The Boss's Baby Affair(40)
The notion of being trapped with a good-humored, nearly naked Nick in a pool on such a balmy summer’s evening was more than Candace could handle.
“I should get Jennie out. She must be starving.”
His face went wooden, and she felt suddenly small and mean. “You know, a little while longer won’t kill her. You go change…we’ll wait for you.”
It took Nick only five minutes to change into swim trunks, grab a towel and hurry back to the pool.
Candace and Jennie were still in the water, the baby squealing with pleasure as Candace swung her back and forth, skimming the pool’s surface.
After dropping his towel on the lounger, Nick launched himself into the water. Jennie’s eyes popped out as he surfaced beside them. Her face puckered in distress and for a moment it looked like she might cry.
“Hey, hey,” he murmured, mentally kicking himself. “It’s only me…not some sea monster.”
When he looked up, Candace was watching him, but she was smiling.
“She wants you.”
Jennie had her arms out, and she rewarded him with a gurgle as he swam closer.
Nick’s insides melted. “Come here, you.”
Taking her from Candace, he scooped her to him and made little growls against her neck.
Jennie giggled, and bounced excitedly in his arms. Her fingers hooked around his hand as she bumped up and down.
“Hey, take it easy. I’ll be in trouble if I drop you,” he whispered. The memory of the day she’d been pecked by the goose and he’d nearly fallen in the lake still made him shudder.
That wasn’t happening again…
Jennie stuck out her fingers and closed them around his. Gold glinted on his left hand in the slanting rays.
“You wear a wedding ring.”
He glanced at the wedding band, then across to the woman who’d asked. Her gaze was still trained on his hand. “Yes.”
“A lot of men don’t wear a ring.”
“Jilly bought it for me.” She’d bought her own rings, too, Nick remembered with a touch of discomfort. But wearing a ring had saved him plenty of explanations at inopportune moments—not that some of Jilly’s acquaintances had paid much attention to the band of gold that had marked him as her property.
“You’re still wearing it.”
“I hadn’t thought about taking it off.” There hadn’t been another woman in his life so it hadn’t entered his mind. Except now there was Candace…
Their eyes meshed—and held. Her pupils, so black against the misty gray eyes, expanded. Trapping him.
“Ouch!”
He gazed down at Jennie’s fist clutching at the dusting of hair on his arm. “That hurt.”
The baby dimpled up at him, showing a gleam of pearly white.
“She’s got a tooth.” He stared at Candace.
“One. Lower incisor. The next one should cut any day now…”
“Wow.” Nick transferred his attention back to the wriggling bundle in his arms. “You’re growing up fast. I hadn’t even thought about braces yet.”
“Soon she’ll be dating.”
But Nick didn’t laugh. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut. “Jeez, that idea really hurts. I don’t want to think about it.” When he cracked open one eye, he found Jennie watching him. She cooed.
It made Nick feel like the most important man in the world. Hell, he was the most important man in his daughter’s world—at least until she turned sixteen and started dating—and he wasn’t about to screw up again.
“I’ll have to lock you up,” he told her. “Vet all the boys who come visiting.”
He peeked across at Candace, but she wasn’t laughing. Instead, he was surprised by the strange expression on her face. Then she turned away and made for the pool end nearest the house and gracefully exited the water.
As he watched her pick up a white towel and dry her face, it struck Nick that Candace must be thinking about the coming years without Jennie. He would be there for their daughter. Candace would be gone. His daughter would have no mother to guide her through the minefield of teen-girl years.
Hell.
Of course he’d lean on his sister for help and, in time, Candace would have a family of her own. A husband. Babies…
Emotion flared inside him. He couldn’t imagine her with some other, faceless man. It hurt to think of her with a child other than Jennie.
The intensity of his response took him by surprise. What the hell was going on?
The answer came at once.
Nick didn’t need to watch Candace towel off those tantalizing legs to know he wanted to stroke her skin, kiss her lips, make love to her. He didn’t want some other man sharing the moments he dared not even admit to fantasizing about.