by Helen Lacey
“Thanks for coming with us today,” Layla said.
“Thanks for inviting me. I like your grandparents.”
She was ridiculously pleased. It was important to her that he got on with her only relatives. “Laurel said you come from a really happy and loving family.”
“Laurel says a lot,” he remarked, and raised his brows questioningly. “But she’s right.”
Layla chuckled. “We had a playdate yesterday with the kids. She’s really nice.”
“That she is. She and Adam were friends, and then lovers and then friends again. And then there was Larkin and that whole situation. Complicated,” he added, and laughed a little. “But they worked it out.”
“I’m not good at complicated.”
“Me either,” he said, and grinned. “So let’s agree to try to not make this complicated, okay?”
“You want assurances?” she queried, smiling a little, because he was so easy to be around and her belly was loop-the-looping like there was no tomorrow. “That’s a big call.”
“I said try,” he reminded her and grinned.
When they got home Erin was still dozing so Layla put her in her crib while Kane popped the leftovers her grandmother had given her into the refrigerator. When she met him in the kitchen he was resting his behind against the countertop. The awareness between them quickly thickened the air in the room and Layla remained by the door, away from temptation and, she suspected, damnation.
“So, would you like something to—”
“Layla,” he said quietly, “would you come here?”
“I’m—”
“Please?”
She swallowed the nerves in her throat. He wasn’t demanding. He wouldn’t insist. That wasn’t his way. If she stayed where she was, she suspected that would be the end of it. But she didn’t. She walked straight into his arms.
He kissed her, long and slow and deep, and within seconds Layla forgot all coherent thought. She could only feel—his hands, his arms, the solid wall of his chest that she was pressed against, the erotic and gentle foray of his tongue in her mouth, the scent of his cologne swirling and assailing her senses. His hand strayed down her back and he drew tiny circles along her spine, urging her closer. Layla sighed against his mouth, offering him her lips, her mouth, her very sanity. While his one hand softly anchored her head, the other strayed down to her hip, curving over her bottom in a way that made her moan with pleasure. His knuckles then trailed up her rib cage and his thumb teased the underside of her breast, asking, not taking; he dipped and smoothed his palm over her with such languor she could barely draw breath.
She wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that...just kissing...just touching...just getting to know each other. His hard planes and her soft curves. His insanely broad shoulders. Her aching, surging breasts. Maybe minutes. Maybe longer. But when he pulled back—when the kiss ended and he was staring into her eyes with hot burning intensity—for a second Layla thought she might pass out. But he held her upright, his strong arms resting loosely around her.
“Wow,” she sighed, and then realized how foolish and inexperienced she must sound.
But he didn’t mock her. There was nothing but pure, unadulterated desire in his expression. “That definitely takes us out of the friend zone.”
“Where’d you learn to kiss like that?” she asked, and dropped her forehead against his chest, loving how she could hear his heart hammering behind his ribs.
“French class,” he said, and chuckled.
Layla looked up and met his gaze. “I never took French class.”
“Could have fooled me,” he quipped, and grasped her chin.
He stayed for another hour and they had another two make-out sessions—one in the kitchen while she was making coffee, the other while they were sitting on the sofa, talking about their movie likes and dislikes. He left with a long, lingering kiss by the front door and the promise to call her the next day.
Layla waved goodbye and tried to ignore the disappointment in her heart, the heat in her limbs and the tingling on her lips. But one thing was abundantly clear.
She most definitely wanted a relationship with Kane Fortune.
Chapter Nine
Kane was amazed at how quickly and effortlessly he and Layla slipped into a routine over the course of the next week. Sometimes, it felt as though they’d known each other forever. They saw each other most days, and talked on the phone on the days they didn’t. By Friday, Kane knew that whatever they were, the intensity of his feelings for Layla were stronger than any he’d had before. And of course, there was Erin, who seemed to light up whenever she saw him and who gave her affections so effortlessly it was impossible not to fall for her along with her mom.
And that was it in a nutshell.
He was falling in love. With them both.
The notion struck him with the force of a freight train. He’d never really fancied himself in love before, not with Janine, not with the exchange student in high school. And it had spectacularly thrown him off course. He wasn’t sure how such strong feelings has manifested so quickly, wasn’t sure he even wanted to know. He did know that Layla wasn’t anywhere near there yet.
“Ah, earth to Kane?”
Kane shook himself and got his concentration back to the current situation. Which was late Friday afternoon at the hotel, and a meeting with Callum and Grace. It was his last official day of work at the hotel, and he was supposed to be going through any last-minute issues. But other than the usual day-to-day dramas of running a hotel, everything seemed to be on track. Even his security team had reported no other suspicious activities, though the authorities were no closer to discovering if the balcony had actually been sabotaged last month. And because of that, Kane suspected they might never know the full story.
“Everything okay?” Callum asked.
Kane nodded. “Sure.”
“New girlfriend, huh?”
He flinched. “What?”
“Adam told Wiley,” Callum remarked. “Wiley told me.”
“And me,” Grace added with a smile.
“Small town, big family,” Callum said and chuckled. “You know how it is, word gets around.”
Kane was about to say something dismissive but by then it was too late because Grace was saying something about how sweet that was, and Callum was laughing softly.
“Yeah, so let’s not talk about this anymore,” Kane said, and got to his feet.
He made arrangements to meet up with Callum the following Monday to talk about expansion at Paz Spa and a couple of other jobs Callum had in the works, and then headed to Layla’s, briefly stopping at a florist on the way.
She and Erin greeted him in the driveway and he kissed them both. Weird, he thought, how normal it all seemed. Like they were his own family. But of course, they weren’t.
Not yet...
The notion settled in his stomach and instead of the usual panic he experienced when he considered anything even closely resembling commitment, Kane felt as though a kind of calming, soothing balm was smeared over his skin.
The realization shocked him to the core.
“Are you all right?” Layla asked, clearly seeing something in his expression.
He relaxed as the scent of her fragrance assailed him. “Fine. You?”
“Better now you’re here,” she replied, and pressed against him for a moment. “I’ve made tacos.”
Kane smiled and grabbed the flowers from the passenger seat. “For you.”
“Lavender roses,” she said, and inhaled their heady scent. “Which are now my favorite flower.”
They walked inside and into the kitchen, and Kane kept Erin occupied with some coloring at the table while Layla prepared dinner. He liked watching her cook. He liked the way she moved. In fact, he liked everything about her.
“How’s the assignme
nt coming along?” he asked, eager to get the image of her swaying hips out of his thoughts.
She looked up from her task. “Done. Although I have another one due soon on consumer behavior. I really need to get out and shop more,” she added and grinned, “purely for research purposes of course.”
“Do you like to shop?”
“I like shopping for baby things,” she admitted. “Perhaps I should ask you to look over my assignment notes and get your take? You certainly have plenty of experience.”
He didn’t respond to her request. Didn’t want her to see him struggling to read her notes. “What made you choose a marketing degree?”
She shrugged. “I’ve always been interested in the subject. If I could turn back the clock, I would have begun the course when I left school. But I needed to work and then one year morphed into the next and then I met Frank and my career aspirations faded for a while.”
“By the sound of it, you grew up early.”
She nodded. “I had to.”
“What was she like?” Kane asked, knowing it was a tough subject for her, but sensing that she had something to say.
“Mom? Troubled,” she said quietly. “She still is.”
“Do you hear from her much?”
“No,” she replied. “Once a year maybe. Some years she remembers my birthday. Other years, not so much.”
Kane thought of his own parents and realized how lucky he was. “Speaking of moms,” he said, and made a face, “I need to call mine. I haven’t spoken to her much lately.”
“Are you her favorite?” she asked bluntly, but with a broad smile.
Kane laughed. “Well, you couldn’t blame her, right?”
She chuckled as she brought a tray to the table, piled high with warm taco shells and assorted fillings.
Kane quickly cleared away the paper and crayons and placed Erin in her high chair. Layla carefully placed some grated cheese, ground beef and tomato pieces on a plate and the baby immediately began eating.
“Your daughter likes her food,” he said, and grinned.
“Her appetite has increased in the last couple of weeks,” Layla said, nodding. “And she’s been really happy lately. No crying at day care.”
Kane met Layla’s gaze. “That must reassure you.”
She nodded. “It does. Even though she was only six months old I’m certain Erin felt her father’s passing deeply—that’s why she has the separation issues.”
“Were they close?”
“Frank adored her. He was ten years older than me and had been married before, but they hadn’t been able to have children. I know the stress of the failed IVF treatments was one of the reasons they divorced. We met about a year later.”
“Was it love at first sight?”
She looked at him. “Not exactly. We were friends for a year before we started dating. Then we sort of fell in love. Then we got married and when Erin came along I’d never seen him so happy. He used to stand by her crib and look at her when she was a newborn, as though she was the most precious thing in the world.”
Kane experienced something he wasn’t prepared for—something that felt a lot like envy. And he wondered if he’d ever have that privilege of looking at a baby of his own. He watched Erin shove food into her mouth and it made him smile. “Well, she is kinda precious.”
“I think so,” Layla said, and then regarded him with a strange, almost faraway look in her eyes. “He would have liked you. He would have called you a good egg.”
Kane asked a question that had been simmering inside him for days. “Do you still love him?”
“I’ll always love him,” she replied. “He’s Erin’s father and my husband. But he’s gone,” she added, and met Kane’s gaze.
His stomach took a dive. She still loved him. Of course she did. It was exactly what he expected her to say. What he didn’t expect was how uncertain it made him feel.
They began to eat and for the following hour they were entertained by Erin’s antics. When they were done, Layla took the baby to get changed for bed and Kane stayed in the kitchen and cleaned up. It occurred to him that it had become something of a routine between them. It also occurred to him how easily he’d slipped into that routine.
When Layla returned, minus Erin, she was smiling. “She wants you to read her a story.”
He stilled, his insides clenching. “How do you know that?”
“Because she grabbed the book from me and said no in a very determined voice,” she replied. “I know my daughter...she wants you, not me.”
Kane hesitated for a few seconds and then exhaled. “Sure.”
He headed to the nursery and spotted Erin standing up in her crib in a pink onesie, her bangs falling over her forehead, and he noticed how much she looked like Layla. She was holding a book and waved it at him when he entered the room. Kane sat in the chair by the crib, took the book from her chubby hands and looked around the room, noticing the mobile lovingly hung from the ceiling, the wallpaper with tiny yellow ducks on it, the pile of teddy bears in one corner and the soft pink light on the table by the door.
“Okay, kiddo, what do you want tonight? Frogs and princesses, or bears that love honey?”
She giggled so delightfully his insides rolled over. “Book! Dada!”
Something uncurled in his chest and he realized that in a matter of weeks, so many things he’d believed of himself had changed. For one, the idea of a toddler calling him Dada would have sent him running for the hills. It would have scratched at that commitment-phobic part of himself he’d always held on to like a lifeline, and made him end things as quickly as they’d started. But, unbelievably, he didn’t want to bail. He wanted to stay.
Forever...
Kane placed the book on the carpet and started talking. “Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess named Erin...”
* * *
Layla wasn’t sure who was more mesmerized by his deep voice—her or her utterly entranced daughter. She’d called him Dada again...and Kane hadn’t corrected her because he was kind and thoughtful and obviously didn’t want to upset her daughter. Deep down, she knew why Erin had been happier lately. Why she was relaxed. Why she was laughing more and sleeping better. It was because of Kane. He was such a calming presence and Layla knew her daughter was smitten with him.
As he told her a story about a princess in a castle who fell in love with a gentle woodcutter, Layla got lost in the seductive melody of his words. She looked at the book on the carpet and wondered what magic he possessed that he could make up a story so effortlessly. It would obviously have been easier for him to read the book, but he clearly wasn’t a man who took the easy option in any regard.
When the story was over, Erin was lying on her belly, relaxed and ready for sleep.
She watched as he got to his feet, patted the child gently on the back and then turned, noticing her for the first time. “She’s almost out.”
“Thank you.”
Layla lingered by Erin’s crib for a few moments and noticed that Kane had left her alone to say good-night to her daughter. Once she left the nursery and met him in the living room, he was sitting on one of the single chairs and looked deep in thought.
“Something wrong?”
“No.”
“She really adores you,” Layla said, and noticed how his gaze narrowed. “It’s amazing how quickly that’s happened. She called you Dada again?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, that’s one person who lives in this house who doesn’t have any trouble expressing her feelings,” Layla admitted with a dose of self-derision. “But I’m sorry if it makes you feel uncomfortable.”
“It doesn’t,” he replied quietly, his elbows on his knees. “It makes me want to tell her that I’m right here and not going anywhere.”
Layla’s breath caught tightly in her t
hroat. “But you can’t because you don’t know that. We don’t know that.”
“No,” he said. “I guess we don’t.”
“People leave,” she said, and suddenly her rib cage was shuddering. “People walk away. People die.”
He met her gaze with dark, blistering intensity. “No one can promise not to die, Layla.”
And then, without any warning, without her usual wall of strength coming up to protect her, tears formed and burned the backs of her eyes before quickly spilling over onto her cheeks. The lonely hollowness that always made her ache inside rose up, tormenting her for a few seconds, reminding her how alone she truly was.
But then, somehow, the loneliness was abruptly swept away. Because Kane’s arms were around her and her shaking body was pressed against his. With her head buried in his neck, she drew strength from the comfort of his touch. His big hands were gentle, his shoulders broad and strong, like a shield for the ache in her heart.
“You’re okay,” he said softly, his voice as soothing as it had been when he’d told Erin a bedtime story. “I’ve got you.”
And for the first time in forever, Layla cried.
Part of her wasn’t even sure why, or what had caused the dam to burst. Perhaps it was the affection she’d witnessed between Kane and her daughter that made her mourn for everything Frank would miss, or perhaps it was the quiet camaraderie she experienced whenever Kane was close, or that his very presence reminded her of a life she’d once had and taken for granted. A life she sometimes could barely remember. Whatever the reason, all she knew was that in Kane’s gentle embrace, she didn’t feel alone. She didn’t feel as though she was battling to keep herself strong and resilient and the perfect picture of someone who had it all together.
Somehow, they ended up on the couch and Layla was curled against him. One palm flattened on his chest, the steady beat of his heart so comforting she experienced a heavy lethargy in her limbs as her body relaxed. His hands were like tonic, soothing the unhappiness away, holding her nape while the other settled in the small of her back.
