Seducing The Heiress. Martha Kennerson

Chapter 5

      Robert had finally pulled into the garage of his office building after having made several stops to visit clients on his way back. He’d parked his black Porsche 911 Turbo Coupe in his spot, only a few short spaces away from the empty location where its white twin usually held ground, when his cell phone rang. Robert smiled, recognizing the number of the only woman he’d ever really trusted—his foster mother, Penny Hilton—but it faded quickly. He pushed the button to activate his car’s Bluetooth.

      “Momma Penny, everything all right?” he asked, nervous for her response.

      “Of course. You worry about me too much,” she said with a small laugh.

      Penny Hilton, or Momma Penny as Robert called her, had become Robert’s foster mother after his parents died in a boating accident when he was ten years old. The African-American widow had happily taken young Robert in when no other relative had come forward. Momma Penny had been his nanny since the day he was born and later the family’s housekeeper when he’d started school. She was his only family and he her only child. They adored each other. Robert’s parents’ unique approach to child rearing, followed by their sudden deaths, made it difficult for him to connect and trust people. Momma Penny helped him to find some semblance of security.

      “Only because you’ve recently been released from the hospital. Pneumonia is nothing to play with at your age, so take your medicine and follow the doctor’s instructions.”

      “At my age,” she huffed.

      “You know what I’m saying. How’s the new nurse working out?” he asked, hoping she’d let that reference to her growing years slide past.

      “He’s just fine, although having a male nurse still seems strange to me, you know.”

      “Yes, I know.” Robert grinned, checked his watch and settled into his seat. This conversation was going to take a few minutes and he didn’t want to risk losing the connection by leaving the car and going into the building. “But he comes highly recommended.”

      “So did the last one. What happened to that lovely nurse the agency sent over, anyway? Sonya something. She was very pretty and I liked her. I know she really liked you, too,” she said with a smile in her voice that he couldn’t miss.

      “And that was the problem—she liked me too much,” he murmured, more to himself than to his mother. Robert thought back to the night he’d returned home from a late business appointment only to find lovely Nurse Sonya waiting for him at his townhouse. A major problem since she was supposed to be stationed at his mother’s place over forty miles away.

      “What are you doing here and how the hell did you get in?” Robert demanded as he stood in the doorway of his bedroom.

      “I got the address and key from Momma Penny. I waited for your housekeeper to leave and I let myself in,” Sonya explained, batting her eyes and playing with her hair. “Momma Penny’s fine. Sound asleep, in fact, so I thought I’d come take care of you. Tuck you in, so to speak.”

      Sonya had stolen Momma Penny’s copy of the key to his house and evidently had snooped around to find the security code to his system and let herself in. She was waiting in his bed wearing a short and very sexy nurse costume. Had that happened a few years earlier, Robert would have loved playing games with the pretty nurse—even if she had been duplicitous in her attempt to gain his attention—but these days he had no interest in such behavior. He’d fired her on the spot.