"I"m having dinner in the city tonight."
Who was he having dinner with? "About Olivia-"
"Olivia is my daughter. She"s not your concern," he said distinctly. He turned his back to her and turned on the faucet.
She gazed at his reflection in the mirror. What just happened?
He concentrated on folding the sleeves of his crisp white shirt up his forearms.
The sight of the dark hair peppering his arms mesmerized her. She shook her head to clear it. "But-"
"Elaine," he said, meeting her gaze in the mirror, "this conversation has ended."
"This conversation has not ended." She"d never been on the receiving end of his anger. She"d imagined she"d collapse into a whimpering heap and die on the spot if it ever happened.
Not so. Oddly, she felt like shoving him again. "Olivia"s become my friend. I won"t see her toyed with."
"You think I"d toy with my daughter?"
"I think you"d do whatever you had to in order to get what you want."
He turned around again, his arms crossed, one long finger tapping his chin as he contemplated her. "What I want right now is my privacy."
She recognized that he was at the end of his mercy. If she pushed him anymore, she"d be out a job. Actually, she"d probably have to go to a third world country to find work because Everett would make sure no one in the modern world would hire her again.
"Enjoy your evening," she said, really meaning she hoped he"d get indigestion. She backed out with as much dignity as she had.
Although if he got indigestion, she"d be the one to suffer because he"d send her out in the middle of the night to get him medicine.
The jerk.
She glared at him and whirled out of the bathroom, closing the door. Marching to the kitchen, she sat down at the table and began serving herself salad.
She speared her fork into the lettuce and had it halfway to her mouth when she noticed Mae"s amused gaze on her. "Mr. Parker won"t be joining us for dinner."
Mae"s eyes twinkled. "Won"t he?"
"No." The jerk. She savagely bit into her greens.
"Then you and I will eat together." She set the stew pot on the table and sat down.
"Olivia"s not back yet?"
"I don"t expect Olivia will be back for some time."
Lainie dropped her fork onto her plate with a loud clack. "What"s going on here?" Mae was obviously in on whatever it was.
"Elaine, when a person is as stubborn as Olivia, or her father," she said distinctly, "sometimes she need a little push to go where she needs to."
Lainie stared at the older woman, who calmly dished the food and began to eat as if the world wasn"t completely off kilter. "What if Olivia doesn"t want a push?"
"Olivia needs to get on with her life." Mae turned her bright gaze on her. "Olivia needs to have a family. Not because I want great-grandchildren or because I want her to leave."
"I don"t understand."
"Elaine, Olivia is a nurturer. She takes people under her wing and mothers them until they can stand on their own two feet, and then she finds someone else to put her attention on. She did it with Eve, and Gwendolyn, and now you. And after you"re settled, she"ll find someone else to take on."
Lainie frowned. "Is that bad?"
"The act itself isn"t bad, the reasons behind it are. She"s doing it to avoid having a family of her own. She fills herself by mothering other people. She doesn"t let herself feel the need to have her own children to nurture."
"How do you know she wants children of her own? This is the modern world. Women didn"t need to have a family to be fulfilled anymore."
"She wants children. I know my girl. And think of the children. Instead of getting a wonderful mother, there"s no telling who they"ll wind up with. It"s karmic responsibility, love."
Lainie fidgeted under Mae"s not-so-subtle gaze. That look was anything but subtle. She reminded herself they were talking about Olivia. Maybe if she kept telling herself that, she"d believe it eventually.
Chapter Sixteen.
Michael wasn"t sure what surprised him more-Olivia showing up in the shed after dark or the loud click of what sounded like the lock falling into place. "Tell me that was just the lock banging against the door."
Olivia snorted. "Right."
Dropping the tools he"d been riffling through, he opened his mouth to make a retort, but seeing Olivia"s face lit by the indirect light of her flashlight captured his director"s imagination.
She was stunning. He didn"t think he"d realized how gorgeous she was. His memories didn"t do her justice. The shadows sharpened her cheekbones and her eyes seemed a hundred times more mysterious, like she"d wrapped herself in secrets. He"d give anything to find out what they were.
He straightened. He needed to get out of there before he did something stupid. "There"s no way we could be locked in here."
Skirting around her, holding his breath so he wouldn"t inhale her fragrance and careful not to come in contact with her, he headed for the door. He pushed on it, certain to the very last moment it was open.
The door didn"t budge.
"d.a.m.n," he muttered under his breath. He rattled the handle.
"Breaking it isn"t going to help."
He turned around. She was leaning against a bag of petrified cement, arms akimbo. "It"s better than doing nothing."
"If I didn"t know better, I"d say you were genuinely upset by this."
"What the h.e.l.l is that supposed to mean?"
"Who did you have to bribe to lock us in here?"
He held his hand out. "Wait a minute. You think I had something to do with this?"
Even in the dim light he could see the sardonic arching of her eyebrow. "If the padlock fits..."
Michael shook his head, figuring it was better than shaking her. "I didn"t do this. The last thing I want is to be confined in a small s.p.a.ce with you." Okay, that didn"t come out the way he intended, but at least it got her to drop her casual pose.
"Great," she bit out. "Then we"re in agreement."
Placid, Olivia was beautiful. Livid, she was a sight to behold.
With a flip of her hair, she whirled around and cautiously worked her way to the back of the shed. The way her tight pants fit her entranced him. He bet she wore s.e.xy panties like the ones she sold in her store.
He snapped out of it in time to catch up to her before she disappeared around the corner. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Getting us out of here. Hold this." She handed him the flashlight.
He watched her drop to her knees and crawl alongside the wall, feeling around.
"Hold the beam steady."
He c.o.c.ked his brow but did her bidding. Then he realized what she was looking for. "Ah, the secret pa.s.sage way."
"About time you remembered. Unless you deliberately forgot," she mumbled.
He let that pa.s.s. Right now, the most important thing was to let her find the flap they used to call their secret pa.s.sage way. In reality, it"d probably been a dog entrance at one time. He"d never been one to get claustrophobic but the walls were beginning to close in on him, pressing him closer to Olivia.
He took a step back.
"Hold the G.o.dd.a.m.n flashlight steady." She felt around for another ten seconds before she dropped her hands and sat back on her heels. "h.e.l.l."
"What is it?"
"It"s been nailed shut."
"s.h.i.t."
She glanced up at him. "You sound like you mean that."
He raked his hair back, not caring that his hands were covered in dust and cobwebs. "I didn"t plan this, Olivia."
She studied him for what seemed like ten minutes before she asked, "What were you doing here?"
"Looking for a couple things we need for the shoot tomorrow."
"Don"t you have lackeys that do that work?"
"Sure, but Parker sent them off for the afternoon." The puzzle pieces fell into place. He leaned back against a full burlap covered sack. "How about you?"
"Gran sent me to call Parker in for dinner." She gave him a rueful smile. "I guess we were both set up."
"Looks that way."
She looked around. "You think they"ll come let us out soon?"
"Nope."
She sighed. "I didn"t think so either."
"Come on." He held his hand out to help her up.
She eyed it suspiciously.
"Do you know if the batteries in the flashlight are fresh?" When she shook her head, he said, "Then we need to find the old lamps and see if there"s still kerosene left around."
He felt a surge of triumph as she placed her hand in his, but he carefully kept his face expressionless. Her hand felt warm and soft, and it would have been easy to hold on to it forever.
Once she got to her feet, she pulled her hand out of his and cleared her throat. "Do you remember where the lamps were?"
He looked around. "Weren"t they in the back?"
She shrugged, flicking her hair over her shoulder. "Your guess is as good as mine." She pushed past him and led the way.
He didn"t mind. He held the flashlight, and the view was amazing from here.
"Here they are." She lifted a lamp thickly coated with webs. She handed it to him and wiped her hands on her pants. "Gross."
"Hold this." He gave her the flashlight and reached for a bottle that looked like kerosene.
New kerosene. The lamp was covered with years of dust, but the bottle looked like it was just picked off a store shelf yesterday. On the same shelf was a new book of matches, clean blankets, and what looked like a picnic basket.
He shook his head and started filling up the lantern with fuel. "At least this was a well-planned set up."
"What?" Olivia leaned over his shoulder to look.
Her hair brushed his neck, and he spilled some kerosene. If he turned his head a little, he"d be able to kiss her.
"Someone thoughtfully left us new supplies." He lit the lamp. "Including clean blankets and food."
"Thank G.o.d." She grabbed the basket and peeked inside. "I"m starving."
He successfully lit the lantern-he wasn"t really surprised to see it had a fresh wick-and placed the gla.s.s shield on it. He turned to face Olivia and found her frowning into the basket. "What"s wrong?"
"The conspiracy is wider spread than I thought."
"Conspiracy?"