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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.” Alex reached out and touched Maggie’s arm. “Is it so horrifying?” he asked. “Am I?”
An electric current passed between them at the unexpected words and touch. Maggie was aware of a quickening of her pulse.
“And how do you benefit from it?” she asked.
He looked into Maggie’s eyes. “I want Kate to be happy. I think this would make her happy.”
Maggie narrowed her eyes. “Is that all?”
He let out a breath. “Okay, to be totally frank, being a married man might make my life a little easier in other ways. Success tends to attract a certain type of woman—”
“Gold diggers?” Maggie supplied.
“That’s one term for them. Anyway, I could do without the aggravation of three calls a day from the Anna Christiansons out there.”
Maggie thought for a moment, then nodded. “If I move out at the end of the summer—”
“Marital discord,” Alex said. “We’ll say we’re trying to work it out.”
“Even if that would work, I’m not sure it justifies a marriage.”
“Think about it.” He gave a brief smile that warmed his face. “Please think it over. I believe it’s the only way.”
Holding his gaze, she reached for the chair behind her, found it, pulled it toward her and sat down. “I can’t believe I’m considering this.”
“It’s a very sensible offer.” He gave a half shrug and his voice softened. “And as you so persuasively pointed out, it’s vitally important for Kate.”
For several long seconds they sat in silence. There was a lot of merit in what he said. After all, this was not meant to be a romantic proposal. Could she separate her feelings? Could she, even for a short time, lock herself in marriage with this man and accept that it wasn’t real?
Finally she said, “If it weren’t for Kate I’d walk away from this ridiculous conversation.” And if it weren’t for the fact that I need to stay in this country so I can earn the money to send home where there is almost no employment. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was very tempted to take him up on his offer for her own selfish reasons.
“If it weren’t for Kate we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all.” Alex stood. “I’ll need an answer today and I’ve got a meeting downtown in two hours. Let me know, Maggie.”
An hour later Maggie and Alex were back in the office where the whole conversation began, he in his chair behind the desk, she in the one opposite. Alex had his closing argument perfectly prepared.
“…so by marrying me, I’ll offer you the chance to complete your Montessori certification. Also, you’ll be able to apply for citizenship so that after we separate you can remain in this country as a legal citizen. You can vote, collect benefits and take a teaching job anywhere you want freely, without restrictions.”
“I don’t even know how long one has to be a resident before being eligible for citizenship,” Maggie said.
“Three years. I’d expect you to live in the area during that time so you could be available to Kate when she’s not in school. Naturally I will compensate you for your time.”
Three years. This was no small commitment. Maggie raised a skeptical eyebrow. “And what happens to Kate after the three years?” And what happens to us in the meantime?
“We’ll have to agree now that you’ll continue to be part of her life, at least to some degree. I’ll make it financially possible for you to visit with her whenever the two of you would like.”
“But what about between visits?”
“I’ll be here much of the time, but I’ll make sure there’s a housekeeper here at all times as well.”
Maggie struggled not to roll her eyes. “Oh, well, as long as you have an hour or so a week—”
The look he gave her stopped her cold. “If we’re going to keep arguing like this, maybe we should forget the whole thing.”
Maggie saw he meant it. Suddenly the answer was clear. She realized with vague irony that she had shoved her attraction to him aside. At that moment, the man’s very coldness made her feel that it would be possible to marry him in the legal sense only. The glimpses of sensitivity she’d seen were enough to make her believe that, with a little bit of time and understanding, perhaps he would see the close relationship he could have with Kate. Without vanity, Maggie believed that she was the one person who could help this come to fruition.
And that was as noble and worthy a cause as she’d ever had. Whether Alex Harrison realized it or not, he had given her much more than an opportunity to finish school or get a good job. He’d given Her a challenge that, if she succeeded, could change all their lives. But for the better? Maggie didn’t know the answer to that. “Let’s not forget about it, Alex,” she said aloud. “I accept the challenge.” She took a deep breath, met his eyes and held out a hand to seal the deal. “You’ve just bought yourself a wife. When’s our wedding?”
Chapter Two
“I beg your pardon?”
“I’ll do it,” Maggie said. “It seems best for everyone involved, as you said.” Her eyes were brighter than usual and her face had grown paler. She looked like a porcelain doll, except that there was nothing fragile about her. She was willowy but solidly built. She was beautifully built, as a matter of fact. “But I think we have to have an understanding about this.”
“We’ll have a formal agreement, of course.” It was a lesson he’d learned from bitter experience. “A prenuptial agreement that addresses both of our concerns. What are your yours?”
“Several things.” She drew a breath. “As you know I had an entire hour to think about this. I made some notes.” She took a folded piece of paper out of her pocket. “First, finances. Will I continue to get a weekly check or did you have something else in mind?”
“I could establish an account in your name and arrange for automatic deposits according to your spending.”
She sucked air in through her teeth. “I’d rather take care of my own economics.”
“Fine.” He hesitated, then wrote something down on a piece of paper. “I can’t very well keep my wife on salary but I can call it a monthly stipend for your personal use. Direct deposit would be more subtle.” He slid the paper to her.
Maggie looked at the paper. “But that’s considerably more than I’m earning now,” she said. “If my duties aren’t going to change, I don’t think it’s appropriate for my salary to change.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Are you arguing against a raise?”
Her look hardened slightly. “I have no intention of taking advantage of you. All I want is what’s fair.”
He tapped his pen against the pad. “This is a somewhat more constant occupation. Don’t forget you’ll be my wife as well as Kate’s supervisor.”
She lowered her chin. “That sounds ominous. What does being your wife entail that warrants so much more money? Besides scaring off gold diggers?”
He shrugged. “Regular wifely duty type things. Nothing much.”
She frowned for a moment, then her eyes widened. “Oh, no.” She stood up and shook her head. “No, no.”
“What?”
“Is this about sex?”
He lowered his brows and tried to keep from laughing. “Who mentioned sex?”
She put her hands on her hips. “You increased my salary because I will also have to perform wifely duties. Do you mean you expect me to sleep with you?”
“Did I say ‘perform’?” He pushed away the thought of her shapely legs wrapped around him. “I don’t think I said ‘perform.’”
She threw her hands up. “I don’t know what you said, but it certainly sounded like an improper proposition to me.”
He looked at her calmly. “Maggie, are you prepared to take money for such…services?”
Her face flushed red. “Certainly not!”
“Then why do you assume I’m prepared to pay for them?”
She eyed him for a moment, then her mouth quirked into a smile. “Okay, you have a good point. I leapt to a conclusion. How about if you tell me what you meant by ‘wifely duty’ and I’ll reserve judgment. For a moment.”
He studied his Mont Blanc fountain pen. “When news gets out that I’m married there will be business functions now and then that you’ll be invited to attend with me. Now, I can probably get you out of most of them, but I can’t guarantee you’ll never have to come along.”
“Business functions?”
He nodded and put the pen down.
“Of course.” She met his eyes. “I don’t have any problem with that.”
“Good.” He tapped his fingers on the armrests of his chair, amazed that the conversation was really happening. It wasn’t difficult for him to consider marriage as a business proposition—after all, there were a million legal ways to protect himself. But it was another thing to think of Maggie as his wife and remember that it was strictly business…with only a fraction of the usual marital benefits.
She sat down again and crossed her long legs. Inside, Alex groaned. “So when you talked about my role as your wife and said this was a legal marriage, you meant…?”
“Legal means legal…in the eyes of the state,” Alex said, glancing at her long slender legs. He returned his gaze to her eyes, but not without a momentary pause at her exquisite lips. “You will keep your own room.”
She raised her chin and looked at him for a moment before nodding. “Okay. So we’re agreed. No…marital interaction.”
He didn’t mean to hesitate but suddenly he had to swallow. “Of course not. No sex. Not with one another at any rate.”
She looked up sharply. “Do you have someone in mind?” Her words were unexpectedly crisp.
“Do you?” he countered.
“I’m not sure that’s a question you should be asking me.”
“Why not?”
She shifted in her chair. “Because I’m not sure it’s any of your business.”
“You asked me.”
“Well, yes, but…but I’m not the one who brought it up in the first place.”
There was no one else in her life. That was a relief. If Maggie had been interested in someone, it would really have muddied things up. Where Kate was concerned, that was. “Okay, we’ll make a deal. We’ll have a no-questions-asked policy.” Now he felt safe proposing this. “Discretion is the only requirement.”
“Another deal,” Maggie mused. She reached up and pulled her long golden hair back from her face.
Alex watched and swallowed hard. Every once in awhile he’d seen her do that and each time it struck him how much she looked like Grace Kelly. Funny, when he was young, he’d seen Rear Window and developed a tremendous crush on Grace Kelly. He’d forgotten that until just now.
“Do you agree?” he asked, after a silence that he knew had gone on too long.
“Yes.” Her chest rose with a deep breath and the buttons of her blouse strained slightly. “So how do you want to do it?”
His heart skipped a beat. “Do…?”
“The marriage,” she answered quickly. “The actual ceremony or what have you.”
“Ah, well.” He straightened in his chair and shuffled some papers on his desk. “I suppose we’ll go to the courthouse.”
“The courthouse. Fine.” Maggie swallowed. “When?”
He tapped his fingertips on the desk, then steepled his fingers in front of his face. For some reason he didn’t want to appear too anxious. “I’ll have to check my schedule and get back to you on that.”
Some expression flitted across her features, but too quickly for Alex to identify it. She heaved a sigh and regarded him for a moment. There was such a look of intelligence in her eyes. Alex found it disconcerting. As if she could see right through him.
“Fine,” she said, breaking his thoughts. “But I don’t suppose we should wait too long.” She nodded toward the paper listing her visa expiration.
“No,” he agreed. “I just have to make a few calls and then I’ll have my secretary make the arrangements.” He added, “You do realize that an immigration review board will want to set up a time to interview us.”
She blinked. “Why?”
“To make sure our marriage is real. This is an eleventh hour move, after all.”
“How are they going to confirm that?”
“It’s my understanding that they’ll ask us a series of questions about each other and our life together. We’ll have to spend some time together preparing.”
“Should I be worried?”
“I don’t think so. It’s like any other test. We’ll just make sure we’re prepared.” He hesitated. “Do you have any other points to clear up?” He nodded toward the paper she’d brought along.
She glanced at it. “How do we handle…the end? In three years.”
“At the end of three years, I propose to give you a lump sum, again for your personal use. I imagine that you’ll use it to establish yourself as single again.” He pulled the pad over, wrote, then passed the paper to her.
She took it and gasped. “Are you sure you wrote this correctly?” She held it up for him to see.
He didn’t bother to look. “It’s not enough?” He poised his pen. “I’ll only go up another ten thousand.”
“Another ten thousand?” She shook her head. “It looks like you’ll be eager to be rid of me.”
He couldn’t imagine it. “I only want to be fair. That’s the way I do all my business.”
“Then it’s no wonder you’re so successful.” There was a hard edge to her voice. “But this—” she looked at the paper “—isn’t necessary. Not for me.”
Alex looked at her sharply, hating the clutch in his gut. “You don’t like me, do you?”
“Do you care whether I do or not?”
He couldn’t care. But how could he explain that to her? “It’s not imperative.”
She eyed him in silence, then asked, “What if one of us wants to get out of the marriage early?”
He went cold. “Is that a possibility?” he asked in a tone more sharp than he’d intended.
She met his eyes. “I don’t know, is it? What if you fall in love and want to marry someone else?”
He grimaced. “That’s not going to happen. For me. And if we make this deal and you want to marry someone else, you’re going to have to wait until the end of this term. Kate must be settled in a new situation before you leave.”
“Naturally.”
“Furthermore, you must agree to stay in touch with her afterward. I know it’s a big commitment, but otherwise, there’s no deal.” He watched Maggie’s eyes. “Can you agree to that?”
“Of course.” She straightened her shoulders. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s even on my list.” She held it out halfheartedly.
“Good. Then I’ll have my lawyer draw up a contract and bring it to you for a signature.”
“A contract?” She looked astonished. “Don’t you trust me?”
Trust. That wasn’t a word he wanted to discuss with a woman. “It’s just good business,” he hedged. “It helps everyone remember their objectives.”
She nodded stiffly. “Very well. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to see to Kate.”
“Right.” He watched her turn to go, then had another thought. “Maggie?”
She turned around. “Yes?”
Their eyes locked for just a moment. “Since you’re going up to Kate,” Alex said slowly, “maybe you ought to tell her about our plans now.”
A moment passed. “You want me to tell her?”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “Is that a problem?”
“You want me to tell her alone?”
He shrugged. “That’s what I hired you for.”
“You can’t mean that.”
Lord, he’d set her off again. He didn’t have time to wade through her inventory of synonyms for I-don’tapprove-of-what-you’re-doing. “Let’s cut to the chase, here. Do you have a problem with telling her?”
Maggie crossed her arms in front of her and regarded him with a look of incredulity that made him extremely uncomfortable. “Surely you intend to tell her this news.”
So that was it. “You’re the one who is with her all the time.”
“You’re her father!” Maggie returned, seeming exasperated for having to point out something so obvious.
“I know that,” he answered, impatient over having to acknowledge something so obvious. He picked up a pen and tipped it back and forth between his fingers. “Am I to gather that you think I should speak with Kate myself?”
She bit down on her lower lip and nodded, with exaggerated patience.
“Okay, I’ll do it later.”
She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again.
“You had something else to say?” Alex asked.
“On second thought, maybe we should do it together.”
He dropped the pen on the desk and it clattered onto the floor. The woman was amazing. “Maggie, have you always been this impossible or do I bring it out in you?”
She looked at him steadily, her green eyes dark and sharp. “Oh, I’ve always been this way,” she said, completely earnest. “It’s just me.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“See you upstairs,” she said with a smile. She’d caught him, gained the upper hand, if only for a moment. What was worse, she knew it. He could tell.
“Wait.” He had to say something, anything, to regain control of this relationship.
Maggie looked at him expectantly.
“Please tell Kate I’d like to speak to her at—” he glanced at his watch “—three o’clock.” He eyed Maggie coolly. “I’ll expect you to be there as well.”
She nodded then turned and left, closing the heavy oak door behind her with a solid thud.
A tremor ran through his chest and he took a deep breath. He stared after her for a long time. Damn her attractiveness, he thought. She was integral to the next few years running smoothly. Yet attraction to her would cause too many problems.
He picked up a pencil and drew circles on the pad in front of him.
Physical attraction was one complication he was going to have to ignore. There were far more pressing complications that took precedence. Marlene Shaw, for example. His former mother-in-law was trying to take custody of Kate away from him. Knowing what he did of his exwife, Sandra’s, upbringing, and how she had turned out to be of less-than-sterling character, Alex was willing to protect Kate from that fate with whatever it took. Marlene was an ambitious, demanding woman who, like her daughter, wanted what she wanted at all costs. Unfortunately she had lived with Kate during the two years after the divorce. Now with Alex as a hardworking bachelor she had some leverage in the court’s eye.
Maggie could change all of that. With a wife at his side, a wife who was devoted to Kate, he would no longer have to worry about Marlene Shaw. She would have no more ammunition. And Kate would have the best of care.
Meanwhile, he also wouldn’t have to worry about other women pursuing him anymore, he thought without conceit. The undesirables would leave him alone if he was married. The others…well, there weren’t any others, so he didn’t have to worry about that, either.
There were a lot of practical advantages to his being married.
That was what he had to focus on, not his body’s attraction to Maggie.
The circles he drew became tighter and darker.
Maggie Weller—soon to be Harrison—was, as Alex’s late mother would have termed her, “a pistol.” She certainly outspunked any woman Alex had ever known. But the funny thing was, he liked that. He admired her for it.
And she was so highly principled. If Sandra had been half as principled as Maggie, half as honest, then maybe their marriage wouldn’t have been such a disaster.
Thank God Maggie wasn’t like Sandra.
Now if she could pass on any of that confidence, integrity, even self-righteousness, to Kate he would be grateful. He didn’t want Kate to suffer because of insecurities and he never wanted her to fear her father’s temper, the way he had. After all, Kate had to live with Alex, and Alex was his father’s son. If it was true that the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree, she might as well learn early not to need him, lest he should let her down.