who appeared in his office a second later, was neither ugly nor male. One look at her dark, inquisitive eyes, flawlessly smooth olive skin, and he instinctively took a step to the left, behind the safety of his desk.
Damn, it was really getting out of control when he couldn’t be in the same room with a beautiful woman without running for cover. Three months ago, he would have met her by the door and taken her hand, simply for the pleasure of testing the softness of her skin. There was a time when he’d loved everything about women. The way they smelled, the way they tasted, the silky softness of their hair.
Now he viewed them as the enemy. And he knew with no small measure of certainty, this woman could push all the right buttons if he let her.
“Are you Tyler Douglas?” she asked.
He pasted on a charming smile. “The one and only. What can I do for you?” Please let it be something quick and painless.
She returned the smile times ten. “Mae sent me over. She said you’re looking for a cleaning lady.”
Oh man, was she beautiful. And so young. He felt like a degenerate for the thoughts tumbling through his depraved brain. Things like the fullness of her breasts cupped into his palms, her slender fingers tunneling through his hair as he plundered her lush mouth with passionate kisses. She would taste sweet and tangy and…and oh man, he needed to stop this right now or he would be sorry. He could already feel the shift in his breathing, the familiar tug in his groin.
She stepped closer and his pulse began to accelerate. A cold sweat broke out across his forehead and his head began to spin.
Relax. Breathe, in and out.
“My name is Tina DeLuca,” she said, holding out a hand for him to shake. He dreaded the words he knew were coming next. “I’d like the job.”
Two
Brad Pitt, eat your heart out, Tina thought as she tried her best not to stare. They sure knew how to grow them in Chapel, Michigan. For some reason she’d been expecting someone older. Someone not so strikingly handsome or built to complete physical perfection.
Someone who wouldn’t look at her as if…she was a leper.
He retreated a step and waved away her extended hand. “We don’t stand on formality here,” he said.
Oookay.
She let her arm fall to her side. Not quite sure what to do with her hands, she clasped them behind her back. She’d never gone on a job interview before and wasn’t sure of the proper etiquette. Since the time she was old enough to have a real job, she’d been taking care of Aunt Louise. Her people skills were a tad rusty.
“Is the position still open?” she asked.
“Yes, but uh, the pay is pretty low.”
It couldn’t be any lower than the nothing she was currently earning. “That’s okay.”
“I mean really low, like minimum wage.”
“Minimum wage works for me.”
He frowned, his blond brow dipping low over his eyes. “It’s really lousy work.”
She tried to keep her voice cheerful when inside her heart was plummeting. Mae had made this sound like a sure thing. If she didn’t get this job, she wasn’t sure what she would do. Where she would go. She had no place to stay, no place to sleep. “I like to clean. And I have a lot of experience,” she added.
“A pretty girl like you? Wouldn’t you be happier as a model or something?”
A model? Was he kidding? At five foot two and 111 pounds, she wasn’t exactly runway material. “Mr. Douglas—”
“Ty,” he said, then winced, as though revealing his name had been some sort of fatal error. “Everyone around here calls me Ty.”
“Ty, I’m a hard worker.”
“I’m sure you are, Miss…?”
“Where I’m from, people call me Tina.”
“I don’t doubt that you are, Tina. I’m just not sure it would be a very good idea.”
He wasn’t going to hire her. She could tell by the look on his face. He was going to tell her no.
In the back of her mind she could hear the window again, but this time it was slamming shut. All she could do now was stick her fingers in the way and hope they weren’t lobbed off.
She took a deep breath, gathering all her courage, but still her voice shook when she spoke. “I really need this job. I’m desperate.”
“I understand.” He shrugged sympathetically. “I wish I could help you.”
The last bit of strength she’d been clinging to crumbled away, and the dam on her emotions broke. She was so tired of being lonely and afraid and hungry. She was just plain tired.
And she couldn’t be strong another minute. She crumpled into a chair, dropped her face in her hands and started to cry.
Aw, man, he’d made her cry. Ty looked helplessly around, wondering what he should do now. Seeing her bawling, knowing it was his fault, was even worse than the dizziness and the cold sweats.
Well, maybe not worse, but almost as bad. And it could have been avoided if he wasn’t so selfish. He hated what was happening to him, but he didn’t have a clue how to stop it—to fix it. His original plan—ignore it until it goes away—didn’t seem to be working very well.
And now, not only was he miserable, he was dragging other people down with him.
He grabbed a tissue and leaned over his desk to press it into her hand. “Here.”
She took it, wiped her eyes and nose. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to fall apart. It’s been a really bad week.”
“I can relate,” he said. More than once in the past three months he’d felt like sitting down and bawling, too.
“Just give me a minute to pull myself together and I’ll be out of your hair.” As she wiped away fresh tears, he realized there was no makeup on her face to smear. No mascara running down her cheeks. Hers was a natural beauty. Her face didn’t get all blotchy and red when she cried either like a lot of women he’d known. She might have looked wholesome had her dark features not been so exotic.
But she was just a kid. He was guessing no more than sixteen or seventeen. And she must have needed the job pretty badly to get this upset. She looked so lost. So…helpless.
Aw, hell.
“Can you start tomorrow morning?”
She looked up at him, lower lip still quivering. “You’ll hire me?”
She had trouble written all over her. But could he help that he was a sucker for a woman in distress? He knew it was a huge mistake. But it wouldn’t be his first, or his last.
Ignore it until it goes away.
Yeah, right.
He jotted an address on a slip of paper and located the correct key from the top drawer of his desk. He handed them both to her. “Everything you need is at the house. Cleaning supplies, vacuum, mop. The painters finished up two days ago, so everything should be dry by now.”
“I’m doing the entire house?”
“Top to bottom. Is that a problem?”
She shook her head. “No. No problem at all.”
“I want to start showing the property to renters as soon as possible, so try to get it done tomorrow if you can. When you’re done, I’ll come inspect it, and if everything looks good, I’ll cut you a check. If it works out, I have a small office building one block over I’ll need done later this week.”
She