LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter Four

      New York City, May 1897

      Vincent Preston’s desk was neat and orderly, and the man sitting behind it appeared every inch the gentleman. Perhaps a stranger might hesitate at that assumption, given the harsh line of his mouth, or the chill light of disdain in his gaze, but in the business community of New York City, he was offered the respect due a successful man.

      This morning, he waited for news from far-off. Halfway across the country, in fact. A simple matter he’d considered cut-and-dried only a month ago had now taken on the proportions of a problem he would have to go about solving on his own hook. His time was too valuable to waste, he’d told his lawyers and had, accordingly, expected them to provide him with a solution forthwith.

      It had not happened. The child was gone. Whisked away from his grasp, and, to all reports, into the hands of a blood relation, her mother’s half brother. He hadn’t known Irene had a brother, half or otherwise. The woman had not only robbed him of his child, but made arrangements for his part in the girl’s conception to be unknown.

      No one else but him knew the circumstances of Irene’s pregnancy. Probably the fool Irene married, he amended. And he’d thought Joseph Carmichael was an astute man, until he’d snatched up Irene and eloped with her, almost without warning. And had, when a daughter was born only eight months later, accepted the child as his own.

      Now it went against his grain that a man of his stature should be put in the position of proving that the five-year-old child named Amanda Carmichael belonged to him. To Vincent Preston.

      No matter. The girl was of no value to him. But the estate she’d inherited was another matter, consisting of one half of his company, plus a sizeable bank account.

      He clenched his fist, and the paper he held crumpled into a ball of linen stationary. He knew the words it held, had read them over again, twice, and then for the third time. Now he waited for the messenger who would deliver an address into his hand.

      There must be hundreds of small towns in Texas. But only one of them was the home of Nicholas Garvey.

      A home where Vincent Preston’s daughter was in residence.

      The door of Nicholas’s study closed behind her and she leaned back against it, aware of his every movement as he approached. “Mr. Garvey—”

      His uplifted hand halted Carlinda’s words of address. “Begin again, please,” he said quietly. “My name is Nicholas.”

      Her eyes focused on his throat as she hesitated, and he almost relented as she swallowed and inhaled deeply. But he’d chosen this time to set a precedent, and his hands twitched as he considered touching her chin and lifting it upward, the better to see those dark pupils that examined his collar so intently.

      “After the other evening in the foyer, I’d have thought we were beyond the point of formality, Carlinda.” He refused to vary his stance, aware that he was purposely intimidating her, crowding her against the door of his study. Yet he was unwilling to allow her room to step aside. Her body vibrated with some emotion he hesitated to name, but was eager to examine.

      Whether it be anger or passion, it mattered little. She reacted to him at a basic level, and furious as she might be, she could not control the response he brought forth from her slender body.

      “Carlinda?” He pressed her for an answer, his hand lifting to touch her, hovering an inch above her shoulder, then settling firmly at the nape of her neck. She shivered at the pressure of fingers against her hairline there, ducking her head as if she would dislodge his grip.

      “I’m not going away,” he said softly. “Just lift your chin and look at me, please.”

      “You’re a bully, of the very worst kind,” she said bluntly.

      He watched her jaw tense, caught the sound of an indrawn breath she forced through her nostrils, then smiled into her eyes as she met his gaze. “That’s better. Now repeat after me, my dear. Nicholas.”

      She glared impotently, looking, he thought, like a child being reproved. Her lips pressed more firmly together and then, as if she shared his thought, they twitched at one corner and she was lost, the smile gaining strength as he met it with one of his own.

      “You’re treating me like a schoolgirl, Nicholas.” She spoke his name, even as she shook her head at his nonsense.

      “Sometimes you remind me of one. Now repeat it. One more time,” he whispered. “Nicholas.”

      “Don’t push it,” she said flatly. “I understand the message. And I agree that we have passed beyond the boundaries set by polite society.”

      “No one knows but the two of us,” he told her quietly. “And we did nothing wrong, Lin.”

      “That’s not my name,” she told him, her chin lifting defensively.

      “You’ve been Lin to me since the first time I heard Amanda call you by her pet name.”

      “She’s a child.”

      “But I’m not.” His breath caught and his voice deepened as he answered her sharp retort, and then he released her from his grasp, sliding his hands into his trouser pockets as he stepped away.

      “Did you want to talk to me?” he asked nicely, aware that she would not have entered his study without good reason.

      “I met the sheriff’s wife at the general store yesterday afternoon, and I’d like your permission to invite them for supper one evening.”

      “I only pay the bills, sweet. Katie runs the house. Whatever day she decrees is fine with me.”

      She shook her head again as he uttered the teasing words. “I didn’t want to impose on you, but I liked Mrs. Cleary, and Amanda was totally smitten with her little boy.”

      “He’s my godson, you know,” Nicholas said, recognizing the pride in his own voice. “He’s named after me.”

      “Nicky, I believe his mama said.”

      Nicholas winced. “Yes, I fear Augusta somewhat ruined my influence in town when she shortened my name in that manner.”

      “I’ll stop by and see her today and issue the invitation, if that’s all right with you,” Carlinda said. “My thought was to gain some ties for Amanda with your friends. She needs to feel a part of your life.” She glanced up at him. “I hope you won’t mind my playing hostess.”

      “Not at all. I was going to suggest such a thing the other night, but things got a bit out of hand and I lost my…”

      “Yes,”

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