An Heir to Bind Them. Dani Collins

good with kids. Or does it bother 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.”

      CHAPTER FIVE

      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.