Rosalie thought of what waited for her there. A job where she felt anonymous to her bosses and was screamed at by customers. A tattered two-bedroom apartment with a revolving door of roommates who worked long hours to pay the rent, and went out clubbing and brought home men whenever they weren’t. She’d even found herself locked out of her own bedroom and forced to sleep on the lumpy sofa, whenever her roommate brought home one-night stands.
But even that was preferable to going home to Emmetsville.
So sell, a voice whispered inside her. Just sell the farm and you’ll never have to see it again.
The land was in wine country between Sonoma and Petaluma. She’d already received multiple offers, each more shockingly high than the last. With that much in her bank account, she could wipe that smug look off Alex’s face in an instant. The nanny, indeed.
“The truth is,” Alex said quietly, “You don’t have any desire to return to San Francisco.”
It was as if he was reading her mind. “Why do you say that?”
“Because if you enjoyed living in San Francisco, you’d have already sold the land you inherited from your parents in Sonoma County.”
She stared at him in shock.
“I told you—I know everything,” he said. “You could have sold the land to one of the big wineries and changed your life. Plenty of money to buy a fancy condo or get a college degree or take a luxury cruise around the world. But you haven’t done any of those things.”
She looked away. “No.”
He shook his head. “You can’t bring yourself to sell the land. But you can’t bring yourself to go back to it, either. You’re stuck. A detail that was ma
de obvious to me when you didn’t bring up the fact that you are, in fact, in possession of a large fortune. Just one you do not wish to spend.” He looked at her. “Well?”
Rosalie’s heart was pounding wildly. She looked longingly at the steps that led down to the cobblestoned lane, and the safety of her great-aunt’s restaurant.
“I want you to come and live with me, Rosalie. You are the mother of my child. Let me support you.” He gave a small smile. “As your aunt pointed out, it is my responsibility.”
“No one gives something for nothing,” she whispered. She didn’t want to owe him anything. She took a deep breath. “Maybe I could be a nanny.”
Alex blinked, looking surprised. “As you wish,” he said softly. “You’ll spend your days caring for our baby, exactly as you wish, without having to worry about your financial security, and knowing you have a safety net if I ever fire you...”
“Fire me?”
“Yes. We’ll draw up a contract. You’ll have severance, so there would be nothing to worry about. Or if you grow tired of motherhood, and leave us—”
“Are you crazy?”
“You’ll still have all the benefits of an employment contract. And be protected.”
Rosalie’s only experience with a contract had been the disastrous one with the fertility clinic. That hadn’t made her eager to sign another one. “Protected? From what?”
Pressing his lips together tightly, he didn’t answer.
Rosalie repeated in a hard voice, “Protected from what, Alex?”
He said abruptly, “From me.”
Her mouth went dry. “Why—why would I need protecting from you?”
Alex came closer to her and her heart quickened as his powerful body stopped just inches from hers, his hard, handsome face half hidden in shadow.
“Because I might be tempted to seduce you,” he said softly.
Her lips parted as a shiver went over her body. “What?”
“Having you living in my house, when you’re not just so beautiful, but also the mother of my child...”
“You think I’m beautiful?” Rosalie felt dizzy.