutting away the powerful feelings of inadequacy his daughter’s situation evoked in him. Feeling bad about it didn’t do anybody any good. “My people have looked into all the possibilities.”
“Then it will be up to you to get Kate through the transition,” she challenged Alex. “I hope you realize that.”
He tensed. How could he help Kate, when she was more afraid of him than anything else? Every time he was in a room with her, she became wary, with eyes darting for the door. When he spoke to her, she looked like a cornered rabbit.
He’d tried. Heaven knew, when he first got Kate back after her mother’s death, he’d been wholly optimistic. He’d been happy for the chance to have his daughter back, close to him. But it hadn’t taken long to see that Kate hadn’t thought of him nearly as much as he’d thought of her. And she clearly didn’t want to be in his house. She said it every night for three months: I want to go home. I don’t like you.
Maggie wouldn’t believe that, of course. She’d never understand. With her, Kate was the sweetest, gentlest child alive. Alex himself couldn’t believe she was the same Kate who had come to him a year ago. Maybe it was men in general she was afraid of, or maybe it was him in particular, he didn’t know. But if Maggie left, and it were up to him to be with Kate, there was no telling what sort of trauma she would experience.
And he didn’t want to do it to her.
“Don’t concern yourself with what happens after you go,” he said, trying to prevent Maggie from driving the stake deeper into his heart.
“I’m very concerned. You have to start learning to be a father so that child has some consistency in her life.”
Alex tightened his jaw. She was right. She was almost always right, and it drove him crazy. “You’re out of line.”
Maggie’s cheeks turned pink. “I have to speak honestly. If I can’t stay on to take care of her, at least I can try to help you see she has needs which you cannot ignore. She needs you. And maybe you need her.”
Alex tapped his fingers on the desktop and looked out the window. “Thank you for your input,” he said shortly, then looked down at his papers. Parenting was the most awesome responsibility in his life and he’d had more than enough criticism about his handling of it. “Please send my secretary in on your way out.”
“I’m not going.”
He looked up at her, surprised. “What?” The corner of his mouth ticked. This woman was amazing. He’d never seen someone with so much gall. He really admired it.
“I’m sure you have connections somewhere in Washington,” Maggie said. “I’m not leaving this room until you agree to help me stay at least three more months. Kate needs more time. I need more time.”
“I wish I could help you, I really do,” he said, and. meant it. The house was going to be awfully quiet after Maggie packed her opinions and left. It was regrettable. “There’s nothing more I can do.”
Before Maggie could respond, the door creaked open behind her and Kate walked in. Her dark, moss green eyes were wide but unafraid. Not for the first time, Alex wondered at how much Maggie and Kate looked like mother and daughter. It had to be the light hair, he decided, or the eyes. Strange, since neither he nor his exwife had those particular characteristics.
“Sorry to innerupt,” Kate said, her sweet voice clear.
“What do you need?” Alex asked, feeling suddenly self-conscious. A boardroom full of high-powered executives was nothing compared to the intimidation from this one big-eyed five-year-old.
The tense moment of silence that followed was punctuated by a phone ringing in another room.
Kate looked at her father briefly then rushed to Maggie. “Maggie?” she asked in a hushed voice.
“Yes, darling?” Maggie answered, with a glance toward Alex.
“Can you put Ariel’s head back on?” Kate held a decapitated doll head in her small hand. “It came off again.”
Maggie laughed and knelt in front of Kate. “Of course, sweetheart. Did she fall off the horse again?”
Kate nodded enthusiastically. “They were racing. Ariel won.”
“Good for her.” Maggie took the doll head. “Remember, because we’ve put it back on so many times, it’s going to be loose.”
Alex could have sworn he heard her add, “I’m feeling that way myself.”
She pressed the head onto the body Kate pulled from her jumper pocket and heard it snap in place. “There you are. Good as new.” She held out the doll, whose head tilted slightly to the right. “I feel like Dr. Frankenstein.”
Kate’s smile was as bright as morning, something he rarely saw. Maggie’s effect on her was truly astonishing. Where once his daughter had been sullen and constantly miserable, now she was open and relaxed.
Maggie was right—he couldn’t let her go. For Kate’s sake he couldn’t let her go.
But the only possible solution was so…radical.
“Thanks.” Kate beamed. “I knew you could fix it. You’re the best!”
Maggie wrapped her arms around the small form and Alex noticed she blinked back tears. “You’re the best.”
“No, you’re the best.” Kate giggled at their familiar game.
Maggie pulled back and straightened to her full five feet eight inches. She ran her hands across her slender hips to straighten her skirt, and Alex felt a tightening in his chest. “Daddy and I are talking right now. Go on up to your playroom and I’ll be along in a few minutes. Why don’t you dress Betsy in the blue ball gown? Ariel can wear the pink. They’ll have a party this afternoon, how’s that?”
“Great!” Kate turned to dash from the room then stopped and turned back. “Bye, Father.”
He was startled by her attention to him. “Bye…Kate. I’ll see you later.”
Maggie closed the door behind her. “I can’t stand to leave her like this.” She placed her hands on her hips and shifted.
Alex shifted, too, then took a long breath. Her short denim skirt had folded up at the thigh when she bent down to Kate but when she stood it didn’t go all the way back down despite her efforts. Only about four inches of material were between his gaze and her—He couldn’t think about it. “I agree it would be best for you to stay with Kate.” He cleared his throat. “But the only—”
“I know, I know, you have no choice.” She threw her hands up and took a step to the side. The lean muscles in her legs flexed. “You’re going to hire another nanny, and another one after that, and another—”
“Stop. Please. Let me think.” He pressed his hands down on the desk, pushed his chair back and leaned back in it. He gazed at Maggie in front of him. There was a spirit in her eyes that had never been in Sandra’s.
His jaw tightened at the thought of his deceased exwife. How many nannies had she gone through before Kate had come to live with him? Sandra hadn’t worked—she’d lived off his substantial alimony payments—yet she had somehow found it necessary to employ a complete staff, including full-time care for Kate.
Kate needed consistency, Maggie was right about that. In fact, it was long overdue. But what should I do? he asked himself. How far can I go to provide it?
He closed his eyes hard and opened them to find Maggie, standing before him, like the answer to his question.
The intercom on his desk buzzed. “Alex, Anna Christianson is on the phone again,” his secretary’s voice informed him.
“Take a message,” he growled, trying to ignore Maggie’s eyes on him. Wannabe socialite, Anna Christianson was relentless in her pursuit of him—or, more specifically, his money—and everyone knew it. It was a fact he found very embarrassing. “Get rid of her.”
“Okay, Alex, but this is the third call today, you know. Is there something specific I can tell her?”
“Tell her anything. Tell her I’ve…gotten married.” He heaved a breath and met Maggie’s eyes, then looked away quickly. “Tell her I’m on an extended vacation. Tell her anything.” He released his hand from the intercom. “Please don’t lecture me on honesty now,” he said to Maggie.
“I wasn’t going to.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Oh, it’s in there somewhere.”
“What is?”
“A recrimination.”
She lowered her chin. “Is this your guilty conscience speaking?” Her eyes looked truly luminous.
Interesting trick of the light, Alex forced himself to conclude. “Guilty? What do I have to feel guilty about?” The minute the words were out he knew he was going to regret asking.
She turned the corners of her mouth down and shrugged. “Maybe you’re feeling guilty because you’re not willing to take proper care of your child.”
He stood abruptly and the chair trembled behind him. “Maggie, the fact is I’m busy, now and always. There are too many distractions as it is.” He glanced disgustedly at the intercom. “I have to work in order to keep Kate well fed and clothed. I wouldn’t be doing her any favors if I gave up my job.”
“You don’t have to work twenty-four hours a day.”
He hesitated. “The single most important thing I can do is provide for my child.” He spoke low and slowly. Every word held equal weight. “Not every parent has that priority and, believe me, their children suffer for it.”
“I agree that basic financial security is important, but believe me it’s easy to err in the opposite direction. All I’m suggesting is a little moderation.”
“I have no time for moderation. Or for anything much but work. That’s why I hired you.”
“Are you trying to tell me that you can’t afford to take a little time off?” Maggie looked around her at the opulent office; the leather chairs, stone fireplace, Oriental carpets. “This is one room in a mansion of at least forty. The property alone is worth enough to support several ordinary people for life. You have done quite well for yourself and for Harrison Satellite Networks. I won’t believe for a moment that you need to spend every single day of your life at work.”
He followed her gaze around the room then held it with his own. “I don’t need to justify any of this to you. If you’ll excuse me now, I have something else to do.”
“That’s typical, I guess,” she said, almost under her breath. She didn’t move, though inside she trembled.
“What’s typical?” he asked, turning back to face her.
Maggie shrugged. “You. Men like you. If there’s a problem that can’t be solved with money you turn away from it and pretend it doesn’t exist at all.”
He shook his head as he went through the door. “That’s your assessment of me?” he said over his shoulder as he started down the stairs, with Maggie close behind.
“Part of it.”
“I’m flattered.” He opened the door to his home gym and went in.
She slipped in as the door was closing. “You also have a dreadful tendency toward sarcasm,” she said pointedly.
He stopped and faced her. “Tell me, Miss Weller, have you ever had an unexpressed opinion?”
She looked at him steadily. “I’m having one right now.”
There was a moment of shivering silence. Then, to her utter surprise he laughed. The creases framing his smile gave him a boyish look that Maggie tried to ignore. The laugh changed his whole face, if only for a moment. It threw her off more than anything he could have said.
“Okay.” He turned, then paused at the door and looked at her for a moment before turning. “Let’s talk about you staying. For Kate’s sake and for your sake and, God help me, for my sake.” Not that he had any personal reason to want her to stay. It was all about Kate.
Walking past her, he slipped his jacket off, then draped it over a wooden valet in the changing room. The crisp white fabric of his button-down shirt formed against his powerful back. He opened a drawer and took out sweatpants and a T-shirt. “You’ll excuse me a minute?”
Noticing where she stood, Maggie backed up a step and closed the door. “Did you say for your sake?” she asked.
There was a pause of several seconds before he replied, “What’s good for Kate is good for me, isn’t it?”
“It could make things easier for you.”
“Easier? I don’t think anything good comes easy.” He stepped out of the changing room, wearing wornout sweatpants and a T-shirt.
Maggie swallowed as her eyes roamed over Alex Harrison’s body. She’d never seem him so bare. For the first time she saw a pale jagged scar that cut across his muscular shoulder. It gave him a ruggedness that she didn’t generally attribute to him. She touched her cheek. It felt warm. “Life isn’t only hard work, Alex.” Her voice quivered.
He seemed unaware of her perusal. “So you say,” he replied, lying down under the bench press. He released the bar and began repetitions, well-defined muscles flexing under smooth skin, up and down, making her think of the power in those arms, the strength his embrace might have. “Maggie, there is only one way I can think of for you to stay in this country,” he continued as he rested the bar on its stand and shook his hands.
“You’ve thought of something?” She forced her gaze to his face and tried to stare impassively down at him. “What?”
He turned his head toward her. “It’s pretty extreme. In fact, it may be too extreme.”
“You’re not proposing that I should stay in this country illegally?”
He met her eyes, then lifted the bar again. “No, of course not.” He lowered it to his chest. His biceps bulged again as his skin began to sheen with a light sweat. “I’m proposing something entirely different.”
She swallowed and kept her eyes on his face. “What is it?”
He finished a count of twelve and set the bar down again, an unreadable expression on his face. “If you married an American you could stay in the country with a green card. When enough time passed, you could apply for citizenship.”
“Who on earth am I going to—”
“Me.” He sat up and rubbed his palms on his sweatpants, then met her stunned gaze.
She couldn’t have heard him correctly. “That’s impossible.”
He looked back at her, the full force of his concentration powerful and compelling. “No, it’s not.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. Then you could stay on full-time through the summer, then move out when Kate starts first grade in the fall. Get a place of your own nearby so you can stay involved with Kate. She won’t need full-time care then anyway. You get your green card and Kate doesn’t have the shock of breaking in another nanny. Seems to me this arrangement would be mutually beneficial.”
Mutually beneficial. Alex Harrison was offering her marriage as a cold-as-marble business proposition, nothing more. But what in the world could she expect? “I can’t do that.”
He crossed his arms in front of him. The muscles beneath his gleaming skin rippled with the movement. “Why not?”
“I can’t imagine being in a marriage that wasn’t real.”
He shook his head. “Real marriages don’t work. That’s been proven over and over again by countless unhappy people. Business arrangements, on the other hand, generally do because both parties go into it with an understanding about the outcome.”
“Meaning…?”
“Everyone wins. Kate would have consistency, she’d have the very best care, she’d have you, which is what she clearly wants. You, on the other hand, would have an opportunity to gain financial security before returning to your country, if you decide to go back.”
“I’d rather forge my opportunities for myself,” Maggie countered hotly, his detachment suddenly irritating.
A new look came into his eyes. “You’re not very practical.”
“That may be true. But if I agree to some plan so I can stay, for Kate’s sake as well as my own, I don’t want you thinking I was doing it for financial gain.”
“Why would you care what I think? I’m proposing the plan.”
She stiffened. “I care about Kate.”
“So do I. So stay. For a while.”
She sighed, looking into those cryptic blue eyes. “As your wife?”
He held up a hand. “My wife in name. Kate’s nanny in fact. A simple business arrangement that solves all short-term problems.” Alex reached out and touched Maggie’s arm. “Is it so horrifying?” he asked. “Am I?”
An electric current passed between them at the unexpected words and touch. Maggie was aware of a quickening of her pulse.
“And how do you benefit from it?” she asked.
He looked into Maggie’s eyes. “I want Kate to be happy. I think this would make her happy.”
Maggie narrowed her eyes. “Is that all?”
He let out a breath. “Okay, to be totally frank, being a married man might make my life a little easier in other ways. Success tends to attract a certain type of woman—”
“Gold diggers?” Maggie supplied.
“That’s one term for them. Anyway, I could do without the aggravation of three calls a day from the Anna Christiansons out there.”
Maggie thought for a moment, then nodded. “If I move out at the end of the summer—”
“Marital discord,” Alex said. “We’ll say we’re trying to work it out.”
“Even if that would work, I’m not sure it justifies a marriage.”
“Think about it.” He gave a brief smile that warmed his face. “Please think it over. I believe it’s the only way.”
Holding his gaze, she reached for the chair behind her, found it, pulled it toward her and sat down. “I can’t believe I’m considering this.”
“It’s a very sensible offer.” He gave a half shrug and his voice softened. “And as you so persuasively pointed out, it’s vitally important for Kate.”
For several long seconds they sat in silence. There was a lot of merit in what he said. After all, this was not meant to be a romantic proposal. Could she separate her feelings? Could she, even for a short time, lock herself in marriage with this man and accept that it wasn’t real?
Finally she said, “If it weren’t for Kate I’d walk away from this ridiculous conversation.” And if it weren’t for the fact that I need to stay in this country so I can earn the money to send home where there is almost no employment. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was very tempted to take him up on his offer for her own selfish reasons.
“If it weren’t for Kate we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all.” Alex stood. “I’ll need an answer today and I’ve got a meeting downtown in two hours. Let me know, Maggie.”
An hour later Maggie and Alex were back in the office where the whole conversation began, he in his chair behind the desk, she in the one opposite. Alex had his closing argument perfectly prepared.
“…so by marrying me, I’ll offer you the chance to complete your Montessori certification. Also, you’ll be able to apply for citizenship so that after we separate you can remain in this country as a legal citizen. You can vote, collect benefits and take a teaching job anywhere you want freely, without restrictions.”
“I don’t even know how long one has to be a resident before being eligible for citizenship,” Maggie said.
“Three years. I’d expect you to live in the area during that time so you could be available to Kate when she’s not in school. Naturally I will compensate you for your time.”
Three years. This was no small commitment. Maggie raised a skeptical eyebrow. “And what happens to Kate after the three years?” And what happens to us in the meantime?
“We’ll have to agree now that you’ll continue to be part of her life, at least to some degree. I’ll make it financially possible for you to visit with her whenever the two of you would like.”
“But what about between visits?”
“I’ll be here much of the time, but I’ll make sure there’s a housekeeper here at all times as well.”
Maggie struggled not to roll her eyes. “Oh, well, as long as you have an hour or so a week—”
The look he gave her stopped her cold. “If we’re going to keep arguing like this, maybe we should forget the whole thing.”
Maggie saw he meant it. Suddenly the answer was clear. She realized with vague irony that she had shoved her attraction to him aside. At that moment, the man’s very coldness made her feel that it would be possible to marry him in the legal sense only. The glimpses of sensitivity she’d seen were enough to make her believe that, with a little bit of time and understanding, perhaps he would see the close relationship he could have with Kate. Without vanity, Maggie believed that she was the one person who could help this come to fruition.
And that was as noble and worthy a cause as she’d ever had. Whether Alex Harrison realized it or not, he had given her much more than an opportunity to finish school or get a good job. He’d given Her a challenge that, if she succeeded, could change all their lives. But for the better? Maggie didn’t know the answer to that. “Let’s not forget about it, Alex,” she said aloud. “I accept the challenge.” She took a deep breath, met his eyes and held out a hand to seal the deal. “You’ve just bought yourself a wife. When’s our wedding?”
Chapter Two (#ulink_33585966-1227-5116-9040-7b0580b41c90)
“I beg your pardon?”
“I’ll do it,” Maggie said. “It seems best for everyone involved, as you said.” Her eyes were brighter than usual and her face had grown paler. She looked like a porcelain doll, except that there was nothing fragile about her. She was willowy but solidly built. She was beautifully built, as a matter of fact. “But I think we have to have an understanding about this.”
“We’ll have a formal agreement, of course.” It was a lesson he’d learned from bitter experience. “A prenuptial agreement that addresses both of our concerns. What are your yours?”
“Several things.” She drew a breath. “As you know I had an entire hour to think about this. I made some notes.” She took a folded piece of paper out of her pocket. “First, finances. Will I continue to get a weekly check or did you have something else in mind?”
“I could establish an account in your name and arrange for automatic deposits according to your spending.”
She sucked air in through her teeth. “I’d rather take care of my own economics.”
“Fine.” He hesitated, then wrote something down on a piece of paper. “I can’t very well keep my wife on salary but I can call it a monthly stipend for your personal use. Direct deposit would be more subtle.” He slid the paper to her.
Maggie looked at the paper. “But that’s considerably more than I’m earning now,” she said. “If my duties aren’t going to change, I don’t think it’s appropriate for my salary to change.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Are you arguing against a raise?”
Her look hardened slightly. “I have no intention of taking advantage of you. All I want is what’s fair.”
He tapped his pen against the pad. “This is a somewhat more constant occupation. Don’t forget you’ll be my wife as well as Kate’s supervisor.”
She lowered her chin. “That sounds ominous. What does being your wife entail that warrants so much more money? Besides scaring off gold diggers?”
He shrugged. “Regular wifely duty type things. Nothing much.”
She frowned for a moment, then her eyes widened. “Oh, no.” She stood up and shook her head. “No, no.”
“What?”
“Is this about sex?”
He lowered his brows and tried to keep from laughing. “Who mentioned sex?”
She put her hands on her hips. “You increased my salary because I will also have to perform wifely duties. Do you mean you expect me to sleep with you?”
“Did I say ‘perform’?” He pushed away the thought of her shapely legs wrapped around him. “I don’t think I said ‘perform.’”
She threw her hands up. “I don’t know what you said, but it certainly sounded like an improper proposition to me.”
He looked at her calmly. “Maggie, are you prepared to take money for such…services?”
Her face flushed red. “Certainly not!”
“Then why do you assume I’m prepared to pay for them?”
She eyed him for a moment, then her mouth quirked into a smile. “Okay, you have a good point. I leapt to a conclusion. How about if you tell me what you meant by ‘wifely duty’ and I’ll reserve judgment. For a moment.”
He studied his Mont Blanc fountain pen. “When news gets out that I’m married there will be business functions now and then that you’ll be invited to attend with me. Now, I can probably get you out of most of them, but I can’t guarantee you’ll never have to come along.”
“Business functions?”
He nodded and put the pen down.
“Of course.” She met his eyes. “I don’t have any problem with that.”
“Good.” He tapped his fingers on the armrests of his chair, amazed that the conversation was really happening. It wasn’t difficult for him to consider marriage as a business proposition—after all, there were a million legal ways to protect himself. But it was another thing to think of Maggie as his wife and remember that it was strictly business…with only a fraction of the usual marital benefits.
She sat down again and crossed her long legs. Inside, Alex groaned. “So when you talked about my role as your wife and said this was a legal marriage, you meant…?”
“Legal means legal…in the eyes of the state,” Alex said, glancing at her long slender legs. He returned his gaze to her eyes, but not without a momentary pause at her exquisite lips. “You will keep your own room.”
She raised her chin and looked at him for a moment before nodding. “Okay. So we’re agreed. No…marital interaction.”
He didn’t mean to hesitate but suddenly he had to swallow. “Of course not. No sex. Not with one another at any rate.”
She looked up sharply. “Do you have someone in mind?” Her words were unexpectedly crisp.
“Do you?” he countered.
“I’m not sure that’s a question you should be asking me.”
“Why not?”
She shifted in her chair. “Because I’m not sure it’s any of your business.”
“You asked me.”
“Well, yes, but…but I’m not the one who brought it up in the first place.”
There was no one else in her life. That was a relief. If Maggie had been interested in someone, it would really have muddied things up. Where Kate was concerned, that was. “Okay, we’ll make a deal. We’ll have a no-questions-asked policy.” Now he felt safe proposing this. “Discretion is the only requirement.”
“Another deal,” Maggie mused. She reached up and pulled her long golden hair back from her face.
Alex watched and swallowed hard. Every once in awhile he’d seen her do that and each time it struck him how much she looked like Grace Kelly. Funny, when he was young, he’d seen Rear Window and developed a tremendous crush on Grace Kelly. He’d forgotten that until just now.
“Do you agree?” he asked, after a silence that he knew had gone on too long.
“Yes.” Her chest rose with a deep breath and the buttons of her blouse strained slightly. “So how do you want to do it?”
His heart skipped a beat. “Do…?”
“The marriage,” she answered quickly. “The actual ceremony or what have you.”
“Ah, well.” He straightened in his chair and shuffled some papers on his desk. “I suppose we’ll go to the courthouse.”
“The courthouse. Fine.” Maggie swallowed. “When?”
He tapped his fingertips on the desk, then steepled his fingers in front of his face. For some reason he didn’t want to appear too anxious. “I’ll have to check my schedule and get back to you on that.”
Some expression flitted across her features, but too quickly for Alex to identify it. She heaved a sigh and regarded him for a moment. There was such a look of intelligence in her eyes. Alex found it disconcerting. As if she could see right through him.
“Fine,” she said, breaking his thoughts. “But I don’t suppose we should wait too long.” She nodded toward the paper listing her visa expiration.
“No,” he agreed. “I just have to make a few calls and then I’ll have my secretary make the arrangements.” He added, “You do realize that an immigration review board will want to set up a time to interview us.”
She blinked. “Why?”
“To make sure our marriage is real. This is an eleventh hour move, after all.”
“How are they going to confirm that?”
“It’s my understanding that they’ll ask us a series of questions about each other and our life together. We’ll have to spend some time together preparing.”
“Should I be worried?”
“I don’t think so. It’s like any other test. We’ll just make sure we’re prepared.” He hesitated. “Do you have any other points to clear up?” He nodded toward the paper she’d brought along.
She glanced at it. “How do we handle…the end? In three years.”
“At the end of three years, I propose to give you a lump sum, again for your personal use. I imagine that you’ll use it to establish yourself as single again.” He pulled the pad over, wrote, then passed the paper to her.
She took it and gasped. “Are you sure you wrote this correctly?” She held it up for him to see.
He didn’t bother to look. “It’s not enough?” He poised his pen. “I’ll only go up another ten thousand.”
“Another ten thousand?” She shook her head. “It looks like you’ll be eager to be rid of me.”
He couldn’t imagine it. “I only want to be fair. That’s the way I do all my business.”
“Then it’s no wonder you’re so successful.” There was a hard edge to her voice. “But this—” she looked at the paper “—isn’t necessary. Not for me.”
Alex looked at her sharply, hating the clutch in his gut. “You don’t like me, do you?”
“Do you care whether I do or not?”
He couldn’t care. But how could he explain that to her? “It’s not imperative.”
She eyed him in silence, then asked, “What if one of us wants to get out of the marriage early?”
He went cold. “Is that a possibility?” he asked in a tone more sharp than he’d intended.
She met his eyes. “I don’t know, is it? What if you fall in love and want to marry someone else?”
He grimaced. “That’s not going to happen. For me. And if we make this deal and you want to marry someone else, you’re going to have to wait until the end of this term. Kate must be settled in a new situation before you leave.”
“Naturally.”
“Furthermore, you must agree to stay in touch with her afterward. I know it’s a big commitment, but otherwise, there’s no deal.” He watched Maggie’s eyes. “Can you agree to that?”
“Of course.” She straightened her shoulders. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s even on my list.” She held it out halfheartedly.
“Good. Then I’ll have my lawyer draw up a contract and bring it to you for a signature.”
“A contract?” She looked astonished. “Don’t you trust me?”
Trust. That wasn’t a word he wanted to discuss with a woman. “It’s just good business,” he hedged. “It helps everyone remember their objectives.”
She nodded stiffly. “Very well. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to see to Kate.”
“Right.” He watched her turn to go, then had another thought. “Maggie?”
She turned around. “Yes?”
Their eyes locked for just a moment. “Since you’re going up to Kate,” Alex said slowly, “maybe you ought to tell her about our plans now.”
A moment passed. “You want me to tell her?”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “Is that a problem?”
“You want me to tell her alone?”
He shrugged. “That’s what I hired you for.”
“You can’t mean that.”
Lord, he’d set her off again. He didn’t have time to wade through her inventory of synonyms for I-don’tapprove-of-what-you’re-doing. “Let’s cut to the chase, here. Do you have a problem with telling her?”
Maggie crossed her arms in front of her and regarded him with a look of incredulity that made him extremely uncomfortable. “Surely you intend to tell her this news.”
So that was it. “You’re the one who is with her all the time.”
“You’re her father!” Maggie returned, seeming exasperated for having to point out something so obvious.
“I know that,” he answered, impatient over having to acknowledge something so obvious. He picked up a pen and tipped it back and forth between his fingers. “Am I to gather that you think I should speak with Kate myself?”
She bit down on her lower lip and nodded, with exaggerated patience.
“Okay, I’ll do it later.”
She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again.
“You had something else to say?” Alex asked.
“On second thought, maybe we should do it together.”
He dropped the pen on the desk and it clattered onto the floor. The woman was amazing. “Maggie, have you always been this impossible or do I bring it out in you?”
She looked at him steadily, her green eyes dark and sharp. “Oh, I’ve always been this way,” she said, completely earnest. “It’s just me.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“See you upstairs,” she said with a smile. She’d caught him, gained the upper hand, if only for a moment. What was worse, she knew it. He could tell.
“Wait.” He had to say something, anything, to regain control of this relationship.
Maggie looked at him expectantly.
“Please tell Kate I’d like to speak to her at—” he glanced at his watch “—three o’clock.” He eyed Maggie coolly. “I’ll expect you to be there as well.”
She nodded then turned and left, closing the heavy oak door behind her with a solid thud.
A tremor ran through his chest and he took a deep breath. He stared after her for a long time. Damn her attractiveness, he thought. She was integral to the next few years running smoothly. Yet attraction to her would cause too many problems.
He picked up a pencil and drew circles on the pad in front of him.
Physical attraction was one complication he was going to have to ignore. There were far more pressing complications that took precedence. Marlene Shaw, for example. His former mother-in-law was trying to take custody of Kate away from him. Knowing what he did of his exwife, Sandra’s, upbringing, and how she had turned out to be of less-than-sterling character, Alex was willing to protect Kate from that fate with whatever it took. Marlene was an ambitious, demanding woman who, like her daughter, wanted what she wanted at all costs. Unfortunately she had lived with Kate during the two years after the divorce. Now with Alex as a hardworking bachelor she had some leverage in the court’s eye.
Maggie could change all of that. With a wife at his side, a wife who was devoted to Kate, he would no longer have to worry about Marlene Shaw. She would have no more ammunition. And Kate would have the best of care.
Meanwhile, he also wouldn’t have to worry about other women pursuing him anymore, he thought without conceit. The undesirables would leave him alone if he was married. The others…well, there weren’t any others, so he didn’t have to worry about that, either.
There were a lot of practical advantages to his being married.
That was what he had to focus on, not his body’s attraction to Maggie.
The circles he drew became tighter and darker.
Maggie Weller—soon to be Harrison—was, as Alex’s late mother would have termed her, “a pistol.” She certainly outspunked any woman Alex had ever known. But the funny thing was, he liked that. He admired her for it.
And she was so highly principled. If Sandra had been half as principled as Maggie, half as honest, then maybe their marriage wouldn’t have been such a disaster.
Thank God Maggie wasn’t like Sandra.
Now if she could pass on any of that confidence, integrity, even self-righteousness, to Kate he would be grateful. He didn’t want Kate to suffer because of insecurities and he never wanted her to fear her father’s temper, the way he had. After all, Kate had to live with Alex, and Alex was his father’s son. If it was true that the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree, she might as well learn early not to need him, lest he should let her down.
He stopped scribbling on the paper.
And so he would have to remember not to need her, too, not to get too attached. For her sake;
The pencil snapped in his hand.
Half an hour later, Alex decided to phone his former mother-in-law and get it over with. He flipped through the Rolodex file on his desk until he came to the name he sought: Marlene Shaw. With one final deep breath for strength, he picked up the phone and dialed.
They made it through the pleasantries quickly, then Alex got directly to the point. “I’m getting married in a couple of weeks.”
There was a thick pause. “Is that right?” Marlene asked icily. “To whom?”
Alex could tell from the stiffness of her voice that she was already trying to determine whether this was going to help or hinder her custody case. “To Margaret Weller.”
“Margaret Weller,” the older woman repeated, “Margaret We—” There was an audible gasp. “Surely you’re not talking about the nanny!”
“The same.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I don’t think so.”
“She’s a servant!”
“That’s not exactly the way I think of things, Marlene. Kate couldn’t ask for a better stepmother.”
“But Kate…why, she needs family. There’s no substitute for blood, Alex. No one could be better for her than her own flesh and blood. Some outsider can’t give her that.”
He let a moment of silence linger after her outburst, then said mildly, “She has that. I’m her father, you remember.”
The derisive snort on the line was answer enough.
“And now she’s going to have a stepmother who loves her, too.” He waited a beat. “So I trust I won’t be hearing from you again about custody.”
“You do, do you? Well, think again. We don’t even know where that woman’s from, what her background is. She could be a criminal for all we know about her—”
Alex shifted his grip on the receiver. “My people screened her before I hired her. So drop it, Marlene. You know you don’t have a case, and I’d really rather not have to describe your schemes to my fiancée.”
“Isn’t that why you’re marrying her?” Marlene shot back. “To keep me from my grandchild?”
“Of course not,” he snapped, unable to quell a small tremor of guilt. “I’m marrying her because I want Kate to have a good family, a rational environment.”
“I see.” Marlene drew out the last word. “But you’re mistaken if you think this will help your case.”
“Your attempts to get custody don’t hold water,” he lied. “They never have. You have no grounds.”
“Have you forgotten that I lived with Sandra and Kate? I practically raised that child!”
Cold washed over Alex. “We both know that’s not true.”
“Oh, but it is.” Her voice echoed her daughter’s cruel sarcasm.
Alex swallowed. His lawyer had told him it was extremely unlikely she could win a custody battle, but recent headlines and news stories about custody hearings had made Alex nervous. Stranger things than a grandmother winning guardianship had happened. Besides, even his lawyer had acknowledged that Marlene’s having lived with Kate and Sandra had given her a tiny bit of leverage.
“I’ve got a call holding.” Alex’s mouth was dry. “I just wanted to let you know that I would be marrying again and that Kate will have a stepmother. One who will love her and take excellent care of her. I thought that would be important to you.”
“That girl is a foreigner, isn’t she?” Marlene snapped, as though Alex hadn’t spoken at all.
He let out a weary sigh. “She’s British.”
“How very convenient for her. Of course you know all she wants is to become an American. They all want to become Americans.”
He increased his grip on the phone. “I’m hanging up now. It was a pleasure talking with you, as always.”
His tone was unmistakably dismissive, but she still managed to add, “This isn’t over, Alex. Margaret Weller has got a few things to prove to me, I can tell you. I shall be calling the British Embassy and U.S. immigration authorities right away to have them look into the matter.”
He knew he shouldn’t ask but he couldn’t help it. “Matter?”
“The matter of this hasty wedding, of course.” Her voice was syrupy with malice. “I’d hate for Kate to be caught in the middle of an immigration scandal.”
Chapter Three (#ulink_db0a9738-1bea-53c9-a982-7c810fd823ba)
Maggie and Kate sat on Kate’s bed, playing with dolls when Alex came looking for them.
“You can’t keep me from going to that ball,” Kate squeaked in a high, false voice. She waved her doll in another doll’s face. “The prince wants me to go!”
Alex smiled at the already-small voice raised further in imitation of another, and leaned against the door frame to watch.
“I’ll lock you in the attic,” Maggie returned, in a cartoon-bad-guy voice that made Alex chuckle to himself. “And your little mouse friends, too.”
“No! No!” Kate bounced the doll away, pogo-stick fashion. “I won’t stay!”
“Aaargh!” Maggie’s doll fell on its face in the covers. “I can’t move! Hellllp!” She dropped the doll down, then looked up, smiling, and took another doll. “I’m here now,” the doll said with Maggie’s help. “Your fairy godmother will save you.”
“No, go away!”
Maggie looked surprised. “But I’m your fairy godmother. I’m good.”
Still talking in the doll’s voice, Kate said, “Good mothers aren’t any better than bad ones. They leave you. Go away!”
The doll in Maggie’s hand trembled ever so slightly. “But I won’t leave you.”
“Yes, you will! Mommies leave.” Kate hurled her doll against the one in Maggie’s hand and fell silent.
Maggie put the dolls aside gently and moved a bit closer to Kate. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”
Kate didn’t meet her eyes. “It’s true. My mommy left. Now I don’t have a mother at all.”
Maggie looked choked up. With absolutely no idea how to help the situation, Alex cleared his throat and walked in. “What are you two doing?” he asked, as casually as he could.
Maggie looked at him, composure sweeping her features. “Well, I’m glad you’re here. Kate just asked me an important question. She wanted to know why her mommy had to leave her.” She focused her attention on Kate. “Your mommy didn’t want to leave you, darling, but she had to.”
“Because she died?” Kate asked.
Alex winced at her bluntness.
“Yes,” Maggie said, with what sounded like an effort. “The truth is that sometimes things happen that we don’t understand right away.”
Kate looked down and said in a horribly quiet voice. “I understand. She died because I was naughty.”
Maggie’s sharp intake of breath echoed Alex’s own feelings. “Why do you say that, Kate?” he asked her gently.
Kate looked up with tear-filled eyes. “I was too noisy. I played too loud. Grandma told me if I didn’t be quiet then Mommy was going to get sicker, and I tried to be as quiet as a mouse…”
Alex couldn’t let her go on. “It wasn’t your fault,” he said, a little too gruffly.
She started at the tone of his voice and something in him stung.
“No,” Maggie soothed in a voice that belied the shock on her face, “it wasn’t your fault.”
“But grandma said—”
“Grandma was wrong,” Alex growled. And the witch wanted custody of Kate! Anger seared him and he looked to Maggie for tempering.
Maggie met his eyes and nodded, rubbing her hand across Kate’s back. “You did nothing wrong, darling, nothing at all. Mummy died because she was sick, and that was terribly sad for you. But I don’t believe for a moment that your Mummy left you entirely. I think her love is with you all the time. You’ll have that forever.” She laid a hand across Kate’s heart. “Right here.”
“Do you really think so?”
“I know it.”
Kate smiled, despite the tears still wet on her cheeks. “You’re very smart, Maggie.”
Maggie lifted her hand and ruffled Kate’s hair. “No, darling, I’m just old.” She laughed.
“And as for noise,” Alex said, “we won’t have any quiet children in this house.”
Kate looked stricken. “You won’t?”
What had he said? The child looked terrified. “You can make tons of noise.” He gave an uneasy smile, trying to wipe the fear from his daughter’s face.
The tears started anew. “Or else what? Are you going to send me away? Where would I go?”
Alex’s eyes widened and he looked desperately to Maggie, who was watching him in silence. She wasn’t going to help this time. “Never,” he said. “I’ll never send you away.” He moved toward Kate and reached for her, pulling her into an awkward embrace. “I promise. You’re going no further than our own backyard.”
Small hands clutched at his back. “Even if I don’t make a lot of noise?”
“I’ll never send you away,” he repeated, embarrassed at the choked sound of his own voice. “No matter what. And that’s why Maggie’s here. She’s going to stay.”
Kate pulled back and looked at Maggie. “Will you stay forever?”
“I’ll stay as long as you need me to.” Maggie gave her a warm smile. “But remember you can always count on your daddy, too. Always.”
“Okay.” Kate sniffed. She turned her liquid eyes to Alex and smiled, sending his heart tumbling. The responsibility for this child, this little heart, was an awesome one. He’d denied the pull of it for months now, but he couldn’t do it any longer.
Alex realized the conversation was over. Maggie had handled it perfectly, with just the right lightness of touch. The woman was a godsend, there was no doubt about it. He watched her hand stroking Kate’s hair and felt his chest tighten with relief. Relief that Kate was in such loving and capable hands.
Maggie had proven once again how much more adept she was at handling his child than he was. He hoped to God she would still go through with the marriage once she found out about Marlene’s threats.
She caught his eye and mouthed the word now? and gestured toward her left ring finger.
He gave a small shake of his head, then turned to his daughter. “Kate, could you excuse us for a minute?”
“Okay…” Kate looked to Maggie, seeming a bit puzzled.
“I have to talk to Daddy for a moment,” Maggie said. “I’ll be right back.”
Outside in the hall, she turned to Alex.
He took a step toward her, closing the bedroom door behind him.
Even though there was room, neither one of them stepped away to widen the space between them.
“Have you changed your mind already?” she asked him lightly.
“Yes.”
She took a breath and her gaze flitted from his chest to his eyes. “Oh?”
“About the ceremony.” His voice was a hoarse whisper in the dimly lit hall. “We need to have something more than just the courthouse.”
“Why?”
He hesitated. “Don’t you have family you want to invite?”
“My mother…isn’t much of a traveler. Though she sends her best wishes.” She leaned against the wall, but it added only an inch or two between them. “I called her before our contract discussion. She thinks you’re a very lucky man, actually.” She smiled.
“I am,” he said, and at that moment meant it. Even though he knew this relationship—this marriage—was to be different, for just a moment he felt like the luckiest man on earth. It was crazy.
Maggie looked at him. Her green eyes were wide and tentative. “I didn’t mean…I wasn’t soliciting compliments.” She dampened her parted lips.
“I know you weren’t.” He tried to stop the rush of desire that came over him, but couldn’t.
“But that was nice, thank you.”
He paused, then decided to say what he felt. “I meant it. The way you handle things.” He looked at Kate’s closed door, then back at Maggie. “I don’t see how I could do this without you.” He hesitated again, wondering at the depth of his meaning or if he was a fool to admit it to her. “I’m just glad I don’t have to try.”
“But you were ready to just find another nanny,” Maggie said softly, still holding his gaze.
Maybe he could find another nanny, but he couldn’t find another Maggie—another woman who would give him such a hard time or who could make that hard time so damned enjoyable—so easily. Funny, he’d never quite been able to admit that before. Maybe it was because he always knew she would be leaving.
And now he knew she was staying.
As she stood before him he realized with an awkward awareness that she was quite beautiful. Beautiful enough to make him stumble over his words like a schoolboy. “You couldn’t be easily replaced,” he said.
“Yesterday you were ready to do just that.” She challenged him with her eyes.
“Yesterday I thought I had to. Besides, you know you’re more than just a nanny.”
A slight flush darkened her cheeks. “Oh?”
“Kate really loves you.”
Soot-dark lashes lowered like a curtain.
“Maggie.”
She met his eyes. Before he realized what he was doing, Alex reached his hand to her cheek, and slowly rubbed his thumb across the smooth blushing skin.
She didn’t move, and her gaze remained fixed on his.
She wasn’t going to leave. She was staying.
Alex slid his hand behind her head and gently pulled her toward him. Their lips met and fire shot to his extremities. For a long moment they didn’t move, then Maggie’s lips parted under his and he nudged his tongue into her mouth.
Her hands rose tentatively to his chest and he moved his other hand to the small of her back. Hunger for her burned quick and bright inside of Alex, despite the fact that he knew—he knew—he shouldn’t be doing this. Only half an hour before, they had agreed not to do this. He ran his tongue along her upper lip marveling at the blaze of sensation within him.
Suddenly Maggie stopped. She drew back, flushed and a little out of breath. “What was that?” she said, perhaps to him, perhaps to herself.
“A kiss.”
“I know that. But…us?” She took a step away from him, looking everywhere but at him. “That’s not appropriate for us. It can’t happen again.”
He stared at her for a moment in silence, taking in the fiery eyes, the cheeks still flushed with passion, the full lips swollen from their kiss. There was nothing he could say, he knew she was right but he couldn’t voice his agreement.
So he gave a slight incline of the head. “I apologize,” he said, without an ounce of sincerity.
She obviously knew it because it was a long, narrow look she gave him before saying, “You were about to say something about the wedding.” She drew herself up and met his eyes boldly. “Why do you want to have a bigger celebration?”
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