by Sara Orwig
Marc was shocked, but tried to hide his surprise. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know that. I know you have friends and a lot of them here in this office. People like you.”
He couldn’t stop thinking of her being so alone. He had never known anyone who had no living relatives. He was so locked into his relationships with his family, he couldn’t imagine her solitary situation. She needed his help so much more than he had thought and it made him feel better to think that he could be a huge help to her and her baby. If this had been his wife, he would hope someone would have helped her.
He could set up a trust for Lara’s baby. He could let the baby have his name. If they married now, most people would assume he was the father, which would be fine with him because it would help her.
“I have wonderful friends here. This is a great office and a great place to work,” she said, giving him a radiant smile. Idly, he wondered how many single guys in his office had tried to date her.
“You have a master’s degree. When you came to work here, you told me you wanted to work to save enough money to go to medical school. Is that still on your agenda?” he asked.
“Oh, yes. My pregnancy is a setback, but I still intend to pursue my dreams. I want to go into medical research someday. With my mother’s illness I saw that there is still so much to be discovered about such diseases. If I can do anything to help in that field, I want to, for my mother’s memory. Doctors just couldn’t do anything to save her, but medical science makes new discoveries constantly. I want to help people. If I don’t get into medical school, I can do something else to help others.”
“That’s commendable. I hope you get to carry out your plans,” he said, thinking he should be able to help her meet some of her financial needs for her education.
“It will take me a little longer to earn and save the money to go back to school, but I intend to do so. If I can get accepted into medical school, I definitely plan to go. If not, I’ll become a chemist.”
“That’s tough without family members to help and to babysit.”
“I’ll manage,” she replied with a lift of her chin.
“I’m sure you will,” he said, and meant it. It hadn’t taken long to recognize her drive and ambition after she came to work for him. He’d seen it in himself and his mother all his life.
“If you don’t feel well, I want you to stay home. If you’re already here and don’t feel well, please don’t keep working. Take off and tell me if you need help getting home or anything.”
She smiled again. “Thanks. That’s nice but I’ll be all right. I’ve been fine so far. Not even morning sickness.”
“That’s good. I assume you have a doctor.”
“Oh, yes, I have a doctor who came with lots of recommendations from friends.” She smiled at him. “Well...I guess there’s nothing more to say but thank you for being so cooperative and helpful. I’ll let you know when I tell anyone else in the office and this is no longer a secret. It can’t be a secret for long,” she said, forcing a smile. Then she stood up, and as she did, his gaze swept over her and he liked what he saw. Her white blouse revealed full curves and a tiny waist.
There were moments—like this one—when he forgot her secretarial status and their business relationship, but he always caught himself before he said or did anything to indicate he saw her as an attractive woman instead of his very competent secretary. He caught himself again now, going to open the door for her.
“Take care of yourself and, again, if you need anything or don’t feel well, don’t hesitate to tell me,” he repeated. She turned to face him and suddenly he was aware of how close they stood. His gaze shifted to her full lips and he felt a tightening deep inside. For just a flash, he saw a flicker of her lashes and her cheeks became a deeper pink.
“Thanks, Marc. You’re always understanding,” she said softly and hurried out, crossing the room to her desk, which had everything in its proper place and ready for the next morning. She opened a drawer, retrieved her purse and turned to smile at him again. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Sure,” he said, still watching her as she walked away.
He turned, walked back to his desk and sat, seeing the glass door to the outer office close behind her.
It always surprised him when he noticed her, because he still mourned his wife and he didn’t pay attention to women the way he had before his marriage. Even though in the past few months he had started taking women friends out, he would never be serious about any of them. In fact, he wasn’t even interested in any of them.
He thought about Lara.
And the more he thought about her, the more he knew she was the perfect “wife.” He hadn’t gotten over Kathy and wasn’t ready for any kind of relationship, but Lara wouldn’t expect one. She wouldn’t want to fall in love any more than he wanted to, because she had other plans for her future. And while he stood to gain from this crazy marriage of convenience, so would she. She’d reap the reward of the help he could give her and her baby—not only in a trust he’d set up for the child but in giving the baby his name.
No doubt about it, Lara was the right person to ask.
Well, maybe there was one doubt...
For an instant he thought of the moments when he’d had to bank an electrifying awareness of her as an appealing woman. Could he push aside that attraction? He had to, because Lara and he would both get what they wanted from the marriage. He’d get the ranch and she’d get the financial and maybe emotional support she needed for this pregnancy. Then, when they dissolved the marriage, they’d go their separate ways and both be happy about it and much better off because of the marriage of convenience.
Meanwhile, he knew he could live with her and still continue their business relationship. After all, they didn’t need to go to bed with each other. He hadn’t gotten over the loss of his wife, and she had just broken an engagement.
No matter how he looked at it, marriage to Lara would benefit both of them, as well as his family. It would benefit Lara’s baby, too. And some part of him wanted that. Somehow, helping the baby pleased him a lot and made him feel closer to the little baby of his own that he had lost.
He looked up Lara’s number, picked up his phone and called to invite her to dinner.
* * *
By half past six Wednesday evening, Lara was ready and waiting. She had dressed just as conservatively as she did at the office, in a black, long-sleeved dress with a high round neckline and straight skirt. But as she took a final glance at herself in the mirror, she noticed the dress was shorter and dressier than anything she’d worn to the office. She told herself it was the perfect compromise for a dinner date with her boss. She couldn’t imagine why he had asked her out.
When he’d called last night he hadn’t made it sound as if this was social. At the same time, it wasn’t business related or he would have told her. She had accepted his dinner invitation knowing she’d find out the reason soon enough.
She tried to ignore the flutters in her belly when she thought of dining with her boss. Marc was handsome, charming, capable, a strong, sexy man—something she tried to avoid thinking about most of the time. She had heard all the office talk—how his pregnant wife of three months had died in a plane crash and he still mourned her and had no interest in any other woman.
She suspected he was smart enough to avoid getting sexually or emotionally involved with anyone at work.
She was attracted to him and had been from the first moment she met him, but she’d resisted with all her being because at first there was no future in it and later she became engaged. His heart was locked away, and even if it wasn’t, she had plans for her life. Plans that did not call for her to get romantically involved with her boss, no matter how good-looking he was. Still, what was the harm in admitting that the man was handsome and had sex appeal? Bushels of it. In fact, sometimes she foun
d it difficult to keep remote, professional and cool around him. Nevertheless, she did.
Thinking about him, she sighed. Surely Marc wasn’t taking her out tonight to let her go. He wouldn’t do that. As for his motives, she’d know in a matter of minutes.
She took one last look in the mirror. Her hair was looped and pinned up on her head, just the way she wore it at work today. Her makeup was light but flawless, optimally highlighting her blue eyes and high cheekbones. As she gazed into the mirror, her mind must have started playing tricks on her, because she suddenly saw Marc’s image beside her. His thick, black, unruly hair, slightly tanned skin, the shadow of stubble on his jaw and his thickly lashed dark brown eyes. He stood next to her, over six feet tall, broad shouldered and strong, and he reached out to touch her and—
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a car door closing. In seconds her doorbell rang. She took a deep breath and hurried to answer it. She swung it open to face her boss and her heart lurched.
Dressed in a navy suit and red tie that she had seen before, he looked handsome. She smiled, but felt odd flutters and she assumed it was because it seemed so much like a date. She banished that thought and looked up at him. “Do you want to come in?”
“Thanks, but we have reservations shortly, and I think we better go.”
“I’m more than happy to go have dinner with you, Marc, but I’m a little puzzled as to why we’re doing this. I don’t feel as if it’s a social event.”
He smiled at her. “Smart woman. I have something I want to talk to you about and I want to be away from the office and away from interruptions.”
“Ahhh,” she said, nodding. While that clarified their dinner engagement slightly, she still had questions. She suspected his “something” concerned work because his office manner hadn’t changed from what it had been all day. “I’ll get my purse,” she said, stepping back into her entryway briefly before joining him.
She closed her door and heard the lock click into place. As she walked beside him to the car, she was acutely conscious of how close he was and how tall he was. She had far more physical awareness of him now that they were out of the routine office setting, but his demeanor was the same. He didn’t take her arm as they walked to the car. He didn’t touch her in any way. So why couldn’t she stop the prickly awareness that plagued her?
She told herself to pretend she was in the office, that it was just lunch together on a weekday. That didn’t work.
He held the car door and she slid into the seat. She watched him walk around the car, the wind blowing unruly locks of his curly hair. What did he have to talk to her about here that he couldn’t discuss at the office?
Her curiosity mushroomed when they went to a town club where he was a member. Inside, they were taken to a private room.
“Now I am curious about tonight,” she said as she sat across from him.
He merely nodded. “Let’s get our drinks and order dinner before we talk. I don’t want any interruptions. But I will tell you this is personal and involves my grandfather.”
Startled, she couldn’t imagine what could concern her and involve his very ill grandfather. “There’s no guessing why I’m here having dinner with you if it involves Mr. Ruiz. That lets out anything regarding the office.”
“Not altogether,” Marc said. “I have a proposition I want you to consider.”
Her curiosity reached a fevered peak but she reined in her questions when the waiter came to ask their drink preferences. Marc ordered sparkling water for her and a martini for himself.
She sat quietly until finally they had ordered dinner and been served their drinks. He raised his glass in a toast.
“Here’s to the best secretary I’ve ever worked with and, hopefully, to a mutually bright future together.”
She touched her glass to his and sipped, watching him and waiting as he set his martini on the table. Her curiosity increased because, whatever he was about to discuss, it involved both of their futures.
He folded his hands on the table and cleared his throat. “I’ll cut to the chase now. My grandfather is very ill with pancreatic cancer and doctors have given him three months to live.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, hearing the pain in Marc’s voice even though he seemed in control of his emotions.
“I’m close to him. My dad died when I was twelve and my grandfather has always been there for me. I’ve spent a lot of time with my grandparents on their ranch. I love that life and I love that ranch. It’s beautiful.” He smiled at her. “At least, it is to me.”
“I’m sorry, Marc, that your grandfather’s health isn’t good,” she said, still unable to see how any of this involved her.
“Thanks. My grandparents love that ranch. They’ve worked it all their lives.”
He paused when the waitstaff came in with their dinners—a thick steak for Marc and Alaskan salmon for her. When they were alone again, she had a bite of salmon and closed her eyes. “Mmm, this is delicious.”
“Yes, it is,” he said, his voice deeper than usual. She opened her eyes to see him watching her. Heat flashed through her and she was aware of the intense way he looked at her. His dark brown eyes hid his feelings.
“Go ahead with your story,” she said, suddenly tingling with awareness. She knew whatever he was going to ask her, it had nothing to do with the office. Not with the look she had just received from him.
He took a deep breath and nodded. “Now that my grandfather is ill, he’s worried about my grandmother. She wants to stay on the ranch and live out her life there, but—this is where I come in—she can’t run it or deal with it herself. And this is where you come in.” He paused and nodded at her plate. “Maybe you should enjoy a few more bites of dinner before I continue.”
She shook her head. “My curiosity will overcome me.” She wondered if he was thinking about trying to hire her as a companion for his grandmother. “What on earth is it, that I won’t be able to eat after you tell me?”
“I think I’m going to shock you. Frankly, I’m still reeling in shock myself,” he said, forcing a smile at her. “My grandfather wants me to move to the ranch and I have to agree to stay at least one year. That way I’ll be there to see that my grandmother is all right.”
“You’re leaving the company for a year?” Lara asked. “Or will it be longer?” Was she losing her boss permanently? She felt a pang at the thought and immediately thought of his vice presidents, wondering whom she would work for.
“It’ll only be a year. I know my grandpa and how he thinks. He thinks if I live out there a year, I’ll never want to leave.”
“I can understand what he wants, but is that what you want to do?”
“He’s given me an offer—actually, it’s more an ultimatum. I live there a year and I inherit the ranch, also one third of the mineral rights and one third of the producing wells on the ranch. My mother will also inherit a third, the same as I will, and the remainder of the estate will go to my grandmother.”
“I see.” She put down her fork and wiped her lips on her napkin. “You wanted to tell me that I’ll have a new boss.”
“Oh, no. I’m not through. I love my grandfather too much to refuse to do what he wants. Even if I didn’t feel that way, this offer is too big to turn down. And I love that ranch. As I said, I love Grandpa and I want his last days to be happy. I want to do what he wants and make him happy.”
“That’s wonderful, Marc. I can understand. I loved my mother, and at the last, I did everything I could to make her happy. I’ll miss working for you,” she said, hoping she didn’t sound too depressed, but she would miss him terribly. She liked working for him. He was a fair, considerate boss and a handsome, appealing man, so it was nice to be around him.
“There’s more, Lara, but I’m trying to wait until you’ve had enough of your dinner that you won’t go ho
me hungry.”
She picked up her fork again, to placate him, and smiled up at him. “I’m eating, okay? But you’ve told me your news—that you’re leaving.”
“I haven’t reached the part that includes you,” he reminded her.
Startled, she stared at him as curiosity gripped her. Maybe he wanted a secretary on the ranch. Was that it?
“Lara, I’ve only told you part of my grandfather’s demands. There’s another part. Besides living on the ranch for a year, I’m to marry this month.”
He reached across the table to take her hand, which was something so unlike him that she nearly gasped. For a few seconds, she couldn’t speak. She could only stare at him.
“Don’t say anything until I’m through. You’re surprised, just as I was.”
While she heard his words, she was still focused on his hand wrapped around hers. His hand was warm, his grip light, yet the instant they touched she tingled from head to toe. Somehow, she felt the touch of his hand had changed their relationship in a subtle way. She was certainly more aware of him as a man. And that awareness made it impossible to respond.
“I need a wife for a marriage of convenience, possibly for one year, possibly much shorter,” he continued. “In order to inherit, I have to marry this month and live on the ranch for one year. That is what my grandfather has in his will. I want a wife as long as my grandfather is alive, which doctors have only given him a few months. I want his last days happy. After he is gone, I will stay on the ranch that full year, but there is nothing in his will about how long I have to stay married. When he is gone, I will end the marriage—that’s a promise,” he said. “I want to see if I can make a deal with you. Make you my wife.”
Two
Stunned, she stared at him, looking into unfathomable brown eyes that hid his feelings so well. Marry Marc and then dissolve it? She couldn’t imagine doing such a thing. Those dark eyes so intently focused on her took her breath away. Marry Marc. Without love. A marriage for convenience. Her heart raced at the thought.
