Baby and the Boss. KIM LAWRENCE
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the name she’d seen hand-stitched into the lining, that was quite a costly accident.
To her surprise Jake gave a quick grin—the spontaneous nice sort of grin that she hadn’t known he was capable of. Nia frowned, she’d felt safer when he was an inhumanly demanding boss; she didn’t need any hints of niceness. Not when she had developed this worrying tendency to think lustful thoughts about him. Actually she didn’t even think them—they’d been springing fully formed into her head all afternoon!
CHAPTER TWO
JAKE divided the list of anyone he thought might be able to locate his brother in two and whilst the baby, his stomach full, slept, they worked their way through the contacts.
‘Any joy?’ He pushed the intervening door open and leaned against the jamb, rolling his head slowly from side to side to relieve the tension.
Despite a work schedule that would have had normal mortals on their knees, this was the first time Nia had ever seen him display any physical tiredness. She shook her head rapidly when his quizzical expression brought home the fact she’d been staring a little too obviously.
‘Then we’d better try his place. I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do if there’s no clue there. Are you ready?’
It wasn’t a question or even a request. Nia resisted the temptation to salute.
‘Isn’t there anyone who could look after the baby? Grandparents…?’
Jake glanced rather impatiently down at her, adjusting his stride, rather belatedly, to accommodate the height of her heels and the disparity in their leg length.
‘My mother’s in the States where my sister’s due to give birth to twins at any second, and Josh’s in-laws would only be too happy to take responsibility. As far as they’re concerned possession’s nine-tenths of the law,’ he said drily.
Nia watched as he clipped the baby seat into the back of the Jaguar saloon he drove and wondered where she’d have sat if he’d gone in for a convertible—the boot, probably.
‘You can’t think they wouldn’t give Liam back.’
‘That,’ he said, holding the door open for her—coldly courteous to the last, ‘is exactly what I think. They’ve been trying to convince Josh to let them bring up the baby ever since Bridie died—subtly, and then not so subtly. They’d like nothing better than for Josh to prove himself an unfit father and Josh—being Josh,’ he grated, his voice harsh with frustration, ‘is going out of his way to prove their case. They never wanted Bridie to marry him in the first place.’
Something about the way he said that made her frown thoughtfully. ‘Why, did they have someone else in mind?’ she asked, responding to an intuitive flash.
Jake turned the key in the ignition and the car purred smoothly into life. He’d known it was a mistake to take her out of the office environment. Those big eyes were going to get all misty any minute now, and then she’d decide to personally sort out his life.
‘Yes,’ he said, turning his head to look at her. ‘Me.’
‘Oh!’
This astonishing revelation put an entirely new twist on matters. God knows what emotions were bottled up in that very impressive chest, she thought, unable to resist a furtive little glance at that general area of his anatomy.
He wouldn’t be human if he didn’t feel a bit ambivalent about his twin. On top of that, he was obviously grieving for a woman he’d once loved—still did, for all she knew. God, what a mess, she thought, feeling way out of her depth.
‘Oh indeed,’ he mocked, nodding to the uniformed guardian of the underground parking area. ‘I was engaged to Bridie before she met Josh. If any aspects of my personal life fascinate you, just come right out and ask. The office grapevine has only recently become relatively quiet on the subject. I’d prefer nobody resurrected it.’ His eyes were icily cold as they touched her face.
‘I’m aware you don’t think much of me as a secretary, Mr. Prentice, but I’m no gossip,’ she responded huffily.
‘Under the circumstances I think you’d better make it Jake, and you should know how to keep a secret. I would imagine every soul in the building has confided their deepest darkest ones to you by now. Does it ever occur to you you’ve picked the wrong profession? You seem to think it your mission in life to sort out peoples’ lives.’
‘I’ve had no complaints about my secretarial skills until now—well, not many,’ she conceded honestly. ‘But that wasn’t my fault. I don’t like being groped,’ she added darkly.
‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ came the dry reply.
‘I didn’t mean you,’ she said with startled dismay. ‘I know you wouldn’t dream…’
‘We all dream, Nia,’ he replied cryptically.
There was a really tight feeling in her chest as her racing mind delivered various versions of what the man beside her might dream—not about her, of course—he didn’t like red hair and hers was very hard to ignore.
‘I didn’t know your brother lived out of town,’ she said after they’d travelled for a short time in uncompanionable silence.
He flicked her a quick sideways glance that said he’d forgotten she was there. ‘He does.’
‘How far out?’ She was doing some quick mental calculations. Just how long would it take her to get back from wherever he was taking her? ‘It won’t do me much good if you let me go on time if it’s going to take me hours to get back to the city,’ she added crisply when he didn’t immediately respond.
‘Oh, I forgot, your urgent appointment.’ His mocking drawl made her eyes narrow angrily.
‘I realise that my personal life fades into insignificance beside yours.’
‘What is it that’s so damned important, anyway?’
‘I need to catch a train home for the weekend.’
‘Oh, yes, the girl from the valleys.’
‘Actually I live on a mountain, not in a valley, and your acccent’s all wrong. I’m from North Wales not South.’
‘Why would someone who lives on a mountain—the northern variety—want to come and live in a poky bedsit?’
‘How do you know I live in a poky bedsit? Actually I share a flat—quite a nice flat.’ Though that depended on what you were used to, and she suspected Jake Prentice was used to the very best—top-drawer houses, cars, she stroked the soft leather upholstery, and women, she decided with throwing him a sour look.
‘And do you share this flat with the fiancé?’
Nia’s eyes transferred to her lap where she selfconsciously rubbed the antique garnet-and-pearl-encrusted ring on her left hand.
‘Huw lives in Wales,’ she said shortly.
‘Hence the breathless eagerness to get back home.’ His tone held a faint but definite impression of a sneer. ‘I’m surprised he’s happy to let you move so far away.’ She was wilful enough, he thought, thinking of that square determined little chin, to go her own way regardless.
His quick glance, she decided, suggested he wouldn’t have trusted her as far as he could throw her.
‘There aren’t many jobs to be had on mountainsides.’
‘But…Huw, he has one?’
‘His family’s land adjoins Dad’s farm,’ she replied shortly, uncomfortable at the probing nature of his questions.
‘I can’t see you as a farmer’s wife.’
Nia wasn’t sure she wanted to know what he did see her as. She saw no reason to correct this shaky interpretation of the information,