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“Other measures?” She turned to look at him and tripped over a pile of books. When she bent to right them, she stilled. The book on top looked to be her missing copy of The Hobbit. Had he looked in it? Had he seen her drawings? She couldn’t ask him without giving herself away, and she did not want Duncan to know they were hers. Very carefully, she piled the book with the others. “I didn’t know you liked Tolkien,” she said as casually as she was able.
He seemed confused for a second until she pointed to the book. “Oh, that. I found it outside. Someone must have dropped it.”
“Do you want me to take it to my office and find the owner?” Please, please, please...
“I’ll look for them myself. There are some drawings in there I want to talk to them about.”
Pure, unadulterated panic swept through her and she had to fight the urge to run. “Are you sure? It’s no trouble.”
“Forget about the book. I want to talk about the contract.”
It was hard to forget about the book. But she reminded herself that she had the keys to every room in the building, and she could sneak in and remove it when he wasn’t around.
“As you’d see, if you actually looked at the contract, I’m changing the nature of our relationship. In academic terms, you now have tenure. No matter what you do—unless it breaks the law—I can’t fire you. Your job is one hundred percent protected.”
“What?” Her legs found the chair behind her, and she sat down with a thump.
“I couldn’t gift you your apartment on the third floor, because it’s part of the mansion, but I have stipulated that if you felt you had to leave for any reason—which you won’t—then the trust would pay for accommodation of your choosing for the rest of your life.”
Okay, so now it was hard to breathe. The papers shook in her hands, and she tried to still them, which just made things worse.
“As for the car,” he said, staring at her intently. “I’ve given it to you. The ownership papers are in there.” His voice deepened. “And if for any reason you felt forced out or had to leave without a job to go to, I’ll pay your salary at the time of your departure for the following five years.”
It felt like the room was spinning, and Donna had to bend over to stop herself from passing out.
“Damn it, this was not the way it should have gone,” Duncan muttered as he strode from the room.
Donna focused on breathing steadily while the blood rushed back to her head. She only realised he’d returned when she felt a cold cloth on the back of her neck and a glass of water was thrust under her nose.
“Take a drink,” he ordered.
She could do nothing other than obey. Her hand shook as she drank, and she looked up to find herself staring into dark eyes as Duncan crouched in front of her.
“What have you done?” she asked him. “This is completely over the top. People don’t do things like this.”
He shrugged, his broad shoulders rippling under yet another tartan shirt. “I’m trying to be a modern man. I know I’m a throwback, and I’m trying to even out the power discrepancy between us.” He ran his hand through his hair again. “I want to give you the tools to say no to me if you want to. Without feeling as though you’d lose something if you did.”
The silly, sweet, completely irrational man. “I can’t sign this. It would tie you to me forever. You would be paying for me for the rest of your life. That isn’t right. You’ll only regret it.”
His gaze captured her
s and took away her ability to breathe. “Don’t you know that without you I wouldn’t have the rest of my life to regret anything? Before you knocked on my door, I was heading for destruction and I didn’t care. You’ve kept me here these past few years. I don’t understand the how or the why of it, but I know that I owe you far more than you could ever take from me. Don’t think I don’t remember the night you picked me up off the driveway and cleaned out my rooms. You saved my life—even though I resented the hell out of you for months for doing it. Just sign the papers, Donna, so that I can ask you out to dinner.”
“And what if I say no?”
“Then we’ll carry on as usual.”
Bless his crazy, over-complicated heart. “Has it occurred to you that the generosity of this contract might make me feel obligated to go out with you?”
His jaw dropped. “No. That hadn’t occurred to me. Thanks for that.” He stood and paced. “How the hell do people date these days? It’s only been eighteen years since I last did it, and it’s like I’m on a different planet.”
“Is that what you’re trying to do? Date me?” The idea seemed unbelievable.
“Aye. And it isn’t going well.”
He looked so affronted that she burst out laughing.
“Now, that’s good for my ego,” he said wryly.
