Millionaire in Command(13)

Life was marching relentlessly on without  her first husband. Her  emotions had spiraled so far out of control she  didn't know how she  would ever retrieve them. Now Kyle and all the  myriad temptations he  presented would be with her twenty-four/seven as  she settled into a  family life she'd never had and that Kyle clearly  didn't want.

She touched along her kissed-tender lips and  searched back over their  few conversations prior. What had she  misunderstood to make her believe  he was still in the air force, due to  zip off into the wild blue  yonder sometime soon? Maybe she'd just heard  and believed what she'd  wanted to where Kyle was concerned, desperate  for a way to secure  Nina's future. She hadn't looked beyond that to  understand all the ways  she could be hurting both their hearts to put  them through this sham  of a marriage.

Now it was too late to go back. She could only steel herself, forge ahead.

And try not to think about how much she wanted him to kiss her again.





Six



A  week later, Kyle stood outside the nursery door, double-checking the   monitor to make sure the thing was actually working. He pulled it away   from his ear, looked at the buttons, clicked a couple back and forth.   Yeah, he could hear the white-noise music playing low in the   background.Good God, the baby gear was more complicated than some of the   intelligence equipment he'd worked with in the air force. In another   week he would start with Landis International. For now, he was already   unofficially working from home, but soon the traveling would start.                       
       
           



       

He  hadn't lied about being at Phoebe's disposal. He just hadn't  mentioned  there was a deadline to that since his new job would take him  on the  road even more than his old one. That didn't leave him much  time to win  Phoebe over, into his bed.

Kyle started down the hall, eager to  move forward with his next plan  for persuading her they should enjoy all  the benefits a wedding license  brought. For the past week, he'd wined  and dined Phoebe at the most  romantic places he could think of, a  challenge to do when considering  the kid-friendly aspect. The opera had  been a no go, but then he didn't  really like opera. He'd even persuaded  Phoebe to fly upstate on the  family jet for an outdoor history fair at  Halloween. He'd thought  Phoebe would enjoy the historical aspect, and  Nina sure looked damn  cute in her little princess costume. He had to  admit the kid was easier  to take along than he'd expected.

Of  course, he didn't really know what to expect from a child her age.  He  should probably get one of those parenting books or surf the  Internet  for kid-care articles because, his choice or not, he was a  father now,  which meant doing his best. He was also a husband,  something he intended  to focus his full attention on for the rest of  the evening on their  first adults-only date.

This time he would be careful not to lose  control of the conversation  the way he had during their wedding-day  dinner on the porch. He  believed they could enjoy a fun and sexy  relationship. Anything more  would only complicate things for both of  them, not to mention Nina.

He jogged down the stairs and around  the corner to the home office  where Phoebe was camped out in front of  the computer. A couple days ago  they'd made a day trip up to Columbia  for her things, including her  computer for work teaching her online  classes. She'd unpacked her  academic gear into the honey-brown wood  shelves flanking a scenic  window with brocade drapes. Phoebe had added  her computer to the  overlarge partner's desk and parked a baby swing in  the corner.

He took a minute to study her, enjoying the way her  straight blond hair  shimmered with every move of her head, however  slight. She looked  every bit as enticing in jeans and a formfitting  green cotton shirt as  she had in the little black number she'd worn the  night they met.

While she stared at the screen, Phoebe plucked at  the hair band she'd  slid around her wrist-as he'd learned was her  habit. He'd also learned  how much he enjoyed discovering new things to  entice her out of her  somber reserve.

Her earthy practicality  appealed to him, chasing away any initial doubt  anyone might have had  about her being after Landis money. She liked to  walk on the beach  without her shoes and bring Nina to the public park.  While nannies  pushed designer-clad tots in fancy strollers, Phoebe let  Nina roll  around on a blanket in the grass to, as she said, see the  world up  close.

He even liked the way her history professor side would  come out at odd  moments with a sudden tutorial on a historic building  they drove past  or a surprise lesson on the French Huguenot influence in  Charleston.  Jonah had snickered the first time she'd launched into one  of her  diatribes, but by the end, even he'd been wound up in her  stories.

He couldn't remember wanting anyone this much before. "Hey, professor. How's paper-grading going?"

She glanced up, her smile quicker lately. "I've just about finished the backlog of work."

He set the nursery monitor on the corner of the desk, anticipation ramping. "Ready to take a break?"

"I'm at a stopping point. What do you need?"

He needed to persuade her they belonged in bed together. "Let's go for a drive along the shore."

Her face lit with enthusiasm, then she looked at the monitor. "Nina might need me."

"It's  only a drive, nothing elaborate or far away. Just some grown-up  time  away from work. I've already spoken to Jonah and he's on his way  over  from the carriage house." Ginger and her husband were in D.C. for   business. "He can call us or the housekeeper if he has any questions.   Nina's asleep and seems out for the count." He held up the monitor,   bobbling it back and forth in front of her. "I looked and listened."                       
       
           



       

"I didn't hear you." She eyed her receiver-the set had come with an extra-for the nursery monitor as if it had betrayed her.

"I was very quiet. I didn't want to wake her up." He rotated her chair toward him. "You deserve a break. Come on."

She  tucked her tongue in the corner of her cheek as she always did when   mulling something over, an increasingly sexy habit that left him  aching  to get her alone out of the house.

Phoebe gripped the arm rests  with a resolute smack. "Okay, you've  convinced me. Let me just save my  work." She clicked along the keyboard  then rolled the chair away from  the desk, rising to her feet.

Stopping mere inches away from him.

Her  vanilla-sweet scent tempted him to skim his knuckles down her  cheek.  Just one stroke. Except he didn't want to pull his hand away.  She stared  up at him, her pupils widening, pushing at the brown until  the colors  blended.

A clearing throat sounded from across the room.

Damn.

Phoebe blushed.

Kyle  dropped his hand to squeeze her shoulder and turned to find Jonah   lounging in the open doorway. Long hair brushed his shoulders, their   rebel brother marching to his own tune, as always. "I'm ready to report   for diaper duty, bro."

Kyle passed over the nursery monitor. "Thanks. I owe you."

Phoebe snagged a pencil. "I'll have all her instructions written down in just a min-"

Jonah  whipped a piece of paper from his back pocket. "Already taken  care of.  Kyle left me a very detailed list." He glanced at his older  brother.  "You know I'm not ten anymore, right? Now go, both of you."

"On our way out." Kyle wrapped an arm around Phoebe's shoulders and shuttled her out of the office into the hall.

"You actually know Nina's routine." She glanced up at him, surprisingly not pulling away.

Progress.

"Isn't  that why you brought her here?" He steered her down the long  corridor,  enjoying the familiar feel of her against his side. "To give  Nina a  father?"

Her smile faded and she tensed under his arm. "Has your private detective uncovered anything new about Bianca?"

"A  few facts, none of them particularly helpful or I would have told  you  right away." He wished he had all the military intelligence  equipment at  his disposal now, but he could only keep tossing more  money at private  detectives.

What a mess for the kid. If Bianca had just gone off  to party, then she  didn't care about her child. And if she were  dead … Either way, Nina  needed them.