"That's why we needed the prenup and that's why I didn't tell anyone. We need to get married as quietly as possible so Harper can't screw it up."
Chadwick gave him a mean look. "You haven't told anyone?"
"Well, Frances and Matthew. But that's it." Chadwick continued to glare. "And Leona's sister, May. She's been almost like a second mother to the boy. Percy."
Chadwick looked hurt. "I see. And you're sure about this marriage?"
Byron had learned his lesson with Matthew. He didn't pause. Pauses were dead giveaways. "I am."
Chadwick thought for a moment. "She didn't tell you who she was? The first time?"
"No."
"And you trust her?"
Byron hesitated, but only for the blink of an eye. "That's irrelevant. This is about making sure my son is never taken away from me by anyone-especially Harper." And that? That was the truth.
"I want to meet her and this child." If Chadwick had freaked out-and Byron was sure that he'd deny it until his dying breath-he was back to his normal, authoritative self.
"Not yet."
Chadwick gave him another harsh look. "Not even a family dinner, with Serena and Catherine? I wouldn't try to scare her."
Byron appreciated the sentiment, but he didn't miss the way Chadwick said try. He explained, "She grew up listening to her father tell horror stories about Hardwick-how he always took the children and left their mothers penniless. She was afraid I would do the same thing to her."
"Have you considered that option?"
"No," he said forcefully. "She's not her father. She has no interest in the old feud and I have no interest in using our child as leverage. Whatever happened between Harper and our father is ancient history, as far as we're concerned. We just want to get on with our lives without Leon or Hardwick's ghost watching over our shoulders." Man, that sounded great. He wished he believed it 100 percent.
But he couldn't help thinking of the fact that, while Byron was making all sorts of truthful promises that he was here for the long haul, Leona had done very little in the way of reassuring him that she wasn't hiding anything else from him. First, she hadn't told him about her last name. Then she'd kept his son a secret. What else would she be willing to hide?
Unexpectedly, Chadwick cracked a smile. "We're all trying to exorcise Hardwick's ghost, aren't we?" He shook his head. "First Matthew gets married in secret, and now you. At least make sure your mom is there, okay?"
Byron felt himself deflate with relief. His mother had never been sure exactly where she stood with Chadwick, but the fact that he was thinking of Jeannie was kind, bordering on sweet. "Are you giving me your blessing?"
"It's not mine to give, really." He stood and put a hand on Byron's shoulder. "You always were the independent one, going off to do whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted to. I have to admit, I was jealous that you never got wrapped up in the family drama."
Byron stared up at his brother. Chadwick had been jealous of him? "Seriously?"
"Seriously. Trust me, trying to be like Hardwick was nothing but a recipe for disaster. You've got to do what you need to be happy." He grinned. "I think you might have figured that out sooner than the rest of us."
"What about you? Are you happy now?"
Chadwick gave Byron's shoulder a squeeze and then turned to the door. Before he opened it, he said, "I am. If you marry her-"
"I will."
"-then we'll stand behind you. You, Leona and the baby will have the full support of the Beaumont family if Harper tries anything."
Byron let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Out of all his siblings, he'd figured Chadwick would have pushed the hardest to take a Beaumont baby away from anyone Harper. After all, Leon had come after Chadwick the hardest.
"Thanks, man. I appreciate it."
Chadwick gave him another uncharacteristic grin. It was so weird to see that man smiling regularly. "You're welcome. That's what family is for. And make sure we have your new address." He opened the door but paused. The smile fell away and once again, Byron was looking at a stone-cold businessman. "But don't make me regret it."
"I won't," Byron promised.
This time, there would be nothing to regret.
* * *
Leona was in a constant state of anxiety. The contractors were ripping apart the future kitchen of Caballo de Tiro, plumbers were roughing in bathrooms and the electricians were pulling old knob-and-tube wiring out of everything. Leona was in charge of overseeing all of it and every ten minutes someone had to ask her about something. While it was nice not to have to defer to Mr. Lutefisk all the time, the sheer weight of being responsible for every single decision wore her down.
Normally, when she got off work, she'd head home, change and do the mom thing with Percy. But this week she went to pick Percy up from either day care or from May and then she and the baby and Byron went wandering around cavernous furniture stores, where Byron deferred to her judgment in every instance.
When she was done with that, Leona headed back to the apartment where May would give her the coldest of cold shoulders. Safe to say, May did not approve of a single choice Leona was making at this point.
And of course, Leona was still getting up with Percy every night. He should have been over his ear infection by now, so Leona tried letting him cry himself back to sleep-only to have May burst into her room in the middle of the night and demand she do her job, accusing her of forgetting about her child in this rush to a new life with Byron.
By the time another two weeks had passed, Leona was little better than a high-functioning zombie. She had no idea what clothes she'd packed for her two weeks at Byron's house and if someone had asked her, she couldn't have told them what she'd packed for Percy, either. She wasn't even all that sure what day it was.
But what made it worse was that there hadn't been another time when she and Byron could be completely alone. The best she'd gotten was holding his hand while they debated the merits of this sofa versus that one.
She'd gone a year without having him in her bed on a regular basis. She should be able to handle another two weeks without him bringing her to orgasm.
But she couldn't. Not when she kept looking up from her work and catching him watching her with a small, suggestive smile on his face. Not when he'd brush a hand over her shoulder or across her lower back whenever he passed her. And certainly not when he'd lean in close and whisper in her ear how pretty she looked today, how much he was looking forward to the day she moved in.
He'd always watched her, always seen her in a way that no one else had. And that hadn't changed. And, just like it always had, knowing Byron was watching her-thinking of her-made her want him.
But desire was not love. It wasn't. Just because Byron had gone a couple of weeks without suddenly turning into a Beaumont and blaming her for everything didn't mean it wouldn't happen again. So what if he was being sweet and attentive? So what if he was helping out with Percy? So what if those little touches and glances sent her pulse pounding with need?
Her selfish physical wants were the least important thing going on right now. She wanted to believe this was the real Byron, the one she'd loved once. She wanted this to be a snapshot of what their lives together would be. She wanted more than a marriage in name only with separate bedrooms and separate lives.
She wanted to love him. Even more than that, she wanted him to love her.
And that was exactly the kind of thinking that had gotten her into this mess in the first place. She'd wanted a storybook love for the ages, one that ignored the distinctive realities of Harpers and Beaumonts and birth control.
So what she wanted did not matter. What she needed was a happy, stable home for her son and a viable backup plan for when Byron lost interest in her. She'd had a year with him the first time.
She didn't know how she was going to make it to Saturday without collapsing. Saturday was the day she would load Percy into the car and head for the big house in Littleton.
Somehow, Saturday arrived anyway. Leona wasn't completely sure how she'd held out this long. The fact of the matter was that she'd been too damned busy working to do much of anything but collapse into bed when she could. Even then, Byron haunted her dreams, always kissing her and touching her yet still leaving her unsatisfied. She didn't know what the female equivalent of blue balls was, but she had a bad case. The only thing that kept her from losing her mind was the fact that she'd probably already lost it and just didn't remember when.