High-Society Secret Baby - Maxine Sullivan Page 0,14

water, having completed the circumference of the shallow end of the pool. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“I said I’m glad you’re getting to know Nicole.”

Wariness rose inside him as he remembered what he had to keep secret. He nodded. “So am I.”

Something seemed to catch at her, and she looked down at the water.

His heart thudded. “What’s the matter?”

She lifted her head, her eyes sad. “She’s so like Liam.”

The pain hit him unawares, not because Liam was dead, but because this child in his arms didn’t belong to his brother. “I’m her father,” he ached to say, with an inner pain that had started the day Nicole was born. “I’m the one who gave her life.”

Instead, he lifted Nicole out of the water and handed her over to her mother. “I’ve just remembered I have to make a call.”

She blinked, a hint of confusion in her eyes as she took hold of Nicole. “Oh, okay.”

Then he swept by her up the pool steps, picked up his trousers and shirt and strode inside before he could say something he would regret.

Cassandra wished she hadn’t said anything about Liam just now, but Dominic had been such a tower of strength for his family that she’d forgotten mention of his dead brother might sometimes overwhelm him.

Like it had overwhelmed her a moment ago.

Not for her own sake, but for Nicole’s.

Her daughter looked so like Liam at times that in spite of everything it hurt to know that he would never get to see his little girl grow up. And that Nicole would never know her father. Sadness swelled in her heart again as the sun went behind a cloud. It felt cooler now out here. Nicole gave a shiver.

She stood up. “Come on, sweetie. Let’s get into something warm.”

She made her way up the steps to the deck, then went up to her room. There was no sign of Dominic, but his bedroom door was shut and she could hear the shower running. Tension tightened inside her at the thought of all that water dripping down his tanned chest, like it had in the pool. She’d pretended not to notice, but she’d taken a few peeks when he’d been busy with Nicole.

Hurriedly, she closed her bedroom door and put Nicole on the floor, going over to the wardrobe to get some clothes. It wouldn’t do to be thinking about Dominic in the shower, not when he wouldn’t be wearing those tight swimmers like she’d seen when he’d left the water. This time he would be naked. Fully naked.

All of a sudden Nicole let out a scream, making Cassandra jump. She rushed forward, seeing her baby’s finger caught in the bottom drawer of the bureau, her heart squeezing as Nicole screamed again.

Carefully, she eased Nicole’s finger out, relieved to see no blood, then picked her up and cuddled her close. Tears streamed down the baby’s cheeks, Nicole’s lips trembling as she held on to her mother for solace.

All at once Dominic burst through the door. “What’s wrong? What’s the matter?”

Cassandra cuddled Nicole against her shoulder. “I left the bottom drawer of the bureau open a little, and she caught her finger.”

He came toward them. “Is she all right?”

She nodded, then patted the little back until the crying slowed to sobs. She eased back and picked up Nicole’s finger, inspecting it further. There was only a little bit of redness. “Let Mummy kiss it better,” she said and placed her lips against the pad of Nicole’s finger, love warming the very center of her being. “There. All better now.”

As if she were looking for the kiss, Nicole held her finger up in front of her face and frowned. She looked so adorable, with her wet cheeks and pouting lips, that Cassandra shared a smile with Dominic.

“She looks like you,” he said, and Cassandra’s heart swelled with pride.

A moment later she went to turn away when she caught sight of his chest. His bare chest. Taken off guard, her eyes followed the line of dark, silky hair growing down toward his hips, where a towel had been hurriedly thrown around him.

Her bones went soft. Oh, God, what would it be like to run her palms over him?

Would he feel warm and smooth?

Or hot and springy?

Her gaze moved upward to his face—and found him watching her with a hungry expression in his eyes. She self-consciously broke eye contact and looked away, thankful Nicole wriggled to be free at that moment.

Putting her daughter down on the rug, when