The Child They Didn't Expect. Yvonne Lindsay

who can come in that quickly when the price is right.”

      He nodded. “That’s good. I’ll see to it that the furniture is out of here tomorrow. Do what you have to do.”

      “That’s what you’re paying me for,” she answered, digging into her bag for her laser tape measure.

      It only took a moment to record the dimensions of the room and the window. Together with the ideas she’d begun to dream up as she’d waited in the front portico her mind was brimming with enthusiasm. If only the client wasn’t such a dirty, rotten, philandering creep, she’d be relishing this job. Instead, she couldn’t wait to get back to the office and hand it off to Deb.

      “Right,” she said, with a brightness she was far from feeling. “I think that’s everything. We’ll be in touch.”

      “That’s it?” he asked.

      “For today.”

      “Okay, then.” For a minute he looked nonplussed, but then his brow cleared. “Will you stay a while? Talk with me about the steps you’ll be taking? I know I’m off to a late start, but I want to understand the task ahead, and what I can do to help it along.”

      “Mr. Marshall—” she started.

      “Ronin. At least you can call me Ronin.”

      She pressed her lips into a line and sharply shook her head. “I need to get back and get the ball rolling on this so we don’t waste any time.”

      “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t leave you a message straightaway. I shouldn’t have—”

      “Please, that’s not necessary. I’ll see myself out.”

      She couldn’t stay there another minute and hear his empty platitudes or even ponder at the gall of him to make them. Nothing would change the truth. She’d done the unthinkable—slept with a married man—and he’d done the unforgivable in betraying his wife, and making Ali party to that betrayal. Ali moved quickly out of the room and down the stairs. Behind her, Ronin’s heavier tread was muffled by the carpet. He beat her to the door. With one hand on the ornate brass handle he faced her and offered her the other.

      “Thank you for coming out. I do really appreciate you taking this on. Right now we have too many other things to focus on.”

      “Yes, well, this is what we’re good at, so you can rest assured the baby will get the best of everything possible.”

      She steeled herself to take his hand, determined to keep their physical contact to a minimum. It made no difference. Palm against palm, their touch all but sizzled. She quickly pulled away and walked through the open doorway to her car. He stepped out onto the portico and watched her leave—not moving back inside, she noted through the rearview mirror, until she was a good distance from the house.

      It was so unfair, she thought as she drove through the iron gates and turned left onto Whitford-Maraetai Road. How could he have been so...so everything and so nothing all at the same time? Clearly she needed to hone her inner lie detector some more. First her husband, now this guy. What kind of message was she inadvertently transmitting to the universe that caused her to attract men for whom fidelity was a negotiable bond?

      She might never know the answer to that, she told herself as she whipped along the road back toward the motorway interchange. But there was one thing she definitely knew—and that was that Ronin Marshall, and men like him, had no place in her life.

      Ever.

       Three

      Two days later Ronin pushed open the door to Best for Baby and decisively rang the silver-and-crystal bell at the abandoned reception desk. Abandoned, no doubt, because he’d been fobbed off with the receptionist while Alison Carter hid from him here at her office.

      He rarely lost his temper. In fact, he was known for being cool under pressure. But this had made his blood boil and, as did everything involving Alison Carter from the moment he’d met her in Hawaii, it churned up emotions that were both unfamiliar and uncomfortable.

      The soft noise of a door opening made him wheel around to face her. He didn’t even give her a moment before he spoke.

      “Why aren’t you at my house?” he growled, fighting to keep his voice level.

      For a split second she looked taken aback, but her composure quickly settled back around her like an invisible cape.

      “I sent my associate. Is there a problem?” she asked.

      “Yes, there’s a problem. Your lack of professionalism is the problem.”

      “My what? Are you complaining about the level of care my company is giving to your contract?” she answered, her face pale but resolute.

      “I’m complaining that you’re not doing the job yourself.”

      She squared her shoulders and lifted that dainty chin of hers a notch. “Deb has been with me since the firm opened, and she is equally capable of seeing to it that your nursery is completed on time.”

      “Deb’s your receptionist, right?”

      “Normally, yes,” she answered, with obvious reluctance.

      “And how many contracts has she undertaken that are as time-sensitive as this one?”

      “This is her first, but I’m still supervi—”

      “Not good enough.”

      “Your contract is with Best for Baby, not specifically with me,” she pointed out in what was, to his way of thinking, a totally unreasonable reasonable voice.

      But beneath her sangfroid, though, he heard the tremor of unease. It gave him power he wasn’t afraid to use. Not when the ends justified the means. He wanted the best for his nephew, and that meant Ali Carter. If he had to make a stink to get her to handle his contract with her precious company personally, then a stink he’d darned well make.

      “You will complete the contract with me, and only you.”

      Or else ominously remained unsaid.

      “Are you threatening me?” she asked, her voice obviously unsteady now.

      “Do I need to? Your firm promotes itself as doing what’s best for baby. It’s your name behind that promotion. If I’m not mistaken, doing what’s best is the basis of your mission statement. Yes,” he said in response to the look of surprise that flitted through her blue-gray eyes, “I’ve done my research.”

      “And your problem?”

      Oh, she was good. He’d give her that. She’d pulled herself together, and if he hadn’t already heard that weakness just a few moments before, he’d have thought she had the upper hand right now.

      “My problem is that I contracted with your company with the expectation that I would receive the best, not the second best.”

      “I can assure you that Deb is as skilled and efficient as I am. In fact, she’s probably better for this contract, as she has no reason on earth not to be. She’s eager to work with you.” She left the words “I am not” unsaid, but they echoed in the air around them nonetheless.

      “So you admit that you’re letting a personal issue stand in the way of your Best for Baby creed, as stated on your company website?”

      “I...”

      “Not terribly professional, is it?”

      “I’m not compromising what my firm offers in any way by putting Deb on the contract.”

      “But she’s not you. I want you.”

      In more ways than one, he added silently. She picked up on the entendre, her cheeks draining of color before flushing