“Close enough.” The wind ruffled Griffin’s hair and tugged at the edges of the T-shirt he wore. The outgoing tide left a wide stretch of damp sand and the ocean shyly sighed toward shore, then slid back out, leaving a stain of wet that glimmered like silver in the late-afternoon sunlight. A couple of surfers bobbed on their boards, and families were packing up their picnic coolers to head home.
Up on the beach behind him, Nicole sat in a beach chair with a book she hadn’t been reading. And here at the edge of the water, a little boy destroyed another sand castle.
“Again!”
Smiling, Griffin held the phone with one hand and used his free hand to pile up the wet sand into another doomed tower.
“Did I just hear a kid?” Garrett asked. “Where are you?”
“Yes, you heard a kid,” Griffin said, frowning. “There’s a lot of them here. I’m at the beach.”
“You hate the beach.”
Griffin shook his head, then smiled as Connor patted tiny hands against the sand tower. “I don’t hate the beach. I hate the crowds.” He glanced up and down the shoreline. The sun was sinking and most of the people were leaving. Soon the beach would be empty but for a few diehard surfers and the handful of teenagers who would sit around a fire, drinking beer and telling lies. The wind was cooler and a few clouds streamed across the darkening sky. Behind him, Nicole was headed toward them, her long, lovely legs moving slowly and, he thought, with a deliberate sensuality.
He took a deep breath and focused on his twin’s voice, which was practically shouting in his ear.
“Who’s the kid?”
“Nicole Baxter’s son, Connor,” Griffin said, and the little boy looked up with a grin when he heard his name.
“Are you nuts? Katie’s friend?”
“I’m not nuts,” Griffin said. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Uh-huh, that’s why you’re breaking your no-kids rule.”
His twin always had known him too well, Griffin thought in disgust. So much for his “secret” relationship with Nicole. So far both Lucas and Garrett had guessed at the truth. If any more Kings found out, Griffin could kiss his cookie supply goodbye.
“This is different.” Or so he kept telling himself. Getting involved with a woman who had a child was a two-way risk, and he knew that all too well. When the relationship inevitably ended, you lost not only the woman, but the child you’d formed an attachment to. He’d experienced that once, years ago, and that ache had stayed with him for a long time.
“I can’t believe this.”
“I’m not walking down an aisle or anything, Garrett. For God’s sake, you sound hysterical.”
“I never get hysterical.”
“Then quit shouting at me when you’re too far away to punch in the face.”
Garrett sighed through the phone. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Always,” Griffin assured his brother, although, as Nicole came closer and closer, he sort of doubted himself.
Garrett snorted, but let it go. In an abrupt change of subject, he said, “Look, I’m calling to tell you I’ve got a guy here in Cadria who wants to hire us to protect his gem collection. He’s loaning it to a museum in L.A. and he doesn’t trust their security.”
“Hah. Good call.”
“That’s what I told him,” Garrett said. “Anyway, I’ve faxed the information to Janice at your office. You’ve got to come up with the plan and the details on fees, since you’re the one on-site.”
Griffin scrubbed one hand across his face and nodded at Nicole as she dropped to the sand beside her son. Now that Connor was in safe hands, Griffin stood up and walked a few steps toward the water’s edge.
Just a few days ago, he’d been wishing for work, something to keep his mind busy. Now he glanced back at the woman and child kneeling in the sand. The sun was setting and the pale wash of golden light lay across the two of them as if they were highlighted in a painting.
Frowning to himself, he turned back to look at the sea and the shimmer of light dancing on the surface of the water.
“Griff?” Garret asked. “You there?”
“Yeah, I’m here. When’s he need the estimate?”
“Couple of days. When you’ve got it, fax it back to me at the palace and I’ll take it to him and sell the rest of the deal.”
Chuckling, Griffin shook his head. “At the palace,” he repeated. “Doesn’t that ever seem weird to you? That you live in a castle?”
“All the time, man. All the time,” Garrett mused. “But Alex lives here, and I live with Alex.”
“Yeah,” Griffin said. “I get that.”
“Do you?” Garrett laughed a little. “Well, now, there’s a surprise. Aren’t you the one who suggested that Alex give up the whole princess thing and move back to California with me?”
Yeah, he had. Griffin hadn’t understood why Garrett had been so willing to give up his own life in favor of living in Cadria full-time. Turning your world upside down for a woman just hadn’t computed with Griffin.
Now, he got it. Though he didn’t really want to consider just how he’d come to the realization. Another glance at Nicole and he was rewarded with her smile. His chest tightened, so he looked away quickly.
“I’ll go to the office, pick up the papers,” Griffin said. “Then I’ll get it back to you ASAP.”
“Okay...” Garrett said slowly. “Griff, is there something you want to talk about?”
“What is this, a chick flick?” Griffin countered, shaking his head as if his twin could see him. “No, I don’t want to talk. There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Right. How about the situation with Nicole and her kid.” Garrett paused and said, “Let’s remember the last time you got involved with a single mom.”
“Let’s not.” Griffin’s scowl was fierce, but since he was facing the sea, no one could see it.
“It about killed you to lose that boy. He even ran away from his mom and went to you.”
“I remember.” He didn’t want to, but he did. Jamie had been six, and Griffin had been his T-ball coach. He’d relived his own childhood through Jamie, and in a few weeks, he’d come to feel like the boy’s father. But when Jamie’s mom walked away, he’d lost his relationship with Jamie, as well.
Griffin still remembered the afternoon a crying little boy had shown up at his office. Jamie had run to Griffin, hoping to bring him back into his world. There had been nothing he could do to stop the boy’s heartbreak...or his own. He’d returned Jamie to his mother and driven away, vowing never again to get involved with a woman who had a child.
He’d kept that vow. Until now.
“This is different,” Griffin insisted, and wasn’t sure whom he was trying to convince—himself or Garrett. Lowering his voice, he said, “I feel sorry for the kid. He doesn’t have a dad, okay? This thing with Nicole and me isn’t permanent, so neither is the situation with Connor. I’m not getting sucked in again. I won’t let that happen, so relax.”
“Right. If you say so.”
“Look, I gotta go.” Garrett was way too shrewd. Too able to pick up on nuances that Griffin would prefer be ignored. Maybe it was because Garrett was married now, more used to listening, paying attention. But whatever the reason, Griffin wasn’t in any mood to dodge more questions. “I’ll get back to you in a day or two.”
“Fine. Talk to you then.”
He hung up, but didn’t turn around. Instead, he stared out at the horizon. Coral, scarlet and gold splashed across the sky and spread brilliant reflections of color on the water. The tide was shifting, heading in closer now, and drenched his bare feet as he stood on the sand.
End of the day.
Which meant the beginning of the night with Nicole.
Yeah, he could understand how a woman could t
urn a man’s world upside down.
Didn’t mean he liked it.
Eight
“You don’t understand how this works,” Griffin said later that night, and Nicole heard the oh, so patient, genius-to-moron tone in his voice.
“Wow, you’re right,” Nicole said, widening her eyes and blinking a couple of times for the dumb-blonde effect. “I’ve never had to pay bills or work out a budget. Is it a lot of math?”
A second or two ticked past before Griffin huffed out a breath. “Funny. Very funny. Okay, point made. You’re an accountant. You get math.”
She got a lot more than that, Nicole thought. Griffin might have thought he couldn’t be overheard when he was talking to his brother at the beach. But she had heard him when he told Garrett that he felt sorry for Connor. That he and Nicole weren’t permanent and so neither was his involvement with her son. Fine. She could accept temporary. She’d known that going in. But where did he come off feeling sorry for Connor? Her son wasn’t a charity case, starving for male attention.
Well, maybe that wasn’t completely right, either. Rafe and Katie spent time with them, and Connor loved Rafe a lot. But under Griffin’s attentions the last couple of weeks, Connor had blossomed and Nicole couldn’t deny it. She tried so hard to be everything her little boy needed—and still, she could see that having a man in his life made a huge difference.
Damn it.
Irritated, she snapped, “Yes, I understand math, but if it makes you feel better, only the little numbers.”
He slapped one hand to his chest and gave her a half bow. “Apologies. Now, you going to keep making me pay, or are you going to help me out with this?”
She swallowed the lingering anger over what she’d heard at the beach. He didn’t know that she’d heard him and unless she was willing to open up that particular can of worms right now, which she wasn’t, she had to let this go. For now, anyway.
“Depends,” she said. “Are you going to keep talking to me in the voice you use to read stories to Connor?”
“Another point. Okay, then,” Griffin said, sitting down beside her at the kitchen table. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“Good to hear,” Nicole told him, and looked into the blue eyes that had come to mean way too much to her.
She was an idiot. Even knowing this was temporary hadn’t been enough to make her guard her heart. Instead, she’d practically run into a relationship that was going to end up crushing her.
But for now, working with him might be a sort of bridge from the personal to the impersonal. Because God knew, she needed one.
The overhead light was on, spilling down over the papers spread out over the oak table. Connor was sleeping, and the house was quiet. Usually about now, she and Griffin would be doing something a lot more fun than working. But seeing him poring over numbers and logistics had intrigued Nicole enough to offer her help. Which of course he’d dismissed, and that had only made Nicole more determined to prove to him that she was more than he thought she was.
“So,” she said, smiling at him, “you need to come up with an estimate for the security at a museum showing of some historical gems?”
His mouth quirked. “Yeah, that sums it up.”
“Okay.” She shifted her gaze to the papers in front of her and quickly thumbed through them. “Garrett sent the specs of every important gem in the collection and his suggestions for the security.”
“Yeah, Garrett’s always got plenty of suggestions.” Griffin leaned back in his chair. “He’s usually the one putting these things together. I’m the on-the-ground guy, making sure it all holds together, that our men are where they’re supposed to be.” Sitting up straight again, he leaned forward and braced his forearms on the table top. “I think he did this on purpose. He knows I hate this kind of stuff.”
“I love it,” Nicole said. “There’s clarity in numbers. They don’t lie. They don’t change. You can count on them being exactly what they’re supposed to be.”
“Yeah. Annoying.”
She laughed a little and picked up the top sheet. “See, Garrett’s wrong about this.”
“Garrett? Wrong?” Grinning, he leaned in closer. “You’ve got my attention. What do you see?”
Here was her chance. To show him what she could do. “Do you and your brother compete on everything?”
“Absolutely.”
“All righty then,” she said, shaking her head. “Well, you’re going to love this.”
“Show me.”
She used a pen to point at a single line in Garrett’s notes. “Garrett’s suggested using four men around the sapphire collection.”
“Yeah, so?”
“The sapphires, while gorgeous, let me just say, aren’t exactly the centerpiece of the collection.”
He frowned, but he was watching her with a calculated gaze, as if seeing her in a whole new light. “What is, then?”
“There’s a brooch. A really old, really ugly brooch.” Nicole fought down the nerves jumping inside her and kept her voice cool as she tapped her finger on the grainy photo. The brooch was a swirl of small stones, set into a starburst pattern that then wrapped around a central piece made to look like a clutch of lilies. “It’s not pretty at all, but it was a gift from Marie Antoinette to the ancestor of the guy who’s loaning them to the museum.”
He looked like he wanted to argue and then he said, “But the sapphires are—”
“Gorgeous, and yes,” Nicole interrupted before he could speak up, “easily sold off on the black market. But Marie’s brooch would make most private collectors sit up and beg for a chance to own it.”
“Good point,” Griffin said. “I would have seen that eventually, of course...”
“Oh, of course.”
“I’m gonna ride Garrett, though, because he didn’t notice what you did. So, you see anything else?”
Pleased at the gleam of approval in his eyes, Nicole grabbed another sheet of paper and started to make a list. “The rubies should be shown near the sapphires, of course, because the color compositions will complement each other.”
“Naturally.”
“Two men on each display,” she continued, making notations as her ideas began to fly. “With four stationed around Marie’s brooch. Then you’ve got the diamond room.” She paused to sigh over the pictures that didn’t do the stones justice. “Tiaras, bracelets, a necklace with more than thirty-five carats of diamonds hanging by slender threads of gold...” She stopped and put a hand to her chest. “Excuse me, I’m having a personal moment here.”
He laughed. “I never would have guessed that you loved jewelry.” He picked up her left hand. “You don’t wear any, except for those tiny gold hoops at your ears.”
She pulled her hand free, embarrassed to be caught drooling over faxed images of priceless jewels. The only jewelry she’d ever worn had been her wedding ring. That thought brought up memories of the man who’d walked away without a glance backward. The man who’d been a player—as Griffin was—she reminded herself.
“I don’t exactly go places where jewelry is necessary. Doesn’t mean I can’t admire them.”
“You should be draped in diamonds,” he whispered, his eyes suddenly smoky and filled with a heat she recognized.
“I don’t want diamonds,” she whispered. But oh, God, she’d love to have the man who was right now staring at her as if he could eat her up.
“Maybe that’s why I want to give them to you.”
Not permanent, her mind echoed, replaying a couple of the words that she’d overheard Griffin say to his twin. It was enough to stiffen her spine, thank God. “Contrary to the end, huh?”
He gave her that half smile. “Part of my charm.”
“Is that what that is?” she asked.
“Admit it, I’ve got you
right where I want you.”
Oh, he really did, she thought, wondering just how she’d come to this place. She’d gone into it for the fun, but now, that fun had become something else. He already had one foot out the metaphorical door and she— Nicole froze as realization crashed down on her. Oh, God. She was falling in love.
Something she’d planned to never do again.
Her heartbeat thundered so fiercely in her chest, she was surprised that Griffin couldn’t hear it. There was a knot in her throat threatening to cut off her air. Her mind was churning and not coming up with any idea at all to help her find her way out of this. Worst part? This whole situation had been her idea. And now she was caught in her own trap.
“Hey,” Griffin said, laying one hand on her arm. “You okay? You went sort of white.”
“I’m fine.” Liar, liar. She really wasn’t anywhere close to fine. She was as far from fine as she could possibly get. “I’m just...I don’t know.”
“It’s probably dealing with all those numbers,” he teased. “Always does it to me.”
She forced a smile she didn’t feel. Her insides were twisted up and tangled. Her heart ached as if something was squeezing it. And she knew, deep in her bones, that this pain was just the beginning.
There was much more coming. Soon.
But she wouldn’t let him know. Wouldn’t let him see that she had been stupid enough to fall in love with a man who was no doubt already preparing his “See you later, take care” speech. So Nicole took a deep breath and told herself firmly to hold it together. Focus on the math, she thought. Just concentrate on the task at hand and get through this moment and into the next. That was all she could do at this point.
“Funny,” she said, “numbers do the opposite for me. Let’s just finish the job, okay?”
He frowned a little, his blue eyes narrowing on her face. “Okay. I’m not crazy enough to turn down help when it’s offered. But—”
She cut him off. If he was nice to her, she might break. If he was tender or sweet or romantic right now, it would do her in. She might blurt out that her feelings for him had changed. That she didn’t feel temporary. That she wanted...more. Might actually make the huge mistake of saying the L word, and where would that lead? To disaster. Pure and simple.
Harlequin Desire February 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2: The King Next DoorMarriage With BenefitsA Real Cowboy (Kings of California) Page 11