Seducing the Heiress by Martha Kennerson Page A

lunch,” she conceded, sliding into the passenger seat.
    Robert closed the door and made his way to the driver’s side, trying not to smile. He slipped behind the wheel, pulled out of the drive and into slow-moving traffic.
    â€œSo where does your foster mother live?”
    â€œAbout twenty miles outside of downtown,” he replied, referencing the area as he turned off the highway, heading toward the freeway. He moved to the far lane where he tested the boundaries of the city’s speed limit.
    â€œYou don’t talk about her or your childhood...ever. The only way I knew you even had family was because Meeks told Francine. Why don’t you ever talk about her?”
    â€œNo reason. I just don’t share my private life with many people. Momma Penny is a big part of my life. She’s all the family I have and she’s pretty special to me.”
    â€œThat’s great. So, no one’s ever met her before... I mean other than Meeks and your college buddies, right? I remember hearing a few of those stories,” she asked, her eyebrows raised slightly.
    Without taking his eyes off the road, he said, “What are you asking me, Farrah?”
    â€œFine.” Farrah turned her body toward Robert and crossed her arms under her breasts. “How many of your women has she met?”
    Robert gripped the steering wheel, but remained silent as he checked his rearview mirror before exiting the freeway. He pulled into a popular grocery store parking lot, parked and cut the engine. Robert took a deep breath and pushed it out slowly before he turned and met her gaze. Farrah continued to glare at him—clearly waiting for an answer. If he wanted her to understand him better and trust that it was possible for him to love and commit himself to someone—to her—he had to open up and share more of himself.
    â€œPenny Hilton, or Momma Penny, as I’d come to call her, was my nanny from the day I was born. In fact, there are photos of her carrying me out of the hospital instead of my parents,” he explained.
    Farrah remained silent, her face devoid of expression.
    â€œMy parents were very busy people,” he started to explain. “My father was a corporate attorney and my mother was a socialite. I was their only child and they loved me...in their own way. They just didn’t have time for me.”
    Farrah’s shoulders dropped; she clasped her hands in her lap but remained silent.
    â€œThey died in a boating accident when I was ten.”
    â€œI’m sorry. I had no idea you were so young when you lost your parents. That must have been devastating,” she said, reaching over and squeezing his forearm.
    â€œIt was hard, but not for the reason you think.”
    Farrah’s forehead furrowed and she dropped her hand. “What do you mean?”
    â€œI mean, I loved my parents, but I didn’t know them. I hardly saw them.” Robert’s brows puckered as several painful memories flashed through his mind. “I had nannies seven days a week and if not for Momma Penny, I would’ve been shipped off to boarding school on my fifth birthday.”
    Farrah’s frown deepened. “Fifth...seriously?”
    â€œBoth my parents were only children from wealthy families and that’s the way they were raised,” he said nonchalantly. “My grandparents shipped them off when they were about that age.”
    â€œSo how did she stop them?”
    â€œMomma Penny basically agreed to raise me full-time. She took me home on the weekends and agreed to handle anything school-related—from parent-teacher conferences to all social and athletic activities.”
    â€œUnbelievable...”
    â€œMomma Penny didn’t mind.” The corner of Robert’s mouth rose slightly. “By the time I was five, she was widowed in her midthirties, and she’d never had any children of her own. So she thought of me as her second chance. In reality,