Read Online The Doctor's Secret Bride (1) by Ana E. Ross - Free Book Online

honest, truthful person.  Of course, she’d told little harmless lies in jest before, but she’d never lied about anything so important.
    She set the mug on the table and starred at Erik.  She couldn’t very well take it back now.  Dwight Carter had been dead to her for years.  But from this moment forward, he was also dead to the rest of the world.
    “When did he die?” Erik asked.
    “Some years ago,” she answered simply, trying to avoid a specific date she would have to remember.  God, what had she done ?  “And if you don’t mind, I prefer not to talk about him.”
    Erik frowned at the bitterness in her voice and the hostility in her eyes.  Yesterday, when Mrs. Hayes told him that Michelle’s mother died when she was born, and how she used to look out for a little Michelle and Robert, he’d sensed that there was something else the old lady wasn’t telling him.  Did it have something to do with her father?  Had the man abused her?  What on earth could a father have done to his daughter to make her hate him so much, even beyond the grave?
    He’d had a sheltered and happy childhood, and although his parents weren’t married, they had both loved and cared for him.  Something in Michelle’s eyes told him she hadn’t been that lucky.
    “Is there anyone special in your life, Michelle?”  He just had to know if there was someone out there she turned to when the sad memories of the past made her blue.  Well, in all fairness these were the type of questions he would have asked yesterday before he hired her if he hadn’t been sidetracked by her beauty, sassy mouth, and provocative attire.
    She gave him a sidelong glance and asked rather cheekily, “You mean like a man?”
    “Yes, like a man.”  You wanted somebody older, someone unattached.  That’s why you’re asking , he told himself.
    She folded her arms across the tabletop and looked him squarely in the eye.  “What do you think?”
    “I don’t know what to think.  That’s why I’m asking.”  Boy, his curiosity had gone way past the need-to-know interview stage.  When had this line of questioning become so individual, so personal?
    “Why is it important?”  She licked her lips slowly as she boldly held his gaze.
    Erik rested his elbows on the table and laced his fingers under his chin as he studied her face.  This cat and mouse game they were playing sent a hot tide of wanting through him.  He’d never had to dance to this catch and release beat before.  He’d known Cassie since they were teenagers.  There had never been anyone else for either of them.  This was all new to him.
    Just who was the cat and who was the mouse here?
    “It is important because the last nanny got married and resigned,” he said with a patronizing edge to his voice.  “That’s the reason I wanted someone older.  I don’t care to put Precious through another loss anytime soon.  I’m sorry if you think my question is too personal, but I’m just looking out for my daughter’s best interest.”  And the thought of another man kissing you, holding you the way I did last night is driving me out of my mind .
    Michelle let out a long slow breath and lowered her gaze to the coffee in her mug.  Erik’s grilling was getting a little too uncomfortable for her, especially the questions about her father.  At least that boat had come to shore without capsizing.
    After her talk with Yasmine, she’d gone down to the guesthouse to catch up on old times with Mrs. Hayes.  During the conversation, Michelle had discovered that Cassandra Elizabeth LaCrosse had been killed months after Michelle’s father had ruined her own life and disappeared from Manchester.
    Since he was hundreds of miles away at the time, it wasn’t even remotely possible that he could have committed the crime.  Mrs. Hayes had also told her that the doctor and his wife were very much in love and that Cassie’s death had changed Erik drastically from a happy, sociable family man