Claiming His Secret Heir

by Joanne Rock

  Caroline nodded, grateful for the way he easily accepted responsibility for her sister.

  Victoria hurried down the stairs with a pink duffel bag over one shoulder, her tennis shoes half on and untied. “Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Let’s not get too carried away making plans for other peoples’ lives, okay? I don’t need a keeper, thank you very much.” She paused at the bottom of the stairs to shove her feet more fully into her shoes, jamming the laces down inside with her socks.

  Caroline carried the empty bottle over to the sink and washed it. “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you because of me. You can handle a bodyguard for a few weeks until we figure out who kidnapped me and why.” She’d never forget the way her captors had threatened her siblings. Those threats had frightened her far more than anything they’d done to her. “I’m scared enough about our younger brothers, but the police promised to get in touch with their boarding schools to make sure they were on alert.”

  “Seriously?” Victoria let her bag fall to the floor with a thunk. “I’ve got way too much research to do this semester. I’ll be lucky to ever leave the library. And I’m going to be stuck with some muscle-head goon?”

  She was twenty-four years old to Caroline’s twenty-eight, but sometimes Caroline felt decades older.

  “You might come to appreciate muscle if it saves you from being dragged away from your home and held against your will.” Caroline shoved the clean bottle into the diaper bag along with a few baby towels. “Trust me.”

  Victoria hesitated. “I know, but—”

  Barreling past her sister, Caroline headed toward the door, unwilling to hear complaints about the extra protection they all needed. “Once we have the car seat and the porta-crib, we’ll be all set to go.”

  “I can get them.” Damon passed her the baby, his hand grazing her breast and setting off a riot of sensations. “Wait here and I’ll pack the vehicle.”

  Their gazes met, heat sparking in a whole other, unspoken conversation going on between them. What a crazy moment to recall that her obstetrician had okayed her to resume all normal activity at her last visit. The printed patient summary she’d taken home had specifically referred to physical intimacy. Clearly, her body had gotten the message.

  “I—” She couldn’t even remember what they’d been talking about. “Er. Okay?”

  If there were any doubts in her mind that they were both feeling the spark, they faded away at the heated look in Damon’s eyes. Was it the deliberate, calculated seduction of a man who wanted to keep his family together? Or was he feeling a genuine attraction? The hitch in her breathing made her heartbeat skip.

  “Good.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek, using it as a way to speak quietly into her ear. “I’m very ready to take you home.”

  Six

  After cueing up the playlist Caroline had requested on the house’s built-in state-of-the-art sound system, Damon adjusted the settings so that the nursery was the only room to hear the classical lullaby music. Tapping the app on his phone, he turned down the volume, settling on a barely-there level so Lucas could fall asleep to the soft symphonies.

  Meeting his son had helped him to quiet some of the anger still simmering inside him over his wife’s deception. Seeing the boy’s face had raised the stakes. He couldn’t afford to fail at this marriage. So while he had no intention of giving over his heart to Caroline again, he would fulfill his obligations to her. He would be attentive. Solicitous. And he would damn well be passionate. His attraction to her hadn’t dimmed.

  They’d all been busy since returning home from the rental house with the baby and Caroline’s sister. Damon had spent time researching private security firms, calling friends for recommendations before settling on a company based in San Jose. It had been started by a former local sheriff with the help of the tech guru who owned a digital security firm called Fortress. Damon used the system on his own properties and had been impressed with Fortress’s founder, Zach Chance, who had given him some welcome input on start-ups in Silicon Valley when Damon first arrived in town. Damon liked having a personal connection to the business at a time when he was questioning who he could really trust in his life.

  Once he’d signed a contract and emailed it back, it was less than an hour before the first shift team arrived. They upgraded some of the exterior security systems on the Los Altos Hills property, then divided the protective detail so two people would remain with Caroline and Lucas at all times, and one guard would go to Stanford with Victoria.

  They were all scheduled to leave in the morning, with Damon, Caroline and the baby on a private flight to New York, while Victoria made the short drive to her university. Now that the arrangements were set, Damon could relax enough to help put his son to bed for the first time.

  His son.

  Rejoining Caroline over the porta-crib in a room they’d designated as the nursery, Damon watched as she expertly laid the swaddled bundle on the freshly washed sheets she’d pulled out of the dryer a few minutes ago. Dinosaurs cartwheeled around the border of the blanket. Lucas’s baby hand clutched the satin trim of the cover, his grip sporadic and unintentional. He seemed to be at an age where he flexed his fingers simply to make use of them. His stare was vacant and sleepy for a moment before he closed his eyes again.

  “He’s a miracle,” Damon said earnestly. He continued to watch the baby drift into a deeper sleep, his tiny hand falling lightly on the mattress beside his nose. “I need to make up for a lot of lost time with him.”

  “You could always...take the late shift for his next feeding,” Caroline offered haltingly, as if she wasn’t sure how much labor to share. Or how much he wanted to take part in parenting.

  No doubt about it, they were tentative around each other now, though she did seem more relaxed since they’d retrieved the baby. It was obvious that motherhood made her happy. She might not have feelings for him anymore, but Damon had no doubt that she loved their child profoundly. She practically glowed when she looked at Lucas.

  Damon wasn’t sure if that was a normal connection, or if her attachment was all the stronger because of what she’d gone through during her pregnancy. He’d read her official statement, the detached summary of facts not doing justice to the hell she must have gone through. The fear. Loneliness. Confusion. Of course, there was no “statement” for him to read about her experience afterward with her father. How much had Stephan Degraff added to his daughter’s fears by keeping her in the dark about her marriage? How could anyone let their daughter think she was alone in parenting a newborn when she had a husband desperately searching for her?

  “I’ll gladly take the late shift.” He relished the quiet time in the dim nursery with her now after a day that had come at him from all sides. “It will give me a chance to get to know him.”

  “I’m going to take you up on that.” She moved toward the night-light and switched it to a lower setting. “Having Victoria babysit him the last two days has helped me catch up on rest, I think. I feel better than when I left my father’s house.”

  “All the more reason to secure some help with him.” Damon had brought in two potential nanny candidates and asked Caroline to interview them while he dealt with the security team. Caroline had liked them both, but insisted she wanted to care for Lucas on her own. “An extra caregiver could give you much needed time to recover from the pregnancy and the ordeal you’ve been through.”

  He followed her to the door and closed it partially behind them while Caroline paused in the hallway to pull up the nursery monitor’s video feed on her phone.

  “I realize that.” She tucked the phone in the pocket of her shawl sweater, flipping her ponytail behind her shoulder. “But I like caring for him myself. Being with him.”

  “And I admire that. But you’ll have more energy to enjoy him if you’re taking good care of yourself. But we can debate this another time.” He opted for a strategic tempo
rary retreat on the subject rather than risk backing her into a corner. Damon pointed toward the second-story patio that she liked, hoping he could persuade her to unwind with him for a while. He needed to make his case to recommit to their marriage. “I had some of that herbal tea you like brought out near the fire pit if you want to stargaze before bed.”

  “You did?” She tipped her head to one side to look out toward the patio where flames leaped from the copper bowl. “That sounds good, actually. Thank you.”

  Her careful politeness bothered him. It reminded him of his own hesitation. No doubt about it, there was an awkwardness between them now. A cool wariness behind the facade.

  “We have a lot to talk about before tomorrow.” He pushed open the French doors from the master suite’s sitting room that led to the patio. “But I don’t want to wear you out.”

  “I’ll be fine.” She stopped to look up at the sky, tipping her head back to see the stars while a cool breeze blew the hem of her sweater against him. “So much happened today, my head is still spinning.”

  There had been a time when he would have wrapped his arms around her to steady her. To kiss her until they were both breathless and ready for more.

  “Mine, too.” He limited himself to putting a hand on her waist, gently guiding her toward the daybed swing where he’d piled blankets in deference to the cold night air. “I found out I had a son today.”

  Her guilty wince made it clear she was still feeling wary around him.

  The patio heaters were humming, along with the fire. Decorative stonework along the low walls of the exterior was punctuated with built-in propane torches. The effect was medieval, making the home look all the more like an old French château.

  “I’m sorry that my father’s lies cost us the chance to be together for Lucas’s birth.” She stopped in front of the daybed and held the chain to steady it while she sat down.

  The glow of firelight played along her skin, brightening her cheeks.

  “Yes. They did.” Damon took his time unfurling the blankets and tucking them around her, not wanting to get sucked into a conversation about Stephan Degraff. Damon needed this time to mend his relationship with her. Regardless of what her motives had been in hiding Lucas from him, or deceiving him about her condition, Damon needed to win her over. Earn back her trust so they could move forward in parenting their son. Together.

  He would not raise his own child in the type of unstable environment he’d known growing up.

  “I don’t how Dad could have done that to me. Was he trying to teach me a lesson for marrying someone he didn’t approve of?” She slipped off her boots and tucked her feet under her on the swing, sitting cross-legged. She laid her phone on the cushion beside her, leaving the video feed from the nursery monitor on. “Or did he hope I’d just forget about the marriage forever if he pretended it didn’t exist? Did he really expect you would never find out I was still alive? God, what if one of us had wanted to get married again. Would he have just stood aside and allow a bigamous union?”

  “Tough to know what he was thinking.” Damon took the spot beside her then leaned forward to retrieve the insulated tea carafe. He poured two mugs of the stuff even though he wasn’t much of a tea drinker. Anything to get her to stay here with him for a little while.

  And since bashing her father wasn’t going to get him anywhere with her, he would remain diplomatic. For now. Sooner or later, she would have to discover his plans to ruin Stephan Degraff. By then, Damon intended to have their marriage on far more stable ground.

  She wrapped her hands around the gray stoneware mug and sipped the steaming hot drink. He took the opportunity to change the subject. Setting down his cup, he reached into the pocket of the sports jacket he’d worn for his meetings with the new security team members and took out her wedding ring set. He held the rings up to the firelight so she could see.

  “One of the pieces of evidence the police pointed to in support of your father’s claim that you walked out on me was the fact that you left this behind.” He’d had the princess-cut diamond engagement ring and the matching platinum-and-diamond wedding band custom-made for her.

  He studied her expression carefully, trying to assess what he saw there. Nostalgia? Maybe. But there was wariness, too. Had she taken it off when she got home that day, planning to leave him?

  “I wondered where they went.” Caroline set down her tea on the stone rim of the copper fire bowl, then reached to touch the glittering band, tracing the outline with one finger. “I thought they were stolen from me while I was drugged.”

  Taking her other hand, he dropped the rings into her palm and the diamonds sent tiny refractions glinting in the dark.

  She stared down at the rings, making no move to put them on her finger.

  “Do you think you were wearing them that day?”

  She peered up at him, surprised. “I would have worn them on the plane coming home from Heathrow. I’m sure I had them on when I was taken from the house.”

  “The rings were on the top of the bureau in my closet. As if you left them there deliberately for me to find.”

  “I suppose I could be wrong.” She shook her head slowly. “I was given a lot of drugs during those first two weeks. More when they moved me a month after that. But I’m not sure I’ll ever recall exactly how that day played out when they took me.”

  He ground his teeth in frustration, knowing he needed to get past it fast if he wanted to fix things with Caroline. He wanted the ring on her finger, needed her commitment to this marriage to provide a healthy and happy childhood for Lucas.

  “You may never recover all your memories,” he reminded himself as much as her. “But I hope you’ll consider working with a new therapist in New York. Recalling those lost memories isn’t just about the two of us. It’s important for Lucas.”

  Caroline rubbed the two rings against one another, sliding the platinum-and-diamond pieces back and forth between two fingers.

  “You can’t imagine how badly I want answers.” Her brown eyes reflected the glow of the fire as she glanced up at him. “I need to know what happened, so yes, of course I’ll meet a new doctor.”

  In this much, at least, they were on the same page.

  More than that, he recognized the vibrant energy and determination in that statement. It was a flicker from the past; for a moment, he spied the woman he’d fallen in love with inside this stranger who’d returned to him.

  “Good.” He closed his hand around hers where she toyed with the rings, stilling the movement long enough to take the jewelry from her. “Then, with your permission, I’d like to return these to where they belong.”

  Wordlessly, she watched him line up the bands and hold them over her left hand. The swing swayed gently beneath them, lulling them to forget some of the angst of their hellish day. Still, a furrow wrinkled her brow just above her nose, as if she couldn’t quite decide.

  He tipped her chin up with his free hand, needing to see that fire in her eyes again.

  “All I’m asking for is the chance to start over.” He spoke gently, knowing this had been tough on her, too. He didn’t know how much he could trust her, but he damned well needed to try to move past her betrayal. “To try and be a couple again.” He nudged the phone beside her, the video feed from the nursery brightening for a moment to show their sleeping child. “For Lucas’s sake.”

  He knew it was the final words that persuaded her. She gave the slightest nod before returning her gaze to her bare finger as he slid the wedding band set back into place.

  Memories of the vows they’d spoken hit him hard. He could hear her voice from the past promising to love him forever and always. For the rest of her days.

  He’d believed her absolutely.

  Disillusionment left a chill the roaring fire couldn’t touch. Having accomplished his goal for the night, he celebrated the victory by placing a cool ki
ss on the back of her hand just above the rings. He was ready to finish his drink and retire for the night, to figure out his next move once they got to New York.

  And yes, to take his time staring at his child and wrapping his brain around this massive change in his life.

  Straightening, he was surprised to see the soft glow of heat in Caroline’s eyes, the relaxed parting of her lips. He watched in stunned fascination as she canted forward. Toward him.

  All around them, the night sounds intensified. A few brave birds called out and the logs crackled and shifted, casting sparks on the stone patio deck nearby. Caroline’s breath puffed against his lips for one sexy exhale before her hands clamped his shoulders.

  He had a moment to breathe in the strawberry scent of her lip balm. Then her mouth landed on his with a delicate and wholly unexpected kiss.

  * * *

  Caroline didn’t know what came over her.

  Simple attraction to her husband? Or was it a memory of true love inspired by the wedding rings he’d carefully slid into place on her left hand?

  She didn’t know. But the compulsion to get closer, to test the swirl of complicated feelings sending pleasure to every atom of her being, was too strong to ignore.

  How long had it been since she’d experienced something so...delicious?

  Her tentative exploration of Damon’s lips didn’t last long. A breath. An instant. Then his hands came around her waist, drawing her whole body toward him, as if he could encompass all of her with one squeeze of his powerful arms.

  The pleasure she’d been feeling multiplied ten times. A hundred times. Being pressed up against her husband’s muscular warmth sent tingly sensations everywhere from her breasts to her thighs, with the most potent concentration deep inside her. Being in his arms, kissing him, felt more like coming home than crossing the threshold of this colorless mansion ever had.