The Marriage Merger (3 page)

CHAPTER THREE

As Jenna neared the railings and turned back
to look at Braden, he reached the end of the pool and pulled
himself from the water in one swift, graceful movement.

The sight of his near-naked body was like a
physical blow. Her throat constricted and her stomach tensed into a
knot. Spirals of heat flooded through her, her nipples springing to
life beneath the folds of silk. Never had she reacted this way to a
man. Never with such instant need, such desire. She felt the colour
rising in her cheeks and turned away as he walked over to a chair
to pick up a towel.

She struggled to regain control over her body
as she looked over the vertical railings to the wide expanse of
river below. Virgin scrub and mangroves lay dark and mysterious on
the opposite side. She concentrated on several small boats motoring
along the river, breathed deeply in the cool early morning air, and
waited for the blood to stop racing through her veins.

When she felt sufficiently in control of her
body again she turned to face him. A large blue towel wrapped
around his waist only seemed to accentuate the tanned, well-muscled
chest and flat stomach. She pushed away the memory of the brief
black swimmers and muscular thighs now hidden beneath the
towel.

“I want to apologize for falling asleep like
that.” How did her voice sound so normal? Nothing else about her
felt normal, especially the erratic beat of her heart. “And thank
you for giving me a bed for the night.”

He made a dismissive gesture with his hand.
“You were obviously exhausted. Jet lag and lack of sleep can do
that to you.”

Jenna hesitated. She wanted to tell him about
the girl’s crying, but she was a stranger here and it was really
none of her business. And he didn’t look the kind of man who would
take kindly to being told he was failing to notice his daughter’s
needs. So she just nodded.

“Would you like to freshen up?” he
offered.

“Yes, thank you.”

They walked back into the penthouse, Jenna
acutely aware of every dark hair on his chest, the litheness in his
walk, the power in the muscles under the gleaming tanned skin. Just
as they walked through the dining room Braden turned to her.

“I have a business meeting in Brisbane this
morning. I’m driving down so I’ll be able to give you a lift to the
airport. You can phone before we leave and book a flight.”

Jenna realised her surprise was showing on
her face. By what she had heard last night he needed a housekeeper
to live-in to look after the girl. It was too early in the morning
for him to have contacted an employment agency so how could he be
leaving today unless he had found someone last night.

“Have you been able to get another
housekeeper already?” she blurted out. “The girl ...” she
faltered.

He raised a dark eyebrow at her.

“No, I’ll have to take Caitlin with me. Not
that it’s any of your business.”

Jenna knew he was right, but he scowled at
her again and her temper, already frayed from jet lag and being
awake since she’d left Caitlin, flared.

“It might not be any of my business, but you
can’t drag that child around to a business meeting. She’s far too
upset.”

“What would you know about it?” Anger
darkened his grey eyes and iced his voice and Jenna realised she
was treading on dangerous ground. She tried to make him understand
her concerns about the child.

“She was crying in her sleep last night. I
waited for someone to go to her but when no-one did I couldn’t
stand it and I went in. She woke up. She looked so miserable, poor
little thing. So sad.”

A look of anguish wiped the anger from
Braden’s face. He spun round and strode into the kitchen, then
looked around as though trying to find an answer to his own and the
child’s pain. He pulled open the refrigerator door, grabbed a
container of orange juice, filled a glass and drank it without
stopping, his face still turned away from Jenna.

Jenna was at a loss to know what to do.
Whatever pain the child felt was shared by this man who was so
obviously unable to find a solution for both of them. She stood,
irresolute, then glanced down in surprise as a small warm hand
slipped into hers. Caitlin was looking up at her, the grey eyes
huge in her small face. A rush of affection melted through Jenna.
She dropped to one knee and scooped the child into her arms.

“Hello, Possum.” She felt the small body let
out a shuddering sigh and Caitlin’s arms slid around her as she
rose.

She glanced up to see a look of sheer
amazement on Braden’s face. Puzzled, she looked a question at him.
But he said nothing, just continued to stare as Caitlin held Jenna
in a tight hug. Jenna could almost feel the vibrations emanating
from him. Baffled, she walked to the table and sat down on a chair.
She eased Caitlin slightly away from her.

“Would you like an orange juice, Possum?” she
asked. The child nodded. Jenna looked across at Braden. He appeared
to have recovered his composure and swiftly poured the juice and
handed the glass to Caitlin. He sat down on another chair.

“Caitlin, do you like Jinx?” he asked softly.
Jenna glared at him. “... ah, Jenna.” he amended. The child looked
at him, then at Jenna, her expression serious. She nodded
emphatically. Braden let out a soft sigh. Jenna sat quietly, aware
that something very important had happened but perplexed as to what
it was. Tenderness softened the strong angles of Braden’s face as
he looked at Caitlin and Jenna was astounded to find herself
wishing he would look at her like that.

Braden waited until Caitlin had finished the
orange juice, then spoke quietly to her. “How about changing out of
your pyjamas and dressing while I get breakfast ready.”

Caitlin nodded again. She slid gently out of
Jenna’s arms and steadied herself gingerly on the floor. Jenna
watched the child limp from the room, her right leg dragging
slightly across the tiles. She turned to Braden. He was looking at
her with the suspicion and incredulity of someone who had just seen
witchcraft performed - seeing but not believing.

“Why did you call her Possum?”

“My mother used to call me that when I was
little,” she replied, bewildered by his strange reaction. “She said
I clung to her like a little possum. Why?”

“Alicia calls her that.” He saw Jenna’s face
lift in query. “Alicia is Caitlin’s mother.” He sat for a minute,
deep in thought, while Jenna contemplated the suddenly dismal fact
that Braden was, as she suspected, married.

“Do you have to fly back to Sydney today?” he
asked.

Startled by his sudden change of topic Jenna
shook her head. “There’s no urgency. Why?”

“I’d like to hire you to stay here and look
after Caitlin until Mrs Jenkins returns. Caitlin obviously likes
you, and God knows you’re the first person she’s related to since
the accident.” He rubbed at his forehead as though immeasurably
weary and Jenna felt the same compassion for him as she had for the
child.

“I like your daughter, Mr Fleetwood, but
...”

“Caitlin’s not my daughter.” he interrupted.
“She’s my niece. Look, I’ll explain fully later. But I must know
before she comes back. Will you stay? I’ll pay twice the going
rate.”

Jenna hesitated. With her parents away there
was no pressing need to fly to Sydney straight away, she wouldn't
be starting her new position for six weeks, and the child obviously
needed someone to care for her. She remembered the pain and sadness
in those young eyes.

But the thought of living under the same roof
with Braden Fleetwood was fraught with problems. How could she
maintain a cool employer/employee relationship with him when the
very sight of him sent her body tingling all over. No, it was
impossible. But still she hesitated, the feel of Caitlin’s little
arms still warm around her neck.

He apparently took her silence as affirmation
because he stood up and spoke with evident relief.

“Mrs Jenkins won’t be back for five weeks.
I’ll show you the layout of the penthouse after breakfast and then
I’ll have to leave for Brisbane.” He hesitated. “You should also be
aware that Caitlin hasn’t spoken since the accident. I’ll fill you
in on the details later,” he finished quietly as Caitlin limped
back into the room.

Caitlin's grey eyes looked trustingly up at
Jenna. Jenna felt an overwhelming urge to hug the child to her and
soothe away the sadness from the small face. She glanced across to
Braden, and her heart lurched, her compassion joining with another,
more intense emotion, a yearning, a need, to know more about this
man. As Braden reached down and smoothed the dark hair from the
child's forehead, Jenna knew she'd made her decision. She would
stay.

“Alicia, Caitlin’s mother, is my sister. She
was married to David James. Caitlin is their only child. Some
months ago they were driving home at night when a drunk ploughed
his four wheel drive into their car. David was killed outright.
Alicia had minor injuries. Caitlin sustained injuries to her hip
and right leg.”

Braden’s voice was almost impersonal as he
stood in the courtyard between the dining room and the swimming
pool. Only a muscle clenching in his jaw betrayed his feelings as
he looked back inside to where Caitlin was propped on the lounge
watching Sesame Street on television.

“Alicia was in the room when the doctor came
to change the dressings on Caitlin’s hip and leg. Alicia’s always
been over-sensitive, nervous. I think she was still in shock from
David’s death. When she saw Caitlin’s injuries something snapped in
her mind. She started screaming. She just stood there screaming
until they dragged her from the room and sedated her. She had a
complete breakdown. Caitlin hasn’t spoken a word since.”

He turned and looked at Jenna. “I booked
Alicia into a private mental hospital and she appeared to be making
good progress. Caitlin was refusing to co-operate with the
physiotherapist - she wouldn’t do the exercises necessary to
rebuild the muscles in her leg."

Jenna watched his eyes flicker with pain, and
her heart clenched in sympathy. Then, in a voice that betrayed his
inability to keep his emotions so tightly leashed, he
continued.

"Passive resistance. No protest, no kicking,
no screaming, she just lay there and let her body go limp. So the
psychiatrist thought it might help if she saw Alicia, saw that her
mother was getting back to normal."

He paused so long Jenna realised he was
mentally reliving those events. She could sense his frustration at
being unable to prevent the tragedy that had happened to his loved
ones.

"It was a disaster. As soon as Alicia saw
Caitlin limping she started crying. Perhaps she felt guilty that
she had survived intact and her daughter was scarred for life. Who
knows? But it made Caitlin retreat even further into herself. She
wouldn’t even look at her mother.”

His hands curled into fists and he shoved
them deeply into his trouser pockets. The flesh over his cheekbones
was strained and tight, tension etched in the strong lines of his
face.

“Caitlin has been staying with me since she
was discharged from the hospital. The doctors suggested that
perhaps if I took her out of Brisbane, away from all the reminders
of what had happened, it might help.”

“Has it?”

“No. If anything, she’s even more wary of
strangers. Which is why I’m so amazed by the way she’s taken to
you.”

Jenna was puzzled too. She knew she had a
rapport with children, but there had been something in Caitlin’s
manner last night that intimated she had been waiting for her to
come. That at last the person with whom she could share her burden
had arrived.

Jenna smiled up at Braden. “I’ll take good
care of her.” She was just about to reassure him that her career as
an occupational therapist had well prepared her to care for
children like Caitlin when he glanced impatiently at his watch.

“I’ll leave you my office and my mobile phone
numbers. If you have any problems call me. I don’t know what time
I’ll be back tonight so don’t keep dinner for me.” He cocked a dark
eyebrow at her. “I suppose you can cook?”

“Oh, I’m sure I can throw something together
that’s fairly edible, Mr Fleetwood.” she replied airily, annoyed by
the scepticism in his voice.

“Call me Braden.”

“I don’t think that’s very business-like, Mr
Fleetwood,” she replied, anxious to keep their relationship on a
more professional level, and wary of the feelings he seemed to
create in her.

Irritation flashed in the steely eyes. “I
think for Caitlin’s sake the less formality between us the better.
I’m sure she will accept you a lot better if she thinks you’re here
because you want to be with her rather than because you’re being
paid to be.”

The cold tone surprised Jenna. She hadn’t
considered that he thought she had decided to stay because of the
money he offered.

“I didn’t agree to stay because of the money,
Braden,” she ground his name back at him, “I have enough money
saved to live quite comfortably until I start my new job in six
weeks time. I’m staying because Caitlin needs me.”

His gaze locked with hers. Incredulity,
disbelief, challenge, warred in his hard stare. Little shimmers of
electricity danced in the air between them, sending tiny sparks of
awareness tingling in Jenna’s brain. He doesn’t believe me. Why?
Surely nothing she had said or done had given him cause to think
otherwise. Puzzled by this, she couldn’t resist asking him, “Surely
you’ve wanted to help someone who needed you?”

“Why Caitlin?” Suspicion darkened his
tone.

Jenna rose to her feet, her cheeks flushing.
“I happen to love children, Mr Fleetwood, and sometimes I come
across one who touches my heart the moment I lay eyes on her.
Haven’t you ever felt that way about someone?”