For the baby’s sake...
Scarlet and Mason Spencer’s marriage was once hotter than a summer heat wave. But their failed attempts to start a family chilled their passion. Now on the verge of divorce, Mason’s single-parent brother is dying, leaving his baby girl in Mason’s care...and pulling Scarlet into a ruse that she’s still the billionaire’s happy, loving wife...
Pretending to be a family so Mason’s brother’s final days will be peaceful starts feeling like the real thing—as does the combustible chemistry she finds in her sexy soon-to-be-ex husband’s bed. Will Scarlet’s baby favor lead to a reunion...and the family they’ve always wanted?
“What if I said I wanted you to kiss me?” Scarlet asked.
Mason squeezed his eyelids tightly shut to block out the image of her looking up at him with those full lips and sad eyes. It was as though she could sense his weakness and knew that she was it.
The hand on his chest lifted, but before Mason could open his eyes, he felt her palm against his cheek. She softly caressed his face, letting her thumb drag across his bottom lip. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
“It’s not what I want to say, Scarlet—it’s what I want to do.”
She moved closer to him, pressing her firm breasts against his chest. Her whole body was aligned with his, reminding him of how she was the perfect fit for him in so many ways.
“What do you want to do, Mason?”
He couldn’t hold back any longer. His eyes flew open to look down at her before the floodgates gave way. “This,” he said.
Diving forward, he scooped her face into his hands and pulled her mouth to his.
* * *
The Baby Favor is part of Harlequin Desire’s #1 bestselling series, Billionaires and Babies: Powerful men...wrapped around their babies’ little fingers.
Dear Reader,
I have found that sometimes life is stranger than fiction. When I was coming up with a premise for this story, I thought of some family friends who had weathered a recent tragedy. Similar to Luna in The Baby Favor, two children found themselves unexpectedly orphaned and were adopted by a loving couple related to their parents. This couple was very young, newly married, and I was so impressed by how they tackled the challenge of raising these boys. Not everyone would be willing to reorganize their whole life and give up the honeymoon phase of their marriage to take in children the way they did. It might be hard to read a book like this and believe it could happen in real life, but the world is filled with both unimaginable sadness and incredible kindness. People like this inspire me to be a better person and I was excited to write the story of a couple stepping up for the sake of a child, albeit under different circumstances.
If you enjoy Mason, Scarlet and Luna’s story, tell me by visiting my website at andrealaurence.com, like my fan page on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.
Enjoy,
Andrea
Andrea Laurence
The Baby Favor
Andrea Laurence is an award-winning author of contemporary romances filled with seduction and sass. She has been a lover of reading and writing stories since she was young. A dedicated West Coast girl transplanted into the Deep South, she is thrilled to share her special blend of sensuality and dry, sarcastic humor with readers.
Books by Andrea Laurence
Harlequin Desire
The Baby Favor
Brides and Belles
Snowed In with Her Ex
Thirty Days to Win His Wife
One Week with the Best Man
A White Wedding Christmas
Secrets of Eden
Undeniable Demands
A Beauty Uncovered
Heir to Scandal
Her Secret Husband
Millionaires of Manhattan
What Lies Beneath
More Than He Expected
His Lover’s Little Secret
The CEO’s Unexpected Child
Hawaiian Nights
The Pregnancy Proposition
The Baby Proposal
Texas Cattleman’s Club: Blackmail
Expecting the Billionaire’s Baby
Visit her Author Profile page at Harlequin.com, or andrealaurence.com, for more titles.
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To Adoptive & Foster Parents Everywhere—
Whatever your reason for opening your hearts and your homes to a child in need, thank you.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
Excerpt from Down Home Cowboy by Maisey Yates
One
As a general rule, phone calls that came after midnight were bad news.
An hour ago, when Scarlet Spencer had looked at her caller ID and seen her estranged husband’s name, a moment of excitement had rushed through her. The other kind of calls that came at this hour were emotional outpourings brought on by late nights and alcohol. She’d hoped that it was the latter—that perhaps he’d changed his mind about the divorce—but she was to be disappointed. Now she was walking through the front door of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles just after two in the morning and she didn’t know why.
All she knew was that Mason had called and asked her to come. Despite everything that was happening between them, she knew she had to do as he asked. There was something in his voice that scared her. Mason had been her rock for the last nine years. Through the ups and downs of their marriage, he had been the one to hold her hand. She got the feeling that tonight, she was returning the favor.
As she walked through the doors of the hospital, she tried to brace herself for seeing Mason again. She hadn’t seen him since he moved out two months ago and she didn’t know how it would feel. After nine years together, he wasn’t hers anymore. He wasn’t hers to hold or care for. She would have to remind herself of that as she consoled him tonight.
Before she reached the elevators, she found Mason sitting on a bench in the hallway. The first time they’d met, she’d instantly been enchanted by the beautiful surfer boy with his golden skin, eyes as blue as the sea and messy brown hair. When he smiled, his dimples had melted her insides. Just a glimpse of him now was enough to set her heart racing in her chest even all these years later.
Tonight, however, there were no smiles. He was slumped in his seat, holding his head in his hands.
He looked defeated. Scarlet had seen that in him only a few times in all these years. Most of the time, he was the confident, successful CEO of Spencer Surf Shops. The guy who never failed at anything. Who always knew the right decision to make. Sexy, bold and sure of himself. Rarely did that facade crack. Once, when he found out he couldn’t give her a child. The second time, when he couldn’t keep the judge from giving their adopted son back to his biological mother. The third time was when he walked out the door, leaving her and their marriage behind.
She couldn’t imagine what happened tonight that could bring that look of despair back to his face. “Mason?” she asked as she approached.
/> Her husband shot up in his seat, turning to her with eyes more red than blue. He stood quickly, his jaw flexed tight as he tried to hold everything in. He didn’t speak right away, as though if he opened his mouth, a torrent of emotions would pour out of him instead.
“What’s happened? Is it Jay?”
Scarlet knew that Mason’s younger brother, Jay, had been battling stage four melanoma for several months. The last she’d heard, they’d gotten the devastating news that the cancer had spread into all his major organs and they were discontinuing treatment. It wouldn’t surprise her to find out that Jay had finally lost his battle. Something about the look on Mason’s face, however, made her worry that this was something much worse.
“No,” Mason said at last. “It’s Rachel.”
“Jay’s wife?” Scarlet felt her chest tighten. Her sister-in-law had been like a true sister to her. As an only child, Scarlet had enjoyed having Rachel around to talk to and share marriage war stories with. The idea of Rachel raising their daughter alone after Jay passed had weighed heavily on her mind since she found out the news. Luna was only a year old and would never remember her father. “What happened?”
“She’s dead.”
Scarlet could only clap her hand over her mouth to hold in the painful gasp. It couldn’t be true. The universe wasn’t that cruel. Baby Luna was already losing her father. To lose her mother, too... “How...?” She couldn’t get the words out. How could something like this happen?
“It was a freak accident. She fell down the stairs carrying a basket of laundry. I can imagine her mind has been all over the place dealing with Jay’s illness. She fell in just the right way to break her neck instantaneously. Their housekeeper found her.”
Scarlet didn’t know what to say. Of everything that had run through her head since she received the call, Rachel’s death was the last thing she expected. It was so bitterly tragic on its own, not to mention when it was compounded by Jay’s illness. “Does Jay know?” she whispered through her fingers.
Mason nodded. “He’s the one who called and told me about it.”
She could only squeeze her eyes shut and shake her head. This wasn’t the way things were supposed to happen. Her own life was a mess and she was dealing with that, but Jay and Rachel... Her heart just ached. Tears welled beneath her eyelids. A moment later, she felt Mason’s arms wrap around her and she didn’t fight it. Instead, she melted into him and let her tears wet the front of his dress shirt. She tried not to think about how good it felt to be in his arms again. How much she missed his scent in her lungs and his warmth surrounding her. He was just comforting her, perhaps comforting himself, and nothing more.
That thought was able to cut through the grief, stab her in her tender underbelly and remind her to keep her emotional distance. With a soft sniffle, she pulled away from him and took a step back. When her gaze met Mason’s, there was a flash of pain there unrelated to the accident. It was as though he was hurt she’d pulled away so soon. As much as she might like to stay in his arms all night, that wouldn’t help her get over him. It was hard enough being in the same room with him knowing he didn’t want her anymore.
Despite everything, Scarlet couldn’t help but wonder why he’d called her tonight. They were getting a divorce and had hardly been speaking for the last two months after he’d moved out of their Malibu beach house. He had family in town. Friends. Surely there was someone else he would want here with him instead of her. He was the one who walked away, after all. Away from her, away from their life together...
Mason cleared his throat and wiped his eyes. “I’m sorry to drag you down here in the middle of the night, but Jay asked to see us.”
Scarlet frowned. “Us?”
He nodded. “He’s waiting on us to come up. He’s on the oncology floor.”
Mason turned toward the elevator, not giving Scarlet a chance to argue with him, as usual. She followed him, both of them silent until they exited on the third floor. Halfway down the hallway, they entered a room with the name J. Spencer written on the whiteboard.
Scarlet held her breath as she stepped inside. She hadn’t seen Jay in a while and she was worried about how she’d react to seeing him in such rough shape. At first, a privacy curtain blocked all but his blanketed legs, then Mason pushed it aside.
The man lying in the bed was half of the robust brother-in-law she’d once known. He’d easily lost fifty pounds on a tall frame that needed every bit of it. His thick brown hair, so much like Mason’s, had thinned. His skin was sallow. But the Jay she knew was still in there somewhere—the life of the party, the comic relief, the easygoing counterpoint to Mason’s perfectionism.
“Hey there,” Jay said in a raspy voice as he spied Scarlet slipping into the room. She reached out and took his extended hand as he offered it to her. “You’re looking beautiful as always, sister.”
Scarlet bit at her bottom lip to keep from crying. “I won’t be able to keep it up if you continue to interrupt my beauty sleep,” she quipped. Jay preferred to keep things light even in the darkest moments, so she’d do her best to comply.
“I know.” Jay’s gaze grew distant as he stared off for a moment. “It couldn’t be avoided. Did Mason tell you what happened?”
Scarlet could only nod as she slipped down into the chair beside the bed. “I’m so sorry, Jay.”
Jay shook his head. “Don’t worry about me. I won’t be wasting away without her. She and I will have a happy reunion before too long. But I asked you both here because I’m worried about what’s going to happen to Luna.”
Scarlet felt stupid. She’d focused on the trauma of the loss and hadn’t even considered the fact that Luna would be orphaned soon. No wonder Jay was up in the middle of the night worried about his daughter’s future.
“We want you to raise her. The paperwork officially just names Mason as her guardian for some reason our lawyers explained but I never understood, but of course we intended to leave her to both of you. I know how badly you both wanted a child. This isn’t the way I expected it to happen, but I hope that you’re open to the possibility of adopting Luna and raising her as your own.”
“She’ll always be your child, Jay,” Mason said.
Jay shook his head. “She won’t remember us, Mason. You and Scarlet will be the mother and father she knows and I’m okay with that. When she’s older, you can tell her about us and about how much we adored her. But I hope you’ll embrace this opportunity and raise her with all the love and support that Rachel and I would’ve given her.”
Scarlet’s heart lodged in her throat as she realized the implications of Jay’s words. She couldn’t make a sound, she could only sit stunned and listen to the two brothers discuss her life like nothing had changed between them. Mason hadn’t told his brother they were getting a divorce yet. Jay was speaking about their future as though he expected them to raise his daughter together. What were they going to do?
Mason reached out and took Scarlet’s hand, squeezing it tightly to silence her concerns. Her gaze met his for a moment and she knew that he sensed her panic. “Of course we will,” he said.
“Promise me,” Jay said.
Mason swallowed hard, squeezing his eyes shut before nodding. “I promise, Jay. Luna will want for nothing. She will have all the love that we can give her.”
Jay finally seemed pleased. He relaxed back into his bed and took a deep, labored breath. “Thank you. You know, when you write your will, you never imagine you’ll actually need it. At least you hope you won’t. In the morning, I’ll have my attorneys start the process of having you declared her legal and physical guardian, Mason. I can’t fill that role from my hospital bed, and before long, you’ll be all she has anyway. Once I’m gone, I hope the two of you will consider adopting her.”
“Of course,” Mason said. His grip on her grew ever tighter as Jay spoke. “You don’t n
eed to worry about a thing.”
* * *
“You haven’t told your brother that we’re getting a divorce?”
Mason halted his quick pace. They were just exiting the hospital and heading toward their cars when she finally confronted him. He was thankful she’d waited that long so no one could overhear the truth he desperately wanted to keep from his brother. He pivoted on the asphalt and turned to look at his soon-to-be ex-wife.
He’d tried not to react to seeing her again for the first time since he moved out, but not even his grief could suppress his response to Scarlet. Even now, after spending the last hour with her under the worst possible circumstances, his heart still skipped a beat when their eyes met. There was an undeniable connection between them that time and distance hadn’t dulled. He didn’t know if anything could.
She was the most beautiful women he’d ever seen in person, and LA was filled with beautiful people. In his eyes, no one could compare. Scarlet had long brown curls that trailed down her back, soft brown eyes and a disarming smile that had immediately caught his attention when they met. That was just the beginning of her appeal, he soon learned. She was also talented, smart, sensitive and a wonderful mother. At least for the short period of time she had been able to be one.
“No, I haven’t told him. I didn’t tell anyone in my family about the divorce yet.”
“Why?”
“Why?” Mason repeated, running his fingers anxiously through his hair. “Because my brother has spent the last few months of his life battling terminal cancer. My parents are a wreck, barely holding it together. I didn’t want to dump more on them. And really, the demise of our marriage seems fairly inconsequential in comparison, don’t you think? They’ve been too caught up to even notice they haven’t seen you in weeks.”
“Of course it doesn’t compare, but it’s hardly insignificant. Now, because you haven’t told anyone, Jay thinks we’re going to raise Luna as one big, happy family.” Scarlet’s large brown eyes reflected the panic that he’d felt the moment he realized what Rachel’s death would mean for him.
The Baby Favor Page 1
