Читать книгу Reunited...with Child / One Month with the Magnate: Reunited...with Child - Katherine Garbera, Michelle Celmer - Страница 13

They arrived at Cam’s house safely in the early evening. The drive was quick. The estate sat back from the road at the end of the palm-tree-lined drive. The yard was lusciously landscaped with blooming trees and perfectly mowed emerald-green lawns. The building itself was something out of a design magazine, and made Becca feel a bit like she had when she’d met Amelia. Out of place. She liked it, but it didn’t look like somewhere she would live.

As she went in, she glanced around the high-ceilinged arched entryway and let out a low whistle between her teeth.

“Nice digs.”

“Thanks,” he said. She’d put Ty down, and he was crawling toward the living-room area. “I will show you both to your rooms.”

The little boy toddled over and tugged on his pant leg as he had earlier, and this time, Cam bent down and picked him up.

“Hello, there,” he said to Ty.

“Hi,” Ty said before putting his thumb in this mouth. He shook his head; Nate used to do the same thing when he was little. Cam’s memory of that time was a little fuzzy, but this boy reminded him very strongly of his brother.

“How am I going to convince your mommy to just do what I want her to?” he asked Ty.

“Coffee,” Ty said.

Cam lifted one eyebrow at the boy. Did he even understand what was being said? Cam suspected he did to a certain extent, but having a conversation with an eighteen-month-old wasn’t going to give him any answers to Becca.

The boy held on to his shoulders as Cam turned to face Becca. There was something sweet about holding a baby—his son.

“I’ll take him.”

She held her arms out, but Ty didn’t make any move to go to her. “Ty.”

The boy took his thumb out of his mouth. “I like the man.”

“I’m glad,” she said, taking him from Cam and putting her son on a blanket where she’d laid out a couple of toys. She took Cam’s hand and led the way to the hallway where they could still see Ty but he couldn’t see them. “I … I wanted to talk to you.”

“What about?”

“I …”

“Stop hesitating. You are a woman who knows her mind,” he said.

“You have shaken me. I didn’t expect to see you or tell you about Ty. Not like that. And then you kissed me and got me all hot and bothered but you want to make it about revenge and I’m not sure that’s healthy for me.”

“I think it would be excellent for me,” he said. “But I am willing to talk to you about this. I’m still so angry, Becca.”

“I get that. But we need—”

She glanced over at her son. And he saw the biggest change in Becca compared to the woman she was over two years ago. She had someone else to worry about when she made decisions.

“Is it because of the paternity suit that you’re so bitter?” she asked.

“Not at all. I’m mad at you and you alone, Becca,” he said. “You owe me an apology after the secret you kept from me. But if you choose to beg forgiveness in my bed, I won’t complain.”

She nodded. It was a moment of truth for them both. The chances of them changing each other’s minds and actually getting to the point where they could trust each other were slim. He wasn’t going to deny it.

“Don’t judge me too harshly. I never knew my father. He left before I was born,” she said.

“I’m sorry. My dad was the greatest influence on my life. My mother wasn’t very maternal, but my dad … I think you missed something really important there, Becca.”

“I know I did. And I don’t want Ty to grow up the same way,” she admitted.

“I’m not making any promises,” Cam said. “But you and I had something electric and I think it’s time we explored it more fully.”

His phone rang.

“Stern.”

“Cam, it’s Nate. I’m glad you are back because we have an emergency at the club. Some of the local leaders are raising a stink about the Mercado again. Can you get down here and handle it? I’m supposed to be upstairs with Jen practicing a waltz for our first dance for the wedding.”

Jen was Nate’s fiancée. Cam’s little brother had fallen in love with the dance instructor at Luna Azul, and they were planning a wedding in less than a week’s time. Love had hit Nate hard and Cam had a little bit of trouble believing it. But his brother had never been happier and Cam wished him the best.

“I’m on it. You go do your dancing thing. I’ll be there in less than thirty minutes.”

“Thanks, bro, you’re the best. I want to hear all about the trip.”

“I’ll be happy to tell you about it later. Bye, Nate.”

He turned to Becca. “I’m needed at the club. We can continue this discussion later.”

“It’s fine.”

“Good,” he said. “Becca, I know I said I’d put Ty first … not be a workaholic, but this is an emergency.”

“I get that, Cam, but you said that family was important and we’ve just gotten to your house.”

“In the future, I will be here more often. This is an emergency.”

“Okay, but I’m not going to let you do it too often,” she said, relenting.

He tipped his head to the side. He was still angry she hadn’t told him about Ty, but he could see that she wasn’t going to be resentful toward him about his work. “Thank you.”

She just nodded. He pulled her into his arms.

She flushed and felt the stirring of desire deep inside her. She put her hands on his shoulders, then wrapped her arms around his neck. She lifted herself toward him. He rubbed his hands down her back, cupping her butt and bringing her closer to him.

She felt his erection nudging at the bottom of her stomach and looked up at him. It was a powerful feeling to know that she could make Cam react.

She leaned up to kiss him, but he controlled the embrace. His mouth moved over hers, and no matter how hard she tried to deepen the connection he wouldn’t let her.

“Kiss me,” Cam said.

She shook her head. “I want you to kiss me. I want to know that there is still a spark of something that’s not motivated by your need for vengeance.”

“Not yet,” he said, rubbing his lips lightly over hers. “I want to make sure you really want me—and not just to get me to forgive you. You do want me, don’t you, Becca?”

“I do,” she said. “My entire body is vibrating waiting for your kiss. I hate to admit this but I’ve thought of you and our time together often in the last two years.”

“Why do you hate to admit it?” he asked, stroking his thumb back and forth over the base of her neck.

“I think it makes me seem weak and gives you an advantage over me,” she admitted.

He cupped her face with his big hands and leaned forward to kiss her so tenderly that she almost melted on the spot. Her knees weakened and her heart beat even harder in her chest.

“I will take any advantage I can get,” he said.

He angled his head to the left and kissed her again. This time it was more passionate. He thrust his tongue deeply into her mouth. She shifted in his arms, holding on to his shoulders as he ravaged her mouth.

She wanted more from him. His tongue couldn’t touch her deeply enough. She was aching for his weight to be more solidly against her. For his erection to be pressed against the apex of her thighs where she was so empty and needy. Her dreams of Cam had fed her libido for the entire time she’d been pregnant, when her hormones had been out of whack and she’d needed a man.

Now Cam was here and this was everything she remembered. The feel of him pressed up against her made her desire him even more. She wanted to touch his flesh, not feel him through his clothing. He shifted around until the wall was pressed against her back and he was pressed against her front. She lifted one leg and wrapped it around his hips.

He moaned and thrust his hips toward her. He rubbed himself along her pleasure spot until she thought she’d go insane from longing. She tunneled her fingers into his hair and held him to her as his mouth continued to taste hers.

He pulled back, breathing heavily. “I have to go,” Cam said. His skin was flushed with desire, and she knew that leaving was the last thought on his mind.

She nodded and turned around to go get Ty. When she brought him back, Cam gave Ty a kiss on the head. His hands brushed Becca’s and their eyes met. She said nothing as he walked down the hall and out the door.

Ty was the one man she could trust in her life. It was something she’d do well to remember; otherwise she was going to end up letting Cam Stern break her heart again.

Cam drove through the rush-hour traffic in Miami. He’d taken his new Tesla sports car and wanted to let the car run full out but knew better. He was the responsible Stern, the one who kept his own wants and desires well-hidden from the world, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let Becca change that.

He realized this wasn’t the kind of car a family man should have. Hell. He was a dad. He’d had no way of planning for this. It was the one eventuality he hadn’t planned for. He knew he could do it—he’d raised his brothers and given them a secure platform to launch from when their parents had died.

He’d do it for Ty. He knew he could be a good dad. But he had no idea what to do with Becca. She was the fly in the ointment of his plans for the future.

There was no discounting the sexual attraction between them, and he wished he could honestly say that he only wanted her in his bed … but he knew that he wanted her in his life. He really liked her as a mom. He knew that there were women who loved their children and would put them first. But this was the first time he’d actually encountered one. Then again, Becca had always been different. When their affair had ended, he’d felt her absence in his life. He’d wanted to somehow reconnect with her but … had been afraid of an emotional commitment. That had come back to bite him in the ass—now he had a son and a woman he wasn’t sure what to do with in his life.

He pulled into the parking lot at Luna Azul and got out of the car. He walked toward the building and felt that sense of home he so often experience here. This was the place he’d poured all of his dreams and desires into. And the club had taken off. It was more than he and his brothers had ever expected it to be.

Luna Azul was in the heart of Little Havana right off Calle Ocho. It had been a cigar factory in its heyday but had closed and fallen into disrepair when Cam had found it and purchased it for a very good price. He’d decided to make it the premiere club in Miami and had done just that, transforming the former cigar factory’s entryway with a Chihuly glass sculpture installation of the night sky showing two moons—a blue moon. And then decking out the rest of the club all in dark Latin tones. Upstairs there was a rooftop club that echoed the streets of Havana back in their pre-Castro glory days.

Now he knew he had to find something else to pour his energy into and Justin had suggested a club in Manhattan. Nate liked the idea because the A-listers there were more accessible than other areas of the country, but Nate had said he’d make it work wherever they wanted to open their new club. He had to think through he details, and he would need to start putting together a team to bring the project to life. They’d all agreed that another Luna Azul wasn’t exactly what they wanted. They needed to make that club unique from the one in Miami.

Opening a club was time-consuming, which was why he’d always been into short-term affairs. He’d had to raise his brothers and he hadn’t had for another emotional commitment.

“You look very serious, bro,” Nate said, coming up behind him and patting him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. I calmed down the local leaders over the latest Mercado drama. We have a meeting set for tomorrow.”

Cam turned and gave his brother a quick hug. “I’m glad. I’m thinking about the new club idea.”

“Good,” Nate said. His brother looked like he’d stepped off the pages of GQ magazine, which was why he was the public face of the company, the one who always showed up in the tabloid gossip columns. “What are your thoughts? “

His ideas were rough, but they were starting to take form. He needed something different. The club scene in

New York was just as competitive as in Miami, maybe even more so, and they’d need to be different to stand out.

“That we need something to reflect whatever community we are a part of up there. I was hoping to do something in Spanish Harlem.”

“Really? Tell me more.”

They’d played a key role in revitalizing the stylized Little Havana area here in Miami, and he was pretty sure they could do the same thing in New York. They just had to have the right idea.

“I know. I was thinking a retro-styled club that captures the glory of the old days. It might fit the city better than a Luna II-type deal.”

Nate rubbed the back of his neck. “I like the idea, but it’s really different from what we’ve done before. That will mean a new design team and everything. I think we should stick to doing what we do best and that’s a Little Havana-style club.”

“I have the perfect designer in mind for this new project. In fact, she’s going to do the interiors on all the redesigns of the shops in the Mercado.”

“Of course you know the perfect person. Cam, when are you going to realize that life isn’t perfect? You always have every angle covered,” Nate said.

Cam tried to always appear to his younger brothers as if he had it all together. It was easy enough when things were going well as they had been for the last few years. But when the company had initially struggled or when their parents had died and Cam had had to find the strength inside himself to step up and keep his brothers focused and happy, it had been hard.

“I try, but Nate, I know that life isn’t perfect. We grew up in the same house, didn’t we?”

“Yes. And I came out of it with my own baggage and lately I’m beginning to see that for you it’s a desire to make everything picture-perfect. No faults allowed.”

Was that true? “I don’t think I’m that difficult.”

“Listen, man, I love you. You’re my big brother and you always have my back, but you are one demanding son of a bitch and I think that you should accept that nothing is going to ever be as perfect in the real world as you want it to be.”

Cam tucked that nugget away for later contemplation. He wasn’t going to change overnight or probably at all. He was too set in his ways.

“So who’s the designer?” Nate asked.

“Becca Tuntenstall. She used to work for Russell Holloway.”

“Are you sure she’s the right choice? We don’t want our club to look like Russell’s.” Nate scratched the back of his head. “It’s hardly my area of expertise. I just want to make sure I’m asking the right questions now that Justin is out of state.”

Justin was their corporate attorney and handled most of the legal problems that cropped up. Recently, he’d negotiated a deal with the local community leaders to launch the Luna Azul Mercado, an upscale shopping center to complement the nightclub. It was fair to all parties involved, and Justin had wrangled himself a fiancée out the deal.

Cam didn’t know what was going on with his brothers up and getting engaged.

He smiled at his little brother. Nate had always been the charmer—the one who skated through life with a smile. Now he was stepping up, and Cam was proud of him.

“She’s done some work for other chains, as well. She’s the best designer for the job,” Cam said. He’d already decided to give the assignment to Becca if she proved worthy. He couldn’t uproot her life and not provide some work for her. Besides, he wanted her completely under his control. He was going to make her regret not coming to him when she’d first found out she was pregnant.

Nate’s expression changed. “Is she more than a designer to you?”

Cam hesitated. He wasn’t the type of person to talk about the women he was involved with, even to his brothers. Plus, she was the mother of his child … something that he had absolutely no idea how to tell his brothers. He wanted everything with Becca and Ty figured out and wrapped up before he said anything to either of them.

“Yes, she is.”

“Wow. You haven’t been seriously involved with a woman since Myra.”

Myra had been a mistake, and he’d been too young and too eager to have it all with her. Myra was the woman who’d brought the paternity suit against him. Did he just have bad taste in women or what? Myra had wanted him to pay for another man’s mistake, and Becca didn’t think he was worthy of his own son.

“She’s not really like Myra.”

“I didn’t mean to imply that she was. How about if you bring Becca to our rehearsal dinner Friday night? A nice casual affair, and I think it would be nice to meet this gal.”

But Cam wasn’t sure that he was ready for that. “I’ll let you know.”

“Why not?” Nate asked. “If you are serious about her, I want to meet her and get to know her.”

Cam rubbed his hand over the back of his neck and tried to find the right words to say to his brother. “We had an affair a few years ago and it ended abruptly, so this time I’m trying to get to know her more slowly. Listen, there is more going on than a normal relationship.”

“Hanging out with the family doesn’t seem slow enough to you?” Nate asked.

“I don’t know, Nate,” Cam said. He stopped and took a deep breath. “Um … I have a son and Becca’s the mom. I just found out about it and moved her down here, but I have no idea what we are going to do next.”

Now it was Nate’s turn to pause. His eyes widened.

“I have a nephew?”

“Yes.”

“How dare she keep him from us?” Nate said.

Cam smiled. Nate was always there for him and Justin. They had always been close, and family was more important to them than anything else. “I said the same thing. I have her in my house with my son and I have to figure out what to do next.”

“Um, I vote for suing the hell out of her and then cutting her off from the boy.”

“She’s not like that,” Cam said. “Ty needs her. She quit a high-powered job so she could work from home and raise him.”

“Damn. I liked it better when I could envision her as the evil bitch queen.”

Cam laughed for the first time since Becca had told him he had a son. “Thanks, Nate. I need that.”

“I do what I can,” Nate said and then pulled him close in a bear hug. “I’m here for you whatever you decide.”

None of the Stern men was really built for long-term happiness in relationships. He was very glad to see his brothers settled with new fiancées, but at the same time a part of him feared that it wouldn’t last. And he wanted more happiness for them than their father had found in his marriage to their mother.

Cam had been watching after his brothers for so long that it was hard to realize he finally didn’t have to really worry over them any longer. He was at a point in his life where he had everything set in motion. Now he could relax.

“How about brunch on Sunday at my place?” Cam said. “I think that will give me the time I need to get used to Becca being there and figure out where we are going next.” Then he could control everything if he had them to his house. He was the kind of person who didn’t like to be surprised by any eventuality.

He and Nate walked into the club, and, as always when he crossed the threshold into Luna Azul, he paused to appreciate everything he’d worked and sacrificed for to create. Jen was waiting for Nate and came over to them. Cam left them and made his way to the bar on the main floor. He needed to check on the situation with the Mercado and then meet with the head chef and make sure that everything was going well in the back of the house.

He told himself he walked away so quickly because there was work to be done, but he knew that it was really because he wanted what Nate and Jen had. Sure, he already had a son; now he needed to see what kind of arrangement he’d have with Becca. It couldn’t be anything as pure as what Nate and Jen had, right? He didn’t like himself for thinking that way, but he still felt so empty over the time Becca had stolen from him and his son.

Becca got out of bed in the middle of the night and walked out onto the porch. It was April, and the smell of jasmine was heavy in the air. She walked away from the house carrying with her the small listening unit to the baby monitor. She found a bench nestled next to the pool and sat down.

She knew that, for her, fear came calling in the middle of the night. It was the time when she felt most alone and most afraid of the decisions she’d made in her life. At this moment she felt she shouldn’t be here in this house. Coming to Miami had been part cowardice—because she hadn’t wanted to stand up to Cam—and part fantasy—because she’d hoped and prayed for some white knight to come and rescue her.

She didn’t know if that made her a masochist because Cam was the man who’d left her high and dry. And while he wanted to play up the fact that he didn’t know about Ty, in her mind it came down to the fact that he hadn’t loved her.

She was here because … she glanced up at the moon and had no real idea why she was here. She felt lost in a way that she hadn’t felt since her mother died. Even Ty’s presence in her life, as unexpected as it had been, hadn’t shaken her the way Cam had. And she had no earthly idea what to do next.

“Trouble sleeping?” The voice was deep and steady. Cam. Of course he’d be out here when she was.

“Yes. I keep trying to figure out what to do next,” she said. No use lying to him or pretending a bravado she didn’t feel. Tomorrow morning she might be stronger, but tonight she was lonely and confused and needed a pair of strong arms around her to tell her she wasn’t alone.

“With what?”

“With you,” she said.

“I already told you what I want. I want you. I’m not sure what to do with you once I have you but I know I’m not going to let you walk right back out the door.”

“How about if we try to build a realationship together?” she asked. “Something slow where we get to know each other beyond the sex?”

“That won’t work.”

She couldn’t really see his features since he was hidden by the shadows. He stood just out of the light provided by the landscape fixtures.

“Why not?” she asked. She shook her head and leaned forward to put her head in her hands. “I just need time to breathe.”

She didn’t hear him move, but a moment later his big hand was on her shoulder rubbing in a circle. “I can give you that.”

She turned her head to the side and looked up at him. He didn’t have on a shirt, just a pair of low-slung pj bottoms. It was hard for her to see him but she remembered that muscled chest with the light smattering of hair. She reached out and touched him. “I’ve dreamed so many times that you came back to me.”

“You did?”

“Yes. It was so hard doing this alone and I wanted to tell you.” She started crying, surprising herself with how much emotion she’d bottled up since Ty’s birth. “You have no idea … it was only the echo of your words that you wanted a mistress and nothing more that kept my silence.”

He stroked his hand over her head and then bent down and lifted her up. He sat down on the bench with her or his lap. “You still should have told me, but I understand why you were hesitant to. I’m truly sorry.”

“I am, too,” she said, looking him straight in the eyes. She had no place to put her arm but around his naked shoulder, and she did just that.

“I want to start over. But not from a place of anger,” she said.

“I can try,” he admitted. “But I’m not making any promises. What do you suggest?”

“It’s obvious we both want to be parents to Ty. I suggest we try to work and live together for his sake.”

“And sex?” he asked.

“I’d like to see it develop naturally,” she said. “Not because of some arrangement. Or out of spite.”

She held her breath. Hoping that Cam was the man she’d glimpsed earlier tonight while they’d played with Ty and made him supper. Hoping he could see that with all this anger between them, they were never going to be able to move on.

“Okay,” he said. “But if you hide anything from me again all bets are off. Ty will be my son alone and you will have no rights to him. I’ll make sure of that.”

“I’m not hiding anything else from you,” she said.

“I’m not kidding,” Cam said.

“Neither am I,” she promised. She wanted that family of her dreams too much to do anything to compromise it. And if Cam was offering her a second chance, she was going to jump on it with both feet.

He held her in his arms, and they both said little. His hands moved over her as she sat there just listening to the sound of his breathing. She knew that the answers she’d come here seeking were still just out of her reach. But she felt closer to her dreams of a real family and a man who she could trust than she’d ever been before.

When he tipped her head back and lowered his mouth to hers, she knew she should push away and go back inside. She knew that sex with this man wasn’t safe for her. But she also knew that she’d been alone too long with only her dreams to keep her company—and that every one of them had been of him.