“Close the door and sit down, Kyle,” she directed as she hung her coat in the closet of her luxurious corner office with its wide windows overlooking the Twin Cities and the Mississippi River, which separated Minneapolis and St. Paul at its confluence with the Minnesota River. As Kyle cast his suit jacket aside and sat down in one of the two plush chairs before her elegant, cherry-wood Queen Anne desk, Caroline took her own seat behind it, drawing a deep breath before she spoke again. “Kyle, you know you’re one of my favorite cousins,” she began, only to have him interrupt with a wry grin.
“But I’m not living up to your expectations, am I? I’ve let you down in more ways than one, especially by falling asleep at the conference table earlier, and now you’ve got to fire me. Oh, don’t look so surprised and chagrined, Caro. You’re not the only one who’s got a handle on Grandmother and what she meant this morning with her observations about my character. And to tell you the truth, I’ve sensed this day was coming. In a way, I’m actually even glad and relieved that it’s here. It’s saved me from quitting.” Kyle paused for a moment, running his hand through his sun-streaked hair, his smile rueful but his blue eyes sober.
“I know you gave me a chance, Caro, and for your sake, I’m sorry your promoting me to your assistant hasn’t worked out. But unfortunately, Grandmother was right. I just don’t belong here at Fortune Cosmetics. Hell. I’m starting to believe I don’t belong anywhere! Frankly, the fascination of my jet-setting nightlife began to pall some time ago. But I just can’t seem to find anything more worthwhile to replace it. If you want to know the truth, I’m restless and bored to tears. Honestly, half the time, I feel like just chucking it all and going off to hole up in the wild somewhere, becoming a mountain man or something.”
“Well, why don’t you, then?” Caroline asked, her brow knitted with caring and concern. “Just because you have money doesn’t mean you have to be a playboy all your life, Kyle.”
“I know that. But you know how we Fortunes are, Caro. From Grandmother on down, we’re all a spoiled, stubborn lot, each of us in our own fashion determined to have our own way, no matter how foolish. Look at Adam, running off to join the army. Look at you, hiding behind those glasses you don’t need and cutting yourself off from men all because of that worthless Paul Andersen. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not criticizing you, Caro. I’m commiserating. God knows, I haven’t done any better myself in the love department,” Kyle stated glumly. “I need to get out less, and you need to get out more—and that’s a fact. I noticed Nick Valkov seemed quite taken with you this morning.”
At his words, Caroline felt a blush once more creeping up to stain her cheeks. She frowned at her cousin censoriously. “That’s ridiculous! Why, the man’s as big a playboy as you, Kyle. He could have any woman he wanted. Why should he be interested in me?”
“Well, if you’d ever take off those stupid glasses, let down your hair and look in the mirror once in a while, Caro, you’d know. You’re as beautiful as Allie, damn it! You could be one of Fortune’s Fabulous Faces yourself.”
“Oh, Kyle, that’s so sweet of you to say so. But you know it’s not true.”
“The hell it isn’t. Why, if you weren’t my cousin, I’d be tempted myself.” He flashed her the devastating grin that had charmed and then broken so many hearts. “There’s always something about an ice queen that makes a man want to melt her. Trust me. Nick Valkov isn’t any exception. I know the signs. He’s interested in taking up the challenge, all right.” Kyle stood, tossing his jacket carelessly over his shoulder and jamming one hand into his trouser pocket. Then he leaned across her desk to kiss her lightly on the cheek. “So why don’t you loosen up, Caro? Give the man a chance. And don’t feel bad about firing me. You’ve done me a favor. Take care of yourself—and I’ll see you around.” Whistling cheerfully, he sauntered from her office, leaving her staring after him, dwelling on his words.
After a long moment, Caroline shook her head, resolutely forcing herself from her reverie. Kyle was crazy. Nick Valkov had deliberately taunted her this morning only to amuse himself at her expense. He had no real interest whatsoever in her.
Absolutely none.
Two
It was after dark when Nick Valkov pulled into the driveway of his large, elegant house situated on one of the beautiful lakes beyond Minneapolis’s city limits. Pressing the button of the remote control to open one of the three doors, he parked his Mercedes-Benz in the garage. Then he went inside, taking his attaché with him. It contained paperwork from the office, along with his mail, which he had retrieved a few moments ago from his mailbox.
In the great room, whose floor-to-ceiling windows provided a panoramic view of the lake beyond, Nick stripped off his heavy wool topcoat, leather gloves, suit jacket and tie, carelessly tossing them over a chair. Then he loosened his collar and poured himself a shot of Stolichnaya vodka from the Waterford crystal decanter on the bar. Sipping the drink, he settled into one of the comfortable overstuffed chairs and flipped open his briefcase. Withdrawing his mail, he began to sort through it, pitching to one side what was obviously junk and placing the rest into a pile.
It was when he came to an envelope bearing the return address of the Immigration and Naturalization Service that he paused, tearing it open to read the tersely worded letter inside. He was so stunned by its contents that at first he couldn’t believe his eyes. He swore softly, stricken.
“No, this just can’t be right! There must be some mistake somewhere!” he insisted to himself. Both anger and fear roiled inside him as he mentally watched all his hopes, dreams and plans for the future going up in smoke, vanishing as though they had never been.
He had been declared an undesirable alien and was going to be deported from the United States! Sent back to Russia! He was to surrender himself to the nearest INS office, bringing his passport and green card with him. These instructions were followed by stern warnings of the legal measures that would be taken against him if he disobeyed.
Nick was devastated. Although the letter did not precisely come right out and say so, it hinted that he had been identified as a former KGB agent—which wasn’t true in the least. The very idea was ridiculous! He was a chemist—and a damned good one—not a spy! Still, if he were to remain in the United States, he had no doubt that he was, at the very least, facing a protracted, expensive legal battle to prove himself innocent of whatever accusations had been made against him.
The notion of returning to his own country held no appeal whatsoever. Ever since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia had been in a state of political turmoil. Nick did miss his homeland—which was why Minnesota, with all its wintry frozen lakes and snowy countryside—had drawn him to settle in the Twin Cities area. But he did not in the least long for the constant upheaval born of the ideological struggles of Russia’s government officials.
Reaching for the telephone, Nick picked up the receiver and punched in the number of Kate Fortune’s private line at the office. He let the telephone ring endlessly, but there was no response, so he finally tried her at home. When she answered, he spoke, relieved to have caught her.
“Kate? It’s Nick Valkov. I’m sorry to disturb you at home, but something important has come up, which I thought you would want to know about right away. Is this a good time to talk—or do you have plans for the evening?”
“Actually, Sterling and I were just about to have a quiet dinner here at home, but if necessary, I can have the housekeeper set it back for a while.
“Hold on a minute, Nick,” she continued briskly, “while I let Sterling know, so he can give instructions to Mrs. Brant.” She placed her hand over the receiver to muffle the sound of her calling out to Sterling. Then she spoke to Nick again. “Now, why don’t you tell me what’s up?”
He explained about the letter from the INS, finishing with, “Needless to say, I’m very upset about all this, Kate—not to mention just utterly baffled. I simply can’t imagine where the INS might have got the idea that I was a former K
GB agent, for heaven’s sake! Of course, I did do chemical research and development for the government—but it was never anything of a sensitive nature. I was then and still am staunchly against chemical warfare, and I have never assisted nor would I ever assist any government in developing anything of that sort. Even so, I suppose it’s possible somebody’s got the mistaken notion that I aided and abetted my homeland in that capacity and somehow confused my work with some secretive KGB operation.
“At any rate, because of my involvement with Fabulous Face and its importance to you, I thought I’d better let you know about all this immediately, Kate.” Nick sighed heavily as, reaching for his discarded suit jacket, he withdrew a pack of Player’s cigarettes from the inside pocket. Shaking one out, he lit up, inhaling deeply, then blowing a cloud of smoke into the air.
“I thought you were going to quit smoking,” Kate scolded like a mother hen as she heard the sound of his exhaled breath.
“Well, I was. I mean…I am. But damn it, Kate! This news from the INS has put me under a real strain. I don’t want to go back to Russia—and I certainly don’t want to lose my position at Fortune Cosmetics because I’m so involved in a legal battle that I can’t do my job!”
“You don’t need to worry about that, Nick. We’re so close now to completing my secret youth formula that you can be assured I don’t intend to let you escape from Fortune Cosmetics. We’ll just have to find some way of circumventing the INS, that’s all.
“Sterling!” Kate called, one hand muffling the receiver again. “Pick up the extension, so you can get in on this discussion. The INS thinks Nick’s a former KGB agent, and they’re attempting to deport him—and I’m not going to lose my foremost chemist. Not only is he too valuable to the company, but I just can’t let him get away with all that knowledge he’s got in his head about Fabulous Face,” Kate declared, chuckling, removing her hand from the receiver. “Some foreign government might grab him and steal my secret youth formula, turn it into an aging cream instead. Then women everywhere would find their skin wrinkling up rather than smoothing out—and that would start World War Three!”
Despite himself, Nick couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s right, Kate,” he agreed. “It’s all a fiendish master plot. That’s why I don’t have a wife or even a steady girlfriend. I plan to be one of the lucky men who survives, who isn’t done in by a thoroughly enraged woman.”
“But of course, that’s precisely what you need, Nick.” Sterling spoke from the extension he had picked up to join in the conversation. “Not an enraged woman, but a wife, I mean. That would be the solution to all your problems.”
“A wife?” Nick exclaimed, dismayed. “Now, why would I want one of those, Sterling?”
“Because even if you were a former KGB agent, if you were married to an American citizen, the INS couldn’t do anything to you. You’d be in this country legally, and you wouldn’t need a green card, so they couldn’t deport you. That’s the law,” the attorney elucidated.
“So…what? I’m supposed to just pick some woman off the street and ask her to marry me?” Nick gibed. “Sterling, you surely can’t imagine that the INS is going to believe that upon receipt of their letter, I just suddenly fell in love and found a wife. They’ll know it’s a setup.”
“I agree,” Kate said, the wheels of her sharp mind churning furiously. “That’s why we’ll need to go about this very carefully and keep it as quiet as possible—keep it all in the family, so to speak.”
“Kate, what are you thinking?” Sterling queried suspiciously. He had known her for so many years that he was well aware of how her mind worked, so even as he asked the question, he had some inkling of where she was headed.
“I’m thinking that I have several beautiful granddaughters, many of whom are single—and that at least two of them, Caroline and Allison, work for Fortune Cosmetics, besides. Now, Allison is extremely high profile, so she isn’t a good choice at all. But Caroline…Caroline has always been very publicity shy. She is, as you both know, one of the movers and shakers behind the scenes of the Fortune empire, vice president of marketing at Fortune Cosmetics—and intimately involved in the development of Fabulous Face. She’s not married. And it didn’t seem to me this morning that you were too averse to her, Nick.”
Nick didn’t know what to say. He felt as though he were dreaming. But shaking his head to clear it didn’t cause him suddenly to wake up in his bed. The idea that he might marry Caroline Fortune—with Kate’s blessing—seemed so fantastic as to be unreal.
Today was by no means the first time he had ever noticed Caroline. But just as she had this morning, she had always rejected the tentative overtures he had made to her in the past, shutting him down cold.
In the corridors of the Fortune Cosmetics building, she was known behind her back as the Ice Queen. She represented a challenge to every man at the company. But since her disastrous affair with Paul Andersen, she had let no man get close to her.
“Nick.” Kate’s voice startled him from his reverie. “You’re not saying anything. Do you find the idea of marrying my granddaughter Caroline so objectionable, then, that you can’t bring yourself to tell me, for fear of offending me?”
He cleared his throat, took another long drag from his cigarette. “No, it’s…ah…not that at all, Kate. Among other things, Caroline is quite lovely, creative and intelligent—and most men would consider themselves lucky to have her. But…well, her past relationship with Paul Andersen is pretty common knowledge at Fortune Cosmetics, as is the fact that ever since then, she’s held men at arm’s length. So I just simply can’t imagine that she would agree to this wild scheme of yours.”
“Well, we won’t know until we ask her. What’s important at the moment is whether you’re willing to consider it, Nick. To paraphrase your own words about Caroline, you’re a handsome, creative, intelligent man—and most women would consider themselves lucky to have you. But from what I hear, you pretty much play the field. And of course, that will no longer be an option for you if you marry my granddaughter.” Kate’s pleasant but firm tone made it plain that she would expect Nick to treat Caroline with every respect and consideration due her as his wife, even though theirs would be a marriage of convenience rather than one born of love.
“Of course, if I agreed to marry Caroline, I would do so with every intention of settling down and doing all that’s right and expected, Kate.” Nick was indignant that his employer might have thought otherwise. “I just don’t know if this is such a good idea, that’s all. Caroline and I hardly even know each other, for pity’s sake.”
“Well, why don’t you give it some thought, Nick. Sleep on it, and let me know your decision tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I’ll have Sterling start checking into the various legalities of the matter. After all, there’s no point in even considering the idea if the INS is going to be able to declare the marriage a sham and deport you, anyway. I’ll also speak to Jake, let him know what’s happening. The first thing I want you to do when you get into the office tomorrow morning, Nick, is to clear your calendar, so you can meet with Sterling and me, and possibly Jake and Caroline, as well.”
“Fine. That sounds good. I’ll plan on that, then,” Nick replied—although, inwardly, he groaned, thinking that this whole thing had “harebrained scheme” stamped all over it. How could he possibly ask Caroline Fortune to marry him, just to save his life here in the United States? He remembered how frostily she had stared at him this morning, how coolly she had attempted to put him in his place. She would never say yes.
Not in a million years.
Three
Caroline simply couldn’t believe the conversation taking place in her grandmother’s luxurious penthouse office at Fortune Cosmetics. She thought she must be imagining the fact that she was sitting here listening to Kate calmly explaining Nick Valkov’s troubles with the INS, as well as what seemed to all to be the only practical solution—all, that was, except for Caroline.
She thought with dismay that
her grandmother must finally have slipped into senility, must surely have taken leave of her senses. The idea that she, Caroline Fortune, should marry Nick Valkov was absolutely ludicrous. She was astonished and mortified that her grandmother had even suggested it. That Kate’s expression and tone clearly indicated that she expected her to comply with the proposed plan filled her with panic.
From beneath her long, thick black lashes, Caroline stole a surreptitious glance at Nick. Much to her surprise and relief, she saw that at least he wasn’t sitting there grinning mockingly at her, as he had yesterday morning. Today, in fact, he actually looked as uncomfortable as she herself felt at this moment.
Caroline didn’t know whether to empathize with him or to be indignant at the realization that he obviously wasn’t too enthused at the prospect of becoming her husband. Despite the fact that she certainly did not want to become his wife, she was piqued by the realization that he didn’t want to marry her—although, as an incentive to agree to the scheme, her father had offered to up Nick’s salary handsomely, as well as to pay him a six-figure bonus on the wedding day.
The wedding day, Caroline thought a trifle bitterly. The wedding deal was more like it. Because that’s exactly what this arrangement was: a business deal, pure and simple. Her grandmother and father were paying Nick Valkov to marry her, so he wouldn’t get involved in a protracted legal battle with the INS and wind up being deported, unable to complete the secret youth formula of such vital importance to Fortune Cosmetics.
Why, it was worse, somehow, than if she had married Paul Andersen! Caroline told herself hotly. At least Paul had had some feelings for her, had cared about her as much as he was capable, even if it had been her money he had loved more than her.
“Caroline…you’ve barely said anything at all,” Kate observed, not without a note of caring and compassion.
Hired Husband Page 3
