The Twin Birthright

by Catherine Mann

  Her hand slid down, along the waistband of his jeans, finding the hard length of him, curving to fit and stroke. His low growl of approval reverberated in the space between them. Naomi parted her legs, inviting him to step closer, an invitation he quickly accepted. She thrummed with passion, her body crying out for him so tangibly she could swear her ears rang with it. Louder, until she realized—

  The fire alarm was wailing.

  The blare hammered through the tender moment. Followed by the cries of the babies waking.

  Panic surged. Thankfully, Naomi’s feet moved faster. She raced to pull clothes on. Her protective mothering instincts notched into overdrive. A quick pivot on her heel, and she took off for the nursery, Royce right behind her.

  Tessie whined and barked, urging them to move faster. Faster. Hands fumbled to secure her daughters in warm clothes. Not knowing how much time they had, Royce brought thick blankets.

  They moved together as if the plan to see Anna and Mary to safety silently sounded between them. Anna cried in Naomi’s arms as they made their way to the staircase, past the fireplace.

  Another sharp bark came from Tessie as they descended the stairs. As they reached the bottom floor, a wafting hint of smoke sent her fear higher. This wasn’t a false alarm.

  Chaos filled the house. Naomi barely registered the other members of her family rushing outdoors. Thank God Royce had been with her. She couldn’t miss how quick he was in a crisis. How steady and secure.

  Naomi couldn’t say the biting cold of the Alaskan night burned against her cheeks, sending a shock to her system.

  No. That wasn’t it.

  It was the sight of her younger sister, whose rich brown hair contrasted against the paleness of her mostly bare skin. Delaney wrapped in a cream-colored quilt really woke her up.

  Mostly, it was who else shared that quilt. Birch Montoya.

  Naomi couldn’t decide what to make of that sight. And even more confusing?

  Her sister and Birch were so different, so oppositional, that friction happened just from them being in the same room. So why were they huddled under the quilt together, a smirk on Birch’s face, a satisfied secret smile on Delaney’s?

  Was it the same with Naomi and Royce?

  She’d been so convinced they were wrong for each other and that all she felt was just lust or infatuation. So why was he the first person she turned to in a crisis?

  And why was she so reluctant to let him go?

  Eleven

  Royce cradled the infant to his chest, his heart still jack hammering.

  When the fire alarm went off, his first thought had been of Naomi and the girls. A gut-wrenching flash of what his life would be like if something happened to them.

  And the pain damn nearly tore him in half.

  Smoke tightened the knot of dread, triggering memories of that fatal accident years ago.

  Just as fast, he’d pushed those distracting thoughts aside and focused on getting them all out of the house. Only to find it was a false alarm.

  The aftermath of the adrenaline surge still scoured his veins. He forced even breaths in and out of his mouth, holding Mary while Naomi cradled Anna.

  His breaths puffed in the night air as they waited for the house to clear. His mind spun with what-ifs that still haunted him. What if they hadn’t pushed that first traffic light? Instead of gunning through on the yellow, he could have slowed. Been steady. Been more reactive and reflexive.

  Had his inability to stop at the warning yellow light indicated a default in his ability to take care of the ones he cared for? Was that really why his former fiancée had left after the miscarriage and accident?

  More important...was he now a ticking time bomb?

  And could he forgive himself if lightning struck his life again?

  Damn, but the past was a dogged beast. He drew in another icy breath and looked around, grounding himself in the present. He wasn’t surprised to see the family in nightclothes. He was, however, stunned to see Birch Montoya with Delaney, both disheveled.

  Even in the dim light of the stars and moon, Delaney’s blushed cheeks were visible. Likely a combo of embarrassment and the chill. “Sorry, everyone. The fireplace flue got stuck and we couldn’t put out the flames before the smoke set off the detectors,” she said.

  The throng of family fanned smoke through the open doors as Naomi and Royce stayed back with the twins, keeping them away from the noxious air.

  “Um, Delaney...” Naomi kept her voice low. “You and Birch Montoya? An item? Did I just step into the set for Sleeping with the Enemy?”

  Royce wondered the same thing, but at least the attention was on someone else, giving him and Naomi a break from questions about their plans.

  But even as the sisters exchanged glances, Royce’s mind slid to his next dilemma, rocking Mary in his arms. She gurgled a little, a smile on that rosebud mouth. What if that fire alarm had been real? If there’d been a legitimate crisis? If the babies and Naomi had been alone and asleep with a real fire raging through the house?

  The possibility struck too close to his past.

  He felt his heart tightening again at all that he’d lost. His unborn child and fiancée. The ache was so intense he forced himself to shut it down and focus on the present.

  Delaney quirked an eyebrow at her sister. “I thought you liked Birch.”

  “I do,” Naomi answered, her fingertip grazing Royce’s arm. Sending him not into the normal wave of passion, but back to the moment of the accident. To the moment he’d lost it all. “You’re the one who paints his business practices as evil incarnate. Although this—” she gestured toward Birch “—whatever it is, it definitely isn’t business.”

  “We’ve been on again, off again for a while now,” Delaney admitted. “We’re just not so sure we won’t get egged on by our friends if we go out in public together.”

  Naomi’s laughter grabbed his attention again.

  “Since when did our parents bring us up to bow to peer pressure?”

  “My friends share my values.”

  Naomi angled in to say softly, “But you’re totally hot for him.”

  “You’re one to talk about having conflicted feelings for the guy you’re sleeping with.” She nodded toward Royce.

  Royce winced. But then the truth was unavoidable. He nudged Naomi. “We should get the babies back up to the room and away from the smoke.”

  “Of course.” Naomi pointed to her sister. “But we’ll talk later.”

  “Uh-huh. Sure,” Delaney said with a dismissive shake of her head, before she rejoined the smoke-waving effort.

  Maneuvering away from the family, Royce felt another weight slam through him. This time not from the past, though, but rather from the present—Birch Montoya. Sending a quick glance over his shoulder, he picked out Birch’s silhouette, a thought tugging at him, persisting even when the rest of Naomi’s family faded from sight.

  “Is something wrong?” Naomi asked, as they took the elevator back to her suite.

  “The numbers,” Royce answered, still chasing the notion through his mind. If he was right, at least there’d still be time to intervene.

  “What do you mean?”

  He leaned back in the elevator as the doors slid closed. “For the upgrades to the pipeline. Montoya is made of money and yet his bid for something he says he wants to help promote comes in just short.”

  Naomi gasped. “You think he’s gaming the system? Using my sister for insider tips?”

  The pain in her voice for her sibling couldn’t be missed. All the more reason to figure out the truth sooner rather than later.

  “I like the guy, so it bugs the hell out of me even considering this.” Royce wasn’t one to make friends lightly. “It also bothers me that my gut instinct may have been wrong. But something’s off and he doesn’t exactly have a repu
tation for bending over backward to save the planet.”

  “True... I’ll talk to Glenna and Broderick about looking more closely at how the data was disseminated.” She frowned as the doors slid open. “But God, I hope it’s not true, for Delaney’s sake. Not that I think he’s right for her, given how different they are. But to be betrayed that way...” She shook her head. “I just hope it’s not true.”

  Her flat assessment that Montoya and Delaney weren’t right for each other caught Royce right in the midsection. He couldn’t avoid the natural conclusion. The parallel.

  If Naomi believed Birch and Delaney’s differences should keep them apart, then in spite of what Royce and Naomi had shared earlier tonight, they were finished.

  * * *

  Milla watched the Steele family from the icy woods as they went back into the mansion. Although she remained hidden, huddling in the pine branches, she still held her breath. As if a loud exhalation might give away her position. Compromise the whole operation.

  A silly thought, maybe. But still one she couldn’t shake. Not when Milla’s future mingled in with the success of her mission. Which meant remaining hidden in the trees until the mansion settled back down.

  She’d taken a risk tonight coming to the sprawling waterside home. It had been a silly, frivolous indulgence. Like the night she’d sneaked into the hospital under the guise of delivering flowers. But coming to Anchorage at all had been a risk. A risk she was willing to take—if it paid off.

  Maybe she’d gotten overly confident these past weeks with her success at leaking data to the Florida investor. The stock shares had adjusted as she’d hoped. The pipeline innovations were all but a no-deal, which would be a huge blow to the Steele-Mikkelson merger into Alaska Oil Barons, Inc.

  Wind whipped and trees moaned in response, the scent of smoke heavy on the breeze. She pulled her ponytail tighter, letting out a deep, satisfied breath as the door of the mansion finally shut. Remaining crouched, she felt a smirk tug at her mouth.

  Through the thin gloves, Milla could feel the texture of the bark as she counted her successes. Her almost-compromised successes.

  But she’d made the mistake of being greedy for a bigger win. For revenge. She’d used the excuse of dropping off papers to stop by the house, telling Broderick she would show herself out.

  She’d sneaked into the study to see if the family portrait was still in place, the one of the entire clan before the airplane crash—easy enough to do, since she knew the layout of the house. Except Delaney and Birch had come into the room for their sneaky affair. She’d barely had time to hide in the nook behind the grandfather clock.

  A favorite hiding place from Steele childhood days.

  Yes, the Mikkelsons had to pay for all they’d taken.

  * * *

  Clutching the nursery monitor, Naomi padded back into the living area, where Royce was putting away the chopped fruit.

  The man worked with such precision an automaton would be jealous. And while restoring order had its charm, she realized by his restricted movements and the tightness hinging in his lower jaw that Royce had yet to settle. He seemed to crackle, he was so visibly upset. As he had been ever since the fire alarm went off. She just wasn’t sure if the cause was the pipeline discussion or the safety scare with the smoke.

  Either way, their romantic evening was officially wrecked.

  Logic told her the best approach would be to go to sleep, then discuss their concerns with a clear head in the morning. But the restlessness inside her, the raw emotions from their lovemaking earlier, pushed her impulsive nature to the fore. The silence weighed between them, cut only by the hum of the baby monitor and the dog’s light snore.

  Tension inched higher, along with the ache for things to be different between them. Easier. For Royce to walk over to her, sling an arm around her shoulders as they went to bed together. But still he kept his broad back to her.

  Hadn’t they flirted with that version of their lives just a few short hours ago?

  As much as she wanted to be with him again before their time together ended, she’d been through the pain of losing him before. Soon, her daughters would grow closer to him and feel that pain, too. And the more she delayed it, the worse it would be. He’d helped her—for whatever reasons of his own—and the time had come for her to stand on her own.

  She joined him in the kitchen, leaning against the granite countertop, just like earlier. Though everything felt different now. “No one is making you stay.”

  Placing the fruit in the refrigerator, he glanced sideways at her, his handsome face inscrutable. “For someone who’s such a fighter, you sure do quit easily.”

  “I just think we’re delaying the inevitable.” Even as she said it, she couldn’t help hoping he had a magic reason ready for why this time would be different. A too-familiar lump formed in her throat.

  She’d picked a helluva time for this discussion.

  “Just like that, you’re through?” he asked, his gaze unflinching, unreadable.

  “The whole reason for this nanny experiment was to gain closure, since we would be working together. That’s unlikely now.” She clenched her hands in front of her, resisting the urge to shout at him to fight for her. “The money isn’t there for your work to be implemented with our company.”

  “You want me to take the research elsewhere?” Still, he didn’t touch her. Didn’t deny what she’d said about them.

  He took a step closer, as if he might reach for her. Her heart fluttered.

  Yes. Perhaps now. Was this the start of the fight for her? He didn’t draw any nearer; his arms dangled at his sides.

  “Of course I don’t.” She bit her lip, tears welling. Not that she would let them fall. If she cried, he would try to comfort her and that would only make this tougher. “But it’s your life’s work. Business is business. Delaney will probably join you, anyway.”

  A flash of pain shot through his eyes, the first sign this was hurting him, too. “We are more than the sum of our work.” He rested his hands on her shoulders, that touch she’d craved. His fingertips felt at once foreign and familiar. “This isn’t about business. This is about you and me and the kids being a family.”

  “A family.” Her breath hitched on the word, her emotions churning as he offered that morsel of hope. Still, she couldn’t ignore the gut-deep fear that he was using her and her daughters as substitutes for what he’d lost before. There’d been no evidence to the contrary. Naomi could not divorce her lawyer sensibilities in this manner. “You say this is about being a family. Where does being a couple fit in?”

  “You and the girls are a package deal.”

  True, but she wanted more from him. Needed more from him. “I should be grateful you aren’t running screaming in the opposite direction from a single mom with newborn twins.” Her voice rose with each word. She flattened her palms on his chest. Feeling so emotionally vulnerable after making love to him, she had to fight against putting up a wall, and his prickliness was enough to send her into Fort Knox mode. “Silly me, wanting to hear I’m someone’s soul mate.”

  “Is that what you want from me?” he asked—rather than reassuring her.

  “I want you to want it,” she said, defeat already weighing her down. Knowing the path from here would be harder, more painful than what they’d tread before. She was not a replacement. Not a transferable part in a design.

  And yes, he wanted to be there for the girls. But did he love her?

  The fact that he’d referred to them as a package deal dealt a blow to her heart. It’d been run through by a broadsword. Confirming her fears that she, Mary and Anna were stand-ins for a life he would never recover.

  Naomi couldn’t make him understand how she felt. She couldn’t make him want the here, the now, and not just another round at the back then.

  “I want us to help each other thrive as a team.�
� She choked on the words as she pushed them past what felt like lead in her throat. “And all I see is the ways I hold you back from being who you’re meant to be.”

  His hands fell away from her and he stepped back. Lips thinned into a line, and his deep brown eyes full of anger and sparks. “And I see you’re no different than when we first met. Too afraid to risk your heart.” He grabbed his parka and snapped for his dog. Tessie obediently leaped to her feet, already moving with speed toward the staircase. “Don’t bother trying to drag out this argument any longer. I’ll save you the trouble.”

  Without another word, he left her. No arguing. No fighting for her. Not even attempting to say what she wanted—needed—to hear. He’d initially said he wanted closure. And they’d gotten it.

  She’d just been hiding from the truth. That the only closure she wanted was a fresh start to be with the man she loved.

  And judging by the set of Royce’s rigid shoulders as he walked away, that was never going to happen.

  Twelve

  Naomi had never felt less like going to work than today.

  Reading over notes before her meeting with Glenna and Royce, she struggled for focus. Thank goodness her father and Jeannie were able to watch the twins for her. They were even going out of their way to bring them to her this afternoon, so she could nurse the babies then take them to their wellness checkup at the pediatrician’s office.

  Words on the printouts blurred. Her heart was in tatters from just a week away from Royce. They hadn’t spoken since he’d left, and even if he’d called, she wouldn’t have known what to say. Of course, she hadn’t called him, either. The grief of this breakup overshadowed their other, the depth of what she’d lost so much more tangible.

  But one foot in front of the other... She had to be here today for this meeting about the pipeline financing. Her children were in good hands. She’d hired a day nanny, who was basically watching Jack and Jeannie fawn over the twins. Still, Naomi couldn’t help but recall the synergy of working with Royce to have the girls here at the office...