Taken by the Pirate Tycoon by Daphne Clair Read Free Book Online Page B

brain aneurism, without warning. A shock for everyone. Samantha picked up her bag. “I’ve had a long time to get over it.” But in fact she hadn’t, had simply learned to live with the painful hole left in her life.
    “Your father never married again?” She was on her way to the door, but he beat her to it, opening it for her and following her outside.
    “No,” she said as they walked to her car. “I’ll give him that.”
    “What do you mean by that?” he asked.
    Samantha pressed the button on her key ring to unlock the car as they approached. Jase stepped forward to open the driver’s door for her.
    “Nothing.” She regretted the comment. “He was a good father. He did a lot for me.” He’d always been happy to give her anything she expressed a desire for. As for those things that were inexpressible, that she’d not been able to articulate, no one could be expected to read minds, or irrationalemotions. Certainly not a remorselessly practical man like Colin Magnussen.
    She slipped into her seat, still thinking of her father and their complex, difficult relationship.
    He had loved her, even though she’d been a disappointment to him, and perhaps he’d loved his wife more than she’d ever known. Certainly he’d never saddled Samantha with a stepmother. If there had been other women in his life, she’d never seen any sign of them when she was home for weekends and holidays from the exclusive boarding school he’d sent her to a few months after losing his wife.
    After Samantha left home at twenty-one, removing herself from his overpowering shadow, and crossed the Tasman to Australia, she’d fully expected he would marry again. He wasn’t too old to find another trophy wife—nor to father the son he really wanted.
    But he hadn’t. He’d simply become even more obsessively devoted to his business. And then he’d died.
    Not wanting to think about that, she shook her head, and as Jase joined her in the car he asked, “Something wrong?”
    Only my life.
    Where had that come from? Her life was satisfactory in every way. She said, “Just thinking. Do you want to see another site?” As she spoke, rain spattered on the windscreen, quickly turning to a steady downpour.
    “That’s enough for today,” Jase said, looking out at the rain. “This looks like it’s going on for a while, and I’ve a few ideas to work with now.” He glanced at his watch. “I’m hungry. What are you doing about lunch? Can we talk about this—” he lifted his electronic notebook “—while we eat?”
    She took him to a restaurant close to the MagnussenBuilding, where she often entertained business visitors and was well-known to the staff, and they were seated promptly at her favourite table. The background music was not too loud, so they could talk without having to raise their voices. After they’d ordered, Samantha went to the ladies’ room and repaired her makeup.
    Over her mixed seafood dish and Jase’s ham on a kumara mash, they discussed his preliminary findings. For a time she almost forgot the latent bone of contention between them.
    His smile, his quick brain and ability to think outside the square, the timbre of his voice, the subtle male scent that reached her when he leaned forward with his mini-computer to demonstrate on the small screen what he was talking about—all combined to keep her captivated. They sparked ideas off each other in a way she found unexpectedly stimulating.
    Finally Jase put away his notes and they ordered coffee.
    Stirring sugar into his cup, he said, “When I’ve seen all I need to understand your processes, I’ll work on costings for you.”
    “Bryn said some of what you installed for him might work for us.”
    She felt his sharp glance, but he only nodded, saying in a neutral voice, “No point re-inventing the wheel. If it’s out there anywhere in the world I’ll find it. If not, I’ll design what you need and get it built.”
    “At a price?” she murmured, and sipped at