Free The Billionaire’s Handler by Jennifer Greene

to unlock the door without making a sound. Still, he tried, let himself in, and then immediately stopped dead.
    â€œHey,” he said, but he thought, Hell. Hell times ten.
    Carolina wasn’t sleeping the way she was supposed to be, but sitting on the hearth rug, her head on her knees, kind of rocking back and forth. Her toes peeked out of a gown that couldn’t be legal in public. God knew every inch of her was covered—except for pale pink toenails. But the slinky-slidey material revealed every hint of curve. Her nipples. Her adorableness.
    And he’d have been happy to concentrate on that, but it was downright impossible to miss her disconsolate posture. She had that look in her eyes again. The lost-waif look. The why-would-you-kick-my-puppy look.
    â€œHey,” he said again, trying for his most blustery voice. Wary of making anything worse, he moved closer, crouched down next to her. “This isn’t how the story’s supposed to go. You were supposed to love all this. Sleeping in the cool old castle. All the history crud. The spa thing.”
    â€œI did. I do. But, Maguire, I just can’t keep playing. I have to go home!”
    Here he’d expected Armageddon from those anxiety-drenched eyes. Instead, this was nothing more than a little crisis. “Of course you’re going home,” he said, and leaned forward, to poke a long fork into the flames, push at the logs, creating a fireworks ofsparks shooting up the giant chimney—and a spray of light that glowed on her skin. “Just not quite this minute. See, back home, you have all those people who want to bite off a piece of you. That’s what happens when you inherit serious money. It brings out the vultures in people, even normally good people. And you know the real problem with that?”
    â€œEverything.”
    â€œNo.” He hooked an arm around her shoulder—not too close—no fingers touching what they shouldn’t. Just a hug-hook. Nothing more. “The real problem is that you got lost in that picture. All you’ve been hearing is what everyone else wants, what everyone else expects. We’ve got to switch that back, and make it about you. The money’s a chance for you to say…what do you want from your life? What really matters to you? So we work on that stuff. We don’t go back home until you know exactly what you want to do from here. You go back strong. You go back feeling good about yourself, your life, what you want. And until then, you get to hide out, and let Maguire—that’s me—take care of all the crappy details.”
    â€œYou’re a goofy man, Maguire.”
    â€œI’ve been insulted worse. Trust me.” He looked around, too damn aware of her warm skin, the scents surrounding her, that tousled brush of silvery-blond hair.
    â€œI don’t want to be…beholden to you. You don’towe me anything, much less all the time you’ve been taking—”
    â€œThis isn’t about owing. It’s about understanding. I know exactly what that inheritance did to your life because I know exactly what it did to my own family. It’s been sabotaging everything you could do or be. But I can stop that from happening to you. I can help you make it work.”
    â€œNo, you can’t.”
    â€œActually, I can, Carolina. I can teach you to be tough. I can show you how to handle this, the way no one else can, because you know positively that I don’t need or want anything from you.”
    She frowned. “You always sound so logical when you start talking. Only, what I’m saying is logical, too. No matter what I do, people are going to be unhappy with me.”
    â€œAnd that’s a big deal, huh?”
    â€œMaybe it wouldn’t be for you. And I’m not trying to win a popularity contest like a thirteen-year-old kid, Maguire. I’m just trying to live a decent life. Do the things that matter to