The Billionaire's Secrets (23 page)

But
Gaelan
drove carefully
,
and she soon relaxed.
T
wo hours later they were pulling up in front of Widow’s Cliff and Windy was running down the walk as fast as her old legs would carry her.

They got out of the car
,
and Windy hugged
Sophia
as if she’d never let her go again. Chloe could see the distrust in
Windy’s
eyes as she looked at her over
Sophia
, but
Gaelan
intervened. “
It’s
okay, Windy
.
Chloe didn’t do anything wrong,”
he said,
and
her
suspicious look melted into one of concern for her well-being. Chloe found herself thinking of Bowen’s words.
Windy is the only person in the world who thinks
Gaelan
can do no wrong
. It was true that Windy trusted
Gaelan
implicitly.
Bowen wasn’t lying about that.

Gaelan
carried
Sophia
to her room
,
where she sat up happily in her bed, teddy bear tucked under one arm, a glass of milk and a plate of
Windy’s
marvellous chocolate chip cookies on the bedside table. T
he cat was happy to see her too
and was soon curled up on her lap, happily purring away. Chloe and
Gae
lan
sat on either side of her,
perched on the edges of the bed.

“Is there anything else you need?”
Gaelan
asked
Sophia
.

“Would you and Chloe stay and read me a story?” she asked. Chloe could hear the hesitation in
Sophia
’s voice and knew the girl was not used to asking
Gaelan
for things. No doubt
Sophia
was wondering if his kindness and concern were over now that she was safely at home.

Gaelan
looked down at
Sophia
, and Chloe could see the love in his dark eyes.
But there was something else too, a disquiet that worried Chloe.
Something was still bothering him. Something still stood in the way of his relationship with his daughter. Then he smiled gently, the look gone, and Chloe wondered if she had only imagined it.

“I’d love to read you a story,” he said. “But I didn’t get much sleep last night, and I don’t think Chloe did either.” He glanced over at Chloe
, who
nodded her agreement.
Now that they were home, there was no adrenaline left in her system to keep her going. “How about we read to you after dinner?”

“Okay,” she agreed easily.

“Would you like Windy to stay with you?”

“I’m okay,” she said
as she
reached for a cookie. Chloe watched the crumbs fall onto the quilt and knew Windy would not normally indulge
Sophia
with cookies in bed.

“I’ll stay for a few minutes.” Windy assured
Gaelan
. “Then I’m going to make us all a nice dinner. Will you be eating with us tonight?”

Gaelan
nodded, and Chloe knew a lot of changes were happening fast.

Outside of Chloe’s room,
Gaelan
took her in his arms. “Oh, God
,
” he breathed against her hair. “I would love to come in and make love to you.”

Beneath her exhaustion, Chloe
remembered how she felt under his touch in the hotel room before everything went wrong, and her body ached for release. He tilted her face towards his and kissed her.

“Not now,” he said reluctantly, pulling himself away from her. “Later. I want it to be perfect for you, and you need some sleep. And I could sure use a shave.” He smiled gently at her
,
and again she thought she saw the same troubled
expression
that was in his eyes when he looked at
Sophia
.
“More than that though.
I have to come clean with you. It’s not a pretty story, and you have to know what you’re getting into - or whether you even want to be involved with someone like me.”

“Don’t say that,” Chloe protested and reached for him.

He placed
a finger over her lips. “It’s important you hear me out. I couldn’t bear
for you to
decide you can’t stand me after all.”

“I would never do that,” Chloe protested.

He looked at her searchingly
,
and Chloe longed to reassure him. “I’ll see you later,” he said. “And if you decide you still want me, then I’ll make love to you like you’ve never been made love to before.”

Chloe nodded, knowing he wouldn’t
change his mind. She would have to wait. But
what could he have to tell her and why would that possibly change her mind?

“Okay, until later,” he said, giving her a light goodbye kiss on the forehead.

In her room, Chloe stripped off her clothes with relief. She had only worn them for two
days, but so much had happened
she felt like she had been wearing them forever. Grimacing with distaste, she dumped them into the clothes
hamp
e
r,
sure they would never be clean again.

She rummaged through the dresser drawers at her meagre selection of clothes
,
remembering how
Sophia
had told her she should have pretty things. It was true
. E
xcept for the
black
silk neglig
é
e, everything was dull and practical. And she couldn’t walk around in a neglig
é
e! She settled on the wool dress she had worn on her first night at Widow's Cliff. She recalled how she had worn it with the intention of using whatever means necessary to secure her job at Widow's Cliff, with very mixed results. But it was the nicest thing she had
,
and she laid it over the back of the loveseat along with clean underthings and a pair of black stockings. She would go shopping for more clothes soon. It would be a nice day out for her and
Sophia
.

The shower was hot and soothing, and she stood under it until she thought she might fall asleep on her feet. She wrapped herself in a towel and went back across the hall to her room, crawled naked beneath the covers, and let the sound of the ocean against the rocks lull her to sleep.

* * *

As he ate with Chloe and Sophia,
Gaelan
remembered sitting around this kitchen table as a young boy with Bowen and his parents. There had been much laughter, much joking around,
the
occasional practical joke. He and Bowen had been close in their childhood, the way
identical
twins are, speaking their own twin language. Their differences in personality had never been an issue. When they were ready for high school, their parents sent them to different boarding schools, he in Montreal, Bowen near Toronto, and that was when they’d drifted apart. Bowen fell into a bad crowd and opted to spend most of his holidays at school, while
Gaelan
had remained close to his parents and was groomed to take over the family business. And then in his first year at
Harvard
, his parents had died
when their private plane crashed
on their way to the Caribbean for the winter
.
When
Gaelan
,
the e
lder twin by four minutes, inherit
ed
Widow’s Cliff
, the bond between him and Bowen was severed forever
.

Wi
ndy had made a delicious supper.
The sunny day was giving way to a rainy night
,
but a roaring fire kept away the damp and filled the room with its comforting glow.
Sophia
, clearly feeling much better,
was eating with a good appetite. She was back to her talkative self as well and was telling them all about the puppy she wanted
, Chloe smiling at her with indulgence
.
Gaelan
felt like he belonged to a real family for the first time since
those childhood days.
With Colleen it had never felt this way.

“Do you think Cookies would like a puppy?” Chloe asked.
Gaelan
met her eyes across the table
,
and they shared a conspiratorial glance.
My beautiful, beautiful Chloe
, he thought.
Could he ask her to marry him yet, or was it too soon? They had only known
each other for two weeks. But he couldn’t deny the intensity of his feelings for her. He savoured the thought of the three of them being a real family.