Lucky in Love (Southern Bride 4)

I swung my eyes back to the other two. Bright blue eyes locked on mine, and I couldn’t help but smile. Brown curls bounced as Saryn’s daughter fought to get out of her mother’s arms.

“And I’m not naked,” I said as Saryn went to speak but closed her mouth, instead.

“Down pwease! Down, Momma, down, pwease!”

Reaching for my jeans, I quickly slipped them on, then pulled my black T-shirt over my head. Saryn watched my every move, her eyes filled with something I hadn’t ever seen in a woman’s gaze before. It wasn’t lust. Or desire… It was confusion. Most likely because she had walked into my office and I had been wearing nothing but my boxer briefs. Five seconds earlier and she’d have seen a hell of a lot more.

“You must be Liliana!” I said to the little girl who was now making her way to me. I bent down to her level and took the little bear she was holding out for me.

“Is this your bear?” I asked.

Liliana nodded. “Muke!”

“Muke?” I asked, glancing over toward Saryn who was still standing in the same spot. “I’m sorry, I just finished working out and took a shower. That’s why I couldn’t really see you right now.”

“A shower?” she asked, still confused and with a dazed look in her eyes.

“Yes, we have a gym in the building. I have a bathroom with a shower over there.” I pointed toward the door that led to the private bathroom. “Since my father and brother also have offices here, Dad thought it would be easier to have a gym in the building.”

Liliana reached up and touched my damp hair. Then she giggled and a strange sensation rushed through me. It was something I’d never experienced before, so it took me by surprise. I stilled, and that caused Saryn to rush over and take her daughter’s hand.

“I’m so sorry. Normally she has boundaries, but I guess she liked what she saw, too.”

My eyes snapped up to her.

“No, I mean, I liked what I saw…no, wait. Hold on a second. I came in here with the intention of firing you, and you have me all flustered. Since you were naked.”

The corners of my mouth lifted slightly. “I wasn’t naked.”

Her throat bobbed with a hard swallow. “You might as well have been. I saw everything!”

“Everything?” I asked, mock shock in my voice.

“Not everything,” she mused, “but it was…shocking.”

“Yes, that’s obvious from the way you’re stumbling on your words.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not stumbling on my words, Mr. Carter.”

“Call me Truitt.”

“No, thank you.”

Liliana reached up and took my hand, then led me over to the small play area I had set up in my office. All of my clients had children, for obvious reasons, and when I met with them, I liked having a place for the kids to be entertained while the grown-ups talked business.

“You have a playground in your office?” Saryn asked.

“Don’t make it sound like it’s a bad thing. When I meet with my clients here, they most always bring their kids.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” she said. I held Liliana’s hand while she climbed up the steps to the slide.

“I’m going to be frank, Mr. Carter. We don’t need you to build Liliana’s playhouse.”

I gave her a puzzled look over my shoulder. “Did you find someone else?”

Her eyes widened in panic. “No! It’s just. Well, you see…”

Her voice trailed off. Liliana giggled and shrieked as she slid down the slide.

“I see she likes slides. I’ll make sure to incorporate two: a straight slide, and every princess has to have a twisty-turny slide.”

Liliana looked up at me, those blue eyes sparkling with sheer bliss, before she raced over to the little swing.

“Push me, pwease!” she said as she ran back and grabbed my hand, tugging me over to the swing.

“My goodness, I’ve never seen her take to someone like she has to you,” Saryn said, trying not to smile.

“I have that effect on women.”

She snarled her lip at me and seemed to come back to her senses. “As I was saying, we don’t need such a fancy playhouse, and my mother’s motivations may not have been one-hundred percent in the right place.”

My brow rose. “Meaning?”

Saryn twisted her fingers together nervously. “When you said you had to cancel dinner with my family this evening, you weren’t expecting to have dinner with just me?”

“Your mother said it would be the whole family.”

She nodded. “Well, she told me it was just going to be you and me.”

“Ah, I see,” I said, trying not to show the amusement on my face. “So your mom wants the playhouse, and is also hoping for something more.”

Her cheeks went red. “Which is exactly why you’re not doing the playhouse.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Ms. Night, because I am most certainly doing the playhouse.”

When her eyes flashed with something that looked like heat, I noted it. It quickly faded away to anger. Pure anger, and it was hot as hell.