His Secret Temptation

“I never knew him. Didn’t even know who he was. My mother listed Carter McCoy on my birth certificate.” She paused, but didn’t expect Simon to get the reference. “He’s the character from the movie The Getaway, with Steve McQueen.”

“Why would she do that?”

A question she’d asked her mother many times. “She told me he was a bum and that I was better off not knowing who he was.” But bum or not, the void in her life had needed filling. At first she’d made up stories about him to tell the other kids when they asked. It wasn’t as if every one of her classmates had a perfect family, but at least all of them knew who their father was.

“What about other family?”

She shrugged. “I think my grandparents kicked my mom out when they found out she was pregnant with me. She wouldn’t talk about them. I tried to get her to call them when she got sick, but she just squeezed my hand really tight and said that we were all each other had or needed.”

“I can help you find them.”

One look at his face told her his offer was genuine. She understood why he’d bought her the clothes and the jewelry—she needed them to make the right impression on his family—but why would he want to get involved in something that had nothing to do with him?

“Thanks, but you don’t have to do that.”

Simon shot her a wry glance. “I know some people who can help.”

“Private detectives? That costs money I don’t have. And before you say it, I can’t take anything more from you. Besides, I’m not even sure Sampson is my real last name. My mom was right. We were all each other had. And now there’s just me.” Caroline set her pen to paper, determined to make use of the rest of the drive and prepared to learn in a few short hours what she should have spent the last six months finding out about Simon if they actually had been dating. “Okay, I know a little bit about your mother, but what is your father like?”

Three hours later, Caroline had learned all about Simon’s childhood, his family and friends, likes and dislikes. Leaning her head back against the comfortable headrest, she gazed at the big diamond sparkling on her hand and blew out a breath. Thank goodness she had a knack for retaining facts because Simon had regaled her with six months’ worth of funny stories and useful information about his parents, brother and sister and their significant others.

“I know it’s a lot to take in,” Simon said.

She could use a couple of hours to sort through all the impressions she had about Simon’s family, but they were passing through Savannah on the way to the Historic District and the house Simon had grown up in. A house that had been in his mother’s family since the eighteen-thirties. There was a lot of tradition tied up in Simon’s roots. How would his parents feel about an interloper like her?

“It’s okay,” she said, putting her worries aside. “If I survived my complex litigation class, I can remember a couple hundred stories about your family.”

“I suppose that’s your way of saying I don’t know anything about you.”

“You already know my mother is dead and my father is a movie character, what more is there to know?” She kept her tone light, but a trace of bitterness crept in. When compared to Simon’s rich family background, her story sounded flat.

“How about what sort of music you listen to?”

“Joss Stone. Tori Amos.” She spun the engagement ring around on her finger, still unaccustomed to the weight, and assessed his lack of recognition. “I told you it doesn’t matter.”

“What does it say about me that I don’t know the simplest things about the woman I plan to marry?”

“That you’re an inconsiderate ass?”

He burst out laughing as she repeated what he’d said to his mother the day before. As his eyes glowed cobalt blue and his teeth blinded her with their perfect whiteness, she stared at him in mesmerized fascination. It should be a crime for any man to have such long eyelashes and silky blond hair. When combined with his muscular shoulders and long legs, he was almost too perfect a physical specimen. Too bad he wasn’t conceited. She might have thrown his bargain back in his face if his wry humor hadn’t balanced all that masculine beauty and disarmed her at every turn.

With his grin coaxing her to play along, she surrendered to a smile with only a tiny hesitation. When was the last time she’d felt this cheerful? The weight of her financial woes and the burden of balancing school and work usually made her feel as if a gray cloud dogged her. Being around Simon was awakening her to what it was like to be young and carefree. She’d better be careful, or the next thing she knew, she might actually be guilty of having fun.

“Okay, now don’t be put off by the house, it’s been in the family for quite a few generations and my mother is rather attached to it.”

Caroline turned toward the window and spied a huge mansion looming closer. Simon navigated a circular driveway that led to the front door. Abruptly, her lightheartedness became light-headedness. What had she gotten herself into?

“It’s huge,” she murmured, convinced the “mansion” in Barrisville, where her mother had been a housekeeper, would have fit inside these brick walls three times.

“Fourteen thousand square feet of pretentious, drafty rooms, bad wiring and outdated plumbing. It costs a fortune to maintain, a fact my father grumbles about every month as he writes the checks for electricians, plumbers and interior decorators.”

The sarcasm in Simon’s tone was too transparent to hide his grudging fondness. He might pretend he didn’t care for his childhood home, but most of his amusing stories centered on growing up here.

Staring at the elegant entry, Caroline wavered between awe and envy. Living in the servants’ quarters of the most powerful family in the county, she thought she’d understood wealth. That home had been a dollhouse compared to this one. What would it have been like to grow up in a place like this?

Simon took her hand to help her out of the car, but when she showed no signs of leaving the vehicle’s ambiguous safety, he exerted a little more effort and pulled her out. Tucking her hand into the crook of his arm, he murmured encouraging phrases as they headed up the front steps.

As he opened the door, she sidestepped away from him, realizing she’d crowded against his strong body, relying on him in a way she’d not relied on anyone since her mother died. After being alone for so long, having someone in her corner felt good. Too good. His kindness had lulled her into forgetting that they weren’t engaged. They were pretending to be engaged. She’d better remember that, because in two weeks, she’d go back to living a solo life.