High-Society Secret Baby - Maxine Sullivan Page 0,10

finally said, not giving anything away. “We’ll have dinner when you come back.”

She nodded, then grabbed a bottle of formula from the refrigerator and carried Nicole from the room. If Nicole wanted her bottle, Cassandra would heat it upstairs rather than hang around down here any longer.

As for herself, she wasn’t sure she could eat tonight, despite the appetizing plates of seafood she’d seen in the refrigerator. Dominic was being generous in allowing her time to get used to him, but the specter of eventually having to share his bed was still in the background.

When Cassandra didn’t come back within thirty minutes, Dominic went looking for her. Her bedroom door was shut and all was quiet, so he carefully opened it.

And found them both asleep.

The sight drew him across the room to stand looking down at them. The double bed had been pushed up against one wall, and Cassandra had placed Nicole next to her, half curling around the infant to stop her from wiggling onto the floor. It was clear the two had been facing each other and probably playing before dropping off to sleep, and even in sleep a mother’s protective hand rested on her daughter’s diapered bottom.

Something clutched inside his chest and tightened. Trying to ignore it, he pulled up the spare blanket at the end of the bed. He doubted they’d wake before morning.

After covering them up, he left the room and went to pour himself a measure of rum, the picture of Cassandra’s long legs and the curve of her hip encased in slacks accompanying him out to the deck.

What on earth was he thinking by not taking her to his bed? He certainly hadn’t planned it that way, not after the years of wanting this woman. Her cool poise was a turn-on, and he’d fully intended to have her in his bed at the first opportunity, heating her up and melting her down until she could hide behind nothing…until she could hide nothing from him.

And then he’d gone and changed his mind. Of course, he knew why. Watching her taking care of Nicole on the drive down here had gotten to him and had made her seem more loving and less the gold digger, more sensitive.

And now there she was, unaware in her sleep that she had shown him it wasn’t an act. That shielding his—their—daughter from falling off the bed was as natural as breathing.

He ran a hand through his hair. Damn Liam for asking him to take on such a huge responsibility. And damn himself for giving in to a dying man. God in heaven, agreeing to substitute his sperm for the artificial insemination process had all sounded so…bearable at the time, yet that hadn’t been the case. From the moment he’d agreed to Liam’s request, nothing had been the same.

“Do this one last thing for me,” Liam had hurriedly pleaded when Dominic had walked into the hospital room and found his brother alone. Liam was crying, distraught because he’d convinced Cassandra to have his baby, but he no longer wanted to chance that baby inheriting his disease, and nothing Dominic said would ease his mind. The disease wasn’t genetic, but Liam had recently been given a new and more powerful drug to help hold the disease at bay, and he was concerned it might have harmed his sperm. It had broken Dominic’s heart to see his beloved brother reduced to this. Without further thought, he had taken the sterilized jar and stridden into the bathroom, where he’d done what he had to do.

How could he not?

Afterward he’d been full of self-recrimination as he’d wondered where it all would lead. His brother was dying, and the mother of his child was a woman he didn’t respect.

Later he’d had to watch Cassandra grow beautifully big with his child, and he’d stayed away as much as possible, unable to bear it. But the satisfaction in Liam’s eyes had told him he’d done the right thing, no matter what. Liam had been so happy for his wife, who had bloomed throughout her pregnancy.

Then after the birth, Liam had called him to the hospital to see the new baby. And it had taken only one look at his daughter for Dominic to fall in love. She was a part of him. He would die for this child.

Three

Cassandra woke six hours later!

Nicole slept on, and that meant it was a good opportunity to take a shower. But first, Cassandra checked the cell phone she kept on vibration