just asking for a bit of give-and-take here, Miss Jones. This is an emergency.’
He must be desperate, he was using that high-voltage smile that he reserved for Jasmine, Victoria and, of course, Selina. How could she have forgotten Selina? His smile made all of those pencil-slim, extremely tall beauties very understanding when he kept them waiting for hours.
Well, if he expects me to start panting to please him, he’s doomed to disappointment. She’d been brought up in a male-dominated household and when the male of the species said give-and-take in her experience she was expected to do most of the giving!
‘I did the giving when I came in two hours early three days this week, on the understanding, you recall, that I could leave promptly at three this afternoon. If you go off searching for your brother, who might very well not want to be found, what chance is there of that?’
‘That’s a very selfish view to take,’ he observed regarding her with deepening dislike.
‘If it’s any comfort, my big brothers all share your opinion of my selfish disposition—all five of them. If you were looking for a temporary doormat, Mr. Prentice, you lucked out,’ she told him frankly. ‘I’m not about to sacrifice my personal life for your convenience, but I might make a rather obvious suggestion—why don’t you just phone your brother’s wife?’
‘I would if I could—she’s dead,’ he announced expressionlessly.
This flat matter-of-fact statement wiped the superior smile clean off her face. She looked from his grim face to the tiny baby and felt the prickle of tears at the backs of her eyelids.
‘That’s…that really…’ She swallowed, dreadful didn’t really sound adequate to cover such a tragedy. The mystery of the distressed young man on the stairs was sadly solved. She wished now she’d obeyed her instincts and had approached him. Her tender heart ached and his disappearing act became more understandable.
‘It is,’ he agreed.
One solitary tear escaped her swimming eyes and Jake watched it progress over the smooth contours of her face before she flicked a careless finger to blot it.
‘Does this work for you as a compromise?’
Compromise! Jake Prentice! She blinked, she was amazed the term was in his vocabulary.
‘All three of us,’ he glanced towards the baby, ‘go to look for Josh, and when it’s three o’clock you go and do whatever it is you so urgently need to do.’
‘I suppose that might be all right,’ she conceded, still not sold on the plan.
Jake didn’t feel any more enthusiastic about the plan than she sounded. ‘Do you think possibly you should change or feed him or something?’
‘I thought this was a joint venture? I might come from a large family but my experience of babies is nil, I was the baby.’
And used to getting her own way from day one, he thought, eyeing that dimple in her right cheek with cynical suspicion. When she smiled, and he’d noticed she did so indiscriminately at everyone from the sandwich boy to visiting government dignitaries, it deepened in a very beguiling way. She didn’t smile at him, a fact that was naturally a deep source of relief to him.
‘Now, if you wanted me to strip an engine…’
‘How hard can it be?’
Nia assumed he was referring to babies, not the internal combustion engine. She watched as he placed the distressed baby, still strapped in his seat, on one of the chunky leather sofas.
Nia bit her lip to stop herself grinning—actually she knew a lot more about babies than she’d let on.
‘I do admire a confident attitude.’ She bent over and picked up a large holdall emblazoned with big fluffy yellow rabbits. ‘This looks promising,’ she added, tossing it towards him.
Jake automatically caught it one handed. He had an enviable athletic coordination, which was probably why she found herself staring when he walked across a room.
‘But…’
‘I’ll cancel your appointments,’ she said, turning a deliberate blind eye to his stereotypical display of helpless male panic.
When she returned a few minutes later Jake was struggling with the plastic tags of a disposable nappy, several ruined ones lay on the floor beside him. The baby was kicking happily, enjoying his freedom.
He glanced around as she came in. His eyes moved upwards from her slim ankles, moving up the shapely curve of her calves before eventually reaching her face. His colour was slightly heightened.
‘A very poor design,’ he grumbled as she dropped down onto the floor beside him.
‘Perhaps you don’t have the gentle touch?’ He’d used his folded jacket as a changing mat for the baby and through the fine fabric of his shirt she could make out the shadowy suggestion outline of dark hair across his chest.
Anyone would think the man was stark naked, she told herself impatiently. That neat jolt of inexplicable sexual awareness had been impossible to misinterpret even if she’d wanted to. Remember rule number one, Nia. Never, never get romantically interested in your boss. She’d seen too many friends take that particular path to disaster.
‘Nobody has ever complained about my touch.’ It was impossible to tell from his sardonic expression if any double entendre was intended. The mere possibility was enough to make her lower jaw drop. ‘I thought you didn’t know anything about babies?’
Hands flat on the floor, Nia leaned over the baby, making those unintelligible noises small helpless things inspired in the female breast. Half of her hair was loose again, he’d noticed it didn’t usually last beyond midmorning no matter how she tried to restrain it. The swathe of pre-Raphaelite curls swung with a life of their own over her shoulders and brushed the floor. Jake could smell the fresh scent of her shampoo, and a muscle in his lean cheek jumped.
The baby watched the fiery cloud apparently fascinated—genetics had a lot to answer for, Jake thought drily. Then his nephew did something he’d spent far too long thinking about, either by design or accident, he reached up and wrapped his small chubby fingers in a handy strand. Nia let out a yelp and then a soft chuckle.
‘Aren’t you a strong boy,’ she admired warmly, trying to loosen the tenacious grip with little success.
Jake doubted her response would have been as mild had he chosen to sink his fingers deep into that glowing mass that was composed of shades that ran the full length of the spectrum from gold to deepest Titian.
‘What’s his name?’ A smile on her face, she turned her head and found that Jake was watching her with an odd, stomach-tightening intensity.
He didn’t look away, just held her eyes. She didn’t know why, perhaps just because he could? He could make female hearts—not to mention stomachs, go haywire, even if their owners didn’t actually like him. Even if their owners were supposed to be happily engaged to someone else.
‘Liam.’
‘What a lovely name.’ Nia didn’t like the way her voice had dropped
