She’d managed to crash into the very man she’d wanted to avoid at all costs. And now she was his charity case. She was going to live under his roof, accept his help and be beholden to him for the rest of eternity.
Good going, Brooke.
“What’s the address?” Nick turned onto Waverly Drive and looked at her for direction.
“It’s up half a block on your right. It’s the only three-story house on the street.”
The houses were sparsely spaced, each parcel of land at least half an acre. If Brooke remembered correctly, her aunt owned slightly more acreage than her neighbors. In fact, it was by far the largest piece of land in the vicinity.
“It’s there,” Brooke said, pointing to the lot she remembered. Eager anticipation coursed through her veins and excitement bubbled up. This was the start of her new life. She remembered driving up here in her beat-up 1984 Chevy Caprice when she was in high school. “The Victorian that looks like…” she began and a sense of doom crept into her gut. Her heart sank. The wrought iron gates that were once pearly white grabbed the sunlight with golden hues of rust and age. The flower garden once bright with pansies, daffodils and lavender was a mass of weeds and as Nick drove into the driveway that led to the house, Brooke’s heart sank even further. The house looked like something from an Addams Family television reunion, the only thing missing were the cobwebs. And Brooke even thought she saw a few of those tangled up on the third story.
“Oh,” she said, tears welling in her eyes. “It’s not like I remembered.”
Nick glanced at her. “Do you want to go inside?”
“I should. Might as well face the music.” She smiled with false bravado. What had she expected? Her aunt had been ill for the last few years of her life. Obviously, maintaining the house hadn’t been high on her list of priorities. Another wave of guilt assaulted her. Had her aunt been alone when she died? Did she have anyone to sit by her bedside when she was ill?
She looked at Nick. “But Leah’s asleep.”
“I’ll stay. You go in and check the place out.”
When she debated it for a few seconds, Nick added, “Unless you want me to go inside with you?”
“No, no. That’s not necessary. If you can watch Leah, I’ll go in.”
Nick got out of the car at the same time she did. He took her arm and led her up the steps. His touch and being so near as he walked with her mingled with all the other emotions clouding her head. She didn’t want to owe him, but here he was, doing her a favor again. And touching her in a comforting way that led her mind to other touches, other days when Nick had surprised her with kindness, only to destroy her in one fell swoop. Today, even in her weakened state, she wouldn’t let Nick’s touch mean anything. She didn’t trust him. Not in that way.
She stepped onto the wraparound porch by the front door and stood a moment, hesitating.
“Are you all right?” Nick asked, holding her arm tight.
“I’m fine. Just can’t believe it.”
Nick smiled and her heart rammed into her chest. “I’ll be right out here. Call if you need me.”
She removed his hand from her arm and stepped back.
Nick looked at her skeptically, but bounded down the steps and stood watch over Leah, sleeping in her car seat.
She turned toward the front door and reached into her purse for the key.
Five minutes later, Brooke had seen all there was to see and it wasn’t pretty. The house had been let go for years. The only rooms that were in halfway decent shape were the kitchen and her aunt’s bedroom. Those rooms looked somewhat cared for, but the others needed quite a bit of work. It would take a whole lot of elbow grease and some of her hard-saved cash to make it shine, and right now, the whole situation overwhelmed her.
She stood on the porch and found Nick leaning against the side of his car, the open door letting air inside for her daughter. “Well?”
“Let’s just say the inside makes the outside look like Buckingham Palace.”
“That bad?”
Brooke walked down the steps a little too fast and everything spun. She fought to keep her balance, wooziness swamping her. She swayed and was immediately caught. Nick’s arms came around her. “Whoa.”
Her body pressed against his. He was rock solid and strong, yet his arms around her were gentle. He pressed his hands to her back and rubbed. “Are you okay?”
“I will be as soon as you stop spinning me around.”
He chuckled.
She clung to him, trying to find her balance. Breathing in his sexy musk scent wasn’t helping matters. He felt too darn good. She hadn’t had a man hold her like this for a year and a half. She’d been deprived of masculine contact for a long time. That was the only explanation for the warm sensations rippling through her body. She’d gotten over Nick Carlino ages ago.
“Bad idea,” Nick said softly in her ear.
Oh God. She stiffened and backed away. Did he think she’d thrown herself at him? “I know.”
“I shouldn’t have suggested bringing you here. You’re not up to it.”
Stunned, Brooke didn’t respond. Clearly, she’d taken his “bad idea” comment the wrong way. She could only look into his eyes and nod. “I think you’re right. But I’m feeling okay now, the world’s not spinning.”
He took her hand and led her to the car. “C’mon. I’ll get you home. You need to rest.”
Brooke got into the car and closed her eyes the entire way to Nick’s house. Partly to rest and partly to block out how good Nick felt when he held her close. He was solid and steady and caring. If he were any other man, she might have enjoyed the sensations skipping through her body, but since it was Nick, she warned them off. He’d been out of her league the first time and nothing had changed, except now she knew better than to take Nick Carlino seriously.
She rubbed her temples and adjusted the bandage, thinking fate had a great sense of humor.
Only Brooke didn’t find any of this amusing.
She’d heard about the Carlino estate, driven past its massive grounds in her earlier years many times, but nothing in her wildest imaginings had prepared Brooke when she entered the home for the first time. While she expected opulence and cold austere surroundings, she found…warmth.
That was a shock.
The stone entryway led to rooms of creams and beiges, golden textured walls, rich wood beamed ceilings and living spaces filled with furniture that she would describe as comfortable elegance. A giant floor-to-ceiling picture window in the living room lent a view of lush grounds and vineyards below.
The architecture of the home was more villa style than anything else. It was an open plan on the first floor but the upstairs spread out to four separate wings, Nick explained. He followed Brooke to the stairway, carrying her bags as she held Leah.
“You doing okay?” Nick asked from behind as she climbed the steps.
“Great, you won’t have to catch me again.”
“No, I’m not that lucky.”
Was he flirting? Boy, she was struggling to keep her head from clouding up and one comment from him had her head spinning again.
When she reached the top of the stairs, she stopped and turned. “Which way?”
Nick stood on the step below her and their eyes met on the same level. He stared at her, then cast his gaze lower to where Leah had clutched her blouse, pulling the material aside enough to expose her bra. Nick flashed Brooke a grin, dimples and all, then looked back at Leah, who seemed absolutely fascinated with him. He poked her tiny nose gently and the baby giggled. “Go into the first set of double doors you see.”
Brooke entered the room and then blurted, “This is your room.”
She couldn’t miss it. His baseball trophies sat on a shelf next to pictures of Nick with his brothers and one family photo from when both of his parents were alive. The entire room oozed masculinity from the hardwood floors covered with deep rust rugs and a quilt of the same color covering his king-size bed. Another pictu
re window offered an amazing view of Napa from the hilltop.
“Yes. It’s my room.”
She whirled around and narrowed her eyes at him. “Surely, you don’t expect…” She couldn’t finish her sentence, her mind conjuring up hurtful images of the last time she’d been with Nick.
Nick set her bags down and leisurely looked her over from the top of her bandaged head to her toes inserted in beach flip-flops. Tingles of panic slid through her.
“It makes the most sense, Brooke. There’s an adjoining room where the nurse will sleep.” And finally, he added, “I’ll take the guest room, two doors down.”
Her sigh of relief was audible and so embarrassing that she couldn’t face him. What made her think he was at all interested in her anyway? He probably had scores of women dangling, just waiting for a call from him.
She scoured the room looking for a safe place to lay Leah down to sleep. Finally, she glanced at Nick, who was busy taking out a few items of clothing from his dresser. “There was a little play yard for Leah in the trunk of my car.”
“It’s here.”
“It is?”
He nodded. “I got the rest of your things out of your trunk this morning.”
“And you brought them here?”
He shrugged. “I figured the kid needed them. I’ll bring them up later.”
Overwhelmed with gratitude and ready to cry, she didn’t know what to say. “I, uh…thank you, Nick.”
“No problem. Use whatever you need. There’s a great shower and tub. Climb into bed if you want to. The nurse is due in half an hour. I’ll send her up when she gets here.”
“What about you? You must have had plans today. Don’t let us keep you.”
“Sweetheart, no one keeps me from doing what I want to do.” He winked and walked out of the bedroom.
How well she knew.
“Well, Leah, that was Nick Carlino.”
Leah looked around, her eyes wide, fascinated by her new surroundings. She made a cooing sound that warmed Brooke’s heart. All that mattered was that both of them were safe and provided for at the moment. She sat down on Nick’s bed and bounced Leah on her knee. “Promise me you won’t go falling for him, baby girl,” she said, clapping their hands together and making Leah giggle. “He’s not to be trusted. Mommy did that once and it wasn’t good. Not good at all.”
“That’s a first for you,” his brother Joe said, as he toweled off from his swim in the pool. “You’re letting a woman and her child stay at the house.”
“It’s not like I had a choice.” Nick glanced at his middle brother with disdain. “What was I supposed to do? She’s got a kid. She’s injured and has nowhere else to go. I couldn’t walk away. Her head’s not right.”
“Must not be, if she moved in with you.” Joe toweled off from his swim and put his glasses back on. He was building his fiancée a house and though he lived at Ali’s condo currently, Nick had to put up with his gibes when he came over to do his hundred laps in the pool. Joe was the geek in the family and swimming was his only means of physical activity.
“Good thing you know your way around a computer. You’d never make it as a comedian.”
Joe ignored him. “Who is she?”
“Her name is Brooke Hamilton. We went to high school together.”
“Brooke Hamilton? That name sounds familiar.”
Nick kept his mouth shut. Let his brother figure it out.
“Oh, she’s the one who worked at that Cab Café, right?”
Bingo.
“I remember her now. She was the waitress who had a big crush on you.”
“Ancient history.” Nick didn’t want to bring up the past. It had been the one time in his young life he’d done the right thing. The one time, he’d put someone else’s needs above his own. He’d let Brooke off the hook. Still, after all these years, when she looked at him, it was with wariness and contempt. Could it be she still held a grudge over what happened?
“So you’re the Good Samaritan now?”
“Something like that,” Nick muttered, squinting into the sun. “Like I said, she’s here temporarily. A few days at most. Just until Maynard gives her the okay to be on her own.”
“Yeah, speaking of that, how is it that my little brother gets in a car crash and doesn’t tell his brothers?”
“I tried calling. Then I remembered you were in the Bahamas. Or were supposed to be.”
“We got back late last night. If you got our voicemail, it’s probably because we were sleeping. So, how are you?”
Nick lifted his arms out wide. “I’m gonna live.”
“Amen to that, little brother. How old’s the kid?”
“Leah is five months old.”
“A baby?” Joe looked at him with suspicion. “You’re not—”
Nick shook his head. “I just laid eyes on Brooke last night. I haven’t seen her since high school. But thanks for the vote of confidence, bro.”
“Hey, don’t take offense,” Joe said. “But you do have a reputation with the ladies.”
Nick couldn’t deny it. He liked women and they liked him back. They had a good time together and then Nick would let them down gently and walk away. Or they’d get fed up with not getting a commitment from him and leave on their own. He never led them on or lied to them. From the beginning, he’d always let the women in his life know what to expect from him. It had been that way since he could remember. As a young man, he assumed he’d grow out of it when the right woman came along, but his father had taken that option away from him in his attempt to control Nick. Santo Carlino had wanted one son to take over the family business and once Tony left to race cars and Joe took off to New York to develop software for a global company, the youngest son got the brunt of his father’s manipulations.
Santo had done a number on him and Nick had taken a hard fall.
“I’m not interested in Brooke Hamilton. Hell, give me a break, Joe. I’m doing a good deed here, not looking for an instant family.”
Damn it! Nick glanced up to find Brooke standing behind Joe. The baby bottle she held slipped from her hand. Flustered, her face turned color and Nick couldn’t tell if she was angry or embarrassed.
Angry, he decided.
Joe swept up the bottle quickly and handed it to her. “Here you go. Hi, I’m Joe.”
“I remember. Hi, Joe.” She took the bottle graciously and smiled at him. Those knock-out hazel eyes, the shade of tropical waters, lit up her whole face.
“Sorry to hear about the accident,” Joe said. “I hope you recover well from your injuries.”
“Thank you.” As if she had forgotten about her head injury, she touched her forehead. “I’m doing okay.”
“Shouldn’t you be resting?” Nick asked. He’d shown the nurse to their room an hour ago and she’d promised to watch over both mother and child.
She glanced at him and the light in her eyes faded as fast as her smile. “I couldn’t calm down so I thought I’d get some air.”
“With that?” Nick pointed to the baby’s bottle. Seemed she only had a smile for Joe.
“Oh, I was on my way to the kitchen to store this. It’s expressed breast milk.”
Nick blinked. “Expressed?”
“I think this is my cue to leave,” Joe said, adjusting the glasses on his nose. He darted glances at both of them then bid them good-bye and left.
“Sorry to bother you,” Brooke said to him, not sounding sorry at all as she turned to leave.
“Brooke?”
She stopped and whirled around. “It’s not as if Leah and I have a choice in this, Nick. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but I don’t want to be here anymore than you want us here.”
“If I didn’t want you here, you wouldn’t be here. Why couldn’t you calm down?”
Brooke fidgeted with the bottle in her hands. He didn’t want to think about how she’d expressed the milk into the bottle. Some things were beyond male comprehension. She glanced away, looking at the pool, then th
e grounds, and finally back at him. “I, uh, it’s the accident. I keep replaying it in my head. Every time I close my eyes, it’s there. I hear it. I see it.” She took a swallow and her voice cracked then lowered to a bare whisper. “And when I think what might have happened to Leah…”
Nick walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “But nothing happened to Leah. You’re going to be fine.”
“My brain knows that.” She closed her eyes for a second, then when she opened them again, granting him a soft look, something pierced through his gut. It was something that he didn’t recognize. Something that was new and strange to him.
He touched her cheek and got lost in her eyes. He had a need to protect. To comfort. He brought his mouth close and brushed his lips to hers. The kiss was meant to reassure, to help her find some peace, but Nick didn’t expect the sensations to rip through him. He didn’t expect to want more. Sure, he’d once been attracted to Brooke. She’d been different than the other girls he’d been with in high school. There was substance to her, a depth that other girls didn’t have at that age. She hadn’t been a party girl. Maybe that’s why Nick had been attracted to her. She was unique and special and Nick had realized that during the one night they’d spent together when he’d almost taken her virginity.
For years after, he’d wondered if he’d been really noble or scared that she was the one who could tie him down. And for years after he’d also imagined what it would have been like making love to her. Her first time. He’d wanted it to be with him, yet, he knew enough to back off. He’d done the right thing back then.
Her lips were warm and inviting. Devouring her heart-shaped mouth until she was swollen and puffy would be easy, but Nick pulled away. She gazed at him with a question in her eyes. He circled a lock of her long hair with his finger and tugged gently. “Just so you know, there aren’t any strings attached to you staying here.”
The Billionaire's Baby Arrangement Page 3