“Okay?” I asked him mischievously.
“I don’t know,” Peter said as he cocked his head to the side stroked his chin. “You look… different somehow.”
“Becoming your wife will do that to a girl.”
I lightly kissed his cheek when he still shook his head.
“No,” he challenged. “There’s something else going on…”
“Can the impromptu best man have the floor for a moment?” Danny’s voice rang out.
Danny moved to the end of the small table with a sparkling flute in one hand and a salad fork in the other.
“I know it took you a lot to get to this day,” he started. “Can’t say that I was on board every step of the way, and…”
He peered hard at Peter and bowed his head.
“…and for that I’m sorry. Because everything else aside, you have our girl’s back. Never seen her look so good. Not even on my many canvases.”
Sabrina rolled her eyes and started to sip her champagne when Danny beckoned her to wait until he got all of his wanted words out.
“So here’s to you, Caroline. And Peter. May this be a start of a great big, new adventure.”
“Here, here!” Nellie exclaimed.
Everyone lifted a glass to put the point on the toast, but when the rim of my flute merely touched my lips, Peter placed a hand on my shoulder.
“What is it?” he asked. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
On the spot and in everyone’s sights, I couldn’t hold my tongue for another second and brought his hand to my belly.
“Have to think about what’s good for the little one,” I whispered. “I’m two months pregnant!”
In a flash, Danny hollered his joy and approval as Sabrina rushed to my side.
“Caroline? Are you… are you serious?” she stammered.
Nodding my head yes, I saw Nellie chuckle as she polished off her glass and helped herself to mine.
“Can’t say I didn’t have an inkling,” she said. “You got that glow about you.”
My eyes could focus on nothing but Peter, his face like slate as I suddenly swallowed hard.
“Peter?” I asked “You… you are happy about this, right?”
Again he said nothing, and I wondered if this was far from the great big, new adventure that Danny described or Peter had in mind. Longing to hide under the veil again, thinking that it might be better to do so on my own, I held my breath until Peter’s face expanded into a bright smile, and he hoisted me out of the chair and into his arms.
“Happy?” he asked as he beamed and spun me around the grass. “Try ecstatic, Gypsy.”
Relief washed over me as the clouds whipped by overhead, and I clung to his broad back when he gently brought me back to earth and tenderly took hold of my face.
“I… sorry,” he sputtered. “Probably should have been more careful. It was that first night, wasn’t it?”
“Peter…” I nodded my agreement.
Eager to cool the blush burning on his cheeks, I kissed his face and rested my head to his heart.
“Nothing’s going to hurt any of us anymore,” I whispered.
Chapter Sixteen
“Now let’s get this right,” Danny began.
Danny had seethed through an entire morning of rain lashing against the window, and he kept twirling his oils in a rusty metal can as he cursed under his breath.
“Language,” I cautioned.
“Like she can even understand!” Danny laughed.
“Hey!” Peter laughed.
Peter looked stunning in a crisp white shirt and freshly pressed khakis. As I took his hand, he still avoided my eyes and glared at Danny.
“My daughter is brilliant,” he said. “Give her a chance, and she’ll be doing this painting for you, rain or not.”
“With those chubby fingers. I think not.”
“Peter…”
I brought him back to my side and kissed his cheek as the baby cooed against my breast.
“She is only mortal,” I reminded him. “Not matter how hard you try to make her a superhero.”
He lightly touched the baby’s tiny head, and I marveled at the way he always looked at her. Not because he thought she would break in my arms. Over and over again he told me that this was the strongest child to have ever been born. But sometimes he thought that he might hurt her without wanting to. And making him believe that he could hold her on his own was a battle I wondered if I’d have to fight for the rest of my life.
Of our life.
“Do you want to try to take her?” I asked. Even as I could feel his wanting, Peter hung back and shook his head.
“She seems okay with you.”
He sat heavily at my side, and I took his hand as I looked down at our daughter and rested my head to his shoulder.
“You’re going to have to hold her one of these days,” I reminded him. “I’m supposed to go back home and visit with Sabrina soon.”
“Wouldn’t she just love to see her goddaughter?” he asked.
“Sabrina doesn’t really do babies. And before you say it, we can’t keep putting on Nellie. So when, dear?”
He extended his arm, and the baby was nearly in his arms when he drew his hands back.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Gypsy,” he said. “It’s… you’re just so much better with her than I could ever hope to be.”
Even as I blushed at the compliment, I punched his shoulder and shot him a smirk.
“Nice try,” I said. “But you have to get used to this. If… I can do it…”
“But you can get through any storm,” he said. “I’m just… like the catalyst or whatever.”
“And you’re being silly,” I said. “So much of that happened because of you, and it’s high time that you gave me a rest.”
I started to push the baby into his arms, and he trembled as I helped him support the soft head against his elbow.
“There we go,” I soothed. “Feels nice being with daddy, doesn’t it.”
My eyes moved to his, and I watched as he looked down at the little girl, a mix of wonder and fear in his eyes as the baby started to fret.
“Maybe… maybe you should take her…” he said shakily.
“Give it a second, Peter.”
He waited under my hands, and our daughter gurgled through a yawn as she circled one chubby hand around his finger. She babbled some before settling her head on the pillow of his arms, and as soon as she fell asleep, Peter gasped as he looked into my eyes.
“It works,” he said. “I… was so…”
“Why, Peter?” I asked. “You’ve never been anything but good to me.”
“And I’ve seen what bad men can do with that,” he said. “Are you sure I’m not one of them?”
The guilt crossing his face tugged at my heart, and I lightly kissed his lips as I cuddled close to him and our daughter.
“I know who you are,” I said. “And so does Hope.”
As she slept soundly in his arms, the name seemed to fit her more than ever, and I kissed Peter’s lips with a smile when Danny signaled us to the lawn with clapping hands.
“The light is just right!” he exclaimed. “Let’s do this.”
I eased Peter to his feet and folded my arm around his waist. He appeared enraptured by the baby as we walked to Danny’s setting of white cloths covering two tree stumps, and as soon as we settled side by side, I held him again and found his eyes.
“Feels right?” I asked.
“Feels amazing. And I… I’m never going to be the kind of father that hurts his daughter, blood ties or not.”
“I know that.”
We kissed as the sun broke through the clouds, and I smiled into his eyes as Danny snapped his fingers.
“Eyes front, Bartons,” he demanded. “This is the first of many family portraits.”
“How many are you planning on?” Peter asked.
“I’m thinking one every six months or so,” he said. “You guys down with that?”
I shrugged my shoulders as I took his hands and smiled into the light.
“Small price to pay,” I said. “He did say that I should give you a second chance.”
“Fine,” Peter groaned.
Danny went to sketching and I looked at my husband and my child as they sat at my side. Having them both was more than I had ever imagined, and a part of me still wanted to hide away and keep them both close for fear that I would lose them to something known or otherwise. But that was not the way that any life was supposed to work. It was all about taking a chance and letting fate do her thing. And if anyone believed in the power of a fate…
“She has the sun in her hair, too,” Peter said.
I nodded as he smiled and kissed my head.
“I can see it,” he said. “Two pretty gypsies. How did I ever get so lucky?”
“I was just thinking the same thing,” I said as I kissed his lips.
***
Liked The Corrupt Billionaire? Check out Camilla’s other work:
Paranormal Romance: Temptation (FREE)
Little Red Dress: A Contemporary Romance Novella
Also by Camilla, writing as Ellie Blake:
Pumpkins & Payback: An Amelia Lucas Mystery
Snow & Suspicion: An Amelia Lucas Mystery
Disclaimer and Copyright:
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author accepts no responsibility for any thoughts you may form after reading their works. Unless otherwise noted, all works are copyright © Camilla Hope 2015.
The Corrupt Billionaire COMPLETE Box Set Page 40