Think About Love by Vanessa Grant

He felt her jerk in surprise, and his gaze got caught in her startled wide eyes, her parted lips. "Cal..."
    Her eyes looked exactly like those of the deer he'd seen last night. "Vice president, Sam. You make your own hours, oversee the search for the executives we're going to need, delegate. If you need more people, hire them. You're not leaving."
    The light from the lamp behind the sofa caught in her eyes, showing golden flecks in the deep brown. "Cal, there are other people, very talented people who could do my job standing on one leg."
    "No, there aren't." He took her hand because he needed to feel her pulse beating under his fingers. "Before you came, Tremaine's was growing fast, the details spinning out of control. No one but you could have persuaded me to give up control. After Barry defected, I swore I'd never trust anyone with that much control again. Without you, Sam, I'd still be trying to do it all, working on an ulcer and a heart attack. You taught me to delegate, taught me to trust you."
    She wouldn't meet his eyes. "You've still got a bit to learn about delegating."  
    "I need you, Sam. Tremaine's needs you. But I need to know you won't change your mind, decide to quit again in six months time."
    He felt her hand stiffen but didn't release it.
    "Kippy has to come first."
    He knew he was gambling, but he wasn't going to let her walk away. "You're going to be Kippy's mother," he said slowly, "but she'll have no father. Is that what you want for her, to grow up without a father?"
    She jerked her hand free, then crammed both hands in the pockets of her suit jacket. "Lots of well-adjusted kids live in single-parent families."
    "It doesn't matter that she has no father?"
    "Of course it matters!" Her eyes were suddenly hot, militant, her body transformed in a heartbeat, and he fought his own response to the heat.  
    He turned away and paced to the varnished dining room table. "You could give her a father," he said.
    "What the hell are you talking about?"  
    He wondered how long it would have taken him to discover Sam's passionate side if she hadn't threatened to leave, wondered why it was so damned arousing to find so much heat under such a calm surface.
    "I think you're a woman who would never let her orphaned niece down. I think you're a gifted executive. You have a magic way of getting people, business, everything sorted out, and neither Kippy nor I can afford to lose you. Have you thought what will happen if this social worker decides that Kippy would be better off without you?"
    Her eyes widened in shock. "That's not going to happen. She disapproves of me right now, but I'll win her over. Even if I don't, she's got no cause. I'll get permanent custody of Kippy."
    "You might have a better chance if you were married."
    "Dorothy's a widow. She didn't have a problem getting custody last winter."
    "When your sister died?"
    "Yes." She blinked tears back. "I'll get custody, and I'm not getting married just to give Kippy a father."
    "What if there were other reasons?"
    "What reasons?"
    "Marry me." He saw her shock and knew he'd better talk fast, before she got her breath back and threw him out. "You'd get a stable, conventional family to present to the court, a father for Kippy."
    "That's insane." He heard her swallow. "I don't need—why would you—"
    "Because I'd get you as vice president, completely committed to Tremaine's. I'll settle a block of shares on you—twice what we agreed on previously."
    "This is a business deal?"
    "Yes," he said. "It's good business."

Chapter Six

    A business deal.
    "You're crazy, Cal."
    In the kitchen, a bell rang.
    "That's the chicken," he said. "Why don't you change into something more comfortable while I get the food on the table."
    Something more comfortable. He didn't mean that the way it sounded; of course he didn't. "What kind of business deal? It's crazy, Cal. You can't be serious."
    "Crazy?" His eyes had that light in them, like those mornings when he stormed into her office,