The baby was still in her highchair from breakfast, when Mack had fed her…pureed banana it looked like, from the yellow mush all over the place. Callie squealed in delight at seeing Lauren.
“Did Uncle Mack give you banana?” Lauren cooed back. “Yummy! Ready, baby?”
She wiped the girl’s messy face and hands, hefting Callie onto her hip. With one last glance around, she grabbed her briefcase and walked back out of the kitchen—straight into Mack.
“Sorry,” he said, as she grabbed his arm for stability. The heat of his biceps warmed her hand even through his button-down blue shirt.
A hand that still had pureed banana on it. Oops.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Thank you for feeding her. But—maybe next time you could wipe her up, too?”
He looked down at his arm. “Apparently even common sense baby stuff doesn’t come naturally to me, like it does for you. But yes, I will, because it’s either that or run out of clean shirts.”
He winked and unbuttoned his shirt, leaving him in a tight, white T-shirt. Nice. Suddenly, it hit her. She was living her fantasy—the baby on one hip, the handsome husband in the penthouse, on her way to her dream job.
Only one thing was missing…could she get the courage to live out her fantasy in every way? Every delicious, sexual way Mack had suggested with his hands—and tongue—the other night?
Maybe she could find out tonight.
…
Walking back into her building after not being there for two whole weeks felt…nice. Considering she lived above the daycare, it was coming home…but somehow, it didn’t feel as homey as she’d expected it to. It just wasn’t the same as going home to Mack. The apartment was empty of her things, now. Just her furniture remained, since Mack had had all of her stuff moved to his place. Except for her flowers—she’d asked him to leave those on her balcony, where her staff could water them.
But damn it, she was taking those wilting miniature roses back to the penthouse with her. That way, if they withered, she’d only have herself to blame. And, maybe, she could make them bloom again.
“Lauren!” Her assistant and one of the head teachers at the daycare, Georgette, greeted her enthusiastically. Then her smile fell off her face, as if she remembered what had happened during Lauren’s planned vacation. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“What?” she asked blankly, before remembering. Damn, she needed to remember she was supposed to be in mourning. No one else knew that Joe and Marisol were in hiding, not dead.
“I mean, thank you,” Lauren said. “Thanks for taking care of everything for me here while I was out.”
Her other staff members stood by awkwardly, clearly unsure what to say.
“And here’s Callie!” Georgette exclaimed, taking the baby out of her arms. “Your new daughter is so adorable.”
Daughter? Oh God. She couldn’t have people thinking Callie was her daughter, not when she knew Marisol was coming back to her rightful place as Callie’s mom. With the baby being only three months old, she’d barely had time to adjust to thinking of her as her niece.
“She’ll always be Joe and Marisol’s daughter,” she said aloud. Uncomfortable silence filled the room. “So I’m still Auntie Lauren to her.”
No one spoke. What could they say? The whole situation wasn’t normal, and no one, herself included, had any experience dealing with all of the things that had occurred since she’d been gone.
Fortunately, Iris, her favorite baby nanny, stepped forward and held her arms out to Callie. “Remember me, baby?” she asked. “Let’s go play!”
“I have a lot of catching up to do,” Lauren announced to no one in particular. She needed to escape to her office, to be away from the pitying stares she didn’t deserve.
Georgette patted Lauren’s arm comfortingly. “You’ve been through a lot, hon. Losing your brother, gaining a husband and a daughter. If you need to talk, I’m here.”
Georgette’s words rung true. Lauren had a family now, but only for a short time. She should make the most of it before it slipped through her fingers.
…
The afternoon flew by. Georgette had done a remarkable job of keeping the place running smoothly, but there were still many bigger things she’d had to leave for Lauren. The biggest problem at the moment was their lack of an outdoor play space. If they were going to expand and truly give the kids what they needed, then fresh air was part of it.
She’d have to think more about it when she wasn’t so overwhelmed. Every half hour or so she made a quick round through the facility to check on everyone and make sure things were going okay. It was also the best way to inconspicuously watch how Callie was adjusting to the daycare. She seemed to be thriving on the attention.
By the time six o’clock rolled around, Lauren was exhausted in a way she’d never been before. She thought working all day was tough before, but taking care of Callie all day was tough, too. Putting them both together was downright impossible.
Iris handed her the baby and looked around her messy office, with papers everywhere. Ironic, really, since all of her most important written communication occurred on her computer and Blackberry. Where had all that paper come from, anyway? It’s like it had multiplied in her absence. The paper had been secretly reproducing, making paper babies.
Okay, I’m tired.
“I know it’s six o’clock,” Lauren said, taking the baby, “but I’m nowhere near caught up from my vacation.”
“Give yourself a break,” Iris said. “She’s adorable, by the way.”
Lauren grabbed the diaper bag. She was going to Mack’s office. He could watch the baby for a while so she could get some actual work done, since today had been a total failure.
Seeing Mack, even for a moment, would be the highlight of her day.
…
Mack set up his computer so the webcam faced him. He had a Skype conference with some clients in South Carolina and he wanted to be ready. He treated these video calls just like regular meetings, and found it was much more conducive to making things happen than a phone call.
His office door flew open, and Lauren stormed in, carrying Callie in a baby-carrier strapped to her chest. She’d lugged the big diaper bag and a half-empty bottle in one hand, the other resting on the baby’s back, as if she didn’t quite trust the carrier to keep the baby secure. Her suit and carefully done hair and makeup looked somehow incongruent with the baby and baby paraphernalia. Maybe that was just his own bias, since his own mother had never worn suits.
Or course, his own mother had left his dad. Or maybe it was the other way around. Either way, it hadn’t been good. One more reason to not get suckered into thinking playing house with Lauren was a real marriage. That could only lead to bigger issues down the road, like it had for his parents. Hell, like it had for Joe and Marisol. Their marriage was in such shambles they had gone off and…
He wouldn’t think about them now. What was Lauren doing here, anyway?
“Hello,” he greeted them, unable to keep the surprise off his face.
“Here,” she said without preamble, unbuckling the baby from the carrier and handing her to him. “I need to get some actual work done so today isn’t a total wash. Can you take the baby so I can go back to my office?”
Callie looked up at him with her sweet little face and gurgled happily. That face was hard to resist. He smiled and kissed her downy head, breathing in the scent of baby shampoo.
“I wish I could,” he said honestly. “But I have a meeting online in ten minutes. I can’t take her. You’ll have to hold onto her for at least another hour until I wrap this up.”
She didn’t respond, just looked from him to the baby and to her watch, as if she could create more hours in the day just by wishing it so. She glanced at the door with longing.
“I don’t have time for this,” Mack said. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to go now. My meeting is about to start. This is the culmination of two months of work—the last project Joe assemb
led before…” he broke off, not needing to finish the thought.
“I know, I heard about it. The building in Park Slope.” She paused thoughtfully. “You know, they’ll like that you’re a family man. Joe told me that was a big draw for the Park Slope investors, that he was a member of their target demographic.”
Whoa. She’d done her research. “That’s true. But—I’ve never conducted a meeting with a baby before. I’ve never…babysat before.”
“It’s not called babysitting when you’re her legal guardian,” Lauren said. “It’s just called being a parent.”
“I don’t have that skill set,” he said firmly. “You remember who you’re talking to, right? I didn’t even think to clean her up after she ate her banana.”
“You’ll be fine,” she said. “You remembered she needed to be fed, right? You’re a natural.”
“Easy for you to say. You own a daycare center.”
“Sorry about this,” Lauren said, going up on her tip-toes and pressing a burning kiss right on his jaw.
He touched his face, amused. “You can kiss me whenever you want. You definitely don’t need to be sorry about that.”
“Not that. This.” She grinned at him, dropped the diaper bag on the floor of his office and ran out the door.
Leaving him holding the baby.
Chapter Five
Lauren slipped her heels off the second she stepped off the elevator into Mack’s—her—penthouse, and set the small planter of sad-looking miniature roses on the counter to bring outside in the morning.
The hours she’d spent alone at the office had been exactly what she’d needed to get some actual work accomplished. Without all the kids at the daycare running around, and without the well-meaning staff offering her sympathy, she was able to slog through more than one hundred emails.
She wouldn’t be able to work past ten o’clock at night all the time, though. Not now that she had a family to come home to. A family. The whole thing struck her as strange. She walked into the living room, not wanting to call out Mack’s name since the baby was probably—hopefully—sleeping.
Mack lay shirtless, sprawled out on the couch, cuddling the baby against his muscular chest. Both of them were fast asleep. The room looked like a cyclone had torn through it, with baby toys scattered everywhere, an empty bottle overturned on the coffee table, and even a diaper on the floor next to the diaper bin, as if he’d tossed it without looking while trying to change Callie’s diaper.
And, judging from Callie’s cute little baby-butt, he’d managed to put the diaper on backward. He looked so good holding the baby. He looked like…a dad. A real dad, not a man fulfilling an obligation set out for him in a will. Could he be a good father someday? It looked like he could be, at least in that moment.
But could he ever be a real husband to her?
Even after all of Joe’s stories about Mack going into business deals with a heart of stone… Mack certainly wasn’t the completely cold business man she had mistaken him for in the past. Not with the way he’d taken care of Callie this evening, despite the important meeting she’d interrupted by thrusting the child upon him. She knew having Callie in his life changed a lot of things—not the least, a wife who refused to let him into his own bed.
If he could love the baby, was there any way he would someday look at Lauren with that same love in his eyes?
No, don’t think like that. This isn’t a real marriage. So don’t get all attached to him, just because he looks super cute holding a baby wearing a backward diaper against his chest.
It was all so sweet and pathetic it made Lauren tear up a bit. I must be really tired to be so emotional. She gently waded her way across the living room carpet and picked Callie up, giving the girl a kiss. The baby stretched a bit and nuzzled against Lauren’s shirt, still asleep.
In the nursery, Lauren put a fresh diaper on Callie and put some tiny pajamas on her before setting her in her crib and flicking on the monitor. She took the handset out with her to the living room and began picking up toys.
As tired as she was, she didn’t mind cleaning up. It was obvious Mack had put every ounce of energy he had into caring for Callie that evening, even though he’d never taken care of a baby on his own before.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said from the couch, his voice hoarse from having just woken up.
“I don’t mind,” she said, tossing the dirty diaper in the bin.
He stretched and sat up, apparently unaware that his naked chest was making her stomach do flip-flops. “The housekeeper will take care of it tomorrow.”
She stopped cleaning. He was right, it could wait until tomorrow. And she really was tired. Today had been her first day of trying to be a working mom, and it hadn’t been easy. Now that she was home, it wasn’t like it used to be, when she could just eat a microwave meal and crash in front of the television.
Now she had a sexy, half-naked husband to avoid falling in love with. It was all a bit more complicated than she was used to.
“Sorry I stuck you with the baby like that,” she offered.
“I’m glad you did. I didn’t want to go to that opening tonight anyway.”
Lauren gasped. “I didn’t know you had a work function, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” he laughed. “I’d already canceled my date, anyway. Because monogamy and whatnot. What…what are you staring at?”
Shoot. She laughed nervously. “Sorry, you’re just…not wearing a shirt. I couldn’t help but notice.”
“Oh.” He looked down at his body as if seeing it for the first time. “I was Googling how to take care of a baby, and it said Kangaroo care was good for bonding. You know, skin on skin.”
“That’s true.” And oh so sweet that he took the time to research taking care of a baby himself instead of pawning it off on someone else.
“I figured, since she won’t be breastfeeding anymore, at least she can have some skin-on-skin bonding. Maybe you could do that with her, too. To help her bond to us.”
“You’re absolutely right,” she said. “I should have thought of that before. I think I’ve been so thrown off by everything that’s happened.”
“You’re doing a great job,” he said. “I know you never planned on adding ‘be a wife and mother’ to your massive to-do list, even if it’s…not exactly like that.”
His words caught her by surprise. He appreciated her? “Thank you,” she whispered.
He stood, the flannel pajama bottoms he wore riding low on his hips, revealing a dark trail of hair that led down from his navel, going down below his waistband. Lauren licked her lips self-consciously, unable to keep from staring.
“I wonder,” he murmured, stepping toward her, “if skin-on-skin helps with bonding between a husband and wife, too.”
His warm hand grazed her cheek and she leaned into his touch, feeling the heat radiating out of him. He dropped his fingers down and slowly unbuttoned her shirt, letting the sides flow open and leaving her breasts, covered in a lace bra, exposed.
Without letting herself stop to think, she unhooked the front closure between the cups of her brassiere, so nothing would come between their naked flesh. Mack made a sound of appreciation and pulled her tightly to his chest.
He was right. The skin on skin was definitely making her feel…bonded, somehow.
“But Mack,” she whispered. “You’re not my real husband.”
His white teeth shone in the dimly lit living room as he grinned. “I have a marriage license signed by the judge that says otherwise.”
“It’s just a piece of paper,” she said, shaking her head.
But his nearness overwhelmed her senses. She wished she weren’t still wearing her suit and her stockings. She wanted to be completely naked around him. The toned muscles in his chest flexed against her palm, his heartbeat slow and steady beneath her hand.
Apparently she was the only one having palpitations. She’d have to remedy that—to make him feel as crazy-in-lust as she felt right n
ow. With a rush of boldness, she pressed her lips to his.
He kissed her back, his lips as heated as his skin. No—hotter. His tongue prodded her mouth, encouraging her with his movements to open to him. She did, letting him devour her the way she needed to be. And she needed to devour him back.
She kissed his neck, focusing on the pulse below his ear. It had sped up. Good. Placing her hand back on his chest, she reveled in the feel of his heartbeat beneath her palm. She dropped to her knees on the carpet before him, keeping her hand up on his chest.
With her kneeling in front of him, his heart was definitely pumping harder. Something else had gotten even harder as well. Lauren dropped her hand from his muscular torso and yanked his flannel pajama bottoms down. She felt in control and powerful, a woman in a business suit toying with her naked man.
Her naked husband.
His erection lay thick in her hand and she stroked him slowly, delighting in the groan of anticipation he made. She licked his shaft, teasing him by barely touching him with her tongue. He made a sound like she was torturing him.
Yes, she was definitely torturing him, and enjoying every moment of it. The thought made her grin and she sucked his length full into her mouth.
His hands tangled in her hair, holding her in place, and she luxuriated in the connection they made as she slowly brought him to a climax. With a low groan, he pulsed in her mouth, his whole body tightening, and he growled with pleasure as she latched on and swallowed every last delicious drop of him.
He dropped his hands from her now thoroughly mussed-up hair and took in a shaky breath.
“I can’t believe you just did that,” he said.
“You’re welcome,” she replied, smiling.
He lifted her up, pulling her jacket and shirt off, not seeming to care if he wrinkled her expensive suit. Hell, she didn’t care either. He slid her skirt down her legs, cursing under his breath as she had to shimmy a bit to get the tight material to drop.
The Tycoon's Convenient Bride... and Baby (Entangled Indulgence) Page 5
