Three
L ife rarely took Flynn by surprise anymore, but when it did, he didn’t like it one bit. Danielle Ford was pregnant. Hell! He didn’t want to get involved with a pregnant woman. Anything could happen to a woman when she was pregnant.
It had happened to his mother.
He could still remember his mother’s voice calling to him where he’d been playing in the backyard under the mango tree with his friends Brant and Damien…. The same mango tree that still stood a few suburbs away from here. He’d come inside the house and found her on the floor, covered in blood.
“The baby’s coming,” she’d said, her face screwed up in pain. “Go get Auntie Rose.”
More terrified than he’d ever been in his five-year-old life, he’d run next door with his friends as fast as his little legs had allowed. After that it had been a whirl of people running and sirens screaming. And all the while, he’d stood in the background, watching his mother’s life slipping away…away from him.
He hated thinking about it, and as always he shut his mind off and pushed aside the past. He had to concentrate on the here and now, and that no longer included Danielle Ford. She could forget about the money she owed him. Forget about it and go find some other poor sucker to con with those “come-to-bed” eyes and that “give-me-your-money” mouth. As far as he was concerned, Danielle Ford no longer existed.
It was just a pity that spending the following weekend in Sydney at his apartment overlooking the million-dollar view of the Harbor Bridge and Opera House wouldn’t be enjoyable. Something was missing.
Or someone.
Dammit, he’d never let a woman get under his skin before. Not like this. He’d had women friends who’d tried every trick in the book to get him to marry them, but Danielle Ford had chosen a different way of getting his attention. Unfortunately for her it had the opposite effect to what she’d wanted. The one thing he wouldn’t let himself do was get involved with a pregnant woman.
Not that pregnant women weren’t beautiful. He’d seen some stunners in his time and thankfully none had been his responsibility, but he’d decided years ago he’d never put any woman’s life at risk with a pregnancy.
So why couldn’t he get this one woman out of his mind, especially since he hadn’t taken her to his bed?
Or perhaps it was because of that?
Yet she was only one woman. There were plenty of others to choose from. But those women would only have been a poor substitute for a sexy sorceress…a witch…but a cheat, he reminded himself.
He had to stop thinking about a certain long-legged, blue-eyed blonde stripped nak*d and in bed….
His bed…
He wasn’t surprised the following week after returning from a business lunch with the Lord Mayor when his personal assistant followed him into his office, an angry look on her middle-aged face. Connie rarely lost her cool. It was one of the things he appreciated about her. She kept calm under the most trying of circumstances.
Usually.
“This was delivered downstairs at reception,” she said tightly, slapping an envelope down on the desk in front of him. “It’s for you.”
He leaned back in his chair, his eyes narrowing, not sure what it was about. “And?”
A disapproving motherly look puckered her lips. “It’s from Mrs. Ford.”
“Danielle?” he said, tensing, and caught the suddenly watchful look in his assistant’s eyes at his slip of the tongue.
“Yes.”
He wondered what Danielle was up to now, even as mild surprise at Connie’s reaction filled him. “You didn’t like her?”
A soft look filled her eyes. “Of course I liked her, Flynn. She’s lovely. So well-mannered.” Then her expression tightened again as she shot him daggers. “You had better read the letter, that’s all I’m saying.”
Hiding his wariness, he merely inclined his head. “Thank you, Connie. Just leave it there.”
She looked as if she was going to say more, but then obviously knowing how far not to push him, she left the room, closing the door behind her.
For a moment Flynn just sat there, marshaling his thoughts. He stared at the open white envelope. His name had been written on it in a soft style that bespoke of femininity and charm. The uppercase initials of F and D fashioned with little curls tugged on something inside him, as if it were an echo of her voice wanting him.
God, he could still hear the throaty sound of her voice back in her kitchen when he’d been administering to her injuries.
Didn’t this woman know when to give up?
Never one to shirk anything unpleasant, he seized the envelope and pulled out the folded piece of paper inside. He began to read.
Dear Mr. Donovan,
Please find enclosed a check for one hundred dollars as first payment on the outstanding loan of two hundred thousand dollars that my late husband and I owe your company. I apologize if this is unacceptable, however due to my pregnancy I am unable to take a second job at this stage. Please take this as official notice that I will repay the loan as soon as I can.
Yours sincerely,
Danielle Ford.
Flynn threw the letter on his desk, his lips twisting at the word sincerely. No wonder Connie had been upset with him. Danielle’s words might have been businesslike in tone but it made him sound like an ogre who was insisting on his money, come hell or high water.
Obviously this was the way she worked. And now the pregnancy angle had added a whole new avenue to her manipulation skills. She’d certainly hit the jackpot with that one.
As for her “supposed” job, it was probably some sort of volunteer work she did once a month at the hospital. Something that made her look respectable without getting her pretty little hands dirty, he decided, tearing up the check and dropping the pieces in the wastepaper basket.
No doubt once he ignored this, they wouldn’t be hearing from her again. Her little ploy for sympathy would soon die a natural death once she realized he wasn’t about to come running with a magic wand in one hand and an unlimited checkbook in the other.
Then the same thing happened the following week. A check arrived, but without a letter this time.
“Another check,” Connie said tightly, slapping the envelope down in front of him, as if everything were his fault. She smacked another piece of paper on top of it and blurted, “And here’s my resignation.”
His head snapped up. “Your what?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “What the—Why?”
She straightened her slim shoulders, color coming into her cheeks. “I’m afraid I can’t work for you anymore, Flynn. Not like this.”
He exhaled an impatient sigh and leaned back in his chair. This was Danielle Ford’s fault. Damn her. And damn Danielle’s flashing blue eyes, those enticing lips above the intimate underside of a chin that more often than not was raised in the air at him.
“So you’re going to throw away five years of working for me because some…” he hesitated to say lady “…woman owes me money?”
“Yes.”
From his experience he knew females were often unpredictable, but he’d never actually thought of Connie that way. She’d been his right-hand man, always on top of things, never one to pull these kinds of tricks.
“She’s not worth it, you know.”
Connie met his gaze levelly. “I think she is. She’s a real lady, Flynn. Classy. She deserves better than this.”
No, Danielle was just good at fooling people, though he had to admit that not many people fooled Connie. And that just went to prove that his assistant wasn’t infallible.
“She owes me a great deal of money,” he pointed out.
Connie continued to stand her ground. “I’m sure she had her reasons.”
His mouth thinned with derision. “That means she spent a great deal of money, or hadn’t you thought of that?”
“I don’t care. A pregnant woman shouldn’t have to worry about getting a second job to pay the bills.”
“Then maybe she shouldn’t have borrowed the money in the first place.”
Her expression was resolute. “That may be so, but she’s genuinely trying to pay the money back now.” A wave of concern crossed her face. “Look, her husband is dead, she’s pregnant and she has a debt that is obviously weighing heavily on her. It could affect her health.”
“No,” he growled. He wasn’t going to have that on his shoulders.
Connie hesitated for a second, then a determined look filled her eyes. “Flynn, I never told you this before but I was pregnant once.”
His brows met in a frown. They’d never discussed her private life. She worked long hours at times and had never complained, so he assumed she lived alone.
“You never mentioned being married.”
“I wasn’t.” Her eyes didn’t waver from his. “I hope that doesn’t change how you think of me.”
“That’s a fool thing to say,” he said brusquely. “Of course it doesn’t make a bloody difference.”
Her features relaxed with slight relief. “Thank you,” she murmured, but there was inner pain flickering at the back of her eyes. “Let me tell you a little about my baby. I lost him before he was born. You see, I’d been in poor health for some years, I had no family and the man I loved had left town before he even knew I was pregnant. I thought I was too proud to accept charity, but when you lose your baby…” her voice grew slightly shaky “…when that baby no longer warms your womb and you have nothing in your arms to hold…” She took another breath. “Accepting charity suddenly looks the better option.”
The world briefly shifted out of focus as memories of his mother rose to the surface again.
Then he looked at his PA. To think Connie had gone through a similar thing…
His mouth firmed with purpose. “Put your resignation away, Connie. I’ll go see her.”
Of course, he couldn’t just drop everything right there and then, but a few hours later after moving a mountain of paperwork, he eventually left to go see Danielle, the loan contract tucked inside his jacket. He knew he was playing right into her hands by coming to see her, but how to tell his PA that? The first check and accompanying letter had been a brilliant idea, but the second check was sheer stubbornness. It was obvious Danielle was determined to get his attention.
And he was equally determined not to give it. Not in the way she wanted, anyway.
Still, she wouldn’t be complaining too loudly once he’d finished talking. He was about to officially cancel the loan, thereby letting her walk away with two hundred thousand of his dollars. Not a bad day’s work for some.
However the first thing he saw when he turned his sports Mercedes into her street was the reckless idiot in a red sedan who cut across the road and slammed on his brakes in front of her building.
Flynn swore as he pulled up behind the car and turned off the engine.
Bloody hell! Danielle was in that car. In the passenger seat. He’d recognize her profile anywhere.
And then he saw the young thug in the driver’s seat next to her, his tattooed arm leaning out the window. Fear for her safety chilled his blood. The young man looked as if he’d just got out of prison, and the vehicle as if it had been driven by one too many drunks. The trunk of the car had a huge scratch down the middle and the back left-hand side had a dent in it the size of Kakadu National Park. There was a For Sale sign on its back window.