“Susanna’s nanny?”
“Right. She has some family issues back home… The point is, she’s going. And Susanna needs a nanny.”
Jennifer’s heart thudded. “Are you asking me to be Susu’s nanny?”
“I’m asking you to stay here,” he said. “With my daughter.” He drew a long breath. “And with me.”
“Roarke. I’m flattered, but—”
“No strings,” he said quickly. “No hidden agenda. I just—I just think it’s a good plan. For us all.”
There was only one logical answer and it was no. No, she would not take the job. No, she would not stay on the island. With a man who was starting to mean too much to her. With a child she was beginning to love as she knew she would have loved h
er own.
With a lie entrapping her like a spider’s silken web.
Roarke would go on believing that she’d only come here on vacation. He wouldn’t know she had come to find him or, at least, the man she’d believed him to be. He wouldn’t know that while she took care of his child she had given away her own…
“Jennifer.”
She blinked. Looked up. Roarke’s eyes were deep and dark; a muscle was flickering in his cheek.
“Jen,” he said softly. “Please. Say yes.”
She was going to say “no.”
But when he reached for her, took her in his arms and kissed her…
Fool that she was, she said “yes.”
Chapter Seven
It was evening and the nursery shutters were closed against the sun that still hung in the tropical sky.
A pool of light illuminated the bentwood rocking chair where Jennifer sat holding Susanna, her dark head bent over the child’s, while she read softly to her.
“And the prince lifted the princess to the back of his horse…”
“An’ they lived happ’ly ever after,” Susu said drowsily.
Jennifer smiled as she closed the volume of fairy tales and put it on the bedside table.
“Yes,” she said, “that’s right, they lived happily ever after.” She smoothed back the little girl’s dark curls. “Bedtime,” she whispered.
The child sighed and wound her arms around Jennifer’s neck as she got to her feet. “Where’s Teddy?”
“Teddy’s right here, sweetheart. Now, you just lie down—that’s the way—and I’ll cover you up.”
“Cover Teddy, too,” Susu murmured as she snuggled under the blankets. Her feathery lashes drooped to her cheeks, then lifted. “Jenfer?”
“What, baby?”
The child sighed again and rolled onto her belly. “Don’t never go ’way,” she whispered. Her eyelids closed and within seconds she was fast asleep.
Jennifer watched her for a moment. Then she kissed Susu’s brow and shut off the bedside lamp. The room was swallowed up in darkness except for the soft illumination of the Princess Elsa night-light plugged into the wall beside the bed.
Out in the hall, she leaned back against the wall, her throat muscles working as she tried to swallow past the lump that had risen in her throat.