Baby and the Boss

‘Let me hold him.’ The darkened damp patch on the lining of his jacket was pretty obvious as she picked up the baby. ‘Oops.’ Considering 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, either. In one way Huw’s family were farmers, they did own vast tracts of hill land and also a tidy bit of much more profitable lowland pasture and woods. The estate had at least a dozen tenant farms and a beautiful manor house with gardens that were open to the public on bank holidays.

These days the estate, which Huw ran, was almost a hobby, most of the family’s money came from some very clever investments in the leisure industry. If she had still been engaged to Huw and wearing his ring, not the one she’d inherited from her grandmother, Huw might indeed have been unhappy about her decision to move to London. As it was, he probably felt relief.

She gave a quick glance over her shoulder at the sleeping baby—happily, he was still dead to the world—just as Jake slowed down to pass several people on horseback. It really was getting worryingly rural.

‘Why didn’t you tell me your brother lived in the back of beyond?’

‘If I had, would you have come along?’ He glanced coolly at her indignant face. ‘Exactly.’

‘I’ll miss my train. Not that you’d care,’ she added wrathfully. ‘Just so long as you’re getting your own way.’

‘You think I want to spend my afternoon with a crying baby and a…’ He broke off suspiciously abruptly and continued in a reasonable voice she didn’t believe for an instant. ‘If you miss your train tonight you can have Monday off.’

‘And a what?’ she said in a dangerously quiet voice. ‘A baby and a what?’

‘Secretary.’

She gave a dismissive snort that went a bit wobbly because he was negotiating a rough bone-shaking mud track. ‘That wasn’t what you were going to say.’

‘I thought better of it,’ he admitted frankly as he drew up in front of a small but picturesque cottage. ‘I have a healthy respect for red-headed tempers. Here we are,’ he added unnecessarily. ‘No signs of life that I can see,’ he concluded gloomily after his initial inspection.

Nia followed his lead and clambered out of the car. ‘I know you don’t like redheads,’ she shouted at him. Hearing the childish sound of her waspish accusation, she winced.

Jake’s initial sharp glance held surprise and then, as she watched, amusement pulled at the corners of his mouth. Whilst he was still watching, she lurched inelegantly as one heel slid on the slippery cobbled surface. Go on, girl, give him something to laugh properly about, why don’t you?

‘Farmer’s daughter did you say?’

Nia caught her breath and her balance. ‘I thought I was dressing for the office today,’ she replied with as much dignity as she could muster.

‘Is that what you call it?’ His eyes ran comprehensively over her pale green, soft faux silk skirt and matching blouse, they dwelt on the perilously high heels she wore.

‘What,’ she asked, her bosom swelling with indignation, ‘is wrong with my clothes? First my hair, now my dress sense. Is there anything about me you do approve of?’

An expression flared in his eyes before the ebony lashes fell in a concealing cloak. ‘Did I say I didn’t like red hair?’

‘You implied it,’ she countered, annoyed that she was acting as if it mattered to her—which, of course, it didn’t.

‘It might be better if you take those things off—the shoes,’ he added as she continued to stare up at him.

‘I knew that,’ she countered. He wouldn’t be asking her to take off anything else, would he? Reluctantly she did as he suggested. Without the benefit of heels she had sunk back down to way below his shoulder height again.

‘What are you waiting for?’ he asked when she didn’t fall into step beside him. ‘Do you want me to carry you?’ he enquired with offensive sarcasm.

‘Haven’t you forgotten something?’ Her voice held an extra acid sharpness to compensate for the bizarre route her imagination had taken.

She’d have walked across hot coals before she’d have admitted her sweaty palms and shaking knees had anything to do with the image of herself being lifted effortlessly by strong masculine arms—when you considered the person the masculine arms were attached to it made her derangement all the more serious!

‘What?’ He gave her an impatient look.

‘The baby.’

In his urgency to find his brother that small but all-important detail had for a second slipped his mind. At the crisp reminder, he lifted a harassed hand to his brow. His eyes went automatically to the occupied back seat and Nia saw his shoulders square both mentally and physically.

‘Or do you intend leaving him outside in the car?’

‘If you’re not too busy scoring points, do you think you could bring in some of that paraphernalia?’ he asked, nodding to the inevitable clutter that accompanies infants as he lifted the baby carrier clear of the car.

Nia resisted the temptation of having the last word and followed him into the picture-postcard cottage.

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