by Mia Carson
And all she had to do to get that chance was sign a contract to have his baby.
Chapter 6
Viktor did his best to cover his surprise when she told him about her real parents. The records, he knew, had been sealed, and for good reason. He sensed her pain when she told him what happened, that she had seen them die. To think she went through that at such a young age and never had much stability afterwards raised his anger.
He didn’t mind her quick change of subject, and when he rested his hand in hers, he had marveled at the warmth and softness of her skin. The way she touched him so gently caused his heart to pound, and he wanted nothing more than to hold her hand. It had been years since he felt such an attraction to a woman or found a woman as beautiful as she was who didn’t realize it. The way she tugged at her hair, how she would only hold his gaze for a few moments at a time, told him one thing. She wasn’t sure of herself nor her looks, and damn, did he want to tell her she had nothing to worry about in that department.
“I told you my story,” she said when their laughter died. “Tell me yours.”
“Well, as easy as everyone assumes I had it, I worked my ass off just as much as anyone else,” he informed her, leaning back in the booth and stretching his arm across the back of the seat. Those fascinating brown eyes followed the movement, and he smirked. So she liked what she saw, too.
“Oh? What did you have to do?”
“I worked in the yard and out in the forests,” he told her. “Since I was old enough to be out there, every day after school, I’d sweat with the rest of the guys. That’s how I learned the ins and outs of the business.”
She nodded in approval. “And you were never the playboy?”
“Not as much as everyone thinks. I partied like any other teenager but never overdid it. Never felt the need to, I guess. I think the only time I got grounded was because I flunked a test. Forgot to study, working too much at the family business,” he chuckled, remembering the argument between him and his parents.
He’d actually thought he was being responsible, working and making his own way, and he slipped up on one test and got himself grounded. His mom warned him about turning into a workaholic, even back then, and damned if she wasn’t right. It’s all he thought about now. A child would do wonders and help him find the balance missing in his life.
“Nice to meet a rich boy who wasn’t spoiled.”
“I was spoiled,” he admitted, “but that was more being the only child than anything else. Mom had more than enough time to spend with me, and Dad, well, he wanted to make sure I grew up to be a good man and not some freeloader. Private school, tutors, whatever I needed, it was there.”
Evelyn lifted her eyes to his. “Sounds spoiled to me.”
“You’ll have to get used to that,” he told her honestly. “A child we have, growing up in my family, won’t want for anything.”
“More than I could ever hope to provide on my own.” The words were so quiet he almost didn’t catch them. Her cell rang, and she dug in her purse. “Shit, I have to get to work.”
Viktor’s lips twitched in disappointment. “You need me to drive you?”
“No, I work just down the road at the diner,” she told him as she put her coat on.
“What’s your other job?”
“Temporary office assistant,” she grumbled. “Not the best, but it pays the bills, and right now, it’s what I have to do to get by.”
He stood when she did. “I would like to do this again,” he said quickly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Would you be able to meet tomorrow night?”
“Yeah, it’s my night off from the diner. Just text me, and thanks for the coffee, Viktor.”
He opened his mouth, ready to tell her he wanted her to be the woman for this job and he’d do whatever he had to do to convince her, but the words stuck in his throat. “It was good to meet you, and thanks for reading those letters.”
“Oh, the letters,” she muttered as she dug in her purse. “I brought them for you. Didn’t want them lying around, just in case.”
He took the letters from her. “Thanks, I appreciate it. I’m a pretty private person.”
“Don’t worry, you’re in good company. I have to run,” she said and waved before turning and hurrying out of the café.
Viktor grinned and sat back down heavily. The waiter returned and asked if he would need anything else. He might as well actually eat lunch while he was there and ordered the seafood chowder to tide him over for the rest of the day.
As he waited for his food, he debated his decision to so quickly ask her to be the mother of his child, but something about her eyes, the way she moved, pulled him in. He wanted her and knew he wouldn’t find another woman like her. She was an even better choice than Bridget. Evelyn’s drug addict parents had worried him for a moment, but he saw the hate in her eyes when she spoke about them. Based on her looks and behavior, drugs were not an issue. She was tough, had proved that by getting through so many foster homes as a kid and making it out in one piece.
Viktor actually thought she was better off for it. She was a strong-willed woman. Her morals were sound, and anyone who could hold down two jobs at a time and not look like they were ready to break was someone who knew how to handle stress. He wanted—no, needed—to know so much more about Evelyn, and he hoped that would come when she was able to trust him. Just like he would have to learn to trust her, the only way this arrangement would work. A test he hoped he would pass when it came time to prove it.
The passion in her eyes when he’d briefly mentioned the baby gave him hope, too, that she was the right woman. Her past almost guaranteed she would be devoted to the child, and he would never have to worry about her sticking to the contract.
His food arrived, but he didn’t get a chance to eat before his cell rang. He pulled it out and thanked God it wasn’t his mom, but his dad was no better sometimes. “Dad, how’s it going?”
“Going as well as always when your mother is driving me up a damn wall,” he muttered.
“What did she do now?”
“Just tell me you’ll find a girlfriend soon so she stops muttering under her breath about the horrible son I raised who won’t give her grandchildren.”
Viktor grunted and pushed his food aside. He rubbed his forehead as he told his dad she needed a hobby of some sort to keep her busy. A thought popped into his head, and though it seemed premature and he hoped he wasn’t jinxing himself, he said, “Dad, let her know I might be bringing someone around soon, but only if she stops harassing me. I’m not bringing over a woman and have her get the grandchild lecture the first time they meet.”
Silence met his words until his dad burst out laughing. “I knew you had it in you, son.”
“I’m not bringing her around right away,” he warned his dad. “Not until I know if things are going to work out.”
That, and he couldn’t risk letting his parents find out what he was really up to with Evelyn. If they knew the actual circumstances and what he had planned for their future, his mom would smack him upside the head at best. At worst, they would be utterly disgraced to have a son who would hire a woman to have his baby.
No, he and Evelyn needed time to get to know each other, maybe even start to care for each other as friends before he risked introducing her to his family. Not that he was worried about him coming to care for her. Certainly not love, but something about this woman called to him, and he was anxious to get to know more about who she was beneath the brave face she wore.
“I’ll let her know,” his dad said, still chuckling. “Are you stopping by for dinner tonight?”
“If I’m not too late at the office,” he said. “And tell Mom not to call me with questions. I won’t answer.” Viktor still had to find out all the answers to those questions she would ask, anyway. All he knew about Evelyn right now was that she worked two jobs and had been a foster kid.
If they were to pull this off, he would have to know about her whole life, and vice versa. That meant even
tually opening up old wounds. His stomach twisted in knots, and Viktor lost his appetite. He laid some bills on the table and left before anyone else witnessed the pain filling him.
Chapter 7
The diner wasn’t very busy for a Thursday evening, and Evelyn found herself with way too much time to think while she filled salt and pepper shakers. Only she and another waitress, the cook, and their manager were at work, and everyone tried to find things to do to pass the time. She wanted to stop thinking about Viktor in that flannel shirt, but the image wouldn’t dissipate.
“Hey, Evie, you might want to get that in the container,” the cook, Bryan, called from the kitchen.
“Wha—oh, shit!” She tipped the salt container back up, cursing even more at the pile of salt she’d created on the counter instead of in the shaker. “Great, that’s perfect.”
Bryan chuckled, making his beer gut jiggle as he came out from behind the pass through window to get another cup of coffee. “Something on your mind, girlie?”
She brushed the salt off the counter into her hand and tossed it into the nearby trash can. “Just the usual,” she grouched, pouring again, making sure to focus on the task at hand. Bryan got his coffee and leaned against the counter next to her, eyeing her with one brow raised. “What?”
“You have a glint in your eyes.”
“No, I don’t,” she argued, trying not to notice how his other eyebrow raised, too. “Bryan, I look like I always do, with the added stress of fighting off creditors and angry landlords.”
“If you say so. What’s wrong with both of those? Thought everything was squared away.” He watched two customers leave, telling them to have a good night. They were regulars, like most of the people in the diner that night and every night once October rolled around. “Are you having money troubles again?” he asked quietly.
Her lips thinned as she screwed the cap on the shaker and grabbed another one. “You’re not supposed to ask me about money troubles.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what friends do. So are you?”
“I wouldn’t be if they didn’t claim I misread a payment amount,” she sighed. “I swore I sent in the right amount, but they claim it barely covered the payment for the month, and now, I’m on the hook for that, a late fee, and next month’s payment. I can’t work enough hours to get that money.”
Bryan muttered curses under his breath. “This is why I offered to loan you some of the money. You should’ve taken me up on it.”
The last thing she wanted was to owe one of her friends money, especially when she didn’t know if she’d ever get that house up and running the way she wanted. It would take funding which she knew she could get, but first, she had to renovate the place out of her own pocket. All she’d been able to do was buy the place. Fixing it up was going to take another year or two with the way things were going. The last job she’d had paid well and was supposed to last for a few years, but the company went bankrupt and she was back at the temp agency. At least the diner job was always open for her, but that barely brought in enough to cover groceries and a few utilities.
You won’t have to worry if you go through with the baby thing, she told herself. Kill two birds with one stone. You get to be the mom you’ve always wanted and your debts will be wiped out completely.
At some point, she’d have to tell Viktor about the land and house she bought, but if he was researching her life, he might already know. So why not bring it up today as a liability for offering her the contract?
“You’re doing it again,” Bryan whispered. Evelyn glanced down and cursed vividly as a few of the old widowed men who frequented the diner laughed with Bryan.
“I tell you, Evie, if your mother heard you curse like that,” Billy said, “she’d be so proud of you.”
Evelyn grinned. Most of the town knew her foster parents and had known her since they took her in at age twelve. “Yeah, she probably would, but I’m sure my manager wouldn’t be.” She cleaned up the mess with the salt again and braced herself against the counter.
“Maybe you need to go home for the night,” Bryan suggested. “You look off.”
“First, you said I had a glint in my eyes, and now, I just look off?”
He shrugged, scratching his beard stubble. “Yeah, something like that. It’s not a bad off though…Well, some of it is, but not all of it.”
She stared at him long and hard, eyeing his coffee mug. “Bryan, have you been hitting the whiskey again? You’re not making any sense.”
“Maybe not, but I’m sure your brother will see it, too,” he said and nodded towards the door.
Evelyn rolled her eyes as Bryan waved at Ajay before disappearing back into the kitchen. “Ajay,” she welcomed. “Coffee?”
“Yeah, need it today. Didn’t sleep last night. How’s your furnace problem?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s great,” she lied, setting up a mug for her brother. “I love the intermittent moments of it actually working.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” he snapped. “I’ll come over tonight and fix it again.”
“Can’t. It’s already fixed the best it can be. I just need a new one,” she said, biting her cheek. A new furnace was not cheap, but she guessed she would just add it to the rest of her bills piling up.
She pictured herself living with Viktor in his home, secure in the knowledge that she would never have to worry about buying a new furnace should it go out, or the AC, or her car, or any other issues that tended to arise when she was on the verge of being broke again. Did she want to be a kept woman, though? Never having to work again or worry about money? She wasn’t used to taking handouts and did not want to be a freeloader. And what if the man she met today wasn’t the real Viktor Hartmann? He was nice enough, but it could be an act to get what he wanted. It wouldn’t be the first time a man had done that to her.
She didn’t discuss her love-life with anyone, mostly because there wasn’t one, but also because things had happened to her which she wasn’t ready to face. The only guy she ever technically dated, very briefly, was Ajay. He’d moved out of the house and was living on his own. Evelyn was at his place a lot, mainly to get away from the other foster kids Diana and Daniel looked after. She and Ajay grew close, kissed a few times, but nothing more happened between them. Their friendship was too great and more like siblings than anything else, but in the scheme of things, it had been good they tried. Evelyn had figured out her other issue because of it.
“What’s up with you today?” Ajay asked, eyeing her funny.
“Nothing. I’m just worried about the heat,” she said quickly.
“Right, and I’m the damn pope.”
“See? Told you,” Bryan called from the kitchen.
“Aren’t you supposed to be cooking something back there, beer gut?” she yelled back, and Bryan barked a laugh. “Ajay wants his usual, but burn the bacon a bit, would you?”
“Hey, now, don’t mess with a man’s bacon,” Ajay argued. “All I did was ask what happened to you today. You look… happy and weird all at the same time.”
She bobbed her head, concentrating on filling the shakers and not reminiscing on her lunch with Viktor nor how his gray eyes turned silver when he laughed. Or how his hand felt in hers, rough and calloused from his days working in the yard with the guys. He was nothing like she’d expected for a man of high society. Even the beard threw her off, but God, did she want to tug on it.
When she pictured herself doing just that as he pulled her close and kissed her, Evelyn froze. What the hell was she doing? She couldn’t kiss the man! She knew exactly what would happen if she let herself get close. She would not trust him enough—not right away—to let him kiss her the way she imagined. All heat and tongue and—
“I’ll be right back,” she told her brother and hurried to the bathroom. Thankfully, it was a single use and she rushed inside, locking the door loudly, and turned to the mirror.
She felt them popping up on her torso and arms and lifted her shirt to find red splotches
scattered across her stomach. She cursed and grabbed a wet paper towel, pressing it against the bad ones while trying to avoid thoughts of Viktor in any capacity besides a business partner.
She’d thought after lunch and the way she held his hand, the hives would’ve shown up then, but when they hadn’t, she’d been excited. Maybe she was getting over what had happened to her. Apparently not. The hives flared up, but thankfully, they didn’t reach her neck or face like they usually did. If Ajay spotted them, he’d know something more was going on. What would Ajay think about her arrangement with this man? She knew he’d tell their foster parents right away, and then she’d really be in for it.
“You’re going to do this,” she told her reflection sternly. “Hives or not, this is your chance to get everything you want. Get away from your past for good and be a mom.”
She’d be sure to tell Viktor about the land and old rundown house soon, but first, she had to know she could trust him. As much as she wanted to believe this was her golden ticket, trusting someone with her whole life and the life of her child was going to be harder than just signing her name to a piece of paper. She glanced at the hives and frowned. How would she explain these without telling him the truth? Would she ever trust him enough to tell him?
When she’d told him about her parents, she thought he would react poorly, but he’d taken it in stride. Hopefully, he would do the same with the rest of the baggage she’d bring with her. She just hoped she could handle whatever ghosts still haunted him, too.
Chapter 8
Tim knocked on the door to Viktor’s office to tell him he was heading home for the night. “Don’t stay too late,” he warned. “Work will still be here for you tomorrow.”
“Night, Tim,” he acknowledged without looking up from his computer.
“Right. Night, Vik,” he said and disappeared.
Viktor leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. Ever since his face-to-face with Evelyn, he couldn’t get the woman out of his head. The way she tugged on her braid and the spectrum of colors in those brown eyes that held his gaze so steadily when she’d challenged him like no one ever has. He swung his chair slowly from side to side, trying to figure out his next move, when another knock sounded at his door.
