The Billionaire's Secrets (2 page)

How had she gotten herself into this mess? She hadn’t even started her new job, and already everything was going wrong. That is, if she still had a job. It wasn't looking too hopeful at the moment. It sure wasn't what she'd pictured when she had answered the ad in the back of the magazine for retired teachers. Not that she was retired. She had in fact been fired. All thanks to Shawn.

But the ad had looked like the answer to her problems - a job, and a way of putting distance between herself an
d Shawn. She had met Shawn on a
white-water rafting adventure
trip in Maine
a
year ago. He was a teacher too, and their relationship seemed like a natural. Before long, they were living together
.
A few months later
, she lost her job at a private school due to
declining enrollment. The financial crisis had hit the Boston banking community hard, with many families pulling their kids from the school.
Out of a job and short of money, she was also forced to leave her Master’s in Education program a few credits shy of her degree. Luckily, she found another teaching position at a nearby boarding
academy
. True, she lied
on her resume
about already having that degree, but it was a requirement for the job and what else was she to do?
Her parents couldn’t help - the stock market crash had wiped out almost all their retirement savings, and now they were forced to
work
at The Home Depot
on Cape Cod
to make ends meet.
The
headmaster
never would have even known -
if it hadn’t been for Shawn.

Shawn had asked her to marry him, and she was close to saying yes, when he told her he couldn’t see them having a family.
In her heart, she realized this was a deal breaker - she adored children. That’s why she had become a teacher, and she couldn’t
imagine her future without
a few of her own.
And at thirty-two, she didn’t want to wait much longer to start.
But when she told him this, he’d
become petulant
,
swearing that if it was so important to her, why
hadn’t she told
him before?
She had, but clearly he didn’t think it important enough to remember. The fights had been terrible, and in the end, he’d
grudgingly agreed in the end that maybe one child would be okay
. B
ut Chloe knew this wasn’t good enough
. S
he didn’t want to raise a child with a father who was only
“okay” with the idea
and so broke off the relationship
.
Shawn was furious
. S
till unable to grasp the simple concept of how important a family was to her
, he
became convinced it had to be more. Certain now she
was
having an affair,
he
informed
her new
headmaster
about her lack of a degree
.
The
headmaster
wasted no time in firing her
.
And i
f that wasn’t
revenge
enough, all their friends sided with him, so not only was she
boyfriendless
and childless, she was also jobless and friendless.

She didn’t
have the nerve to ask for a reference,
even though her work record
and ratings were otherwise
impeccable, and things were looking pretty bleak until
she saw the ad in the magazine.
A companion/tutor for a six-year-old girl in a secluded
oceanside
setting in Newfoundland
, the ad had read. She'd pictured herself taking long walks along the ocean, early nights, easy work. She was used to teaching
twenty
children at a time - just one would be a breeze!

She had answered the ad and to her surprise received an answer almost immediately
, asking her for an interview the very next day at the Boston offices of
Byrne Investments.
From the signs in the lobby, she determined there were also o
ffices in Montreal and San Franc
isco.
The man who interviewed her
introduced himself as Marcus and
his employer as
often away on
business.
He asked her several questions about her own education and interests
and seemed especially pleased
that thanks to her French-
Canadian mother
she spoke
fluent
French
.
Much to her relief, he did not mention references. He hired her on the spot and asked her to start on April 7. Or so she had thought.

A
t leas
t the bus driver had been right. T
he road did lead right to the house. She saw the glow of lights through the fog only steps before reaching the door. The sound of the ocean battering against the rocks filled the air. The cliff was very close now. She put
down her bags and paused to regain her breath before ringing the bell. The door was huge
, made up of
heavy oak panels. There was no window, and Chloe thought it looked like the door to a castle, not a house. She looked up at the
facade
to where it disappeared into the fog and decided that
perhaps
it was a castle. It was built with huge stone blocks, and light flowed from diamond-paned leaded windows. In her imagination she had pictured a cozy wooden house, its sidin
g weathered with salt and wind,
like the ones seen in calendar pictures of
the New England coast
. But this was anything but cozy
. I
t was downright daunting, and when she rang the bell she wondered for a moment if
it would be answered by a hunchback named
Igor
.

But it wasn’t Igor. It was a little girl with blond curls and an angelic face.
My
new student
, Chloe thought, her heart already opening up to the child. But the girl obviously didn’t feel the same way. She took one look at
Chloe,
her eyes widened with fear, and started to scream!

* * *

Gaelan
navigated his way through the
fog, cursing it, his friend and assistant
Marcus,
the occasion that had made this trip necessary, and the
woman
he had just left on the side of the road. He probably shouldn’t have been so hard on her. It was just that all things combined, he had been pretty furious. The sight of her in his headlights had been a shock, and even though he had immediately slammed on his brakes, he was sure he was going to hit her. Really, he had only yelled at her because his adrenaline had gone into overdrive. Well, at first. What was it about her that immediately started to irritate him? It was the way she looked up at him from the ground, he decided. The way she had scrambled around picking up her things, pulling down her coat, embarrassed and modest. After Colleen, these glimpses of vulnerability in a woman no longer brought
out the gentlemanly side of him
but rather made him instantly angry.

Fair enough.
Colleen’s vulnerability turned out to be a calculated game that was intended to trap him. Marcus constantly reminded him that not all women were like her, but
Gaelan
knew when one was as rich as he was, the Colleens of the world beat a pathway to the door. A couple of others had tried since her, and
Gaelan
had been pretty quick in telling them where to go. Being taken for a fool once was more than enough for him.

He liked the look of this woman all right. Whereas Colleen had been the tall, thin, half-starved model type, this girl was not nearly as tall and, if what he had seen of those legs was any indication, all curves.
Just
my
type
, he thought.
That is if
I
still ha
ve
a type
, he corrected himself.

He couldn’t believe Marcus had hired this woman! He hit the steering wheel with one of his gloved hands. He had been more than clear that he wanted a retired teacher, sixty at least.
Someone old enough to not get any ideas about wooing h
er way into his bed and fortune.
S
omeone old enough that he, in a weak moment, would not find himself looking at with lust.
He had in
mind
a sexless, seventy-year old in support hose and tweed.
As much a grandmother for
Sophia
as a tutor.
And here Marcus sends this girl - and one with legs that could drive a man crazy!

Surely this girl was up to no good. Otherwise why would she have applied for the job? No attractive young woman would want to isolate herself like this - unless she had something in mind. He
was sure he had fortune-hunter-
proofed his ad
,
but no doubt he had been wrong. And even if he had, he knew enough women who the moment they got a whiff of his money had been on him like a bloodhound - even ones that had a considerable amount of their own. Where money was concerned, there was never too much.

The fog was lighter on the highway, and it wasn’t long before he reached the town
of Puffin’s Cove
. He didn’t want to be here, but he had promised to put in a showing at the town council meeting to support a motion on declaring a nearby wetland an environmentally protected region.
Gaelan
sometimes found himself at odds with some of the local businesses and politicians who believed everything, including the environment, was fair game when it came to making money. He saw it instead as everyone’s duty to make sure there was still a planet around for future generations, and he was seen by some as an environmental champion.