The Boss's Baby Affair (12 page)

“Given the state of your relationship, why the decision to start a family?”

“Jilly had always wanted a baby.” Nick looked away. “She'd made that clear from the moment I placed a wedding band on her finger. I wasn't spending a lot of time home…I think she was lonely.”

At the mention of their wedding Candace felt an unexpected stab of jealousy. Yet their union hadn't yielded a child. Maybe that was never meant to be. But the flip side of that coin was equally hard to accept: she and Nick couldn't possibly be meant to be, either.

Or could they?

“But something changed.” Nick interrupted her thoughts. “When Jilly stopped talking about
our
baby, I became convinced she had a lover, someone she preferred to father her baby.”

“Maybe she stopped thinking of the baby as
hers,
” said Candace slowly. “After all, the eggs and womb were mine. It had nothing to do with your role at all.”

“That would make sense.” Nick shook his head. “God, what a mess. I drew the wrong conclusion. But I didn't care enough to confront her. I was relieved—all I could think about was paying Desmond back. In the back of my mind I knew I would eventually divorce Jilly. It suited me that her child wasn't mine. It was an easy way out for me.”

She touched his hand where it lay on the table. “I'm sorry, Nick.”

He held her gaze. “It's not a very nice story.”

“No. But you must've felt terribly trapped.”

“Like my back was against the wall,” he admitted.

“Yet you never took it out on Jennie.”

“I wouldn't be truthful if I didn't confess that I did resent her a little—I believed she was another man's baby. But it didn't take me long to figure out she's the innocent in all this—and it's not hard to love her. She's very special.”

Her fingers were still resting on his hand. It was a masculine hand with scrapes and calluses. A strong, capable hand. His fingers closed around hers. Her gaze flicked to his, only to be snared in the blazing heat.

After that, Candace couldn't have said what she ate when the main course arrived. The intensity of Nick's gaze, the way her stomach bottomed out every time their eyes met—all left her with an edgy feeling of expectation that grew as the evening wore on. She couldn't help thinking that Nick had depths she'd never expected. He'd suffered so much, worked so hard…and proven himself to be a man of honor.

A man worthy of being a father to Jennie.

 

Once back home, Nick followed Candace up the marble stairway.

She paused on the landing where it widened into a sitting area. “Thank you for dinner—it was lovely to get out.”

There was a moment of awkward silence, then Nick muttered, “The hell with it.” He stepped closer, gave her a brief chance to escape.

Candace murmured huskily, “I'll go to my room now.”

Yet she didn't move.

The silence between them stretched out. Two beats. Then three. At last, when Nick was quite sure she'd had all the time
in the world to make her decision, he reached for her. Candace never hesitated. She flew into his arms.

It wasn't a gentle kiss—Nick was far too aroused for that. The tension that had been rising in him for days had reached a breaking point. By the time it ended, he was breathing heavily.

Their eyes met. Something shifted, subtle, impossible to recognize.

Nick's hands came up to tangle in her silky hair, holding her so that when he lowered his head a second time his mouth slanted across hers, creating the perfect kiss.

Candace didn't object. She kissed him back with enough eager intensity for him to know that the blazing attraction was mutual.

Hunger twisted inside him, hot and wild.

When the kiss ended this time, Nick had to battle for control as tremors of anticipation quaked through him.

Slowly
…

He'd thought he could leash the power, but Candace quickly proved him wrong. It didn't take much. Her hands crept up, along his shirtfront…up…until they rested on his shoulders. Rising on her toes, her tongue tip tantalized his bottom lip, shredding what little restraint he still possessed.

His hands shaking, Nick unfastened the frustratingly small buttons of the chemise-style front of her dress. The edges parted, and his fingers found the soft skin of her breasts. She wore no bra. Heat exploded in him.

Nick groaned.

“I don't know how much of this I can take,” he muttered hoarsely, his hands closing over the curves.

She leaned closer, her body pressing up against his. Nick released the soft flesh, and his arms slid around her. He let his hands wander down her back, over the cotton jersey that fell in soft folds over her hips. He clasped her hips, pulled her close to him, so she could feel his body's hard response.

Candace moved in little restless circles against him. Nick's erection leaped, straining to be free.

This was more woman than he'd ever held…even in his dreams. Nick groaned again.

She nibbled his bottom lip. Nick yanked her closer so that she was plastered up against him, her softness yielding to him. The shoestring straps of her dress slid down her shoulders. He bent his head and pressed openmouthed kisses along the crest of her shoulders tasting her…inhaling the hauntingly familiar sweet, spicy scent of her until Candace shuddered in his arms.

Nick's heart pumped furiously, the blood pounding in his head.

He became aware of the chandelier blazing above them, of the backdrop of arched windows illuminating them to the deserted garden outside.

Scooping her off her feet, he headed past the closed doors of Jilly's rooms to his suite beyond. He kicked the door shut, and four long strides took him to the king-size bed with its pile of casually arranged pillows. Muted light pooled from the two bedside lamps, warming the dull gold cover. He let her slide down his torso onto the bed with excruciating slowness, tormenting him, prolonging the pleasure. By now he was shaking inside, the desire he'd been suppressing spilling over.

“God, but you're beautiful.”

With the straps already half-down her arms, and the bodice open, Nick pushed the dress over her hips. Underneath she wore tiny lace panties. Those went next. Grabbing the collar of his shirt, he yanked it—still buttoned—hurriedly over his head. Undoing his belt, then his pants, he shucked them off. They landed in a heap on the carpet.

Then he followed her down onto the bed among the mountain of dull gold and black cushions.

Her skin was pale and creamy.
Luscious.
He touched her
with a trembling hand. So soft. So warm. Impatience clawed at him. He stroked her, his fingertips exploring the rise of her breasts, the valley between, the flat plain of her stomach. Driven by increasing desperation, he sought out the sweetest, most responsive spots.

By the time his hand found the moist skin between her inner thighs, she was damp and superbly responsive. He slid two fingers into the moist channel. Her hips came off the bed, and Nick almost came apart.

He couldn't do this. He couldn't wait…

There was a moment when he thought about the new pack of condoms in his bedside drawer, then he abandoned it. What did it matter if he impregnated her? He was going to marry her. Nick wasn't conscious of making the decision—he simply knew that it was the right one.

“I'm sorry,” he whispered, drawing his fingers out. She shuddered, her hips undulating. “I can't wait.”

Nick shifted over her, covering her.

“Are you okay? I'm not too heavy?” He caught a glimpse of her incandescent silver eyes as she shook her head forcefully, her hair whipping around her face.

Then her legs tangled with his for a moment before they parted, granting him the access he'd only fantasized about before. He pressed into the space, his heart thundering.

She'd borne his child.

“Take me,” she murmured.

All thought dissolved as her hands slid into the tight space between them and closed around the length of him.

Nick gritted his teeth. “I can't hold back.”

Surging forward, the blunt length of him pushed into her readied softness. Nick fought against the strength of the sensations that shook him as her heat swallowed him; he fought to hold on, to give her time to catch up.

“I've never been this hot,” he whispered, and licked the soft skin behind her ear.

She arched up beneath him and gasped.

Nick clutched her buttocks and drove deeper. Pleasure ripped through him.

One. Two. Three thrusts.

Candace gasped again and flung her head back.

It was enough to send Nick spinning into oblivion. He shot deep inside her womb, where his child had lain, and then the passion and heat consumed them both.

Nothing had ever felt more right to Nick.

 

Candace opened her eyes—and the sight of the dark gold bedcover caused her to freeze. She didn't need the shafts of sunbeams or the sinking sensation in her stomach to tell her she'd fallen asleep in Nick Valentine's bed.

She jerked fully awake.

Jennie…did Jennie need her?

Then she remembered. Jennie was spending the night with Nick's sister. She rolled over, and gazed straight into Nick's lazy eyes.

“Hello,” he said softly.

His hand came up and brushed a strand of hair off her cheek. She managed not to flinch as heat arced through her. Shifting, her legs brushed against his naked ones beneath the sheets.

A fiery tide of embarrassment swept over her. Candace swallowed and anchored the silk sheet under her arms so that it wouldn't shift. “This is so awkward.”

“Why?” His lips curved up. “Don't feel that away. After all, we have a daughter—this should've happened a long time ago. We've done things the wrong way around.”

Oh, help!

A tender, teasing Nick Valentine was more than she could handle. How could she ever have thought those beautiful indigo eyes remote and inscrutable? The warmth and fire and emotion that filled them now tore at her heart.

She remembered how his passion had grown to a strange, very moving desperation last night.

He'd made her feel so special.

But now in the light of the morning after, it felt…wrong.

His fingers trailed down her cheek and came to a rest in the hollow of her throat. He caressed the sensitized, bare skin, and Candace was conscious of his square-tipped fingers touching her…slipping closer to the edge of the sheet trapped above her breasts.

And under the sheets his body was naked.

So was hers…

What had she done?
All she could think of was that it was going to be impossible to keep working in Nick's home. How could she have jeopardized everything? Her relationship with her daughter, her position in Nick's house? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

And for what?

One night of desperate passion? That was forever going to lurk between them; they would never be able to put it to rest. She was going to have to leave. Leave Jennie.

Her heart clenched in pain.

And leave Nick.

The cold ache that numbed her chest was as unexpected as it was unwelcome.

No.

It couldn't possibly hurt to think of leaving Nick…

No. No.
No.
He meant nothing to her.

Yet the denial did nothing to ease the ache as she remembered how he'd listened to Bertha yesterday, how he'd laughed when his sister had tormented him about having to kiss Princess Piggy, how he'd ripped her heart out when he'd told her about his hollow marriage at dinner last night.

She couldn't possibly have—

No, she didn't want to think about it. Falling in love with Nick would be the stupidest thing she'd ever done.

“Come here.” He pulled her into his arms.

For a split second, Candace resisted, then she let herself be drawn up against him. Shivers of delight raced through her as his bare skin brushed hers. He kissed her. Her mouth blossomed beneath his, opening, taking him into her, drawing him deep.

With a shock she realized how easy it would be to succumb.

Candace tore out of his arms, putting the length of the bed between them.

“Nick—no.” Her breathing was ragged. She paused for a moment. “I don't want to make love again.”

“You don't mean that—”

“I do,” she said with a firmness she was far from feeling. “It's not going to happen again. This was the one and only time.”

The soft light went out of his eyes. “Don't dismiss something you might regret losing later.”

“Believe me, I won't regret this. We can't be lovers. It won't work.” She said it with a finality that she hoped was convincing. And prayed he wouldn't recognize the undertone of desperation in her voice.

T
he throaty roar of the Ferrari coming up the driveway caused the tension that had been lurking in the pit of Candace's stomach since Nick had made love to her two days ago to tighten another notch.

Run. Hide.

The anxiety that had been gnawing at her resurfaced.
You're not in love with him.
Candace sharply pulled herself together. There was no need to run, and she wasn't retreating to hide in the nursery. She was going to stay seated right where she was—on the carpet of the upstairs sitting room, playing with Jennie.

“You're losing it,” she admonished herself. “Nick's home. So what?”

The memory of the time he'd kissed her here in this very place after she'd held the ice pack to his head flashed through her mind. Oh, God. Nowhere was safe from him, from the emotions he aroused in her.

Then Jennie gurgled, and, as always, Candace's heart warmed.

The baby's smile put everything in perspective.

She'd done nothing wrong. So she'd slept with Nick Valentine—a foolish mistake. Hardly the love of a lifetime. She had to keep telling herself that. Despite the starbursts of intense pleasure the experience had released, despite the sense of inevitability about what had happened, it was an error of judgment she bitterly regretted.

But there was no reason for it to cause her this much distress.

Except if there were consequences…

Candace told herself there wouldn't be. It was the wrong time of month. But she'd been reckless.
Stupid.
It was time to come to terms with what had happened, take the necessary steps to deal with any unfortunate circumstances and move on. She couldn't allow every thought of Nick to keep causing her heart palpitations.

The only problem was that Nick was making it incredibly difficult to put that night behind her.

Every look, every comment, seemed to be calculated to throw her into a state of confusion, where desire warred with good sense.

Even now, the sound of his footsteps coming up the marble stairway made her pulse go wild.

Nick was coming!

For one panicky moment Candace wished she'd retreated to the nursery when she'd had the opportunity. Then she steadied herself.

Get over it.

But the sight of his grim face knocked her off the frivolous emotional seesaw of her own dilemma.

“What's wrong?”

Something terrible had clearly happened.

Nick crossed the carpet, tossed a large envelope on the coffee table, and reached for Jennie.

“Nick…” The cold, set expression on his face as he lifted the baby into his arms unnerved her. “What's
happened?
”

He turned his head and gazed at her over the baby's head. There was a blank opacity in his eyes that made her heart stop. “Talk to me,” she said. “You're scaring me.”

“Desmond—” He broke off, burying his face in Jennie's neck.

“What about him?” What could his father-in-law have done to evoke this kind of reaction?

“He wants Jennie.”

“What do you mean?” Chills goosed over her skin. “What's going on?”

“He's launched legal action.” Nick raised his head and nodded toward the envelope he'd cast onto the table. “He wants custody of Jennie.”

Candace covered her face with her hands. “Oh, my God.” Spreading her fingers, she raised her head and stared helplessly at Nick. “Will he get it?”

“Not while I breathe.” Determination turned his voice to steel. “He has money and power, but so do I. And this time I'm going to fight him.”

“Why is he doing this?”

Nick hesitated, then said reluctantly, “He claims that I am a womanizer, that Jennie is neglected. It appears it was sparked by seeing you with me at the carnival—perhaps he thought I'd defiled his daughter's memory. That I'd already replaced her…with you.”

That only made her feel so much worse. Because Desmond hadn't been wrong. By the end of the day she had been in Nick's bed. Jilly's bed. Oh, darn… How sordid.

So much for putting it all behind her. It was proving to be impossible.

“Surely he won't have a case? He'd have to prove you grossly neglected Jennie.” Anyone could see that wasn't true. Jennie was exploring the buttons of his chest, so at home in his arms that it brought a lump to Candace's throat.

Nick's mouth slanted up. “Even you thought that was true at one time.”

“But not anymore.” And that was true.

“He'll call Jilly's friends as witnesses to say I never cared for her, that I ignored her while we were married. Emotional abuse, they'll call it.”

“But it was understandable,” Candace defended him. “And it doesn't relate to Jennie.”

“The same people will say that I wasn't interested in Jilly's pregnancy, that I wasn't even present for the baby's birth, that I went away for long periods for work and didn't even return when my child was ill—and it's all true.”

He sounded so wretched that Candace's heart went out to him.

Nick settled down on the carpet beside her. Jennie stretched her hands out to the toys scattered around Candace, and he set her down. Both of them watched the baby as she tried to crawl toward the nearest blocks.

“How could I ever have known that she would wrap herself around my heart?” His gaze met Candace's. “I won't lose her. Desmond doesn't realize what he's started. I've already instructed my lawyers to oppose it. I think his suit is based on a pack of lies, but I'm not prepared to risk losing.” Nick shifted closer. “Candace, we're going to make it clear he has no claim to Jennie—no biological tie exists between Jennie and Desmond.”

“But Jilly adopted Jennie.”

“I'm still waiting for proof that the adoption went through. You and I are Jennie's biological parents—and we both love her.” His hand settled on hers where it pressed into the carpet.
“I don't think this is about Jennie—I think this is about clinging on to Jilly. He can't accept that she's gone.”

Candace shifted her weight to enable her to turn her hand palm up, and laced her fingers with his, drawing immeasurable comfort from his touch. She'd been so careful to stay out of Nick's reach for the past couple of days in case she gave away her newly discovered feelings to him. The tender emotions were so precious, she had to shelter them from the bruising and battering that were inevitable.

But this time his touch wasn't about sex. It was about so much more.

“It must be hard for Desmond to have lost his daughter.” Watching Jennie playing, she couldn't stop a twinge of sympathy for Jilly's father from stirring within her. How terrible to lose a child. “Poor man.”

“Don't waste too much sympathy on him. I'm sure he only came up with this idea after seeing you with me on Sunday.”

“You don't suppose—” She broke off, not wanting to voice the unkind thought.

“I don't suppose…what?”

“You spoke about Desmond trying to hurt you through Alison on Sunday. You don't suppose he's only doing this to hurt you again? That it's not about Jennie at all?”

Nick didn't respond, but the grip of his fingers grew tighter. Jennie was gnawing at a block. Her gums had been swollen, the next tooth would be through very soon.

“Such an overreaction would be insane,” she said finally, hoping her response wasn't misplaced.

“Not for Desmond,” said Nick slowly. “He's more than capable of that kind of malice. I simply hadn't considered that he might want to hurt me that much.”

She turned her head and met his gaze. “Why would he want to do such a thing?”

“It's a power thing…he couldn't get me to bend to his will. Perhaps he thinks Jennie would be my breaking point.”

“And would she be?”

Candace held her breath as she waited for his answer. This was crucially important, far more important than the throwaway tone of the question suggested.

There was a flash of something…vulnerability?…in the navy depths of his eyes. “It would kill me to lose Jennie.”

The simple intensity of his response rocked her to the foundations of her existence.
He cared.
Candace wasn't sure why it mattered so much, only that it did.

He loved Jennie.

She placed her other hand over his, cradling his hand between both of hers. Her love for him flowed through her fingers, and she hoped it would give him the strength he needed to do what was right.

Without taking his eyes from her, he raised her hands and placed a kiss very carefully, first on the back of one hand, then on the other.

A rush of emotion overtook her.

Currents electrified the space between them. A compelling need to defuse the sudden tension vibrating between them made her say with forced lightness, “Boy, you certainly picked the family to marry into.”

Nick shook his head. “They did the picking.”

She remembered what he'd told her about how Jilly and her father had all but blackmailed him into marriage, and his suppressed frustration became totally understandable.

At last she said, “What are we going to do?”

 

We?

Nick stared at the woman sitting, legs outstretched, on the floor beside him, while their baby inched forward half crawling, half sliding as she tried to reach for a brightly colored ball. The firm hold of Candace's hand warmed him.

“It's not your problem,” he said automatically.

Her eyes sparkled. “Of course it's my problem. I'm Jennie's mother. You're not going to leave me out in the cold on this.”

“It would weaken Desmond's crazy suit to announce that Jennie is not Jilly's child—she's yours.” It was a dangerous move. And it would give Candace an advantage that he would never be able to regain. Still, it might be a risk worth taking. “That way Desmond can claim no biological tie with the baby.”

“It will cause a scandal.”

“I don't care.” But he hadn't thought about how it would affect her, and he discovered that he didn't have any desire to see her hurt or humiliated. “Will it matter to you if I announce it to the world?”

“Of course not!” A luminosity lit her gray eyes that made her more beautiful than ever. “I can think of nothing more wonderful than being publicly branded as Jennie's mother.”

The moment of truth had come—if he announced that she was Jennie's mother, there would be no going back, there'd be no more talk of her leaving…

When she'd first told him that she was Jennie's mother, he'd wanted her out of the baby's life at all costs. But she'd called to something deep and dark and primitive in him, something he didn't fully comprehend.

All Nick knew was that he wasn't going to let her go.

The decision he'd come to the night he'd lost his senses returned from where he'd buried it at the back of his consciousness…it was a plan. A plan that might even work.

Thinking about it, he realized it was a team solution.
We.
He was starting to like the sound of that.

“Then marry me,” he said simply.

“What?”

Her eyes darkened with disbelief.

“If you marry me, then as her biological parents we will be
able to show any judge that living with us is the best solution for Jennie. Together we will refute any evidence that Desmond might choose to present that Jennie is neglected. She has a father and mother who love her, and a safe and secure home. What more could any child need?”

And best of all, not only would he get to keep Jennie… Candace would never be able to leave.

 

“It's the best solution for Jennie,” said Nick.

The best solution for Jennie? If she married him, Candace knew she would get hurt. Marrying a man she was falling in love with, living with him day by day, but never loved by him in return…

It sounded like hell on earth.

In her shock she couldn't think of anything logical to say, so she stated the obvious. “I'm not the kind of woman a man like you marries.”

“What is the kind of woman a man like me marries?” One dark eyebrow arched up. “Someone like Jilly?”

Help.

“She'd be better suited to be your wife than me.”

“I have to disagree.” One of his hands let hers go and he cupped her face, his thumb stroking her jawline. “I don't think anyone would make a better mother for Jennie than you would.”

Her insides melted.

“You might even already be pregnant with a sister or brother to Jennie. I didn't use protection the other night—or are you on the pill?”

Unfair.

“No, I'm not. But it's highly unlikely…I've already worked it out. So don't feel you have to marry me for that reason.”

“I don't have to do anything. But marrying me will be the best thing to do.”

Why was he suggesting this? Nick had spent seven years
in a loveless union. Last time he'd been trapped into it. This time he was volunteering it of his own accord. What was he thinking by proposing such an arrangement?

The answer came to her at once.

He was doing it for Jennie.

Nick was prepared to sacrifice himself. Out of his love for his daughter.

For Jennie.

Candace glanced down at the baby playing obliviously with blocks…and her heart ached. Tears pricked at the back of her throat. She'd come here to work as Jennie's nanny because she'd been convinced that Nick was neglecting her baby. She'd known he didn't love Jennie with the same depth of emotion that she did. She'd been ready to take Jennie away.

Now he'd just proved conclusively how much he loved their daughter.

Drawing a deep shaky breath, Candace returned her attention to the man who had turned all her assumptions about him upside down. “But what about you?” It was a cry from her heart. She didn't want him to give up so much for his daughter. “It's certainly not the best solution for you—you'll be trapped in a marriage you don't want all over again.”