Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

"Good morning! Welcome to—" Molly's cheery greeting halted abruptly once she'd looked up and instantly recognized the man standing on the other side of the reception desk.

Because…

Well…

Silver fox alert!

The silver fox of all silver foxes, to be exact, Molly's rapidly beating heart reminded her.

If she'd needed any reminding, which she didn't.

Being struck speechless was a common occurrence whenever Molly set eyes on this man.

Rufus Wynter.

One of the four owners of Wynter Security, the others being his three cousins. The successful security company was based in London, but had several other offices globally.

From the small amount of research Molly had done online—she really didn't want to appear to or feel as if she was stalking this man—she had learned that Wynter Security was employed around the world to keep VIPs and their property safe.

The four owners, Rufus and three of his cousins, were reputed to have individual personal wealth in the high millions.

Rufus was also the father of Mia Kingston, Molly's employer and the owner of this animal shelter and boarding kennel where Molly had worked and lived in an apartment above the main office building for the past three months.

An employer who hadn't turned up for work this morning at nine o'clock as she usually did, Molly realized after a glance at the clock on the wall near the door revealed it was already fifteen minutes past that hour.

A frown creased her brow. "Is everything okay with Mia, Mr. W?"

He gave a rueful smile. "She was fine the last time I saw her. Which was an hour or so ago—as she was being wheeled to the delivery room and threatening Darius with castration if he ever came near her again."

"She's gone into labor," Molly gasped, instantly filled with excitement for the event.

"She has," Rufus Wynter confirmed dryly. "But before they wheeled her away, she made me promise to come here this morning to help out with…well, anything you need help with, as she isn't able to be here today."

Molly could think of several things this man could help her out with. Helping her out of her clothes would be a good start! But she had lots of other options too.

Instead of saying any of that, she eyed him questioningly. "Wouldn't you rather have waited at the hospital for the birth of your first grandchild?"

"Mia wants me to be here for now."

And Molly knew that whatever Mia wanted would be given to her, either from her very-much-in-love-with-her husband or her doting father.

Something Molly envied, but didn't feel resentful of.

Father and daughter had only reconnected a couple of years ago, so the level of their affection for each other was completely understandable. As wonderful as the way Darius Kingston worshipped Rufus's daughter and the child they were about to have together.

"Darius has promised to call me the moment the baby is born to let me know how they all are. The title of grandfather is still taking a little getting used to," Rufus admitted with a wince.

Molly could understand that. Rufus might be the epitome of a silver fox, with his dark hair liberally streaked with gray. But his face had a handsome cragginess that indicated not all of his forty-four years had been happy ones.

She knew the main reason for that had been his wife dying in a car accident twenty-two years ago. He had never remarried, so he must have loved her very much.

Circumstances at the time meant he had also missed the first twenty years of his daughter's life, and after their reunion two years ago, he was probably still trying to acclimate to the title of dad, let alone grandfather.

"Don't worry, Mr. W, you've still got it," Molly complimented, and then inwardly winced at the sound of her overly enthusiastic tone.

A single brow rose over the same green-and-turquoise-colored eyes as his daughter. "Still got what?" Rufus looked genuinely puzzled.

Oh God, could this situation get any more embarrassing?

Knowing her, yes, it could, Molly acknowledged heavily.

She had a habit of speaking before thinking. Not always with good results.

She immediately went on to make the situation worse as she gave a wave of her hand in Rufus's general direction. "The good looks. The buff six-foot-three body. The sexy silver-fox vibe." Shut this conversation down now , her inner voice was telling her frantically. Right the hell now !

The problem was, Rufus Wynter was so gorgeous, he always had the effect of rendering her polite conversation filter, precarious at the best of times, completely null and void.

There could be no other explanation for the way she totally lost all her wits and started babbling nonsense every time he came to the animal shelter to visit Mia.

Which Rufus did a lot.

Molly had only been five years old twenty-two years ago, too young to have read about the tragedy printed in the newspapers regarding the crash of an oil tanker on a motorway in which Elizabeth Wynter's car, along with several others, had also been involved. A crash followed by a horrendous fire which Rufus had believed had killed both his wife and three-month-old daughter.

The truth had only come to light two years ago, when Rufus had been reunited with his very much alive twenty-year-old daughter, who, at the time, was engaged to and about to marry Darius Kingston.

A member of the press had been the plus-one of a guest at the couple's wedding two years ago, and they had recognized Rufus Wynter as the man giving the bride away. With the usual doggedness of a reporter, the woman had dug up the past tragedy of how Rufus had supposedly lost both his wife and daughter in a car accident twenty years previously.

Within days, the story of how Rufus had been "reunited with his very much still alive daughter" had been the top-of-the-page headline of a popular tabloid.

It had caused an emotional sensation for several more days, before, as was the fickleness of the press and general public, the scandal of a government minister having an affair with another man had taken its place.

Molly still remembered crying when she read about the father and daughter finding each other again after so many years apart.

"I'm six foot four," Rufus now corrected. "But I doubt an inch makes much difference," he dismissed.

Molly's thoughts instantly went to a part of Rufus's anatomy where she'd been told inches did matter. If everything was in proportion, then Rufus certainly had nothing to worry about in that department either.

There she went again, allowing her thoughts to wander off onto subjects that were totally inappropriate for the situation.

Even if, when she lay alone in her bed at night fantasizing about Rufus's wide shoulders and muscular chest, she might secretly wish that the length of his cock might become her business too.

* * *

Rufus eyed the young woman across the reception desk from between narrowed lids.

Molly Harper.

He'd done the usual security check on her when Mia told him she was thinking of employing the other woman just over three months ago.

The same security check he did on anyone who came near or worked with his beloved daughter, either personally or at the animal shelter she owned and ran.

Learning Molly's background had made his heart ache. She had been brought up by a single mother who had disappeared when she was ten. Molly had then been put into care because she had no other relatives.

He knew Molly had had half a dozen jobs since reaching the age of eighteen and going out on her own, all of them animal-related. She'd been a helper in several boarding kennels. Worked in a pet shop. Been a vet's receptionist. She'd even worked in a zoo for a while. Then, a little over three months ago, she'd applied for the job at his daughter's animal shelter.

Rufus had a feeling that, like Mia, Molly hadn't been allowed a pet of her own when she was growing up in care. That, also like Mia, she had learned since reaching adulthood to trust animals more than she did people.

But none of the information he'd managed to compile on Molly, or the photograph he had of her on file, had prepared him for actually meeting that vibrant young woman after he had cleared her so that Mia could employ her.

For one thing, despite the heartache of her background, Molly was always smiling. She clearly loved her life and her job, despite her traumatic past.

She was also stunningly beautiful.

Long silky blue-black hair grew to just below shoulder length. She had the sort of ivory-white complexion that was usually only found on people from an Asian country or some European countries. Yet her name couldn't have been more British. Nor did her long-lashed sky-blue eyes have an epicanthic fold.

She had a slight but very attractive burr in her voice. The sort of huskiness that could arouse a man to madness as she whispered dirty things into his ear in the dead of night as he pumped his cock deeper and deeper inside?—

What the fuck…?

Molly was only a few years older than his daughter, for Christ's sake!

She was also very slender and maybe only a couple of inches over five feet tall. From what Rufus could see over the desk, she was currently wearing skintight, low-rider blue jeans with a figure-hugging black cotton camisole top.

She didn't appear to be wearing a bra beneath the latter, meaning the perfect slope of her tiny breasts was clearly outlined. As were the disproportionately plump nipples pressing against the softness of the material.

Rufus's mouth flooded with saliva at the thought of pulling down that camisole top before giving in to the need to lick and then suck those tasty berries into his?—

What he needed was to get his mind out of the gutter, right the fuck now !

His cock didn't give a damn how inappropriate his thoughts were. It remained long and engorged inside the tailored trousers of the dark three-piece suit he wore.

Which was when Rufus realized he should have gone home and changed before coming to offer his help at the animal shelter.

He knew the reason he hadn't thought of it, of course, and it had nothing to do with the telephone call he'd received from his son-in-law on his way to the London offices of Wynter Security.

Even though that call had been to tell him Mia was in labor and Darius was currently driving her to the hospital.

It wasn't quite as crowded on the London city roads at seven in the morning as it would be in a couple of hours, but Rufus had still broken every speed limit on his drive to the private hospital his daughter and son-in-law had chosen for the birth of their first child.

If Mia's threats of castration were any indication, there probably wouldn't be a second one.

And Rufus knew he was prevaricating, using what he recognized as avoidance methods to stop his thoughts from dwelling on the lust he felt toward the beautiful young woman who, although she had called him a silver fox, was still seventeen years younger than him.

And…that thought alone was enough to cause his cock to instantly deflate.

But it couldn't change the fact that Rufus knew the reason he hadn't thought to go home and change his clothes, after collecting Mia and Darius's dog from their house, was because he'd been too busy anticipating having a perfectly legitimate reason for seeing Molly Harper again.

"Is being a silver fox a good thing?" he prompted before his brain had time to filter the remark.

"Oh yes," Molly assured eagerly. "They're my favorite rom—" She broke off, color flooding her cheeks.

"Your favorite rom…?"

Her lashes lowered as she looked down at the tiled floor. "A silver fox on the cover of a book is guaranteed to get the author a sale from me."

Rufus studied that blush on Molly's usually ivory-colored cheeks and the way she wouldn't look up and meet his gaze, and instantly drew his own conclusion for her reluctance to complete that preference. "You like to read romance novels."

Her chin instantly rose defensively, those sky-blue eyes glittering with challenge. "There's nothing wrong with that."

"I didn't mean to imply there was." He was partial himself to suspense novels that had a bit of romance, and sex, in them. He might not be having any of the latter, and hadn't for some time, but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy reading about it.

It was also understandable, he thought, for Molly to want to read happy-ever-after stories when it sounded as if her childhood had been the exact opposite of happy or secure.

"No?"

"No," he soothed. "But you should probably know that, silver fox or not, I don't have an ounce of romance in me, and I'm way too old now to think of changing my ways."

The blush deepened in her cheeks. "Perhaps you just haven't met the woman you're willing to change them for."

Since his wife died, Rufus had only had a sex life and not a love life. Even then, it had only been a sporadic interest and never a driving I-have-to-have-her passion.

Sex had had no place in his life whatsoever for the past two years as he rebuilt his relationship with his daughter. After all their years apart, the last thing Mia needed was to feel she had to compete with another woman in his life.

The attraction he'd felt for Molly from the first moment he saw her in the flesh was totally unprecedented.

And fucking inappropriate, he reminded himself again.

He dreaded to think how Molly would feel if she ever guessed how attracted he was to her…

The phrase "old perv" came to mind. His mind, at least. Molly was still looking at him with stars in those beautiful blue eyes.

"I'm not looking for her," he told Molly bluntly.

The color receded from her cheeks, and once again, she wouldn't, or couldn't, meet his gaze. "Because you've already had, and lost, the love of your life." She nodded her understanding of what she probably considered was a brush-off on his part.

Maybe it was, but not for the reason Molly seemed to assume it was.

Rufus was sure he had cared for Beth, and there was no doubting that he still remembered her with affection. She had been his wife and the mother of his daughter, after all.

But their marriage had been so long ago, almost half his lifetime, and they hadn't even managed to reach their first wedding anniversary before she died. Even so, he didn't think Beth had been the love of his life, no matter how grateful he was for their beloved daughter.

Rufus had joined the army at eighteen, becoming a lieutenant by the time he was twenty-one, and had been home on leave for a few weeks to celebrate his promotion before shipping overseas. He and Beth had met at a club the second night of that leave and then spent the rest of that time together.

They kept in touch after that through sporadic texts and emails, with the intention of maybe meeting up again the next time he came back to England.

Then had come Beth's phone call two months later, telling him she was pregnant and the baby was undoubtedly his.

It had been the most natural thing in the world for the two of them to marry when he was next home on leave. They'd liked each other enough initially to spend a whole week together, and as far as Rufus was concerned, expecting a child together made marriage inevitable.

They'd been happy, he recalled, as they painted and changed the spare bedroom in the apartment they now rented into a nursery. They had been happier still when their beautiful daughter was born five months after their wedding.

Only for all that happiness to turn to unending grief after he was informed Beth and Emily had both been killed in a car crash when his daughter was just three months old.

At least, he'd thought they had.

He had only learned two years ago that twenty-year-old Emily was alive and that her name was now Mia.

Despite all of Rufus's investigations into how his daughter could have survived the crash, then been found abandoned in a church in Cornwall three months later, and subsequently grown up in an orphanage until she was eighteen, he still had no idea where she had been for those missing three months.

But someone had to know the truth, and Rufus had no doubt those missing months were the answer to the whole puzzle of how Emily could have survived the car crash that had killed her mother.

Rufus had no intention of ever stopping his search to discover that truth.

There was certainly no place in his life for a beautiful young woman like Molly Harper. With an emphasis on young .

"I don't believe my feelings for my deceased wife to be any of your business," he bit out coldly.

He instantly regretted that harsh put-down when Molly's face leeched of all color and unshed tears made her beautiful sky-blue eyes glisten.