He flipped on the light to his massive bedroom, decorated in dark color schemes.
“Wow,” Leila breathed.
His modern furniture and art showed how seriously he took his bedroom: a place to worship the woman in his bed. Shane believed the bedroom was the soul of any home. He also believed that the space should reflect his intentions. The erotic art held nothing back. The four-poster was sturdy, perfect for binding a woman. The dark satin sheets were meant to seduce.
But what if Leila didn’t like it? He stood in the doorway, watching her tour the room, her hand gliding over the dark wood furniture. She sat on the fainting chair, but didn’t take notice of the handcuffs attached to all four legs. Not that those who weren’t looking for them would notice. Like she wouldn’t notice the O ring hooked into the ceiling for suspension. He’d found out she didn’t mind being tied up. He hoped she didn’t mind being bound while standing. Shane’s body stirred at the image.
“This room is beautiful,” she said, facing him. “Did you have a decorator do it?”
He shook his head as he pushed off the wall. “I chose everything in this room.”
“Impressive.”
He knelt down in front of her and slid a cuff around her slight right ankle. “Let me show you how impressive the room really is.”
He sat up and took her mouth in a scorching kiss. For the first time in his life, he felt entirely at peace with a woman in his bed. A woman he wanted to stay more than one night. A woman he wanted curled against his body when he woke in the morning. What the hell had happened to him?
10
Shane crawled out of bed at four in the morning, restless. Lying naked next to Leila should have had him in a deep slumber. But something gnawed at him, something he couldn’t put a finger on. Turning to look at Leila’s flawless form, sleeping peacefully on her stomach, Shane admired her beauty. He’d taken her six ways to Sunday just hours before, and she accepted every ounce of pleasure he bestowed upon her.
He wandered out to the living room and about jumped out of his skin when he found Candace sound asleep on his sofa. Why the hell was she here?
He went to her side and knelt down in front her, nudging his sister-in-law. “Candace, honey, why are you asleep on my sofa?”
“Because Liam went back to New York and your spare bed is uncomfortable,” she murmured. One eye blinked open. “Shane, I don’t need to see your naked junk. Do you mind covering him up? It’s bad enough I had to listen to you sexing all night.”
He glanced down at himself and his head hung. Hell. Maybe he needed to instill the knock-first policy in his apartment, like Liam had when he’d gotten back together with Candace.
“And I’m telling Liam I saw you naked.” She closed her eyes and tried to pretend she was going back to sleep.
“I’ll kick your butt if you mention one word of this. He already broke my nose.” Shane stood and grabbed a pair of lounge pants out of the bedroom. He went to the kitchen to start coffee. He still had hours before he left for work, but there was no way he would go back to sleep any time soon.
Candace sat up and stretched. “God, I miss coffee.”
He smiled. “Soon enough, sweetheart.”
“I can’t wait for this to be over. I’m so tired of being pregnant. Seriously, Shane, I can’t see my feet, which hurt and are swollen all the time. The amount of weight I’m going to have to lose is ridiculous, unless I have a twenty-pound baby.”
Shane snorted. “Liam’s offspring? That’s a possibility.”
“Right?” Candace hauled herself off the sofa and schlepped to the breakfast nook. “Why are you awake, keeping me awake?”
“Can’t sleep.”
She raised a brow. “After all that sexing?”
“What is sexing? Are you making up that word? No grown woman should say the word ‘sexing’.” Shane felt his lips tug upward as he tried to remain serious. How much did he adore Candace? She’d been in their lives since her and Liam were in high school. Well, except for the year they parted ways. Luckily, his dumbass brother finally learned how to fight for her.
She shrugged. “Heard it from Aaron, and it stuck.”
“And that’s your first mistake, accepting any terminology from Aaron as being part of the English speaking language.” He poured himself a cup of hot brew and took a long sip, allowing the warmth to coat him.
“Don’t even try to divert. You still haven’t answered me.”
He set his cup down and leaned against the counter toward her. “I really don’t know.”
She raised an eyebrow as she tried twice to prop herself on a bar stool. “You don’t have sleep issues, do you?”
“No.” He grinned, amused. Normally he was the prying one, relentlessly digging for answers to questions of the people around him. He saw and could decipher situations and people better than the average person. He was calculating and cagey in his manner with those around him. He prided himself on the uncanny skill. Not that he considered himself evil; just distant and firm. He knew what he wanted, he knew what he wanted for his family, and he’d use whatever information necessary to obtain that goal.
“Hmmm.” Candace jerked, held her breath, and gripped the dark gray ceramic tile counter top and her stomach.
Shane shot up and around the island. “Candace, are you having a contraction?”
She breathed out and nodded. When it passed, which felt like it took forever, she practically collapsed into his arms. He lifted her and carried her to the sofa.
“Holy hell, that hurt like a bitch,” Candace groaned.
“We should get you to the hospital.”
She shook her head. “No, only if they grow closer. That’s the first one I’ve had. I could go through that for weeks.”
Reasonably, Shane understood that part of the entire labor thing. But seriously? Weeks? He just watched the woman he loved like a sister painfully contort her swollen body.
“I’m not happy about that.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
She laughed, the sound feeble. “I’m sure you’re not, Mr. I’m Always in Control.”
That’s when it hit him why he couldn’t sleep. He felt like he was losing control over his perfectly planned daily life. Suddenly Leila’s presence had created a great upheaval to his world. He didn’t like change. He didn’t like the feeling of not taking the lead on every situation. But with Leila asleep in his bed, that authoritative disposition was slipping, yet a piece of him welcomed it. And he had no idea how to handle that.
He sunk down onto the sofa. “Holy shit.”
“I know. I am so not a fan of that pain,” Candace complained. “I’m kicking Liam’s ass for knocking me up.”
“You wanted to get pregnant,” he said numbly.
“Shut up.” Candace attempted to push him toward the end of the sofa. “What the hell is the matter with you? Certainly, I didn’t frighten Mr. Calm, Cool, and Collected that badly. Not a little woman in labor. You should be able to handle that situation, right?”
Her nickname for him punched him in the gut, again. Damn it. Candace had no idea she was assaulting him with the hard truth about his mindset. He was always calm and cool. He prided himself on being stoic.
But every time Leila was late, he found himself adoring her even more. Every damn time she dropped his pastry bag, which was every single morning, he found it endearing. And the view wasn’t bad either. He loved that she didn’t watch her diet and would ask for a dessert menu to go along with her meal menu. Her blue, expressive eyes sparkled daily, as if she’d woken up with the sun shining, no matter what the weather was like outside. Her fascinations with penguins, though some might find juvenile, he nurtured. She managed to keep him on his toes with her spitfire attitude and quick responses to his demands. Nothing about him bothered her. Shane anticipated her arrival each morning and loathed the end of the day, when she’d leave. No wonder he rarely came home over the past month. He hated the loneliness of his apartment, especially when he desperate
ly wanted the clock to move forward faster.
He glanced down the hallway, realizing, he’d fallen in love with Leila. How the hell had that happened, and what did he do about it?
11
Shane refused to leave Candace alone. Justin was the only brother home, except he had to open his garage, and as the owner, didn’t have a choice. At least by the end of the week, the rest of his siblings would be back and could help take turns watching over her.
Instead of going into the office, he sent Leila to work, lending her Candace’s car, and he decided to work from home. Mainly because when he suggested to his sister-in-law about coming into the office with him for the day, she gave him a look that silently drilled holes into his skull. He’d laughed at her and held up his hands in surrender. No wonder his brother was head over heels for the woman.
He didn’t call Liam, under Candace’s direct order, because she hadn’t had another contraction since the one. She didn’t want him rushing home if unnecessary. Another argument she won. Shane was starting to lose his patience with the women in his life suddenly taking over and telling him what to do and how to do it.
At lunchtime, he checked in with Leila to make sure she and everything was all right.
“I’m fine,” she said, her tone short and direct.
He paused. “What’s going on, sweetheart? Clearly something is bothering you.”
He heard her small intake of breath, probably over the endearment. Truthfully, he was a bit surprised over it as well. It just naturally popped out. It was the first time he’d used a pet name with a woman.
“Nothing.”
He didn’t like being lied to. His voice went curt and hard, a warning. “Leila.”
She said nothing for a long moment, making his mind go to two million racing thoughts at once. What was bothering her? Did he do something? Did her ex return?
“I just don’t know about us,” she said. “I l-like you, Shane, and I really liked being at your place last night, but I think we’re embarking on something that shouldn’t be touched,” she said. “I need this job. I don’t want to lose it if we don’t work out. I don’t want us to be uncomfortable with one another if we end things.”
Shane breathed out a sigh of relief. He understood what she meant, and she was absolutely correct. After his revelation last night, he knew he had to step away from Leila. Falling in love with her didn’t fit into his plans, which consisted of eventually taking over the company. That meant long nights, business trips, evening dinners, and events. He couldn’t be much of a partner for any woman, especially one who fell in love with him. He’d end up breaking her heart.
But at the same time, how could he walk away? He looked forward to her coming home this evening to his place. He planned to order takeout for Leila and Candace. He couldn’t imagine their relationship going back to the merely professional. After only one night, he wanted her to spend many more beside him in bed. Would that change over time? Certainly. He knew this thing he defined as love was an infatuation with a shiny new object.
He needed to nip this before she did too much over thinking and dragged him with her. “Leila, honey, please stop. Don’t stress about this. Let it go where it leads us. If in a week we decide to call it quits, so be it. If in a month we grow tired of each other, then fine. You’re the best damn admin I’ve ever had. I’m not about to let a silly thing like sex ruin our professional relationship.”
“A silly thing like sex,” she repeated robotically.
“Yes.”
She went mute again. Then the distant Leila returned. “You’re right, Shane. We shouldn’t allow something as simple as great physical chemistry interfere with our jobs. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
She hung up before he could respond. Shit. He didn’t handle that well, did he?
12
“Dumb. Ass,” Candace murmured as she waddled past him from the kitchen to the living room area, a mound of spaghetti on her plate. Apparently, his beautiful, smart-mouthed sister-in-law had heard his convo earlier. Shane really needed to have a discussion with Mike about the paper-thin walls in their expensive apartments. Since Mike was the maintenance man of the building, that should give them some pull.
Candace plopped down next to Leila, and the two women started to gab about some dramatic television series that was to premiere in an hour. Shane stopped and watched the two women, mesmerized.
He watched Leila’s exuberance as she gestured while she talked, a nuance he found delightful. Her eyes almost glowed when she was enthusiastic about a subject. Leila and Candace mixed well together. They’d be terrific sisters-in-law.
Wait.
Where the hell did that come from? He did not need or want a wife. Hell, he was trying to figure out how long before they went on with their lives, after their mutually sexually satisfying time together.
“Shane?” Leila called.
He shook his head out of the fog that seemed to happen more often as of late.
“You all right?” Candace raised her brow, a knowing look over her pale features.
“I’m fine.”
Candace rolled her eyes. “You Quinn men are so stupid.” At least she didn’t call him a dumbass.
“Oh.” Candace’s eyes went huge and she looked down at the sofa.
Leila grabbed her plate and set it on the table. “Shane, we need to go to the hospital. Call Liam now.”
“Oh, god. I need Liam,” Candace cried out.
“What’s going on?” He rushed over to the girls as Leila helped Candace stand. The sofa was soaked.
“I think my water broke,” Candace said.
Shane yanked out his cell as he barked orders to Leila. “Get her bag from the spare bedroom and help her change her pants. We’re out of here in two minutes, Candace.”
It took them fifteen minutes to get out the door, despite Shane’s loud, firm voice ordering the ladies to move.
***
Shane stayed by Candace’s side, refusing to leave her until Liam showed up. He’d never seen someone in so much pain, yet simultaneously so strong. He offered her his hand when she needed to bear down with a contraction. He rubbed her lower back as she sat on a ball to help alleviate the pain. Hours upon hours, Candace continued with labor. His father and Justin showed up at the hospital. Brayden and Mike flew home from their honeymoon. Aaron chartered himself in, and Liam made it just in time.
Shane remained in the room, out of the way, when his baby niece screamed her way into the world. It was the most breathtaking event he’d ever witnessed.
Candace cried, and Liam sobbed into his sweetheart’s neck, hiding his wrecked features. Shane knew his brother had been changed forever by the two women in his life. And when his younger brother held his daughter in his hands for the first time, something inside Shane snapped. A cord that held him tight gave way.
At that moment, he wanted what Liam had. He wanted the pure, unfiltered love radiating throughout the room. And he knew he wanted it with Leila. No other woman in the world would know how to handle or tolerate him, would ever own him the way Leila did. God, he didn’t just love her, he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and wanted Leila to have his babies. He wanted to build a life with her. Despite his drive to success, he wanted more. Leila would stand by his side; he was sure of it.
“Want to hold her?” Liam asked, pulling Shane out of his moony trance. He was so fucked.
“Yes.” He heard his own voice crack.
Liam held his daughter like a piece of precious crystal and transferred the tiny girl into Shane’s arms. A wave of something fierce and loyal went through him. He could have sworn his heart swelled to conform to the size of his chest. His brother’s daughter. A Quinn. A baby girl Quinn. He leaned down and kissed her soft head. His heart melted when her eyes blinked open and shut from the harshness of the florescent lighting in the room.
“She’s gorgeous,” he said.
Candace started to sob, and Liam was instantly at her side. Shane was
too absorbed in his niece to listen to Candace blubber over his obvious affection for her daughter.
“How’s my baby girl niece?” he asked. “You are going to wrap your uncles around your tiny fingers, aren’t you? Oh, wait until Pap-Pap gets his hands on you. I don’t even think we know what to do with a girl.”
A knock on the door, and suddenly, the room filled with the Quinn family. Shane didn’t want to hand over his niece, but his father pulled the grandfather card and scooped her up. Brayden and Mike swooned over her. Justin refused to touch her, afraid of his germy hands. Aaron hesitated, afraid of the old superstition that the first one to hold a newborn would be the next one to have a baby.
“But Shane was the one to hold her first,” Candace noted.
“It only applies to childbearing age women,” said their father, an expert in all Irish superstitions.
Leila stepped into the room, a basket of half a dozen pink balloons and a large white stuffed bunny in hand. “Hi.”
“Hi Leila,” Candace said. “I can’t thank you enough for your help, but I’m embarrassed.”
Shane worked his way through his throng of brothers and took the basket out of Leila’s grasp. He handed it to his brother then kissed her on the lips. “Thank you.”
Leila smiled brightly. “You’re welcome.” She looked past him to Candace. “Don’t be embarrassed. There’s no reason.”
He noticed his brothers and father looking on curiously. Shane formally introduced her to the family as his admin. His father raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Can I hold her?” Leila asked.
“Of course!” Candace said, a bit too eagerly.
His dad shoved the newborn into Leila’s hands so quickly, the man could have possibly pulled a muscle. And then Aaron and Justin started to chuckle like idiots. Shane shot them both glares. Liam barked out a laugh as Candace giggled.
Ice: A Quinn Brothers Story (The Quinn Brothers Story Series Book 3) Page 3
