Their Baby Bargain

by Marion Lennox

  She must have cost his father a mint, Luke thought cynically. No wonder the old man had died in so much debt. But why did one look at her make him feel like running a mile?

  ‘You didn’t need to come all this way to find me,’ Lindy told him, and her voice was carefully modulated to a sexy whisper. Luke’s mistrust deepened. He knew that this was the way she’d speak to any attractive man in her orbit.

  ‘I had quite a time finding you,’ Luke admitted, hauling himself into business mode. It was the only way to cope here. ‘Someone in your modelling agency gave me a break and told me where you were.’

  Her eyes flared with anger. ‘They shouldn’t have. I told them…’

  ‘You really didn’t want me to find you?’ Luke asked curiously. ‘You honestly don’t want anything more to do with your daughter?’

  ‘I didn’t want her to start with,’ she said petulantly. ‘Your father did, and he caught me at a low moment. My modelling career was going through a dive, and all my friends were having babies, so I thought, well, why not? Babies look so cute, and your father told me there’d always be enough money for the best nannies.’

  Not the best, Luke thought involuntarily. He had the best nanny in the world-right back in Bay Beach. Where he wanted to be right now…

  ‘But then-your father died and there was nothing.’ The girl’s voice had lost its sexy whisper as her distress showed through. Distress and anger. This wasn’t grief for his father, Luke decided. This was distress because she’d been cheated out of cash.

  ‘He’d promised there’d be money for ever, and there was nothing,’ she continued. ‘Nothing! They kicked me out of my apartment-which I thought we owned! My nanny left because I couldn’t pay her. So there I was, alone, and I’d never even changed the kid’s nappy. Suddenly I had to do everything. I hated it. Then, just as I hit rock bottom I got a call from the agency saying they had this job for me. Touring with the whole Europe collection. I’ll be in Europe for three months now-or even longer if my plans go right. You must see, I can’t have the kid.’

  ‘You can’t have Grace while you’re touring,’ Luke agreed quietly-so quietly that those who knew him well would recognise the danger signs. There was deep distaste in his voice. ‘Will you want her back afterwards?’

  Lindy’s huge eyes widened in surprise, as if such a question was self-evident. ‘Why on earth would I?’

  ‘She’s your daughter.’

  ‘No.’ The woman shook her gorgeous mane of hair in quick decision. ‘That’s not how I feel about her. I was used. I was lied to. I was conned into having her and I want no responsibility for her future.’

  ‘She’s still very cute,’ Luke said, watchful.

  ‘Yeah? You try getting up at two in the morning night after night and see how cute she is. And the cost of nannies…’ Lindy’s face suddenly stilled, intelligence sharpening and focusing right on Luke. ‘But you must be rich. The guy I hired to find you said you were some sort of stockbroker, and if you can afford to come all the way to London to find me… If you pay for a nanny and something toward our keep then I might consider it.’

  Her eyes narrowed, dollar signs lighting up in their depths. ‘I mean, it was your father who cheated me. You owe it to me.’

  ‘I owe you nothing.’ He’d had enough. Luke’s face was tight and hard. The thought of his half-sister with this woman was making his blood boil. ‘I’m not legally obliged to care for any other children my father might have had besides me.’

  ‘I know that,’ she snapped. ‘My lawyer said I couldn’t touch you. But she is your half-sister.’

  ‘And if I don’t look after her?’

  ‘Then I’ll get her adopted,’ Lindy said brutally. ‘I tell you, I can’t have her. What man’s going to look at me when I have a kid in tow?’

  And that was the crux of the matter, Luke thought bleakly. Grace had no chance at all.

  ‘If I agree to take her…’ he said slowly-cautiously.

  ‘Will you?’ Her eyes widened again, clearly surprised, and Luke took a mental step back. It’d be dangerous for this woman to think he cared.

  ‘I have…I care for another child,’ he told her, and her face relaxed again, turning into a sneer.

  ‘Do you, now? How about that? I might have known. Like father, like son.’

  ‘As you say,’ he said neutrally. It wouldn’t hurt negotiations if Lindy thought he was heartless. ‘But I’ve thought it through and made a decision. If you really want to be rid of Grace, then I’ll take care of your daughter-out of memory for my father.’

  She stared at him then, surprised. ‘You didn’t inherit that sort of conscience from your old man,’ she said, and a note of pleading suddenly entered her lovely voice. ‘That’d be great. If you would…’

  ‘If that’s what you want, then I need to be appointed her legal guardian,’ Luke told her. ‘If you really do want me to keep her.’

  ‘I don’t want to sign anything.’ She backed a step.

  ‘But I can’t take care of her without the legal right to do so,’ Luke said carefully-smoothly. ‘I’ve had legal advice. I need your official custody agreement.’

  ‘No.’

  He sighed, but he’d come prepared. ‘I’m sorry, Lindy, but we can’t leave it like this. The way things are, Grace is in limbo, with me having no legal rights to care for her and you not wanting her.’

  ‘So what?’

  His face hardened, but forewarned by Wendy-and his lawyers-he’d come prepared to play it tough. ‘Then maybe we need to go public,’ he said softly, watching her changing expressions. ‘Let the press know that you abandoned your daughter.’

  Her face paled. ‘You wouldn’t.’

  ‘All I want is for you to give me legal jurisdiction to care for her,’ he said again, remembering Wendy. He needed to protect Wendy in all this. ‘Then I’ll take on your responsibility and you don’t need to worry.’

  ‘But…’ the woman bit her lip ‘…I might-’

  ‘Change your mind?’ Luke’s angry expression softened, just a little. ‘Lindy, the woman who’s looking after your daughter now is a social worker,’ he told her. ‘She’s the best-and she’s told me that as she gets older Grace will need contact with you as much or more than you do with her. Even if it’s only spasmodic. We can write access into any custody arrangement. That way, you’ll always know where she is, and if you wish to see her then you may.’

  ‘But not take her back?’

  ‘That’s right.’ With Wendy’s advice still ringing in his ears, he made his final ultimatum. ‘It’s not fair on Grace to do anything else. If you wish me to take on responsibility-and Grace’s expenses-for the rest of her life, I’m willing to do it, but only when it’s made legal.’

  Lindy stared at him for one long, hard minute.

  ‘You know, you really are very cute,’ she said slowly-surprisingly-checking him out from the toes up. ‘You don’t suppose…?’

  ‘I don’t suppose anything,’ Luke said harshly. Heck, the woman scared him. More and more he was thinking longingly of Wendy. Wendy of the flowery skirts and the wispy curls and the mystical, caring quality that was light years away from this woman’s glamour. ‘If you agree, then I’ll meet with you and my lawyers in the morning. Yes?’

  She chewed her pretty lip for all of three seconds. This was obviously no bigger decision than deciding what colour nail polish to put on.

  ‘Yes,’ she said finally. ‘And then I can get on with my life.’

  ‘The Aston Martin’s still here, I see.’

  Wendy was digging up weeds from an overgrown rose garden. Shanni had come on her by surprise, and now she sank down to sit in the sun beside her friend. ‘So when does Wonder Boy return?’

  ‘Maybe Tuesday.’

  ‘Tuesday.’ Shanni nodded. ‘Can I meet him?’

  Wendy sighed and stopped digging. ‘He’s my boss, Shanni. Not my friend. So no, you can’t meet him. He may only be here for an hour or so. He’s bringing Grace’s cust
ody papers and a legal employment contract for me. After that, he’s free to go where he will.’

  ‘He’s adopting Grace?’

  ‘So it seems.’ Wendy sat back on her heels and regarded her cleared earth with pride. After so much hard work, the house and garden were starting to look great. ‘It’s surprised me, too,’ she admitted, ‘but there it is. He’s willing not just to take on her care, but to take on her care for ever. He rang from London yesterday. The adoption won’t be formally through for three months. Lindy can change her mind any time in that three months but he’s pretty sure she won’t. He’s taken the first steps and he’s now Grace’s legal carer.’

  ‘So he has a baby for ever?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And you…’ Shanni eyed her friend sideways. Sitting here in the sun, she’d never seen her friend looking so content. So at peace with her world. For once, things were turning out right for Wendy, and it pleased Shanni to the socks. ‘You might just have a job and a home for ever.’

  ‘I doubt our Mr Grey wants to be saddled with a baby by his side as he jets round the world doing very important things,’ Wendy said contentedly. ‘After all, he’s an international man of business.’

  ‘And you’re content to stay and keep the home fires burning while he jets?’

  ‘Shanni, this arrangement gives Gabbie a home,’ Wendy murmured. As they spoke, Gabbie was crawling out from under a bush that she’d decreed was her cubby house. Away from the tensions of the orphanage-from the pressures involved in housing half a dozen children from disturbed backgrounds-the little girl was blooming by the minute. She was growing braver and braver. ‘My Gabbie has a gorgeous little sister, and she has me,’ Wendy said softly, watching her. ‘That’s worth a million. Or more!’

  And you have a home, too, Shanni thought with pleasure, though she didn’t say it. That had to be worth even more.

  But overwhelmingly Shanni was aching to meet this unknown Luke-this wonder man who’d provided this happy-ever-after setting for her friend. Because Shanni’s sharp mind was asking all sorts of silent questions. After all, this house had everything it needed for a family-except for one thing.

  Hmm.

  CHAPTER SIX

  LUKE arrived home at midnight on Monday night. Home…

  He pulled into the farm driveway and stared up at the darkened house, feeling a gut-wrenching gladness at reaching his destination that he hadn’t felt since he was a child. This really was his home.

  Hell, he’d never realised how much he’d missed it.

  The place looked somehow different than when he’d left, even in semi-darkness. The moon was almost full, and he could see the ancient rose bushes around the front entrance had been pruned back, and the garden beds had been dug over. The last of the boarding over the windows had been removed. There was gleaming glass in every frame, and there were curtains behind the glass. The place looked clean and welcoming, and a couple of old chairs had been dragged outside onto the veranda so one could sit outside and watch the distant surf.

  It looked great!

  Quietly he climbed from the car, stretching weary limbs. A twenty-four hour flight followed by a spot of urgent shopping and a huge drive on top was a bit much for anyone. He should have stayed overnight in the city, he acknowledged, but he’d felt such a compulsion to be here… And besides, there was Bruce.

  They’d be asleep, he thought, as Bruce was now sleeping, but he knew where they’d be. He wouldn’t disturb them.

  Taking off his shoes he made his way softly up to the veranda. Through the living room to the kitchen beyond.

  ‘Visitors should ring doorbells,’ Wendy said from behind him and he jumped about a foot. It was all he could do not to yelp.

  Somehow he lost his voice as he wheeled to face her. That was a shock again. Wendy was wearing her gorgeous, faded nightgown, and her curls were tumbling free around her bare shoulders. Baby Grace was lying in her arms as she stood in the doorway between kitchen and living room. By the moonlight flooding through the French windows, Wendy’s face was tender and somehow vulnerable-and she was such a contrast from the woman he’d left in London that for the life of him Luke couldn’t think of another thing to say.

  But she took pity on him and broke the silence. ‘I guess you’re not really a visitor.’ She smiled, and motioned to the sleeping baby she was cradling. ‘Don’t turn on the light. I’ve just got her settled.’

  ‘Is she…?’ Luke moved forward in the moonlight, peering down at his half-sister. She was deeply asleep, her tiny mouth curved into a smile of such bliss that Luke’s heart twisted. ‘Is she…okay?’

  ‘What do you think?’ Wendy chuckled softly into the stillness. ‘She shouldn’t be having a bottle in the middle of the night, but do you think I can persuade her of that? This young lady has a mind of her own-like her brother, I’d say. She’s just got her own way-again-and very pleased she is, too.’

  ‘I…see.’ He didn’t. For some reason his brain was all fuzzy. But luckily Wendy appeared not to notice.

  ‘And now it’s bedtime, miss,’ she was telling Grace. ‘For the whole night!’ Wendy fixed the sleeping baby with a look of stern warning, but the tenderness behind her eyes gave her warning the lie. The stirring in Luke’s gut grew deeper. This feeling he was experiencing. It wasn’t just his baby sister doing the damage here, he decided. Help!

  But Wendy’s attention was still not on him. She was concentrating solely on getting Grace back to bed without her waking. ‘Wait,’ she told him softly. ‘I’ll just be a minute.’

  Without another word she turned and carried the sleeping Grace out to her bedroom. He waited silently. There was nothing else to do, and to stay completely still, letting the atmosphere of the beloved old house seep into his bones, suited him very well until she padded barefoot back-to where he was waiting with the same look of stunned confusion on his face that she’d left him with.

  Then she flicked on a table lamp, and his mixed emotions grew even more muddled. Even more lopsided.

  He stared around at the transformed kitchen in amazement. ‘What on earth have you done to this place?’

  She smiled at that. ‘I scrubbed it,’ she said proudly. ‘And I painted the walls. I don’t mean to boast, but it looks great, doesn’t it?’

  It certainly did. When Luke had left, the kitchen had been grimy and dreary from years of neglect, and in the few days he’d been away Wendy had totally transformed it. The stove was gleaming, and the table and old wooden benches had been scrubbed to within an inch of their lives. The walls had been painted a pretty powder blue and there were fresh gingham curtains hanging in the window. It looked…wonderful.

  ‘You did all this?’ He could hardly believe it.

  ‘With the help of your credit card.’ Wendy’s smile was teasing. ‘Elbow-grease and money. What a combination!’ Then her smile faded. ‘Did you get what we needed from Lindy?’

  He nodded, lifting the precious documents from his breast pocket. But he wasn’t thinking about papers. He was having trouble thinking past Wendy. She was so incredibly lovely. So incredibly desirable.

  She was so…Wendy!

  Hell! He was acting like a moron here. With a wrench he hauled his thoughts back to the subject she was interested in. Documents. Grace. Not him.

  ‘Lindy’s signed the pre-adoption papers,’ he told her. ‘She did it in London, in the presence of two lawyers and a witness from the embassy. If she doesn’t change her mind in the cooling off period-and I’d be amazed if she does-then Grace will be ours.’ He faltered then at the look on her face, and he was suddenly uncertain of his ground. ‘I mean-’

  ‘You mean she’ll be yours,’ Wendy said gently. ‘Remember, I’m just the nanny.’

  ‘I…yes. I guess.’ He was all at sea here. He was trying to concentrate on Grace’s adoption, but all he could see was Wendy. She was so gorgeous-so sexy!-it was all he could do not to lunge around the table and take her into his arms for a passionate kiss.

  �
�Your bed’s made up in your grandparents’ room,’ she said placidly, as if unaware of the crazy mix of emotions charging around the room all by themselves. ‘At least, we assumed it was your grandparents’ room. The big front one with the double bed.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘It should be okay,’ she told him. ‘There’s clean linen and bedding. The only thing is…’

  ‘There’s a problem?’

  She grinned. ‘Well, there’s sort of two bumps that you’ll have to straddle. I’d assume at a guess that you’re a lot bigger than your grandpa.’

  That shook him. He didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. ‘Two bumps?’

  ‘I’d bet your grandma and grandpa had the same bed for their entire married lives,’ she told him cheerfully. ‘Gabbie and I made the bed up yesterday and you can see exactly where they slept. There’s deep contours linked together at the hip where they’ve lain side by side for years.’ The tenderness returned to her face. ‘I guess it won’t be too comfortable for one big person sleeping in the bed, but I don’t know. The bumps look…sort of…nice.’

  It was nice at that, Luke thought, and blinked. His grandparents… Two lovers lying side by side, making their indentations in their mattress night after night as they slept-husband and wife for forty years. Why did the thought have the capacity to kick him sideways?

  But he hauled his thoughts back together again. Somehow.

  ‘It’ll be fine.’ His voice was gruffer than he meant it to be and, for a minute she stared, sensing his confusion.

  Then she too pulled herself together. Maybe she was starting to feel the emotion zooming around the room like electricity searching for a grounding. Maybe.