demon children. They—”
“Mrs. Gray,” Alex said. “That’s enough.”
At his harsh tone, she pressed her lips into a bloodless line and stood up, cradling her purple-tinged cat to her chest. She glared at the twins, then sniffed and stalked out of the room.
“She’s a goner,” Jason said happily.
“Yeah,” Daniel said, bouncing on the sofa cushion.
Alex heard a door slam in the depths of the house.
He had never particularly liked Mrs. Gray, but her loss was going to throw a major wrench into the smooth-running machinery of his life. He wanted to kick something. He wanted to tip back his head and vent his frustration in a blistering string of curses. But as always, he did neither. He breathed in deeply, striving for control, feeling a familiar throbbing start at his temples. The men with the hammers were already warming up.
“Hey, who’s that? Is she gonna be our new sitter?”
Alex followed the direction of his son’s gaze. Lizzie was standing just inside the doorway, her lips parted as she took in the scene.
Wonderful, he thought. This was a hell of a way to impress a new partner. How much farther off track could his plan to dazzle her get? “Boys, this is Miss Hamill. And, no, she’s not your new baby-sitter.” He turned to Lizzie. “I’m sorry I dragged you out here,” he began.
“No, it’s understandable. You were worried.” Lizzie crossed her arms and rubbed her palms over her sleeves, glancing toward the bay window that overlooked the garden. Even from within the lighted room, the glint of Mrs. Gray’s car was clearly visible in the moonlight. “You’re better off without her.”
“What?”
“If that was your housekeeper, you’re better off without her. Losing control of her car is one thing, but blaming it on innocent children…” A blush rose in her cheeks. “Sorry, it’s none of my business.”
Her defense of his sons, as misplaced as it was, brought an unexpected rush of warmth. It was a different warmth from the kind caused by her smile. But it was just as unwelcome. He frowned, trying to remember what he’d told her about the accident on the way over here. “Mrs. Gray wasn’t driving.”
“That’s even worse. If she let someone else—”
“We were only borrowing it,” Daniel interrupted.
“We were sharing,” Jason said. “Barney says it’s good to share.”
“It was just like our cars,” Daniel added.
“Except it went fast.”
“Yeah, real fast.”
Alex shuddered as he pictured his children treating the ton and a half of metal like another one of their toys. He’d given them battery-powered cars a month ago. He’d thought the boys had enjoyed puttering around in them, but evidently they hadn’t been satisfied. They’d only been training for the real thing.
Lizzie looked from one twin to the other, her eyes widening with dawning comprehension. “You mean that…” Her gaze settled on Alex. “Are you telling me that these children were driving?”
He nodded stiffly.
“But…” She looked at the boys again. “How?”
“Jason stood on the seat to steer and I pushed on the pedals,” Daniel said, twisting on the sofa to face Lizzie. “Smart, huh?”
She lifted her hand to her mouth, her eyes sparkling. “Oh, Lord love a duck.”
“We took the keys when Mrs. Gray went to the bathroom,” Jason said. He wrinkled his nose. “She stays in the bathroom forever.”
“Forever,” Daniel echoed.
“It was easy. Just like our cars. ’Cept the key made a weird noise until I let go of it. Like this. Kshckkk,” he said, doing a fair imitation of the sound of grinding starter gears.
Alex tried to keep his tone even, despite the anxiety that pulsed along his nerves whenever he let himself think about what could have happened. “What you did was wrong, boys. It was dangerous. You could have been badly hurt.”
“We only wanted to borrow it. We were going to give it back,” Daniel said, pushing out his lower lip.
“See?” Jason mumbled to his brother. “He is mad. Told ya.”
“Don’t be stupid.”
“I’m not stupid. You’re the one—”
The budding squabble was halted by a muffled shriek from the back of the house.
Alex grimaced. Now what?
“Uh—oh,” Daniel said, climbing over the back of the sofa and dropping to the floor.
Jason scrambled after him. “Uh—oh.”
There was the sound of a door opening, followed by Mrs. Gray’s indignant shout. “Mr. Whitmore, there are worms in my suitcase!”
Without a backward glance, the boys ran out of the room and headed for the stairs.
LIZZIE SIGHED as she sank into the luxurious cushions of the ivory-colored couch. She looked around, marveling once more at the beautiful room. Like the Whitmore and Hamill office, Alex’s home practically oozed wealth and sophistication. It was like something out of a decorating magazine, from the lustrous wood of the delicate side tables to the pale upholstery and the antique settee.
Except magazine photos didn’t usually include muddy footprints.
Her gaze dropped to the cushion beside her. Against the elegant ivory brocade, dark smears of dirt marked the place where Alex’s sons had been sitting. The twins had also tracked part of the flower bed across the carpet. Evidently, they had been barefoot and in their pyjamas when they had decided to take their housekeeper’s car for a spin.
It must have terrified Alex when he’d heard about the accident. It could have turned out so much worse. As it was, the damage wasn’t serious—the tow truck that he’d called had already extracted the car from the flower bed and had hauled it away to the body shop. The lawn and the rosebushes could be patched up easily enough. But it didn’t look as if Alex’s housekeeper was going to retract her threat to quit. From the sound of things, Mrs. Gray was still intent on leaving…as soon as she cleaned the worms out of her suitcase.
Despite the gravity of the situation, Lizzie couldn’t prevent the grin that tugged at the corners of her mouth. Worms. Had they been squiggly little earthworms or the big slimy nightcrawlers? Well, that was one advantage of living in the city. At least the twins didn’t have ready access to snakes and frogs.
Those boys were something else. A real pair of charmers, just like their father. Neither of them was big enough to see over the steering wheel of Mrs. Gray’s brown sedan, but they hadn’t let that stop them. They weren’t even five years old, but they’d had the ingenuity and resourcefulness to figure out how to drive a car. Obviously, when they set their minds to doing something, they didn’t let anything stand in their way. Did they get that determination from their father, too?
Probably. When it came to his business, he could be pretty single-minded about what he wanted. Was he the same way when it came to…other things? What was he like when he wanted a woman? How would it feel to be the object of such unwavering purpose?
Lizzie’s smile faded. Couldn’t she stop dwelling on that for more than a minute? She should be ashamed of herself for continuing to lust after Alex under circumstances like these.
He wasn’t any prince out of a fairy tale. He was worse. He was a real man with real children. And the emotion she’d seen on his face when he’d held his sons was so real it brought a lump to her throat even now.
What other emotions did he keep locked away behind his charming