you that I’d offer you money to help me?”
“Your being here bothers me, Theo,” she snapped, turning her face away. “This is...” Her brow flinched into anguish.
Her anxiety was a kick in the chest, especially as he sensed that her refusal wasn’t coming entirely from being scorned. There was a fear component. Something more emotional. It occurred to him there might be a man in her life making her hold back.
His insides shrunk to knotted pieces of rawhide. He couldn’t bring himself to ask if that was the problem. He didn’t want to know.
“It’s a big favor, I realize that,” he managed.
She choked out a laugh. “Is that what this is? A favor? A professional courtesy?”
“It’s an appeal to your better nature. Think of the children.”
“Are you serious right now?” She pursed her mouth in a furious white line.
“Jaya, I can’t afford mistakes. Letting a stranger look after these kids would be wrong. I need you. Tell me what it will cost. I’ll pay it.”
JAYA’S EMOTIONS ROSE and fell on his words along with her temper. Think of the children. Really. Really?
As for mistakes, he obviously thought they’d made one. The truth was the complete opposite.
Her eyes kept gravitating to Androu. The resemblance was startling. Her family was supposed to be the one with the cookie-cutter genetics that stamped out cousins who could ride each other’s passports. To see so much of Theo in his nephew threw her for a loop and she was already in a tailspin at seeing the man himself.
One glimpse of the sky pilot with his broody expression behind mirrored aviators and she’d turned into a lovestruck schoolgirl again. Never mind that she’d spent the past year and a half taking on responsibilities she’d never dreamed herself capable of shouldering. Men had been completely off her radar, given her being needed so much at home. She’d shut down thoughts of a future with Theo when he had neglected to return her few calls. She hadn’t felt sexy and romantic anyway. She’d been tired and grief-stricken and determined to continue her career for the sake of her pride.
Finally, in the past few months, things had begun to settle into a routine. She’d felt good, if wistful, at the way things had turned out. She was empowered and in control: the independent, worldly, modern woman she’d always longed to be.
And yet she’d leaped to respond to Theo’s text and had grown breathless watching his athletic frame tether his helicopter. Her eyes kept stealing glances at his leather bomber jacket and black jeans that were old enough to be scuffed gray in all the right places, accenting the muscles of his thighs. He was tough and aloof and as quietly commanding as always, framing his demands with that polite, I need. I need a file, I need lunch at one, I need you, Jaya. I need you to care for my babies.
Her heart lurched.
“I need to think,” she mumbled, even though this situation was beyond comprehension. Her mind was going a mile a minute, trying to figure out what to do. Where was Saranya when she needed her cousin’s sensible advice? Why did life have to keep throwing such hard curves in front of her?
No time for a pity party, she reminded herself as Oscar turned into the underground parking garage and stopped next to the elevators.
They’d arrived at Theo’s discreet accommodation. She hadn’t known what to think of that text, but she hadn’t been able to ignore it. You didn’t slam doors in this business no matter how badly you wanted to. He was right about her interest in her professional development. She had plans and one affair eighteen months ago wouldn’t derail them—no matter how life-altering the consequences had turned out to be.
Besides, she had told herself when the text had popped up, he was probably making the request on behalf of a favored guest. When she’d climbed into the limo, she’d told herself not to expect Theo at the private airstrip. She’d braced herself for a mistress.
Talk about special guests who needed personal attention!
As they rode up the elevator, she sent him yet another glance of exasperation. They each carried a child. He had the bag of minimal groceries in his hand and was looking at her. His narrowed brown eyes sent a prickle of heat into her center.
No. They weren’t starting that again. She’d learned her lesson, thanks. Looking away was like ripping off a bandage, but she mentally scoffed, Think of the children.
Although, when it came to advancing your career through favors for influential guests, he was right that they didn’t come bigger than this. Managing this gorgeous hotel on the Mediterranean coast was fun and fulfilling, but if she pulled off keeping both the Marcussen Media and Makricosta Resort heirs off the paparazzi radar, she’d have it made in the shade. Paris, London, New York... She could name her price.
As they entered her hotel’s best suite, she automatically searched for flaws that needed correction, but the eclectic mix of 1960s reproduction furniture, pop art, and ultra-modern amenities awaited judgment with quiet perfection. Where many of France’s oldest hotels were rabbit warrens of tiny rooms with even tinier beds, this one had been upgraded into chic suites of fewer rooms that catered to a very affluent clientele. An open space in the middle of the sitting room would be perfect for the babies to play. Since a curved breakfast bar was the only partition to divide the kitchenette from the adjoining dining area, they’d be in sight while their meals were made.
She couldn’t have planned it better, she decided, glancing at the impossible-to-scale glass fencing around the pool deck. There were even child safety locks on the glass doors that led to the pool’s edge.
If only she didn’t have the sense she was approaching one of those crossroads she and Theo had talked about that night in Bali.
Don’t think about it, she warned herself. He obviously didn’t reminisce about what they’d shared. The memories twinkling through her like fairy dust needed to be blown off, swept up and dumped in the bin.
“This kid stinks,” Theo said, pulling her back to the present and brutal reality.
“I’ll order some diapers and show you how to change him,” she said, refusing to be moved by the kicked puppy look he sent her.
He tried to put Androu down, but the tyke clung on, demanding to be held.
“Seriously kid, you stink.”
“He’s scared,” Jaya provided. “Almost as scared as you.”
His head went back and a mask of aloof dismissal fell over his features.
Oh, had that penetrated his thick shell? Rather than bask in satisfaction, she suffered a twinge of conscience. Deliberately insulting people wasn’t her thing. She’d been on the end of too many bullying tactics herself.
And Theo’s discomfort with having care of these two babies wasn’t funny. It broke her heart. He really wasn’t keen on children.
Still, she couldn’t help noticing with a pang, “He trusts you. Do you spend a lot of time with him?”
“Whenever I’m in New York,” he shrugged. “Adara’s always inviting me to dinner and handing him off to me. I copy what Gideon does and we get along okay. Airplane rides, right, sport?”
Androu grinned, put out his arms and tipped forward into space, trusting he’d be caught with a firm hand under his chest. He made a raspberry noise with his mouth as Theo did a slow circle and dive with him.
Jaya took it like a punch in the stomach. Turning away from the heart-wrenching sight of Theo playing with the boy, she carried Evie to the sofa and started an animated movie on the television for her.
“Think you can handle them while I make a few calls?”