that heart. But wishing never worked. She learned that early on in life. So, short of throwing herself physically at him and hog-tying him in the elevator, the meeting was over. She knew it. She’d lost.
“Then you’re settling for less than you should,” she said, knowing that she had nothing to lose now.
“I don’t settle for anything,” he said tightly.
At the same time the world jerked violently. Lindsey felt the floor lurch under her, and she was flying forward. In that split second she felt as if she were reliving that moment on the stairs when she collided with the man. But this time it was nothing she did. Her purse flew out of her hands, and she was thrown towards the stranger. She was clutching his jacket with both hands, and their bodies connected.
It took Zane a full second to realize that it was the elevator stopping violently, and in that second Lindsey came right at him. He felt a stinging in his upper right arm, then they collided and she was against him, pushing him back against the wall.
From no contact to total contact, he felt her pressing against every inch of his body. Her hair was tickling his chin, a provocative scent that clung to her filled his senses, and he could almost feel her heart hammering against his. Her hands were tugging on his jacket, and he did what he had done the first time. He held her up, put his arms around her to steady her. But this time the shock was giving way rapidly to an intense awareness of her.
A stranger, but very definitely a woman and different from any nanny he’d ever seen in his life. He didn’t dare move, afraid that the response that was deep inside him would build. Then she shifted, her face tipped up to his, and the amber eyes were veiled by improbably long lashes. Freckles stood out against skin pale from shock.
“Oh, God,” she gasped. “What happened?”
He thought for a moment she was shocked at what he was feeling—the basic emotion of a man with a woman in his arms—but he rejected that. “An unexpected stop,” he managed to say, then took a breath. “And we aren’t moving.”
Her eyes darted to the floor indicator, and at the same time she let go of him. She moved back, and felt coolness there instead of the heat. A disturbing sense of loss came with it. “Stuck?” she breathed.
“As in, stuck between floors,” he said, waiting for panic or fear or both to show up in her expression.
He didn’t expect her to turn and start to smooth his suit coat where she’d crunched the material, a contact he’d barely felt.
“I am so sorry for doing that,” she said. “This suit must have cost you a—” She bit her lip and drew her hands back. “It’s okay, I think,” she murmured. “We’re stuck?”
He turned and pressed each floor button one after the other, but nothing happened. “Stuck,” he said, and turned back to her. She was watching him, her expression unreadable. “And don’t even say it. The elevators were not shut down to save money.”
Her cheeks flamed at his jab. “I didn’t say that.”
“You were thinking it, weren’t you?”
“Okay, it crossed my mind. I admit it, but I didn’t say it.” She crouched in front of him to retrieve her purse, which had landed on top of his dropped briefcase. “What now?”
He turned to the panel and reached for the emergency phone. “We’ll get help,” he said, lifting the receiver to his ear.
Zane pushed the button under the phone, and in two rings someone was on the line.
“Yes?”
“The executive elevator stopped, hard, and it’s stuck between floors.”
“Oh, man, I’m sorry.” The guy sounded like some teenager. “That’s a bummer.”
“Just get it going.”
“Yeah, sure, as soon as we can.”
Zane hung up, then turned to Lindsey, who was standing facing him now with her purse in hand. “They’re starting to work on it, and it won’t be long.” He couldn’t stand her just standing there looking at him as if everything was just fine. It was annoying the hell out of him to be stuck like this. “This doesn’t bother you at all?”
She blinked at the question, then shrugged. “Well, of course it does. I don’t want to plunge down seven or eight floors, that’s for sure.”
“I don’t think we’re going to plunge anywhere,” he said.
“Then, we wait. And if we’re waiting, we can talk some more. No wasted time.”
It sounded like something he would have said, if this had happened during rushed business negotiations. And when he thought about it, he had to admit that this was exactly that. He could have this nanny thing sewn up before they got to the parking garage.
“You’ve missed your calling.”
“Oh, what’s that?”
“You should have hired on to help with the cuts around here.”
“I think they’re doing just fine in the cutting department without me,” she said a bit tightly.
“You do say what you mean, don’t you.”
Her lashes lowered slightly, shadowing her expression just a bit. “A bad habit.”
“I was giving you a compliment, believe it or not.”
“I’m sure you meant it as a compliment.”
He wasn’t gaining any ground here at all, and worse than that, he had the feeling he wasn’t even controlling this interview. He backed against the closed doors and crossed his arms. “Okay, forget the compliments. We can talk business. We aren’t going anywhere just yet, as you pointed out.”
“Not unless we crawl out the escape hatch.”
He looked up at the panel in the ceiling. “I think we’ll save that for a last option.” He glanced back at her, sensing a heat in the car. Probably the air-conditioning not working right. “So, you’ve got a degree, and you’re working toward your master’s?”
“Slowly but surely. But you know, where kids are concerned, degrees are just so much confetti.”
“If academic qualifications don’t matter, what does?”
“Being there, just being there and caring.”
“And you care.” It wasn’t a question but a statement of fact. Her caring was very evident even in the short time he’d been around her. He wasn’t used to passion where it concerned work. Anger, intensity, drive. But not real passion. “Do you put that on your resume?”
She looked around, then unexpectedly moved back and sat on the floor, her back against the far wall, her legs crossed Indian-style. She laid her purse by her and looked up at him. “No, I don’t put that on my resume. It’s a given in this business. Why would anyone work with kids if they didn’t care about them?”
“I
