by Dani Collins
“Really? Perhaps you should have stolen it when you kidnapped him.” She brought out a banana and broke off pieces, making everyone sticky but quiet and happy.
“This is Androu, my nephew, Adara and Gideon’s boy.”
“Oh, of course.” Everything in Jaya changed, softening as her gaze hooked onto Androu’s little face with as much fixation as her first stare, but with a touch of wistfulness now. “I’d heard gossip about a miscarriage when I was in Bali. I’m happy for them. He’s beautiful.”
Her tone was sincere, moved almost. Or maybe he was reading into it. His emotions had been stripped to their rawest form the last time he’d been with her. Today wasn’t much better. He hadn’t planned ever to see her again and when he had indulged in imagining he might, he’d pulled himself together.
“It’s been an eventful couple of years,” he couched, trying to gloss over all the inner tearing down and rebuilding he’d been forced to do without betraying how brutal it had been. “Look, Jaya. I came to you because I figured I could trust you. We’ve kept some family business out of the papers for my mother’s sake and even though she’s gone now, we prefer not to air our dirty laundry, but...” He shrugged. “Are you aware that Nic Marcussen is my older brother?”
“No, I didn’t even know your mother had died. I’m so sor— Wait. Marcussen Media? That Nic Marcussen?”
“Yes.”
“Married to Rowan Davidson, the actress? Who adopted a baby from—” She looked at Evie who tilted her almond-shaped eyes up curiously.
“Where’s Mama?”
“She’s coming to get you soon,” Jaya reassured her, handing Evie another piece of banana. “Isn’t she?” she prompted Theo.
“I sincerely hope so, but from what I saw from the air, they have to evade pirates first.”
“Where? On the Med? You can’t be serious!”
“I know what I saw and the authorities have been notified, but there’s every chance we’ll be looking at ransom negotiations. The last thing we need is a media circus, especially around the babies. Hell, they’re kidnap targets. You were the closest person I could think of who could provide me a place to stay that was off the radar.”
Completely practical, exactly as it was supposed to be, he assured himself.
“You knew where I was working?” Her clipped challenge held dual notes of hurt and ire, suggesting that if he had known, he should have called.
He bit back a sigh. “I was contacted as a reference,” he lied, adding politely, “Congratulations.”
“Oh, um, thanks,” she dismissed with a self-conscious shrug. “It’s a boutique hotel, very well respected even before the upgrades. They’re looking to bring in a higher clientele and hired me because of my experience with Makricosta’s. I guess I’m indebted to you...again.” Her voice trailed off. The way she bit her lips together suggested she would rather be run over by this limo than face him after referencing their night together.
He pretended they’d left it at the point where she’d thanked him, as if the rest hadn’t happened. “As I said then, the hoteliers here got lucky.”
Her eyelashes flinched in a way that seemed to say, Did you really just say that?
He had. It was unkind, but he wasn’t about to acknowledge how lucky he’d been that night. If his insensitivity toward her made his gut knot with sick self-hatred, so be it. He was here for only one reason.
Jaya visibly pulled herself together. “I’ve arranged the Presidential Suite. It’s yours as long as you need it. I’ll talk to the staff, keep housekeeping out of there, tell them you’re antisocial.” Her tight smile said, It’s not even a lie, and the churning rolled in his stomach again. “My new boss isn’t nearly as hands-on as you were. You’ll be long gone before he asks who was in there.”
Hands-on?
Her cool delivery let him know that two could play this game.
Androu curled his banana-coated fingers into Theo’s shirtfront and tried to wriggle down to his feet, forcing Theo to break their stare.
“I need more than a safe place to hide,” Theo said, tentative in his struggle with Androu, afraid of hurting his tiny body, but not wanting him hurting himself by trying to walk around in a moving vehicle. Androu grew frustrated and started arching with temper. “I don’t know what to do with babies. I need your help.”
“Like a nanny? I can call an agen—”
He shook his head, impatient that she was being obtuse. “I can’t trust strangers. That chauffeur hearing my name is bad enough. I need complete discretion, at least until I know the situation on the ship. Twenty-four hours, maybe forty-eight, then we can reassess.”
“We? You’re suggesting me? No.” She shook her head. “Definitely not. I can’t.” Her eyes grew big, panicked maybe, but she shielded them with a downward sweep of her lashes. “I really can’t. It’s impossible. No. Sorry.”
Because of their history. Because he’d just been a bastard about it. Damn it. There was a reason he didn’t make promises to women: he couldn’t keep them, not the emotional kind. He didn’t have it in him to fulfill and make happy. Not in a romantic way. In other ways...
He thought fast. “Look at what you gain. This is the son of the Makricosta chain of hotels and resorts. Do you recognize how much favor will be bestowed on the person who keeps him from harm? How do you feel about working cruise lines? Gideon has another ship launching next fall. You’re climbing ladders so I assume your career is still very important to you. You’ll be able to write your own ticket, Jaya. Anything you can’t do, Adara will pay for you to learn. Hell, name your price and I’ll pay it to know that I’ve got someone I can trust for the next few days.”
“To babysit.” Her mouth stayed in a flat, grim line of disgust.
“They’re the toughest guests to please. Free dinner goes nowhere with them.”
“Am I supposed to be laughing? Because I don’t find this funny.”
“Look, I know it sounds sexist. That’s not why I’m asking. You’re good with kids. Or does it bother you that I’d offer you money to help me?”
“Your being here bothers me, Theo,” she snapped, turning her face away. “This is...” Her brow flinched into anguish.
Her anxiety was a kick in the chest, especially as he sensed that her refusal wasn’t coming entirely from being scorned. There was a fear component. Something more emotional. It occurred to him there might be a man in her life making her hold back.
His insides shrunk to knotted pieces of rawhide. He couldn’t bring himself to ask if that was the problem. He didn’t want to know.
“It’s a big favor, I realize that,” he managed.
She choked out a laugh. “Is that what this is? A favor? A professional courtesy?”
“It’s an appeal to your better nature. Think of the children.”
“Are you serious right now?” She pursed her mouth in a furious white line.
“Jaya, I can’t afford mistakes. Letting a stranger look after these kids would be wrong. I need you. Tell me what it will cost. I’ll pay it.”
CHAPTER FIVE
JAYA’S EMOTIONS ROSE and fell on his words along with her temper. Think of the children. Really. Really?
As for mistakes, he obviously thought they’d made one. The truth was the complete opposite.
Her eyes kept gravitating to Androu. The resemblance was startling. Her family was supposed to be the one with the cookie-cutter genetics that stamped out cousins who could ride each other’s passports. To see so much of Theo in his nephew threw her for a loop and she was already in a tailspin at seeing the man himself.
One glimpse of the sky pilot with his broody expression behind mirrored aviators and she’d turned into a lovestruck schoolgirl again. Never mind that she’d spent the past year and a half taking on responsibilities she’d never dreamed
herself capable of shouldering. Men had been completely off her radar, given her being needed so much at home. She’d shut down thoughts of a future with Theo when he had neglected to return her few calls. She hadn’t felt sexy and romantic anyway. She’d been tired and grief-stricken and determined to continue her career for the sake of her pride.
Finally, in the past few months, things had begun to settle into a routine. She’d felt good, if wistful, at the way things had turned out. She was empowered and in control: the independent, worldly, modern woman she’d always longed to be.
And yet she’d leaped to respond to Theo’s text and had grown breathless watching his athletic frame tether his helicopter. Her eyes kept stealing glances at his leather bomber jacket and black jeans that were old enough to be scuffed gray in all the right places, accenting the muscles of his thighs. He was tough and aloof and as quietly commanding as always, framing his demands with that polite, I need. I need a file, I need lunch at one, I need you, Jaya. I need you to care for my babies.
Her heart lurched.
“I need to think,” she mumbled, even though this situation was beyond comprehension. Her mind was going a mile a minute, trying to figure out what to do. Where was Saranya when she needed her cousin’s sensible advice? Why did life have to keep throwing such hard curves in front of her?
No time for a pity party, she reminded herself as Oscar turned into the underground parking garage and stopped next to the elevators.
They’d arrived at Theo’s discreet accommodation. She hadn’t known what to think of that text, but she hadn’t been able to ignore it. You didn’t slam doors in this business no matter how badly you wanted to. He was right about her interest in her professional development. She had plans and one affair eighteen months ago wouldn’t derail them—no matter how life-altering the consequences had turned out to be.
Besides, she had told herself when the text had popped up, he was probably making the request on behalf of a favored guest. When she’d climbed into the limo, she’d told herself not to expect Theo at the private airstrip. She’d braced herself for a mistress.
Talk about special guests who needed personal attention!
As they rode up the elevator, she sent him yet another glance of exasperation. They each carried a child. He had the bag of minimal groceries in his hand and was looking at her. His narrowed brown eyes sent a prickle of heat into her center.
No. They weren’t starting that again. She’d learned her lesson, thanks. Looking away was like ripping off a bandage, but she mentally scoffed, Think of the children.
Although, when it came to advancing your career through favors for influential guests, he was right that they didn’t come bigger than this. Managing this gorgeous hotel on the Mediterranean coast was fun and fulfilling, but if she pulled off keeping both the Marcussen Media and Makricosta Resort heirs off the paparazzi radar, she’d have it made in the shade. Paris, London, New York... She could name her price.
As they entered her hotel’s best suite, she automatically searched for flaws that needed correction, but the eclectic mix of 1960s reproduction furniture, pop art, and ultra-modern amenities awaited judgment with quiet perfection. Where many of France’s oldest hotels were rabbit warrens of tiny rooms with even tinier beds, this one had been upgraded into chic suites of fewer rooms that catered to a very affluent clientele. An open space in the middle of the sitting room would be perfect for the babies to play. Since a curved breakfast bar was the only partition to divide the kitchenette from the adjoining dining area, they’d be in sight while their meals were made.
She couldn’t have planned it better, she decided, glancing at the impossible-to-scale glass fencing around the pool deck. There were even child safety locks on the glass doors that led to the pool’s edge.
If only she didn’t have the sense she was approaching one of those crossroads she and Theo had talked about that night in Bali.
Don’t think about it, she warned herself. He obviously didn’t reminisce about what they’d shared. The memories twinkling through her like fairy dust needed to be blown off, swept up and dumped in the bin.
“This kid stinks,” Theo said, pulling her back to the present and brutal reality.
“I’ll order some diapers and show you how to change him,” she said, refusing to be moved by the kicked puppy look he sent her.
He tried to put Androu down, but the tyke clung on, demanding to be held.
“Seriously kid, you stink.”
“He’s scared,” Jaya provided. “Almost as scared as you.”
His head went back and a mask of aloof dismissal fell over his features.
Oh, had that penetrated his thick shell? Rather than bask in satisfaction, she suffered a twinge of conscience. Deliberately insulting people wasn’t her thing. She’d been on the end of too many bullying tactics herself.
And Theo’s discomfort with having care of these two babies wasn’t funny. It broke her heart. He really wasn’t keen on children.
Still, she couldn’t help noticing with a pang, “He trusts you. Do you spend a lot of time with him?”
“Whenever I’m in New York,” he shrugged. “Adara’s always inviting me to dinner and handing him off to me. I copy what Gideon does and we get along okay. Airplane rides, right, sport?”
Androu grinned, put out his arms and tipped forward into space, trusting he’d be caught with a firm hand under his chest. He made a raspberry noise with his mouth as Theo did a slow circle and dive with him.
Jaya took it like a punch in the stomach. Turning away from the heart-wrenching sight of Theo playing with the boy, she carried Evie to the sofa and started an animated movie on the television for her.
“Think you can handle them while I make a few calls?”
“You’ll stay then,” he said as though it was a done deal, but she read the underlying tension in his intense stare.
She wavered, still annoyed that he was only here because he wanted a favor, not because he wanted to see her, but a little voice inside her said, Quit pretending you have a choice. All the safe, secure blocks and fences and supports she’d put under and around herself trembled in warning of a bigger shake-up, but it had been destined to happen sometime. Today was as good an opportunity as any.
It was so hard to be near him, though. He still got to her, so handsome despite being stubbled and rumpled and smelling faintly of leather and fuel and sweat. Maybe because he looked so nonplussed and human. Like he genuinely needed her. Again.
He wasn’t interested in her, she reminded herself, hurt even though she shouldn’t be. He’d warned her not to expect more than their one night. She hadn’t. It wasn’t like she’d been in love with him. Not deeply, anyway. Just tentatively.
No, it was the fact he hadn’t called when she’d had a serious reason to reach out to him. He shouldn’t have dismissed her like some ditzy woman who didn’t understand the rules. When he had texted her today with his cryptic message, she had responded. She expected that same consideration from him. He should have called her back.
He should know that he had his own baby who liked airplane rides.
* * *
Theo spoke to Gideon while Jaya chattered in French, ordering supplies to be delivered to their suite. When she began speaking Punjabi, she lost him, which irritated him further than he already was.
Forcing himself to pay attention to his own call, he heard Gideon say, “It’s a stunt. The son of an African prince. He’s chasing down his runaway wife, although the guns are real and so are the consequences. We’re stationary while the French and Spanish navies draw straws on whose jurisdiction we’re in. Of course the FBI wants a say because we have so many Americans on board. Meanwhile, our pirate is threatening to draw all of North Africa into the fight if we don’t turn over his wife, but if she’s stowing away, we haven’t found her. The ladies are having kitte
ns that I sent the babies off the ship. Are they all right?”
“Safe,” Theo replied, eyeing Jaya as she toed off her shoes and shrunk by a couple of inches. Something in her expression seemed disturbingly vulnerable as she spoke with a lilt of persuasion into her phone. Her tone riled up oddly protective instincts in him when, on the surface, she looked more self-assured than ever.
Again he wondered if there was a man in her life, then cut off his speculation. The thought of her with a lover made him nauseous.
“Can you keep them out of sight?” Gideon continued. “Nic’s planning a broadcast from his cabin—man can’t stand to be scooped—but we want to leave the impression they’re still here, otherwise...”
“Understood. We’re off the grid.”
“Excellent. We’re a day from shore once we can move again and may have to wait for a slip in Marseilles. I’ll be in touch with an arrival time.”
Theo ended the call, mind eased that his siblings and spouses weren’t in immediate danger. Now he just had to—
A knock sounded and Jaya lowered her phone to motion at Theo. “That will be the bellman with the things I asked him to bring up. Take Androu to the bedroom while he brings everything in.”
Evie was rapt with her princess movie, dark head below the sofa back. He stepped out of the main room and continued to watch her as he listened to Jaya direct a pair of young men to leave everything inside the door. She continued her call as they left.
After hanging up a moment later, she walked him through his first diaper change, then briskly began moving objects to higher ground and double checking that doors were locked, particularly the one to the pool deck.
“We could swim with them later. They’d like that,” she murmured, sounding distracted, her nervous tension palpable. Maybe because he was hovering, but he couldn’t help himself. He told himself it was the new experience of child-minding. Androu still clung with determined little fists and tight legs which was a disturbing feeling that reinforced to him how inadequate he was with the task of reassurance. All Theo could do was hold him and follow Jaya around.