by Ana E Ross
“I will, and thanks, Tashi. I really mean it, ‘cause if it wasn’t for you, I would never have crossed paths with this man.” She chuckled. “It’s not like we run in the same circles. Thank you, Mr. Andreas. I’ll call the hotel tomorrow.”
“Miss Marshall,” Adam called as she reached the door. “Can you keep all this to yourself? Don’t say anything about the theft, or about my taking Tashi to my home, not even to your brother. Can I count on your silence?”
Her blond head bobbed up and down. “Yes, Mr. Andreas. This never happened. I don’t know where Tashi is going.” She winked at Tashi and left.
Alone at last, Adam gave his full attention to Tashi. “Is there anything else besides your clothes and the stuff from your bathroom that you want to take with you?”
“Nothing,” she simply replied, staring at him as if she’d just discovered he was made of gold or some other precious metal.
He hadn’t discussed moving her in with him, but the look on her face told him that she would not fight him on it. She’d just given away her furniture as if it meant nothing to her, as if she was used to leaving things behind. What else could she do? She had no money and no job to maintain any type of lifestyle, not even one in a run-down neighborhood like this one. Because of her association with him, a neighbor who wasn’t even a real friend was on her way to a better life and gaining independence when she’d just lost all of hers, yet she was happy for Mindy.
The fact that she was thinking and talking coherently, making decisions, expressing joy for a potential friend and wishing her luck, meant she was bouncing back from the shock and devastation of losing her money and her phone—well, that’s the way it seemed outwardly.
Adam wished he knew what was going on inside her head, behind those incredibly appealing emerald eyes of hers.
He pulled back his hair that had become loose and secured it at the back of his head. “Tashi, I don’t sleep with my employees. And I don’t tolerate sexual harassment among my employees either.” He just felt as if he needed to make that clear to her.
She smiled. “Okay.”
He tilted his head. “Okay. Just okay?”
“Okay, I believe you.”
She believed him. And she’d said he was hot and sexy. His heart fluttered, and as he absorbed the sensation, Adam realized that it was different from any he’d ever had. It was deep and filling, yet made him yearn for more.
“I need a job. But you’ll have to pay me under the table,” Tashi said, obviously unaware of the effect she was having on him. “Then I wouldn’t be a burden on you. I can stay here.” She swept her hand around in the air. “For now, until I figure out what to do next. You’ve done enough for me. I don’t want to cause anymore interruptions to your life.”
“You’re not a burden nor an interruption, Tashi.” If she knew that his household staff was on hiatus waiting for his orders to return to the estate, she’d definitely refuse to go along with him. “You don’t have a fridge, and you just gave away your furniture,” he said for the sake of argument. “Besides, do you have the heart to disappoint Mindy by telling her she can’t have the furniture after all?”
“I wouldn’t do that. I can live without furniture for a while. I’ll buy a fridge later, or better still see if this one can be repaired.”
“Tashi.” She was still trying to be a brave, self-reliant soldier, and he admired her need for autonomy, but… “No.”
She shot him a disparaging look. “Why not? You offered Mindy a job and you’ve known her all of fifteen minutes. Why not me? I can work. I have skills,” she said with a stubborn jut of her chin.
Something told him that the kind of skills she had were still very much untapped, and it would be illegal for him to pay her to exhibit them in the state of New Hampshire—maybe if they were in Vegas...
“I’m sure you have lots of excellent skills, Miss Holland, but I can never hire you.” Deciding to express just what he meant, Adam took a step forward, bringing him so far inside her personal space, her breath fanned his shirt, and the heat from her body wrapped around him like sparkling sunshine. He glanced down at her hands clasped tightly together on her lap as if she were forbidding them from reaching out to him.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he whispered, brushing his knuckles along her cheekbones—very slowly and lightly until heat and color illuminated the surface of her smooth tawny skin. God, she was lovely, far lovelier than any woman he’d ever met.
She gasped on a quiver that resonated throughout the very core of him. Her breathing grew shallow and heavy and her eyes darkened with uncertainty and heightened expectations, but she didn’t pull away from him, not like she had in the tub the other night. Her violent reaction then must have been a by-product of her fever and disorientation, he thought. Something had happened to her, but she wasn’t damaged to the point where she would shy away from intimacy with a man—with him.
Their eyes locked as the tension between them grew hot and strong, saturated with immanent passion, wistful memories, and intrepid curiosity. It felt as if they were nowhere, yet everywhere, floating together in a timeless atmosphere. When a soft moan escaped her parted lips, Adam dropped his hands to his sides and stepped back from her. He was becoming too aroused and this was definitely not the place to indulge in those kinds of fantasies.
She pressed a hand to her chest and took a series of quick shallow breaths, reinforcing his suspicions that she was still innocent, unaccustomed to the awakening of her own sexual power and needs. She’d escaped before “they” could harm her, and “he” was not her lover.
He cleared the passion from his throat. “This is the reason you can never work for me, Tashi Holland. As I said, I don’t fraternize with my employees, and you and I have been fraternizing for three days and three nights. We’re way beyond that, and we can’t go back.”
She didn’t refute his statement, but as her gaze traveled down his body, he could feel the heat from her eyes, especially when they centered on the evidence of his arousal. As he watched her swallow and lick her lips, Adam’s own lips burned at the thought of kissing her for the first time, and then moving beyond that. She was definitely not a talker, but she was old enough, and now, well enough to know that if she moved into his Garden of Eden, at some point down the road, he would be tempted to pluck her forbidden fruit and enjoy it to his heart’s content.
His erection throbbed, and ignoring it, he bent down and hoisted the four bags with her personal items over his shoulders. “I’m taking these out to the car. You think you’ll be ready to leave when I return?”
“It’s only temporary. My staying with you,” she added in a flat voice as if her declaration needed clarifying.
“Of course. Temporary, it is.” Adam was beginning to dislike the sound of that word.
She rose from the bed and walked unsteadily across the room to retrieve her backpack from the floor. She walked out of the bedroom and the apartment without a backward glance.
Adam followed her, carrying the weight of her life on his shoulders.
She wasn’t heavy. She wasn’t heavy at all.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Tashi was growing stronger with each passing day, and along with that strength came a deluge of confidence, togetherness, and happiness she hadn’t experienced in a long time—not since before Uncle Victor died.
She’d gained back the pounds she’d lost during her bout with salmonella poisoning, and perhaps gained a few more, she thought testing the waistband of her jeans. She no longer looked like a broomstick belted upside down inside a flour sack, like she had for the past two weeks. Her skin was subtle and glowing and her hair had regained its shine and bounce. She felt like a person, almost like a desirable woman again.
And she owed it all to Adam Andreas.
Setting her e-reader down on the mauve marble table next to the mauve leather sofa she was curled up on, Tashi glanced out the wall of glass encasing the second-floor sunroom that overlooked the valley of Granite Falls
and the surrounding towns. It was a fifteen to twenty-minute drive to the center of town, but from the mountaintop, it seemed much farther away.
Up here, she felt far removed from reality. A reality she knew she’d have to return to soon. She couldn’t pretend she was Rapunzel locked up in a castle tower forever. At some point, she would have to face her fears and the world, and strike out on her own again. But for now… She reached for her glass and took a sip of the freshly squeezed orange juice Adam had prepared for breakfast.
Tomorrow would make a week since she’d moved into his hillside mansion and slept in his humongous white bed. Alone. He’d been taking excellent care of her, and had been treating her like a princess every second that they were together, that even long after he left her, she still felt the effects of his presence, the warmth of his smile, the deep thrilling hum of his voice, and the affection in his eyes and accidental touches.
He’d been conducting Andreas International business from his third-floor home office instead of going to the hotel. Even though she’d insisted that she’d be okay, he’d refused to leave her alone. He’d given her a tour of the house and a partial tour of the grounds on the first day, and had presented her with a map of the grounds—which she clearly needed to navigate around the five-hundred-plus-acre estate.
He’d also given her a cell phone with numbers to his cell, the house, and another private number—that only she and his parents had access to—already saved in the first three Favorite spots. Even though she had no one else but Adam to call, the anxiety she’d had over the stolen one was gone. She didn’t sit around watching it, willing it to ring so she could pick it up to hear the voice of the FBI agent on the other end.
That short phase of her life was over. The only way she’d ever find out if the agent was alive would be if he made a personal appearance in Granite Falls to visit his friend. And even then, he might not find her since she hadn’t found that friend, and had been staying off all radars since she moved here. Plus, she had already made up her mind to leave Granite Falls as soon as she had the opportunity. She couldn’t expect Adam to take care of her forever.
Tashi glanced at her camera bag lying on the other end of the sofa. Besides her laptop, her camera was the only valuable possession she had. She would hate to part with it, but if push came to shove and she couldn’t find any other means of buying a bus ticket out of Granite Falls, she’d have to sell it. She knew she would only get a fraction of what she paid for it, and that she might never be able to replace one of its worth, but she couldn’t melt it down and eat it.
She’d already searched a few electronic e-stores to see what a used camera like hers would bring in, and if she was really frugal—ate two measly meals a day—she might be able to feed herself for a few weeks until she could do better. Where she would sleep and bathe on a daily basis was a different matter. Maybe she should start checking out homeless shelters in the southeast part of the country. It was too cold in the north to be homeless. Florida would be a good choice. It was warm and farther away from New York City and the people who wanted her dead. California would be even better, but she doubted she’d have enough money to get that far. Maybe later.
Adam hadn’t questioned her about her past or the money and cell phone that were stolen from her, and she never brought it up during their daily conversations. She listened as he did most of the talking. At first it was about Andreas International projects in the works. He’d recently purchased an old hotel in Japan and was remodeling it into the newest Hotel Andreas. He was working on plans to purchase a vineyard in California, and he was opening a restaurant in Boston next year. Andreas International was expanding in leaps and bounds.
He’d filled her in on Mindy and her new position as a clerk in one of the boutique at Hotel Andreas. Tashi had felt happiness for her friend, and wished she could see her, but then had decided it was best she didn’t form a deeper bond with her since she’d be leaving eventually. She had to protect Mindy and her children just as she had to protect Adam.
When she’d asked him about the basketball playoff with the boys from her neighborhood, he’d informed her that since he suspected they would have sold his Aston Martin for college tuition, he and his friends had agreed to split their tuition costs between them. In return the boys would intern at Fontaine Enterprises and Andretti Industries during their school breaks and that they would all return to Granite Falls to give back to their community once they graduated from college.
Tashi had been awed by the deal. It didn’t get any better than that.
Last night, during dinner, Adam had gotten a little more personal and talked about his childhood growing up with Erik, and his cousin, Massimo, and later in high school when Bryce Fontaine came to town. Adam was the youngest of the four men, and he’d expressed his frustration at always seemingly walking in their shadows. Yet he loved them to death—they, their wives and kids—and would do anything for them.
“Even my cousin who had a notorious reputation when it came to women, and who’d sworn never to get married, is now enjoying matrimonial bliss when I haven’t been with a woman in months.”
Months?
Was he fattening her up so he could be with her? Tashi had dropped her gaze to her plate and toyed with her green salad. So he was currently unattached. Surely, if he were involved, he’d be having sex regularly. Plus, his girlfriend would probably have already made an appearance demanding to know why he was spending so much time caring for another woman. That’s what she would have done if her boyfriend had been cooped up alone in a mansion with another woman—sick or not.
“Do you want to get married?” Why the heck had she asked him that?
He’d paused for a long time while he slowly chewed on a mouthful of pasta. Tashi had watched him, only then realizing the sensuousness with which he ate. He never hurried through his meals like most men did, but seemed to take his time to savor every single molecule of whatever was in his mouth. The awareness had made her nipples tingle, and to her dismay, she’d felt them straining against the silky lace of her bra. Mortified at the prospect of drawing his attention to her breasts, she hadn’t even glanced down to check if her nipples were poking out against her blouse. Yeah, he’d seen her naked, and had cupped her breasts in the palms of his hands, but she’d been half-conscious and delirious at the time. This was different. She was extremely conscious of his effect on her, even from across the table.
He’d taken a sip of wine then passed the tip of his tongue across the rim of his glass to capture a wayward drop trailing down the side. Tashi had felt a horrendous convulsion inside the walls of her lady parts. It had been all she could do to keep from moaning out loud. She’d never in her life experienced anything remotely similar. It was as if she were experiencing an internal earthquake.
With a subtle smile on his lips, as if he knew exactly what was happening inside her, he’d said, “Marriage was something I used to want when I was younger, but—” He’d paused and shrugged. “Maybe it’s just not in the cards for me. They don’t call me the temporary tycoon for nothing.”
As he tried to mask his loneliness with his last statement, Tashi had detected a faint glint of sadness or regret in his eyes and voice as if some woman had hurt him. Was his temporary law a way to protect his heart? And what woman in her right mind wouldn’t want to be married to a man like Adam Andreas? If her circumstance were different, she’d… Tashi had silenced her wishful thinking. “Maybe you just haven’t met the right woman, yet.”
“You sound like my friends. They say I’ll know her when I meet her, when I first gaze into her eyes.” His eyes, shining bright in the fading light of the setting sun, had looked like blue diamonds—assessing, alluring, daring Tashi to prove or disprove that she might be that woman.
“Did you tell them about me, that I’m here with you?” She’d changed the subject as the quivering inside her increased under his sensual gaze.
“Well, Erik knows you’re back. I had to let someone on the outside kn
ow what was going on, and since he already knew you were here the first time, I clued him in. He doesn’t know anything about you being robbed, just that you’re staying with me for a while. I asked for his silence. He wouldn’t discuss you with Bryce or Massimo.”
“What about his wife?” she’d asked, taking a bite of the blackened swordfish Adam had grilled for dinner.
“He wouldn’t say anything to Michelle, either. You have nothing to worry about, Tashi. I promised you privacy and secrecy, and that’s what you have,” he’d added, placing a spear of asparagus drizzled with hollandaise sauce into his mouth.
“Erik seemed nice,” she’d said. “Is Tiffany his and Michelle’s only child?”
“Oh no. She’s the youngest of three. They have an eleven-year-old daughter named Precious and an almost three-year old—Erik, Jr. We call him Little Erik. In fact he has a birthday coming up in a few days.”
“What about Bryce and Massimo? How many do they have?” she’d asked. Knowing Adam meant knowing his friends.
He’d taken a sip of wine before answering. “Massimo and Shaina have a daughter. Aria. She’s six months and already a heartbreaker.”
Tashi had felt his affection for his little cousin.
“Bryce and Kaya have a set of twins of their own,” he’d continued after another sip of wine. “Eli and Elyse. They’re also raising Kaya’s sister’s three children. Jason is twelve. Alyssa is six, and Anastasia is—” He’d twisted his mouth thoughtfully. “She’s two and a few months, I think.”
“Wow, that’s a lot of kids. What happened to her sister?”
A dark shadow had crossed his face and he’d adjusted his weight on the chair. “Lauren and her husband, Michael, were killed in a car crash a couple years ago.”
