Laura was seeing a side of James Paden that few, if any, knew about. He wasn't
nearly as hard and tough as he wanted everyone to believe. It was just that life had
dealt him a rotten hand, and he had played it by bluffing. His toughness was a
defense mechanism. He was as vulnerable as the next person, certainly where his
daughter was concerned.
"I understand." She didn't have an opportunity to expound, because Mandy ran
up at that moment and took each of their hands in hers. "Show me that little white
house with the holes in it." She pointed at the gazebo. "Please, Laura, Daddy."
They spent another hour traipsing around the estate, mostly in pursuit of Mandy,
whose energy was boundless. By the time they reentered the house, Laura was
wilted. "How do you keep up with her?" She laid her hand against her heaving
chest. They had completed their tour by having a foot race back to the house. She
had placed third.
"It's not easy," James conceded with a laugh as he wiped his brow with his sleeve.
"I'm sorry for the imposition."
"I don't feel imposed upon. I enjoyed it."
He took a step closer and stared down into her dewy face. "Did you?"
Their voices had become hushed in the shadowed entrance hall. "Yes."
"Laura—"
"Laura, this is Annmarie," Mandy said, bounding through the front door. She had
retrieved the doll from the car and was holding it up proudly.
Laura dragged her eyes away from James's smoky stare and knelt down for a
formal introduction to Annmarie. When she straightened, the previous mood had
vanished and couldn't be recaptured. She was both greatly relieved and vaguely
disappointed. What had he been about to say before Mandy's interruption?
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"We're going out for a late lunch, Laura. Care to join us?" he asked.
"Oh, say yes," Mandy urged, tugging on Laura's skirt and hopping up and down.
"Say yes, please."
"I'm sorry, I can't." Laura smoothed her hand over Mandy's glossy hair. "I have an
appointment in town." James had unceremoniously slipped her a check for the
furnishings. Now that she had it, she was going to deposit it in the bank
immediately and notify her lawyer that he could start paying off her bills.
No amount of wheedling or arguing from either James or Mandy could change
her mind. Finally they gave up and said their good-byes. Laura bent down and
smiled at Mandy. "I hope you enjoy living in Indigo Place as much as I did when I
was a little girl."
"Did you sleep in my room?"
"Yes. Will you and Annmarie always take care of it for me?" Mandy's usually
animated face was serious as she nodded. "Good. Thank you." On the brink of
tears, Laura straightened.
James said, "I'm coming back in the morning to do some chores. I'll see you then."
Not trusting herself to speak, she merely bobbed her head in acknowledgment.
She waved to Mandy, whose exuberance had been restored, as they drove away.
Laura's errands didn't take up nearly as much time as she had hoped they would.
She returned to number twenty-two just as the sun was setting. Dusk had always
been a sad time for her anyway. When she entered the house, the rooms were rosy
with twilight. An unbearable sadness settled over her.
She went upstairs and turned on the lamp in her bedroom. The long shadows it
cast against the walls emphasized the pervading loneliness. The small sounds she
made as she peeled off her clothing hardly relieved the gloomy silence.
Twenty-two Indigo Place needed people in it. A family. James and Mandy were a
family. The child's laughter had made the stately rooms ring with new life. Laura
was being selfish to stay when the Padens needed a home.
What justification did she have for staying the full time allotted? Now that the
furniture had been sold, there was really no need to delay her departure. She had
received several responses to her applications for teaching jobs. It would take her
only a few days to pack what few belongings she had left, load up her car, and
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leave. She could travel on a frugal budget to her interviews until she got a job and
found a new place to live.
She missed James when he wasn't around. His sullen face and sultry eyes had
come to be so familiar, she saw them in her dreams. His voice, laced with
insolence and innuendo, was no longer aggravating, but endearing. The way he
moved and the way he smelled and the way he dressed were now the standards by
which she judged other men.
Her life hadn't been the same since he roared up out of the darkness on his
motorcycle. He made her think. He made her laugh. He made her tingle.
How stupid could she be? What a ridiculous, pathetic woman she was. To fall in
love with a man like him was calamitous. Yet that was exactly what had happened.
Like so many before her, she had fallen victim to his charm, which amounted to
no charm at all. That was what made him so irresistible. His I - don't - give - a -
damn - about - anything attitude was a challenge to every female he met. Each one
fancied herself the single woman who could shake his unshakable insouciance.
But prim and proper Miss Laura Nolan couldn't begin to entice James Paden, so
harboring the fantasy that she might pique his interest, much less his lust, was
absurd. She must leave before she did something really stupid and made a
complete fool of herself.
She would tell him tomorrow. It would hurt, but it would only hurt more later on,
because she was coming to love him more every day.
Tomorrow.
* * *
By the time she came downstairs for coffee, his car was already in the driveway.
She glanced through the windows of several rooms, but didn't spot him anywhere
outside. After drinking several cups of coffee to fortify herself for the encounter
that must take place, she ventured outdoors. She hadn't noticed it before, but the
sky was overcast. Low clouds threatened rain, and Laura shivered against the stiff
breeze.
The pier was the first place she looked for James, though she didn't see him
anywhere around. She was making her way back toward the house when it began
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to rain. It wasn't a light shower that gradually built into a downpour; it started out
as a torrent. One moment she was dry, and the next she was being pelted with
heavy rain. She ran for the first available shelter, the stable.
It was dark inside the cavernous building. It smelled like hay and horses and
leather, not at all unpleasant to someone who had grown up enjoying horseback
riding.
Laura shook the raindrops from her hair. Standing just inside the door she looked
out at the silver curtain of rain that fell between her and the house.
"Gotcha!"
She let out a sharp yelp of fright and surprise as her arms were clasped from
behind. She was turned around and brought face-to-face with James. "Scare you?"
"You know you did!" she said, faking exasperation. Actually her heart began
racing at the sight of him. "I didn't know you were in here."
"Aw, shucks. I thought that was why you came tearing in here."
"I only came tearing in here to get out of the rain."
He glanced over her shoulder. "It's really coming down." Then he looked her
straight in the eye. "We might be in here for a long time."
Laura was certain the serpent had said something to that effect to Eve.
James hadn't released her. His hands were warmly curled around her upper arms.
Her breasts were flattened against his chest. He gazed down at her. She wet her
lips nervously.
"What were you doing in here?"
"Hmm?" he asked absently. His eyes were taking in the raindrops that covered her
hair like a glistening net. "Oh, I was, uh…"
He took several steps forward, propelling her backward. "James?"
"Hmm?" He continued to study her face.
"You were about to say something," she whispered on a thin breath when her back
came up against the wall.
"I was?"
"Yes."
With his hands on her shoulders, he pinned her against the wall, lowered his
head, and settled his mouth firmly against hers. Angling his head, he sealed their
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mouths together. Any protests that might have been forthcoming were trapped
inside Laura's mouth. Her lips responded to the warm pressure of his, but she still
held herself in restraint.
"Come on, baby, kiss me back."
"I don't want to," she said, and groaned.
"Yes, you do. And you know the way I want it. Kiss me like that."
When his tongue probed the seam of her lips, they opened like the fragile petals of
a flower. Growling with satisfaction, he slipped his tongue between them. It
pierced the sweet, wet hollow of her mouth, delicately plundering, electrifying her
with each deft thrust.
His hands scaled down her arms until he loosely encircled her wrists. He lifted her
arms to his shoulders and left them there when he pressed his open hands to her
sides. He ran them up and down her ribs, seesawing in the indentation of her
waist. The heels of his palms ground gently against the sides of her breasts.
He took a step closer, but when even that wasn't close enough to suit him, he put
his arms around her waist, flattened his hands on the small of her back, and
pulled her against him, nestling his body against hers.
She uttered a startled cry when she felt his hard arousal against the softest, most
vulnerable part of her body. He rubbed against her with intimate suggestion. Her
mind spun out of control. Instinctually she cuddled him between her thighs.
A low mating sound rumbled in his chest as he sent his tongue deeper into her
mouth. At the same time, his hands caressed her derriere, cupping her warmly
and bringing her harder and higher against him.
He tore his mouth free and pressed it hotly against her arching throat. "I'm
burning," he rasped out. "And so are you. Let's put out this fire."
He tugged on her shirttail and pulled it from the waistband of her slacks. When
she felt his hand on her bare stomach it seemed like a brand and alerted her to
just how hot things had gotten. "James, no," she protested feebly.
"Oh, yes, baby." He unfastened the lowest button on her shirt.
Laura panicked. "No." She shoved against his chest hard enough for him to get the
message. He blinked, but it took several moments before his eyes, which were
foggy with desire, cleared.
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"Why?" His thick brows were drawn into a deep V. "You want it."
She shook her head vehemently. "No. I want to talk to you. "
"Talk?" Reaching out, he curled a strand of her hair around his finger. He wiped
the moisture of their kiss from her lips with it. "I like the way you … converse."
"No, James, listen to me. I wanted to tell you today that I'm leaving. The day after
tomorrow if possible." She ignored his surprised expression and rushed on. Now
that she had started, she wanted to finish, get it all out before she could be
dissuaded. "There's no reason for me to stay now that the matter of the
furnishings has been settled. I can be packed and ready to go within a couple of
days."
"Where are you going?" His face was dark and intense.
"I – I'm not sure yet. But you and Mandy should assume occupancy right away.
Where is she, by the way?"
"I have a lady in town who keeps her while I'm out."
Laura would have thought Mrs. Paden was caring for her granddaughter, but she
didn't pursue the subject. She didn't have time. Because no sooner had she
thought of the question than all thoughts were wiped from her mind, when he
said, "I want you to stay."
"Stay?" Her voice had no more strength than her body.
"Yeah, as a housekeeper."
Her back stiffened and her chin went up several notches. "I'm not reduced to that,
Mr. Paden." She would have gone around him, but he caught her arm and pressed
her against the wall again.
"Hear what I have to say before you go huffing out. I don't mean housekeeper in
the sense of cleaning and cooking. I've already made other arrangements for that."
"Housekeeping is an honorable profession. I merely meant that I didn't want to
work for you."
"How do you know? I haven't told you what I had in mind." When she only stared
back at him with cold condescension, he pressed on. "I need you as a keeper of
Twenty-two Indigo Place. A hostess of sorts. A housekeeper will know what to
clean, but will she know when to change the flower arrangements in the rooms
and what kinds of flowers to use? I need someone to choose the china for dinner
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parties and plan menus and things like that. Understand now?"
"Yes, I understand, but the idea is ridiculous. That kind of job would hardly keep
me occupied. All pretense aside, I need a full-time, paying job."
"I intend to pay you."
"How much?" He told her, and she was flabbergasted by the amount. "Just for
arranging flowers and selecting china?"
"And doing correspondence and helping me with Mandy. I can think of a
thousand things."
"Well, I can't. I wouldn't have nearly enough to do to warrant that kind of salary."
He pushed back an unruly lock of hair with an impatient hand. "Look, I'm offering
you a job, a job you'd be damned good at. It would be good for both of us. I need
you and I know you need the job."
Her breath escaped her lungs slowly. She closed her eyes. Fury and humiliation
warred within her, but the former got the upper hand. She wanted to lash out at
him. Instead, when she final
ly opened her eyes and spoke, her words were
controlled, but vibrating with loathing.
"Don't you dare pity me." All the pride of her ancestors was behind her. "I don't
need largesse from you or anybody. I certainly don't want to either work for or
take charity from a Paden."
He hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his jeans and studied her with
smoldering eyes. He pulled his lower lip out from between his teeth. "Okay. How
would you feel about marrying one?"
Chapter 6
"M—marry one? Marry you?"
He bobbed his head once. "Yeah, marry me."
"But that's preposterous!"
"Why?"
"A million reasons!" Laura spread her arms wide, as though to encompass them
all.
"We're two single, consenting adults. That's all it takes for two people to get
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married."
Reasonable as that might sound, the idea was still so ridiculous that she was
speechless. He, however, was armed with an arsenal of arguments.
"Hear me out, Laura, please, before you give me your final answer." He paused to
collect his thoughts. For the first time, Laura could envision him in the role of
businessman. In this mood, he commanded attention.
"I'm not kidding myself about how I'll be welcomed here in Gregory. I came back
to town with my pockets lined with money, but there are lots of things it can't buy,
as you so bluntly pointed out to me a few days ago." His mouth lifted into a brief
grin. "I left town a black sheep, a misfit. That's how my name is emblazoned on
everyone's memory. It will take years for that to change, if it ever does."
She started to interrupt, but he held up both hands for silence. "As you probably
know, I don't give a damn what anybody thinks about me, but I sure as hell won't
let them cold-shoulder Mandy just because she's my daughter. I can't guarantee
her a respectable position in the community, but you can. Having Laura Nolan as
a stepmother would get Mandy into just about any circle. I despise those cliques,
but they're a way of life in this town."
"Then why didn't you choose to live someplace else?"
He gave her a wry smile and shrugged. "This is home." He took both her hands
and pressed them between his. "If breaching those closed little groups is the only