by E V Darcy
‘Casey—’
‘Paige, please.’ He cut her off again, and she had to take a breath to stop herself snapping at him. ‘I don’t want issues between us. I just want there to be an us.’
‘Casey! No bullshit, remember? That’s our rule,’ she said and took a deep breath. ‘I’ve never lied to you; Blueberry is yours, and I’m willing to do a paternity test to prove it.’ She didn’t want to have to resort to such a thing, to subject her child to even more at the start of her life, but she wanted to him to know, to believe her, and to love their daughter without doubts clouding his heart or mind. And if she had to give him the proof on a piece of paper, she damned well would.
‘No bullshit, Paige,’ he smiled at her. ‘I don’t care. She’s mine regardless, as long as you’ll have me. I love you.’
And with those words, Paige just knew life was going to work out for them. It wouldn’t be easy—life never was—but, as long as they loved one another, they’d get through anything.
‘I love you too, Casey.’
30
‘—look, just accept it, you cannot spend all your time at the hospital—you need a break!’
Paige pouted at Casey’s words. More because she knew he was right than the fact she wasn’t getting her own way. She’d spent two weeks in the care of the doctors and nurses, and while usually, she’d have been desperate to get out of the hospital, Blueberry was still there.
Paige had spent as much of the last two weeks in the neonatal ICU as the doctors would allow—which had been far more time than she’d have thought. Although their little girl wasn’t yet strong enough to be held, she was getting stronger every single day, and the doctors had high hopes for her future. They had also promised that Paige would be allowed to visit her daughter and call the department for updates whenever she wanted.
It had only been at those words that she’d finally agreed to leave and return home with Casey, although she’d been a little surprised when the actor had taken her back to Malibu rather than her apartment.
‘But this is too far from the hospital. Why couldn’t we have stayed at my place?’
‘Because,’ he said between gritted teeth as he pulled up his driveway. ‘You would be at the hospital every minute of every day if you were so close. You’d camp out, you’d sit in the cafeteria—God, that place is depressing!—and it’s not good for you.’ He pulled the Aston Martin into the garage and cut the engine before he turning to her properly.
‘Paige, you need to sleep.’ He reached over and cupped her face. ‘And this way, I can take you to the hospital and bring you home; I won’t have to worry about the both of you 24-7.’
She smiled at his honesty and leaned into his touch. He could be very sweet when he wanted to be.
‘You know,’ she said, her voice lowering as she gazed up at him through her lashes. ‘If I’m going to be staying with you for a while…’
‘Yes,’ he prompted as she trailed off. His eyes dropped to her mouth as she sunk her teeth gently into her lower lip and moved forward slightly. He leaned forward, ready to meet her in a kiss; his lips were a breath from hers when she finished her sentence.
‘…You’ll have to get rid of Debbee and get a family car.’
He pulled back instantly, mouth open and eyes wide in horror at her suggestion. ‘What?’ he asked as if she had just suggested that Tristan should be Blueberry’s godfather. ‘I am not getting rid of Debbee!’
‘It’s not very practical with a baby, Casey—’
‘That doesn’t mean I have to get rid of her!’ he protested. ‘That’s why I have a fucking huge garage—I can have more than one car! I’ve already put an order in for a Range Rover.’
Paige rolled her eyes. ‘Another British car?’ she said as she opened the door to the DB9 and struggled out.
‘Just stay put, woman,’ he told her as he scrambled out of his own door. She watched as he ran around the front of the car to get her door and offered his hand to help her out. ‘And there’s nothing wrong with British engineering,’ he muttered as she finally stood on her own two feet.
‘Of course not, dear,’ she said as she smiled up at him. He shook his head, but kept his arm around her waist and held her close, leading her from the garage, across the courtyard, and towards the house.
Julian stood waiting for them as they entered the property, taking Casey’s keys and Paige’s bag from them immediately.
‘Are they here?’ Casey asked his bodyguard with an expectant grin, which made Paige frown. Little feet running down the hallway caught her ear and she turned just in time to see a streak of colour zooming towards them.
‘Uncle Casey!’ Tyler shouted as he ran down the hallway. The star had only a second to reach for the excited child before the boy was jumping into Casey’s arms.
‘Bloody hell, Tyler,’ the man muttered, a puff of breath escaping him as the wind was knocked from his sails. Paige couldn’t help but smile, as the adorable son of Marc turned his beautiful bright blue eyes up on his surrogate uncle, and added his irresistible smile to the mix. Casey instantly smiled back at the kid, and Paige shook her head, knowing he was going to be a pushover when it came to their daughter.
‘Tyler!’ Marc’s irritated voice came from the kitchen; Marc appeared a moment later, covered in whatever he’d tried to occupy Tyler with before Casey and Paige arrived. Paige cringed, knowing she had all this to look forward to.
‘Hey, Marc,’ she greeted the man warmly, as she moved towards him. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked as he gave her a quick welcoming embrace.
‘Ellie and I heard you were coming home today. We thought we’d surprise you both.’
‘Oh?’ Paige said, giving Casey a look from the corner of her eye. There was no both in this surprise. The bastard knew exactly what his friend was doing there. This was probably the reason he’d wanted to bring her there instead of staying in the city.
‘Yeah,’ Marc said waving them back towards the kitchen where Ellie was mopping up whatever it was Tyler had knocked over the table and floor. God knew what decorated the kitchen counters and the cupboard doors. Marc gave a grimace of a smile at Casey’s gasp of shock. ‘Sorry about the mess, Case.’
‘Get used to it,’ Ellie muttered. Paige had to bite back the smirk that wanted to spread across her face as she saw the look of dawning horror fill Casey’s expression; the realisation that he had all this to look forward to, suddenly hit him.
‘We’ve come to paint!’ Tyler declared happily, making the other three adults groan.
‘Oh?’ Paige asked as she eyed the group in front of her. ‘And just what are we painting?’
‘Well,’ Casey said, setting down Tyler who ran off to the living room to find Bert—who was probably hiding from the bouncy child. ‘I was thinking…’ Casey took Paige’s hand and guided her down the hallway back towards the stairs. ‘I have all this space, and three spare rooms.’
‘Yes,’ Paige drawled as she squinted her eyes in suspicion. ‘I’m quite familiar with the layout.’
‘Well, I had an idea, and Marc and Ellie have been here helping.’ He said no more as he pulled her by the hand up the stairs and towards the spare room where Paige had stayed.
‘Casey, can you just—’
‘Shush, woman, I’m trying to do something nice. Now, close your eyes.’
Paige licked her lower lip as she assessed him, before sighing and doing as he asked. She heard the door swing open over the plush carpet and felt Casey gently tug her to step forward into the room.
‘Okay,’ he said after a beat of silence. ‘Open them.’
The room was no longer the soft green it had been; instead, it was a pastel yellow with grey accents. The walls were decorated with balloon-like elephants—babies trailing after their mothers—and beautiful framed canvases with adorable sayings. Soft, gauzy curtains hung over the balcony doors and Paige could see they could be tied back with the heavier grey set that framed them. Next to the doors, was the beautiful ro
cking chair she’d seen and dismissed as far too extravagant. Actually…
She looked around the room again, still awestruck, but now she took in the furniture; the large cot, the dresser, changing station, toy box… Every single item was what she’d initially wanted to pick out, but dismissed because of the prices. The only difference was the colour, but they matched the décor perfectly.
She turned back to Casey, speechless that he had even known the specific items she had favoured over the ones she’d ended up buying.
‘How did you…?’
‘Deanna,’ he said with a shrug and a grin. ‘She was there when the cheaper stuff you had ordered arrived, I told her to send it all back. Then she showed me exactly which items you really wanted and I ordered them.’
She blinked rapidly as the penny dropped.
‘You turned a room in your house into a nursery. Not in my apartment. Here.’ His body relaxed and he broke into a huge grin as he nodded. ‘You turned this room into Blue’s room,’ she said.
‘You know, we really should name her something other than a colour,’ he interjected, taking her hands in his and pulling her into his arms. ‘I keep telling you, I don’t want to start a trend.’
She couldn’t laugh at his joke. Hell, she couldn’t even smile. Was he saying what she thought he was by doing this? Was he—
‘Move in with me Paige’—yup, he was!—‘I want you and Blue here with me. I want my family here, completing my home—our home.’
He looked at her with so much nervous hope in his icy-blue eyes that she realised he was deadly serious. He wanted her here, but not in a spare room. He wanted her here as his partner, sharing his life and his bed.
‘Yes,’ she said, breathlessly. ‘Oh, Casey, yes!’
‘I don’t think she looks like a Belle, or an Esme.’
Paige sighed as Casey rejected yet more suggestions. They’d already dismissed over fifty names—she hadn’t even realised there were so many to choose from—and she really felt they were never going to find a name for their daughter.
Blue chose that moment to give a little squawk as she wiggled around inside the incubator. His daughter instantly distracted Casey, and Paige couldn’t help but smile at him lovingly.
It was strange to think how much life had changed over the last eight months. If anyone had said to her—that morning before she walked into the Meet and Greet—that she would fall in love with the man in front of her, a man she’d turned her nose up at repeatedly when others had sung his praises, she’d have told them to get their head checked. But now, she couldn’t imagine her life without him.
Sure, they’d had their ups and downs—and boy had the downs been freaking dramatic—and she knew there’d be more to come in the future, but she was sure the worst was behind them. What they’d been through that past year—hell, it wasn’t even a year!—had only made them realise how much, and how deeply, they loved one another. As long as they remembered that, Paige was sure they’d get through anything.
‘I think she looks like a Lucy,’ she said without thinking, but the moment the name was out there, she knew it was the right choice.
‘Lucy?’ Casey pondered it for a moment, turning his head this way, then that, as he rolled the name around his head. ‘What about… Luciana? We can shorten it to Luci then.’
Paige looked at her daughter and tried the name herself. ‘What does it mean?’
‘Light. She’s my light. Also…’
‘After Luc,’ she finished for him. Casey nodded, his gaze still focused on their daughter. ‘Hello, Luciana,’ she said after a moment. ‘I hope your life is indeed filled with light and love.’
‘Thank you,’ Casey whispered, his voice hoarse with emotion. He reached across the top of the incubator and she took his hand in hers. They looked down upon Luciana with all the love parents could give to their child.
Paige had never felt so warm, loved, and wanted. To think she’d imagined feeling love for Daniel… and she had, in some way, but never like this. Never in this fulfilled, completely contented, life is complete, kind of way.
‘What’s put that smile on your face,’ Casey murmured in her ear as she buried her face against his chest, trying to hide what he could so plainly see.
‘Just happy,’ she said with a sigh. ‘Thinking about how life’s turned out. You know, when I found out Daniel had cheated on me, I thought that was it for me, that at thirty-seven I was too old to meet someone else. I thought that I had been put back up on the shelf, and was going to be left there.’
‘And then you met me,’ Casey said, with a hint of smugness.
‘Yeah,’ she agreed. ‘But you know, it took me thinking you were the last man I’d get to screw for me to be interested—’
‘You little minx!’ Casey said indignantly. She squealed as he began to tickle her sides, causing her to squirm and wriggle as she tried to fight him off to no avail.
When the pair finally settled, Paige gave another sigh. ‘I wish I’d remembered to grab my phone before we left our den,’ she confessed. ‘I’m still devastated we don’t have the pictures from that day.’
‘Is it really that important?’ Casey asked as he curled around her. ‘I’m pretty sure we’ll never forget it.’
‘I guess not,’ she pouted. ‘But when I look back, I realise that that was the day I fell in love with you. I didn’t fully understand it then, but I knew that if I died in that moment I’d at least have died knowing happiness.’
They lay in silence for a few minutes, the popping of the wood on the fire and the sound of Bert’s snores lulling her to relax. She was just drifting off when she felt Casey move away.
‘Oi,’ she said grumpily as she rolled over to see where he was going. ‘Come back.’
‘Just a minute,’ he said as he disappeared into his dressing room. She could hear him rifling around, and a moment later he reappeared with a small bag. Paige frowned as she watched him walk back to the bed, wondering what the hell he had.
‘So, I have something to confess,’ he said after he sat on the bed. She sat up at the words, wondering what the hell he was about to reveal. ‘You didn’t lose your phone. Or your knickers. I, well, I swiped them.’
‘What?’ She blinked as he tipped the bag onto the bed and her old phone dropped onto the duvet, followed by her scrunched-up, dust-covered favourite set of French knickers. He’d had them? She’d been airlifted panty-less because he’d stolen them as souvenirs?
‘These’—he picked up the panties—‘I pocketed the moment I took them off you.’
She looked at him like he’d gone mad. ‘Why?’
He shrugged, his cheeks turning slightly pink at having to explain his actions. She couldn’t help it, she found it damned endearing that the once-playboy could still blush.
‘I guess, I wanted to keep part of you after it was all over with. Regardless of if we lived or died there, I wanted part of you with me. To prove that it had happened.’
It made no sense to her, but it had given him some comfort, she supposed. How could she hold that against him in the situation they were in?
‘I didn’t realise I had the phone until I was back here. I had it in my pocket when they rescued us, and it was handed over to me when I discharged myself from the hospital.’ He picked the phone up, pressed the power button and Paige was surprised to see it begin the loading sequence. The last time she’d seen it, the battery had been dead.
‘I didn’t even think when they gave it to me. I just wanted out of that place so badly, that I shoved it in my trousers with my keys, and whatnot. It wasn’t until I was in Marc’s Rolls that I realised what I had.’
When the PIN screen came up, he tapped in the code without her needing to tell him.
‘Hey!’ she protested. ‘How did you know my PIN?’ She’d never told him it, she’d always typed it in first.
‘Kitten, please, you had Luc as your wallpaper. It wasn’t hard to guess his birthday would be your password.’
She
felt her own cheeks warm at that. The screen flickered and she saw that the wallpaper was no longer an artist’s drawing of a topless, wing-decorated Luc. Instead, the image they had taken of their kiss adorned the screen.
‘I changed it,’ Casey confessed. ‘I couldn’t stand switching it on and seeing that handsome bastard on the screen. It reminded me you weren’t mine, that I couldn’t have you…’
‘Oh, Casey,’ she sighed. She reached up to him, cupping his cheek in her hand. He pressed into it. ‘You’re the only one I want,’ she told him as she guided his face to hers and captured his lips in a kiss.
31
‘Careful,’ Paige said as Casey held their tiny daughter in his large hands.
‘I am,’ he protested. He couldn’t keep his eyes from Luci’s tiny form all bundled up in the blanket. It made her look like a doll, almost unreal, and only emphasised her fragility to him.
How the hell was he supposed to take care of such a precious thing, something that completely depended on him and Paige to survive. Shit, what if—
Luci’s mouth opened in a tiny, toothless yawn and every single worry inside Casey’s head vanished as he felt himself swell with love; he knew he’d die to keep this little one safe.
Now, that’s a good reason to have an alpha side, Tanya’s amused voice tickled his mind. He smiled at the idea of his former bodyguard and—as he’d come to realise—good friend, watching over him from wherever she was now. She probably only popped in to get a laugh, to see how much he was fucking up.
You’re not fucking up, dickhead, you’re doing just right—now at least. He blinked at that final thought. The words were almost real, and he had to glance quickly to his left to make sure the woman wasn’t really standing there.
‘Ummm, Casey, I’m getting cold here.’ Paige waved at him before pointing to her bare breast. She’d been looking forward to this day for almost a month now, the first day their little girl could come out of the incubator.