Love By Proxy

“Yes. I don’t have a private secretary. And since you’ll be here all day, every day—” he made it sound like a waking curse “—and since grandmother will need you for only a few hours a day, we’ve decided to share you.”

Her skin chilled. “I don’t want to be shared.”

“But then, it isn’t your choice,” he reminded her. “You can always go home and marry Henry,” he suggested mildly.

She shuddered delicately. “Even working for you wouldn’t be that bad.”

“Should I be flattered?” he murmured dryly. He lifted his head, craggy features relaxing a little as he studied her face. “It must take layers of makeup,” he said absently.

He surprised her. “What?” she stammered.

“Your complexion,” he explained. “It’s much too perfect to be natural.”

“I use soap,” she said curtly. “Nothing else, not even powder. I don’t like artificial things.”

“Neither do I,” he returned. His tanned fingers toyed with a spoon in his coffee. He was wearing a blue jacket with a white shirt and a speckled tie, and he looked every inch a business magnate. But the muscles under that jacket were formidable, and they rippled with every movement he made. His hair seemed even darker under the light, neat and clean, and there was a faint darkness where he shaved, as if he needed to shave often. His mouth fascinated her. She kept remembering how it felt on hers, how expert it had been. He was the kind of man who could have had any woman he wanted, and she was secretly glad that her powers of resistance weren’t going to be tested by him. She would have been defenseless in any kind of confrontation, and she wouldn’t have the sophistication to hold him. He could have broken her heart, and she was delighted that he wasn’t going to try.

“She’s very fragile,” she ventured as she poured coffee from the carafe into a delicate china cup and added cream.

“What?”

“Your grandmother,” she returned. “How did she break her hip?”

“Trying to learn how to break dance.”

Amelia had just taken a mouthful of coffee and almost strangled on it. She gaped at him.

“That’s right,” he said calmly. He sipped his own coffee. “She had videotapes of the steps, and she was trying to do a spin. She was too close to the fireplace. She went down on the stone hearth.”

“But she’s seventy-five!” she exclaimed.

“She likes hard rock,” he continued. “She enjoys very racy movies, she flirts outrageously with men, she can outdrink me when she likes and you’ll get an education in the art of self-expression if you’re ever in the vicinity when she loses her temper.”

She was only just getting her breath back. “An exceptional lady,” she said.

“Quite. But she has an unusually soft heart, and I don’t want her hurt,” he added, with a level, hard gaze. “I don’t know you. But I will. And if I find out anything that doesn’t jibe with what information you’ve given me, I will toss you out on your ear.”

She met his hard gaze levelly, eyebrows raised. “Well, I did get a parking ticket once,” she confessed.

“Funny girl,” he taunted.

“My mama says that laughing beats crying any day,” she returned with a vacant smile.

“Laugh while you can,” he said pleasantly. He finished his coffee. “Are you through? I’d like to get started.”

She blinked. “Started doing what?”

“Working, of course. I’m going out in the field today, to inspect a potential building site. You’ll come along and take notes.”

“But…but, Mrs. Carson…?”

He got to his feet, towering over her. “Grandmother won’t be up for hours yet. She watched movies until four in the morning.”

“But she said to be here at eight-thirty,” she protested.

“I told you she’d be trying her hand at matchmaking,” he reminded her.

She looked him up and down and tried to manage a disparaging expression. “Well, I’m really sorry, Wentworth, but you aren’t my type. I don’t like big men.”

He pursed his lips and smiled mischievously. “No?” He reached out a big hand and tugged her gently to her feet. His hands caught her waist and lifted her on a level with his eyes. “There are advantages to being my size. I don’t get argued with much.”

Her hands were on his big shoulders, cold and nervous. And the proximity disturbed her so much that she could feel her heart beating. His eyes were almost black, with very definite whites and black rims around the brown. They were impressive eyes. His nose was impressive, too, despite its size. It had a faintly Roman look, very straight and formidable. His forehead was broad and his mouth was firm and his chin had a dimple in it. She’d never liked dimpled chins, but this one was really sexy.

“Were any of your people Italian?” she asked without meaning to.

“Yes, as a matter of fact,” he said. “My grandfather was.”

“You…look Roman.”

His mouth curved a little, making the dimple pronounced. “So they tell me.” His hands contracted, bringing her closer, so that her face was under his, her mouth was under his, so that she could breathe the coffee he’d just swallowed. “Why did you take the job?”

He was really unsettling her. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her lips, the steely strength in the hands that held her off the floor so effortlessly. “I…needed it,” she whispered.

“There are other employers in Chicago,” he reminded her.

“How…far would I get without a recommendation?”

He searched her darkening blue eyes. “Not far,” he said, relenting. “Your eyes looked blue yesterday. Now they’re gray.”

“Are they?”

One corner of his mouth twitched. “Do I make you nervous, Miss Glenn?” he taunted in a voice like velvet. His eyes dropped to her lips.

“Don’t play with me,” she whispered shakily.

“But you said you wanted someone to play with,” he reminded her. “Only yesterday, in fact, as you were driving away in that yellow boxcar you own.”

“It isn’t a boxcar. And I didn’t mean this kind of playing.”

His mouth bent closer to hers as he eased her down to her feet again. “Didn’t you? Most women today play at love.”

“I’m not most women, and I don’t know how to,” she said. She tugged against his hands. “Let me go.”

“Afraid of me?” he chided gently.

She met his dark eyes. “I’m not in your league, Worth. Don’t do this to me. I’m no threat to your grandmother, or to you.”

“I’m not sure about the latter, Amy,” he said quietly, and the sound of her name on his lips had an oddly sweet sound. He bent a little more and brushed his hard mouth softly against hers, a whisper of sensation that tantalized more than satisfied. He lifted his dark, shaggy head, and studied her confused expression.