Seduction on His Terms Read online

  But none of that was what came out. Instead, he heard himself say, “You need the help.”

  Her eyes fluttered closed and she did that long exhale again. “So that’s it? You’re not going to tell me why you tracked down my address, performed a medical examination on my niece, ordered your staff to hop to it and are now standing in my living room, condescendingly refusing to answer a simple question?”

  “I’m not condescending,” he shot back before he could think better of it.

  “Of course you’re not.” Was that...sarcasm? “If you can’t tell me why, then I have to ask you to leave.” Her throat worked. “And not to come back.”

  A raw kind of panic gripped him. “I need you. At the bar.”

  She leaned away from him. “Miranda is perfectly capable of making your drink. I showed her how and there’s enough blend in the cask to last a few months. Worst case, I can always go mix up more.”

  “But she’s not you.”

  Jeannie’s brow furrowed. “And that’s a problem?”

  She was too close. He could smell the sour tang of old formula on her shirt and see how very bloodshot her eyes were. But, in this light, he could also see things that he’d missed in the dim bar at Trenton’s. Her dark hair had red undertones to it and her eyes were brown but with flecks of both green and gold. If anyone else had him in this position, Robert would either get around them or force the issue. It was always better to go on the offensive than be left in a weakened position.

  But that’s where he was now. Weakened.

  “I...” To admit weakness was to admit failure and failure was not an option. “I can’t talk to her. Not like I can to you.”

  “Robert, we barely talk,” she said, her exasperation obvious. He was doing a terrible job of this. “I mean, I get the feeling you just don’t talk to anyone. That’s how you are.”

  “But you’re different.”

  She stilled under his touch, which was when he realized he was, in fact, touching her. His hand had somehow come to rest on her cheek, just like it had earlier. Her skin was warm and soft and just felt...right.

  “I can’t afford to pay you back,” she whispered, her hand covering his. But instead of flinging his fingers away from her face, she pressed harder so that his palm cradled her cheek.

  Finally, he found the damned words. “That—that right there is why you’re different. Anyone else, they’d look at me and you know what they’d say?” She shook her head, but carefully, like she was afraid she might break that singular point of contact. “They’d be calculating how much they could get out of me, what they’d have to do to get it. Your Miranda—”

  “She flirts with everyone, Robert,” Jeannie said softly. “Bigger compliments mean bigger tips. That’s how things work. Everyone does it.”

  The thought of Jeannie acting like Miranda for money wasn’t right. “You don’t. Not with me.”

  She leaned into his touch. “What happened?”

  What hadn’t happened? Without conscious effort, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into his chest. “I might have made some threats. There may have been bribes exchanged.”

  She gasped but didn’t pull away. She should have. For years now, he’d kept that part of himself on lockdown, refusing to let Landon win. But tonight he’d been a Wyatt through and through. Thank God she hadn’t been there to see it.

  “Oh, Robert,” she said, his name a sigh on her lips. “Just because I wasn’t there?”

  No. The denial broke free but somehow, he kept it in because it was a damned lie and he’d come this far. Lying to her would be worse than what he’d done at the bar. “Yes.”

  “Hmm.” Her body came flush with his, soft and warm. She felt right in his arms, her breasts pressed against his chest.

  How long had he been waiting for this moment?

  “You’re touching me,” she murmured, tucking her chin against his neck.

  “That is correct.” He felt her lips move against his skin. Was she smiling? He hoped she was smiling.

  “You don’t like to be touched.”

  Of course she knew. That was why he’d needed to see her tonight, needed to do whatever it took to get her back behind the bar. Because she understood him. “No.”

  Of course, if she were back behind the bar, he wouldn’t have this moment with her. She sighed into him, her arms around his waist, her chest flush with his and it should’ve been too much, too close, too dangerous but...

  It wasn’t.

  He gathered her closer in what he belatedly realized was a hug. How strange.

  “I’m sorry for your loss.” The words felt right so he kept going. “You must’ve loved her very much.”

  “I didn’t love her nearly enough. It’s...it’s complicated. We had a pretty messed up family and we’d gone almost five years without speaking. We were just...” She sniffed. “We were just figuring out how to be a family again,” she went on, her voice tight. “And now we’ll never get that back. It’s gone forever.”

  An odd sensation built in his chest. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  Was it possible to start a family over like that? Obviously, Landon Wyatt would never be a part of a do-over. But if Robert could get his mother away... Could they figure out how to be a family again?

  “So I can’t come back to work right now. You understand? I have to protect Melissa and make things right and...and honor my sister, imperfect as she was and as I am. I have to honor our family.”

  Moisture dampened his skin. He leaned back and tilted her chin up. Tears tracked down her cheeks. He wiped those away with his thumbs. “Anything I can do to help, I’ll do.”

  Her smile was shaky at best. “You mean, besides the lawyer, nanny, maid and your chauffeur making grocery runs for me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you tell me why you’re here?” It wasn’t an ultimatum this time, merely a question.

  He opened his mouth to tell her because talking to her was the whole reason he was here, wasn’t it?

  But she’d had the worst day of her life. And although things were not particularly wonderful for him right now, he simply couldn’t bear to add his burden to hers. “No. I won’t make things harder for you.”

  Was that disappointment in her eyes? Or just relief? “You understand that I might not be able to go back to work, right? Julian will hold my job for a few weeks but—”

  “Your job will be there,” Robert interrupted. “If I have to buy the restaurant from him at triple what it’s worth, you’ll have a job there.”

  Her eyes got very wide but she didn’t pull away. “You would do that for me?”

  “If that’s what you need, I’ll make it happen.” His gaze dropped to her lips, which were parted in surprise or shock or, hell, horror, at his autocratic ways for all he knew.

  “Why?”

  “I told you,” he said, his voice gruff. He dragged his gaze away from her mouth and saw what had to be confusion on her face. She was closer than she’d been outside on the front steps, closer than she’d been during that hug.

  “Tell me again,” she said, her voice barely a breath on his lips.

  Close enough to kiss.

  “Because I need you,” he whispered against her and then he took her mouth with his.

  Five

  Fact: Robert was kissing her.

  Fact: He didn’t like to be touched. But seeing as his mouth slanted over hers, his hands cupped her face and angled her head so he could deepen the kiss, it seemed he was okay with this type of touching. But that just led her back to...

  Fact: Dr. Robert Wyatt, heir to the Wyatt Medicals fortune, one of the Top Five Billionaire Bachelors in Chicago, was providing her with a lawyer, a nanny, a maid and was also apparently willing to buy a restaurant just so she could serve him a Manhattan.

  And, u
navoidably, it came back to this fact: He was kissing her.

  Heat cascaded from where he touched her, shivering sparks of white-hot need that burned through her with a pain that was the sweetest pleasure she’d ever felt.

  When was the last time she’d showered?

  That thought pushed her into breaking the kiss, which was really a shame because for all his overbearing, condescending, threatening behaviors, he was a hell of a kisser.

  Right man, wrong time.

  That was the thought that ran through her mind as she stared at him, her chest heaving. She crossed her arms in front of her to fight off a shiver. Why now?

  “That was...” He seemed to shake back to himself. He started to straighten his cuffs and then realized they were still rolled to his elbows so instead he fixed his sleeves. “That was not what I intended.”

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake, Robert.” Okay, so she’d kissed the Robert Wyatt. Her favorite customer. The man who had fueled more than a few years’ worth of hot dreams and needy fantasies. But even if that kiss would keep her going for a few more years, it didn’t change anything.

  This was still Robert. Small talk was beyond him.

  His brow furrowed as he got one cuff fixed. “What?”

  “That’s not what you say after you kiss a woman.”

  He paused and then, amazingly, straightened the sleeve he’d just fixed. “It’s not?”

  “No.” She took a deep breath, but that was a bad idea because without the bar to separate them and the tang of wine and whiskey in the air to overpower her senses, she inhaled his scent, a rich cologne that was spicy and warm and still subtle.

  So. There was one aspect of him that wasn’t designed to dominate. One and counting.

  She headed toward the kitchen where the scent of chicken was stronger. Her stomach growled and she knew she needed to eat. The chauffeur hadn’t been wrong. She wasn’t sure she’d eaten today and if Melissa would just sleep for another few minutes, Jeannie might be able to get both a meal and a shower out of the deal.

  That was a huge if. That baby hadn’t gotten more than thirty minutes of sleep at a time since... Well, in her whole life. Frankly, Jeannie was probably lucky she’d made it through one of the most perfect kisses she’d ever had without interruption.

  “What am I supposed to say?”

  She almost smiled because the man had no clue. “Something that doesn’t make it sound like you wish you hadn’t just kissed me.” She waved this away. “It’s not important.”

  A rumbling noise caught her attention and she spun to realize that not only was Robert growling, he was moving fast, too. With both cuffs fastened. “You’re important,” he said and if anyone else had said that in that tone of voice, it would’ve been a threat but for him? His voice was possessive and demanding and needy all at the same time and it wasn’t a threat.

  It was a promise.

  Oh, how she wanted him to keep that promise.

  “The kiss was important,” he went on, his ice-blue eyes fierce and surprisingly warm. “But I don’t want to make you feel like you owe me a kiss or your body. That’s not what this is. I’m not like that.”

  “Then what is it?” She managed to swallow. “What are you like?”

  His mouth opened and then snapped shut and he stepped back. Damned if he didn’t adjust his cuffs again.

  “Will you be all right tonight? I can have a nanny here for the night.”

  Part of her was so, so thankful that he wasn’t going to suggest he should stay because...she might take him up on that.

  So yeah, the other part of her was disappointed that Robert had suddenly become Dr. Wyatt again. Super disappointed. Because if that kiss was any indication, man. All that precision and control combined with the heat she felt every single time their bodies touched?

  He would be amazing.

  “We’ll be okay.” She rested her hand on his arm. Even through the fine cotton of his shirt, she could feel the rock-hard muscles in his arm.

  Focus, Jeannie.

  “Are you sure?”

  Frankly, Robert Wyatt was kind of adorable when he was concerned. Perhaps because the look did not come naturally to him. “Positive. I had this kind man teach me about swaddling, get me different formulas and generally be amazing.” She squeezed his arm.

  He lifted her hand away from his arm and her heart dropped a ridiculous amount because he was back to being Dr. Wyatt and she shouldn’t be touching him. But again, he surprised her because he didn’t drop her hand. Instead, he brought it to his lips and, with that hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, kissed her knuckles.

  It was an old-fashioned move right out of a romance novel but damn if it didn’t work all the same.

  He would be so amazing.

  She had always managed to keep her lustful thoughts about this man safely contained, but nothing was contained right now, not with his lips warming her body.

  His eyes shifted to the side. “Ah,” he said, finally releasing her and moving to where Nicole had a message board hung up by the coat hooks. He picked up the marker. “This is my personal number. Call or text anytime. I have surgery in the morning so this,” he added, writing a second number, “is my assistant.”

  She started to protest that she could handle things for another twenty-four hours, but that was when Robert added, “I’ll stop by tomorrow night, see how the nanny is settling in.”

  Oh. He was coming back. The thought sent a little thrill through her, even though she knew it shouldn’t. She would definitely make sure she’d showered by then. “That’s not necessary.”

  “I disagree.”

  Of course he did.

  “It should be fine.”

  “I’ll expect the pleasure of your company, then.”

  The air rushed out of her lungs because that was not only a good line, but coming out of Robert’s mouth?

  A pleasure, indeed.

  “Will you tell me what’s bothering you, then?”

  A shadow crossed over his eyes. She could feel him retreating—emotionally and physically, because he opened the door and walked out of Nicole’s house. “No.”

  “Why not?” she asked his back.

  He was halfway down the steps when he turned, with that confused look on his face. “Because.”

  She rolled her eyes. “That continues to be a terrible answer, you know.”

  “Because I won’t put you in danger,” he said.

  Then he walked off to where Reginald was waiting, with the car door open.

  The chauffeur tipped his cap at Jeannie and then they were gone.

  What the ever-loving hell?

  * * *

  Melissa was crying when the doorbell rang because of course she was.

  “One second!” Jeannie yelled.

  No matter how many times she watched the video tutorial, she couldn’t get the baby swaddled. At least, not anything like Robert had done. And while Melissa had definitely slept more after drinking the soy-free formula Robert had recommended, Jeannie was still unshowered and exhausted. Getting ninety minutes of sleep at a time was an improvement over forty-five minutes at a time, but not much of one.

  Screw it. She picked Melissa up and settled for tucking the blanket around her little body.

  The doorbell rang again at almost the exact same moment her phone buzzed. Jeannie grabbed her phone and looked at the text. Of course it was from Robert.

  Maja Kowalczyk

  Text me immediately if you don’t like her.

  This was accompanied by a photo of an older woman, her hair in a bun and her face lined with deep laugh lines.

  “Miss Kaufman? Are you able to get the door?” an accented voice yelled—politely—over the sounds of Melissa wailing.

  That man was lucky she’d been able to check her phone. That was jus
t like him to expect her to drop everything to respond to him when, in reality, texting back was a pipe dream, one that ranked well below showering.

  Jeannie shoved the phone in her pocket and gave up on the blanket. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Melissa and held her tight against her chest, like Robert had been doing last night. It helped, a little.

  The doorbell rang and this time, it was accompanied by knocking. Her phone buzzed again but she ignored it and managed to make it to the front door.

  “I’m here,” she snapped, which was not the most polite start to any conversation but seriously, could everyone just give her a second?

  “Ah, good.” The woman on the stoop matched the woman in the photo. But Jeannie was surprised to see a rolling suitcase next to her. The older woman smiled warmly and said, “It’s all right—she’s here. Yes, everything is fine. Thank you, Dr. Wyatt.”

  Which was the point that Jeannie realized that Maja wasn’t talking to her but on her cell phone. To Robert.

  And to think, Jeannie had once concluded that Nicole was the biggest control freak in the world.

  The nanny ended the call and clasped her hands in front of her generous bosom. She was wearing a floral dress, hideous tan shoes and a cardigan, for Pete’s sake. It was at least eighty degrees today! “Hello, Miss Kaufman, I’m Maja Kowalczyk.”

  “Hi. I’m Jeannie.”

  Maja’s eyes crinkled as she went on, “Dr. Wyatt said you needed...” Her voice trailed off as she took a good look at Melissa and Jeannie. Melissa chose that moment to let out a pitiful little wail. “Oh, you poor dears,” she clucked. “May I come in?”

  “I guess?” Jeannie didn’t have much choice. She needed help and, if Robert was still planning on stopping by at some point in the near future, she needed a shower.

  Frankly, she wasn’t sure she hadn’t hallucinated last night. She’d wished upon something that probably wasn’t a star and then Robert had shown up, kissed her, thrown a whole bunch of money at her problems and...driven off into the night.