Cathleen Galitz – Her Boss's Baby (страница 2)

Jonas regretted Tara’s seeing him like this. Had he anyone else in the world to call upon, he would have spared his lovely young secretary the trip from San Francisco to the boondocks of Texas. Unfortunately Jonas had no family left except his stepfather and stepsister, Ellen, who was expecting a baby anytime now. Considering her delicate condition, he didn’t want to put any extra strain on her. And Jonas would have preferred death in the electric chair than to ask his stepfather for a favor. Not that asking would have made any difference. Nicolas Goodfellow would refuse to help. Just as surely as he had refused to have anything to do with raising Jonas or caring for his needy young wife, who had meekly submitted to his emotional abuse right up until the day she died.

“Thanks for coming,” Jonas said to Tara as the door to his cell swung open. “You’re certainly a sight for sore eyes.”

Though he resisted the urge to give her an appreciative hug in front of their watchful audience, she was not given to such reserve. Wrapping her arms around him, she brushed a kiss across his stubbled cheek, causing yet another crude comment to bubble up from the gutter of another captive’s mind.

For all the times Jonas had imagined holding this woman in his arms, he couldn’t believe how good she felt. Way too good. For the hundredth time, he had to remind himself that theirs was an employee/employer relationship. Friendly and respectful. Anything more would be taking advantage of Tara’s sweet nature and naiveté.

“Let’s get you out of here,” she whispered in his ear.

The sensation of her breath on his neck caused Jonas’s skin to tingle. What was that scent she was wearing? A heady mixture of flowers and musk, it was an importer’s dream. Jonas was certain he could sell gallons of the stuff.

After almost three days of confinement, he was eager to leave the premises. Happy to let Tara lead the way, he couldn’t help but notice the way the young officer’s gaze lingered on the hypnotic swaying of her hips. Jonas’s chest tightened uncomfortably. He tried brushing the feeling off as the onset of bronchial pneumonia that he’d likely contracted from one of the thugs with whom he’d been forced to share quarters for the past fifty-six hours and twenty-two minutes.

Not that he was counting.

Jonas said a little prayer of thanksgiving as he entered the light of freedom. Relative freedom, he amended, cursing the fact that for the time being the bail money Tara had procured from the business liberated him only from his cell. Unless the charges against him were dropped, Jonas would be required to remain in the tightly knit community of Red Rock until the time of his trial. As far as he could tell, the small town existed for the sole purpose of servicing the Fortune family—that nest of vipers that he had so foolishly hoped would welcome him as kith and kin.

He was charged with the attempted murder of one of the town’s most prominent citizens. The fact that, as far as Jonas could tell, everyone in Red Rock, from the local pharmacist to the sheriff, was related only made matters that much worse. He figured he’d been lucky not to have been lynched while he awaited bail. He’d be even luckier to get out of town in one piece. One thing was for certain. Good old Sheriff Grayhawk wasn’t about to risk upsetting his pretty little wife by letting anyone off the hook who was even circumstantially implicated in harming her favorite uncle.

To the lawman’s credit, however, Grayhawk hadn’t gone out of his way to persecute him. Fortunately it appeared the sheriff was more into justice than punishment. Still, given the hostile stares leveled at him by both employees and visitors as he left the county building, Jonas was certain he would be under careful surveillance as long as he remained in Grayhawk’s jurisdiction.

Stepping outside into the bright light of a Texas summer day, he realized just how much he had taken such a simple pleasure for granted: the warmth of the sun and of Tara’s smile. The way the light caught in her blond hair, which tumbled about her shoulders in an aura of golden diffusion, almost made him question for a moment whether she was wearing a halo. A telltale shiver told Jonas just how relieved this angel was to be well out of such an awful place.

“I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate you coming to bail me out,” he began stiffly.

Knowing how Jonas hated being indebted to anyone, Tara would have none of it. “You’d do the same for me,” she assured him with a blinding smile. “In fact, I believe you already have.”

“It’s hardly the same,” he retorted bitterly.

“Of course it is,” she insisted. “It’s my turn to take care of you now.”

Though Jonas looked genuinely insulted by the thought, Tara felt certain his masculine pride would ultimately take a back seat to his gratitude. At least she hoped so as she directed him toward the car she had rented for the length of their stay in Red Rock.

Feminine instinct compelled her to toss him the keys. Having worked so closely with this man for the past five years, she had absolutely no fear that he would do anything as foolish as attempt to bolt from town. She smiled at him as he opened her car door. Even under the most dire of circumstances, she could always count on Jonas to be a gentleman. It was one of the things she found most endearing about him.

Tara filled him in on the arrangements she had made as they drove to the hotel where they would be staying until this whole mess was cleared up. As always, Jonas was impressed with his assistant’s efficiency. He may have initially taken her under his wing out of pity, but the truth of the matter was that hiring Tara Summers was the smartest business move he’d ever made. Again he forced himself to remember just how foolish it would be to jeopardize such a remarkable working relationship by doing anything as stupid as pulling over to the side of the road and kissing her senseless. After all, someone as moral and inexperienced as Tara might mistake such purely masculine impulsiveness as being something far more than it actually was: lust and appreciation wrapped up in one hormonally charged package.

“It’s far from perfect, but it’s the best I could do on such short notice,” she said, needlessly apologizing for the arrangements she’d made to procure for him the only official suite in the small town. “I’ve had all the necessary equipment to run the business long distance shipped here. Everything should be here by tomorrow.”

A blush crept up her neckline as she explained in a rush how two separate bedrooms adjoined a relatively spacious central living area that would have to serve as their temporary office “until this little matter gets cleared up.”

“Always the master of understatement,” Jonas quipped, pulling up in front of the hotel.

As grateful as he was that Tara had taken all necessary precautions to keep his mind off the gravity of his situation, it bothered Jonas that she seemed so unsettled by the thought of sharing close quarters with him. Didn’t she trust him enough to keep his hands to himself?

Switching off the ignition, he leaned across the seat. Tipping up her chin to force her to make eye contact with him, he asked her point-blank, “What are you afraid of, little one? Haven’t I always been a perfect gentleman around you?”

That’s the problem! she longed to tell him, melting at the endearment designed to remind her of the difference in their ages. What I’m really afraid of is that you have absolutely no interest in me as a woman. A woman who wants to be more to you than just a loyal employee.

But there was no way she could tell him that, not when she was in the process of falling headlong into a pair of eyes so blue that she was certain it would be impossible to hide any falsehood there. Surely if he was guilty of any wrongdoing, she would be able to discern it just by looking into those eyes. At the mere touch of his thumb beneath her chin, Tara felt the familiar jolt of electricity that tugged at her insides and made mush of rational thought every time he came in physical contact with her.

Don’t you feel it, too? she wanted to ask.

Remembering some of the late nights they had spent working overtime when she had caught him looking at her as more than a mere employee, Tara was certain he must. Ever the gentleman, however, he had never acted on the predatory desire she had seen in those electric blue eyes. And he never would, she feared, unless she gave him some blatant encouragement. A pretty new dress and expensive perfume were too subtle by themselves.

Brazenly she traced the outline of his jaw with her index finger. If anything, she thought that two-day stubble and haunted look in his eyes only made him more outrageously masculine than ever. Indeed, such a rebel could capture any woman’s heart with a single glance.

“Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you’re the one who has something to fear?” Tara asked in a squeaky voice she barely recognized as her own.

The deep bass tones of Jonas’s laughter filled the car. Clearly uncomfortable with the direction this conversation was taking, he seized Tara’s hand to try to stop her from making an even bigger fool of herself. Putting her hand demurely back into her own lap, he threw in one of his patented winks in hopes of keeping the mood light.