Baby for the Billionaire(103)
He took her mouth in a lingering kiss, sinking into the softness and the warmth. If they’d been anywhere else, he’d have fallen into the nearest bed and spent the next twenty-four hours making her his in every possible sense of the word. Reluctantly, he drew back.
“I never realized how empty my life was until you filled it up,” he said.
Her smile was the most radiant he’d ever seen. “Let’s go home.”
Robert eyed them closely as they left the boat. Whatever he saw must have satisfied him because he simply smiled in satisfaction. “I’d appreciate having an opportunity to get to know my granddaughter,” he addressed Jack. “If you’re willing.”
“Anytime.”
The drive to Lover’s Folly seemed endless. But they finally arrived. It felt like weeks since he’d last had his wife at home, instead of mere hours. They walked hand in hand from the garage across the backyard. The kitchen door flew open and a half dozen rambunctious puppies spilled out, yipping and squabbling as they came, with Madam close on their heels.
Behind them, Isabella appeared in the doorway and cut loose with a shriek to end all shrieks. She took off at a flat run and arrowed straight for Annalise. His wife released his hand and knelt, cushioning Isabella’s landing in a loving embrace.
“Hello, Baby Belle,” Annalise greeted her daughter with a tearful laugh.
Isabella twined her twig-thin arms around Annalise’s neck and buried her face in the soft crook between neck and shoulder. Jack found he had to swallow hard at the sight. Isabella pulled back and spared him a brief, nervous glance. He gave an encouraging nod, praying for a miracle. And then it happened.
With a shy look, Isabella said, “Hi, Mommy.”
Billion-Dollar Baby Bargain
Tessa
Radley
About the Author
TESSA RADLEY loves travelling, reading and watching the world around her. As a teen Tessa wanted to be an intrepid foreign correspondent. But after completing a bachelor of arts degree and marrying her sweetheart, she became fascinated by law and ended up studying further and practising as an attorney in a city practice. A six-month break travelling through Australia with her family reawoke the yen to write. And life as a writer suits her perfectly: travelling and reading count as research, and as for analysing the world … well, she can think ‘what if?’ all day long. When she’s not reading, travelling or thinking about writing, she’s spending time with her husband, her two sons or her zany and wonderful friends. You can contact Tessa through her website, www.tessaradley.com.
For my boys
Prologue
Who would have thought that a baby—cute and gurgly when his mother held him—could be such a demanding little devil? Victoria Sutton sank down onto the couch in the living room of her Auckland town house and gazed at the sleeping baby in the traveling cot with weary disbelief.
Dylan looked utterly angelic as stubby eyelashes rested in dusky crescents against chubby baby cheeks and his mouth moved gently up and down.
Oh, for a shot of caffeine.
Strong, hot Starbucks coffee. Hard to believe the whole weekend had passed without finding time to pick one up. Mandy, her secretary, would laugh herself silly tomorrow when Victoria recounted the events of the past two days.
Had it only been two days?
Propping her elbows on her knees, Victoria rested her chin in her palms, and groaned. Two days, but also two pretty much sleepless nights during which Dylan had turned her normally organized life upside down. Heavens, it seemed like she hadn’t drawn a breath since her best friend Suzy had gabbled her last bits of advice on Friday evening as Michael had tugged his wife out the front door, eager to get away for a brief romantic break to celebrate their second wedding anniversary.
Never again would she imagine that babies slept all the time!
Lifting her head from her cupped palms, Victoria scanned the normally immaculate living room and took in the chaotic disarray of toys, diapers and other baby paraphernalia. Another groan escaped. She knew her bedroom looked worse. She needed to get the mess packed up before Dylan’s parents arrived to collect him.
Victoria glanced ruefully at the apple puree smears on the winter-white fabric of the couch. And that stain on the carpet hadn’t been there before Friday, either. What had possessed her to feed Dylan in the all-white living room this morning? Had she learned nothing over the past two days?