A Groom for Maggie. Elizabeth Harbison

any favors if I gave up my job.”

      “You don’t have to work twenty-four hours a day.”

      He hesitated. “The single most important thing I can do is provide for my child.” He spoke low and slowly. Every word held equal weight. “Not every parent has that priority and, believe me, their children suffer for it.”

      “I agree that basic financial security is important, but believe me it’s easy to err in the opposite direction. All I’m suggesting is a little moderation.”

      “I have no time for moderation. Or for anything much but work. That’s why I hired you.”

      “Are you trying to tell me that you can’t afford to take a little time off?” Maggie looked around her at the opulent office; the leather chairs, stone fireplace, Oriental carpets. “This is one room in a mansion of at least forty. The property alone is worth enough to support several ordinary people for life. You have done quite well for yourself and for Harrison Satellite Networks. I won’t believe for a moment that you need to spend every single day of your life at work.”

      He followed her gaze around the room then held it with his own. “I don’t need to justify any of this to you. If you’ll excuse me now, I have something else to do.”

      “That’s typical, I guess,” she said, almost under her breath. She didn’t move, though inside she trembled.

      “What’s typical?” he asked, turning back to face her.

      Maggie shrugged. “You. Men like you. If there’s a problem that can’t be solved with money you turn away from it and pretend it doesn’t exist at all.”

      He shook his head as he went through the door. “That’s your assessment of me?” he said over his shoulder as he started down the stairs, with Maggie close behind.

      “Part of it.”

      “I’m flattered.” He opened the door to his home gym and went in.

      She slipped in as the door was closing. “You also have a dreadful tendency toward sarcasm,” she said pointedly.

      He stopped and faced her. “Tell me, Miss Weller, have you ever had an unexpressed opinion?”

      She looked at him steadily. “I’m having one right now.”

      There was a moment of shivering silence. Then, to her utter surprise he laughed. The creases framing his smile gave him a boyish look that Maggie tried to ignore. The laugh changed his whole face, if only for a moment. It threw her off more than anything he could have said.

      “Okay.” He turned, then paused at the door and looked at her for a moment before turning. “Let’s talk about you staying. For Kate’s sake and for your sake and, God help me, for my sake.” Not that he had any personal reason to want her to stay. It was all about Kate.

      Walking past her, he slipped his jacket off, then draped it over a wooden valet in the changing room. The crisp white fabric of his button-down shirt formed against his powerful back. He opened a drawer and took out sweatpants and a T-shirt. “You’ll excuse me a minute?”

      Noticing where she stood, Maggie backed up a step and closed the door. “Did you say for your sake?” she asked.

      There was a pause of several seconds before he replied, “What’s good for Kate is good for me, isn’t it?”

      “It could make things easier for you.”

      “Easier? I don’t think anything good comes easy.” He stepped out of the changing room, wearing wornout sweatpants and a T-shirt.

      Maggie swallowed as her eyes roamed over Alex Harrison’s body. She’d never seem him so bare. For the first time she saw a pale jagged scar that cut across his muscular shoulder. It gave him a ruggedness that she didn’t generally attribute to him. She touched her cheek. It felt warm. “Life isn’t only hard work, Alex.” Her voice quivered.

      He seemed unaware of her perusal. “So you say,” he replied, lying down under the bench press. He released the bar and began repetitions, well-defined muscles flexing under smooth skin, up and down, making her think of the power in those arms, the strength his embrace might have. “Maggie, there is only one way I can think of for you to stay in this country,” he continued as he rested the bar on its stand and shook his hands.

      “You’ve thought of something?” She forced her gaze to his face and tried to stare impassively down at him. “What?”

      He turned his head toward her. “It’s pretty extreme. In fact, it may be too extreme.”

      “You’re not proposing that I should stay in this country illegally?”

      He met her eyes, then lifted the bar again. “No, of course not.” He lowered it to his chest. His biceps bulged again as his skin began to sheen with a light sweat. “I’m proposing something entirely different.”

      She swallowed and kept her eyes on his face. “What is it?”

      He finished a count of twelve and set the bar down again, an unreadable expression on his face. “If you married an American you could stay in the country with a green card. When enough time passed, you could apply for citizenship.”

      “Who on earth am I going to—”

      “Me.” He sat up and rubbed his palms on his sweatpants, then met her stunned gaze.

      She couldn’t have heard him correctly. “That’s impossible.”

      He looked back at her, the full force of his concentration powerful and compelling. “No, it’s not.”

      “Are you serious?”

      “Yes. Then you could stay on full-time through the summer, then move out when Kate starts first grade in the fall. Get a place of your own nearby so you can stay involved with Kate. She won’t need full-time care then anyway. You get your green card and Kate doesn’t have the shock of breaking in another nanny. Seems to me this arrangement would be mutually beneficial.”

      Mutually beneficial. Alex Harrison was offering her marriage as a cold-as-marble business proposition, nothing more. But what in the world could she expect? “I can’t do that.”

      He crossed his arms in front of him. The muscles beneath his gleaming skin rippled with the movement. “Why not?”

      “I can’t imagine being in a marriage that wasn’t real.”

      He shook his head. “Real marriages don’t work. That’s been proven over and over again by countless unhappy people. Business arrangements, on the other hand, generally do because both parties go into it with an understanding about the outcome.”

      “Meaning…?”

      “Everyone wins. Kate would have consistency, she’d have the very best care, she’d have you, which is what she clearly wants. You, on the other hand, would have an opportunity to gain financial security before returning to your country, if you decide to go back.”

      “I’d rather forge my opportunities for myself,” Maggie countered hotly, his detachment suddenly irritating.

      A new look came into his eyes. “You’re not very practical.”

      “That may be true. But if I agree to some plan so I can stay, for Kate’s sake as well as my own, I don’t want you thinking I was doing it for financial gain.”

      “Why would you care what I think? I’m proposing the plan.”

      She stiffened. “I care about Kate.”

      “So do I. So stay. For a while.”

      She sighed, looking into those cryptic blue eyes. “As your wife?”

      He held up a hand. “My wife in name. Kate’s nanny in fact. A simple business arrangement that solves all short-term problems.”