She stepped inside and plucked the card from the plastic prong. As she flipped open the envelope, she couldn’t decide if she wanted them to be from Jonah or not. His attentions, although flattering, were pointless and even dangerous if he knew who she really was. Yet her impractical, inner girl couldn’t help but wish they were from the handsome businessman.
“‘To Emma,’” she read, her stomach aflutter with nerves and excitement. “‘Welcome to FlynnSoft. I look forward to getting to know you better.’ It’s signed Jonah.”
“Ancient history, eh?” Harper said, leaning in to sniff one of the flowers. “Are you so sure about that?”
* * *
Jonah came down the hallway from the elevator, coffee in one hand, bagel in the other, and paused outside his office. There was a large and quite stunning crystal vase of white Casablanca lilies sitting on Pam’s desk. He frowned. He’d specifically ordered that type of lily for Emma because he felt they were a reflection of her: elegant, pure and refined. They didn’t make any flowers that were stuffy and aggravating.
Plus, he thought she’d see right through roses. Lilies were different, exotic. He’d spent enough on them to catch the attention of even the most difficult to please female.
He would be the first to admit he typically didn’t have to work that hard to woo the ladies. He’d been told that with his good looks and irresistible charm, the panties of every woman within a fifty-yard radius simply flew off. It made for an amusing visual, one he’d like to witness really, but he wasn’t naive. He figured their interest in him probably had more to do with the fact that he was filthy rich rather than charming. Panties were consistently repelled by obscene displays of money.
But Emma was different. Her iron underwear stayed firmly in place when he was around. And given her stiff, overly polite demeanor and cutting tongue, they were probably chafing.
That was just not acceptable. The one time he needed his way with women to work without fail... The auditor Game Town hired was priority one even if charming her would take everything he had. He was willing to shift his tactics and restrategize his game plan, but in the end, he would be successful.
Even if right now, things didn’t appear to be going so well. Emma had rejected the flowers and in record time. The odds of Pam receiving the same flowers on the same day were slim to none.
“Did Miss Dempsey bring those up here?” he asked.
Pam was beaming with the large bouquet perched on her desk. She seemed to really take pleasure in having them there where everyone who passed by, including her, could see them. Well, at least someone was enjoying them. The money hadn’t gone entirely to waste.
“Yes,” she said. “She told me she was allergic and I should enjoy them. Aren’t they pretty?”
He made a mental note to buy his assistant flowers more often. Make that all the administrative assistants. The occasional flowers probably appealed to them more than the Ms. Pac-Man machines, and he probably catered too much to the programmers with his corporate innovations. They couldn’t function without the admin staff and something like that would be great for their morale.
“Lovely indeed.” He continued past her desk to his office with his breakfast in hand and let the door slam behind him. Allergic, his ass. She swore yesterday that her choking fit had nothing to do with the flowers and he believed her. This was about her being stubborn. Never in his life had he run across a woman so resistant to him. It didn’t make any damn sense.
Jonah settled into his chair, set down his food and fired up his computer with a stiff punch of his finger. It almost made him wonder if he’d romanced her before. Or one of her friends. She had the attitude of a woman who’d been loved and left by him or someone like him in the past.
But that couldn’t be the case. Despite the lengthy list, Jonah had a great memory for names and faces. He’d never laid eyes on Emma Dempsey before yesterday. If she was bitter about men like him, it wasn’t his doing.
But it would be his job to change her outlook. The deal with Game Town was riding on it. Even if he could get his hands on Noah and wring three million dollars from his neck, the transaction would be in the records.
His phone rang, an unknown number lighting up the display. Pam had put the call through, so he figured he wasn’t about to be assaulted by a telemarketer.
“Jonah Flynn,” he said into the receiver.
“Hey, it’s your favorite brother.”
Speak of the devil. Jonah took a deep breath before he said anything, choosing each word carefully. “I’ve told you before that Elijah is my favorite brother, but Noah, you’re just the man I was looking for.”
His brother chuckled on the line. They both knew the operations of FlynnSoft had nothing to do with Noah. He occupied an office. Drew a paycheck. On a rare occasion when he was bored with his other mysterious pursuits, he helped with charity golf tournaments and presented large, cardboard checks.
“What’s so important that it couldn’t wait until I came back from this trip? This call is costing me a fortune.”
“What?” Jonah asked. “About three million dollars?”
The silence on the end of the line told him everything he needed to know. Noah had taken the money but didn’t think anyone would notice it so quickly. Maybe any other time they might not have noticed it before he replaced it. But his timing sucked and Emma would find it, Jonah had no question.
“Listen, I don’t care whether you blew it on hookers and fruity drinks or built schools for poor children. It doesn’t matter. But I want it back right now.”
“Yeah, that’s a little iffy at the moment. I don’t exactly have it right now. But hopefully I will by the time I come home.”
“And when will that be?”
“Two weeks at the most.”
“Okay, fine. But if it isn’t back in my hands—in full—within fifteen minutes of you arriving in the US, I’m going to take every penny out of you with my fist.”
“Jonah, I—”
“I don’t want to hear your excuses. You come up with three million bucks or I will make you so miserable you’ll wish you’d stayed in Thailand. Am I clear?”
This time, Noah didn’t try to argue. “Crystal. Have you told Mother?”
Now it was Jonah’s turn to laugh. “No. And I have no intention of doing it unless I have to. You and I both know her heart can’t take the stress, although it doesn’t stop you from pushing the boundaries.”
“I would never deliberately hurt Mother,” Noah argued.
Jonah shook his head in dismay. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s deliberate or not, you still do it. You never think of anyone but yourself.”
“And you don’t think of anyone but your employees and your company,” Noah countered. “You practically ignore the whole family. When was the last time you went to the estate to visit her? Or came to my apartment? Or Elijah’s place? You accuse me of blowing money on Thai hookers and you spend every bit of time and money you’ve got on vapid supermodels.”
Jonah’s jaw grew tighter with every word out of his youngest brother’s mouth. If he had the time, he’d fly to Thailand right that instant just so he could punch Noah in the face. His brother seemed to think that this company had appeared out of thin air. That Jonah hadn’t had to pour his heart and soul, in addition to all his free time, into building it and making it a success. When he did get to play, he played hard. Yeah, he didn’t spend much time with his family, but they all had their own lives, too. None of them had knocked on his door recently, either.
“The company is important to me, yes. It supports a lot of people, including you in case you’ve forgotten. I have pride in what I’ve built and I’m not about to lose it because you’re a thoughtless little prick. You do know the auditor from the Game Town deal is here, right? That your little stunt may have cost the company a huge, lucrati
ve contract?”
“Oh hell,” Noah swore. “I completely forgot about that. I didn’t think—”
“No, you didn’t think, Noah. You never do.”
There was an awkward silence on the line for a few moments while Jonah took another deep breath.
“Do you think they’ll find it?” he asked.
“Probably. You did everything short of highlighting the withdrawal with a yellow marker. But I’m trying to clean it up. Paul’s moving some money around. Temporarily,” he emphasized, “to cover the gap until you pay it back.”
“I will pay it back, Jonah.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he sighed. “Just don’t make me regret trusting you.”
“I promise you won’t.”
“I’ll see you when you get back,” Jonah said, hanging up the phone.
He wanted to believe his brother, but it was hard. He was never a bad kid, just one who was used to getting his way. As the youngest, his pouty lip would melt their mother’s heart in an instant, especially after Dad died. When he got older, people seemed to go out of their way to give him whatever he asked them for.
If Jonah was smart, he’d put Noah to work full-time on corporate fund-raisers. His best job fit might be applying that skill to encourage rich people to part with their money. In this economy, FlynnSoft wasn’t able to raise as many outside dollars for charity. Noah might make the difference.
That is, if his unorthodox loan didn’t cost them a huge contract and put all their donation programs on hold.
Jonah leaned back in his chair and took a bite of his bagel. The day was so complicated already and it wasn’t even 9:00 a.m. yet. Two weeks. He had to figure out how to replace or bury the stolen money until Noah came back. And then find some way to put it back in without raising more flags.
Until then, he had to find a way to get around Emma’s defenses. The direct approach wasn’t working and he didn’t want to strong-arm her. He’d never had to beg or coerce a woman to go out with him in his life and he wasn’t about to start now. It didn’t exactly set the right mood. He wanted her ready and willing, not even more stiff and distant than she already was.
It really was a shame. Emma was a beautiful woman. A sensual woman, although she seemed determined to keep that fully under wraps. He could tell by the luscious sway of her hips and the way her full lips parted slightly when he leaned near to her. She had a reaction to him. Certainly. She just wasn’t willing to do anything about it. Yet.
But he could plant the seed. Get under her skin. Whether or not she agreed to let him wine and dine her, he was going to do everything in his power to make sure she went home every night and thought about him. Whether it was with irritation or suppressed lust, he didn’t care. Either would be enough to help her lose focus, and that was the most important part.
It would take Paul a couple more days to get the money. Until then, he had some unofficial FlynnSoft business to tend to.
Popping the last of his bagel in his mouth, Jonah got up from the desk and went in search of his curvy, uptight auditor.
Four
Emma had rarely been as happy to get home as she was tonight. It seemed like no matter where she went or what she was doing, she would run into Jonah. Not like he was following her; he was just always there. She’d look up from the copier and see him down the hall talking to someone. He’d look at her and smile, the charming grin chipping away at her defenses before he turned back to his discussion. He was in the cafeteria, the coffee bar, passing her in the hallway...constantly.
And when Jonah wasn’t there, she found herself thinking about him anyway with a confusing mix of irritation and, if she was honest with herself, desire.
She didn’t want to admit it, but no red-blooded woman could resist Jonah’s charms. Emma had tried her best, but he was infuriatingly persistent and wearing her down. Their past didn’t help. Knowing what he could coax from her body, knowing what it felt like to cling to him, uninhibited and anonymous, made it that much worse. She couldn’t concentrate. The lines of the financial records blurred together, the math not adding up in her head no matter how many times she ran the figures. Her focus was not on the audit and it absolutely had to be—charming, sexy CEO be damned.
It was a relief to get home, the one place where she knew she was safe from Jonah Flynn. There was something about the feminine fabrics, soft throw pillows and cheerful colors that instantly made her entire body and mind relax. She’d decorated her Upper East Side apartment to look like a cozy retreat out of Country Living magazine, casual and inviting.
And yet, when she slipped out of her work clothes and into something more comfortable, she realized she wasn’t even safe from Jonah here. As she stood in the bathroom, clutching a worn T-shirt to pull over her head, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. There, just above the bare swell of her breast, was the blasted tattoo staring back at her.
She could still see him standing there, his mask obscuring everything but the same boyish grin, sharp jaw and dark blue eyes that seemed to rid her of all her good sense.
“Let’s get a tattoo,” he’d said.
Emma hadn’t realized they’d stopped on the sidewalk outside a tattoo parlor until he said that. It wasn’t the kind of place she typically took notice of. Or had any interest in going to.
“Two halves of one heart,” he’d lobbied and pressed the palm of his hand against the bare skin of her chest exposed by the low neckline of her top. His fingertips had gently curved around the edge of her breast, sending an unanticipated wave of pleasure through her. He had the uncanny ability to render her brain butter with the simplest touch.
“Right here.” He’d traced his skin at the juncture of his thumb and index finger, then across her skin, showing how their touch would make the heart whole. “If we’re meant to be together after tonight, I’ll find you. And this heart will be how we’ll recognize one another.”
Emma’s heart had swelled in her chest. His suggestion had been romantic and spur-of-the-moment and completely stupid. Not once in her life had she ever considered getting a tattoo, but that night had included a lot of firsts for her. With his hand gently caressing her and those ocean-blue eyes penetrating her soul, she couldn’t help but follow him into the shop.
Looking in the mirror now, she let her fingertip trace the heart the way his had done. Just imagining it was his hand instead of her own sent a shiver of longing through her body and her skin drew tight with gooseflesh. He’d been the last man to touch her, three long months ago. Her realization that she was pregnant with the stranger’s child had been a big enough disruption, making her physical needs easy to ignore, but now, knowing how close he was, it was as though her libido had flipped a switch.
Flustered by her wanton response to the ghost of a man she couldn’t have, she pulled the T-shirt over her head and marched back into the living room to make dinner.
It was Tuesday and if she kept daydreaming, the girls would arrive and she wouldn’t be ready.
Every Tuesday, Lucy, Harper and Violet gathered at Emma’s apartment for dinner and their favorite television series. They took turns cooking or buying takeout. Tonight, she’d promised Lucy she would make her favorite baked ziti and she hadn’t even boiled water yet.
In the kitchen, she busied herself by preheating the oven and gathering the ingredients for the family recipe. The ziti recipe was one of the few valuable things her older sister had taught her before she’d died.
Everything else she’d learned from her sister was more of a cautionary tale. She’d been sixteen when Cynthia died, barely dating herself, and yet the truth of her sister’s secret life had scared her parents enough to clamp down on Emma with an iron fist. She was hardly a problem child, but of course, Cynthia had always seemed perfect on the surface, too.
When she was old enough to be in charge of her own life, she
’d thought about rebelling. Her hunt for a sorority had been a start, but instead, she went the other direction and chose Pi Beta Phi, the sorority of proper, well-off ladies out to do community service and build sisterhood. She’d seen how her sister’s scandal had hurt her parents and she didn’t want to be the one responsible for putting that look on their faces ever again. When she finally lost her virginity in college, it was to a well-groomed, polite premed major she’d been dating for nearly six months and had hoped to marry. She pretended to be the proper, sophisticated society darling her parents wanted, and after a while, it just became who she was.
She’d only really, truly let herself go that once. Emma let herself do shots of tequila with a stranger, licking salt from the musky skin of his throat and sucking a lime from his full, soft lips. From there, it was a slippery slope that led to the tattoo on her chest and a positive pregnancy test on the back of the toilet. One night had ruined a decade of good behavior. She had no idea how she was going to tell her parents.
Emma opened the box of pasta and dumped it into a pot of boiling water with an unsatisfying splash. It had been so easy to let herself get carried away that night. Too easy. There was a part of her that understood how her sister could get so wrapped up in a passionate and illicit relationship while she was engaged to someone else. The pleasure and the excitement were enthralling. The other part of her knew there was nothing worth derailing her whole life for.
There was nothing she could do about the choices she’d made in the past, but she certainly wasn’t going to make the same mistakes twice. Jonah Flynn was just the kind of man who could make her priorities get all out of whack. That made him dangerous. She would tell him about the baby once the audit was complete and she had done her job. He couldn’t know the truth about her identity or the baby before then, which made it imperative that she not let her guard down around him.
“We’re here!” Violet called out from the living room.
Little Secrets--Secretly Pregnant Page 5
