Feel the Heat: A Contemporary Romance Anthology

“
B
ABY
, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT you want.”

It was a ridiculous request. The crying five-month-old in Claire’s arms couldn’t answer her and the obvious things weren’t working. She patted her daughter’s freshly changed diaper, cupping her hand around the tiny bottom as she walked circles around the bright airy penthouse she shared with her husband, Luke.

She’d paced for what felt like miles over the wide ebony-colored planks, trying to soothe her baby girl, and any comfort she felt in the beautiful surroundings had evaporated hours ago. Right about the time she found her daughter wailing in her crib while the baby nurse insisted letting her cry it out was healthy. She’d never liked the older woman, but one of Luke’s contacts swore by her and she had a list of references that read like a
Who’s Who
of Atlanta society, including politicians’ and CEOs’ families. It didn’t matter; hiring the nurse had been a colossal mistake. She had a schedule for everything and neither Claire nor the baby seemed to fit comfortably into it.

Pressing her lips to her daughter’s soft head, she breathed in the sweet, clean baby scent. It wasn’t just the schedule. Claire hated the idea of someone else taking care of her child. She wanted to be the one doing it, but she also had a business to run. And she didn’t want to give that up. Taking over her father’s electrical contracting company had been her dream for as long as she could remember. While he was well, they’d worked side by side, and when Alzheimer’s stole him from her, she’d taken the helm and pushed the firm to the next level. Of course, as soon as they found out she was pregnant, the guys who’d respected her and worked for her for years started to treat her like a china doll, a situation that only got worse after the baby was born.

They loved her little girl like one of their own, but seeing Claire as a mother made them treat her differently, and she couldn’t help but feel as though she’d lost some of the ground she’d worked so hard to make up over the years. Before Luke and the baby, her crew saw her as one of them. She worked the dirty jobs beside them, and if they didn’t exactly forget she was a woman, it didn’t come up every minute. Now
mother
and
wife
seemed to flash over her head like a neon sign. Her guys were happy for her—she knew they were—but things were different, and she had no idea how to navigate the new climate. Add in the fact that she missed Bella every moment she was away from her and worried about the job when she wasn’t on site, and it was no wonder she was a mess.

Claire felt pulled in a million different directions, trying to do everything and failing at all of it. And it wasn’t as if she could talk to Luke about it. He fixed things, often without her consent, and her life wasn’t something that could be fixed. If she knew what to do, she’d have done it herself.

“Come on, sweet baby. You have to give Mommy a clue here.” She shifted the baby against her shoulder, rubbing circles on her small back. Bella snuffled against her shoulder, whimpering pathetically before she started to cry again. “You can’t be hungry. We tried that already, remember?”

She’d tried nursing her twice. Each time the baby settled in and started to suckle, she’d pop off, fussing in frustration and eventually working up to a full-throated wail. The few nerves Claire had left were well and truly frayed. She needed to figure something out quick before she lost what was left of her mind. The baby gummed her shoulder insistently, and Claire blew out a frustrated breath.
Maybe the third time was the charm.
Ignoring the wet patch on the shoulder of her T-shirt, she settled them in the corner of the couch. Cradling her daughter in her arms, she raised her shirt to what felt like the perpetual up position and popped the catch on her plain white, decidedly unsexy nursing bra. The baby latched on and nursed for a few seconds before turning her head away and picking up the crying where she’d left off. Her daughter’s pathetic frustrated whimpers pushed her over the edge and Claire rested the baby against her bent knees as her own tears fell in angry streaks down her cheeks. Mother and daughter stared at each other, tears pooling on both pairs of eyes.

“I don’t know what to do,” said Claire, the sob catching in her throat.

She gave in to the frustration and despair, letting the sorrow wash over her along with the tears. Clutching the baby to her, they cried together. Their mutual sobs masked any sound but the ones they were making.

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”

Claire looked up, her hair pulled back in a utilitarian ponytail and her breast still hanging out of the ugly bra. Blinking her puffy, tear-filled eyes, she saw Luke striding toward them, concern etched on his handsome chiseled face. He wore a suit that cost more than her first car and his crisp white dress shirt looked as fresh as if he’d just put it on. With a body more suited to an athlete than a man who spent his time in the boardroom, he was walking sex. Claire glanced over her rumpled clothes and the yoga pants that had seen too many days and swallowed a sob as the tears streamed down her face.

L
UKE’S LIFE HAD
turned into a roller coaster, and he wouldn’t change it for anything. He loved Claire and their daughter with every fiber of his being. Loving Claire had been a completely new experience for him. He thanked a God he’d never had much faith in every day for her and the way she loved him. Loving Bella hit him like a lightning bolt to the chest. It wasn’t a choice. When he held his daughter for the first time, loving her became a tangible, indisputable fact—like gravity. He was happier than he’d ever imagined possible. He wished his wife felt the same way. He couldn’t wait to get home to his family; he just wasn’t always sure what he’d find when he opened the door.

The day before, he’d walked in on Claire snuggled in the corner of the sofa, nursing their daughter. Watching his wife feed their child slayed him, laying his heart bare for the woman who’d given him the world. Every primal protective instinct he had roared to the surface and nothing mattered to him but taking care of them—keeping them safe. He’d watched his wife stroke his daughter’s downy head as their baby nursed, and he’d fallen deeper in love with them, something that seemed impossible but happened over and over again every damn day. Claire’s face looked so serene, like something out of one of those paintings of the Madonna he’d grown up with before everything with his own family went to shit. It was completely at odds with the expression she wore today.

“What’s getting my girls?” Two pairs of tear-filled eyes met his as he closed the distance between them. “Are you giving your momma a hard time?” He pressed a kiss to Claire’s head before he scooped the fussy baby into his arms. As if sensing a fresh audience, his daughter started crying again in earnest. “I know, Bella. It’s just terrible, isn’t it? Tell Daddy all about it, and I’ll fix it.”

He tucked his baby girl under his chin, rubbing circles over her back while he paced. By halfway through the second lap, she’d quieted and was busy trying to eat his shoulder.

“Rough day, sweetheart?” he asked, turning his attention to his gorgeous wife.

Streaks from her tears marked her beautiful face, and she looked so forlorn. The urge to fix whatever was making her unhappy muscled its way to the top of his to-do list. Still gently bouncing the baby in his arms, he stopped beside Claire and stroked a finger over her cheek, catching the remnants of her tears.

“I don’t know what she wants.” She peered up at him with beautiful green eyes that seemed so lost, they tore at his heart.

“Where’s the baby nurse?” He’d hired the woman to take some of the pressure off Claire while she was still nursing and to make it easier for her to keep up with work. He’d happily support them all. He had more than enough money, but there was no way he’d expect Claire to give up English Electric.

“I got rid of her.” Some of the fire he loved flashed in his wife’s eyes, and he decided to take it as a good sign.

“Why?” he asked, careful to couch his tone in a way that elicited answers without challenging her.

“She was awful. I was in the office trying to catch up on the estimates for the new conference center. I could hear Bella screaming from down the hall. When I came out to check on her, the woman who was supposed to be taking care of our daughter said she was
letting her cry it out
.”

Luke had no trouble imagining the rest of the scene. He’d put Claire up against any lioness if she felt as though her baby was threatened, and she had no patience with the idea of letting their child cry when she could do something about it. The baby nurse had probably been a mistake. The woman came with a stack of references but Claire never felt comfortable with her. And truth be told, neither had he.

“Okay, so we’ll find someone else.” He ran through the steps in his head. His assistant would be better equipped to find a Serbian translator than someone to watch his daughter, but he could figure something out. Surely there was some kind of database or something.

“Nobody is going to love her the way I do,” said Claire as fresh tears flooded her eyes.

Luke cleared his throat and she had the decency to look sheepish.

“The way we do,” she corrected.

“That’s true.” He pressed a kiss to his daughter’s sweet head, breathing in her clean baby scent as her soft hair rubbed against his lips. “But we’re going to need help if we’re going to keep both businesses and the Langston property going.”

In addition to his regular development business, he’d started to help Claire with the houses she flipped on the side—mostly to keep her from working herself to death. The house on Langston was a single-family Victorian in what was turning into a good neighborhood. It should turn a decent profit if they ever managed to get it finished. He felt a little stupid for underestimating how much time a baby would take and how hard it would be for him to leave her every day, but there was nothing to do about that now. He’d get them out of the project as quickly as possible and talk to Claire before they took on anything else.

“I don’t want somebody else raising our daughter.”

He froze mid-bounce, watching her carefully. “What are you saying, sweetheart? Do you want to stop working?” He’d be okay with whatever she decided, but he couldn’t help the thin thread of fear that wove through him at the idea of Claire giving up everything to stay home with their baby. Being stuck at home with him was what finally drove his mother off and his father into a bottle. It was hard for him to picture it any other way, but for his wife and daughter, he’d try.

“No, but I hate myself for it. I shouldn’t need so much help taking care of a baby. My mother did it without nurses or babysitters or any help at all. I don’t have to clean or even cook if I don’t want to. Esmerelda takes care of all of that, and I’m still falling apart.”

“There’s nothing wrong with wanting your career, Claire. You worked hard for it. That doesn’t make you a bad mother. Bella’s going to be happier if you’re happy.” He laced his words with a conviction he didn’t have to exaggerate. It wasn’t fair for her to have to choose between work and a family. No one expected him to do it. She shrugged and he could tell she wasn’t buying it.

“I’ll take her. She’s going to ruin your suit.”

He glanced at his drool-covered shoulder and momentarily quiet daughter.

“Is she hungry?” He shifted the baby in his arms. Faced with the loss of his shoulder, Bella reached for his hand, grabbing his finger and dragging it to her mouth.

“I’ve tried nursing her, but she loses interest. Hand her to me. I can try again,” she said, sounding worn-out.

“Wait a minute. She seems happy for now.” He took a chance and sat on the sofa beside Claire. They both let out a sigh when the baby in his arms didn’t protest. Instead, she shoved his knuckle into her gummy little mouth and chomped down. “Is there a chance she could be teething?”

Claire’s forehead wrinkled and then her eyes went wide. “I didn’t even think of that. It’s a little early, but it makes perfect sense. That’s why she didn’t want to nurse. It must hurt her gums. Poor baby.”

“It’s not a problem, is it? Her getting her teeth early?”

“No,” she said, reaching out to run a reassuring hand along his jaw.

She might feel like she was falling apart, but she was always a rock for him. Every new milestone made him nervous. It wasn’t a feeling he was used to or dealt well with, but nothing had ever mattered as much to him as the woman beside him and the baby in his arms.

“I think it’s hereditary. I can’t ask either of our mothers to be sure, but I imagine at least one of us must have teethed early. Probably you,” she said, taking some of the sting out of the statement.

He’d never really known his mother. She bailed on him and his father when he was just a kid and he’d been disinclined to let her back into his life. But Claire’s mother had been her world until she passed and he knew she missed her every day. Having a baby made the loss that much more real. Their little girl would grow up with everything she could possibly want except a grandmother to love her. Not being able to ask her mother when she’d started teething or for other advice was just one of the things Claire lost when her mother died and Alzheimer’s stole her father’s mind.

“Do we have to take her to the doctor or something?”

He hated not knowing. He’d spent his life and made his fortune by being the best informed person in any room or working his ass off until he was. The baby thing was so outside the realm of what he knew; it knocked him off his game.

“No, she should be fine. Just uncomfortable for a while and it means she can eat new kinds of food.” The worry and lost look was gone from Claire’s face. She was back to being calm and in control. “Hold on for a second. I think I’ve got something that might help.”

Luke watched his daughter happily gnawing on his knuckle, the drool running down his hand and over her tiny chin. If anyone told him a year ago that this was how he’d be spending his time, he’d have told them they were crazy. He’d gone from arrogant bastard and playboy billionaire so fast, the people he used to know wouldn’t recognize him. From the moment he met Claire, he’d wanted her and from the first time he’d had her, he knew he’d never get enough.