Cinderella And The Ceo. SUSAN MEIER
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He heard that damned quiver again, and felt the burden of guilt about not being honest with her when she seemed to have enough on her mind without his deception. Determined to silence the voice with good behavior and small favors, Deke reached for the stack of plates she held. Their hands inadvertently brushed, and an unexpected jolt of electricity sprinted up his arm. Confused, he stepped back. Seemingly unaffected, Laurel took the dishes through a swinging door that probably led to a dining room.
Deke leaned against the cabinet. Though he had relegated all his unusual feelings to guilt, there was no mistaking that jolt. It was sexual. Since he didn’t really know her, he recognized that little zap of electricity probably didn’t mean anything more than the fact that he was physically attracted to her. Which was fine. She was gorgeous. He’d already acknowledged that. He would probably worry more if he wasn’t attracted to her. But he was also a disciplined, intelligent man who didn’t do foolish things that would ruin his plans. A physical attraction could easily be ignored.
“If you’ll tell me where the glasses are, I’ll be glad to get them,” Deke said, addressing Laurel’s mother.
“Second door on the right,” Judy said as Laurel returned to the kitchen.
Though Deke was already at the cabinet, Laurel beat him to the handle on the cupboard door. Again when their fingers brushed, Deke felt a spiral of electricity curl up his arm, and again he stepped back.
It was odd that his attempt to rationalize this attraction hadn’t worked. Even his reminder that he wouldn’t let the attraction ruin his plan hadn’t stopped it or diminished it. Which wasn’t merely confusing, it was weird. Usually he had no trouble controlling these things.
He watched her move back and forth, to and from the dining room as she set the table. He noted the swing of her voluminous hair, then the swing of her hips as she walked. He recognized and acknowledged he found this woman very attractive, but he also told himself he could handle it.
He had to. He had to work with her and live with her for the next three months.
He narrowed his eyes and gave the problem his full attention until the answer came to him. Having an entire floor to himself, he could simply keep his distance, and that would work to a degree. But what he really needed was a diversion, something to entertain him in the downtime.
Now all he had to do was think of one.
As plates of food were being passed, Laurel surreptitiously studied the stranger she’d allowed into her home. She’d had her suspicions about him from the moment she’d read his thin personnel file and discovered he was older than the typical trainee the corporate office sent to Graham Metals. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Because Deke’s records didn’t give her a clue about his personality or his lifestyle, except that he had attended Harvard and he got his late start in business because of playing professional baseball, Laurel wasn’t going to offer him the opportunity to stay in her home. But Tom Baxter had insisted, assuring her that Deke Bertrim could be trusted. She’d reminded Tom that when she brought one of his trainees into her home, she literally was trusting him with her life and the lives of her daughters, but Tom stood fast. Deke Bertrim was not to be treated differently from the other trainees. Just because he was a little older—thirty-three—and a little better educated, that didn’t make him better than the other executive candidates or change Tom’s orders for putting him through his paces. Deke Bertrim needed this training the same as everybody else.
And he most definitely would not hurt her and her daughters, Tom assured her. Since Tom was a personal friend of Deke’s family, he could state with unequivocal certainty that Deke Bertrim was harmless.
Peeking across the dinner table at her boarder’s thick black hair, big blue eyes, broad shoulders, well-structured chest and beautiful biceps clearly outlined by his polo shirt, Laurel sincerely doubted the man was harmless. At least not to any red-blooded American female over the age of sixteen. But her daughters were four and eight, and she and her mother were clearly out of the market for romance, so she supposed the whole group of women was safe. Besides, she trusted Tom’s judgment. In the three years and six management trainees since she and Tom had started this procedure for indoctrinating his junior executives into the real world of manufacturing, he’d never steered her wrong. She and her family were thriving because of it.
“More soup, Mr. Bertrim?” Laurel’s mother asked, bringing Laurel back to the present and into the conversation around their dinner table.
“Thank you, Mrs. Russell, but I’m stuffed. That was wonderful.”
As usual, her mother beamed with pride. “My beef-barley soup and homemade bread always win raves at church functions.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Deke agreed, smiling.
The guy hadn’t wasted any time winning over her mother, Laurel thought, then glanced at her two little girls, Audra and Sophie. Staring at the new boarder with sparkles in her blue eyes, four-year-old Sophie was definitely enamored, which was okay since she was well below the age of trouble.
But eight-year-old Audra was not even slightly smitten. She appeared to be too caught up in anger to have any feelings at all about the man at their table. Laurel’s beautiful brunette with the saucy smile and expressive brown eyes looked about ready to kill someone. Laurel supposed it was lucky Deke didn’t have anything to do with that.
“Audra, why don’t you help me get dessert?” Laurel said, hoping to get some private time with her daughter.
But Deke Bertrim almost jumped out of his seat.
“I’ll help.”
“We’re fine,” Laurel said politely, but firmly.
Unfortunately, he wouldn’t take no for an answer. “I still want to help.”
“Actually I’d like a minute alone with Audra,” Laurel explained, knowing that if they were all going to live together for the next few months, they might as well start being honest now.
“Okay,” Judy said, rising from her seat. “Then Sophie, Deke and I will get the carrot cake. And you can have the dining room to yourselves while we’re gone.”
Sophie immediately hopped off her chair, not about to miss this golden opportunity to be nearly alone with Deke, as Deke snapped to Judy’s aid, assisting her from her seat. Again, Laurel was struck by the fact that he was too nice, too helpful. But with angry Audra at her right, she didn’t have time to puzzle it out.
“You okay?” Laurel asked the second the swinging door closed behind the merry band on its way to get cake.
“Mr. Marshall can’t coach softball this year,” Audra announced glumly.
Laurel bit her lower lip. “Honey, I know you really liked him,” she said, smoothing the silky sable hair at Audra’s temple. “But Mr. Marshall is getting old. If he retired it’s because it’s time,” she said, trying to subtly convey the message to her little girl that he hadn’t left because of something she had done.
“I know,” Audra said with a sigh, then folded her arms on the table and laid her head atop them. “But he was the best coach.”
“And I’ll bet he thought you were the best player,”
Laurel agreed. “But I’m also sure somebody every bit as nice will take his place.”
“That’s just it,” Audra said as the three amigos pushed through the swinging door carrying plates of carrot cake. “There’s nobody who wants to take his place. Without a coach, we don’t have a team.”
“I see,” Laurel said, hiding her concern. After Audra’s father left, Audra had been quiet and reclusive until she discovered softball. Suddenly, with the introduction of team sports into her life, she’d become chipper and happy again. Laurel knew it was because Artie Marshall had taken a liking to Audra and treated her very well, filling her need for a father figure. But Laurel also recognized that Audra got her exercise,