Baby for the Billionaire(146)

“I’ll get a travel rug from the car—” Connor was on his feet “—for you to lay him on.”

“You may have noticed that Connor doesn’t talk much about himself,” Brett said to Victoria once Connor had disappeared around the corner of the building.

Now, that was an understatement. She flashed Brett a wry glance.

“Our parents are dead—did you know that?”

She nodded. “He mentioned it, but he didn’t give any details.” And she hadn’t asked because the last thing she’d wanted was Connor asking questions about her estrangement from her father.

“A train crash.” Brett paused. “That’s why he was so upset about Michael. Brought back old memories.”

She hadn’t even known; Connor had hidden the old, festering wound so well under that icy exterior.

Brett leaned closer. “Has he told you about Dana?”

“His ex?”

“The viper.”

A giggle escaped despite Victoria’s attempts to look disapproving. “Brett!”

“She kicked him out of his own home, but in a way it was a relief when I heard. I was scared shitless Connor would marry her—she was angling for it.”

“Should you be telling the new wife all this stuff?”

“It’s on a need-to-know basis.” He dipped down close and lowered his voice conspiratorially. “Dana is poison. She told Connor she wanted children, but he didn’t believe her.”

Despite her qualms, Victoria couldn’t resist probing for more information. It was unlikely to be forthcoming from Connor. “Why?”

“He thought her work meant too much for her to take time out for kids.”

Uh-oh. That went some way toward explaining his attitude in relation to Dylan with her. “How do you know all this?”

He sat back in his chair and selected a toothpick. “I watched … and they sniped at each other sometimes. And after they split up Connor came to London and I took him on a pub crawl.”

Victoria frowned.

“Think of it as therapy—it was the only way I could get him to talk.”

“You’re devious.”

“Very,” he said with immense satisfaction. “And you’d better remember that, because I’m counting on you to feather Connor’s nest and keep him happy.”

Victoria laughed at the outrageous comment. But the sound dried in her throat when a hand landed on her waist. “Be careful of my baby brother.”

Connor’s husky growl close to her right ear caused her to shiver with delight.

“He’s just been warning me of how dangerous he is.” She slanted a mirthful look up at Connor.

Resting his arms across the back of her chair, he leaned closer, his body warm and his male scent familiar. Shuddery sensations of awareness tingled over her nape as her new groom said, “Unfortunately, it’s all true.”

“Right.”

“See, I told you to be careful of me.” Brett looked as innocent as an angel. “Now I’m off to whisper some secrets to Dylan.”

“More like flirt with Anne,” Connor murmured as Brett took off down to the water. He slid into the chair that Brett’s desertion had freed.

The latent tension in Victoria wound a notch tighter. No longer laughing, she pivoted on her seat to face Connor. “Brett tells me you brought him up.”

“He exaggerates.”

“So how old was he when your parents died?”

“You mean he didn’t get around to telling you everything?” The humor vanished, and his eyes cooled, becoming remote.

“He ran out of time. But I deserve to know—I’m your wife, remember?”

“In name only.”

The terse retort came like a slap in the face and she looked down, determined he shouldn’t see how he had wounded her.

“Brett was fifteen.”

Victoria snatched up the olive branch. Driven by an overwhelming need to know more about him, she lifted her chin and asked, “And you were?”

“Twenty-two.”

“Twenty-two! That would have been a demanding time of your life.”

Connor didn’t say anything.

“It was good of you to look after him,” she persisted.

“Anyone would have done it.”

“No, they wouldn’t.” Her father had shown next to no responsibility for his wife and child. Yet Connor had single-handedly raised his brother. She studied his guarded features, admiring the purpose and determination in the rocklike jaw, the sweep of the wide cheekbones and the dark hair that the late August wind had ruffled, giving him a sexy, rumpled look. “And now you’re doing it again. For Dylan.”