Dirk: A Stepbrother Romance(30)
She had tried to return his convertible to his office but had been advised by a stern, unsmiling dragon-lady that while Mr Kindersley was out of the country, he had left strict instructions that “no one was to receive that car or any other alleged possessions of his from her or anyone else”. It had sounded official enough to make her dizzy.
She had tried returning it to his mansion but there had been no way of getting past the damn gates.
She opened the email. It was a terse, one-sentenced invitation requesting that she personally bring three kids from the orphanage for a weekend retreat at Raven’s mansion. He hadn’t even had the courtesy to sign it himself but had instead handed it off to his secretary.
“You miserable oaf! I will send the three kids alright, but someone else will bring them. You can bet your ass on that,” she shouted at the computer screen.
Reason intruded and she buried her hands in her face, laughing at herself. She was shouting at her computer screen! It didn’t get much crazier than that, and in her book, it was all Raven’s fault. First he had made her feel like the sexiest woman alive. Then he had acted as though he couldn’t get enough of her. Then, just when she was starting to relax around him, he’d rejected her for no apparent reason she could see and brought all her insecurities rushing to the fore.
Her phone rang almost at once and she jerked it out of the cradle and slapped it to her ear, wincing against the impact.
“Lisa?” a hesitant feminine voice said in her ear.
Lisa’s chin wobbled but she staunchly told herself she was not disappointed that Raven wasn’t the caller.
“Yes?” she snapped ill-naturedly.
“Um, this is Melissa. I just wanted to verify your response to our email.”
Lisa rolled her eyes. Efficient didn’t begin to describe good old Melissa, she thought uncharitably.
Her hands tightened around the phone in her hand.
“I’ll send the kids,” she got out through gritted teeth.
“I’m sorry Lisa. But Mr Kindersley also stipulated that the kids will only be welcomed and allowed free rein on the premises if they are accompanied by someone who has been there at least once. I believe you are the only person at Forwardaid who has been to his home?”
Lisa swallowed down nausea at having to face the son-of-a-bitch again. She knew exactly what he was doing too. She closed her eyes, pictured the kids’ happy squeals as they chased each other around and around the mansion. The kids won; she would do anything for them, even face a man she now loathed.
With a sigh, she announced, “We’ll be there. But there are ten kids in my specific charge. I would have to come with all of them.”
“Done,” Melissa crowed triumphantly down the phone line right before she hung up.
Raven Kindersley smiled across the table at Lisa, but she met his gaze with a gimlet-eyed stare that told him she still regarded him with about the same level of affection she would reserve for Jabba the Hutt. His house was awash with domestic staff tonight because he knew he would need as many hands as possible to help with the ten kids she had chosen to inflict upon him. The moment he clapped eyes on them, he knew she had chosen the ten most ill-mannered children she could find from the orphanage? deliberately.
All night she had been waiting for him to lose his cool, he knew. He grinned to himself as a flying piece of egg hit her square in her chin. The culprit, a bright-eyed tow-headed seven-year-old boy contritely bowed his head in remorse that lasted about two seconds before he was happily throwing more food with the others.
He raised his glass to her in a mock toast and watched the red color steal up her cheeks in self-deprecating humor.
She relented after that and stopped glaring at him every five minutes.
When the kids had wrought their own fair share of damage, they clambered up to bed noisily calling out cheerful goodnights that made Raven grin.
“Will you come down to my study after you’ve tucked them in?” he asked Lisa huskily, holding her wide gaze with his.
She was beautiful tonight in a long gypsy skirt that emphasized the roundness of her hips and a scallop-necked half-top that revealed a tantalizing glimpse of riveting cleavage, smooth unlined skin at her waist, and made his fingers curl into fists at his side. The faint smell of jasmine wafted up from her and assaulted his senses.
“I’ll come right down,” she promised with a smile that hid many secrets.
Raven strolled into his study, wound up. He hadn’t been able to sit still since he left Lisa on the staircase. He wanted to make love to her; he wanted to love her until the world knew she was his! But in the weeks he had been apart from her, he had learned that he had to tell her who he was. It was the only way to keep Ramsey and his pack from hurting her. They were werebears just like him, but they all resented him because he had chosen a life of exclusion away from the rest of the pack. Once they learned he had marked a human as his mate they had determined to hurt her. They would try for the last time on the 17th of May which happened to be tomorrow. After that, they were packing up and leaving the area. Inviting her to his house for the weekend had been the only way to save her.
A sound at the door alerted him and he carefully hid his pensive frown behind a bland expression. She came in, wearing an amusingly remorseful look pretty much like one of her kids at dinner and he couldn’t help himself, he grinned openly at her.
“I missed you Lisa. I am sorry about the way I acted the last time. ”