Forgotten Father by Carol Rose

organized and
we’re set for a while.”
    “You are a gem,” Delanie said, hugging her friend.
“We’d be lost without you, wouldn’t we, Jenna?”
    Connie emerged from the embrace, her cheeks flushed
with pleasure. “You might not say that when you find out I’ve left
the kitchen for you to unpack.”
    Delanie laughed.
    “Not a problem.” She kissed the top of the baby’s
head. “Jenna and I will do it together. She loves to play with
plastic ware.”
    Connie laughed. “Well, you two get to it.”
    With the baby still on her hip, Delanie went to her
bedroom, pausing only long enough to change into a t-shirt and
jeans before heading into the kitchen.
    As she unloaded the boxes and kept a watchful eye on
her blond bundle of energy, she thought again of Mitchell Riese and
his blue, blue eyes.
    In the circumstances, he had a right to be angry.
Most people, no matter how rich they were, wouldn’t like a property
as valuable as The Cedars to be left in shared custody with a
stranger.
    But the intensity of anger in Mitchell’s eyes
puzzled her. She didn’t mind the sparring dialogue, the civilized
jostling for position. He’d sat there at the conference table,
outwardly calm, if a little uncompromising. His words had been
measured and reasonable. He’d acted like the skilled businessman he
no doubt was.
    Yet, when the others had left the room, when it was
just the two of them looking across at each other, she’d felt the
oddest impression. As if the enmity in his eyes was very, very
personal.
    As if she’d somehow outraged his soul.
    And that puzzled her.
    She wasn’t even sure Mitchell Riese had a soul.
    She didn’t really know him and yet, he hated her
with a vengeance. Hated her and wanted her.
    Why?

CHAPTER FIVE
    “I was surprised you asked me to dinner,” Delanie
said, patting her mouth with her napkin before returning it to her
lap.
    She met Mitchell’s enigmatic gaze across the table
two days after their first management meeting.
    “Were you?” He sat leaning comfortably back in his
chair, his big muscular body relaxed. “Surely not…with all we’ve
meant to each other?”
    She frowned at him, not sure what to make of his
last soft murmur.
    “Yes, I’m surprised.” She glanced around the small,
exclusive restaurant. “Just the two of us? In such an elegant and
private surroundings?”
    He took a sip from his glass, his expression
difficult to read. Was there heat lurking in the back of his eyes?
A predatory male sort of something that sent a shiver up her
spine?
    He’d been nothing but agreeable throughout their
dinner, no hint of the tightly-controlled anger she’d sensed in him
at their previous meetings.
    “What are you up to?” Delanie challenged lightly. “I
know you resent my inheriting half-ownership of The Cedars.”
    “Do you? Yes, I was initially upset by my
grandfather’s will,” Mitchell said with surprising equanimity, “but
I’m not one to beat my head against the wall.”
    “You can’t overset the will,” she concluded.
    “Not without a great amount of expenditure, which
you must have known,” he concurred with a lazy smile. “What cannot
be changed, must be dealt with.”
    “Endured?” She chuckled.
    “Dealt with,” Mitchell repeated, his gaze lingering
on her face.
    Delanie looked back at him, amused. “And just how do
you plan on ‘dealing with’ me?
    “There are,” he murmured after a moment, “many
possibilities.”
    She felt the stroke of his glance on her bare
shoulders as if he’d actually touched her. His molten smile and the
edgy heated challenge in his eyes sent an answering flash of heat
prickles through her body.
    Mitchell Riese was playing a new game, she thought.
And this one felt deliciously dangerous.
    All through dinner, he’d sent out signals that he’d
willingly act on the lush awareness between them. But with an edge
that intrigued her. He still resented her, despite claiming
otherwise. Anger that blazing hot didn’t just