by Tessa Radley
Catherine made the connection immediately; she glanced at the stroller and back to Candace. “Jennie is your daughter.”
She touched Candace’s hand, and Nick’s throat closed at the tender empathy in the gesture. How different Jilly’s life could’ve been with a mother like Catherine.
“It must’ve hurt terribly to give her up,” she was saying.
Candace’s eyes glimmered with unshed tears. “It did. But she had parents who wanted her.”
Nick thanked her silently for that.
“But you’re looking after her…is that a good idea, darling?”
“Her mom died. She needs me.”
The simple words rang out in the room.
Nick faced the truth of them. Jennie needed Candace. So did Catherine. And so did he. Candace brought light and sunshine into all their lives.
He loved her.
The knowledge settled over him without any sense of shock. In his heart he’d known it all along. The special qualities she possessed—her loyalty, her patience, her generosity—made her easy to love.
But he’d been too afraid to face up to it and admit it. So he’d hidden behind emotions he’d called desire and passion, want and even lust…
But he loved her. And that admission freed him.
Catherine was watching him with gentle understanding in her eyes. “You will make sure Candace doesn’t get hurt?”
“Mom!”
“Of course,” Nick assured Catherine, ignoring Candace’s horrified expression.
“You will take care of her if anything happens to me?”
For a split second, Nick glimpsed stark fear in the eyes so like Candace’s. “I’ll take care of her—and Jennie. But be assured nothing’s going to happen to you. Not for a very long time.”
“Thank you.” The smile was sweet. Then Catherine looked down at the baby in the pram. “Look, Jennie’s waking up—”
A cross gurgle of complaint made them all laugh.
“I think the time has come for that walk in the garden,” said Nick.
They’d gotten back to the house—Candace didn’t think it could ever be called a home—and she’d bathed and fed Jennie. Nick walked into the nursery as she was putting a sleepy Jennie into the crib.
Restlessness seized Candace. Excusing herself on a pretext, she’d gone downstairs to make herself a cup of chamomile tea and had just settled down in the upstairs sitting room with the hot drink and a magazine when Nick came out of the nursery.
“She’s fast asleep.” He sat down on the love seat opposite her and stretched back, folding his arms behind his head.
She shifted, aware of him watching her, conscious that night was falling and that the two of them were alone with so much unspoken between them.
“I liked your mother,” he said at last.
Candace set the magazine down on a lamp table beside her cooling tea. “Thank you.”
“But I will admit that I was surprised today,” he added.
“Why?”
“Your mother had met Jennie before.”
“Once. She had a fall and the staff called me to come and see her because she was badly shaken.” She looked at him through her lashes. “It was the day you thought I’d kidnapped Jennie—and you almost filed a missing persons report.”
“Ah, that day.”
“I didn’t want to call you for help…so I took her with me. I’m sorry, Nick, I should’ve told you.”
“But then you would’ve had to explain about your mother.”
Nodding, she agreed, “Exactly.”
There was a long pause.
“You’re going to marry me,” he said with such a lack of fanfare that for a second Candace thought she’d misheard. But the leap of her heart, coupled with the determined resolve in his eyes, told her that she’d heard right.
“Nick…” She sat forward on the edge of the love seat, and searched for the right words.
This was exactly what she didn’t need. She might love Nick until it hurt. But she wasn’t marrying him, because she wasn’t prepared to confine him in a trap he would come to resent.
Sex would never be enough…
If there was one thing Candace was certain of by now, it was that Nick had an overdeveloped sense of responsibility. He’d done everything in his power to save Henry and Bertha’s garden center because they’d offered a young rebel a job; he’d been prepared to do everything in his power to help Jilly have the baby she desperately desired, even though he’d never loved her.
Now Candace couldn’t rid herself of the memory of the expression on Nick’s face when he’d all but promised her mother he would take care of her, too.
“You can’t just say things like that,” she said at last.
“I’m not just saying it…we’re getting married.”
“Why? So that you can take care of me?”
His eyes grew slumberous. “Among other things.”
“I don’t need you to take care of me!”
Candace wasn’t going to allow him to distract her. Sex would never be enough. Not without love. And she wasn’t about to fool herself that her love would be enough for both of them. Nick had been down that road once before, and it had brought nothing but unhappiness to everyone concerned.
Finally, she had no choice but to tell him the truth. “I have no intention of trapping you into a loveless marriage.”
“You’re not Jilly.” Nick got to his feet and came around the glass coffee table to sit beside her. “You wouldn’t be trapping me. I want to marry you. Trust me to know the difference.”
He was too close.
Help!
If she said yes, all her problems would be solved. It would be so easy to throw herself into his arms and accept his proposal. She’d be able to live with her daughter; she’d have Nick at her side, her partner by day, her lover by night.
It was too tempting.
Fear that he’d talk her into a marriage she wanted so badly made her say, “You’re only doing this because my mother said I needed to be taken care of.”
He took her hand.
“Not true.” Nick tugged her toward him. “I’ve already asked you to marry me once, so I certainly didn’t need Catherine to come up with the idea.”
She let him draw her closer, inch by breathtaking inch. “I hadn’t forgotten. But last time you asked me for Jennie’s sake…because you love your daughter.”
“Clearly I’ve been doing it all wrong.” Nick had maneuvered her right next to him, now he bent his head and kissed her. Her lips parted. But instead of deepening the kiss, he murmured, “What I should have been saying was that you need to marry me for my sake.”
Candace was too scared to breathe. “What do you mean?”
Then he kissed her. This time it was deep and dark and sexy, none of the light butterfly wings that he’d been tormenting her with for the past few seconds.
When he’d finished, he raised his head and his eyes met hers. “Haven’t you figured it out yet?”
His expression was gentle, and Candace could feel her throat tightening with emotion.
But she didn’t dare hope…so she waited.
“I love you.”
It felt like her birthday and Christmas had come at the same time. Candace closed her eyes and offered a prayer of thanks.
When she opened them again, he was still gazing down at her, his expression quizzical. “If you marry me, we would be a family. You, me and Jennie. Then there’s Catherine and my sister and her family.” He smiled at her. “That’s more family than I ever dreamed of having.”
“Oh, Nick. I love you, too.”
“So you will marry me?” Uncertainty flickered in his eyes, and then it was gone. “I’m not going to allow you to say no again.”
“I have no intention of saying no.” Candace found herself smiling. “All those noes…it sounds ridiculous. So I’ll just have to say yes.”
He punched the air. “Yes!”
That made Candace burst
out laughing, but she stopped abruptly as he kissed her again. Her arms crept up around his neck, and she leaned into him.
“Let’s go to bed.” Nick’s heart was thudding against her chest.
She pulled away and gave him a demure smile. “Why not?”
Rising swiftly, Nick helped her to her feet. Then, arm in arm, they made their way to his suite.
This time they made love with slow intensity. Every touch counted. Every kiss brought a burst of new emotion. By the time Nick finally pulled her over him and they united, both of them were ready for the hot glow that waited. The heat built and built until the world spun.
Afterward, Nick pulled her into his arms, and pressed a kiss on her forehead. “That was fantastic.”
“I’d have to agree,” she said.
“One more thing.” Nick shifted the pillows before leaning back, and arranging her into the crook of his arm. “There’s a house that’s come up for sale that I want to show you.”
She turned her head, and looked up at him. “Oh, good, does this mean you’re going to sell the marble mausoleum?” A weight she didn’t know existed lifted.
“Mausoleum?” he sounded affronted.
“It’s not a home,” said Candace. “It’s too cold.”
“Cold? The heating system is spectacular.”
“I don’t mean the temperature—it doesn’t have a heart.”
Nick gave her a secret smile. “Wait until you see what I have to show you. I think you’ll want to call it home.”
“You might have to consider trading the Ferrari in for a family model,” Candace told Nick as he throttled the Ferrari back and slowed down. They’d left Jennie with Alison and her sons while Nick took her to see the secret house he’d been so tantalizingly closemouthed about.
A Realtor’s For Sale sign leaned drunkenly against a large pohutukawa tree.
“Is this it?” she asked.
Nick swung the sports car into an overgrown tree-lined driveway. “It’s a jungle in here,” he commented. “Let’s see what state the house is in.”
Puzzled, Candace turned her head to look at him, and her heart constricted at the sight of his beloved profile. He would forever have this effect on her. She must be the most fortunate woman in the world. She pulled her thoughts together and tried to remember what she’d wanted to ask. It came to her. “I thought you’d already seen the house.”
“A long time ago. Seven years ago to be exact.”
And then she knew. She placed her hand on his thigh, and dug her fingers in. “Nick!”
Laughing, he trod on the brake. The car came to a stop. “Careful where you grab me, woman.”
“I don’t care what state the house is in, this is where I want to live.”
“Hang on, we need to take a look first. The house might no longer be a good investment.”
Candace said a rude word. “I don’t care if it’s a bad investment, if you still love this place we’re living here.”
His eyes softened. “You’d make that great a sacrifice?”
“Nothing compared to the sacrifice I thought you were willing to make.” Candace shot him a cheeky grin. “At least I know you love me—a house can be fixed.”
“Okay, let’s go see.”
The Ferrari nosed through the trees, and Candace’s breath caught as she glimpsed the grand old structure rising ahead. This was the house Mrs. Busby had told her he’d loved and sold when he’d married Jilly. “Oh, it’s beautiful.”
“It needs painting for starters.”
“What’s a little paint?” When Nick pulled up outside the homestead, she jumped out. “Hurry up…and don’t forget the keys.”
It took them half an hour to wander through the place, Nick showing her nooks and crannies she would not otherwise have found.
“It was built back in the 1880s when trading ships used to stop off not far away. The floors are made of kauri wood.”
“I can see why you love it. It reeks of heritage. I think I’ve fallen in love.” She slanted him a glance as she slipped her hand into his. “Again.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8471-9
THE BOSS’S BABY AFFAIR
Copyright © 2011 by Tessa Radley
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*Billionaire Heirs
†The Saxon Brides