The Billionaire's Secrets (12 page)

But assessing Chloe's teaching abilities wasn't the only reason he couldn't stay away. He took a sip of his scotch.
How do you begin to trust again? Put the past behind you and move on?
He pictured Chloe's
reddish
head close to
Sophia
's fair one as they leaned over the jigsaw puzzle. How he longed to stro
ke that hair and be able to say
I trust
you
.
You are not like Colleen or the other women who pretended to care for
Sophia
but who were only really interested in my money
.

He went over to his desk and sat down. Two envelopes, delivered that afternoon by courier, sat in the middle of the desk. The first envelope concerned some of Byrne Enterprises' latest investments. He read it quickly and set it aside. Routine stuff, nothing Marcus couldn't handle.

The other envelope was from a private detective firm he had hired to run a background check on Chloe. Funny, he'd forgotten he'd ordered one. It had been a bit of an afterthought, but after the last teacher he thought it couldn't hurt. He shuddered in distaste as he remembered how
that
teacher had come into his room at night and, before he could tell her to leave, had opened her robe and revealed her naked body to him. He thought the file had arrived a bit late when he remembered that Chloe wasn't actually supposed to start until the following week.

He pulled the file out of the envelope and set it on his desk. The first item was an eight-by-ten glossy photo of
Choe
. It was taken on the steps of a red brick building.
Her apartment?
It was obvious Chloe didn't know she was being photographed. She wa
s looking not toward the camera
but into the distance, as if wondering her next course of action.

Gaelan
felt two things as he looked at the picture.
First, the tug of attraction.
The thoughtful eyes, the hair
that only moments
ago he had wanted to smooth, and the mouth, her lips slightly parted and so absolutely kissable. But soon attraction made way to guilt. He told himself he had every right to check into her past - not only because of the last teacher and her lust for his money but also for
Sophia
's protection and safety.

He set the photo aside, picked up the report, and read it, slamming it on the desk less than ten minutes later. He got up and went down the hall to the schoolroom, knocking sharply on the already open door.

Chloe and
Sophia
were standing at the table, admiring the completed puzzle. Both looked up, startled by the sudden noise. It was
Sophia
who recovered first. "Come and see the puzzle, Dad
dy
…I mean
Gaelan
," she exclaimed. "I know all the animals in French too." She pointed to an elephant in the puzzle. "This is
un
elephant
…"

"That's very nice,
Sophia
,"
Gaelan
said, interrupting her sharply. "But I don't have time for that now. I need to speak to Chloe. Go and stay with Windy in the kitchen."

"But we still have school,"
Sophia
protested, her face
that
had looked so happy moments ago now crumpled with disappointment.

Damn!
I’ve
done it again
,
Gaelan
thought guiltily. All he ever did was make the kid feel bad. It was just that he was so furious…

He caught Chloe's glare as she put her hands on
Sophia
's shoulders. "I think we've learned a lot for our first day," Chloe said gently. "How about we call it quits for today? We'll do
lots of new things tomorrow." She
glanced
his way again, and
Gaelan
could see she was worried there might not be a tomorrow.
And for good reason
, he thought.

Sophia
conceded reluctantly. She gave
Gaelan
a defiant stare as she strode past him, but
Gaelan's
head was so full of what he'd read in the file on the desk that he barely noticed. With Chloe following,
Gaelan
turned and walked back to his office, telling her to close the door behind her.

"What's this about?" she demanded.
Gaelan
knew she was angry he had interrupted her class.

"I think you already know," he said coldly. "Did you think I'd never find out?" He went behind his desk and held out the folder to her.

She stood facing him across the desk. "What's this?" she asked, taking it.

"Open it." he said. He watched Chloe's face as she opened the folder. The photograph slipped to the
floor. She put the folder down
and leaned over to pick up the picture.
S
traighten
ing
up,
she
look
ed at the image of herself and then at him with a puzzled expression on her face
.

"Where did you get this?" she asked.

"A private detective.
I had a background check done on you."

Puzzlement
returned
to anger
,
and she glared at him with the same intensity of dislike as
Sophia
had only a few minutes before.

"You did what?!" she exclaimed. "You spied on me?!" Her
green
eyes flashed fire at him. "How could you do this? How long was this guy creeping around the shrubs waiting to take my picture?" she continued
,
shaking the picture at him across the desk. "Did he follow me too?"

Gaelan
didn't answer, and she threw the
picture at him.
"Of all the low-
down
,
sneaky things to do."

The picture
fell
face up on the desk in front of
Gaelan
. "Don't take that self-righteous tone with me," he said angrily. "It would seem
you've been pretty low-
down and sneaky yourself." He pushed the picture away and pointed to the open file in front of him. "Why didn't you tell Marcus you were fired from your last job?"

Chapter 4

They faced off across the desk, but whereas a moment ago she had been staring daggers at him, her eyes now wavered.
Gaelan
could tell she felt guilty. He recalled their first conversation and how he had thought she was keeping something from him. No doubt this was it. "Well, so why didn't you?"

"Because it didn't come up," she snapped back at him defiantly.

"It didn't come up," he said slowly. "Just what did you do for a reference?"

"I didn't have one, and Marcus didn't ask for any."

It was
Gaelan's
turn to hesitate. Marcus may have wanted to do some matchmaking
,
but surely he would still have done the bare minimum of making sure this woman was qualified for the job.

"Besides," Chloe continued. "It had nothing to do with my teaching skills."

"According to this, it says you were fired for incompetence."

"Incompetence?"
Chloe said in surprise. She grabbed the file from the desk. "Where did you get that from?"

"My detective had an enlightening chat with your boyfriend, Shawn." This deception bothered him more than her being fired. Why would she pretend not to have a boyfriend unless she had hopes of putting the moves on him? And, damn it, he was disappointed - just when he thought he could start to trust someone. "I thought you told me you didn't have a boyfriend."

Chloe looked up from the file. "I don't. He's my ex-boyfriend," she said firmly. Then she started to laugh. "I guess your private detective isn't so smart after all."

"Then why don't you tell me the
real story?
"
Gaelan
said slowly.

"I'm not sure it's any of your business," she said haughtily.

"It is if you want to keep your job," he answered.

"You seemed determined I should quit this job every day," she said to his surprise. "I don't know what my personal life has to do with my job."

"Then tell me about your professional life. That
,
surely, I have a right to know about." He could see her hesitate. She really didn't want to tell him.