The Millionaire's Unexpected Proposal (Entangled Indulgence)

by Jane Peden

  “Are we celebrating?” Camilla asked as JD barreled out into the back, looking for Sam.

  “Sam settled a big case today, so we came home early. You guys didn’t eat yet, did you?”

  “No.” Camilla shook her head. The scent of grilled salmon came wafting in from the terrace and she realized she was starved. It would be the first time the four of them had sat down to a meal together all week, and she could only hope that JD would keep up a running patter so she wouldn’t have to deal with the awkward silences between her and her husband.

  JD was standing beside Sam at the grill, and it struck her again what a perfect miniature replica he was of his father. But it was the inside that mattered, she reminded herself. JD’s sweetness and innocence made his personality worlds apart from his arrogant, cynical, and distrustful father. She’d seen his gentler side with JD and Olivia. But qualities like compassion and forgiveness clearly weren’t anything he was willing to share with her.

  Still, it didn’t turn out to be the awkward evening Camilla had anticipated, and by the time they were finishing up the salmon and starting to think about dessert, she found herself relaxing. Sam’s good mood after settling his case that afternoon seemed to extend even to Camilla. She passed the box of cookies and pastries to him and for once when he smiled at her the warmth in his expression actually seemed to reach his eyes. When JD pointed to a blob of whipped cream on Camilla’s chin and giggled, Sam actually laughed and reached over with a napkin to gently brush it away. For just that moment the connection between them was palpable, and she held her breath. Then Sam leaned back into his chair, pulled JD up onto his lap to tickle him, and Camilla wondered if she had imagined the lessening of the tension between them.

  Setting those thoughts aside, she let herself be caught up in the celebration again. Olivia’s excitement over the day’s events was contagious.

  “Sam was on the phone with the other lawyer and they kept making offers and he kept saying no, he wouldn’t settle for a penny less than policy limits, and they caved. They paid every penny.” She looked at Sam with something akin to hero worship, and Camilla thought, oh great. It was bad enough that JD would suffer when she and Sam got divorced. Now it looked like Olivia would be hurt as well. She’d already been making noises about maybe not returning to her school in the fall—she’d been looking at websites for some high schools in the Miami area that offered a music concentration. It wasn’t that Camilla wouldn’t be thrilled to have Olivia with her all year round, but enrolling her in a new school and then having to tear her away from her friends a year later when she and Sam split just didn’t make any sense. And there was simply no way Camilla was going to remain in Miami as Sam’s ex-wife. She was desperate to finally have a fresh start, somewhere where she could build a life for Olivia, JD, and herself, one that would last. Where they would never again be the objects of stares and whispered comments about her stepfather’s financial improprieties and possible suicide, her mother’s emotional instability, gossip about her own marriages.

  No. She would not stand by while people speculated about the fairy-tale elopement that ended in divorce only a year later. So it wouldn’t do for Olivia to get too attached to the place or the people in it.

  “The kid who was injured?” Olivia leaned forward in her seat, explaining the case to Camilla. “He had Down syndrome, so, see, all these other law firms had turned the case down because they said there weren’t any economic damages. You know, the insurance company was saying that he didn’t have any earning potential anyway, so it wasn’t like he’d lost a lifetime of earning money in some great career.”

  She was looking at Sam again, her eyes shining. “But Sam took the case and he kept pushing and he won! He didn’t even have to go to trial. He said he could prove that Joey—that’s the kid that was hurt in the accident—that regardless of his disability he had potential, and that his life really did have value and that, even now, with the right kind of medical care if his family got the money to pay for it, who knows?”

  “Somebody was sure paying attention,” Sam said, and Olivia beamed.

  “I’m thinking I might not go into entertainment law after all,” she said. “Who wants to represent a bunch of stuck-up rock stars and actors with giant egos. I’m thinking I might do the kind of law you do, instead.”

  “Well, from what I’ve seen of your work in the office this week,” Sam said, “I think you’d be good at it.”

  As they finished the last of the desserts, Camilla realized that, thanks to Olivia, she was seeing a completely different side of Sam. Sam didn’t just rake in big verdicts. He actually made a difference in real people’s lives. When she’d seen him in his fancy office, with his sleek cars and his waterfront mansion, his private yacht and his arrogant manner, she’d thought he’d gotten cynical and sold out. Now she wasn’t so sure.

  Sam was leaning back in his chair, still dressed from the office, but looking completely relaxed with his tie removed, a couple buttons on his shirt undone, and his sleeves rolled up. In this unguarded moment he looked as sexy as she had ever seen him. She wished she could just erase the argument they’d had about Olivia’s school, put aside his mistrust and her own anger, and just be who they were right here in this moment. He was watching JD line up his new pirate action figures on the table with one hand while he held on to a fat chocolate chip cookie with the other. Sam reached over and helped JD arrange the figures, while JD explained who they all were between mouthfuls of cookie.

  JD told a joke with a completely incomprehensible punch line—something about “’Cause the parrot said where’s my gold blobby-blah”—and collapsed into gales of laughter and in seconds his sheer little kid joy had the rest of them laughing along. For a moment Sam’s eyes caught hers and she felt an ache in her chest. If things had been different, they could have had a lifetime of moments like this, sharing simple pride in the events, small and large, that made up their son’s life. Instead, Sam seemed determined not to give a real relationship between the two of them a chance. Still, they didn’t have to be adversaries. He might never forgive her for keeping JD a secret, but just maybe they would still find a way to bond as parents.

  Later, Sam carried an exhausted JD up to their room, depositing him under the covers right in the middle of the bed.

  “I wanna read the pirate book,” JD said through a yawn, and Camilla rummaged through a box in the hallway to retrieve it. But when she walked back into the bedroom with the book, Sam met her at the door.

  “Here, let me,” he said, taking the tattered and often-read book from her hands. Sam stretched out on the bed on top of the covers, but put his arm behind JD and the little boy nestled in with his head on Sam’s shoulder.

  “Once upon a time, there was a pirate named One-Eyed Jacque who sailed the waters of the Caribbean with his trusty crew, filing his pirate’s chest with pieces of eight,” Sam began, and JD joined in as they turned the page, “Yo ho ho ho the pirates of the sea—a bit o’ gold I give me mates, and the rest belongs to me!”

  “You’re ’posed to sing it, Sam,” JD said. “Right, Mommy?”

  “Right,” Camilla said. She felt a lump in her throat, watching their two dark heads bend back over the book. When Sam started singing the refrain in a husky, off-key voice, she slipped out of the room, went back downstairs to the kitchen, and brewed a cup of coffee in the fancy cappuccino machine. The closer Sam got to JD, the more he shared those special little moments that only a parent could understand, the more she realized he would never be able to forgive her for depriving him of the first four years of JD’s life. Even if she was able to forgive him for treating her like she was some kind of a monster. She was afraid he was just beginning to realize the enormity of what he’d missed.

  By the time she went back upstairs, JD was sound asleep, his arms wrapped tightly around his teddy bear Fred, who was sporting a jaunty eye patch. The book was lying open on the bed, and Sam was at his desk across the room in front of his laptop. Camilla slid unde
r the covers, not bothering to change out of the comfortable yoga pants and loose fitting T-shirt she’d put on after dinner. She brushed a lock of hair off her sleeping son’s forehead, kissed his soft cheek, then willed herself to sleep.

  But she knew the exact moment when Sam slipped into his side of the bed. And after that, she couldn’t sleep at all.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Shut the door.”

  Jonathon raised his eyebrows, but complied and sat down in Sam’s visitor’s chair. Sam was standing, staring out the window. He sighed and turned, sitting down in his desk chair and leaning forward.

  “I need your help with something confidential.”

  “All right.”

  “Who’s the toughest divorce lawyer you know?”

  Jonathon’s eyes narrowed. “It depends on whether you’re looking at asset protection, child custody, long-term marriage alimony…can you be a little more specific?”

  “I need to do some planning for my divorce.”

  “Ah. So the honeymoon really is over.”

  “Very funny. I’m serious.”

  “You aren’t happy with Lloyd Parkins? He’s already handling the adoption. What’s the point of bringing in another lawyer? ”

  “There’s some information I don’t want Lloyd to know while he’s getting the adoption through.”

  “You don’t want the judge who’s signing off on JD’s adoption by his stepfather to get wind of the fact that you’re not the happy little couple.”

  “Exactly.” Sam got up out of his chair and paced across the room.

  “Why do I think there’s something else going on here?”

  Sam leaned his hip against the corner of his desk.

  “Jon, I’m going for full custody of JD.”

  Jonathon shifted in his seat, his face impassive. “Grounds?”

  Sam hesitated, not entirely sure anymore if the words he was about to say were true, but not willing to take the risk of backing off from his decision.

  “Camilla’s not fit to raise my son.” Sam had been thinking about it all along, ever since he agreed to Camilla’s plan for a temporary marriage. But it was only last night that he’d fully grasped what it meant to be a father. He was taking no chances with JD’s future. And now that he’d found JD, he had no intention of becoming a part-time dad, spending every other weekend with his son and a few weeks in the summers.

  “I’m no divorce lawyer, but you’re going to have to be more specific than that.”

  “She married a paraplegic for his money, and then proceeded to encourage exactly the sort of reckless behavior that resulted in his death.”

  “Are you suggesting she actually planned for him to die?”

  “I wouldn’t go that far. But reckless endangerment would probably fly. I’d bet the physicians who were treating him before the marriage would support that.” It was getting harder and harder for Sam to believe Camilla had actually wanted her former husband to die, but the fact remained that his death had left her with control of a $10 million trust. Control she had married Sam to keep from losing.

  “What else have you got?”

  “Well, she lied about JD’s parentage—purely for financial motives. And kept Winthrop estranged from his parents. And get this. As soon as her little sister recovered from the car accident, she shipped her off to boarding school.” That had been the final nail in the coffin of his opinion of Camilla, Sam realized. He could almost forgive her for choosing a marriage that would give her the financial security she was used to. But what possible justification could there be for taking a ten-year-old child who had just lost her parents and sending her away from the only family she had left?

  Jonathon glanced over at the door. “Speaking of which, Olivia’s not about to walk in on this conversation, is she?”

  “I packed the three of them off to Disney World for a few days. And believe me, Camilla was glad enough to be away from me for a while.”

  “So how does she seem with JD? Are there any signs of neglect?”

  “No. She comes across like the perfect mother.”

  Jonathon frowned. “Are you so sure she’s not?”

  He wasn’t sure, not anymore. But he couldn’t take the chance. He’d lain awake last night and thought about the well-worn book, the fact that JD seemed so well-adjusted. But then he’d realized none of that meant Camilla had been the one reading the book, caring for the little boy. A man with Winthrop’s background probably had an entire household staff at his disposal. And it probably wouldn’t be long now before Camilla decided she could let up a bit on the doting mommy act. He needed to stick to his plan.

  “I will do whatever it takes to make sure my son doesn’t grow up the way I did. And in order to have complete control, I need full custody.” He stared out the window a few moments, then turned back toward his partner. “I’ll let her see him. I’m not a monster. But it will be on my terms.”

  “Sam, so far what you’ve told me is a long way from neglect. Hell, I was raised by nannies and went to boarding schools.” He tapped his fingers on the desk. “I get that it’s all about the money. First Winthrop, now you. But being a gold digger doesn’t make her an unfit mother.”

  Sam sat back down behind his desk. “Then we just have to hire someone who can convince a judge that JD would be better off with me.”

  “Look,” Jonathan said, leaning forward. “Why don’t you just offer her some money? A woman like Camilla would probably snap up a nice settlement and be more than happy to leave you with the kid. That would be the last you’d ever see of her.”

  Sam stifled the sudden impulse to come to her defense at Jonathon’s derisive tone, and shook his head. “No. I can’t risk doing anything to upset the status quo until the adoption goes through. Until it’s finalized, she could withdraw her consent at any time.”

  “And hold you up for more money.”

  “There’s no way I can pay the kind of money it would take, anyway.”

  “Really?” Jonathon raised his eyebrows. “What kind of money are we talking here? ”

  “She controls the kid’s trust fund. Ten mil.”

  “No shit. No wonder she’s been playing the devoted little mother.”

  “It would be different if I thought all she cared about was doing what’s best for JD. But she’s kept him from having any relationship with her in-laws. And his only other relative is Olivia, who will be packed off to boarding school again as soon as the school year starts.”

  “So we have to dig up some dirt.”

  “Yeah. Apparently the lawyers her in-laws hired haven’t found anything.”

  “Then they’re just not digging deep enough. If she’s the kind a person you’ve described,” Jonathon said, “there’s something there. The trick is just to find it.”

  “Right.”

  “Meanwhile, I know a really good family law attorney who can give you a confidential opinion on what it’s going to take to get full custody. She’s got an investigative service she uses, too, that’s top notch. We’ll get this taken care of.”

  “Thanks, Jonathon.”

  “Don’t worry about it. You think I haven’t run into women like her before? I know how to deal with them.”

  Sam was glad to have Jonathon working behind the scenes. And he appreciated the extra level of confidentiality that was provided by Jonathon’s contacting the divorce attorney on his behalf. He certainly didn’t want any phone calls coming to him from the attorney or the investigator, at home or at the office.

  What he didn’t appreciate was his other partner’s reaction to the whole scenario.

  “You’re having Jonathon do what?” Ritchie said, setting his glass of beer down on the table so hard that it sloshed up to the rim.

  Sam looked around nervously. “Geesh, could you keep it down? I don’t want anyone to overhear this.”

  “I guess not,” Ritchie said.

  They were sitting in a sports bar near the office. After putting in a long day Sam had found h
imself surprisingly reluctant to go home to an empty house. It was amazing how quickly he’d gotten use to the sound of JD’s laughter, the muted notes of Olivia playing her guitar upstairs, and, if he was being honest with himself, the light scent of Camilla’s perfume in the air. At the moment, hearing his own footsteps echoing through the empty house didn’t seem at all appealing.

  Ritchie stared at him disapprovingly.

  “It’s bad enough you took marriage vows without any intention of keeping them. Now you and Jonathon are scheming how to take this woman’s child away from her while she’s still your wife, living in your house, and sleeping in your bed. Have you lost your mind?”

  Ritchie’s words made Sam feel like he’d just swallowed something nasty. He was doing the right thing, dammit. The only thing that mattered was protecting JD. He took a drink of his beer and tried to wash away the bad taste in his mouth.

  “JD is my child. A child Camilla kept away from me for the past four years.”

  “You think that makes this right?”

  “Look, JD deserves a lot better than to be with Camilla. You think she cares about his feelings? Get this—it was the day before the wedding and she hadn’t even told him yet. I had to tell him myself I was about to become his stepfather.”

  “How did he take it?”

  “Remarkably well, actually. He’s a great little kid. And he’s been through so much.”

  “You and Camilla are already setting him up to be disappointed when the marriage dissolves. Now you want to drag him through a custody battle? What do you think is going to happen when he finds out you’re trying to take his mother away from him?”

  That was the one thing Sam knew Ritchie was right about. Camilla might be putting on an act, but JD’s feelings were real. He loved his mother. He thought the four of them were a happy family. When Sam took that away from him it was going to hurt. But in the long run, Sam was the one who could give JD the love and stability he deserved.