Fantasy for Hire

“Both of my parents are dead.” Knowing he had nothing left to lose, he added, “It’s just me and my brother, Jordan, who is currently an unemployed architect.”

Dismay filled Gloria’s eyes as she looked at Teddy, as if she couldn’t believe her daughter had settled for less than one of the prominent businessmen in their league.

Teddy’s five-year-old niece, Katie, came out of the playroom at that moment, anticipation wreathing her pretty face. “Grandma, we all ate our dinner. When do we get to open our presents?”

An adoring smile softened Gloria’s features as she looked at her granddaughter, and Austin had the thought that this woman was a marshmallow beneath her haughty exterior. “I suppose now would be a good time, since you all have to get to bed soon so Santa can come visit. Why don’t you get everyone to wash up and meet us in the parlor?”

Katie raced from the room, her little-girl voice announcing to her cousins, “We get to open our presents!”

The adults laughed at the responding squeals of delight and “yipees” that drifted from the playroom, and they all moved back into the parlor. Austin made himself comfortable on the sofa while Teddy helped pass out the gaily wrapped Christmas presents under the tree, obviously having fun with the task. For as much as she’d claimed that kids weren’t her forte, Austin couldn’t help noticing how much she enjoyed playing the role of aunt, and how loving she was with each child. A smile played at the corner of his mouth as he watched Teddy divide her attention between helping Drew, her three-year-old nephew, put together a chunky wooden puzzle, and her six-year-old niece, Molly, diaper her new “Baby-wets-a-lot.” Her maternal instincts weren’t as suppressed as she might want to believe.

Susan settled herself next to Austin, and he smiled amicably at her. There was mischief in the other woman’s gaze, and a glint of determination. Leaning close, taking advantage of Gloria and Evan, Sr.’s, distraction, she said in a low voice, “Don’t sweat the small stuff, Austin. The Spencers are a different breed. Everyone goes through the initial interrogation process. What ultimately matters is how Teddy feels about you.”

Austin appreciated Susan’s encouragement, but after that enlightening dinner conversation, he wasn’t so sure fitting into Teddy’s life would be as easy as surviving the Spencer’s third-degree. Not only did he feel as though he’d never measure up, he honestly had no idea where he stood with Teddy—if what he did for a living mattered to her, or how she truly felt about him—beyond their “agreements.”

Maybe it was time he found out.

Chapter Nine

Teddy leaned her head against the passenger seat’s headrest and released a long pent-up breath—in relief, exhaustion and a good part frustration. Beside her, Austin was quiet as he pulled out of her parents’ driveway, the moonlight reflected through the windshield illuminating his pensive features.

“That was a disaster,” she said, shaking her head in disappointment.

“Not the entire evening,” he graciously conceded with a smile that wasn’t quite as sexy and breathtaking as usual. “I enjoyed watching the kids open their presents, and talking to your brothers and their wives.”

Her siblings seemed to like him, too, which pleased her. However, Teddy didn’t miss the fact that he had no compliments for her parents—not that they’d deserved any accolades after the way they’d grilled him. “I never would have thought my parents would behave so atrociously,” she said, her tone contrite.

He brought the car to a halt at a stop sign and glanced over at her, his gaze expressing an odd combination of understanding and regret. Reaching across the console, he gently brushed his fingers along her cheek. “I suppose they’re just concerned about who their little girl is getting involved with.”

Her skin tingled where he touched her, eliciting a sensual warmth that spread through her entire body. “As if they have any say in the matter,” she said, forcing an indignant note over the quiver of awareness infusing her voice. “If my parents had their choice, they’d have me married off to some stuffy blue blood, being a proper wife.”

“I can’t imagine it,” he murmured, a sly smile curving his mouth.

She exaggerated a shudder, adding to the humor of the situation. “Neither can I.”

They both laughed, his low, husky chuckles mingling with her lighter ones, the sound pleasant and very intimate in the close confines of the car. The lighthearted moment released some of the tension she’d sensed in him a half hour after arriving at her parents’. The evening had only gotten worse, and certainly more complicated than she’d expected.

Austin drove on, maneuvering the car through the streets of Pacific Heights. He wasn’t taking the normal way back to her condo, but she didn’t mind if he wanted to take a longer route, which would give her more time with him. It was Christmas Eve, and for the first time since she could remember, she dreaded being alone.

“Austin…” She fiddled with the strap of her purse. “I’m really sorry for my parents’ behavior tonight, and that you had to lie about owning your own landscaping business. I’ll be the first to admit that my parents can be judgmental, but they’ll come around.”

He glanced her way. “You planning on bringing me to another family get-together?”

Her heart thumped in her chest, and a flood of emotions shook her to her soul. There was no denying she enjoyed everything about Austin, from his humor and honesty, to the

feminine way he made her feel. But he made her yearn for things that conflicted with everything she’d worked so hard to attain, and the strength of those feelings frightened her.

She gave a noncommittal shrug, which was the best she could offer him. “You never know.”

He stared at her for a long, intense moment, then switched his gaze back to the road. “Does it matter to you what I do for a living?” he asked quietly.

She glanced out her window to the darkness beyond, giving his question serious consideration. If she was honest with herself, she had to admit that on some level Austin owning Fantasy for Hire bothered her, because she disliked the thought that other women fantasized about him and lusted over that gorgeous body while he performed a sexy striptease for them. She was beginning to think of Austin as her fantasy, and she didn’t want to share. Jealousy was a foreign emotion to her, one she’d never experienced in a relationship with a man, but she quickly realized she wasn’t immune to the green-eyed monster.

So how did she answer his question without sounding like a possessive shrew? “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t matter to me what you did for a living. But I suppose I can learn to get used to you stripping for other women.”

“And what if I really did own my own landscaping business?” he asked, his voice slightly anxious. “Would that line of work make a difference to you?”

She studied his face, seeing the taut line of his jaw, the tense set of his shoulders beneath his cable-knit sweater, and the truth finally dawned on her. “You really are in that line of work, aren’t you? Along with Fantasy for Hire.”