Читать книгу Reunited...with Child / One Month with the Magnate: Reunited...with Child - Katherine Garbera, Michelle Celmer - Страница 12

Becca woke early, as she always had since becoming a mom. She fed Ty his breakfast and then set him in his playpen while she checked her email. Last night she’d managed maybe two hours of sleep. Her dreams had been plagued with visions of Cam. The dreams were an odd mix of passionate embraces and tearful explanations. And today she felt very apprehensive about inviting him to her house for breakfast.

But it was too late. Cam and she had too much between them for her to just let him walk out of her life this time. And she couldn’t move forward until he knew about Ty. It was going to be hard … how did you tell a man that he’d fathered a child with you nearly two years earlier?

She hoped he’d be accepting and understand why she hadn’t contacted him earlier, but she wasn’t too confident of that.

The paternity suit he’d mentioned yesterday bothered her. She wished she had more time to do some research on it. But when she’d done a cursory search of the internet, she’d found nothing.

She glanced over at Ty and thought about Cam. What would he think of his son? She should just tell him, she thought, now, before things went any further between them. But she was afraid.

And she hated to give up control of a situation. Right now she made every decision in Ty’s life. She chose the nanny and the food and when he went to bed. Once Cam knew about his son, everything would change.

Her life wasn’t easy, but it was hers. And the choices she made about Ty’s upbringing were hers and hers alone to make. She knew that when there were two parents, things could be difficult. Yet it was a dynamic she’d never experienced since just her mom had raised her.

Growing up alone with just one parent hadn’t been easy, but it was what she was used to. So once she’d realized she was pregnant and made the decision to go it alone, she’d settled into it very easily. She’d felt she already had the best example of how a mom handled being a single parent.

The doorbell rang and she glanced at the clock. It was nine. It was a little early for Cam, but she wasn’t expecting anyone else. She picked up the baby monitor, leaving Ty playing happily in his playpen, and headed for the door. A quick glance out the window confirmed that it was Cam.

She opened the door. He wore a pair of chinos and a golf shirt. He smelled of aftershave and looked well put-together. She felt frumpy in her slim-fitting yoga pants and T-shirt—so not ready to face the world or Cam Stern yet.

“You’re early.”

“Good morning to you, too,” he said with a smile. “I brought bagels and coffee so I hope I will be forgiven.”

She shook her head. Cam threw her off balance. Even without trying, he was doing it to her this morning. She needed that thirty minutes to get her mind wrapped around how to tell him about Ty. “No, you’re not. I wanted to change out of messy clothes before you got here.”

“You look lovely,” he said.

“I don’t feel it. I should make you wait on the front step but that coffee smells really good.”

“Then I will come in and sit in the other room while you get changed.” He seemed so reasonable that she started to feel a bit like a grump.

“Sorry I’m being so grouchy, but I am not a morning person. You can come in and wait for me on the back patio while I get changed,” she said. She opened the door and turned to lead the way through the house.

“I’ll want a tour later.”

“If you’re lucky,” she said. She led him to the back screened-in porch where she had a glider in one corner and a small round table with four chairs. In the winter months she had glass windows installed to make the room usable year-round.

“I will take care of breakfast. I brought everything we’d need.”

She thought she was handling the surprise of him very well when one word from the baby monitor shattered her composure.

“Mama?”

“Mama?” Cam asked.

“I … I have a son. Sit down and I’ll be right back.”

She left the patio and a perplexed Cam and went to get Ty from his playpen. She bent down and scooped him and kissed his little head. She hugged him close and closed her eyes, pretending that the next few minutes weren’t going to completely change their world. But there was no denying it.

As they returned to the back porch, Ty became talkative. “Hi, man,” Ty said, from her shoulder.

“Cam, this is Ty.”

Cam looked at Ty and then back at her. And then back at Ty again. She saw in his face … he knew there was something familiar about Ty.

“Hi, Ty.”

Cam turned to face them both and held out his hand. Ty reached for it and tugged on his finger and then squirmed to get down. He could walk and crawl and really liked being independent.

She bent over to set him down, and he immediately toddled over to Cam. He held on to Cam’s leg and looked up at him.

Cam ruffled her son’s hair. “I don’t know if it is because the last baby I was this close to was Nate, but he reminds me a little of my brother.”

Becca felt as if her heart was going to beat right out of her chest. This would be the perfect moment to tell him why. “Well, it’s funny you should say that—”

But his phone started ringing, and he pulled the BlackBerry out of his pocket. He glanced at the screen and then back at her.

“I have to take this. Do you mind?”

She shook her head and walked over to scoop up her son. She felt odd. She’d almost told him the most important bit of news he could hope to get and then business—work—had interrupted. Maybe that was a sign, she thought.

“I’ll go get changed and be back in a minute,” she said, walking away.

She had to remind herself that when she’d considered calling Cam and telling him that they were going to have a child, she’d decided not to because he just didn’t seem like the type of man to want a family.

Their relationship had just been something to get them through the hot Miami nights. She knew that she was partially to blame for that. On some level, it had been exactly what she’d needed from him during that time. He hadn’t been ready for anything else, and she knew that because she’d bared her soul to him and he’d told her to hit the road.

There were moments when she still wasn’t sure she believed she was a mom. She still didn’t believe that her life had taken this unexpected turn and she was where she was today.

But she did want a new start. A part of her did want a partner to share the rest of her life with. And she and Cam did have sexual chemistry in their favor. One thing that Becca had figured out about herself over the last two years was that she missed sex and having a man in her life.

She entered her bedroom and set Ty on the floor while she quickly changed into some nice caramel-colored trousers and a light blue sweater. She put her hair up in a chignon after she washed her face and applied her makeup. Looking in the mirror, she thought she seemed normal enough, but inside she was a mess.

She sat down in the large padded armchair in the corner of her room. It had been her mother’s, and sitting there often made Becca feel closer to her.

“What am I going to do?” she asked out loud.

“Mama?”

She glanced over at Ty, who was walking slowly toward her, then decided crawling would be faster and dropped to all fours. “Yes, baby?”

“Where man go?”

She bent over and picked him up, holding him on her lap. “He’s still out there making us breakfast.”

Becca tried to talk in full sentences to Ty even though she wasn’t sure he always understood things. She kissed his soft forehead and felt such joy, love and comfort just from holding him. She didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.

Her own mother had kept her father’s identity from Becca until Becca was eleven. But her father hadn’t been a very successful man, and it hadn’t been easy for Becca to locate him. In fact, she’d searched more than once for him but never found a trace.

And that had left an emptiness inside of her. Something no amount of soul-searching or club-joining could fill.

There had been other kids of divorced parents at her school, but she’d been the only one who hadn’t known her father. Heck, she never even knew his real name.

She didn’t want that for Ty. Not when she had an opportunity to give him a father—his real father. She’d have to do it, she thought.

She stood up and walked out the door with a purpose. Cam Stern was going to learn the truth about Ty today, and then she’d deal with the consequences because she wanted her son to have everything that she’d never had.

She wanted him to go to good schools and have new bikes and nice friends. But she also wanted him to have a father. To have a man who’d play catch with him and talk to him. And teach him to drive to someday. And she wasn’t going to find a better man than the one who had unknowingly sired him.

Cam was still on the phone when she came out of the bedroom but looked up at her when he saw them. He smiled and then wrapped up his conversation. And despite her determination to tell Cam the truth, her determination to ensure that Ty had a relationship with his father, she faltered. Because she knew that Cam would never again look at her the way he did right now once she told him the truth.

Cam finished up his call. There was no way that Ty wasn’t his child. He looked just like Nate and had the same cowlick that Cam himself had. But how was that possible? He wasn’t a man who left things like that to chance.

Becca came back into the room holding the baby, and Cam waited to see how she would proceed. He was angry that she’d kept his son from him, but he wanted to hear what she had to say.

“I’m so glad our paths were brought back together. I felt like we had unfinished business after the way things ended,” Becca said. “In fact I have something important to talk to you about.”

“That sounds very cryptic.”

“I hope that once I tell you … there’s no easy way for me to say what I have to, Cam. I want you to know that the last thing I ever wanted to do was to hurt you.”

“I repeat—that sounds very cryptic,” he said. He glanced again at the boy.

“Oh, man, there is no easy way to say this.”

“Just do it,” he said.

“Yes. Um … sit down,” she said.

As soon as he sat down, she popped up and paced away from him.

She shoved her fingers into her hair and pulled. “You’re his father, Cam. I got pregnant when we were together.”

“What?” he asked.

“You are Ty’s father,” she said. There—it was out in the open, and now they could discuss it like two mature adults.

“I don’t believe it.”

“What’s not to believe?”

“We used condoms every time.”

“You know they aren’t one-hundred-percent reliable, right?”

“Of course I do. But this has never happened to me before, so don’t be snarky,” Cam said, getting to his feet. He was the determined businessman she’d first met two years ago. A man used to getting answers. A man used to getting his way.

“I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic. I just have been struggling to tell you about Ty and it never occurred to me that you’d doubt he was yours.”

“That’s where you made your mistake. I’ve had another woman accuse me of being the father of her child.”

Becca put her hands up in the air. “I’m not going to argue with you about this.”

“Of course you aren’t,” he said. “I’m not sure I can believe that I have son, but I see the resemblance and I suspected …”

“You do have one. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about him sooner but I never had any idea that you would care.”

He turned back toward her, and she’d never seen anyone look angrier than he did. She took a step away from him, but he didn’t walk toward her.

“How would you know that?” he asked.

“We weren’t in a relationship, Cam. Don’t you remember—my boss didn’t even know we’d slept together.” She’d been so overwhelmed by Cam that she’d hardly been able to think of what to do. Two years ago … she’d been twenty-five, and no matter how adult and mature she’d thought she was, well, she wasn’t. And Cam had made her feel … just feel. She’d had one other lover before him and it had been little more than a rushed coupling in a college dorm room. But Cam was a real man and he’d swept her away.

“Did you tell Russell?”

Becca felt horrified at the thought of her boss knowing she’d slept with one of his friends. She had kept that knowledge very close.

“No. Of course not. I didn’t tell anyone. I don’t think that Russell even knows I have a son. I told him I was leaving to start my own company. And he was my boss, not my confidant.”

Each question was tearing at her confidence. She briefly wondered if she should have just kept quiet after all, then dismissed the thought.

“I got really sick a month after I left Miami and at first I figured it was just the malaise of a broken heart. I didn’t realize I was pregnant until a few weeks after I got back home.”

Cam ran his fingers through his hair. He was still sorting out the logistics of how things happened. Answering his questions brought back all those feelings she’d had when she’d learned she was pregnant.

“I almost called you. I didn’t have any numbers for you but Russell’s secretary had your office number. Do you remember her? Lani?”

“Yes, I remember her,” Cam said.

“Then you will probably also recall that you were dating her cousin about that time,” Becca said. “And I wasn’t about to call you up and give you the news that you didn’t want. At that point I wouldn’t have been able to handle another rejection. It had seemed to me you had moved on.”

“I guess it would. I still deserved to know I had a son.”

“I know. I’m so sorry that I didn’t tell you but I was in a pretty vulnerable state and you didn’t seem like a viable option for someone to lean on,” she said.

She crossed her arms around her waist and took a deep breath. “To be fair, back then we weren’t anything but lovers. We didn’t know about each other’s lives or really even care. We just met up each night and had hot sex.”

He looked over at her, his large blue eyes unreadable. He seemed so distant and so cold and she really didn’t know what he wanted from her. She had no idea what she should say to smooth over this moment.

“That is a fair assessment of who we were.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Why did you decide to tell me now?” he asked.

She bit her lower lip and fought to find the right thing to say. “When I saw you last night, I realized I owe you the truth.”

She was in an indefensible position. She knew what she’d done was wrong and there was no way to spin this. No way to turn it into anything other than the painful truth.

“Now I’m not sure what I believe. But I’m going to take your word that Ty is my son because I can’t figure out why you’d make that up. Unless you thought you could get money from me?”

“Why would I need money from you?” she asked. Granted, she wasn’t a millionaire like Cam, but she owned her own home and her business was doing very well.

“Everyone always needs more money,” he said.

“I’m seeing a side of you I don’t particularly like,” she said.

“I could say the same. What kind of woman waits until her son is almost two years old to tell the father about him?” he asked.

“I just explained that to you,” she said.

“I’m not buying it, Becca,” he said. “I’m not buying into any of your act anymore.”

“Stop talking to me like that,” she said. “You are angry and you have a right to be, but you are just saying mean things right now.”

“You’re damned right I am. And I have a lot more that I’m trying to hold back. Nothing about this morning has done anything but make me doubt every word you’ve ever said.”

“That’s fine with me, Cam. Why don’t you leave and we’ll never have to see each other again?” she said. She marched over to the door and opened it.

But Cam shook his head. “I’m not leaving yet.”

“Oh, I think you are,” she said. “I don’t care if we ever see you again.”

“Sit down, Becca. We’re about to come to an understanding and I’m not leaving here without my son.”

Cam had never expected to hear anything like the news Becca had just delivered. He let anger roil through him because if he had a chance to think, he was going to be hurt and upset. Two emotions he wasn’t about to let her know she’d caused.

“The first thing we will do tomorrow is to find a doctor who can do a paternity test.”

“Why? I just told you that Ty was your son.”

“I want an official document saying he is and then we will modify the birth certificate so that my name is on there,” he said. Now that he was pushing aside the anger, there were a lot of housekeeping items that had to be tended to if they were going to sort out an arrangement for Ty that would ensure his welfare.

“Okay, I can see why you’d want that,” she said.

“Good,” he said, but he didn’t care if she agreed or not. He had rights, and since she’d hidden his son from him since his birth, Cam intended to make up for lost time.

“Next up we will see my attorney and he will draw up papers for us to have joint custody. There will also be an agreement that states that none of my holdings or fortune will fall to you.”

“Fine,” she said. “This isn’t about me, Cam.”

He nodded. “That just leaves the matter of Ty moving down to Miami. I can’t live in New York and I want my son with me.”

“Wait a minute. I’m not ready to move,” she said.

“Too bad. You and Ty are going to move down this week and you will live with me at my house. He needs his mother nearby to make this adjustment easier.”

“What will I do there? My business is here.”

“You will design the Mercado interiors for me.”

“Are we going to get married?”

“Hell, no. I’m not about to repeat my father’s mistake and marry a woman who puts her own needs first.”

“That’s not fair. I put Ty’s needs first,” she said.

“I will give you that,” he said. “I have to make a few calls. Pack whatever you need for the next few days and we will leave on my private jet to Miami.”

“I can’t move that quickly.”

“You don’t have a choice,” he said. “Either you do this or I take Ty and you never see him again.”

She was shaking, and tears glittered in her eyes, but she still wore that determined, stubborn look. He knew that he was making her mad, but he didn’t give a damn. He’d never felt as betrayed as he did at this moment.

“I will do the paternity test and I will agree to joint custody, but Ty will continue to live with me in New York. You can see him on the weekends if you’d like. But you aren’t taking over his life or dictating to me about mine. If you’d been a different kind of man over two years ago, you wouldn’t be so shocked now that you have a son.”

“I’m not arguing with you about any of this. I know what I want and I will get it. You are welcome to hire an attorney and have him deal with mine. But my son is coming with me now.”

“Fine, I will do that. I think it’s time you left,” she said.

“I’m not leaving without you and Ty. I can’t trust you not to sneak off,” he said.

“Of course you can. I wouldn’t have told you about your son if I didn’t mean for you to have a chance to get to know him.”

“As noble as that intention is, Becca, it is too little, too late.”

She just shook her head. “That’s fine. I don’t want to move, Cam.”

“Too late,” he said. “My life is in Miami and Ty’s will be, too.”

“I’m not giving up my son.”

“Then go get packing. My secretary will arrange for movers to come and get your stuff.”

“I will need to be here.”

“That’s your choice but you must know Ty will be staying with me.”

“Dammit, Cam.”

“Yes, dammit, Becca. How could you not tell me we had a son?”

“You told me I was mistress material and nothing else,” she said. “Do you remember that?”

He did, but that didn’t change the fact that she’d hidden Ty from him.

“I am not leaving until the movers have been called and I have a chance to talk to them. I will go to Miami with you but I’m not going to allow you to put me and Ty second in your life. If you want to be a father to him, then he deserves the best.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can’t be a workaholic and a good father. I understand you want to punish me but I won’t let you punish your son.”

Her words made him realize she was different than his mother had been when it came to her son. “I will be happy to put Ty first. Go pack up what you need. I will call a mover and get someone out here.”

He stopped as it finally hit him. “Oh, my God, I have a son.”

“Yes, you do,” Becca said.

He ignored her and went over to Ty, who was playing happily with his toys. He stared at the boy, and Ty smiled up at him. Then Cam reached down and rubbed his finger over that soft cheek of his.

“My son,” he said softly.

He stood there looking at the boy, and the anger that had been riding him since Becca made her announcement started to ease. He could never be mad at Ty or do anything that would jeopardize his son’s happiness.

He looked over at Becca. “Why did you name him Ty?”

“It was my mother’s father’s name. I never knew him, so it seems silly to say he was my grandfather. His name is actually Tyler Cameron Tuntenstall.”

“You gave him my name?” Cam asked.

“Yes. I … I knew someday he’d ask about you and I wanted him to have a connection. I know you think this is all some kind of conspiracy against you, but I made the only choice I could for my son. It was hard for me because I didn’t want to follow in my mother’s footsteps. I had promised myself that my children would have both a mother and a father.”

Later maybe he’d be able to appreciate those words, but right now he couldn’t. “I didn’t think it was a conspiracy. I’m beginning to think it was pure selfishness on your part.”

Cam turned and walked out the door without looking back. He knew she wasn’t going anywhere in the time it would take him to line up a mover. Right now he needed some space. She’d knocked him for a loop, and he had no idea how he was going to recover. He only knew that his heart hurt.

Less than eight hours later Becca was seated on Cam’s private jet and waiting for takeoff. Ty was seated next to her, his favorite stuffed animal—a yellow dog—and his blanket tucked close to him. He hadn’t seemed too traumatized by today’s events, and she had the feeling that he’d settle in to living in Miami more easily than she would.

Cam had arranged for a mover to get the stuff necessary for her and Ty to live in Miami. The rest of her belongings would be staying in the house. She had no idea what kind of strings he’d pulled, but the men had actually been at her house today and she’d told them what had to be boxed and moved. Her nanny, Jasper, would oversee the movers from here and in less than a week her belongings would be in Cam’s house in Miami.

He sat across the aisle and hadn’t said more than two words to her since they’d gotten on the plane. The gentle lover of last night was clearly gone, and she had no idea how to reach him again. But she did know if she was going to move to Miami with her son, she wanted at least a shot at some kind of real relationship with Cam.

She wanted that picture-perfect family she’d always fantasized about. She knew she should try to break the ice but talking to him about Ty wasn’t the way. Cam had demonstrated he was too volatile where their son was concerned.

Once they were in the air and could get up and move around, she took off Ty’s seatbelt, but he was sleepy and nodding off in his car seat.

“There’s a bed in the back,” Cam said. “I can lay him down.”

“Um … let me see the bed. We’ll probably have to pile up some pillows around him. I don’t want him to fall off.”

Cam nodded. She reached over to unlatch the car seat and Cam was waiting right there. “I want to carry him.”

“Of course,” she said. Cam had been like this all day. He was genuinely trying to get to know his son, and she had been very careful to let him.

Cam lifted him, and his blanket fell to the ground. Becca picked it up and then followed them to the bed at the back of the jet. It was luxuriously appointed and very comfortable-looking. He laid Ty in the center of the bed, and they worked to put some pillows around him so he wouldn’t roll off the bed.

“I am amazed that I have a son,” Cam said.

“I am, too. He’s such a precious little gift. I … my life changed the moment he came into it.”

“I bet it did,” Cam said.

He moved to leave the bed area, and she followed him. The jet pitched as they hit a pocket of turbulence, and Becca fell forward into Cam. He wrapped one arm around her as he fought to find his balance and keep them both on their feet. When the plane steadied, she looked up at him and he was staring down at her.

“Thank you.”

“No problem,” he said, but he didn’t let her go. “I can’t believe we are in this situation, Becca.”

“What situation?” she asked. “Being parents?”

He shrugged. “That, but also moving in together. I still want you.”

“I think we need to figure out how to be parents before we do anything else,” she said.

“I would agree except for a pressing problem,” he said.

“And that is?”

“I can’t look at you without wanting to kiss you and make love to you. I want to strip you naked and take out all my frustrations over your actions on your lovely body.”

“Sexual revenge?” she asked. His words thrilled her, sent molten heat pooling between her legs and made her nipples hard. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t want Cam. That he wasn’t the only man she thought of night and day.

“Yes,” he said.

She shook her head. “Would you forgive me if I gave in?”

“I don’t know. I think so.”

She didn’t know if she could do what he was asking. Being in his arms was one thing; knowing he wanted her just as some sort of way of getting back at her … well that wasn’t exactly what she was into.

“Think about this,” he said, lowering his head. His mouth took hers slowly and gently. She felt the warmth of his breath over her lips and then the first foray of his tongue rubbing over hers. His hand tightened on her waist and the other one went up to the back of her neck.

His fingers tunneled through her hair, and he held her head firmly in his grip as they continued to kiss. She wanted to think that this wasn’t making her agree with his idea, but it was. It reminded her of how long it had been since she’d had a lover. And she wanted him; she wanted release.

She put her hands on his shoulders and slid them down his arms. He was strong and muscled, and she liked the way he felt under her touch. She continued touching him, finding his belt with her fingers and caressing her way along the edge of his waist to the center of his pants and the belt buckle. She tiptoed her fingers lower until she felt the hard ridge of his erection. She rubbed him through his pants, up and down until his hips canted toward hers.

He lifted his head and stared down at her. His eyes narrowed, and the flush of desire burnished his cheeks.

“Let me know what you decide,” he said and walked back to his seat.

Becca stood there aching, wanting, and realized that Cam was still angry at her. She slowly walked to her seat and sat down, taking a magazine out of her bag. She flipped through it but didn’t see the pictures or articles on the pages. She only saw herself and Cam, and she knew that if they were going to have a chance at a future together, one of them was going to have to bend. Was it going to be her? She wanted so badly for Ty to have everything she never had, and that included the family of her dreams. One with Cam.