Baby for the Billionaire(63)

Dylan sucked the last dregs out of the bottle and his eyelids started to droop.

“I’ve been thinking …”

Instantly Connor had all her attention. “What?”

“Dylan should stay here.”

Euphoria swept Victoria along. She’d gotten what she’d wanted. Now she had to make it work, prove to Connor it was the right thing for Dylan. “I’m so glad you realized I was right.”

His gaze narrowed to cool slits and all the easygoing camaraderie evaporated. “Hang on, we’re not changing the custody arrangement of the will. He stays with you for now, but we’ll review the arrangement in a month.”

No, that wasn’t what she’d intended.

She considered arguing that his solution only meant unsettling Dylan later down the line, then decided to quit while she was still ahead. When the time came, she was sure she’d be able to convince him that Dylan would be better off staying with her. As for her resolve to tell Connor that she wanted to keep their relationship formal as Dylan’s guardians, it appeared that would not be necessary. Connor was all business. He certainly showed no signs of being a man overwhelmed by desire. She suppressed a ridiculous stab of something suspiciously like disappointment.

He was speaking again. “Dylan needs you. I can’t deny it—you’re so good with him.”

Victoria stared at him, astonished. Connor thought she was good with Dylan? He wasn’t the kind of man to give false praise. A surge of happiness swept her. So much for all her fears that she’d be terrible at the mothering stuff.

He was still talking. “But it’s going to slow down your career track.”

“I know, and I’ve come to terms with that.” She would have to speak to Bridget and tell her that she wouldn’t be working late into the evenings anymore. She gave Connor a bright smile that faded a little as his gaze intensified in a way that made her shiver inside.

“So you’ll need to take leave for a couple of weeks.”

Take leave? Averting her face, Victoria placed the empty bottle on the coffee table. How could she take leave? Especially now when everyone at ACE was working to full capacity. She’d tell him later that she had no intention of taking leave. Now was not a good time. He might renege on his decision to leave Dylan with her.

When she was sure she had her emotions under control, she raised her head—and clashed with Connor’s intense gaze. Her stomach rolled over.

Victoria drew a steadying breath. Now was not the time to be sucked in by Connor’s lethal charisma. She wasn’t looking for a man. And he was the last one on earth that she’d pick. Surely she hadn’t forgotten that?

He was all wrong for her—he’d just proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt. He’d never let her retain the financial and emotional independence she’d fought so hard to attain. He’d want a woman who he could control and command. A woman who would give up work at his demand. And that would never be her.

She would never risk being at the mercy of a man’s whims. Like her mother had been. It wasn’t only the woman who suffered, but her children too. She had first-hand experience of what happened when children paid the price of impulsive passion.

But she wasn’t about to lose custody of the only son she’d ever have. So Victoria said carefully, “Yes. And I’m going to take a leaf out of your book and delegate more—hire a junior to assist me. That’s just one more thing I need to discuss with Bridget.”





Six


After Connor had gone, Victoria called Bridget Edge.

The assurance that Victoria would be at work the following day was met with a sigh of undisguised relief. And after a small pause Bridget had agreed to Victoria’s suggestion that hiring a junior accountant would be a good idea—provided, of course, that Victoria’s client base kept growing.

Victoria set the phone down and closed her eyes. For the first time since learning of Michael and Suzy’s deaths her sense of optimism blossomed again.

Everything was going to work out.

She quashed the growing apprehension that Connor would not be happy with the outcome.

The next day, Victoria dropped Dylan at the day care center that Suzy had enrolled Dylan in. Leaving him was a terrible wrench, but she assuaged her guilt by slipping out during lunch time to check on him. One of the young day care employees murmured that the baby hadn’t settled and appeared to be fretting.

Of course Dylan was fretting.

Poor baby! Victoria picked him up, inhaling the scent of powder and baby. Dylan was missing Suzy and Michael. And she’d left him in this unfamiliar place. Guilt overwhelmed her. She’d added to his sense of dislocation—but what other choice did she have?

Connor, a little voice said, she could have called Connor for help. He’d offered to take the baby. But if she called him he would crow in victory—and claim Dylan.

She would lose her baby.

And Connor wouldn’t look after the baby personally, either. He’d simply hire a nanny, which was no different from what she was doing. Dylan wriggled in her arms. Victoria kissed his head apologetically and loosened her grip.

But what if she confided in Connor that she was Dylan’s biological mother? Would he understand … would he be prepared to compromise? She nuzzled Dylan’s soft baby hair and thought of the Connor North she knew.…

Hard. Decisive. Ruthless. There wasn’t a compromising bone in that strong, too-male body.

No. She couldn’t tell him.

She would have to get through this by herself.

The rest of the day passed in a rush. And Victoria, who’d intended to leave not long after lunch for the first time in her life, left work far later than she’d intended.

Dylan still hadn’t settled by the Victoria went to collect him. But the staff were sure Monday would be better.

The weekend went by in a blur of sleepless exhaustion. Victoria missed a call from Connor while she and Dylan napped, and after listening to the recording of his deep, provocative voice saying, “Just wanted to see if you’re coping,” decided against phoning him back.

So he thought she wasn’t coping?

Well, she certainly wasn’t going to cry for help.

By the following Tuesday Dylan was visibly querulous, and one of the day care workers called to say he was running a slight temperature.

Panic flooded Victoria and she wasted no time getting to the day care center.

“He didn’t drink his last bottle.” The day care attendant looked concerned. “If his temperature rises further you may want to take him to the doctor.”

By the time Victoria got Dylan home, after an hour in peak-hour traffic, he was hot and flushed. Pausing only to take his temperature, which had rocketed alarmingly, she faced the fact that this was more than grief and dislocation. Dylan was ill.

A call to her doctor garnered his pager. Victoria swore. But within minutes a doctor on call had phoned and told her to take the baby to the nearest medical center. Berating herself for leaving it so long, she hoisted Dylan into the baby seat, secured him and hurried to the front door.

Connor had been waiting all week for Victoria to phone and beg him to take Dylan, to admit defeat. But she hadn’t. To his annoyance she hadn’t even responded to the message he’d left on her answering service. And Connor was left wishing he’d never allowed the hollowness in her eyes to persuade him to leave Dylan in her care. What had he been thinking? Dylan was the most important person in his life.

Five days had passed since the funeral, and he couldn’t wait any longer. The driving urge to see Dylan—a primal, deeply-rooted need to reassure himself that his baby was happy—dominated him. Yet as the Maserati ate up the now-familiar route Connor admitted it wasn’t only Dylan he’d been missing—he wanted to see Victoria, too.

It was perfectly normal, this desire to spend time with her. Right. It was perfectly normal to crave the presence of someone who drove you crazy?

Connor’s mouth slanted.

They’d each lost someone they loved—an aching loss that the other understood better than anyone else in existence. That made sense. But it wasn’t convincing. It sure didn’t explain why the shape of her wide mouth haunted him when he should’ve been thinking about work. Or why the memory of her slender body bending over Dylan’s car seat could wake him in the middle of the night, even though he’d always preferred blondes with hourglass curves. Or why he kept fantasizing about the silken softness of her skin under his fingertips.

Hell, he’d even wondered how she’d coped with telling Bridget she was taking more time off work to look after the baby. He’d actually considered calling earlier in the week to see if she needed support.

But he’d managed to hold out.

Until now.

As he lifted his hand to ring her doorbell the front door flew open.

“Oh, you startled me.”

His first thought was that he must have been blind. Victoria was beautiful. How had he ever missed it? How had he ever thought her plain?

Her long hair swirled about a face that was simply perfect. Straight, uncompromising brows, direct hazel eyes and a wide mouth of such delicious rosy-red that he fought the urge to kiss it.

Then he saw that she was upset.

His gaze dropped to the infant seat. “Are you going out?”

“Dylan isn’t well. I’m taking him to the medical center.”