Baby Benefits (5 page)

However, despite his resolution to win her over, Isabella still seemed set against him. And apparently she’d convinced Mrs. Hill, as well.

This morning, when he’d told the nanny she could go home, Mrs. Hill had practically smirked her disbelief. She’d left him three different numbers he could reach her at and offered more than once to check back in come nightfall. As he’d watched her leave, grim resolve had settled in his belly. Last night, he’d given in to his own insecurities and called for backup, but tonight would be different. After all, he had Raina coming to the house to work her magic.

Isabella, well fed after being given a bottle by Mrs. Hill, was bouncing happily in some kind of spring-loaded seat on the living-room floor. For the moment, she appeared satisfied to play with the toys ringing the seat, but he knew from yesterday afternoon’s experience that things could go from peaceful to piercingly loud with little warning.

He was just glancing at his watch when the doorbell rang. Even though Raina had a key to the house for emergencies, she always rang the bell. He found her on the other side of the door with her arms crossed over her chest, her foot tapping like mad.

“You have a fiancée?” were the first words out of her mouth.

“What?” he asked before her question even sank in.

“A fiancée,” she repeated slowly, as if he were mentally impaired. “As in a woman whom you are planning to marry.”

“Oh, Kitty.” Truth be told, he hadn’t given Kitty much thought over the past two days. He hadn’t exactly forgotten about her, but his intention to call her had fallen by the wayside when faced with Isabella’s tantrums. Telling Kitty he had a daughter would be hard enough. Explaining why that daughter seemed to hate him was more than he was up for at the moment.

“Yes. Kitty.” Raina pronounced each word succinctly, like she were spitting out watermelon seeds that had been dipped in battery acid. “You failed to mention that you’d gotten engaged. Did it just slip your mind?”

Once again, his cool, professional Raina had been replaced by someone hotheaded and out-spoken. Not to mention someone dressed a tad less professionally than normal.

He looked pointedly at Isabella. “I’ve been a bit preoccupied.”

“Obviously, or your fiancée wouldn’t have to call me at home three times last night.”

“She called you three times and you’re just now giving me the messages?”

“Well,” she propped her hands on her denim-clad hips, “that’s what you get for not answering the phone.”

“I had to turn the phone off. Isabella cried every time it rang.”

The annoyed look she shot him should have countered at least some of her appeal. It didn’t.

He studied her, hoping to discern why he suddenly found her so fascinating. Instead of her usual dark business slacks or calf-length skirts, she wore simple blue jeans. Instead of a jacket and button up white blouse, she wore a copper-colored T-shirt. The effect should have been quite ordinary. After all, he’d seen a multitude of women dressed in jeans and T-shirts. Such casual clothes looked good on some, made others look dowdy or work worn. They rarely made anyone look like a sex goddess.

Yet on Raina, that was somehow the effect. The jeans were slim-fitting, drawing his attention to the hitherto unknown fact that her legs stretched on forever. The T-shirt was soft and worn, falling just below her waistband, tempting him with the possibility it might reveal a swath of her midriff. Suddenly he was aware that, instead of the multiple layers of bulky shirt and jacket that usually barricaded her breasts from his gaze, today there was only a single layer of cotton. And probably one of silk.

He had to force his eyes back to her face, only to find her glaring at him. “What’s wrong with you this morning?”

Swallowing past the lump in his throat, he said, “You don’t normally dress so…informally.”

“Of course not.” She stepped forward into the entryway.

A better man would have backed away, given her the space to pass without brushing against him. However he couldn’t resist that seemingly innocent contact. Her gaze darted to his as their shoulders brushed. That instant of eye contact was the only indication that she, too, felt the heat between them. Her voice, when she spoke, was as brisk and unaffected as normal.

“This isn’t exactly a normal work situation,” she continued, striding past him into the living room. “If we’re not going into the office, then I’m not wearing a suit.”

He followed her into the living room and was faced with the first major flaw of his plan to have Raina teach him parenting skills. Raina stood in the middle of the living room, hands propped on hips, accentuating their narrow width and the gentle curve of her bottom. Her hair tumbled over her shoulder as she cocked her head to one side, studying the chair where Isabella sat.

The image she presented was temptingly informal. And somehow right at home. In his home.

Naturally, she’d been to his house many times before. But never before had he been struck by how natural it seemed to have her there.

She looked over her shoulder to where he stood, struck dumb—apparently—in the doorway. “Well, you had her alone overnight and you didn’t kill her. That’s a start.”

“I had to call the nanny.”

“Figures,” she muttered with a derisive snort. “Well, no one would expect to be able to handle an infant all alone on the first night. That’s just crazy.”

The insult was obvious. She thought he was crazy. Raina, who’d never so much as criticized his penmanship without the utmost tact, had just insulted him.

He gave her a thoughtful look. “You’re mad at me,” he observed.

“Why would I be mad?” she asked, her tone icy.

“Something about Kitty, I’m guessing.”

“Hmm.” But she ignored his comment and squatted down beside Isabella. “When was the last time you fed her?”

“Mrs. Hill fed her just before she left.” He crossed to stand beside her, noticing the way Isabella sized her up. “Around seven.”

“Ah, so you haven’t fed her yourself yet, have you?”

“No. And you’re avoiding the question.”

Raina stood and suddenly she was unexpectedly close. “It wasn’t a question. You guessed that I was angry. And you guessed that it was because of Kitty. Neither of those was a question.”

He caught a whiff of her scent. Something he’d never noticed before, something warm and homey.

Gazing up at him, her eyes seemed huge. How had he never before noticed what a warm shade of brown her eyes were? Like his finest Scotch.

She, too, must have been surprised to find herself so close to him, because she sucked in a deep breath and stepped back nervously.

He followed her step for step, not giving her room to retreat. “Well? Am I right? Are you upset about Kitty?”

She licked her lips and in that same chilly tone, asked, “Why would I be upset about Kitty?”

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

“You certainly have the right to get engaged to any virtual stranger at a moment’s notice. Without any forethought or planning.”

“Kitty Biedermann isn’t a stranger. I’ve known her for years.”

“Well, then, there you have it. She’s an old family friend. Of course you’d marry her. For all I know, you’ve been silently carrying a torch for her for years. Decades maybe. It’s none of my business.”

“It’s not like that.”

“It doesn’t matter, does it? I’m just your assistant. You’ve never confided that kind of personal information in me anyway.” She frowned. “And I’m not even your assistant anymore. At least, I won’t be two weeks from now.”

Four

Raina knew she was giving herself away. Just like she knew Derek would pounce on any sign of weakness. Getting overly emotional about this would do no good. He’d only use it against her. She’d certainly seen him do that to many a business rival.

With forced calm, she marched over to the ExerSaucer where Isabella sat and crouched down. But after a second, she ignored her own advice, stood again, and spun back toward him as the name of this new fiancée finally sunk in.

“Wait a second…Kitty Biedermann? As in Biedermann Jewelry?”

He didn’t even have the sense to look embarrassed. “Yes, Kitty is the daughter of Randal Biedermann.”

Something akin to disgust washed over her. Somehow, it bubbled out of her as a slightly demented giggle. “There’s a Biedermann’s Jewelry in every mall in America.”

“Actually, Biedermann’s are in fewer than eighty percent of malls.”

“Still, you’re marrying into the biggest jewelry chain in the country.”

How could she possibly compete with that?

Not that she was trying to. Of course she wasn’t. She had no chance of winning his heart regardless of whether he was engaged to Kitty Biedermann or Scooby-Doo.

She knew that. And yet the thought made her heart constrict in her chest. Not only for herself—though the thought of him marrying another woman was almost too much to bear—but also for him.

Raina may never have met Kitty Biedermann, but she certainly knew the Biedermann family reputation of wealth, privilege and social standing. A woman with that kind of background could never understand Derek. She couldn’t begin to make him happy.

But happiness hadn’t played into Derek’s bride selection. This was nothing more than a business decision and even still Raina knew she could never compete.

“You think it’s a bad idea.”

She cut her gaze to him, instantly suspicious. “I couldn’t care one way or another,” she lied.

“Kitty is the perfect woman for me.”

Suppressing a sigh of frustration, she forced a nod. “I’m sure she is. She’s rich and in the jewelry business. What’s not to love?”

“I thought you said it didn’t bother you?” His lips twitched without parting into a true smile.

What was worse? Knowing that he was making a huge mistake and not being able to do anything to stop him or having him be amused by her reaction?

“Okay.” She spun around to face him, nine years of pent-up advice bubbling to the surface. “You want to know the truth?”

The hint of his smile vanished. “I’ve always valued your opinion. Though in the past you’ve been less brutally honest.”

“Don’t forget you asked for this.” She sucked in a deep breath. It must be true that old habits die hard, because she practically had to force herself to actually voice her opinion. It felt good being as honest with him about a personal matter as she had always been about business. “I do think this is a huge mistake. You hardly know this woman.”

“Actually, I really have known her for years.”

“But certainly not well. I manage your business and social schedule. You’ve never even mentioned her before now.”

“I’ve been courting Kitty for a while. You don’t know everything about my schedule, Raina.” His tone was somehow both gentle and chiding. “You can’t believe you’ve known about every woman I’ve dated since hiring you.”

She felt his words like a punch in the gut. And here he’d accused her of brutal honesty.

“Of course not,” she scoffed to save face, because somehow she’d believed exactly that. She’d scheduled his biannual teeth cleaning and his monthly haircuts when his hair began to curl over his ears. She’d made the reservations when he took business associates to dinner and his appointments with his CPA. She’d scheduled his visits to get his blood pressure checked, for goodness sake.

She wasn’t just his professional assistant, but his personal one, as well. She’d canceled dates and on occasion planned them. She’d returned phone calls and ordered flowers. In all that time, there hadn’t been a lot of women, but there’d been enough that she’d assumed she knew about all of them.

Until she’d found out about Jewel. And as if she hadn’t felt that betrayal deeply enough, now there was this other woman she hadn’t known about at all. Not just a woman, but the woman he wanted to marry.

Had she known him at all? Was it really him she loved or just some fantasy man she’d idealized in her mind?

“Well,” she said with a prosaic shrug and a pointed look at Isabella. “Obviously I didn’t know about all the women you’ve dated.”

“About Jewel—” he began, but she cut him off.

“No. You don’t need to explain.” And she really didn’t want to hear any of the details about that. “I can do the math. I figure you had the affair with her about the time your father died.”

Figuring that out had somehow made her feel better. Okay, so he’d slipped up. In his grief he’d done something he’d normally never do. It could happen to anyone.

But instead of giving her the reassurances she secretly wanted to hear, he said, “I was going to say that my lawyer’s drawing up the custody papers and I’ll need you to go get them later this week.”

“Custody papers?” Betrayal sliced through her gut. Even now, even in the midst of this intimate conversation, he treated her like an errand boy.

“Yes, Lucy’s been talking to Jewel. She convinced her to grant me full custody of Isabella, with visitation rights for Jewel, though I doubt she’ll exercise them.” His lips pressed into a grim line. “She’ll be too busy spending all the money I’m paying her for the privilege of raising her child.”