To Wear His Ring: Circle of Gold / Trophy Wives / Dakota Bride. Wendy Warren

occurred to Gil that he never trusted Pauline with his children. She wasn’t malicious, she just didn’t pay attention to what they were doing. She’d be involved in putting on sunscreen and lying in the sun, not watching children who could become reckless. Bess was especially good at getting into trouble.

      “That’s Kasie’s job,” Gil said, and put a long arm around Pauline just to see the reaction it got from Kasie. It was a constant source of anger that he couldn’t keep his hands off Kasie when he was within five feet of her, and he still didn’t trust her.

      Kasie averted her eyes. Odd, how much it hurt to see Pauline snuggle close to Gil as if she were part of him. Remembering the hungry, masterful way he’d kissed her in the study, Kasie flushed. She knew things about Gil Callister that she shouldn’t know. He made her hungry. But he was showing her that he didn’t feel the same way. It was painfully obvious what his relationship was with Pauline. Even though she’d guessed, it hurt to have it pointed out to her like this.

      She knew then that she was going to have to resign her job when they got back to the States. If he married Pauline, there was no way she could live under the same roof with them.

      Gil saw the reaction that Kasie was too young to hide, and it touched him. She felt something. She was jealous. He could have cheered out loud. It didn’t occur to him then why he was so happy that Kasie was attracted to him.

      “Who was the man you were talking to on the concourse, Kasie?” Gil asked unexpectedly.

      “His name was Zeke,” she replied with a smile. “He had the seat next to mine.”

      “I noticed him. He’s good-looking,” Pauline said. “What does he do?”

      “He’s a freelance writer for several travel magazines,” Kasie told her. “He’s down here doing a story on a new hotel complex.”

      Gil didn’t look pleased. “Apparently you made friends quickly.”

      “Well, yes,” she confessed. “I was a little nervous about flying. He talked to me while we got airborne.” She grinned. “Didn’t you hear us all singing the Air Force song?”

      “So that’s what it was,” Pauline scoffed. “Good Lord, I thought the plane was full of drunks.”

      “Why were you afraid of flying?” Gil persisted.

      Kasie averted her eyes to the girls. “My family died in an airplane crash,” she said, without mentioning under what circumstances.

      He shifted uncomfortably and looked at his daughters, who were watching for exciting little glimpses of people playing in the surf on the white beaches as they passed them.

      “I’m all right now,” she said. “the flight wasn’t so bad.”

      “Not with a handsome man to hold your hand,” Pauline teased deliberately.

      “He was handsome,” Kasie agreed, but without enthusiasm, and without noticing that Gil’s eyes were beginning to glint with anger. He leaned back, glaring at Kasie.

      She wondered what she’d done to provoke that anger. It made her uneasy. Pauline obviously didn’t like it, either, and the woman was giving Kasie looks that promised retribution in the near future. Kasie had a feeling that Miss Raines would make a very bad enemy, and deep in her stomach, she felt icy cold.

      Chapter Seven

      It took an hour to get checked into the luxury hotel. The girls played quietly in the marble-floored lobby with a puzzle book Kasie had brought along for them, while Pauline complained loudly and nonstop about the inconvenience of having to wait for a room to be made ready. By the time the clerk motioned them to the desk, Gil was completely out of humor. He hadn’t smiled since they got off the plane, in fact. When they were given keys to a two-bedroom suite and a single adjoining room, Pauline’s expression lightened.

      “Oh, that’s nice of you, darling, letting Miss Mayfield have a room of her own.”

      Gil gave her a look that combined exasperation with impatience. “The girls can’t be alone at night in a strange hotel,” he said curtly. “Kasie’s staying in the room with them, and the other bedroom in the suite is mine. You get the single.”

      “Why can’t I just share with you, darling?” Pauline purred, enjoying Kasie’s sudden flush.

      Gil looked furious. He glared down at her from his superior height. “Maybe you’ve forgotten that I don’t move with the times,” he said quietly.

      Pauline laughed a little nervously. “You’re kidding. What’s so bad about two…friends sharing a room?”

      “I’m not kidding,” Gil said flatly. He handed Pauline her key and motioned for Kasie and the girls to follow him.

      Pauline stomped into the elevator, fuming. She gave Kasie a ferocious glare before she folded her arms over her chest and leaned back against the wall. The bellboy signaled that he’d wait for the next elevator to bring their luggage up, because six other people had jumped into the elevator right behind Pauline.

      Gil and Pauline led the way down the hall, with Kasie and the girls following suit.

      “At least, you can take me out tonight,” Pauline told Gil, “since Kasie’s along to baby-sit. Come on, darling, please? They have the most beautiful casino over on Paradise Island, and floor shows, too.”

      “All right,” he said. “Let me get the girls and Kasie settled first, and find out about room service. You will want to have supper up here, won’t you?” he asked Kasie stiffly.

      “Of course,” she said, not wanting to make things worse than they were—if that was possible.

      “Good. Kasie can take the girls out to the beach while I check with the concierge about reservations,” he added, watching Pauline’s face beam. “I’ll pick you up at your room at five-thirty.”

      “But that only gives me an hour to dress,” she moaned.

      “You’d look beautiful in a pillowcase, and you know it,” he chided. “Go on.”

      “Okay.” Pauline walked off to her own room without a word to the girls or Kasie.

      Gil opened the door, noting that the bellboy was coming down the hall toward them with the luggage on a rolling carrier. He motioned Kasie and the girls inside.

      “The bedrooms both have two double beds,” he told Kasie stiffly. “And there’s a balcony off the sitting room, if you want to sit outside and watch the surf after the girls get to sleep,” he added, indicating the French doors that led onto a small balcony with two padded chairs.

      “We’ll be fine,” she told him.

      “Don’t let them stay up past eight, no matter what they say,” he told her. “And don’t you stay up too late, either.”

      “I won’t.”

      He hesitated at the door to his own room and looked at Kasie for a long moment, until her heart began to race. “You didn’t tell me that you lost your family in an air crash. Why?”

      “The subject didn’t come up,” she said gruffly.

      “If it had,” he replied curtly, “you wouldn’t have been sitting alone, despite Pauline’s little machinations with the seat assignments.”

      She was taken aback by the anger in his tone. “Oh.”

      “You make me feel like a gold-plated heel from time to time, Kasie,” he said irritably. “I don’t like it.”

      “I was all right,” she assured him nervously. “Zeke took care of me.”

      That set him off again. “You’re getting paid to take care of my children, not to holiday with some refugee from a press room,” he pointed out, his voice arctic.

      She