Almost Midnight by Teresa McCarthy Read Free Book Online Page B

over his chest. “Yes?”
    She opened her mouth, startled by the effect he had on her. “Your son,” she finally blurted out.
    A muscle flicked in his jaw. “What about him?”
    She looked away. If she didn’t say it now, she never would. “You need to spend more time with him. These trips are tearing him apart. He needs some hugs, some discipline,” she darted a cool gaze his way, “from you, not just from a tutor who’s only known him for a few weeks.”
    With a hint of self-controlled anger, he pushed himself off the desk and stepped toward her. Hannah stumbled back, too stunned to reply.
    “Miss Elliot, let me remind you that I am your employer, and as your employer, I will be the one to tell you how to do your job, not the other way around. We are no longer on a mountain top at midnight having a conversation about your car. We are in my house, speaking about my son.”
    He flashed a quick look at Jeremy’s picture, then back at her, his gray eyes narrowing on her face as if she had a bull’s-eye painted on her forehead.
    “You are his tutor, not his mother.”
    Her heart twisted. Mother? No, that was something Nick never wanted her to be. As her fiancé, he had led her to believe he had wanted kids, but after they were married, he had wanted her all to himself. She had loved him, but she had also felt used. The night they had argued, he had taken off in the car and was killed on an icy patch of road. Maybe if she hadn’t pushed him...
    Hannah blinked, hiding the grief that sank like an anchor in her soul. What had ever attracted her to Tanner Clearbrook in the first place? He knew nothing. Nothing!
    She vaguely smelled the vanilla potpourri in the bowl on the table beside her. It was hard to believe she could smell anything since she was so exhausted from her cold and Tanner’s mightier-than-thou attitude.
    When she didn’t answer, he moved closer.
    “You’re a single woman, Miss Elliot.” His voice was as calm and crisp as a frigid autumn breeze. “Being a parent is a totally different experience. It involves a whole new world of responsibility. I don’t think you could ever imagine the significance of it.”
    A suffocating feeling grew in her throat.
    Avoiding answering him, Hannah turned toward the door and sniffed through her stuffy sinuses. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Tell Jeremy I’ll bring the gingerbread.” 
    “He hates gingerbread.” The voice was so low she almost missed it. It was if the man was trying to goad her into sparring with him. But enough was enough.
    Hannah pivoted slowly, and a faint thread of strange excitement swept through her at the sight of his body taking another giant step toward her. The tension between them grew.
     “Well, Mr. Clearbrook,” she finally said, “he likes it now.”  
    A dark eyebrow rose. “Well, I hate gingerbread,” he snapped.
    To her annoyance, his words stoked a fire inside her, and her brow arched back daringly. “Really? Like you hate a woman giving you police headquarters instead of her home phone number?”
    She tipped her head to boldly meet his gaze and felt an almost perverse pleasure in watching his eyes flicker in surprised outrage.
    At that moment, thoughts of Nick’s possessive attitude shot through her mind, and her spine became ramrod stiff. Though she needed this job, Tanner Clearbrook had pushed her too far.
    “You seem to know a tremendous deal about me, Miss Elliot.” The man folded his arms across his chest and looked at her thoughtfully. “If I didn’t know better, I would say you have a chip on your shoulder. Is there something I hate that bothers you, or is there something you hate that bothers you?”
    Stunned at his keen perception, Hannah stared at him, speechless. The question hit too close to home.     
    “Don’t worry, I won’t fire you for your honesty,” he replied in a voice so smooth, so utterly calm, that she wondered what kind of man her employer was.
     “I tell you what you hate,” she