“Why?” Chloe asked between clenched teeth.
“She’s part of your life.”
He said it matter-of-factly, but his words gave Chloe pause. She’d been telling herself that Nathan saw her as a fling, a few weeks’ entertainment. That had allowed her to let go of her inhibitions, to consider this an acceptable deviation from her usual sensible approach to relationships, because it wouldn’t continue.
But flings didn’t want to meet your grandmother, did they?
“After you,” Nathan said, standing aside so she could walk up the flagstone path. Chloe gave him a quick glare before trudging up to the porch, aware of his footsteps on the stones just behind her. She gave Grandmillie a matching glare before turning to say, “Grandmillie, this is Nathan Trainor. Nathan, my grandmother, Millicent Russell.”
As Nathan shook her grandmother’s hand, Chloe could only be glad it wasn’t with the same hand he’d slid under her skirt earlier. “I’ve been hoping to meet you, Mrs. Russell.”
“We’ll see about that,” Grandmillie said giving him a penetrating look. “I appreciate your giving my granddaughter a ride home, Mr. Trainor.”
“Call me Nathan, please. I enjoy her company.”
Chloe caught her breath, but Nathan’s voice was clear of any innuendo. He smiled down at the older woman as he waited for Grandmillie to make her way into the house.
Chloe followed her grandmother, hoping against hope that she wouldn’t subject Nathan to an embarrassing interrogation. The scones were a bad sign, because it meant they’d have to sit down in order to eat the warm, crumbly pastries with clotted cream and jam. As they walked into the living room, the fragrance of Grandmillie’s baking wafted around them, making Chloe salivate in spite of her nervousness. She’d worked up a considerable appetite in the Rolls.
Nathan’s nostrils flared as he inhaled. “I’d follow that aroma to the ends of the earth,” he said.
“Don’t exaggerate, young man,” Grandmillie said, but Chloe could hear the gratification in her voice. “The proof is not in the smell, but the taste.”
“So it is,” Nathan said, casting a wicked glance at Chloe.
She jabbed him with her elbow, taking satisfaction in his barely perceptible wince.
Grandmillie directed them into the dining area, where the table was covered with an embroidered linen tablecloth and set with the good china, as always. She’d put on a full English tea, along with a decanter of some golden liquor and tiny stemmed glasses. Nathan helped her into the chair at the head of the table. When he was behind her pushing in the chair, Grandmillie caught Chloe’s eye and winked.
That wasn’t going to get her grandmother out of a talking-to about ambushing Chloe like this.
“Chloe, the scones are warming in the oven. I’ll pour while you bring them in.” Grandmillie hooked her cane on the table. “Nathan, you sit here to my right.”
Chloe walked into the kitchen and stopped to take a deep breath. Atop the pristine countertops, a linen-lined basket and a well-polished silver tray awaited the scones.
She took another breath, trying to calm the jangle of her nerves. She grabbed the dish towel hanging on its hook and rubbed it over her damp palms before folding it into a hot pad and opening the oven. A cloud of hot, scone-scented air billowed around her when she reached in to retrieve them.
As she piled the scones in the basket, she listened to Grandmillie and Nathan exchange small talk about sugar, milk, and the offer of port. She emerged from the kitchen to find Nathan bent attentively toward her grandmother as she poured a glass of the fortified wine for him. He accepted the delicate crystal, holding it in his long fingers as though it were as fragile as a Fabergé egg.
“A drop of port?” Grandmillie asked her when Chloe slid the tray onto the table.
“Yes, please.” She was tempted to tell her grandmother to make it a double.
Chloe took the stemmed glass and carried it to her seat to the left of her grandmother, who was directing the serving of the scones. Even with his shirt unbuttoned at the collar and his hair in disarray, Nathan radiated authority and control as he distributed scones and tea, his attention focused on following Grandmillie’s instructions. His manner toward Chloe was that of an old friend without even a hint of sexual interest. She heaved a sigh of relief.
After they’d sampled the scones, and Nathan had paid Grandmillie extravagant but well-deserved compliments on her baking, the conversation veered into dangerous territory.
“So,” Grandmillie said, giving Nathan an assessing look, “I hear you had a pretty bad case of the flu. How are you feeling now?”
“Fully recovered,” he said. “Your granddaughter has a healing touch.”
Chloe considered kicking his ankle, but once again he kept all insinuation out of his voice.
“I imagine your Dr. Cavill isn’t happy that you’re back at work so soon,” Grandmillie said.
Nathan chuckled as he took a sip of the port. “And he lets me know about it. That’s the problem with having an old friend as your doctor.”
“Did he help you develop your computer battery?”
“Ben?” Nathan looked startled. “No, I had a hard time even getting him to play video games with me. He was always rescuing injured animals while I fooled around with electronics.”
“Chloe’s father was an inventor too, you know,” Grandmillie said.
This time Chloe wanted to kick her grandmother under the table.
Nathan cast a sharp glance at her. “I wasn’t aware of that. What sort of things did he invent?”
“Consumer products,” Chloe said vaguely. “A better umbrella. That kind of thing.”
“He felt he wasn’t treated well by the company where he worked,” Grandmillie said. “That’s why Chloe likes to work at start-ups. She says they reward their employees’ contributions more fairly.”
What the heck was Grandmillie doing?
“Except the start-ups where I work become shut-downs,” Chloe said, trying to stop Grandmillie from offending Nathan any further.
Nathan’s gaze was focused on her in a way that made her wonder what he was thinking. “Trainor Electronics was a start-up not that long ago.”
“But now it’s just as corporate as Lindell.”
“Is that where your father worked?” he asked.
Chloe realized she’d said more than she meant to, so she nodded and took a swig of port.
Nathan turned to her grandmother with a charming smile. “You’ve relieved my mind, Mrs. Russell.”
Grandmillie looked taken aback. “I have?”
Nathan nodded. “When I was ill, and admittedly not at my best, I sensed a certain attitude of disapproval from your granddaughter. Now I understand that it was directed at my position as the head of a corporation rather than at me as an invalid.”
Chloe wasn’t going to let him get away with that. “It was because you thought all you had to do was throw money at me and I’d drop everything to be at your beck and call.”
“I was hallucinating,” Nathan said.
Chloe snorted. “You were cranky but perfectly clearheaded.”
Grandmillie broke into their bickering. “Chloe worries about me being alone.”
“She’s a good granddaughter,” Nathan said, his tone respectful.
“I couldn’t ask for a better one.” Grandmillie reached over to touch Chloe’s hand.
Chloe felt a surge of tears at Grandmillie’s public compliment. She glanced at Nathan to find him staring at the older woman’s hand lying on top of Chloe’s, his face tight with an emotion she couldn’t identify.
He raised his eyes and met hers. “You’re both very fortunate.” He folded his napkin and laid it on the table. “I shouldn’t impose on your hospitality any longer.”
Grandmillie waved a hand of disagreement. “Sit. Have another scone before you go.”
His strange expression evaporated as he leaned back in his chair with a groan, his hand on his washboard-flat abdomen. “I can
’t swallow another bite.”
“You’ll take some home with you, then,” Grandmillie said.
“With pleasure,” Nathan said.
Chloe stood, picking up the basket of scones and her own plate and knife. Nathan also rose, his head nearly colliding with the chandelier hanging low over the table. As he started to clear the dishes in front of her grandmother, Chloe said, “It’s okay. I’ll get those later.”
He ignored her, deftly arranging the cup, saucer, plate, and flatware for easy carrying. “I have to earn my scones.”
“Your mother raised you right,” Grandmillie said.
Chloe caught the shadow that turned Nathan’s eyes flat, as though he was hiding all emotion. She remembered Ed’s description of Nathan’s mother and realized Grandmillie had touched a nerve with her comment about how he was raised.
Wishing she could comfort him but not knowing how, Chloe led the way to the kitchen. “Just put the dishes on the counter,” she said as she pulled a plastic baggie from a drawer.
Nathan carefully slid the fine china onto the Formica countertop. She watched him glance around the kitchen and wondered what he thought of her little house. She’d painted the dated pine cabinets a crisp, glossy white when they moved in, and the Formica on the counters was a cheerful indigo-and-yellow plaid, but her place was like a fiberglass dinghy compared to his luxurious ocean liner of a home.
He leaned a hip against the counter and folded his arms across his chest. “The job you interviewed for today is at a good-sized company. Have you rethought your policy about not working for large corporations?”
Chloe dropped several scones into a baggie and kept her voice low. “I don’t have the luxury of that policy anymore.”
“Because of your grandmother?” His voice was soft too.
She nodded. “She’s worth the compromise.”
“I was hoping I had something to do with your change of heart,” he said, moving to stand behind her. He lifted her hair from the back of her neck to press his lips on the sensitive skin as he trapped her against the counter with his body. Shivers of pleasure radiated down her spine.
She poked him in the ribs. “My grandmother is on the other side of that wall.”
He took a step back. “And I haven’t done anything she would disapprove of. In this kitchen,” he added.
She turned and held out the filled baggie. “For your breakfast tomorrow.”
He took the scones with a heavy-lidded look. “I’d rather have you for breakfast.” That sent more than mere shivers racing through her. She was about to shush him when he continued, “But there’s always the dressing room at Saks.”
“You wouldn’t dare.” She choked on a laugh as she headed for the door.
He caught her wrist to stop her. There was no teasing in his voice or his face as he looked down at her. “When it comes to you, I’ll dare many things.”
The intensity of his gaze sent a tiny thrill of excitement and panic ricocheting around inside her rib cage. She stared up at him, feeling like a rabbit caught in the hypnotic spell of a snake.
“Keep that in mind,” he said, releasing her wrist and waving her through the kitchen door in front of him.
Somehow she got through the polite good-byes. Nathan gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek at the front door before he headed for the car, his long strides making their modest walkway seem even shorter.
She stood watching as the Rolls glided into motion, noting with relief that the windows were as opaque as Nathan had promised.
As she came back into the living room, where her grandmother sat in her favorite chair, Grandmillie raised her hand in a warding-off gesture. “I wanted to see him for myself, so don’t chew me out.”
Chloe put her hands on her hips. “You might have warned me.”
“What would you have done differently if I had?”
Chloe looked around at the immaculate living room, and her indignation sputtered out. “I would have helped you clean the downstairs and set the table. You must be exhausted.”
“I got Lynda to help me with the cleaning in exchange for some scones.”
“I’m confused.” Chloe sat on the couch. “I thought you wanted me to marry him, but it sounded like you were trying to scare him away with all that talk about evil corporations.”
Her grandmother spun the neck of her cane between her palms. “He’s not what I expected.”
“Better or worse?”
Grandmillie stared down at her rotating cane for a long moment before looking at Chloe. “He’s not like your father’s friends. They were all brilliant scientists, but they were—what’s that word the teenagers use?—nerds. Easy for a smart woman to manage. Your Nathan”—Grandmillie shook her head—“he’s not the manageable sort.”
That surprised a snort out of Chloe. “That’s an understatement.”
“Sweetie, I was hoping he would be someone who would cherish you and take good care of you, but that man could hurt you.” Grandmillie seemed to brace herself. “I could tell what you’d been doing in the car, and I can’t find it in myself to blame you. He’s a hottie too.”
Chloe would have laughed at the second example of teenage slang coming so easily from her grandmother’s lips, but she was too distressed by what Grandmillie was trying to tell her. “He’s out of my league. I told you that at the beginning.”
The cane hit the floor with a bang. “No one is out of your league, Chloe! But he’s got a powerful personality that could break you in half.”
“I’ve had some practice dealing with strong personalities,” Chloe said. But Grandmillie’s words had burrowed inside her mind to reinforce her own belief that she and Nathan were not equals.
Grandmillie harrumphed, but her tone was soft. “It’s not your backbone I’m worried about, it’s your heart.”
How did she tell her grandmother this was just about sex? “My heart isn’t involved.”
Her grandmother leveled a stare at her. “You’re not the sort to be intimate with a man without feeling something for him.”
Chloe cringed at the knowledge that Grandmillie was right. Nathan had gotten to her, so she felt more than she wanted to. Serious physical attraction. Admiration. Pity.
That last one was the most dangerous. She felt sorry for the man because he did so much out of a sense of duty and so little out of a sense of fun. In fact, the only time he really let loose was when they made love; he could be almost playful. And that was the chink in her armor. “It won’t last long enough for me to get emotionally involved.”
“I wouldn’t bet on that. He looked pretty smitten.”
Chloe pushed up from the cushions and walked over to give her grandmother a kiss. “I’m going to clean up the dishes. Your scones were fantastic.”
Grandmillie thumped her cane again but made no comment.
Chloe carried a load of dishes into the kitchen and placed them gently in the sink. Then she cut loose with a shimmy across the kitchen floor.
Grandmillie thought Nathan had looked smitten!
Nathan got in the elevator to his apartment. Instead of pushing the button to ascend, he leaned against the elevator wall, his arms crossed, his chin sunk on his chest. He’d been thinking about his meeting with Chloe’s grandmother all the way home in the car.
Except for the moments when he’d been remembering what he and Chloe had done in the car before that. He shifted and settled his shoulders more firmly against the wall.
His plan to get Chloe a job at Trainor Electronics had taken a hit. Her dislike of corporations ran deeper than discomfort with the politics. It was personal. She might accept the offer, but only out of necessity. That didn’t make him happy.
Even worse, Chloe’s grandmother had invited him in and then tried to chase him away. She had weighed him and found him wanting.
It felt unnervingly similar to the way his father had judged him. And Chloe would respect her grandmother’s opinion.
After seeing their cozy little house, he was even
more resolved to help Chloe keep her grandmother there. It was the right thing to do. That meant an e-mail to Roberta about getting Chloe that position before she took another one.
He hit the “Up” button.
When the elevator doors opened, Ed was waiting for him, dressed in his usual uniform of white shirt and dark suit. “Was there a malfunction in the elevator?” his majordomo asked.
Nathan shoved off the wall and walked through the opening into the entrance hall. “No, I was thinking.”
“Good to know your brain is still working, because I was starting to wonder.” Ed jerked his head toward a doorway. “Ben is in the den with his doctor bag. He says you missed your appointment with him this morning.”
“I had an emergency meeting.” A wave of guilt and exhaustion broke over Nathan. He’d canceled the checkup with his friend at the last minute because he hadn’t wanted to argue with Ben about whether he should be at work or not. “Don’t worry. I’ll let him poke and prod me to his heart’s content.”
Ed nodded. “You look tired.”
“It’s been a long day.” He hadn’t felt it until the elevator had stopped, and the evening stretched out empty in front of him. Despite knowing that Ben would lecture him, Nathan felt his spirits lift at the prospect of having something other than work to fill the next couple of hours.
Ed held out his hand, and Nathan shrugged out of his suit jacket in their familiar daily ritual. As he handed it to the older man, Nathan gave him an apologetic smile. “Thanks for worrying about me.”
“Someone needs to,” Ed muttered before he did his vanishing act.
Nathan squared his shoulders and walked down the hallway to the den. Ben lounged on the sofa, a rocks glass in one hand, the television remote control in the other. “I love watching television on your dime,” the doctor said.
Nathan dropped into an upholstered armchair with a grunt.
“You were dodging me this morning,” Ben said.
“I admit it.”
Ben turned off the television. “How do you feel?”
“Fine.”
The doctor gave a huff of exasperation and stood up. “I’m doing a full workup.”
Nathan waved a hand in surrender. “I’m bone tired. But no headache or any other ache, no fever, no chills, no cough. I do solemnly swear.”
The CEO Buys in (Wager of Hearts #1) Page 21
