Hurriedly Carly dressed in shorts and a sleeveless top. Then she washed her face and teeth and dragged a brush through her hair. She caught a glimpse of her face in the mirror and blushed. She looked so…so…loved.
Well, maybe that wasn’t quite the right word. But her lips seemed somewhat fuller, felt slightly tender. Her breasts seemed sensitive against the sheer fabric of her bra. And the rest of her…Her color deepened and hastily she turned away, heading out to find out why Arthur hadn’t roused her with his usual six-thirty babbling.
She found him in the living room sitting in Piran’s lap, with Piran using Arthur’s index fingers to type letters on the keyboard. At the sound of her feet on the plank floor, they both turned.
Arthur crowed cheerfully and Piran smiled.
‘Sleeping Beauty has arisen,’ he told Arthur.
Whatever color had vanished from Carly’s cheeks came flooding back. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t hear him,’ she babbled. ‘What time did he wake you?’
‘A little after seven.’
‘I should have—’
‘No. You need your rest. You were very busy last night.’ The smile turned into a grin.
‘So were you,’ Carly retorted, blushing.
Piran laughed. ‘And I enjoyed every minute of it. Let’s just say this morning was on me. Want some coffee?’
‘Thanks. Yes.’ What she really wanted was a refuge from the look in his eyes, which were already this morning warm with desire—which made her desire him again too. She went into the kitchen and poured herself a cup from the pot he’d made. ‘Shall I bring you one?’ she called, and was startled when he said from right behind her,
‘Yes, but I’ll drink it in here.’ He was carrying Arthur and the similarity in their features seemed even more striking than usual this morning. Perhaps it was because Piran looked comfortable holding him now. Whatever it was, it made Carly smile.
‘Is that for me or for him?’ Piran asked her, taking the cup she handed him. Their fingers brushed. The electricity was still there.
‘Is what for you?’
‘The smile.’ His eyes were hooded, but there was a gentleness in his expression that increased her self-consciousness.
‘For both of you,’ she said quickly. ‘Of course.’
‘Of course,’ Piran said, his tone slightly mocking, and Carly wondered if she’d hurt his feelings. Surely not.
‘How much have you done this morning?’ she asked him, wanting to talk about something else, something that wouldn’t make her blush even more.
‘A fair bit. It’s all come together. I can probably finish if I get rid of my helper. Arthur doesn’t type very fast.’
‘You should have got me up.’
‘You needed the sleep.’ He smiled at her. ‘And you looked beautiful.’
Embarrassed at his frankness, Carly looked away. ‘You were very clever, entertaining him that way,’ she said after a moment.
Piran laughed. ‘Entertaining him, hell. He’s got to earn his keep. I figure if I keep typing with him in five years he’ll be able to do it on his own.’
‘Good idea,’ she said, taking Arthur out of his arms.
‘I’m just full of good ideas,’ Piran said. ‘Want to hear a couple more of them?’ There was enough suggestiveness in his tone to tell her what the ideas entailed even without explanation.
Carly blushed. ‘I think we’d better get to work right now,’ she said, settling Arthur on her hip. ‘Or one of us should, anyway.’
‘There’s not much for you to do until I finish. Why don’t you and Arthur decorate the Christmas tree?’
He nodded toward the table and for the first time Carly noticed the array of things lying on it.
Apparently he and Arthur had done more than type this morning. They’d laid out fishing flies and lures, some of which she remembered seeing Piran use when they’d come here years ago. There were seashells, including several that she and Arthur had brought back from their daily excursions to the beach. There were small portions of fishnet and the sea glass he’d given her the other day, which she’d set on the mantel in a place of honor. He’d also provided several bits of driftwood, some dried pods off one of the trees they passed on the way to the beach and, next to them, a carton filled with freshly picked deep red and coral and white hibiscus flowers.
‘You’ll have to change the flowers every day, but as far as the rest goes…’ Piran hesitated. ‘I know it’s not exactly your garden variety Christmas decorations, but Arthur and I thought maybe you could use some of it.’ He spoke offhandedly as he carried his coffee into the living room and went back to the computer.
Carly stared at his back, then at the assortment of decorations he’d so carefully provided. For a man who hadn’t even wanted a tree, he’d done an awful lot. Her heart felt suddenly very full. She hugged Arthur close.
‘Yes, I will,’ she said to Piran. ‘Who wants a garden variety Christmas tree? This is a wonderful idea.’
Hanging lures and net and such on the tree with Arthur in one arm wasn’t easy, but Carly wasn’t complaining. In fact she would have happily sung out loud if she hadn’t thought that the noise would bother Piran as he worked. She tried to move quietly, talking to Arthur only in an undertone as they hung the various ornaments.
Piran typed as if possessed, stopping only rarely, but smiling at the tree—and at her and Arthur—when he did so.
‘It looks great,’ he told her when at last she was done and stepped back to consider it.
‘It does,’ Carly agreed, smiling. She loved it. She remembered thinking last year that the tree she and her mother and Roland and his girls had decorated with brightly painted wooden nutcrackers and glass bells and papier-maché angels was the most wonderful tree in the world. But it didn’t hold a candle to this one, with its tiny colored lights, its gaily feathered lures and flies, its bits of polished glass and curling shells and smooth pieces of driftwood.
Piran flicked on the printer and got to his feet. As the pages spewed forth, he came over to stand behind Carly who still held Arthur in her arms. Piran slipped his arms around both of them and bent his head forward so that his lips just brushed the back of Carly’s ear.
‘I like it,’ he said.
‘Yes.’
His lips nibbled her ear. ‘I like you.’
Carly smiled. ‘I’m afraid I’m getting rather fond of you, too,’ she said. I love you, her heart said again. But still the words remained unspoken. They had a start. She was afraid to push for too much.
‘Ouch,’ Piran said as Arthur reached up and grabbed his nose. ‘Hey, kid, behave yourself.’
‘He wants to be included,’ Carly said.
‘He is,’ Piran asserted, prying the baby’s fingers off his face and nibbling them until Arthur giggled. ‘After all,’ he added gruffly, ‘he caused it.’
Right after lunch Piran said to Carly, ‘We’re going Christmas shopping.’
She looked up from the chair where she’d just settled down with the last chapter. ‘Now? But I can’t. I’ve got to finish this.’
‘I meant Arthur and me. You’re staying here.’
‘But I saw this darling little wooden toy sailboat in the hardware store. We could hang it on the tree and then when Arthur gets a little bigger he could take it in the bath.’
‘I’ll look at it,’ Piran promised.
‘But—’
‘You work. And if you finish, then we can celebrate tonight.’ He waggled his eyebrows at her and she knew what kind of celebrating he had in mind. He looked pleased when the color rose in her cheeks. Carly wished she knew if it was just the idea of making love or of making love with her that caused his eagerness.
She smiled at him. He bent down and kissed her lingeringly on the lips.
‘In fact,’ he said when he’d left her breathless, ‘we can take a few days off, then do the last run-through after Christmas. How about it?’ He took Arthur from her with newly developed ease and started toward the door.
‘I’d like that,’ Carly admitted.
Piran nodded. ‘It’s a date.’
‘You can leave Arthur with me this afternoon,’ Carly called after him. ‘You don’t have to take him along.’
He turned back. ‘No. The book is going to get your undivided attention. And Arthur is going to get mine. Aren’t you, sport?’
It was a sign of how much he’d changed, Carly realized, that he seemed actually to be looking forward to it.
‘A little male bonding?’ Carly teased.
Piran grinned. ‘You better believe it.’
The odd thing was, he meant it. And he was enjoying it. It surprised him how much he was enjoying Arthur.
It didn’t surprise him how much he was enjoying Carly..
Talk about bonding! He grinned now as he walked back from town, carrying a sleeping Arthur, his thoughts busy reminiscing about how well they had bonded last night.
He’d been shocked to find out that Carly was a virgin. He was also pleased, though he knew very well he had no right to be. Still, it made him feel more responsible than ever to be considerate, attentive, the best lover she could ever wish for. He wanted to make up to her in quality what she would be lacking in quantity when she married him.
Well, actually, he thought with a grin, he’d be happy to provide the quantity too.
He was looking forward to doing a bit more bonding tonight after Arthur was tucked up in bed. They could go to bed right after he did. They’d have more time now that the book was pretty much under control. Just thinking about spending hours in bed with Carly made him hot. No surprise there.
What did surprise him was the fact that the longer he thought about it, marrying her made more and more sense.
It had been a spur-of-the-moment thing, what he’d told Wendy about being married to Carly. It had been stupid in the extreme. But once he’d said it the idea of actually marrying Carly hadn’t seemed stupid at all.
It made sense. Piran had never really thought about getting married and having kids with her or anyone else. He’d known since he was a boy what he’d wanted to do with his life, and marriage and kids had never seemed a part of it. He wasn’t against the idea. He’d just always been too busy.
Besides, what sort of examples had he had?
His own parents, from his earliest memories, had always seemed distant and preoccupied, their marriage a mystery. After their divorce, his mother had ceased to be part of his life, and Piran had expected his father to pursue his career with equally monkish fervor.
Arthur St Just’s unexpected marriage to the very unsuitable Sue had rattled him thoroughly. It hadn’t made sense and it had destroyed his rapport with his father. Marriage had seemed to him something to stay well away from.
When Carly had taken it for granted nine years ago that if he wanted to make love to her he must want to marry her, he’d been aghast. And he’d rejected the notion—and Carly—out of hand.
Now he didn’t.
Now he was mature. Ready to settle down. Plus he had a son who needed a mother.
Carly would be a good mother. She’d proved that. Besides, she liked to dive, she edited books and he loved to make love with her. What more could he possibly ask for?
Yes, marrying Carly now made a hell of a lot of sense.
He said as much to Arthur as he carried the child up the last few yards of the gravel road that led toward the house. Arthur sucked his thumb and sighed contentedly, nestling his head against Piran’s shoulder. There was no doubt in Piran’s mind that Arthur agreed with him.
As he approached the veranda he saw that Carly wasn’t alone. There was a woman sitting on the swing. She had long, golden-brown hair and an island tan and looked vaguely familiar.
Across from Carly, he saw Des.
Piran’s jaw tightened. Trust Des to show up the minute all the work was done.
At the sound of his footsteps they all looked up.
‘You’re back,’ Carly said, and the expression on her face puzzled him. She looked as if she had sunstroke. Her eyes were dazed, her cheeks were flushed, yet there was a hint of white around her mouth.
The woman in the swing leaped to her feet and ran down the steps toward him. ‘A.J.!’ she cried, and if Piran hadn’t hung on she would have snatched Arthur right out of his arms.
His eyes narrowed. ‘Who the hell are you?’
‘That’s Angelica.’ Carly smiled wanly. ‘Arthur—er-A.J.’s mother.’
Piran stared at the tawny-haired woman. She was familiar, yes, but-’Now wait a minute. I might have been round the bend for a while, but I know damned well I never slept with her!’
‘No, you didn’t,’ Des said.
Piran’s gaze jerked toward his brother who was getting to his feet.
‘I did,’ Des said.
‘What are you talking about?’
But Des only had eyes for the child in Piran’s arms, and his voice, when he spoke, was as soft as his smile. ‘You’re not his father—I am.’
CHAPTER TEN
PIRAN supposed that if he made them go over it again and again someday he might feel less betrayed, might even feel he’d been given a reprieve.
At least he might feel it made sense.
‘I can’t believe you would just abandon your child on a veranda!’ he said to Angelica for the second time.
Carly would never do a stupid, irresponsible thing like that, and she wasn’t even Arthur’s—he couldn’t bring himself to think of the baby as A.J.—mother.
‘I didn’t think I was abandoning him!’ Angelica retorted hotly. ‘I thought Des was here. He’d made such a point out of telling everyone this was where he had to be so you two could finish your damned book!’
Des looked decidedly uncomfortable at her words. Piran thought he ought to look as if he was being consumed by the fires of hell.
‘How did I know you were going to leave me a baby?’ Des demanded. ‘It isn’t like you ever told me we were going to have one!’
‘I tried,’ Angelica said. ‘You were never where I could get hold of you! You were always off on some boat or running around the world. If you had a phone—or an office—like a normal person—’
‘Sorry!’ Des snapped. Then immediately his tone softened and he reached out and took her hand. ‘Hey, we’ve been through all this.’ He looked at his brother. ‘I’m sorry about the mix-up. She did try. And then, when she got desperate, she came here.’
‘And left him! She could have waited,’ Piran pointed out. ‘I’d have been happy to tell her you were off sailing the seven seas.’
‘Yes, well, she was annoyed by then. She thought I was avoiding her, avoiding responsibilities. She thought maybe a little shock treatment might make me see the light.’ He gave a wry grimace. ‘So she left him and took off to crew for Jim. Imagine her surprise when, the day after Jim picked her up, he sent her down into the cabin to take care of the mate with the flu and she found out it was me!’
‘Imagine,’ Piran said drily.
‘You should have heard her when she thought I was here learning how to be a father and I was actually half a world away with no idea what she’d done.’ Des shook his head in dismay at the memory.
Piran didn’t have to hear her. He could imagine that too. What he couldn’t imagine was life without Arthur.
To be fair, the past few weeks didn’t seem to have been easy for Angelica either. The way she was cuddling Arthur in her arms right now, as if she couldn’t bear to put him down, he knew she must have gone spare when she’d realized there was no way for her to get off Jim’s boat at once and fly halfway round the world to the child she’d left on the veranda.
And then she’d had to explain to Des why she was so frantic. That couldn’t have been easy either. Nor could their plight have made poor, unsuspecting Jim’s shakedown sail any easier for all concerned.
So what? Piran thought savagely. It served them right!
It would have served them right if he and Carly had disappeared wit
h Arthur and left no trace. He glared now at them both.
‘We got married as soon as we could,’ Des said. ‘Somehow I never thought I’d spirit a woman off to Las Vegas, but I did. And then we came right on here. We’re really grateful,’ he added. ‘To both of you.’
He turned his gaze directly on Carly. ‘I’m sorry. I had no idea when I asked you,’ he apologized. ‘You must hate me. First the book, then Piran, then A.J.’ He grimaced sympathetically.
Piran’s teeth clenched. His gaze followed Des’s to see Carly’s reaction to that.
She was smiling wanly. ‘It’s…all right,’ she said softly.
She didn’t say anything else. She had said almost nothing at all since he’d come back almost an hour ago. Apparently she’d already heard the explanations before he got there. At least she’d had no questions this time through.
He’d had a thousand, all furious. And all the while he’d been asking them Carly had simply sat there, motionless, her hands folded in her lap, her eyes either on them or staring off unseeing at the horizon.
‘I don’t think you ought to have a baby,’ he snarled at Des and Angelica now. ‘An irresponsible pair like you!’
Angelica gasped, cuddling Arthur closer and looking fearfully to Des to defend them.
Des did. He bristled. ‘And I suppose you’re more responsible?’ One brow lifted. ‘Who thought Arthur was probably his?’ he said mockingly.
Piran flushed, then felt a stab of surprise when Carly spoke up.
‘He didn’t,’ she said in a low, firm voice. ‘He never thought that. Not from the first.’
‘Not at first,’ Piran corrected her. ‘But then…well, I thought it was possible,’ he conceded, glancing her way, wondering why in heaven’s name he was arguing with her.
‘Well, he’s not yours,’ Des said firmly. ‘He’s ours.’ He reached out a hand and brushed it across Arthur’s hair. ‘Our son,’ he repeated softly. His voice cracked on the words, but he didn’t even seem embarrassed by the display of emotion, and that, finally, more than all the protestations he’d made so far, convinced Piran that his brother meant every word.
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