High-Powered Hot-Blooded Read online

  She walked into the kitchen. Surprisingly Duncan came after her. She pointed at the dry-erase board. “You see that? Our family schedule. Kami is an exchange student. Well, not really. She was in high school. She’s from Guam. Now she goes to college here. She’s friends with my cousins and can’t afford her own place. So she lives here, too. And while they all help as much as they can, it isn’t much.”

  She drew in a breath. “I’m feeding three college-age girls, paying about half their tuition, for most of their books and keeping a roof over their heads. I also have an aging car, a house in constant need of repair and plenty of student loans from my own education. I do all of this on a kindergarten teacher’s salary. So no. Taking out a loan on my house, the only asset I have in the world, is not an option.”

  She stared at the tall, muscled man in her kitchen and prayed she’d gotten through to him.

  She hadn’t.

  “While this is all interesting,” he said, “it doesn’t get me my two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. If you know where your brother is, I suggest you tell him to turn himself in. It will go better for him that way than if he’s found and arrested.”

  The weight of the world seemed to press down on her shoulders. “No. You can’t. I’ll make payments. A hundred dollars a month. Two hundred. I can do that, I swear.” Maybe she could get a second job. “It’s less than four weeks until Christmas. You can’t throw Tim in jail now. He needs help. He needs to get this fixed. Sending him to prison won’t change anything. It’s not like you need the money.”

  The ice returned to his cool, gray eyes. “And that makes it all right to steal?”

  She winced. “Of course not. It’s just, please. I’ll work with you. This is my family you’re talking about.”

  “Then mortgage your house, Ms. McCoy.”

  There was a finality to his tone. A promise that he meant what he said about throwing Tim in jail.

  How was she supposed to decide? The house or Tim’s freedom. The problem was she didn’t trust her brother to do any better if she mortgaged the house, but how could she let him be locked away?

  “It’s impossible,” she said.

  “Actually, it’s very easy.”

  “For you,” she snapped. “What are you? The meanest man on the planet? Give me a second here.”

  He stiffened slightly. If she hadn’t been staring at him, she wouldn’t have noticed the sudden tension in his shoulders or the narrowing of his eyes.

  “What did you say?” he asked, his voice low and controlled.

  “I said give me a minute. Maybe there’s another choice. A compromise. I’m good at negotiating.” What she really wanted to say was she was good at negotiating with unreasonable children, but doubted Duncan would appreciate the comparison.

  “Are you married, Ms. McCoy?”

  “What?” She glanced around warily. “No. But my neighbors all know me and if I yell, they’ll come running.”

  The amusement returned. “I’m not here to threaten you.”

  “Lucky me. You’re here to threaten my brother. Practically the same thing.”

  “You teach kindergarten you said. For how long?”

  “This is my fifth year.” She named the school. “Why?”

  “You like children?”

  “Well, duh.”

  “Any drug use? Alcohol problems? Other addictions?”

  An unnatural love for chocolate, but that was really a girl thing. “No, but I don’t…”

  “Any of your ex-boyfriends in prison?”

  Now it was her turn to be pissed. “Hey, that’s my life you’re talking about.”

  “You didn’t answer the question.”

  She reminded herself she didn’t have to. That it wasn’t his business. Still she found herself saying, “No. Of course not.”

  He leaned against the chipped counter and studied her. “What if there is a third option? Another way to save your brother?”

  “Which would be what?”

  “It’s four weeks until Christmas. I want to hire you for the holiday season. I’ll pay you by forgiving half of Tim’s debt, sending him to rehab and setting up a payment plan for the remainder of the money. To be paid by him when he gets out.”

  Which sounded too good to be true. “What do I have that’s worth over a hundred thousand dollars?”

  For the first time since entering her house, Duncan Patrick smiled. The quick movement transformed his face, making him seem boyish and handsome. It also made her very, very nervous.

  She took a step back. “We’re not talking sex, are we?” she asked desperately.

  “No, Ms. McCoy. I don’t want to have sex with you.”

  The blush came on hot and fast. “I know that I’m not really the sex type.”

  Duncan raised an eyebrow.

  “I’m more the best friend,” she continued, feeling the hole getting deeper and deeper. “The girl you talk to, not the girl you sleep with. The one you take home to Mom when you want to convince her you’re dating a nice girl.”

  “Exactly,” he said.

  What? “You want to introduce me to your mother?”

  “No. I want to introduce you to everyone else. I want you to be my date for all the social events I have going on this holiday season. You’ll show the world I’m not a complete bastard.”

  “I don’t understand.” He was hiring her to be his date? “You could go out with anyone you want.”

  “True, but the women I want to go out with don’t solve my problem. You do.”

  “How?”

  “You teach small children, look after your family. You’re a nice girl. I need nice. In return your brother doesn’t go to jail.” He folded his arms across his chest. “Annie, if you say yes, your brother gets the help he needs. If you say no, he goes to jail.”

  As if she hadn’t figured that out on her own. “You don’t play fair, do you?”

  “I play to win. So which will it be?”

  Two

  W hile Duncan waited for his answer, Annie grabbed a kitchen chair and pulled it over to the refrigerator. She reached the overhead cupboard and pulled out a box of high-fiber cereal. After opening it, she removed a plastic bag filled with orange and brown M&M’s.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, wondering if the stress had pushed her over the edge.

  “Getting my secret stash. I live with three other women. If you think chocolate would last more than fifteen seconds in this house, you’re deluding yourself.” She scooped out a handful, then put the plastic bag back in the box and slid the box onto the shelf.

  “Why are they that color?”

  She looked at him as if he were an idiot, then climbed down from the chair. “They’re from Halloween. I bought them November first, when they’re half off. It’s a great time to buy seasonal candy. They taste just as good. M&M’s are my weakness.” She popped two in her mouth and sighed. “Better.”

  Okay, this was strange, he thought. “You had a glass of wine before,” he said. “Don’t you want that?”

  “Instead of chocolate? No.”

  She stood there in a shapeless blue sweater that matched her eyes and a patterned skirt that went to her knees. Her feet were bare and he could see she’d painted little daisies on her toes. Aside from that, Annie McCoy was strictly utilitarian. No makeup, no jewelry to speak of. Just a plain, inexpensive watch around her left wrist. Her hair was an appealing color. Shades of gold in a riot of curls that tumbled past her shoulders. She wasn’t a woman who spent a lot of time on her appearance.

  Which was fine by him. The outside could easily be fixed. He was far more concerned about her character. From what he’d seen in the past ten minutes, she was compassionate, caring and led with her heart. In other words, a sucker. Happy news for him. Right now he needed a bleeding-heart do-gooder to get his board off his back long enough for him to wrestle control from them.

  “You haven’t answered my question,” he reminded her.

  Annie sighed. “I know. Mostly because I still don’t know what you want from me.”

  He pointed to the rickety chairs pushed up against the table. “Why don’t we sit down.”

  It was her house—she should be doing the inviting. Still Annie found herself dragging her chair over to the table and plopping down. Politeness dictated that she offer him some of her precious store of M&M’s, but she had a feeling she was going to need them later.

  He took a seat across from her and rested his large arms on the table. “I run a company,” he began. “Patrick Industries.”

  “Tell me it’s a family business,” she said, without thinking. “You inherited it, right? You’re not such a total egomaniac that you named it after yourself.”

  The corner of his mouth twitched. “I see the chocolate gives you courage.”

  “A little.”

  “I inherited the company while I was in college. I took it from nothing to a billion-dollar empire in fifteen years.”

  Lucky him, she thought, thinking she had nothing to bond with. Scoring in the top two percent of the country on her SATs was hardly impressive when compared with billions.

  “To get that far, that fast, I was ruthless,” he continued. “I bought companies, merged them into mine and streamlined them to make them very profitable.”

  She counted out the last M&M’s. Eight round bits of heaven. “Is that a polite way of saying you fired people?”

  He nodded. “The business world loves a success story, but only to a point. They consider me too ruthless. I’m getting some bad press. I need to counteract that.”

  “Why do you care what people say about you?”

  “I don’t, but my board of directors does. I need to fool people into thinking I have a heart. I need to appear…” He hesitated. “N
ice.”

  Now it was her turn to smile. “Not your best quality?”

  “No.”

  He had unusual eyes, she thought absently. The gray was a little scary, but not unattractive. If only they weren’t so cold.

  “You are exactly what you seem,” he said. “A pretty, young teacher with more compassion than sense. People like that. The press will like that.”

  She’d been with him, right up until that last bit. “Press? As in press?”

  “Not television media or gossip reporters. I’m talking about business reporters. Between now and Christmas I have about a dozen social events I need to attend. I want you to go with me. As far as the world is concerned, we’re dating and you’re crazy about me. They’ll think you’re nice and by association, change their opinion of me.”

  Which all sounded easy enough, she thought. “Wouldn’t it just be easier to actually act nice? This reminds me of high school when a few people worked really hard to cheat. They could have spent the same amount of time studying and gotten a better grade without any risk. But they would rather cheat.”

  His dark eyebrows drew together. “My reasons are not up for debate.”

  She picked up another M&M. “I’m just saying.”

  “If you agree, then I’ll arrange for your brother to enter rehab immediately, under the conditions we discussed. He’ll get the second chance you seem to think he deserves. However, if you let on to anyone that our relationship isn’t real, if you say anything bad about me, then Tim goes directly to jail.”

  “Without collecting two hundred dollars.”

  “Exactly.”

  A deal with the devil, she thought, wondering how a nice girl like her got into a situation like this. Of course, her being a nice girl was apparently the point. She sighed.

  The sense of being trapped was very real. As was the knowledge that while she was expected to take care of her cousins, Tim and apparently even Duncan Patrick, no one ever bothered to take care of her. Or worry about her.

  “I’m not lying to my family,” she said. “My cousins and Kami have to know.”

  Duncan seemed to consider that. “Just them. And if they tell anyone—”

  She nodded. “I know. Off with their heads. Have you been through any seminars on teamwork or communications? If you worked on your people skills, you might…”

  The gray eyes turned to ice. She pressed her lips together and stopped talking.

  “You agree?” he asked.

  Did she have a choice? Tim needed help. She’d tried to talk him into getting it before, but he always blew her off. Maybe being forced to spend some time in a safe place would make a difference. As the alternative was him being charged with a felony, she didn’t see that she had a choice.

  “I will,” she began, “act as your adoring girlfriend between now and Christmas. I will tell anyone who will listen that you are kind and sweet and have the heart of a marshmallow.” She frowned at him. “I don’t know anything about you. How am I supposed to fake being in a relationship?”

  “I’ll get you material.”

  “Won’t that be happy reading.”

  He ignored her comment. “In return, Tim will get the help he needs, fifty percent of the debt will be forgiven and he’ll have a reasonable payment plan for the rest. Do you have an appropriate wardrobe?”

  She nibbled on the last M&M. “Define appropriate.”

  He looked at her with a thoroughness that left her breathless. Before she could react, he’d scanned her battered kitchen, his gaze lingering on the warped vinyl flooring.

  “Someone will be in touch to arrange a session with a stylist,” he said. “When the month is over, you can keep the clothes.” He rose.

  She stood and trailed after him. “What kind of clothes?”

  “Cocktail dresses and evening gowns.” He paused by the front door and faced her.

  “I have the dress from my prom.”

  “I’m sure you wouldn’t be comfortable wearing it at one of these events.”

  “Is this really happening?” she asked. “Are we having this conversation?”

  “It is and we are. The first party is on Saturday night. My assistant will call you with the information. Please be ready on time.”

  He dwarfed her small living room, looking too masculine for the floral-print sofa and lacy curtains. She would never have imagined a man like him in her life, even temporarily.

  “I’m sorry my brother stole from you,” she said.

  “He’s not your responsibility.”

  “Of course he is. He’s family.”

  For a second Duncan looked like he was going to say something, but instead he left. Annie closed the door behind him and wondered how she was going to tell her cousins and Kami what she’d gotten herself into now.

  Saturday morning both Jenny and Julie stared at Annie with identical expressions of shock, their green eyes wide, their mouths hanging partially open. Kami looked just as surprised.

  “What?” Julie asked. “You did what?”

  Annie had put off telling them as long as she could. She’d hidden the binder that had been delivered on Thursday, sliding it under her bed, then pretending it didn’t really exist. Her first “date” with Duncan was that night, so she was going to have to read it sooner rather than later.

  “I agreed to go out with Tim’s boss for a month. We’re not really dating each other,” she added hastily. “We’re pretending until Christmas. I’m supposed to help his image.”

  But she still wasn’t clear on how that was supposed to happen. Did Duncan expect her to give interviews? She wouldn’t be very good at it. She could easily stand up in front of a room of five-year-olds, but a crowd of adults would make her nervous.

  “I don’t understand,” Kami said, blinking at her. “Why?”

  Jenny and Julie exchanged a look. “This is all about Tim, isn’t it?” Jenny asked. “He’s in trouble.”

  “Some,” Annie admitted. “He, ah, embezzled some money. But Duncan is going to get him into rehab and that will help.”

  “Him, not you.” Julie tucked her light brown hair behind her ears. “Let me guess. Tim somehow threw you under the bus on this one. What did he tell his boss about you?”

  “It wasn’t me, specifically. It was…” She cleared her throat. While she didn’t want to tell her cousins what had happened, she believed in speaking the truth. Well, except when it came to her secret M&M stash.

  She quickly explained about the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, how Duncan would forgive half the debt and allow Tim to make payments on the other half when he got out of rehab and was working again.

  Julie sprang to her feet. “I swear, Annie, you’re impossible.”

  “Me? What did I do?”

  “Gave in. Let Tim do this to you again. You’re always getting him out of trouble. When he was seven and stole from the mini market by the house, you took the fall and paid them back for the candy bars. When he was in high school and cutting class, you convinced the principal not to suspend him. He needs to face the consequences of what he’s done.”

  “He doesn’t need to go to jail. How will that help?”

  “If the pain’s big enough, then maybe he’ll learn his lesson.”

  Jenny nodded, while Kami only looked uncomfortable.

  “He needs help,” Annie said stubbornly. “And he’s my brother.”

  “All the more reason to want him to grow up and be responsible,” Julie said.

  Annie sighed. “I promised.”

  When her mother had been dying, she’d made Annie swear she would look after Tim, no matter what.

  The twins exchanged another look.

  “There’s no getting around that,” Kami told them. “You know how Annie gets. She always sees the best in people.”

  Annie stood and touched Julie’s arm. “It’s not that bad. I’m dating a really rich guy for a month, going to fancy parties. Nothing more.”

  All three girls looked at her. Annie felt herself starting to blush.

  “Nothing,” she repeated. “No sex, so don’t even go there.” She smiled. “I wouldn’t have told you except I’ll be gone a lot and eventually you’d notice. In the meantime, I kind of need your help. Duncan is sending a stylist to take me shopping for cocktail dresses and a couple of formal gowns. I won’t need them after this month, but I get to keep them. So I thought you three might want to come along and give me your opinions. What with you being able to borrow them when I’m done.”