To Love An Older Man

Beth relaxed a little. He was being awfully kind. But surely she’d find a shelter that could take her in for the night. She opened her mouth to refuse, but before she could say a word, her stomach rumbled. She groaned at the loud, obnoxious sound, and muttered, “Must be the baby.”

He smiled. “Let the little guy know I have a fully stocked kitchen.”

“It might be a girl.”

“Of course.”

“It’s too early. I haven’t found out yet.” Oh, God, she was babbling.

He didn’t seem put off, but smiled again. “Just for tonight. Tomorrow you’ll be better rested, the baby’s belly will be full and you can decide what you want to do.”

She shook her head. “Thank you, but—”

“Beth, you have your baby to think about.” His words were quiet, gentle but they cut through her like a butcher’s knife.

She wrapped her arms around herself, recalling the cold damp fog that had started to roll in an hour ago. Foolishly she’d hoped she’d have a nice warm room by now. She sighed and rubbed the slight swell of her tummy. Mr. Matthews was right. This wasn’t only about her anymore. She had the baby to worry about.

Still, it was difficult to bring herself to accept charity. It was a new experience. Even after her parents had died ten years ago, and her brother took charge of both her and the farm, she’d always been self-sufficient.

But she hadn’t had a baby to worry about, she reminded herself. She took a deep breath. “Thank you, Mr. Matthews. We—I’ll accept your kind offer. On one condition.”

His left brow went up.

“I pay you back when I’m able.” She knew he meant nothing by it, but his patronizing expression annoyed her. “That’s how it has to be.”

His forehead creased in thought and he pursed his lips. They were nice lips, not too thin, not too full. Perfect, really. “The thing is, I’ve got to pay my mortgage whether you stay tonight or not.”

She saw the amused glint in his eyes, and folded her arms across her chest and sat down on the upholstered bench between the elevator doors. Fine. If she had to wait all night for the darn elevator at least she’d be warm and dry.

A short startled laugh made her look up. He put on a straight face, but a smile lurked at the corners of his mouth. “Come on, Beth.” He offered her a hand. “Let’s discuss it in the car.”

Her stomach growled again. She tried sucking it in to stop the noise. No luck. “All right, Mr. Matthews, but you know my terms.”

He took the bag from her hand. “I have a condition, as well. Call me David. I may be old enough to be your father but—”

“You are not. I’m twenty-five.” She’d fudged only a little. Her birthday was in a month.

He looked surprised.

She studied the faint smile lines at the corners of his eyes. “How old are you?”

He frowned and cleared his throat. “Let’s get on the road. I’ll call Ida to keep dinner warm.”

“Don’t let her go to any trouble.” She didn’t understand why he left the elevator and headed in the opposite direction, but she followed him through double mahogany doors.

“Don’t worry. She’s going to love fussing over you,” he said over his shoulder. “So will my mother.”

Beth slowed down as soon as she realized she was in his office. Although it didn’t look like any office she’d ever seen. The room was massive, two sides of it was all windows overlooking the city lights. A wet bar with gold-framed mirrors occupied one corner, an elaborate stereo system the other.

One entire wall was a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf filled with texts. They weren’t all law books either. She spotted a couple of current works of fiction she’d just read herself.

A treadmill was off to the side, hidden behind an Oriental screen. A television and two plump sofas and a pair of leather armchairs were arranged in a surprisingly cozy setting. Her gaze drew to his large desk, but settled on him when she realized he was staring at her.

She gave him a small smile. “Wow! This is some office.”

His gaze flickered across the room and he frowned slightly. “Yes, I suppose it is.”

Behind him came a low beep. She gaped at the polished brown oak door sliding open. “You have your own private elevator?”

One side of his mouth lifted. “So it seems. Are you coming?”

He motioned her past him and she scurried inside, and then waited for him to join her. He pressed the garage button and then silently faced the door for their ride down.

Beth tried not to be obvious as she eyed his clean-shaven jaw. At this late hour, she didn’t know how he could have no stubble…unless he’d shaved in the afternoon again. His hair was perfectly cut, a dark rich brown with no sign of gray. He wasn’t nearly as old or stern as Tommy had said.

He was obviously a very nice man to take in a total stranger like this. Back in Rock Falls, that sort of kindness was taken for granted, but she hadn’t encountered anything like it in the city yet. That it was Tommy’s boss who’d come to her rescue filled her with a perverse pleasure that Grandma Anderson would have threatened to take a switch to her for.

Beth smiled. Not that Grand had ever laid a hand, or switch, on her. But Grand was such a tiny and good-hearted woman, Beth figured she needed the bluff to keep her grandkids in line. Especially Junior and his horrendous temper.

The sudden thought of her brother made her feel a little queasy and she pressed a hand to her stomach. Junior was the best brother a girl could ever have. He was supportive, caring and protective. Too protective. He never had liked Tommy to begin with…if Junior ever found out what he’d done…

“Are you all right?”

Beth looked up. David’s concerned gaze lifted from the hand at her tummy to meet her eyes. They were nice eyes, dark but with interesting flecks of gold. “Fine. Really. I was just thinking about…stuff.”

“Ah.” He gave an understanding nod. “Maybe you should wait until you’ve had something to eat and had a good night’s rest before you think about any more…stuff.”

She started to respond but the elevator door opened, and he held it back for her. She hesitated, but couldn’t form the right words quickly enough and stepped out instead. He indicated a dark green Jaguar several feet away, and then pressed something in his hand that produced a clicking noise. The door locks, she realized, when he overtook her and opened the passenger door.

A black leather briefcase sat on the seat, but he carefully placed it in the back, along with her bag, and then continued to hold the door for her while she slid inside. He ducked and she jumped, feeling foolish when she realized he only wanted to make sure her coat didn’t get caught in the door.

She was fairly sure he noticed her edginess but he didn’t say anything. He went around the hood of the car and climbed in behind the wheel and reversed out of the stall without a word. After he made a call on his cell phone, he pressed a button and soft classical music filled the car.

They didn’t say anything for the next fifteen minutes. He drove and she stared out the window at the thickening fog, grateful that she and the baby had a warm dry place to stay for the night. But what would she do tomorrow night? And the night after that? It wasn’t easy looking for a job while pregnant. She didn’t show much yet but that would probably change in a month. Of course she could keep doing temp work but the pay was low and barely covered a place to live.

“Hey, you aren’t thinking about stuff again, are you?”

She turned away from the window and looked at him. He took his eyes away from the road long enough to give her a smile. It was kind and reassuring, but a little patronizing, too, and she couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Mr., uh, David, I really appreciate what you’re doing for me. But I’m not a child. Don’t treat me like one.”

Chapter Two

David couldn’t wait to unload her on his mother. Had he really been treating Beth like a child? What had he said? He’d only advised her not to worry, not when she was tired and hungry. Anyway, she was young. Twenty-five was still…

Hell, he’d graduated from law school at twenty-five and if anyone had so much as implied that he wasn’t a fully capable adult he would’ve had a few choice words for them. It didn’t matter that he’d still been riding his motorcycle without a helmet or that he always forgot to balance his checkbook, or that he’d let his bills stack up for two months at a time even though he’d had plenty of money in his account.

Part of it was that Beth looked so young with her big blue eyes and scattering of freckles across her nose. She was short, probably not even five-two and her long hair hung past her shoulders in no particular style, the way girls used to wear it back in high school.