His Secret Temptation

by Cat Schield

  Elizabeth Holcroft stood five feet, three inches tall and weighed all of a hundred and ten pounds. A dainty package of Southern graciousness, she managed her family with ruthlessness wrapped in ruffles.

  “I just had lunch with Minnie Gervase,” his mother said. “She is planning a little get-together for the Thursday after Christmas. She said her daughter’s in town for the holidays and would love to see you. You remember her, don’t you? She’s the face of Eden Cosmetics.”

  “Vaguely.” Simon summoned a memory of an ultrathin woman who looked as if she’d blow away in a good wind.

  Since he’d turned thirty, his mother had become obsessed with seeing him married and producing the next generation of Holcrofts. In theory, he didn’t disagree with the goal, just the urgency. Every visit she found new ways to put women in his path.

  He hadn’t mentioned his mother’s overzealous matchmaking to Caroline the other night. He figured he’d already overwhelmed her with a fake engagement. She’d find out about his mother soon enough. Another perk of bringing Caroline home was that his mother would have no need to throw women at him.

  The crackle of paper emerged from the speaker on his phone, drowning out his mother’s voice. “…an itinerary so you’ll know what to pack.”

  “An itinerary?” This was new.

  His executive assistant entered his office and placed a sheet of paper before him. The huge grin on Georgia’s round face told him she’d heard the entire conversation. She found his mother’s penchant for matchmaking hysterically funny. The fiftysomething mother of three had worked for him since he’d opened his doors ten years ago. She’d stuck with him as he’d climbed from a single office in an old two-story building to this modern suite of offices high above downtown Atlanta. He couldn’t run the business without her, but if she didn’t wipe that smile off her face, he would fire her.

  Behind Georgia trailed a slim package of nervous reluctance in the shape of Caroline Sampson. While his mother rattled on, describing the parties they’d been invited to and why she accepted some and turned down others, Simon waved Caroline into a chair. She obeyed him, perching primly on the edge of the seat and offering him a tight nod in greeting. She looked no happier today than two nights ago. After she’d left, he’d fully expected to have to chase her down and apply further pressure. Imagine his surprise when she’d called his office yesterday.

  Looking like a child who’d been summoned to the principal’s office, she scoped out the various family photos that adorned the walls of his large corner office and smoothed her palms along her knee-length skirt in pale green. He’d insisted she meet him here this morning so they could make plans for Savannah, but that had merely been a ploy. In fact, he wanted to take her shopping for new clothes.

  After she’d left the other night, it occurred to him that she needed the right wardrobe for his family to take their dating seriously. The unflattering skirt and matching sweater she wore made her look like someone’s poor relation. Granted, the color teased the green from her eyes, but the style didn’t flatter her and the material appeared worn.

  “Simon, are you listening to me?”

  “Sorry, Mother. Georgia just brought me something I needed to look over.”

  His intense scrutiny brought a hint of color to Caroline’s pale cheeks. She’d scraped her hair into a tight ponytail, but several strands had escaped to frame her face. She scooped the wayward locks behind her ear in a self-conscious manner.

  “I thought she was bringing you the itinerary.”

  Charming. The word resounded through his mind. “That too.”

  “Are you still staying through the third of January?” his mother continued, sounding like a busy CEO conducting a meeting.

  “Unless something needs my attention here.” He scanned the fax and his good mood dissolved. “You cannot be serious about this. Who is Roberta Cummings, and why am I attending her company’s Christmas party?”

  His mother was unperturbed by his cranky growl. “Oh, Bobbie Cummings is Elaine’s daughter. She’s just as cute as she can be and a top executive at her daddy’s company. You’ll have lots in common.”

  Simon set his elbows on the desk and rubbed his temples. “I thought we agreed you weren’t going to set me up on dates this year.”

  “Oh, they’re not dates, dear. They’re just social appointments. You know I would never interfere in your personal life like that. I want you to have fun while you’re here.”

  Simon leaned back in his chair and stared at Caroline. “You have to cancel some of this,” he said, wondering how long before she surrendered to the smile lurking at the corners of her lips.

  “Simon, you can’t sit home during the holidays.” His mother’s voice resonated with alarm. “What would our friends think?”

  “That I’m an inconsiderate ass?” he proposed and watched as surprise widened Caroline’s eyes and caused her lips to part in a wordless O.

  “Simon!”

  “Sorry, Mother.” How could he could run a multimillion dollar company and not be able to manage his mother? He considered the stack of reports awaiting his attention, wondering why he bothered locking horns with her. “My travel schedule this last quarter has been worse than usual, and I’ve been looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home.”

  “As much as I sympathize with all the running around you do, I think you need to balance your time a little better and make some room for a social life.”

  “I’m very social.” He raised an eyebrow at Caroline when she started checking out the ceiling.

  “Yes, Francine mentioned meeting a woman at your condo.”

  From his mother’s tone, he could imagine how that conversation had gone.

  “She promised she’d let me break the news that I’m seeing someone.” He paused, waiting to see just how much his mother knew. When she didn’t speak, he added, “I think you’ll like her. I’m bringing her to Savannah for Christmas.”

  The silence on the other end of the phone left Simon wondering if his mother had stopped breathing. He could imagine the way the wheels must be spinning in her mind.

  “How long have you been dating?”

  The hope rising in his mother’s voice made Simon wince. For a second he considered that Caroline may have been right about lying to his family. “A while.”

  “Are you two serious? Why haven’t you mentioned her? Is there something I should know about her? No, wait.” His mother paused, and he could picture her waving her hands. “I don’t care who she is or what she’s like. If you love her, I’m going to love her too.”

  Love? The word kicked him in the gut and suddenly he had trouble breathing. He resisted the urge to claw at the knot of his tie.

  Laughter drifted in from his assistant’s desk.

  Some of his discomfort must have shown because Caroline’s teeth flashed before she hid the lower third of her face behind her hand.

  She hadn’t smiled at him before this. The effect caught him off guard. Desire wrapped an arm around his shoulder and whispered wicked suggestions in his ear.

  His mother’s next comment interrupted his musing. “You’ve never brought anyone home before. This must be pretty serious. I told you one of these days the right woman would turn your world upside down. Now do you believe me? I have to run. I have to call your father. We’ll see you in a few days.”

  His mother disconnected before Simon had a chance to say goodbye. He stared at the phone as what he’d done began to sink in. Maybe he should just call Dane and tell him his fiancée had cold feet, and then go spend Christmas on a beach in Mexico.

  No, that wasn’t the answer. He didn’t want to spend Christmas alone. He contemplated just how spectacular Caroline would look in a bikini. The tricky part would be persuading her to come with him. He suspected the only reason she’d agreed to accompany him to Savannah was that he’d convinced her his mother would be upset by the drama Francine would incite.

  “I probably should have warned you that my mother w
ould be excited about meeting you.”

  “Is it true what she said about you never bringing home a girl before?”

  He was beginning to recognize the nuances in Caroline’s solemn expressions. A minute twitch of her lips and the barest narrowing of her eyes told him she liked his answer.

  “Yes.”

  “Not even Francine?”

  “No.”

  “I see.”

  The amusement that had briefly lit up Caroline’s expression was long gone. She pleated her skirt between her fingers.

  He would have given a lot to know what bustled about in that head of hers. “What do you see?”

  “I see that you haven’t thought this thing through at all. This is a big deal, Simon. You’ve never brought a girl home before and now you’re telling your family that you’re engaged. What happens later?” She offered up a huge sigh. “How hurt are they going to be when they learn that it was all a lie? I wish I’d never agreed to be a part of this. And it’s too late for me to back out now that you’ve told your mother you’re bringing me home.”

  Had she intended to back out? Simon’s chest tightened. What could he say to convince her it would be all right?

  “With our engagement happening so fast, they won’t be surprised when it ends.”

  She regarded him for a long, silent stretch. “If you say so.”

  He wasn’t accustomed to people disagreeing with him. For a second it threw him off his game. Then he shook off the doubts her concerns had raised and got to work convincing her she had nothing to worry about. “Look, I know you don’t agree with my methods, but it’s for the best. You’ll see.” Simon stood and checked his watch. “How’s about we grab some lunch and go shopping.”

  “Shopping? What for?”

  “Clothes.”

  Color flooded her cheeks, but the emotion snapping in her eyes was annoyance, not embarrassment. “I’m not going to let you buy me any clothes.”

  Simon scooped up his mother’s itinerary. “Let’s have lunch and talk about that.”

  Chapter Three

  Let’s talk about that.

  Caroline was learning to dread that phrase. Simon didn’t talk, he persuaded. Before she could snap her fingers, she’d be on the path to doing something against her better judgment again.

  “I mean it, Simon. I don’t need new clothes.” Borrowing money for her tuition was one thing. The idea that he would spend money on something as personal as what she wore against her skin seemed too intimate.

  And the way his gaze slid down her body, assessing and cataloging, didn’t help.

  “I hired you to do a job. You need the right tools for that job. New clothes are those tools. Look at what my mother has planned, then tell me you have the necessary wardrobe in your closet right now.”

  A glance at the itinerary he carried made her spirits plummet. He’d nailed the situation with maddening accuracy. She had one black dress that she’d bought on sale for a funeral. With the right accessories, she figured she could wear it for a Christmas Eve party. But if they attended even a quarter of the parties on this list she would have to trot out the dress six times. She’d look like an idiot. Caroline couldn’t picture Simon marrying a fool. A gorgeous doll, maybe, but not a stupid one. Someone like Francine, socially clever and beautiful.

  “Besides,” he continued with a knowing grin. “What woman can resist a shopping spree?”

  It drove her crazy how his arguments made sense.

  “Me.” But she was lying. The idea of a brand-new wardrobe was almost as big a temptation as having her tuition paid. The man knew all the right buttons to push. What would her life be like without the specter of financial disaster hanging over her? She couldn’t wait to find out.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  He would’ve made one heck of a lawyer. His rhetorical skills were far superior to hers. So much so, she was rethinking her choice of profession. How could she advocate for kids in family court if she couldn’t keep a handsome millionaire from buying her an evening gown?

  “Okay,” she grumbled. “But just a couple of things.”

  “Sure.”

  The word should have given her hope that she’d argued him around to her way of thinking, but his smirk left her wondering if he’d told her what she wanted to hear in an effort to get her out of his office and into a store.

  Simon opened his car’s passenger door and gestured Caroline in. While she guessed the chivalrous gesture had been trained into him at an early age, she couldn’t stop the rush of delight at his gallantry. While he circled around to the driver’s side, Caroline’s spine was seduced into relaxing by the sport BMW’s contoured leather seat. This was the most luxurious car she’d ever been in.

  “Hold this for me, won’t you?” Simon handed her the itinerary and started the car.

  Today he wore a beautifully tailored gray suit, crisp white shirt and pale blue tie. A lazy smile tugged at his chiseled lips as he caught her checking him out. She focused on the paper in her lap to keep her fascination to herself.

  “Your mother certainly has a lot planned. Do you know all these women?”

  “I may have met them at some point or another. I don’t remember.”

  “You’re what, thirty…?” She paused to let him fill in the number.

  “One.”

  “You’ve never been married.”

  “And you’re wondering why.”

  Not at all. He didn’t seem ready to settle down with just one woman. No doubt he liked keeping his options open. She didn’t hold out much hope for his mother’s matchmaking schemes.

  “Don’t you think it will seem odd to your family that you’ve avoided marriage this long and suddenly you produce a fiancée no one has heard about?”

  “They will be surprised, but not overly so. I’ve been known to do the unexpected from time to time.”

  “This unexpected?”

  He shrugged. “To be honest, my mother will be so thrilled I’m getting married, she won’t question the speed or the secrecy.”

  Caroline counted the number of women on the itinerary. Nine. No doubt, all of them sophisticated and successful with money to burn. And here she was, working as a maid, living on a shoestring. Simon planned to dress her up and parade her in front of his family as what?

  “What’s wrong?”

  Simon’s question lifted her out of her dark thoughts as the car sped up the ramp of the downtown parking garage.

  “Nothing is wrong.”

  “Then why do you look more serious than usual?”

  “I was just thinking about all the women you could be bringing home that would probably make more sense than I do.”

  “Why do you think you don’t make sense?” He pulled into an empty parking space and killed the engine.

  She plucked at her skirt. “Look at me. I’ve never owned a designer anything. I grew up in a small town in northern Alabama. I clean houses, tend bar and occasionally waitress to make ends meet.”

  “You’re smart, motivated and hardworking. And you’re putting yourself through law school. You’ll have more in common with my family than I do.” He shot her a wry smile. “As for owning something with a designer label, I’m going to help you with that. By the time I’m done with you, the girl from a small town in northern Alabama will be a distant memory.”

  At his words, foreboding skittered up her spine. She realized she was less a partner in his scheme and more like a prop. The insight warned her she’d better stay on her toes lest she be overwhelmed by his charismatic bulldozing.

  They rode the elevator up to the restaurant and emerged into a long narrow space divided into four sections: two for dining, a third for the piano bar and the main entrance. Simon guided Caroline toward the hostess stand, but paused when his phone rang. Checking the number, he frowned.

  “I have to take this,” he told her. “It will just be a second. See if you can get us a table by the windows.”

  While Simon moved off to a quie
t spot away from the crowded piano bar, Caroline advanced toward the hostess. Off to her left, laughter and conversation spilled from the bar. The owners had chosen to leave some industrial features like ductwork and exposed electrical pipe suspended below the eleven-foot ceilings. White tablecloths, black chairs and soft cream-and-butter-colored walls gave the space a simple elegance. Enormous arched windows filled one wall in the dining room, letting in huge amounts of light and offering wonderful views of downtown.

  She was about to inquire about a table when she heard her name. Turning, she spied John Faulkner, the buddy of a guy she had dated a few years ago.

  “Caroline, you’re as beautiful as ever,” he said, putting his arm around her waist and bussing her cheek. His breath smelled of alcohol and his light brown eyes were a little bloodshot. Her rigid posture wasn’t penetrating his mild intoxication so she pried at his arm, hoping John would release her without making a scene. Fortunately today he had something on his mind besides lechery and let her go.

  “Hello, John.”

  Tall and handsome with a cocky charm, he’d been Greg’s best friend since college. In the short time she and Greg had dated, they’d spent a fair amount of time with John and Diane. Enough that Caroline had learned to be wary of John’s overfriendly ways and sneaky hands. He reminded her of Duke Banks, the middle son of the family that had employed her mother. Duke had been three years older than her and always too keen to get her alone. When she was fourteen, he and two of his buddies had cornered her in an upstairs hallway and forced her into Duke’s bedroom.

  If her mother hadn’t heard her cries, Caroline was sure they would have succeeded in getting her shorts as well as her shirt off. After that, her mother told her about her own experiences when she was a teenager. Both the incident and her mother’s horror stories skewed Caroline’s view of boys and dating. She was a junior in college before she went on her first date, and she was cautious with each of the five men she’d dated since then.

  Which accounted for her limited dating experience. For some reason the men who asked her out didn’t have the patience to get to know her before they wanted to have sex. At first she’d thought Greg was different. Too soon she realized he was just biding his time.