Guarding the Heiress

by Debra Webb

  That succulent, peach-ripe mouth of hers tilted into a smile of her own. Doug tamped down the nearly overpowering need to lean across the seat and taste her.

  “Tonight,” she promised, “we’ll get down to business.”

  She shoved open her door and bounded out of the truck. Doug sat absolutely still for the space of three beats. He was certain her statement held no hidden meaning. He was positive she hadn’t looked at his mouth with as much longing as he’d looked at hers.

  But part of him wasn’t convinced at all.

  Chapter Five

  By the time Eddi called it a day she was pretty sure Mr. Douglas Cooper had never before put in a full day of manual labor in his entire life. Not that he wasn’t physically capable, mind you. He was that. A little shiver danced up her spine each time she considered just how physically capable he was. And not that he proved lazy either. He went out of his way to assist her and behaved as if he was taken aback by what she expected of herself. She was nearly positive he considered her line of work a man’s job.

  Well, it might traditionally be a man’s occupation, but she was as good as any male plumber she’d ever had the occasion to run across.

  No, her conclusion that Doug wasn’t the manual-labor type had more to do with his sensibilities. He struck her as the sort of guy who did whatever necessary to accomplish his ultimate goal or mission. But he did so with entirely too much poise and grace not to stand out as different. Other than his clothing being a little more wrinkled and his hair ever so slightly mussed, he looked just as he had that morning.

  She, on the other hand, looked a fright. Her overalls were stained and stiff in spots where she’d gotten liquid Teflon glue all over her from one job. Then there was the greasy flux from the copper-pipe repair at Mr. Cagle’s. Not to mention the sad state of the braid hanging a little lopsided down her back. She’d gotten it caught on a shut-off valve in a particularly tight spot inside a bathroom vanity. Doug had saved the day by untangling her hair since she’d had glue all over her hands. The way he’d had to reach in and blindly grope to get her hair loose still made her stomach flip-flop. God knew there’d hardly been room for her in there, his assistance had forced certain parts of his body to press against certain parts of hers. Whew! She’d scarcely survived the tension. It was definitely the most excitement she’d experienced since Tommy Hayden copped a feel senior prom night. And, she had to admit, she enjoyed Doug’s inadvertent intimacy way more than she had Tommy’s.

  Eddi realized right then and there that the Club was right. She was pathetic…hopeless…doomed. At this rate she’d never land a boyfriend, much less a husband. Maybe those meddling old ladies were right about the family curse.

  Twenty-five was only a few days away….

  “Are we getting out?”

  Doug couldn’t say for sure whether Eddi was simply tired or if something else was wrong, but she looked up at him as if her whole world had just crashed in around her.

  Damn, this new reality was finally sinking in, he presumed. He surveyed her disheveled appearance and admitted that she was still quite attractive in spite of it. But she was obviously overwhelmed by the news that her heritage was not what she’d thought it to be, and the most confusing and complicated was yet to come. She would never again know true privacy. Her every move, every word would be a matter of public scrutiny.

  What she was about to face was the very thing he’d walked away from. He blinked and looked away, his stomach suddenly full of knots.

  “Sorry…I was just thinking.” She opened her door and got out, but her movements lacked her usual carefree flair.

  Doug regretted that more than anything else. Though he’d only known her about twenty-four hours, he liked the old Eddi. The one who laughed with her customers and treated them as if they were family. He thought of the mother, Millicent, and the father, Harvey, who’d reared their daughter with such pride. The hurt he’d noted in their eyes would not be banished from his conscience for a long time to come. Then he considered Solange D’Martine. He wondered if she had any idea how much discomfort and uncertainty her desire to know Eddi was going to generate. The question as to whether or not she cared crossed his mind next.

  As he followed Eddi inside her small cozy home his cell phone vibrated. He slipped it from his pocket and snapped it open just inside the front door.

  “Cooper.”

  “Mrs. D’Martine would like an update.”

  Mr. Thurston. Impatient, demanding. It was somewhat less than reassuring to know that the man’s personality was composed of so few facets. Doug had yet to see him display any other emotions.

  “Things are going well,” Doug reported, careful not to show his own impatience. He’d hardly been on the scene twenty-four hours. Mr. Thurston himself had only left that morning. What did he expect to have happened in the limited time that had passed since his departure?

  “Mrs. D’Martine would like a definite date.”

  A scowl puckered Doug’s forehead. “That decision has not been reached as yet.”

  “Look,” Thurston huffed, “there is no reason to put off the inevitable. Mrs. D’Martine wants to see her granddaughter no later than Sunday. She would like to present the young lady in a public announcement on Thursday evening at the biannual gala.”

  “That’s less than a week away,” Doug argued. That wasn’t enough time. There was too much she needed to know, to understand. “That’s too soon.”

  Eddi paused on the other side of her living room and stared at him with worry etched across her face.

  “Work it out. The board has decided to convene a special meeting on Wednesday,” Thurston barked. “Make sure she’s ready,” he added before disconnecting.

  Doug glared at the phone and considered throwing it across the room before he reined in his temper, closed the cell phone and put it away. He sighed and shook his head. Thurston had done just exactly what Doug was afraid he’d do. Now that the Harpers had been made aware of the D’Martines’ discovery, the ball was rolling, the clock was counting down. The patience Thurston had proclaimed had vanished into thin air. They wanted what they wanted and they wanted it now.

  “What was that about?” Eddi asked hesitantly. The expression on her face told him that she wasn’t sure she cared to know.

  Doug met that worried gaze and told her the truth, “The schedule just got pushed up. Your grandmother would like to see you on Sunday. There’s some sort of special meeting scheduled with the board of directors on Wednesday and a gala on Thursday where she would like to publicly announce you as her granddaughter.” He stiffened his spine and forced a more authoritative tone. “Can you be ready by then?”

  She backed up a step, looking anywhere but at him now. “I need a shower. Let…let me think about this….” She did an about-face and disappeared down the hall.

  Doug massaged his forehead with his fingers. A headache had suddenly begun there. There could be no more patiently waiting for her to make up her mind, he had to start preparing her immediately. No one could force her to do this, but if she decided to take the plunge he had to make sure she was ready. And if she refused, well, he had a feeling Thurston already had a backup plan in place. Now that the attorney’s true colors had been exposed, Doug could see him leaking the news to the press and forcing Eddi to take a stand one way or the other.

  Up until now Doug had primarily focused on preparing her for the media frenzy, but there was still the tainted kidnapping that hung over the D’Martine name. The idea that the original kidnapper was still out there and might try his hand again was a bit farfetched in his opinion, but it wasn’t completely impossible. Nor was the concept that someone new might attempt to do the same thing. The whole tragedy would be rehashed in the media, adding additional fuel to the possibility of a second attempt at milking the D’Martine fortune.

  This had to be handled very carefully. Starting right now and starting with Eddi.

  EDDI STRIPPED OFF her clothes and stepped beneath the warm
spray of the shower. Once she’d shampooed, conditioned and rinsed her hair, she slumped against the cool aqua tile and allowed the emotions she’d been avoiding to consume her. How could she do this? How could she permit it to happen? The whole world would know the truth about who her father really was…and how would that make her dad feel? She had to consider his feelings. And what about her mother? How would she feel about the world knowing she’d gotten pregnant by one man and married another?

  Squeezing her eyes shut to avoid the tears, Eddi told herself that she couldn’t avoid the truth. Couldn’t run away from reality. Mrs. D’Martine—her grandmother—wasn’t going to let sleeping dogs lie. To an extent, Eddi could even understand how the woman felt. She’d lost her son, now she’d discovered that a part of her son still existed. Of course she wanted to be involved in Eddi’s life. But at what cost?

  Forcing herself to go through the motions of cleansing her body, she considered the other side of the coin, too. The money. If she accepted her destiny as the D’Martine heir, and assuming they all survived the media fallout, her parents would never again have to worry about money. The hardware store could be a relaxing hobby rather than an eked-out living. Her mother could afford the finest physical therapists and Eddi could always go to college.

  She groaned. She’d never really wanted to go to college. Okay, well, maybe just a little. There had been no time and she hadn’t exactly needed a degree to do her job. But Eddi knew that her parents desperately wanted her to have that opportunity. Eddi, on the other hand, could truthfully say she had no idea what she wanted to do with the rest of her life if it didn’t include the hardware store and plumbing.

  Who’d had time to really think about it? The last twenty-four hours had been a whirlwind of life-altering events. Besides, why would she have wasted the effort? Eddi had trained herself long ago not to wish for what she couldn’t have…not to think about what was beyond her reach.

  But now things had changed. That would take some getting used to. There were options.

  Options that would bring pain to her family, she reminded herself as she shut off the faucet. She thought about that as she toweled herself dry. But, to a degree, the hurt had come anyway and she was pretty sure her grandmother D’Martine had no intention of backing off.

  Eddi wrapped the towel around her and sat down on the closed toilet lid. She thought a while about Edouard D’Martine. Of how he’d loved her mother enough to go against his family and of how his life had been stolen from him at such a young age. Barely older than Eddi was right now. For the first time since learning the truth, her heart ached for the man who had been her biological father. His blood flowed through her veins and his heritage was hers if she wanted it…but she would never know him. She blinked away the sting of tears. It truly was a tragedy.

  It would be selfish of her to exclude Solange D’Martine from her life, no matter what had happened in the past. Just as it would be selfish of her to turn her back on an inheritance from which her family would benefit greatly in the long run.

  Eddi could be whoever she needed to be. If an heiress was the required role for keeping her whole family happy, then she could play the part. How bad could it be? With the extra money he would have, her father could hire a new plumber to serve the residents of Meadowbrook. Eddi could go to college…maybe. She’d find something to do.

  It was the right thing.

  She’d known that from the beginning or at least after the initial shock, but now she was considering both sides of the coin. Her grandmother D’Martine deserved a chance.

  Eddi would give her that. Doing the right thing was what Eddi did best. As the disbelief—the shock—faded, more questions came. Like how did her grandmother finally learn about her? Eddi wanted more answers…soon.

  After she’d slipped on a comfortable sweatshirt and running shorts, she tidied the bathroom, slinging her damp towel over the shower-curtain bar, and went in search of Doug.

  She needed those lessons now. If she was going to do this, she definitely wanted to do it to the best of her ability. Making a fool of herself was not a notion she relished. No one made it through life, especially high-school years, without having a few moments of utter humiliation, but Eddi preferred to avoid it if possible.

  Near the kitchen doorway she slowed. Doug had evidently searched her fridge and pantry for the makings of dinner. She found him chopping veggies for a salad. Inside the microwave her favorite frozen Italian entrée steamed as it slowly circled on the glass turntable.

  Eddi opened her mouth to say something witty like, “Oh, the bodyguard cooks as well,” but she deliberately closed it and took some time instead to observe her protector in silence and, unbelievably, without his knowledge.

  The one thing she’d noted with a good measure of certainty in their brief time together was that Doug Cooper was intensely aware of his surroundings. A successful stealth approach would have required nothing short of a miracle, or so she would have thought. That she’d managed the feat only drove home the theory she’d harbored since meeting with the attorney this morning. Doug felt protective of her on more than a physical level. He didn’t like the attorney’s patronizing, pushy attitude. She hadn’t missed the sympathy in his eyes on more than one occasion. For whatever reason, Doug fully empathized with her.

  Interesting, she mused. That was, she felt certain, the source of his preoccupation. The very reason she stood here now watching him without his having noticed. Not that doing so was any sort of hardship. To the contrary; just looking at him was an exhilarating experience. He was more than simply handsome, which was the first thing she’d noticed. The great body added to the pleasing view. But it was much more than that. The way he moved, the way he spoke, even the way he looked at her made little flashes of heat flare deep inside her. She’d never looked at a man and felt precisely like this.

  It had to be that whole turning-twenty-five-doomed-to-be-alone thing the matchmakers had started. They’d planted the seed and now she couldn’t stop the gloom that had sprouted in her subconscious. Probably any guy with whom she’d been forced to spend time would have garnered the same reaction. Not that good-looking guys usually wanted to spend time with her.

  Just then Doug looked up, his gaze collided with hers and heat seared straight through her.

  Okay, so maybe just any guy wouldn’t have ignited that kind of fire…but it was the principle of the thing. She was simply reacting to the subliminal message stuck in her brain. Her subconscious was fighting against the clock. Twenty-five and single was bad enough. But twenty-five and a virgin, well, that was beyond pathetic in the eyes of most. She just hadn’t taken the time to think about it. She’d been too busy being a good daughter.

  “I thought I’d make dinner,” he said as he tossed the array of salad fixings into a big bowl. “Hope you don’t mind.”

  She shook her head since speech was pretty much impossible. Her gaze kept wandering to those bare muscular forearms where he’d rolled up his sleeves. Then she made a visual path over his chest, past the cold steel weapon, until her gaze settled on the vee of tanned skin where his shirt lay open just enough to make her throat tighten and her breathing labored.

  The telephone rang, saving her from certain humiliation since she just couldn’t seem to stop staring at him. She crossed the room, her gaze now fixed firmly on the wall unit hanging next to the back door, and grabbed the receiver. “Hello.”

  “Eddi, dear, how are you this evening?”

  Ms. Irene.

  “Fine.” She tried not to look at Doug now, to focus on the call. She really did, but it didn’t work. “Is everything okay?” Her voice sounded entirely too high-pitched. Dear Lord, what had those old ladies done to her? She couldn’t even think straight.

  “Everything’s just fine,” Irene replied in that fake, too-accommodating voice she used when the mayor’s wife called or one of the other town socialites she secretly despised but got along with nonetheless since social status meant power even in a smal
l town like Meadowbrook, dropped by. “I only wanted to call and remind you of the dinner party you and that nice Mr. Cooper are invited to tomorrow evening.”

  Party? Since when had “dinner” turned into “party?” Irritation burned away the lust that had been playing havoc with Eddi’s composure. “Dinner party? I thought you invited us to plain old dinner?”

  “Well, now, don’t get all worked up,” Irene scolded good-naturedly. “I can’t very well leave the others out. Six definitely makes it a party.”

  That was a little different. Eddi could tolerate the Club for a couple of hours. A sinking feeling suddenly tugged at her tummy. Oh, gosh. This wasn’t about dinner or repaying Doug for his touchy-feely exam. This was another of their matchmaking schemes!

  “Ms. Irene, don’t you even think about—”

  “Think about what?” She stalled Eddi’s warning. “Is something wrong, dear? You sound positively distracted.”

  Ha! She wasn’t going to get off that easily. “I just—”

  Doug held up a glass and pointed to the iced-tea pitcher. Eddi nodded. “Thanks,” she said to him, putting her hand over the receiver.

  “Who are you talking to, Eddi?” Irene made a small knowing sound in her throat. “Do you have company? I didn’t mean to intrude. I should let you go,” she added in a rush.

  Darn it! “No, no, Ms. Irene. I…I don’t have company.”

  Doug tossed her a questioning look but quickly returned his attention to pouring her a tall glass of iced tea.

  “To whom did you say thanks?” Irene pressed. “I distinctly heard you say thanks.”

  Eddi chewed her lower lip and racked her brain for a plausible explanation. “I was…about to eat. I had to say grace and since I was in a hurry…because I’m starving and trying to talk to you…I…ah…just skipped to the chase and said thanks.”

  Silence echoed across the line for a second or two.