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‘Hello, darling,’ Charlotte cooed and touched one of the tiny hands that rested on the counterpane. ‘Hello.’
Jennifer was so lucky, Charlotte thought, so incredibly lucky to have two such gorgeous children.
‘Would you like a glass of wine?’ Jordan asked from the other end of the kitchen. ‘I opened a bottle of Chablis a little while ago.’
‘Thanks.’ Charlotte glanced down the modern white kitchen. He seemed very much at home here, she thought as she watched him open up the fridge and pour her the wine.
‘Won’t be a minute, Charlotte,’ Jennifer called down the stairs. ‘They are sending search parties out to find Steve at the golf club—he’s going to be dead meat when he gets home.’
Charlotte laughed. ‘Leave him alone, you bully,’ she called back.
‘No chance. Harriet, I can’t hear you practising your scales.’
The little girl pulled a face at her mother’s words but dutifully disappeared back towards the lounge to resume her discordant serenade.
‘Married bliss, eh?’ Jordan smiled as he brought her drink over and put it down on the table next to her. She almost smiled back at him, and then stopped herself. She really was going to have to keep a cool distance from Jordan. OK, he had notched her up on his bedpost, but he needn’t think she was a pushover.
‘I hope you don’t think that I asked Jen to invite you here today,’ she told him bluntly as she sat down. ‘Because I didn’t.’
‘The thought hadn’t occurred to me. I’m often here.’
‘So I believe.’
He took out one of the wrought-iron chairs from the kitchen table and put it down to sit facing her.
‘Can we go back to being friends, Charlie?’ he asked quietly.
She noticed how his knees were almost touching hers. Her eyes rested on his hands, which were large and capable-looking. She remembered how they had felt against her body, caressing her to a fever pitch of desire. Remembered how she had writhed and moaned and kissed him with a hunger that she had never known before.
‘Charlie?’ he prompted.
‘Of course,’ she replied quickly.
She looked at him and her eyes shimmered intensely green. But had they ever been just friends? she wondered suddenly. She had always been so acutely aware of him, always intensely careful to keep a distance. And with good reason, she realised now.
Charlotte’s words didn’t convince Jordan. It was as if she had just rolled down steel shutters on herself.
‘You could have fooled me,’ he said steadily. ‘Since our evening together there’s an occasional chill coming off you that feels as if it could be rolling in from Antarctica.’
‘Is there?’ She frowned. ‘Well, I’m sorry if that’s the case. I really don’t want to jeopardise our working relationship.’
She noticed how his lips twisted drily at those words. ‘No, neither do I.’ He leaned back in his chair. ‘We need to stick together, Charlie, because we have a lot of…stuff to get through over the next few weeks.’
‘You mean with Dad being away and it being so busy in the office?’
‘Sort of…’ Jordan hesitated. ‘I think you should know that I offered to buy your father’s share of the business from him a while ago.’
Instantly Charlotte felt apprehensive. Her father was her only safety barrier between herself and Jordan. And after their night together she needed that protection more than ever.
He watched her reaction carefully as he spoke and saw the concern in her eyes. ‘He turned down my offer.’
‘Oh…’ There was relief in her look now. ‘Well, you can’t blame him, Jordan. The business has been in our family for two generations.’
‘And family is very important to the McCanns.’
‘Yes.’ She shrugged. ‘There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?’
‘No, and I can understand your sentiments. Obviously you want to take over a share of the running of the company one day, and so you should. You’ve worked very hard to make the interior-design division a success.’
‘Why do I sense that the word “but” is going to creep into this?’ Charlotte reached for her glass of wine.
‘I don’t think your father can afford to turn down my offer,’ Jordan said bluntly.
‘Why ever not?’ She laughed at the absurdity of that remark. ‘He’s a wealthy man. He can afford to do whatever he likes.’
Jordan looked thoughtful. ‘But it isn’t only down to money. He has become forgetful and his business judgement isn’t as sharp as it has been in the past. I know he lost a lot of money on shares last year and…’ He hesitated and lowered his voice. ‘I really haven’t wanted to tell you this, Charlotte, but I feel I must. The auditors did a spot check and there is a substantial amount of money missing from the company accounts.’
It took a moment for what he was saying to sink in. ‘Are you saying my father is stealing from the company?’ Her words trembled alarmingly.
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘You might as well have!’ She cut across him. ‘My father is an honourable man—how can you suggest such a thing?’ She glared at him.
‘I’m just being honest with you, so there’s no point being angry.’ Jordan’s voice was calm. ‘If it makes you feel any better, I think your father is innocent and that Ruth is the culprit. I have a feeling she has taken the money without your father’s knowledge.’
‘This is preposterous.’ Charlotte shook her head. ‘Why would Ruth take money from the company?’
‘I don’t know. But I got a phone call from her last week and she was very agitated. At first I couldn’t make out what she was talking about. She was babbling on about the accounts and money but before she could explain she got cut off.’
Charlotte stared at him in distress. And a prickle of unease crept in to disturb her certainty. Her father had only been married to Ruth for two years and Charlotte had worried about the match at first, but her only concern had been their age difference. Her father was nearly sixty; Ruth was forty-six. However, they seemed so ideally happy together that Charlotte had stopped thinking about age as an issue at all. And she had grown extremely fond of Ruth. ‘I can’t imagine for one moment that Ruth would dip into company funds.’
‘Well, I’ve given the matter serious thought since the phone call,’ Jordan said. ‘And Ruth used to work in the accounts department, didn’t she?’
Charlotte nodded.
‘So she knows her way around the systems very well.’
‘I still can’t believe she would do such a thing,’ Charlotte said firmly. ‘Apart from anything else, Dad is a wealthy man. She wouldn’t need to do it.’
‘Well, the money is definitely missing. And, reading between the lines, that’s how it looks to me—’
‘There must be something more to this, something we don’t know.’ Charlotte’s voice was emphatic.
‘Don’t you think it speaks volumes that they haven’t come back from France?’ he asked quietly. ‘And since discovering the money has gone, I haven’t been able to make contact with them.’
Charlotte had to admit that was a bit odd. Her father was such a workaholic; he loved the office. But she had thought that Ruth was making him take an extra-long break. In fact she had even secretly applauded Ruth for the action, because her father had looked so tired before he left. But now…
‘How much money are we talking about?’ she asked curiously.
‘It’s not the amount of money that’s the problem, it’s the implication. These are serious charges; if they were to be made public the scandal could ruin the good reputation of the business. I’m sorry, Charlie…really I am.’ He reached to touch her but she flinched away.
Then, unable to bear his close proximity a moment longer, she got up from her chair to stand with her back to him, staring out of the windows.
‘Look, the situation can be salvaged, but it will have to be done fast. If your father can’t afford to pay the money back, then we can come to an agreement. I can afford to pay the debt and in return your father can transfer the equivalent shares in the business over to me, giving me overall control of the company.’
The calm, businesslike words made a wave of anger rise in Charlotte. He had it all sorted out in his mind by the sound of it. ‘How convenient for you,’ she murmured. ‘You’ve wanted control of the business from the moment you walked in, haven’t you?’
‘That’s not fair, Charlie.’
‘But it’s true.’ She stared sightlessly at the tulips that danced in the breeze at the end of the garden. ‘You’re ambitious…and you like power.’
When he didn’t answer she turned around to look at him. He got up from his chair and came towards her. ‘There is nothing wrong with being ambitious,’ he said softly. ‘You are too, otherwise you wouldn’t be so good at your job.’
When she didn’t reply he stepped closer. ‘You are not so different from me, Charlotte McCann.’
‘I think we are very different,’ she replied steadily. ‘I’m worried about my father. Whilst you are worrying about getting control of the business.’
‘I’m worried about the future of the business and that’s a different thing. I told you this affects us all and it could be serious.’ He looked very cold now and very hard. ‘And I’ll have to be honest with you, Charlotte. Your father hasn’t been his usual self these last six months. And I can’t have a business partner that I can’t rely on.’
She flinched at that. Jordan Lynch was a businessman first and foremost, she thought. The business side of her could see exactly where he was coming from. But the emotional side, the side that remembered that he had been her father’s friend, was having severe difficulty in accepting those words.
‘But you will allow time to sort this out, Jordan—if Ruth has taken the money you will give them time to pay it back?’
Jordan didn’t answer her straight away and the serious look in his eyes made her heart jump. ‘I don’t think I can. I need control of the company now.’
She felt sick suddenly.
‘And I’ll need your help.’ Jordan’s voice was decisive. ‘I can’t contact your father on his mobile phone and I don’t know exactly where he is in France. You are going to have to help me track him down, perhaps speak to him for me. Because we can’t go on like this.’
Charlotte felt her heart thumping against her breast so forcefully that it was painful. ‘I’m sure this is all just some terrible mistake,’ she murmured brokenly.
Jordan came closer to her. ‘But you’ll help me to sort it out?’
She hesitated for a second and then nodded.
‘Thanks. Try not to worry too much about it.’ The softness of his voice and the closeness of his body were sending very conflicting signals through her now. He had been so cold and businesslike when he had spoken about her father, and that made her angry, but weaving its way insidiously through that anger was the memory of how tenderly and passionately he had held her the other night and it made her want to fold into his arms. She despised herself for the momentary weakness and yet perversely the feeling lingered.
There was the sound of footsteps on the stairs and Jordan reached out a hand and took hold of her arm. ‘Don’t mention any of this to Jennifer,’ he told her. ‘I know you tell each other everything, but this is one thing you need to keep to yourself. She’s just had a baby, and Steve is already a bit worried about her.’
‘I know that.’ Charlotte frowned. She was well aware of the fact that Jen had enough to cope with. She was just surprised that Jordan had the sensitivity to realise it.
When Jennifer came through the doorway Charlotte could tell instantly that she flew to all the wrong conclusions when she saw them standing so closely together. Her face lit up in a brilliant smile that shone from her gentle blue eyes.
‘Hi, sis; did you find Steve eventually?’ Charlotte moved hastily away from Jordan and went to kiss her sister on the cheek.
Jennifer and Charlotte were not unalike; they both had the same blonde hair that was inclined to curliness, only Jennifer’s was cut in a short style that suited her delicate features. She’d lost a bit of weight, Charlotte noticed, because she was already back in the jeans she had been wearing before becoming pregnant. That wasn’t so good. They had to keep an eye on Jennifer because she had suffered from anorexia as a teenager and she was still prone to bouts of worrying about her weight. But they never talked too much about that—she had recovered and they wanted to keep it that way.
‘Yes, he’s on his way home in a taxi.’ Jennifer’s eyes darted from her to Jordan speculatively. ‘You two seemed very deep in conversation. Everything all right?’
‘Oh, yes, fine.’ Charlotte lied airily.
‘Great.’ Jennifer gave a satisfied smile and suddenly Charlotte had the distinct impression that Steve’s disappearance to the golf club and her non-appearance for so long had all been an elaborate charade to throw them together. And obviously Jen believed it had worked.
‘Right, well, I’ll see to dinner. Steve will be here in a minute and he’ll be starving.’
‘I’ll give you a hand,’ Charlotte said, following her sister to the other end of the kitchen.
‘So how are things at the office?’ Jen asked conversationally as she took an enormous roast of beef out of the oven.
‘Busy as usual.’ Jordan was the one to answer.
‘I’m surprised Dad has stayed away so long. I reckon Ruth must be good for him. Usually he’d be frothing at the mouth to get back to his desk.’
Half an hour ago Charlotte would have laughed and agreed. Now her eyes met with Jordan’s and she felt the weight of what he had just told her press down on her.
They were saved from having to reply to that because Matilda started to cry.
As Jennifer was busy seeing to the vegetables and Charlotte was making the gravy, Jordan stood up. ‘Would you like me to see to her?’ he asked.
‘If you wouldn’t mind?’ Jen nodded.
‘I’ll come through in a minute,’ Charlotte told him, wondering if he could cope, but she needn’t have worried. When she glanced down the room she saw that he was cradling the child on his shoulder, gently rubbing her back.
‘There, there, honey, that’s a big noise for a little girl, isn’t it?’ he murmured.
And this was the same man who had been so cold and businesslike just a few moments ago? Charlotte thought. He seemed so warmly at ease now and he was so good with the baby. Considering Matilda was so tiny and fragile against the large hands that held her, he didn’t seem the slightest bit awkward. After a moment she gave a little hiccup and the crying stopped.
‘That’s better,’ Jordan soothed, and went to put her back down again. A few minutes later they could hear him talking to Harriet as she banged away on the keyboard.
‘Isn’t he wonderful?’ Jen grinned at Charlotte.
She wouldn’t think he was so wonderful if she knew what he had just been saying about their dad, Charlotte thought grimly. ‘I think you can leave the matchmaking bit out, Jen,’ she said.
But Jennifer was undeterred. ‘Bet you’re glad I invited him now, aren’t you?’ she said smugly. ‘I can see how things are between you two. If I’d waited a couple more seconds you’d have been in a passionate clinch. Wait until Dad hears—he’ll be thrilled.’
Charlotte wanted to say that it wasn’t how it looked, but refrained in case Jen started to question her too deeply. ‘Have you heard anything from Dad?’ she asked casually instead.
‘No. I really miss him, Charlie. I can’t even reach him on his cell-phone because it’s switched off.’ She pulled a face. ‘I hate not being able to talk to him; ridiculous, isn’t it…?’ She trailed off and smiled.
They heard the slam of the front door and Steve’s voice shouting that he was home.
‘About time too,’ Jen called back and then grinned at Charlotte.
‘You’re not cross with him at all,’ Charlotte said, glad that the subject was changed. ‘And if you are thinking of starting a career in matchmaking I’d give it a miss, if I were you. You’re lousy at it. For the record, Jordan and I are just good friends.’
‘That’s what I used to say about Steve.’
There wasn’t much time to talk after that. Charlotte busied herself assisting with the dinner, glad to have something to help take her mind off her father. But once they were seated at the dining table she started to think about him again. And, delicious as the food was, it seemed to stick in her throat.
