Hired by the Brooding Billionaire by Kandy Shepherd

alarmed. Then looked into his face. ‘You’re kidding me, right?’
    ‘I’m kidding you,’ he said. His attempts at humour were probably rusty with disuse.
    ‘Don’t scare me like that,’ she admonished. ‘I’m sure the fountain can be restored. It will need a new pump and plumbing. I don’t know how to fix the concrete though. Plaster? Resin? A pond liner? Whatever is done, we’d want to preserve the sandstone wall around it.’
    He looked at the fountain and its surrounds through narrowed eyes. ‘Is it worth repairing?’ Could anything so damaged ever come back to life to be as good as new?
Anything as damaged as a heart
?
    ‘I think so,’ she said.
    ‘Would it be more cost-effective to replace it with something new?’ he asked.
    She frowned. ‘You mean a reproduction? Maybe. Maybe not. But the fountain is the focal point of the garden. The sandstone edging is the same as the walls in the rest of the garden.’
    ‘So it becomes a visual link,’ he said. He was used to thinking in images. He could connect with her on that.
    She looked at the faded splendour of the fountain with such longing it moved him. ‘It would be such a shame not to try and fix it. I hate to see something old and beautiful go to waste,’ she said. ‘Something that could still bring pleasure to the eye, to the soul.’
    He would not like to be the person who extinguished that light in her eyes. Yet he did not want to get too involved, either. He scuffed his boot on the gravel that surrounded the pond. ‘Okay. So we’ll aim for restoration.’
    ‘Thank you!’ Those nutmeg eyes lit up. For a terrifying moment he thought she would hug him. He kept his arms rigidly by his sides. Took a few steps so the backs of his thighs pressed against the concrete of the pond wall.
    He hadn’t touched another woman near his own age since that nightmare day he’d lost Lisa. Numb with pain and a raging disbelief, he’d accepted the hugs of the kind nursing staff at the hospital. He’d stood stiffly while his mother had attempted to give comfort—way, way too late in his life for him to accept. The only person he’d willingly hugged was Jeannie—his former nanny, who had been more parent to him than the mother and father he’d been born to. Jeannie had held him while he had sobbed great, racking sobs that had expelled all hope in his life as he’d realised he had lost Lisa and the child he had wanted so much and his life ever after would be irretrievably bleak.
    He wasn’t about to start hugging now. Especially with this woman who had kick-started his creative fantasies awake from deep dormancy. Whom he found so endearing in spite of his best efforts to stay aloof.
    ‘Don’t expect me to be involved. It’s up to you,’ he said. ‘I trust you to get it right.’
    ‘I understand,’ she said, her eyes still warm.
    Did she? Could she? Declan had spent the last two years in virtual seclusion. He did not welcome the idea of tradespeople intruding on his privacy.
Only her.
And yet if he started something he liked to see it finished. When it was in his control, that was. Not like the deaths he’d been powerless to prevent that had changed his life irrevocably.
    ‘Call in the pool people,’ he said gruffly. ‘But it’s your responsibility to keep them out of my hair. I don’t want people tramping all over the place.’
    ‘I’ll do my best,’ she said. ‘Though harnesses and whips might not be welcomed by pool guys. Or other maintenance workers we might have to call in.’
    He released another reluctant smile in response to hers. ‘I’m sure you’ll find a way to charm them into submission.’
    As she’d charmed her way into what his mother called Fortress Declan. He realised he had smiled more since he’d met her than he had in a long, long time.
    She laughed. ‘I’ll certainly let them know who’s boss,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry, I’ve had to fight to be taken seriously in this business. If anyone dares crack a