horizontal filing cabinets and began to drum his fingers angrily on the desk. He swore that if Ron didn’t come through for him this time, he would fire him. Forget about all those years of faithful service. The one time he truly needed him, he was being let down. And then the fax finally sprang to life and began to spit out page after page of information.
Without caring who might be looking into his office, he vaulted from his chair and began to snatch the pages before they could even come to rest on the tray. Hannah Matthews. The name had a nice ring to it. He rolled it around his tongue once more. Hannah Matthews. Suddenly he was flooded with warmth. He studied her credit report. Ah, so that’s why she didn’t just find a cheaper place. Chances were every community in town had turned her down. He glanced at the page with the inquiries. Yup. Her family lived in Wilmington. It’s amazing she even got out of that town. It was one of those sleepy little places where no one had the ambition to even go to college, let alone move across the state. Good lord, he wasn’t going to admire her. He frowned. Maybe she truly had no one here. No options. His brow furrowed. He couldn’t develop a conscience now. He needed this to change his life. Grasping the last of the papers, he moved back to his desk to finalize his plan.
A mere two hours later, he reviewed what he had constructed. It could work. It had to work. He smiled.
Chapter Three
It had to work. Hannah once again examined all of her options. There really weren’t any others. She swallowed. Her only other option was to sell the rest of the furniture and move the kids into an extended stay hotel. They could pay by the week. Of course they’d all be living in essentially one room. And she’d spend more on food, but nothing on utilities or local phone calls. She calculated and scowled. She’d have to rent a space for all of her goods that she sold at the flea market. She wouldn’t have a garage anymore. No matter how she crunched, tallied, and coerced the numbers, she couldn’t make them add up. Hannah sighed in disgust and threw her pen down on the desk.
She leaned forward and rubbed her temples while her elbows balanced on the desk. She heard footsteps approaching, but since everyone had been walking on eggshells around her at the office ever since Brett left, she figured that in her state she would most definitely be left to her own devices. Instead the feet stopped before her desk, but she refused to acknowledge them.
“Hannah Matthews?” A deep voice asked determinedly.
Leaning back and looking up warily she nodded. “Can I help you?”
The sunlight streaming through the window behind him created a luminous quality to his image. For the briefest moment, Hannah’s gut clenched and she actually thought he might be the man she’d been waiting for. Almost immediately, she dismissed the ridiculous idea. He was far too perfect, wholly masculine with his angular jaw, straight nose, and spectacularly black hair. The blazer struggled to contain his broad shoulders and healthy biceps. Tall, dark, and handsome, this man was everything that Brett wasn‘t.
“Actually, I rather think that I can help you,” he responded, smiling widely as he stared down at her. Seeing she was even more attractive in the light of day and up close, he knew that he was in over his head and knots formed in his stomach. Hannah Matthews was a vision in chocolate, from her cropped chestnut locks, to her deep brown eyes, to the varying shades of taupe cloaking her figure. It was obvious that she was trying to downplay her features and strike a professional look, but for him, it only created an even more sensual appeal. Here was a woman who was oblivious to her charms. It nearly sucked the breath right out of him.
Arching an eyebrow, she crossed her arms over her chest. “And you are?” She asked seriously, desperate to create an air of detachment and disinterest.
“I’m the man