by Tessa Radley
“She only wanted what any wife would expect—your time and your love.”
Dropping his hand, Nick slanted her a mocking stare. “Not quite. She wanted a baby—a totally different thing. Clearly she had already put in place an elaborate plan to switch the recipient of…”
“Your sperm,” Candace added helpfully.
“Exactly.”
“It’s hard to believe you didn’t know.” Candace’s head was whirling as she tried to process everything Nick had told her. “I signed contracts…” Her voice trailed away. “You must’ve signed them, too.”
His face said it all. “If there is a signature there, I’m sure an expert would pronounce it a forgery.”
“Why did she go to such lengths?” It puzzled Candace. “Did she hope you’d spend more time with her if there was a baby in the house?”
“You know nothing about what my wife expected. And she’s dead now, so it’s all in the past. But, believe me, our marriage should never have taken place.” Nick changed the subject. “But now I have to start accepting that Jennie came from your womb. Did the egg belong to you—” Nick paused “—or was there another donor I don’t know about involved?”
Candace had to feel pity as she watched him grappling with the enormity of his discovery. “The egg was mine—and I carried Jennie in my womb. That’s why I am her biological mother.”
“Biological mother?” Nick swore. “Your egg was fertilized by—” He broke off.
“Your sperm.” Candace added the words as clinically at she could. She was a nurse. She worked with babies all the time, knew where they came from. Nothing about this was foreign to her. So why did she feel as if she stood on the edge of a whole new dimension?
This time Nick said politely but with far more force, “Hell.” He shook his head again as if to clear it. “I still can’t believe Jilly planned this.” He paused, his face hardening. “I should be thankful, I suppose, that she bothered to use my sperm.”
Beneath his anger Candace could sense his hurt and confusion. She touched his arm. “Nick, I really don’t think there was a lover. Jilly told me you were soul mates. She wanted your baby. Desperately. That’s why I had to undergo DNA confirmation after Jennie’s birth—she wanted to be sure the baby was yours.”
An indecipherable emotion flickered across Nick’s face—guilt perhaps?—and then it was gone. “Jilly certainly didn’t ask my permission to take a sample for DNA for matching—assuming she took one.”
“Oh, she had a sample, the test confirmed you were my baby’s father. It could’ve been your toothbrush…a hair from your brush…as long as it had your DNA on it.”
“Anything Jilly wanted Jilly got—and the hell with what it cost.”
There was a savage note in his voice that warned Candace this was about much more than Jilly taking tissue samples without his knowledge. Candace got the impression that Nick was a man who had been pushed to the brink of his endurance.
And that conviction only grew when he added grimly, “I’m still going to need proof before I accept that I’m Jennie’s father.”
The axis of Nick’s world had tilted.
He was grateful for the string of meetings that kept him occupied the following morning. Yet his mind kept buzzing with questions to which he had no answers: Why hadn’t Jilly told him about her infertility? How could Jilly have arranged a surrogate and fooled him so easily? And, more importantly, what was he going to do about Candace?
There was one final question that was the easiest to resolve…was Jennie his daughter? Deep in his heart he knew it didn’t matter, because either way she was his. The blood tie no longer mattered.
But there was something very seductive about the idea that part of him and part of Candace had merged to produce the little girl who was fast becoming the most important person in his life.
At midday, a break in his schedule gave Nick the opportunity to visit the doctor. Within twenty-four hours he’d know for sure whether Jennie was his child or not. Once a swab had been taken and bagged, he headed the Ferrari to Valentine’s Garden Center and walked down to the lake. The grassy edge was crowded with preening ducks—the ducks that had so intrigued his Jennie—while the trio of trouble-causing geese stood in the lee of a nearby willow tree.
Damn birds didn’t know what they’d unleashed. Nick knew he had his work cut out to convince Candace that he was perfectly capable of caring for Jennie. That he wasn’t the unfit father she’d pegged him as.
The question of what he was going to do about Candace remained unresolved.
If Nick was honest with himself, he knew precisely what he wanted to do with Candace. He wanted to take her to his bed, slake this restless need that vibrated through him—the hunger and desire that sent his thoughts winging her way at the most inopportune moments. Thoughts that had him fantasizing about pulling her to him, covering her mouth with his and…
Hell, why not call it what it was? He wanted to cover her body with his, and he hardly cared whether he got her naked or not. All he cared about was possessing her—every inch of her creamy flesh. Touching her, tasting her, making her his.
Yet if he did that, he’d be left with the biggest headache of all. Nick wasn’t certain that if he took Candace in every way he dreamed, he’d be left intact. Would the burning passion consume more of his sense of self than he was willing to risk?
Then there was the impact a hot, reckless affair with Candace would have on the baby. Would it jeopardize his relationship with Jennie?
Yet this was hardly the kind of question Nick could bring himself to ask his lawyer.
The call from Apple Orchards Rest Home came just after Candace had fed Jennie her lunch in the garden on a picnic blanket overlooking the ocean.
Candace’s mother had suffered a fall, the kindly rest home director explained, once she’d allayed Candace’s fears of the worst. Nothing was broken—the x-ray had confirmed that. But her mother had been badly shaken.
Candace promised to come at once.
Terminating the call, Candace considered Jennie, who’d crawled to the edge of the picnic rug, her hand reaching for a cluster of tiny white daisies that had sprung up in the immaculately kept lawn.
In principle, today was Candace’s day off. She hadn’t taken time off because she’d wanted to stay close to Jennie in the wake of the confrontation with Nick. To be truthful, despite the confirmation that she was Jennie’s biological mother, an unreasoning fear lingered that if she left the property she might not be able to gain access again.
Candace knew she was overreacting.
Yet it was impossible to forget that bone-chilling moment outside the café when Nick had told her he was taking Jennie home and she could collect her paycheck from his office.
In her mind Candace had seen the tall gates of the Valentine mansion closing to her forever. She’d known it would be impossible to get back into Jennie’s world once she’d been shut out…and that primal fear lingered. Enough for her to have decided against visiting her mother today. But now her mom had taken a fall.
The guilt was hard to shake.
Candace knew Mrs. Busby was more than capable of looking after the baby for a few hours while she checked on her mom. Yet she hesitated. Mrs. Busby had her own responsibilities. Wednesday was the day she planned the week’s meals and did the shopping. Candace hated the thought of throwing Mrs. Busby’s schedule off. Nor did she want to arouse the housekeeper’s curiosity. To raise questions Candace didn’t want to be forced to answer…
The alternative course was to leave Jennie with Alison. But that was quickly ruled out when she learned that Alison had gone with her husband to an urgent meeting. Turning her attention back to the baby, now with a fistful of daisies, Candace considered Jennie. A smear of apple puree on her chin had Candace reaching for a cloth. The baby laughed as Candace wiped it, and love for Jennie swept through her.
There was no other choice. She’d take Jennie with her to check on her mother, because she had no inte
ntion of asking her baby’s father for help. Ever since yesterday, she’d been plagued by unwanted images, her body prickling with unwelcome awareness of the man who was starting to consume far too much of her thoughts. He was Jennie’s father, for heaven’s sake. He could never be her lover…
She could not allow herself to need Nick Valentine.
Eight
“Mrs. Timmings is here to see you.”
Nick glanced up at his PA. Alison had been remarkably patient—he’d been expecting to hear from her long before this. His sister had always had an overwhelming interest in his life…and the bombshell he’d dropped about Candace announcing she was Jennie’s mother would’ve been driving Alison crazy.
He knew he should’ve contacted her and told her the outcome of the DNA tests. Alison would’ve expected it of him.
With a mental sigh he said, “I’ll be with her in a minute.”
His sister appeared in the doorway behind Pauline. “Too late. I’m already here.”
Nick mentally braced himself for the scolding to come. “How are you, Alison?”
She settled herself in one of the four chairs arranged around a table in a sunny spot in front of the glass wall looking out over the lake and parklands beyond.
Getting up from the black leather executive chair behind his desk, Nick crossed to the table where his sister sat and pulled out the chair beside her.
“Not good. Richard has received notice from the NorthPark Mall Group that our appliance stores have to move out of all their shopping centers.”
Nick gave her a sharp look, his already overloaded brain whirling with this new setback. But at least Alison wasn’t asking about Candace…or Jennie.
“Have you and Richard defaulted on a payment?” he asked.
Alison hesitated. “One…”
“You should’ve come to me, Allie. I would’ve helped you.” He should’ve offered. But he’d never realized his sister and brother-in-law’s chain of appliance stores was in quite so precarious a financial state.
“You know how proud Richard is—he wouldn’t take help. But it wasn’t that we couldn’t afford to pay the rent.” Alison looked utterly miserable. “Oh, Nick, it was all my fault. We changed banks because we managed to get a more favorable rate on our home loan, but part of the arrangement was that Richard had to transfer the business accounts there, too.”
Nick nodded. “That’s pretty standard.”
“But I forgot to give the bank the authority to deduct the rent to NorthPark. I only found out when I checked the bank statements the day after the payment was supposed to go through that it had bounced.” She gave a helpless shrug. “No one from the bank even called to let me know before they’d bounced the check. Our old bank would’ve called first.”
“That’s the price of change—it takes time to build a relationship with a bank.” Nick thought about the irony of his observation. He had better relationships with his own bank than he’d ever had with his dead wife.
But Jilly wouldn’t have been his wife if he hadn’t been forced into marrying her.
Too late to dwell on that. Nick focused his thoughts back on his sister’s predicament. “You spoke to the NorthPark Mall Group? Paid the late rent?”
“Of course.” She nodded. “And I thought it was all sorted out. Then the letter came from their lawyers. I called and they told me we’d breached the contract so the group was exercising their right to terminate. Richard checked with our lawyers and they can do it.”
“Seems odd that they’d be so eager to evict you,” said Nick. “It’s not easy to get new tenants for the kind of floor space you occupy. Especially in this economy. Is there something else you’re not telling me?”
“No—we’ve been model tenants in all the shopping centers NorthPark owns.”
“Hmm.” Nick’s mind was racing.
“Richard has started looking for new space in other malls, but it’s going to be hard to match the deal we had and find premises that are one hundred percent suitable. It’s scary—we might actually have to shut down some of the stores. Oh, Nick, I should’ve been more organized!”
There was nothing he could say to make Alison feel better. Rising to his feet, Nick went around the table and gave her a clumsy hug.
She hugged him back and sniffed. “You’re being so nice—you’re going to make me cry.”
“I’m always nice.”
“Not really—you’re usually distant. No, don’t withdraw and ruin it all,” she said hastily as he straightened up. “I just want you to know I’m so grateful you didn’t tell me it’s all my fault.”
“How would that help?”
She made a sound that was half laugh, half sob. “Oh, Nick, that sounds more like you.” She looked up at him, a small smile curving her lips. “I’m glad you’re my brother—you know that?”
He shrugged.
“How are things?”
Nick looked away. “Fine.”
“You’re not going to tell me about Candace…about her claim that Jennie is her daughter?” His sister was quivering with curiosity.
“Will you let me rest until I do?”
“Probably not. I’ve left you alone all week—I didn’t want to be nosy.” She paused. “Nick, did you have an affair with her?”
That offended him. “No! I suppose I’m going to have to get used to that kind of reaction. You’re my sister, and if you thought that, then it won’t be the last time it comes up.”
“If you didn’t have an affair with her, then she can’t possibly be Jennie’s mother.”
“Wrong again.” He smiled wryly. “Turns out Jilly faked her pregnancy and engaged a surrogate.”
“A surrogate?” Alison’s eyes popped. “Candace?”
Nick nodded.
“So Candace was telling the truth? She is Jennie’s mother?”
“That’s the way it looks.” His tests hadn’t come back yet, but Candace’s voice had held a persuasive conviction when she’d told him that Jilly had made sure Jennie was his. But Nick wasn’t ready to concede that until he had hard proof.
His sister placed her elbows on the table. “She must’ve planned to get into your home.”
Nick considered his sister. As much as he wanted to agree, it was unlikely that Candace could’ve managed to orchestrate that. Nor did he believe that she was the conniving type.
Unlike his late wife.
“I don’t think that would’ve been possible. Not unless she could’ve played a role in Jennie’s ear infection—and I think you’ll agree that’s impossible.”
“But she would’ve recognized Jennie’s name when we came into the emergency room that night.”
Nick nodded. “Granted.”
“And she didn’t hesitate to take advantage.”
He didn’t want to defend Candace, but he couldn’t stop himself from saying, “Perhaps she was curious.”
Alison considered him. “I imagine you’re right. What woman wouldn’t be? Her baby… A mother would want to know that she was okay. And I made it simple for her. The boys were giving me such a hard time that afternoon…”
She sucked in her cheeks, making her look even more harried. “She was so easy to talk to, so interested in the boys…and Jennie. I told her all about Margaret leaving us high and dry. That’s when she said she wouldn’t be averse to working as a nanny for a while because she didn’t have a full-time job. I’m so sorry, Nick.”
When he didn’t respond, she dropped her head into her hands. “I don’t seem to be able to stop screwing up at the moment, do I?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Awkwardly he patted her shoulder. Staring over his sister’s head into the courtyard outside, he asked with studied casualness, “Did you mention that I was overseas?”
Her head came up. “I probably did.”
That would’ve sealed Candace’s conviction that Jennie needed her. But there was no point in telling his sister the problem she had unwittingly caused.
“So what have you de
cided to do?” Alison asked.
Trust her to get to the crux of his problem. “I don’t know.” Yet.
It wasn’t like him to be indecisive. Vacillation went against his character. But he had Jennie to think about—what he wanted had to be best for Jennie, too.
“It could’ve been worse,” Alison was saying.
“Worse?” What did his sister mean? As far as Nick was concerned, it had gotten as bad as it could.
“Jilly could’ve picked a real loser, like the kinds of friends she picked. Candace is cool—as my sons would say.” Alison rose to her feet and gathered up her bag. “I might pop in on the way home to see how she’s coping with all this. Thanks for listening to my woes, Nicky—I’m feeling a lot better already.”
What his sister meant was that she was going to try to build a bridge with the woman who might prove to be necessary to Jennie. Nick knew he should be thinking like that, too.
But he was still struggling with the idea of Candace as Jennie’s mother. All he could think of was Candace as a woman—the one he’d held in his arms, the one he’d kissed…the one he was dying to seduce.
A sexy angel he couldn’t wait to see again.
Work be damned.
“You know what?” He forced a half smile. “I don’t seem to be able to concentrate today. I might come with you—blow the cobwebs from my brain.”
Nick ignored the shock on his sister’s face. First Pauline, now Alison. He hadn’t become that much of a workaholic, had he?
Her mother was already back from the hospital, relaxing in her room at Apple Orchards Rest Home when Candace and Jennie arrived. She looked pale and tired.
“How are you feeling, Mom?”
“I’ve had better days.” Catherine Morrison’s mouth twitched into a smile and Candace wanted to applaud her mother’s bravery.
“I’ve brought someone to meet you,” she said instead. She bent over the stroller and unclipped the straps. “This is Jennie.”
