Kian (Undercover Billionaire, #1)(10)

“Please, Roxie, we need to talk,” he told her. It was more than obvious he wanted to monitor Lily as well. She’d been given the all clear, but that didn’t fully abate their worry over the child.

“For tonight,” she told him and looked at Lily.

“We get to leave now?” Lily asked.

“Yes, baby girl, we get to leave,” Roxie told her.

Her tears dried up as Kian stood and walked from the room to finish the paperwork that would allow Lily to go home with them. Roxie just wasn’t at all sure what was coming next. Was it a mistake to go to his place? Would she be able to take Lily away again once she stepped through those doors? She wasn’t sure of anything anymore.





Chapter Five

Lily was fast asleep when the three of them pulled up to Kian’s place, and Roxie was grateful. What had she been thinking? Maybe it had been a few years and she’d somewhat forgotten the wealth of the Forbes family. That had to be the only explanation for the awe she felt looking at the mansion Kian called home.

She didn’t live in this world in any way. She was used to eating ramen and living on four hours of sleep so she could pick up extra shifts. Sure, she was a nurse, but that meant she had a lot of school debt to pay off, and she’d been on her own for a long time.

Maybe one of the reasons she’d left Kian had been resentment. Everything came so easily to him. It wasn’t his fault he’d been born with money and respect, and it wasn’t her fault she envied him a little for it. It was just how life worked out.

“Shit,” Kian mumbled beneath his breath, startling Roxie.

“What?” she asked, afraid to wonder what he could possibly have to worry about.

“It looks like my brothers are here,” he told her with a sigh.

“Why?” she asked. She in no way wanted to run into any of his family members, not with their past together, and certainly not with this newfound knowledge circling in her head. She never had been much of a liar.

“I’ve kept my family informed about what’s happening, and they want to meet their niece,” he told her. “It won’t take long to get rid of them.”

“Just take Lily and me somewhere else,” she pleaded.

“Not gonna happen,” he said as he opened the garage door and pulled inside.

Roxie looked around and felt herself growing sicker by the second. She counted twelve car bays—and all of them were filled. She didn’t want to think about the price tag on each vehicle. Kian certainly didn’t mind spending money. That was for dang sure.

Kian was out of the car and around to her door before she could undo her seat belt. He stood there waiting, as if he had all the time in the world. Roxie wished she could find the same confidence that had gotten her through college right about now. When she’d gone away for her education, she had left the pathetic Roxie behind. Somehow the second she’d crossed the city-limits sign, all her insecurities had come roaring back. She hated herself a little for feeling that way.

Doing her best to shake herself from her poor-me attitude, she climbed from the passenger seat and stood up, making sure to move a couple of feet away from Kian. Standing too close to him was like looking directly at the sun, and she feared her skin and eyes would be seared before too long.

After she was safely out of the vehicle, he moved to the back door and carefully undid Lily from her brand-new booster seat, then lifted her into his arms. She cuddled against him, and a look of awe settled over his features. He was already far too attached to Lily, and that was more terrifying than anything else to Roxie. She felt as if she was losing her a little more as each day passed.

“Come on,” Kian said as he moved forward. Roxie didn’t look at him again to try to decide how he was feeling. She felt as much a victim as he did. He’d slept with her sister and created a child. Both of them had kept that from her. She could forgive her sister since she’d made a mistake, but could she ever forgive Kian? She didn’t think so. It was either that, or she just didn’t want to face how he made her feel.

“Welcome home,” a voice called as they stepped into a large kitchen.

Though Roxie had been nervous to see Kian’s brothers, the moment she looked up and saw the pleasure on their faces, she couldn’t help but give an answering grin. She’d always loved Kian’s family, even if she had wanted to avoid them after what she’d done.

“Roxie, it’s so good to see you. We wanted to come to the hospital, but Kian asked us to wait,” Owen said as he took a few strides in her direction.

Before she had even a moment to say a word, he pulled her into his arms, her feet leaving the ground as he cut the air right out of her lungs in a bear hug that had her squeaking as she tried to breathe.

“Sorry,” he said as he released her.

“I guess you forgot your own strength,” she said, almost feeling as if she’d just run a marathon.

“Yeah, and I missed you,” he said with a sheepish smile that had her heart leaping. He might be a beast of a man with shoulders almost too wide to fit through standard doorways, but he’d always been a giant teddy bear. She might even admit, if only in her head, that he was her favorite sibling of Kian’s. Those shoulders were perfect, too, since he was a fireman who absolutely loved his job.

“I missed you, too,” she admitted, her cheeks reddening just a little.