by Joss Wood
It was typical Mick, Piper thought. He always had a backup plan, a way to cover his ass. Even in death, he came first. Selfish bastard.
While she could live with losing the paintings and a couple of pieces of furniture, she couldn’t handle losing her house. Thanks to Jaeger, she wouldn’t have to. Resolved to get back into the attic and to contact the few relatives left on her mother’s side to see if they knew anything about her great-uncle—without mentioning the stones—and whether they had any family papers, Piper turned and walked into the dark living room.
In the light spilling from the hall, she saw Jaeger lying on her couch, one foot on the floor and his other bent leg resting on the cushions. Her son—their son—was sprawled over Jaeger’s broad chest, his mouth a scant inch from Jaeger’s strong neck. One of Jaeger’s hands covered Ty’s small back. His other arm was firmly under the baby’s little butt.
Piper sat on the table next to the couch and looked at her son and his father. Two peas in a pod, she thought, examining their faces.
She should tell Jaeger, Piper thought. He had a right to know, and if she was a better, braver person, she would share the miracle of her son with this man.
But...there were so many buts.
If she wanted to tell Jaeger about Ty, then she would have to come clean about why she’d felt she needed to keep the secret in the first place. She’d have to tell him about Mick, her illegitimacy, and admit that her mother was her father’s lifelong mistress and Piper was the daughter he never wanted.
If it came out that she was Mick’s daughter, his bad reputation would taint hers and could badly damage her career. Her client’s faith in her would be tested—the apple didn’t fall far from the tree and all that.
If she told Jaeger about Ty, she’d have to trust him on all levels. Trust him to keep her paternity to himself. Trust him to understand why it was so important to her that Ty have an involved father, or no father at all.
Trust him to be that kind of father for Ty.
She really liked Jaeger—hell, she was halfway to falling in love with him! He was funny and smart and generous and hot. Any woman with a pulse would fall a little in love with Jaeger. Maybe he wouldn’t care that she was Mick’s daughter. Maybe he would understand her reasons, and maybe he would even like Ty. But none of those reactions would change the fact that Jaeger didn’t want children.
When Jaeger recovered from the shock of the truth, what sort of dad would he be? Would he ignore Ty for the rest of his life? Would he be a half-there dad, visiting Ty when he felt like it? Would he be the type of parent who bought expensive presents instead of spending time with him?
Ty needed Jaeger to be fully involved, to love him with everything he had. He needed to be the most important person in Jaeger’s life. Ty deserved everything a father could give, and she wouldn’t accept anything less than amazing for her son. She would not allow Ty to spend his life questioning his father’s love, second-guessing himself, wondering why his dad chose his career and his freedom above his son.
Not happening. Not to Ty.
Jaeger didn’t want a family, didn’t want children.
Ty needed, deserved, a crazy-about-him dad.
But still...didn’t Jaeger deserve to know?
God, she was so confused. Her heart and brain were at odds, and she really didn’t know what to do.
He’s only been back in your life, in Ty’s life, for a week. You don’t need to make this decision now.
Piper latched on to the thought. So much had happened, she kept forgetting Jaeger had reentered her life only a week ago today; she was allowed to slow down, to take a breath. She was feeling emotional and stressed. It was very late. She didn’t need to deal with this now.
Piper watched as Jaeger’s eyes opened. He yawned and turned his head, his eyes connecting with hers. Desire flared, and Piper felt the moisture drying up in her mouth. The special spot between her legs started to tingle, and she briefly wished his mouth was licking her to a fiery orgasm. He would be naked, she would be naked and she would climb on top of him...
“Hey, how was the exhibition?” Jaeger asked in a sexy, sleep-roughened voice.
Exhibition? What exhibition? Piper sent him a blank look.
Jaeger lifted an amused eyebrow. “You did go to see Latimore’s latest work, didn’t you?”
Oh, right. Latimore. Sculptures. Sage slapping him.
God, Piper wished she wasn’t so ridiculously attracted to her baby’s father. Earlier she’d stared at one of Latimore’s pieces for more than twenty minutes, because it reminded her of this man.
“Ah, yes. The exhibition was—” Piper hesitated “—interesting.”
Jaeger’s hand moved up Ty’s back to hold his head. Ty, fast asleep, didn’t react. “A good or bad interesting?” Jaeger asked, his voice a low rumble.
“His works were dynamic and flat-out brilliant. Supersexy.”
Jaeger lifted an amused, and interested, eyebrow. “Really?”
“Mmm. There was one piece I couldn’t stop looking at. It reminded me of you...naked.”
Jaeger flashed his heart-stopping smile. “Were you having naughty thoughts about me, Ms. Mills?”
“I was.”
“I like it.”
“I thought you might,” Piper said, her tone dry. “Oh, and Latimore kissed Sage and she slapped him, hard,” Piper reluctantly admitted.
Jaeger’s low laugh surprised her.
Piper frowned at him. “You’re not upset? The incident is going to be breaking news in the morning.”
Jaeger managed a quick shrug. “If you’re worried about being in the news then you have no business being a Ballantyne.” The corners of his mouth kicked up in amusement. “You are dying to know their history, aren’t you?”
She wished she could deny it but...of course she was. “It was a hell of a kiss and a hell of a slap,” Piper admitted. “Anyone would be curious—in fact, rumors were flying—but if it’s a big secret, then I can live without knowing what it is.” She wasn’t a hypocrite. Sage was entitled to keep her past buried, just as Piper was.
“It’s not a big deal,” Jaeger explained. “They had a thing and something went wrong.”
Piper looked at Jaeger, waiting for more. What went wrong? What happened? “That’s it? That’s all you’re going to tell me?”
“Shh.” Jaeger pointed to the sleeping Ty. “That’s all I know because that’s all she told us.”
“And you didn’t pry?”
“Uh, no. She cried, we threatened to kill him, she threatened to kill us if we interfered and Connor told us to stay out of it, so we did.”
Rats, Piper thought. She wouldn’t know anything more than the gossip she’d heard. Damn these Ballantynes for being so damn intriguing, and interesting. And contrary.
Talking about contrary...
“Why is Ty sleeping on your chest and not in his crib?” Piper asked.
Jaeger twisted his neck to look down at Ty, his mouth curving into a grin. “Ah, that. Well, we were drinking beer and smoking cigars and watching a porno horror flick—”
“You were not,” Piper interrupted, unable to keep the amusement out of her voice.
“Okay, we were watching the game, and midway through me explaining how a technical foul worked, he conked out. Blam! Lights out.”
“He’s always done that,” Piper admitted. “He goes flat-out and then drops like a stone.”
“It could be because he motors over the floor like a Formula One racer.”
Piper lifted her hands, not understanding. “What are you talking about?”
“His crawling.”
Piper shook her head. “He isn’t crawling yet.”
“He crawled from the den into the kitchen and spent the evening crawling all over the floor,”
Jaeger said, both hands on Ty as he swung his legs down and sat up in a fluid, easy movement.
“That really sucks,” Piper muttered, standing up.
“Shouldn’t I have let him crawl? Is that a problem?”
Piper heard the worry in Jaeger’s voice, the self-doubt, and her feelings of resentment instantly disappeared. “No, of course not. I would’ve just loved to see him crawl for the first time. It’s a big deal, and I wanted to be here.”
“I’m sorry,” Jaeger said, still holding her sleeping son—their son—in his brawny arms.
“It’s okay.” And it was. Jaeger had missed out on so much; she could give him this moment with Ty. And if she didn’t tell him about Ty, soon, he’d miss out on him walking and talking, his first day at school...
Cool your jets, Mills. It all depended on whether he was prepared to be part of Ty’s life or not.
You weren’t going to think about that again tonight, remember?
Piper stepped forward to take Ty from Jaeger, but Jaeger shook his head. “I’ll put him in his crib if that’s okay.”
“Sure.” Piper nodded and watched as Jaeger left the room, the gift he’d given her in his arms.
As Jaeger stepped into the hallway, Piper saw him duck down to drop a soft kiss on Ty’s head. The gesture of affection made the urge to tell him he was Ty’s father rise within her once more.
It was one kiss, Mills. You can’t spill your guts because of one spontaneous gesture in the middle of the night.
Ty looked angelic. Anyone with a heart would want to kiss his gorgeous face. It didn’t mean Jaeger would be a good dad, that he would be there for Ty every step of the way.
Midnight kisses given to sleeping babies were easy; kisses after grueling days were a lot more difficult to dole out.
It didn’t matter. Jaeger wasn’t going to be around long enough to prove anything to anybody. In a couple of weeks, this would all be over. The stones would be sold, she’d own her house and Jaeger would be on the road again, searching for amazing jewels. The order of the universe would be restored.
If that was what she wanted, what she craved, then why did she feel sick at the thought of a life without Jaeger in it?
Nine
Jaeger placed a kiss in the center of Piper’s back and glanced at the weak sunlight behind the curtains. Piper didn’t stir, so Jaeger pulled back and rested his head in his hand, his other hand sweeping over the smooth, creamy skin of Piper’s back and butt.
He should leave soon, and he knew he should let her sleep, but part of him wanted to wake Piper up and make love to her again. After putting Ty to bed last night, he’d kept her busy until the early hours of this morning. So, yeah, he should let her sleep.
Jaeger released a frustrated sigh and looked around her bedroom. It was full of color—bold, bright jewel tones ranging from the dark teal wall behind him to the scarlet chair in the corner, the multicolored cushions he’d tossed from the bed to the floor before he’d lowered her naked body to the multihued comforter. Her love of art was revealed by a collection of sketches grouped on the far wall and the sexy abstract painting above their heads. It was wild and bright and bold, perfect adjectives to describe his lover.
His temporary lover, Jaeger amended. This wasn’t going anywhere, couldn’t go anywhere. He was in the country only until he’d finalized the deal to buy the Kashmir Blues. To complete the deal, he needed to find something proving where the stones came from and explaining Piper’s connection to the sapphires. After he’d dotted those i’s and crossed those t’s, he was out of here; there were Colombian emeralds to find, deep blue tanzanite to discover in Kenya, alexandrite in Siberia. He had places to visit, stones to buy.
Piper and her very cute kid were not reason enough to stop traveling, to make changes to his life. He really liked Piper and he adored her body—couldn’t seem to get enough of her, actually—but there was something else besides his commitment phobia making him gun-shy.
Piper was like a very fine Zultanite. The rare gemstone had the ability to change from a kiwi green in the sun to a raspberry-purple-pink in candlelight. Like Piper, the stone didn’t stop there. It could also be a dull green and morph into a sage green before changing to a whiskey-shaded pink. Zultanite, like Piper, had a million shades and a dozen secrets.
He needed to know Piper’s secrets, needed to know what she was hiding. Oh, she’d told him a little—just enough, she thought, to satisfy his curiosity. Her eyes reflected her soul and he saw all her colors, and, like Zultanite, each color was a revelation.
Thanks to his missing memory—and his experience with Jess and Andrea—he couldn’t deal in half truths and evasions. Yeah, he knew some of what had happened directly before the accident, but he couldn’t see the full picture, and that scorched his soul.
Thoughts of what he’d missed tortured him. How did he and Piper meet? What did they speak about? It was like looking at a photograph that was out of focus.
He needed details and...
He needed the truth, the whole truth.
Last night, after rocking each other’s world, he’d tried to ask Piper again about Milan, but she’d changed the subject by rolling onto him and kissing her way down his chest, his stomach...
When she’d run her tongue down his erection, talking seemed like a highly overrated activity. This morning he could see her actions more clearly; she’d wanted to distract him and, yeah, sex was a fantastic way to sidetrack the conversation. But she’d shut him down, shut him out. She wasn’t letting him see the full picture...
Why didn’t she trust him? He wanted her to trust him.
But what would he do with that trust? It wasn’t like he could take their relationship any further. He wasn’t prepared to risk his heart on someone who would walk away and take his love with her. That wasn’t part of his plan.
Okay, yeah, being around Ty was curing him of his baby phobia, and he rather enjoyed the little guy, but he knew there was a hell of a difference between babysitting for a night and being an ongoing and consistent part of a kid’s life. Piper was a package deal. If Jaeger wanted her, then he had to take on her kid, too. And...no, he wasn’t up to being a part-time dad.
When his folks died, Connor had jumped into raising Jaeger and his sibs with enthusiasm. He’d never doubted Connor’s love or commitment to them. Jaeger wasn’t prepared to take on a kid unless he could do the same. First because whatever he did, he did properly, and second because doing a half-assed job of parenting would be an insult to Connor’s memory.
If he fell in love with Piper then he had to fall in love with Ty—so easy to do!—and that would mean losing not one but two people he cared for if—when—the deal went south.
Because with love, the deal always went south.
Piper sighed and rolled over, her big eyes widening when she saw him. Her look of confusion was easily interpreted. She wasn’t used to waking up with a man in her bed, and he liked the idea that she didn’t treat sex casually. Yeah, double standards, yada yada. He was a man and he liked knowing no one else slept on her sheets.
“Hey, you’re still here,” Piper said, her voice deeper and sexier.
Jaeger used his index finger to push a curl from the corner of her mouth. “Were you expecting me to leave without saying goodbye?”
“I—um—” Piper glanced at the door as she pushed herself up. Then she glanced down, realized she was naked and yanked the comforter over her breasts.
Jaeger responded by tugging the material down again. “You’re too pretty to be shy.”
Piper just pulled the covers up again and Jaeger let her, wishing she could see herself through his eyes. Messy hair, wide eyes, perfect skin. So hot it hurt.
“I need to check on Ty,” Piper said, sounding flustered.
“He’s fast asleep, Piper. Relax.”
&nbs
p; “But what if he sees you in my bed? What will he think?”
Jaeger grinned. “He’ll high-five me and tell me I scored?” When Piper didn’t smile at his joke, he sighed. “Honey, he’s still a baby. He’s not going to remember a damn thing.”
Piper’s blush started on her chest and inched up her throat. “Sorry. I’m not good at this morning-after stuff.”
Jaeger squeezed her knee as he sat up. “Just relax, okay? It’s all good.” He stood up, walked over to the window and pulled the drape, keeping to the side so he didn’t show the good residents of Brooklyn everything he had to offer. And because he was in Piper’s bed and she was hot, what he had was impressive.
He loved fresh air, so he cracked the window an inch and sighed at the gush of rain-tinged wind drifting into the room. Piper pulled the comforter up around her shoulders and tossed him an are-you-crazy look.
“I’ve spent too many hours in dank, moldy, stuffy caves and tunnels, so fresh air is like perfume to me.”
“City air isn’t the freshest air on the planet,” Piper pointed out.
Jaeger smiled and took another deep breath before closing the window. He walked back to her, told her to scoot over and slid into bed, shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh with her. He felt her tremble, one of those little shudders that rushed through women when they were turned on, and he swallowed his smile. He knew how she felt. All she had to do was breathe and he wanted to slip inside.
“So, what’s on your to-do list today?” Jaeger asked, his hand on her slim thigh. He felt her sharp intake of breath and smiled. Yeah, by the grace of God and sleeping babies, he’d have her again shortly.
“Um, not a lot. I thought I’d take Ty running if it doesn’t rain.”
“He’s just started to crawl, so aren’t you expecting a bit much?”
“I run. He’s in his stroller... Oh, you’re joking,” Piper said, shaking her head. “Sorry, it’s a bit early and I need coffee to wake me up.”
Or you need a man to make you smile more, someone you can laugh with, to tease you. Not that he could be that man, but the thought of another man doing that made him... God, enough!
