Almost A Wife

“You’re quite a woman, Lisa.”

Tray continued. “You deserve more than…than this,” he said, his gesture taking in the kitchen. “We have to decide where we go from here.”

“We?” Lisa blinked. “I don’t know about you, but I am very well prepared to take care of myself.”

“You’ve proved that. But we both know this is temporary. I might be able to make you an offer….”

Eva Rutland began writing when her four children, now all successful professionals, were growing up. Eva lives in California with her husband, Bill, who actively supports and encourages her writing career.

Books by Eva Rutland

HARLEQUIN ROMANCE®

3439—MARRIAGE BAIT

3490—THE WEDDING TRAP

3518—THE MILLION-DOLLAR MARRIAGE

3550—HER OWN PRINCE CHARMING

Almost a Wife

Eva Rutland

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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With love, to my delightful granddaughter, Chelsea, and her bear.

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

PROLOGUE

LISA REYNOLDS gazed with apprehension at the empty lobby of the Bonus Bank Building. No one standing by the bank of elevators. No telling when someone would come and choose the one marked Floors 21 to 40.

She walked to that elevator, and courageously lifted her finger.

She couldn’t push the button.

This was crazy! Just because it happened once didn’t mean you were going to be stuck every time you stepped into an elevator.

She wasn’t crazy. Hadn’t she breezed through college, and earned a master’s degree in business by the time she was twenty-three! Now, at twenty-six, she was director of research and development at CTI—Computer Technology Incorporated.

Not anymore, she reminded herself.

Well, she hadn’t lost the job because she wasn’t darn good at it.

Mergers! That was what was crazy. All these takeover, downsizing shenanigans going on in business today.

Anyway, it was CTI’s loss, not hers. She already had feelers out. With her qualifications, she’d be hired by the competition in a hot minute.

Maybe with an office on the ground floor, she thought, trying to laugh at herself. Why couldn’t she lose this ridiculous phobia about elevators!

She had almost overcome it. Out of necessity. She could hardly have climbed the stairs to her thirty-fourth floor office each working day for one whole year. She had compromised. She would board the elevator only if someone got on with her. That way she wouldn’t be alone in death or disaster.

She should have come earlier. Not everybody had lost their job, and the elevators would have been crowded with workers.

Bad timing. Stupid to think being a little late didn’t matter because it was her last day.

She straightened hopefully as a woman breezed into the lobby. But the woman stopped at the one to twenty-block. Lisa stepped back as if waiting for someone. She pretended to be studying the mural on the opposite wall while gazing surreptitiously at the woman. She looked very chic in a smart gabardine business suit, one leather gloved hand clutching a smart leather attaché case.

Like me, Lisa thought, touching a hand to the cloud of silky black hair that framed her face in a smart shoulder-length cut. I’m coiffured, manicured and groomed as sleek as the sleekest of women executives! And I’m more efficient than most. Sam Fraser said so.

“I hate doing this to you,” he had said when he handed her the pink slip that terminated her employment. “Research and development was gaining momentum under your management, and it’s not your fault that we’ve dropped in the market.”

“But that’s only temporary,” she protested, at the moment more concerned with the potential of CTI’s software than with her personal problem. “Of course we show a slump in the market when a large share of funds is going into development. But when the new programs are on the market, our stock will go up.”

“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “But the merger hangs on the current rating. Tray Kingsley, the man who’s negotiating the deal, is looking at the market and if our stock doesn’t go up, a sell-off will begin. We’ve got to cut overhead to raise profit. Middle management is the first to go. Sorry.”

So her job had vanished. Just like that. Just because some big shot sat in his New York office, studying the stock market. A big shot named Tray Kingsley. She hadn’t known she could hate a man she’d never seen.

What could he tell about the real worth of CTI, sitting on his backside three thousand miles away?

More to the point…why the dickens did CTI decide to merge with Lawson Enterprises just at this time! She had been with them only one year, hardly eligible for the golden handshake!

She straightened again as a man entered the building. Any other time she might have noticed that he was tall, dark and quite handsome. But this morning she only noticed that he headed straight for the 21 to 40 block of elevators. She sprang into action.

Tray Kingsley smiled as he pushed the button. He was on the way up in more ways than one. After only one year with Lawson, he had been chosen to negotiate the takeover of CTI, for which he had received a sizable bonus. Now he had been selected as the new CEO to head the new San Francisco subsidiary. His tenure here was only temporary, an opportunity to study the facility and decide the best economic shifts. But the bonus included a substantial increase in salary, and a brief taste of sunny California. You couldn’t beat that with a stick.

Actually he had suggested the California stint himself. It provided a diplomatic breather from his indecisive involvement with a very persistent lady who just happened to be the boss’s daughter.

Not much of a breather. He still maintained his position at the New York headquarters and would be there often. And, to be fair, he enjoyed his association with Chase Lawson. She was beautiful, and charmingly acquainted with all the right people, a companionable asset in any social gathering. Personally? He tried to think beyond the social swirls to the little dinners and their intimate times alone. Well…Perhaps the fact that she was a Lawson was the put off. He liked to think his advancement was due to his capabilities…not as a future son-in-law.

So, back to the job, he thought as the elevator door slid open. This would be his first look at the physical site, but he was already immersed in plans for improvement and expansion. The first thing to do was—

“Pardon,” he said, a little startled and not sure who had brushed against whom, for they seemed to enter the elevator simultaneously. He didn’t look at her, and hardly noticed that there was no response.

The key man here was Sam Fraser, he thought. Perhaps he could arrange to take him to lunch. Talking was better than looking when it came to sizing things up. He meant to get a good grip on things right off. Wouldn’t bother about an apartment. The hotel was convenient and…

“Oh, my God!” The heartrending wail commanded his full attention.

What the hell!

He turned to see the woman crouching in terror, the wail escalating into a crescendo of uncontrollable sobs.

He bent toward her. “What…what is it?”

“We’re stuck. We’re stuck. Oh, my God! I knew it. I knew this would happen! Oh, God, oh God, oh God!”

Her hysteria was so unnerving, it was a moment before he realized she was right. The elevator had stopped somewhere between floors. He was about to sound the alarm, but she blocked his way.

“I shouldn’t have got in…I wish I hadn’t. I wish I hadn’t.”

He wished so, too. She was losing it. He tried to reassure her. “Hey, it’s okay. I’ll alert somebody.” Whoever’s in charge of the damn thing…if she’ll shut up!

He shook her gently, and tried to cut into the now incoherent babble. “Hush. It will be all right.”

The mass of black hair swung around her face as she violently shook her head. He couldn’t tell whether she was laughing or crying.

Clearly hysterical. He didn’t want to slap her. If he kissed her?

His mouth closed on hers, shutting off the screams. Or shocked her into silence. For…Good Lord! The kiss was more potent than a slap. Her soft yielding surprised him, evoking an exciting erotic spasm of…What on earth was he doing!

He tried to release her, but he couldn’t.

She clung to the feeling. His arms around her, secure and warm. Safe.

The pressure of his lips against hers…demanding, teasing, pleading. Her whole body responded, awakening to a strange exhilarating sensation of desire that pleased and held her.

Each time he tried to pull away, her grip tightened. Her head was buried on his shoulder and an alluring scent of fresh shampoo mixed with an exotic perfume wafted from the hair covering his chest. Her arms held him close. Too close. A hell of a time for the way she was making him feel!

With an effort, he took control. At least he had shut her up.

Over her shoulder he reached for the phone connected to the alarm.

She heard him on the phone. “Hello, hello…Is anybody there?”

Her head jerked up as the panic returned. She still held him tight, but she vehemently declared, “No! Nobody. They won’t come…Oh, God! Oh, God!”

Hell, she was off again and whoever was supposed to answer the alarm was out to lunch! “Shut up!” he shouted. He felt tears dampening his shirt and softened his tone, “I can’t hear if you’re not quiet. Just be patient. They’ll have us out of here in a jiffy.”

“They won’t. We were stuck for almost two hours!”

“Oh? It happened before?” This elevator must be a jinx. But it should have been fixed. “When?” he asked.

“Two years ago. At my old apartment. But there were only seven stories,” she said. “We were stuck halfway to third and we had to climb out.”

“Oh.” Her apartment. It wasn’t this elevator. The woman was the jinx. The thought made him laugh.

That seemed to make her mad. Not mad enough to turn him loose, but she flared up at him. “Why are you laughing? It’s not funny. Do you realize we’re stuck between no telling how many stories of solid wall? This elevator doesn’t stop until the twenty-first floor. No way to climb out like we did…That is, if something doesn’t break loose and we go crashing to the ground. That time at my apartment, we decided that if that happened, we would jump up and down so when it hit, we—”

“Hey! That’s enough.” Hysteria was better than her crazy predictions. She was making him nervous. Still…best to keep her talking.. “You may be an old hand at this, but you’re not an expert. Elevators have springs on the bottom, so if they hit bottom, it’s not with a crash.”

“Oh?” She looked up at him, eyes wide. “Is that true?”

He nodded, though he wasn’t sure. He also wondered about all that solid wall between openings. He pushed the alarm, and spoke again into the phone. “Hello. Anybody there?”

“They weren’t when we called,” she said. “We’d probably have been there all night if it hadn’t been for the pizza.”

“Pizza?”

“A girl on the elevator was delivering a pizza, and this guy on four came to see why she hadn’t gotten there, and found out the elevator was stuck. If he hadn’t, we might have been…” She stopped, struck by another alarming thought. “Maybe it’s an earthquake.”

“Earthquake?”

“They told us never to use the elevator during an earthquake. They cut off the electricity you know, and—”

“If there was an earthquake, you’d damn well feel it,” he snapped. “And if the electricity was off this phone wouldn’t be—” A voice on the other end stopped him. A reassuring voice. He smiled. “Oh. Sure. Okay.” He looked down at her. “It’s okay. Be calm. Help is on the way.”

She didn’t release him until the elevator started its ascent. Then she moved, turning away from him, mopping at her tear stained face.

“Sorry I was such a nuisance. Thank you,” she said, and bolted as soon as the elevator came to a smooth stop at the thirty-fourth floor.

He was straightening his tie, and only nodded. When he stepped out of the elevator, she had disappeared.

CHAPTER ONE

“SO YOU got stuck in the elevator!” Mike said.

“It’s not funny,” Lisa scolded, but she laughed with him. At least he didn’t know she had acted like an idiot.

“Well, you’re only a little late,” he said, and pushed open the door of the conference room.

Lisa gasped. Looking at all the gang, waiting to say goodbye, at the table laden with goodies and gifts, made her all teary. She didn’t want that.

“What’s this! You’re celebrating my getting canned?”

“Sure thing.” Mike grinned. “I warned you. Squash my creative talents one more time and you were out of here!”

“Stingy with the supplies, too. Slow,” Jim said. “Took me all of two days to get those bytes I needed.”

Others joined in the bashing, and the laughter made it easier. Not much easier. She really hated leaving…right in the midst of everything it seemed. Things changed fast in softwear, and you had to be on the ball to get there first. And they were getting there, for instance what Mike was developing with—

“Stop it, you guys! Come on, Lisa.” Pam, who was fashioning a special keyboard that was bound to be a major success, led her to the table. “Help yourself. Coffee?”

Lisa nodded and smiled at the Japanese girl she had hired only a few short months before. One of the three new people she had hired after convincing the head office that if they were to capture the international market, they had to offer a keyboard and program compatible with the nuances of the different languages. But now that she was leaving…

Egotist! You think you’re the whole kit and caboodle, that the wheels of progress stop with your departure? These are the scientists and technicians. You were just one spoke in the wheel.

An important spoke, she told herself with a touch of bitterness. I dealt with the idiosyncracies of this talented crew, I was the mediator between them and management, I fought for their ideas, got the supplies, monitored the deadlines, and—

“I brought champagne,” Mike said.

“And I baked the cake,” Linda said.

“I thank you both. My favorite drink, and my favorite cake,” she said, forcing a jocular mood. She sure wasn’t going to spoil the goodbye party they had planned. “You guys go easy on these goodies. What’s left goes home with me,”

“Stashing, huh?”

“Sure. No telling how long before another paycheck.” Lisa laughed with them. There was another job out there waiting for her, and she’d find it. She wasn’t worried, and the good mood held.

At the end of the day, as she approached the elevator, she felt the familiar prickles of panic, more pronounced because of the morning’s episode. The champagne may have bolstered her. Anyway, several others were risking the downward plunge so, despite the mounting trepidation, she managed to board with them.

She shut her eyes, remembering, feeling the claustrophobia and imminent danger of crashing or being forever trapped. The warmth and security of a man’s arms around her, the gentleness. The shock of sheer pleasure when his lips touched hers. She wished…

No she didn’t! She had acted like an idiot! Better never to see him again in life.

They had reached the lobby, and the doors slid open giving her a feeling of overwhelming relief as she walked away from the enclosed cubicle.

Everything happens for the best, she thought. She’d make sure her next office was on the ground floor.

From the bank building, she turned right to traverse the few short blocks to her apartment near the wharf. She liked her apartment. A one bedroom, but the bath was big with a separate dressing area, and the living-room space was large with lush carpeting. She had carefully chosen one on the bottom floor and found it offered more than just no elevator. Easy access to the community exercise room, laundry room and swimming pool. She meant to keep it.

If she could.

It wasn’t cheap. That hadn’t bothered her in the least when she left her so-so job in Sacramento to move to San Francisco to take the job with CTI. The enormous salary was a godsend. Not only could she afford the apartment, but she could help finance her grandparents’ move to the Sprightly Seniors retirement complex.

When she was five years old, her parents had been killed in an automobile crash, and she had moved in with her grandparents. Their love enclosed her, a warm blanket that bolstered the shock…she, from the loss of both parents, and they from the loss of an only daughter. She had basked in that love, attention, things, for they had denied her nothing. Hers had been a privileged world, and she had danced her way through it…the private schools, music and dancing lessons, swimming, skiing, family vacations in Europe. She had never even been burdened with domestic chores, for they always had household help. Her grandmother had never worked outside the house, but remained at home to care for Lisa and enjoy her clubs and social functions. Her grandfather had only been a high school principal, but…

No wonder she had thought they were rich!

She found out they weren’t when Gramps retired, and decided they should buy into the senior citizens complex where many of their friends were already living.

“If we can swing it,” he had said.

For the first time she became aware of their financial status. She discovered that their style of living had strained Grandpa’s salary to the hilt, and their modest home had been heavily mortgaged to finance Lisa’s stint at Stanford. However, proceeds from the sale of the house and their few investments made it possible to buy a two-bedroom apartment in the senior complex.

Lisa, who was just starting the job in San Francisco, was happy to see them so comfortably settled. The monthly maintenance fee included three meals a day, cleaning services and an abundance of recreational and social features, as well as continuing life care.

The thing was, Gramps’s monthly pension check barely covered the cost of all these benefits. Lisa, feeling quite wealthy with her new salary, supplemented with a sizable sum every month. Gramps had protested, but she insisted. She had been glad to supply the extra, happy that she could repay in some small measure all they had given to her.

But now…

Lisa felt the first small prickle of alarm. She had been walking on air. She had splurged on everything—apartment, furnishings, clothes, you name it.

One year ago. And now the job and big money were gone. Swish!

Even if she gave up the apartment, what would she do with all that unpaid for furniture? That was another thing. Bills.

The city was alive now. People pouring out of buildings and filling the sidewalks, bumper-to-bumper traffic. Lisa hardly noticed as she dodged other pedestrians and kept to her usual brisk pace, mentally calculating.

How did the saying go? Like father…like son? No, in this sexist era, it would be mother/daughter. She chuckled. Like her grandparents, she’d been living it up to the hilt. She had given little thought to saving and, with her usual high lifestyle, she barely made it from payday to payday.

She had one paycheck and one month’s severance pay. No more. She’d have to find another job quick.

Again she reminded herself that she wasn’t worried. She had already put in some applications listing her credentials, experience and excellent references from Sam. She was well qualified. The possibilities were endless.

Tomorrow she had an appointment with the Corry Corporation, and she had two interviews scheduled next week. All looked pretty promising, just a matter of choice. She felt very confident as she shed her clothes and headed for the swimming pool.

Three weeks later, she did not feel so confident as she faced Mr. Brown of Safe Securities, the last company on her list.

“Your qualifications are excellent, Ms. Reynolds, and I would like very much to have you aboard, but…” He paused, nervously shuffling papers on his desk. Probably the papers containing proof of her excellent qualifications, she thought with irony. “As I said, at the present time, we are cutting back, not hiring.”

Same story she had heard from others. Why was everybody downsizing at the same time?

“I can’t promise anything, but, in a few months, our position might be different.” He went on, again praising her credentials.

He was trying to let her down easily. She helped him out. “I do understand, Mr. Brown. And thank you for taking the time to explain the situation.” She managed to make a graceful exit, and soon was outside his office, in the corridor.

The empty corridor. Wasn’t anybody going down?

Probably not. Long after lunchtime, long before quitting time.

Oh, for goodness’ sake! Of course she could get in an elevator by herself!

She walked toward it. Hesitated.

Started to punch the button. Didn’t push it.

She’d feel pretty foolish if someone walked down the hall and saw her just standing there…headed neither up or down. This paranoia about elevators was not only silly, it was darn inconvenient!

But…Didn’t everything come in threes? That time at her old apartment, then three weeks ago at the bank…

Well, only five stories. Her smart pumps had low heels and she had plenty of time. She found the stairwell, swung through the door and started down. The exercise would be good for her legs.

She had plenty of time to think as she made her way down, step by step. She’d check the want ads more carefully, though it appeared to be nothing in her line there.

What was her line anyway?

Business, of course! She had her MBA to prove it. Training, experience.

Okay! Okay! Where does that get you if there are no job openings! Maybe she should get on the list of some employment agency, sign up for one of those job placement seminars. Do something, or pretty soon she’d have to put in for unemployment benefits. She hadn’t bothered to do that because she’d thought by now that something would have turned up.

Good, At last she was on the first floor. Gratefully she reached for the door.

It didn’t budge.

She shook it, but it held fast.

First floor. Security? No access unless you had business.

That was stupid. That bank of elevators was plenty accessible to anyone.

Well…Someone had to come near that stairwell sooner or later, and she would bang on that door until somebody heard her.

Ten minutes later, the door was opened by a woman in a chic tan coatdress, a smart leather purse slung over her shoulder. She shook back her sheath of smooth blond hair and stared at Lisa. “What were you doing in there?”