Daddy's Double Duty (9 page)

“Sure. Can I help with anything?” he asked as he followed her over to the cabinets.

“Have you honestly ever done anything in the kitchen? Besides eat?”

“Well, I—” He thought for a moment, then gave her a sly grin. “I put the teakettle on to boil whenever I need steam to reshape my hat.”

She let out a good-natured groan. “Oh. So you know how to boil water. That's something.”

He chuckled. “Maybe you could teach me a few things. Just in case the Diamond D kitchen staff ever go on strike.”

His comment reminded Vanessa of the privileged life he led, the fortune he'd been born into.

“I wouldn't worry about it,” she replied. “You can always hire someone else to do the job for you.”

As she began to pull down plates again, he came to stand close behind her.

“Do you resent that fact, Vanessa? That I…and my family have money? I never thought so. But—” One hand came to rest against the back of her shoulder. “We've never talked about personal things before.”

She gripped the edges of the plates as unbidden desire rushed through her.

“We were always too busy to make personal chit-chat.” She glanced over her shoulder. “But as far as you being wealthy, I don't resent that. You work harder than anybody I know.”

“Not Liam,” he corrected.

With the plates pressed against her chest, she turned to face him. “No. Maybe not Liam,” she agreed. “But you're just as dedicated.”

He gently brushed the back of his knuckles against her cheek and Vanessa wanted to slip into his arms.

“I'm glad you think I earn what I have. And I'll tell you something else, Vanessa, I like spending it on you—and the babies. I like making things better for you. It makes all the work I do mean more to me.”

Every cell inside her began to tremble. “That's not the way it should be, Conall. We're—the babies and I…well, you should be doing all of that for a family of your own. Not us.”

Slowly, he eased the plates from her tight grip. “Yeah,” he said, his quiet voice full of cynicism. “That might be good advice, Vanessa. But I don't happen to have a family of my own.”

He carried the plates over to the table and all of a sudden she was struck by the fact that in spite of Conall's wealth, in spite of his long list of valuable assets, he didn't have what she had. He didn't have two tiny babies who needed and cried for his touch or quieted at the soothing sound of his voice. He didn't have anyone to call him Daddy. And from what he'd told Vanessa, he never would.

Hot moisture stung the back of her eyes and as she turned to fish silverware from a small drawer, she wondered whether the unexpected tears were for Conall or herself.

N
early two weeks later, Conall was sitting at his desk, watching dusk settle across the ranch yard when Fiona stepped into the room and announced she was quitting for the day.

“Your father and grandmother will be ready to eat in thirty minutes. Will you be there?” his mother asked.

“Uh…no.” Struggling to focus his thoughts back to the moment, he glanced over to Fiona. The woman had been working nonstop all day at Vanessa's desk, yet she looked nearly as fresh as she had when she'd started at eight this morning. Her graceful femininity was a guise, he couldn't help thinking. She was actually a lioness, always fierce and never tiring. “I'm afraid not. I still have a few calls to make before I leave the office.”

She grimaced. “Have you talked to Liam?”

“No. Why?”

“He wanted to speak with you about Blue Heaven—
the two-year-old. Something about paying her futurity fees.”

Leaning back in his chair, he looked at her with puzzlement. “Why would Liam want to talk to me about the filly? Liam is the trainer, he enters any horse he wants into whatever race he wants. He certainly doesn't ask my opinion on the matter.”

Frowning with impatience, she stepped farther into the office until she was standing at the end of his desk. Conall felt as if time had traveled back to when he was ten years old and he'd slipped off to the horse barn instead of doing his homework.

“Does it ever cross your mind that your brother needs your support? That he might want your advice on these matters?”

His gaze dropping away from his mother, he picked up a pen and began to tap it absently against the ink blotter. He wasn't in the mood for one of Fiona's family lectures. He was missing Vanessa like hell and though a nanny for the twins had been hired more than a week ago, she'd not yet returned to work. And damn it, he wasn't going to push her, even though he wanted to. “Not really.”

To his surprise Fiona muttered a curse under her breath. It was rare that he ever heard his mother utter a foul word and he couldn't imagine this trivial matter pulling one from her mouth.

“Not really,” she mimicked with sarcasm. “I should have known that would be your answer. I doubt you actually think about your brother for more than five minutes out of the day!”

Startled by her unexpected outburst, he jerked his head up to stare at her. “What in the world are you
talking about, Mom? Is this ‘feel sorry for Liam' day or something?”

“Don't get smart with me, Conall. This is as much about you as it is about Liam working himself to death.”

Conall tossed down the pen. “Maybe you haven't noticed, but I'm not exactly taking a vacation here,” he muttered, then immediately shook his head. “Sorry, Mom. I…shouldn't have said that.”

“No. You shouldn't have.”

Sighing with exasperation, he swiveled his chair so that he was facing her head-on. “Liam is working too hard. But what can I do about it? I've been after him to hire an assistant. But he doesn't think anyone could measure up to Clete. Until he decides that he's not going to find another Clete and hires someone to help him, there's not much I can do.”

Fiona sighed. “That's true. But I wish…well, that you would take time for him and he would take time for you. You're both so damned obsessed with work that—” Pausing, she shook her head with regret. “Forget it, Conall. I can't change either of you and it's wrong of me to try. I just want you to be happy. But Liam goes around pretending everything is just dandy when it's anything but. And you—sometimes I think you've simply given up. A son of mine,” she added with disgust, “I never thought I'd see it.”

It wasn't like Fiona to be so critical. Even when she was angry with her children, she managed to display it in a loving way. But something seemed to have stirred her up. As for him giving up, it was no secret that his parents wanted him to get back into the dating scene and find himself a wife. To the Donovans, a person had nothing unless they had a family. And they both had
the Pollyanna idea that if he found the right woman, she would understand and accept his sterile condition. Maybe there were a few out there, he thought dully. But would one of them be a woman he could love?

Hell. What kind of question is that, Conall? You don't believe in love anymore. Not after Nancy. Why can't you settle for someone to simply cozy up to and grow old with? Your heart doesn't have to be involved.

His jaw tight, he said firmly, “I'm sorry you've had to work so hard these last few weeks, Mom. I thought Vanessa would have been back by now. But—”

She looked at him sharply. “I can manage this office with one hand tied behind my back. That's not—” She waved a dismissive hand at him and started out the door. “I've got to get back to the house for dinner. And you won't be seeing me at Vanessa's desk in the morning. She called a few minutes ago to say she'd be returning tomorrow.”

His boots hit the floor with a thump. “Vanessa called? Why didn't she speak to me?”

“You were on the phone with the fencing company. She didn't want to disturb you.”

Or maybe she'd simply wanted to avoid talking to him, Conall thought as his mother slipped out the door. But that was a stupid notion. She was coming back to work tomorrow. She'd be spending her days with him. But it wasn't exactly the days that Conall had been thinking about before his mother had walked in and abruptly interrupted his musings.

With a heavy sigh, he rose from the deep leather chair and walked over to a large framed window overlooking part of the stables. Resting his shoulder against the window seal, he gazed out at the lengthening shadows. Ranch hands were busy with the evening chores and no
doubt Liam was in one of the barns, making sure his latest runners were pampered and happy.

Liam goes around pretending everything is just dandy when it's anything but. And you—sometimes I think you've simply given up.

Fiona's words were still rattling around in his head and though Conall tried to tell himself they were simply a mother expressing dissatisfaction with her sons, he had to admit she was, at least, partially right. He couldn't speak for Liam, but as for himself, he supposed he had given up on some aspects of his life.

Didn't his mother realize it was easier for him to focus on his work instead of the mess he'd made of his personal life? The mess he would make if he tried to marry again?

You should be doing all of that for a family of your own. Not us.

Close on the heels of his mother's words, Vanessa traipsed through his mind, reminding him just how much she and the twins had changed his life, had reopened the old dreams and wishes that he'd started out with as a young man.

Although he'd talked with Vanessa on the phone about hiring the nanny, he'd not seen her since the night Rick had burped all over him. Every night since then, he'd wanted to go back to her house. He'd wanted to sit across from her at the little table, eat warm tortillas, talk about mundane things and simply watch her beautiful face. Over and over he'd thought about the way she'd felt in his arms when he'd kissed her and the way she'd looked afterward. For the first time in a long time he'd wanted to make love to a woman. And though he'd told himself he'd been too busy to make the trip over to Tinnie to see her, a part of him knew he'd been hiding
these past few days, afraid to admit to himself or to her that she and the babies were the family he'd wanted for so long.

 

Three days later, Vanessa was relieved that Friday had finally arrived. If she didn't get out of the office and away from Conall soon, she was either going to break into pieces or throw herself into his arms and beg the man to make love to her. Neither option was suitable for a secretary who'd always considered herself a professional. And she was beginning to wonder if the job she'd once loved was now going to have to come to an end.

Drawing in a bracing breath, she rapped her knuckles on the door separating their offices. The moment she heard him calling for her to enter, she stepped into his domain and shut the door behind her.

“I have the contract for the trucking company ready for you to sign,” she said as she approached his desk. “I've also alerted Red Bluff that a new trucking company will be in place at the mine by the middle of next month.”

“Good. I'm glad to get that settled.” He glanced up as she leaned forward to place the papers in front of him. “Did Red Bluff seem to have any problem with the idea of new haulers?”

It was after five in the evening and though he'd started out the day in a crisply starched shirt and matching tie, the tie was now loosened and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone while the sleeves were rolled back on his forearms. His nearly black hair was rumpled and she knew if she were to rub her cheek against his, she'd feel the faint rasp of his beard.

“Not at all,” she said as she straightened to her full
height and tried to bring her thoughts to the business at hand.

“Good. I only wish raising racehorses was as easy as digging gold from a mountainside.” He picked up a pen and scratched his name on the appropriate lines. Once he was finished, he handed the document back to her and smiled. “But my grandfather used to say that nothing was worthwhile, unless it was earned. Gold mines eventually peter out. Horses will always be.”

“Yes, well, I'll get this in the outgoing mail before I leave this evening,” she told him, then quickly turned to start out of the room.

She'd taken two steps when his hand closed around her upper arm and with a mental groan, she turned to face him.

“Was there something else?” she asked.

Grimacing at her businesslike tone, he muttered, “Hell, yes, there's plenty more! I want to know why you've been acting as though I have a contagious disease. Ever since you've started back to work, you've been tiptoeing around me like I'm some sort of hulking monster.”

Shaking her head, she looked away from him and swallowed hard. “I'm sorry if it appears that way, Conall. But I'm just trying to keep things in order.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means—” Her gaze slipped to her arm, where his fingers were pressed like dark brown bands around her flesh. “I'm trying to keep our relationship professional here in the office.”

He stepped closer and her heart began to knock against her ribs. “What if I don't want it to be professional?” he asked softly.

She cleared her throat, but it didn't clear away the
huskiness in her voice when she spoke. “Like I told you before, Conall, we can't—”

Before she could get the rest of her words out, he jerked her forward and into his arms. The instant his lips covered hers, Vanessa understood why she'd been fighting so hard to keep this very thing from happening.

Tasting his kiss again, having his arms holding her close against his hard body, felt incredibly delicious and impossible to resist. She couldn't hide or ignore the desire rushing through her, urging her to open her mouth to his and slip her arms up and around his neck.

All at once the kiss heated, deepened and surrounded her senses in a hot fog. The room receded to a dim whirl around her head. She heard his groan and then his hands were sliding down her back, splaying against her buttocks and dragging her hips toward his.

Crushed in the intimate embrace, Vanessa forgot they were in his office and that anyone could walk in on them. She forgot, that is, until the phone in her office began to ring and stop, then ring again.

Summoning on all the strength she could find, she jerked her mouth from his. “Conall—the phone, I—”

“Forget the phone,” he ordered huskily as his mouth descended toward hers for a second time. “The caller can leave a message.”

Panicked by just how much she wanted to do his bidding, she burst out, “No!”

Twisting away from his embrace she started to hurry out of the room, but halfway to the door, she realized at some point during their kiss she'd dropped the contract.

Turning back, she groaned when she spotted it lying to one side of his boots. As she walked toward him to
retrieve it, he said softly, “That was a quick change of mind.”

“I haven't changed my mind.” She bent down to retrieve the typed pages that were held together with a heavy paper clip. “I'm retrieving the contract. That's all.”

Gripping the document with both hands, she straightened back to her full height and before she could step away his hand came out to catch her by one elbow.

“All right, Vanessa, you can pretend you're indifferent, but I won't believe it,” he murmured.

She swallowed as her heartbeat reacted to his nearness. “Conall, I'm not going to deny that I like kissing you. But—”

“Good,” he interrupted before she could go on. “Because I plan on us doing a lot more of it.”

“No,” she repeated. “It won't take us anywhere. Except to bed!”

A corner of his mouth curled upward. “For once we agree on something.”

She stared at him as her mind spun with questions and images that left her face burning with red heat. “Well, you might as well go over to your desk and write this down on your calendar, Conall—it ain't gonna happen!”

He laughed in a totally confident way, but instead of the sound irking her, it sent a scare all the way down to her feet. To make love to Conall would be the end of her. He'd have her eating out of his hand, waiting and begging for any crumbs of affection he might throw her way.

“You look very pretty when you use bad grammar. Did you know that?”

She muttered a helpless curse and then the phone
began to ring again. “The one thing I do know is that I have to get back to work and—”

“No. You don't. It's quitting time,” he said, his voice quickly slipping back to boss mode. “And right now I want to speak with you about tomorrow night.”