His Instant Heir(6)

"That doesn't concern me," Kell said. "We knew the takeover was going to be messy."

"And I'm mitigating the mess, but it's going to take some time."

Kell cursed under his breath. "You said six weeks."

"And that's still exactly how long I need. Calling and badgering me isn't going to speed it up."

"I know that. I was wondering how the Chandler girl was … Cari?"

She was nervous and sexy and sweet. But his cousin didn't need to know  any of that. And if Dec had learned one thing from his socialite mother  it was to keep some information to himself. "She's hiding something."

"What? There is no other investor in the wings," Kell said with surety.

"I'll find out what I can. But there is definitely something she's  protecting. Maybe one of her sisters. From what I gather, the oldest  one, Emma, is something of a barracuda. The staff spoke of her the way  our team talks about you."

"I'll get in touch and see if I can find out what they are hiding. You  keep working on Cari. I think that Allan's best friend is married to the  middle Chandler girl's best friend."

"Why do you know this?" Dec asked. Kell just didn't do personal stuff.  If it didn't affect Playtone Games, usually Kell didn't bother with it.

"I had the misfortune to try to drink our cousin under the table last weekend and heard all about the girl."

So Allan knew the middle sister, and unless Dec was very much  mistaken-and he was seldom wrong about anything-he himself was going to  know the youngest sister very intimately. Again. And this time he was  going to …  What? He was the adopted son of the Montrose dynasty. He had  been abandoned, adopted, pretty much left to his own devices again. He  knew he wasn't a man for commitment. What could he do with Cari except  have an elusive affair?

In fact the only thing he'd ever stuck with was his cousins and Playtone Games.

When he was in this twenties he'd tried to strike out on his own, but  then Kell had called and the chance to be part of this new generation of  game-making Montroses was too much of a lure. Dec still wanted to prove  himself to a generation that was all but gone.

"You still there?" Kell asked.

"Yeah, but I've got to go. Dinner meeting tonight."

"With?" Kell asked. In the background Dec heard the sound of the evening  financial news show that Kell watched religiously. He was a genius when  it came to reading the market, which was in no small part the reason  for their success.

Dec had always marveled that he and his cousins, Kell and Allan, each  brought something unique to the table that no one else could. They made a  very strong triumvirate, and though he knew he wasn't a blood Montrose,  he was definitely a necessary part of Playtone Games.                       
       
           



       

"Cari," Dec said at last. "I'm having dinner with Cari."

"Good. I suspect that you will keep her off balance and maybe you'll be able to find out what she is hiding."

He intended to find out all of her secrets, he thought as he ended the  call with his cousin. He wasn't as concerned that she was hiding  something that would affect the takeover; frankly, at this point there  was nothing else for the Chandlers to do to save Infinity Games.

He pulled into the parking lot at the Marina del Rey Yacht Club and  parked his car. The Playtone offices were in Santa Monica just a few  short miles from the Infinity Games offices. Something that Kell had  done deliberately to make sure that every day when first old Gregory  Chandler and now his heirs had gone to work they'd have to drive past  the competition.

Tonight he wanted to see if there was anything real between him and  Cari. There had to be a reason other than revenge that he was back in  her life. He realized that he wanted to move Cari from competition to  lover. His time in her bed had been too short and being this close to  home always made him long for things he knew he didn't need and couldn't  have. But for tonight he was planning to ignore all of that and just  enjoy himself.

* * *

Cari stood in the foyer of her own house holding her son in one hand and  her cell phone in the other. Canceling dinner wouldn't be construed as  running away, she cajoled herself. But then DJ reached up and put his  tiny hand on the collar of her shirt and made that sweet little sound.  "Mamamama."

"Ugh," she said, tossing the phone on the hall table and walking back  across the Spanish-tiled floor to the kitchen. She put DJ in his high  chair and then leaned back against the cabinet. "What am I going to do?"

He just stared at her as she placed a teething biscuit on the tray in  front of him. His eyes were brown. Not just any brown, but Dec brown.  She knew that if she canceled this dinner, it would be solely due to  cowardice. She knew that. Yet she was more afraid tonight than she had  been this morning.

It had been one thing to see Dec in the office where she wore her  business suit and had a certain air of authority, but this dinner-no  matter how she tried to spin it-was more than business. He'd kissed her.  And her body had almost betrayed her secret. She knew she had to tell  him about DJ before he found out.

She touched her lips and remembered every sensation of his body pressed  to hers. God, she thought, this was nuts. Just cancel and then run away.

Dec might be all into her at this moment, but their past told her that  he moved on. His own words told her that he wasn't ready for commitment,  and though a lot had changed in the eighteen months they'd been apart,  she knew she couldn't just spring DJ on him. She owed herself, her son  and even Dec more than that.

Some things once done couldn't be undone.

Her grandmother used to say that to her all the time when she'd been  young and headstrong. Wanting to adopt a puppy or bring another cat or  rabbit into the house. Grandma was always cautioning Cari to remember  that when other lives were brought into the equation, it changed.

She gave herself one last look in the mirror. "Tell him tonight."

But the look in her own eyes and that feeling in her heart told her that telling him wasn't going to be easy.

But even though she wasn't a bossy woman like Emma or a badass rebel  like Jessi, she'd never been a coward. And running away wasn't her  style. Besides, she knew it was past time to tell Dec about his son.  Until she did, he'd have one thing over her-guilt. She felt guilty about  him not knowing about his son.

"I'm going," she said, smiling at DJ.

He clapped his hands and smiled back at her. She laughed at his  toothless grin and drool-covered face. Truly he was the most adorable  baby in the world. She scooped him up again and walked resolutely down  the hall to her bedroom. She put his blanket in the middle of her bed  and propped pillows around him to keep him in place.

He sat in the center, happily chewing on his biscuit while she puttered  around getting ready for her date and awaiting Emma, who was going to  babysit, along with her son, Sam.

The doorbell rang, and from the security monitor in her bedroom she saw  not only Emma and Sam, but also Jessi. She wasn't ready for both of her  sisters. Not tonight. She was so unsure, and hell, she had to admit,  scared, that she was tempted to blurt out her secret to her big sister  Emma. Then Emma would excuse her and-

Stop it.

She hated that she still sometimes wanted someone else to make decisions  for her. She was a grown woman and a mom now. It didn't matter that it  would be easier if she just gave up control of her life. She had to step  up.                       
       
           



       

She pushed the intercom button. "Come in. I'm in the bedroom getting dressed."

She hurried into her closet and grabbed a retro-style cocktail dress  that she'd gotten from ModCloth at a bargain. She didn't need to save  money, but her mother had drilled into her that it was better in her  pocket than in someone else's, and she'd always been frugal.

"Let's see what you are wearing," Jessi said as she led the way,  ignoring DJ and coming into the closet to stand next to her. Her sister  had an aversion for babies and was the first to admit she liked to keep  her distance from children until they could walk, talk and order a  drink.

She spun around so that Jess could see what she was wearing. The dress  was slim-fitting, in a regal purple color that made her pale skin glow.  It had a fitted bodice with thin spaghetti straps and a velvet ribbon  that accentuated the slimness of her waist. She'd put on a strand of  black pearls that their father had given their mother for a long-ago  birthday and that Cari had inherited when her parents had died in a  tragic boating accident, but she'd changed her mind at the last minute  and now wore her usual charm necklace instead.