Billion dollar baby bargain.txt

by Неизвестный

dominating.

  “Anne’s very good with Dylan,” she conceded. She felt the day brighten when Connor grinned at her.

  “Let’s take Dylan out today to celebrate his recovery,” he suggested as he reached for a slice of toast.

  “Today?”

  Dismayed, Victoria stared at him. She’d intended to wash her hair while Dylan had his morning nap.

  The week had sped past, and between work and Dylan she’d hardly had a moment to call her own. She

  hadn’t even had an opportunity to try out the large bath with jets in the guest en suite bathroom.

  Connor’s face hardened. “I’ll take him to the zoo alone—and you can go to work.”

  Annoyance ignited within her. This was his idea of a truce? “I had no intention of working this weekend.

  And the zoo sounds fantastic. I just wanted an hour to—” washing her hair sounded so self-indulgent

  and would no doubt unleash more contempt “—to take a shower.”

  “How about I feed Dylan and keep him out of your hair for an hour and we leave a little later?”

  “That would be wonderful.” She beamed at Connor, her heart lighter than it had been for weeks. “Thank

  you.”

  Two lionesses lolled about on their backs like giant kittens on a grassy hillock, revealing creamy

  tummies to the delighted crowd that had taken advantage of the sunny day to visit the zoo.

  Dylan gurgled in his pushchair and several children shrieked as one of the lionesses rolled over lithely

  and rose to her feet, before padding to the edge of the moat that divided the big cats from the spectators.

  After the giant feline had finished drinking and had flopped down on a sunny rock, Connor and Victoria

  meandered farther along the path, Connor pushing the baby’s loaded buggy, to where two elephants

  picked at a hay net with their trunks.

  Connor glanced over at Victoria. Since they’d gotten to the zoo she’d attracted a fair amount of second

  looks. With her hair as sleek and shiny in the sunlight as polished mahogany and her hazel eyes alight

  with excitement, she looked happier than he’d ever seen her.

  And, dammit, she was downright gorgeous.

  To get his attention off the way her white denim skirt clung to her posterior, Connor swept Dylan out of

  his pushchair and held him high.

  “See the elephants, Dylan?” Victoria pointed and her buttoned yellow cardigan pulled taut across her

  breasts.

  Connor stifled a groan and his hands involuntarily tightened on the baby, who muttered a protest and

  wriggled in Connor’s arms.

  “Sorry, mate.”

  But Dylan had already stilled at the sight of the huge pachyderms as the nearest elephant flapped its ears.

  A chortle escaped—the sound of baby delight.

  Connor laughed aloud and his eyes caught Victoria’s over Dylan’s head. For a second they shared a pure

  joy. Then Dylan began to bump up and down in Connor’s arms in excitement.

  “Whoa, that’s an elephant, Dyl. He’s too big to pick a fight with.”

  “Size doesn’t matter,” said Victoria.

  Connor shot her a glance. Nope, she wouldn’t hold back against a bigger opponent.

  High color flagged her cheeks. “Sorry, that came out wrong. What I meant to say was that Dylan should

  never let himself be intimidated.”

  His mouth twitching, Connor cocked his head to one side and considered her. “So you’re conceding size

  does count?”

  She gave him a quick up-down look and Connor waited for the acid comeback. Instead he encountered

  eyes filled with flustered nervousness.

  He’d unsettled her. Score to him.

  Connor grinned inwardly.

  She blinked rapidly. “I’m just saying the giant doesn’t always win—remember David and Goliath.”

  He swept his gaze slowly over her. “You don’t look like any David I’ve ever met.”

  She made a sound of mock disgust. Connor threw back his head and laughed, and a moment later, to his

  astonishment, Victoria joined in.

  He held out a hand to her. “Let’s go see the otters.”

  To his surprise she reached for his hand, her fingers linking through his, the pushchair trailing in her

  other hand. Heat bolted through him and all laughter vanished as he looked at her—really looked at her

  —with a shaken sense of never having seen her before.

  Then Dylan butted him, claiming his attention, and Connor came back to reality with a thump.

  Later Victoria helped Connor lay a rug down on the freshly mown grass in front of an empty bandstand

  near a lake with ducks and swans. Connor rolled on his back, pulling Dylan onto his chest while Victoria

  knelt beside him and reached for the picnic basket they’d brought along.

  It was all so domestic.

  And most amazing of all, she and Connor hadn’t argued once.

  He was holding Dylan above him on outstretched arms, making airplane noises. Laughter lines crinkled

  his cheeks. God, he was gorgeous.

  An unwanted echo of that moment when their eyes had locked—of the scintillating awareness that had

  sizzled earlier—sent a frisson through her.

  No.

  She was not falling into that trap. Connor was her coguardian, not a prospective date. She daren’t start

  finding him attractive.

  Looking away, she rummaged into the basket and pulled out a container of sandwiches that Moni had

  prepared.

  The thud on her back took her breath away. Her eyes shot open in time to see a football rolling along the

  blanket and a pair of sneakers following in swift pursuit. Boyish hands scooped the ball up.

  “Jordan, apologize at once!”

  “Sorry.” A sheepish grin appeared from beneath a baseball cap. “Won’t do it again.” A singsong note of

  overuse under-lay the words.

  Her breath back, Victoria suppressed the urge to call him a name—or worse, grin at him and condone

  the carelessness. “Perhaps kick the ball the other way.”

  Connor sat up beside her, perching Dylan on his knee, and gave the boy a level stare.

  “No, I’ve already told Jordan that he’s not to lose a fifty-dollar ball in the tiger’s cage.” A harriedlooking

  woman with red hair standing up in spikes had appeared. “You have to be more careful, boy.”

  But Jordan was already gone, zigzagging over the lawn, dribbling the ball ahead of him.

  “Kids.” The woman rolled her eyes. Then she added, “At least yours is still harmless. Enjoy him while

  you can. It gets worse.”

  Victoria started to correct the redhead, to tell her that Dylan wasn’t their baby. Then she stopped herself.

  It was just too hard to explain.

  So she smiled instead. “We will.”

  “Your baby’s very cute.”

  Dylan gurgled and blew a raspberry on cue.

  “Thanks.”

  Jordan’s mother shifted her attention to Connor. “He’s going to have his mother’s goldy-brown eyes and

  his father’s dimples.”

  “I’m sure you’re right,” Connor said politely.

  Victoria could’ve kissed him for silently standing by her decision to say as little as possible.

  Victoria had laughed with Suzy in the past when complete strangers had told short, blonde, bubbly Suzy

  how much the newborn Dylan looked like her—not realizing he didn’t possess any of Suzy’s DNA.

  Now the memory made her ache with loneliness.

  “I’d better find Jordan before he wrecks the place.” The redhead scanned the surroundings until she

  found her son. “Or lands in the pond with
the goldfish!” She gave them a rueful smile. “I made the

  mistake of having only one—so when he doesn’t have a friend, guess who has to play with him?” She

  thrust a thumb at her chest. “Me. Don’t do what I did. Make sure you have another kid to keep yours

  company.”

  Victoria fidgeted, uncomfortably hot at the too-tempting idea of creating a baby with Connor.

  Thankfully, Jordan’s mother didn’t seem to expect a reply; she simply wiggled her fingers at Dylan

  before vanishing in Jordan’s wake.

  After what seemed an age Victoria couldn’t bear the tingling silence any longer. Unable to help herself,

  she turned her head. And instantly wished she’d resisted the lure.

  Connor was staring at her with predatory speculation, and the normally cool eyes simmered with heat.

  Her heart skipped a beat.

  Victoria pulled herself together. It was up to her to defuse this sexual tension, and as rapidly as possible.

  She chose to do so with humor. “Poor Jordan. What on earth is his mother going to tell his girlfriends

  one day?”

  Connor flung his head back and laughed. And the strange, heavy ache below her heart expanded, filling

  her with a yearning she’d never expected.

  The day ended all too soon.

  After securing Dylan in the backseat, Connor held the Maserati’s passenger door open for Victoria. And

  found himself staring at her legs with all the frustrated hunger of a university student eager for his first

  lay.

  They were nice legs. Encased in opaque winter stockings, they were shapely, too. So why the hell hadn’t

  he noticed them before?

  Probably because he’d never seen them. She usually wore black trousers, or long skirts in neutral colors.

  Black, navy or gray. She never wore a denim skirt that rode up.

  Like now.

  But he shouldn’t feel this…desperate…about stroking them.

  She cleared her throat. “You can shut the door.”

  Caught.

  “Sorry.” He shook his head sheepishly. “Don’t know what I was thinking.”

  She gave him an old-fashioned look. He shrugged and decided to try for some damage control. He didn’t

  need her knowing how she’d tied him into damned Gordian knots. “So I’ve always been a bit of a leg

  man—blame a male’s basic instincts.”

  “Control those instincts.” But she laughed, flushing a little. “You’ve spent too long around the animals

  today, I think.”

  “Perhaps,” he conceded.

  If she only knew how much testosterone her spontaneous smile and slender body had unleashed, she’d

  be running for the hills—with him in hot pursuit.

  He closed the door with a snap and strode around to the driver’s side.

  A stolen sideways glance revealed that despite Dylan’s inquisitive fingers her hair was still sleek. Yet

  sometime during the day she’d lost the faint tension that always seemed to cling to her. It must be the

  fact that a smile had never been far from her lips.

  It wasn’t something she did often enough.

  He fired up the Maserati and pulled out onto the road. “Tired?” he asked as he stopped for a red light.

  “Exhausted.”

  He pushed the gearshift into neutral and turned his head. “At least I’m not alone in that.”

  The smile she gave him caused his groin to tighten.

  “But it was worth it,” she said. “Thanks. It was a great idea.”

  Connor told himself to keep it light. “Zoos were created for adults.”

  She tilted her head. “Why do you say that?”

  “Didn’t you notice the amount of newborns and young babies? All those parents have been waiting

  years to legitimately get back into a zoo, bitterly regretting the day they told their parents that thirteen

  made them too cool for kiddie outings.”

  She laughed.

  Then she ruined his pleasure by pointing out, “The lights have changed.”

  “Thanks.” Connor put the car into gear and accelerated smoothly away.

  “You could be right. I think most of the parents there today were having more fun than the kids.” She

  leaned her head back on the headrest. “Dylan certainly slept through a good part of the day.”

  And it had been during those spells that he’d been tempted to give in to the devilish urge to kiss her. Hot

  memories of the last time he’d kissed her—when she’d almost ended up totally naked on his lap—had

  kept him awake more than one night since she’d moved in. But he’d resisted it, fearing he might destroy

  the delicate truce that had developed between them.

  “I had fun,” he murmured finally.

  “Me, too.”

  Her voice was smiling. Connor wished he could take his eyes from the road to study her, to see if the

  corners of her mouth had tipped up into that irresistible curve.

  Okay, he wanted her. There. He’d admitted it. He wanted to soak himself in the scent of her, wanted to

  sate himself in her body.

  So where did that leave him?

  Connor started through the options with relentless efficiency. He would have to invest time in this—

  Victoria wouldn’t accept anything less, he was certain of that.

  Yet he couldn’t possibly have an affair with Dylan’s coguardian. Somewhere down the line it would all

  turn to custard, and Dylan would be the one to suffer.

  He thought back to earlier in the afternoon when Jordan’s mother had mistaken them for a couple. And

  Dylan for his baby…

  It didn’t mean a thing.

  Because she’d also assumed Victoria was Dylan’s mother.

  A glance in the rearview mirror showed Dylan snoozing in the backseat of the Maserati, his dark-gray

  eyes closed, his cheeks pink and his mouth open in an O.

  Goldy-brown eyes. The woman was a kook.

  Victoria bore no resemblance to Dylan at all. They weren’t even related. But they could be…if he

  married her.

  Because then she’d be the wife of Dylan’s sperm-donor father.

  He tightened his hands around the steering wheel. God, how had this gotten so complicated? It made his

  head go numb.

  But not nearly as badly as the desire that made him crave to get Victoria into his bed, under his body—

  “We should do it again sometime.”

  “What?” His voice went rough with want. Could she have read his carnal thoughts?

  “Visit the zoo again.”

  Of course she couldn’t read his thoughts. He blew out in relief. “Yes, yes, we must.”

  He could marry her—the crazy thought leapt back into his mind and just as quickly he banished it. He

  didn’t want to marry the woman. Hell, he hadn’t wanted to marry Dana, either. Victoria was just as

  career-minded—nothing like the kind of woman he wanted to live with for the rest of his life.

  Except his libido refused to agree.

  After putting the baby into his night suit on Sunday night, Victoria settled down to feed him his bottle in

  the spacious rocking chair that had been delivered to the nursery yesterday while they’d been out at the

  zoo.

  Yesterday.

  She glanced across to Connor where he sat perched on the love seat opposite her, riffling through a pile

  of picture books on the floor in front of him.

  Yesterday she’d discovered a side to Connor that she’d never known existed. A warm, fun, funny side.

  But as soon as they’d gotten home Connor had disappeared, and today she’d barely seen him. She was

  starting to think h
e must be avoiding her.

  Yet here he was acting as though everything was normal.

  Victoria decided she’d never fathom the man out.

  He seemed impervious to her disquiet as he picked up a picture book and held it up, saying, “This one,

  don’t you think, big guy?”

  Dylan sucked more fiercely on the bottle.

  “Good taste, son.”

  Connor flipped open the first page. Despite his deep voice, he read with a soft, easy rhythm that was

  curiously soothing. By the time he’d reached the end of the board book, Dylan’s eyelids had fallen and

  Victoria was feeling easier…almost sleepy.

  Setting the book on the pile beside the love seat, Connor stretched his arms above his head. “I’ve been

  thinking.”

  The warm, fuzzy feeling receded. Victoria opened her eyes in time to see him rise to his feet. She

  regarded him warily as tension zapped through her. “About?”

  He looked remote, powerful and somewhat alien, standing across from her with his hands on his hips.

  Was he about to tell her that he’d reconsidered their unconventional custody arrangement—that she

  should go home? Or was he going to demand she give up work to stay home with Dylan? She’d been

  dreading that.

  She told herself Connor couldn’t force her to do anything she didn’t want to do.

  But imperceptibly her muscles grew taut.

  He hesitated only for an instant. “I think we should get married.”

  “What?”

  Dylan stirred in her arms and she rocked him hurriedly. “Where did that come from?” she whispered

  fiercely to Connor.

  “It will make it much easier for Dylan,” he said in a low voice, crossing the space between them and

  staring down at the baby who slept so peacefully in the crook of her arm. “And do away with the

  constant need for explanations.”

  “This is because of the woman at the zoo yesterday?”

  He spread his hands out wide. “Her mistake was understandable and it’s going to happen more and

  more, particularly if we’re living together.”

  Victoria couldn’t believe she hadn’t blurted out no to his proposal straight away. Until a few days ago

  there’d always been hostile tension between them. They’d never gotten along, and she’d spent two years