The King Next Door (9 page)

Well,
that
thought brought him up short. He didn’t belong with Nicole and Connor. This was temporary. A blip in his life. Nothing more. Once it was over, he’d go his way, she’d go hers and they’d never have any of this again.

Funny.

That should have made him feel better.

It didn’t.

“How much longer before the kitchen’s ready?” Nicole asked.

“Not long,” Griffin muttered. It seemed his cousin didn’t give a damn about Griffin’s plans. Lucas wanted this job wrapped up so he and his wife could go visit their cousin Jefferson in Ireland.

So now there were six guys working every day on Nicole’s place and in a matter of days, it would be complete. Added to that, in another week or so, Rafe and Katie would be back in Long Beach. This little interlude, or whatever the hell it was, was almost over.

“Good,” Nicole said. “That’s…good.”

He looked into her eyes and saw the same glimmer of mixed emotions that he was feeling. “Yeah, it is.”

“Want a story!” Connor shouted and Griffin shifted his gaze to him.

Strawberries stained the little boy’s face and clung to the wisps of hair falling across his forehead. Innocence shone in the eyes so much like his mother’s, and Griffin felt that soft slide into affection pick up speed. This was what he’d wanted to avoid. Hell, he had plenty of practice disentangling himself from women. But with a kid, things got messy.

Walking away from Connor’s mother would be hard, but Griffin would be able to do it with a clean conscience, because Nicole understood. How the hell did you make a toddler understand that you weren’t a part of his life anymore? How did you wean yourself away from playing with the boy? From wanting to protect him?

Big mistake this, he told himself. He should have held back from getting involved in anything more than sex with Nicole. But how could he not care for the boy when he was so much a part of the mother who already had Griffin twisted into knots?

“Looks like you need a bath first, kid,” he finally said with a laugh.

“Yes, he does,” Nicole agreed, already standing to free her son from the chair.

“I’ll do it,” Griffin offered before he realized the words were coming from his mouth.

“It’s my turn,” Nicole reminded him. “You had bath duty last night.”

He tried to shrug away the offer as if it was no big deal. “If it’ll get me out of doing the dishes…”

“No baf!” Connor cried.

Griffin smiled. He could remember being a dirty little boy and fighting to stay that way. And he remembered his mom, harried and busy, overseeing five boys and cleaning the kitchen. But his father had been there to take over bath time and assist in getting Griffin and his brothers into bed.

Pretty soon, Nicole would be on her own again with no one to turn to for a break. For help. Griffin wouldn’t be around. He’d be off somewhere in whatever house he bought, filling his nights with anonymous women and meaningless sex—and Nicole and Connor would go on with their lives without him.

Something hard and cold settled in the pit of his stomach. Felt like he’d swallowed a lump of ice. Well, she wasn’t on her own yet, he thought, and heard himself say, “No. No tradeoff. Why don’t you go sit down and have a glass of wine? I’ll take care of Connor and the dishes.”

Tipping her head to one side, Nicole looked at him, a confused smile on her face. “What’s the occasion?”

He undid the strap across Connor’s lap and lifted him out of the seat. Instantly, the little boy hooked his arms around Griffin’s neck. The ice in his gut melted a little at the wordless expression of trust from Connor.

“Not an occasion,” Griffin said finally, “just a favor.”

Nicole walked toward him. “Is this the kind of favor one friend does for another?”

“Is that what we are?” he asked, disbelief coloring his words. “Friends?”

“What else is there?” she asked.

He didn’t know the answer, either. The only thing he was sure of was that she wasn’t
just
his friend. She was more than that. How much more, he didn’t really want to think about.

“Well, now,” Griffin murmured, lifting one hand to cup her cheek, “that’s an interesting question, isn’t it?”

As he carried Connor out of the room, he felt Nicole’s gaze locked on him, and he wished to hell he had an answer to his own damn question.

*

Connor smashed the sand castle with all the vigor of a rampaging Viking. Chortling with glee, he rained tiny fists down onto the damp sand, and Griffin laughed aloud watching the destruction. He turned his head to see if Nicole was watching and when their gazes locked, even from a distance there was nearly a physical punch that hit him hard. He didn’t understand it. Usually he would have moved on well before now. Griffin didn’t stay interested in a woman once he’d had her. But Nicole was different.

He kept waiting for whatever it was between them to cool off. It hadn’t. If anything, it was heating up. She was in his mind all the damn time. He slept with her every night, listening to the soft sighs of her breath. He woke up with her every morning, his arms wrapped around her as she snuggled in close, allowing him to take in the scent of her peach shampoo with every breath. She was ingrained in him now. She’d become a huge part of his everyday world, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. Hell, he couldn’t even think about anything but Nicole.

If he wasn’t on vacation already, he’d be damned useless.

Even here, surrounded by the dozens of people still on the beach as the sun began setting, Griffin was hard put to keep a grip on his hormones.

“Do more, Griff!”

Connor’s voice dragged Griffin back from the danger zone in his mind. Looking at the smiling face of the little boy staring up at him with adoration, Griffin felt a completely dissimilar kind of jolt. Nicole was hitting him on a lot of levels, but Connor was arrowing straight into Griffin’s heart. A different kind of danger entirely. One just as treacherous.

“Okay, little man,” he said and scooped the cold sand together into a haphazard tower. Connor’s tiny hands worked with him, patting and slapping at the sand. “Gonna help me, are you?”

“Me do it!”

“Attaboy.”

When his phone rang, Griffin was almost surprised. When he was working, the damn thing was ringing all the time. But since his vacation started, he’d practically been living in a vacuum. A very sexy, very confusing vacuum.

Still, he carried the phone because, in his business, he always had to have his phone with him. He never knew when a client or the office would need to reach him. He grabbed the phone from the pocket of his cargo shorts, checked the readout on the screen and grinned. “Hey, Garrett—how’s life in the palace?”

“Oh, you know how it is,” his twin brother said with a laugh. “Another day wearing a crown.”

“Yeah.” Griffin laughed, too, and reached out one hand to smooth Connor’s hair back from his face. “Must be tough. The villagers marching on the castle with flaming torches yet?”

“Nope,” Garrett told him. “But my brother-in-law the prince beat the hell out of me in a horse race yesterday. That count?”

“Close enough.” The wind ruffled Griffin’s hair and tugged at the edges of the T-shirt he wore. The outgoing tide left a wide stretch of damp sand and the ocean shyly sighed toward shore, then slid back out, leaving a stain of wet that glimmered like silver in the late-afternoon sunlight. A couple of surfers bobbed on their boards, and families were packing up their picnic coolers to head home.

Up on the beach behind him, Nicole sat in a beach chair with a book she hadn’t been reading. And here at the edge of the water, a little boy destroyed another sand castle.

“Again!”

Smiling, Griffin held the phone with one hand and used his free hand to pile up the wet sand into another doomed tower.

“Did I just hear a kid?” Garrett asked. “Where are you?”

“Yes, you heard a kid,” Griffin said, frowning. “There’s a lot of them here. I’m at the beach.”

“You hate the beach.”

Griffin shook his head, then smiled as Connor patted tiny hands against the sand tower. “I don’t hate the beach. I hate the crowds.” He glanced up and down the shoreline. The sun was sinking and most of the people were leaving. Soon the beach would be empty but for a few diehard surfers and the handful of teenagers who would sit around a fire, drinking beer and telling lies. The wind was cooler and a few clouds streamed across the darkening sky. Behind him, Nicole was headed toward them, her long, lovely legs moving slowly and, he thought, with a deliberate sensuality.

He took a deep breath and focused on his twin’s voice, which was practically shouting in his ear.

“Who’s the kid?”

“Nicole Baxter’s son, Connor,” Griffin said, and the little boy looked up with a grin when he heard his name.

“Are you nuts? Katie’s friend?”

“I’m not nuts,” Griffin said. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Uh-huh, that’s why you’re breaking your no-kids rule.”

His twin always had known him too well, Griffin thought in disgust. So much for his “secret” relationship with Nicole. So far both Lucas and Garrett had guessed at the truth. If any more Kings found out, Griffin could kiss his cookie supply goodbye.

“This is different.” Or so he kept telling himself. Getting involved with a woman who had a child was a two-way risk, and he knew that all too well. When the relationship inevitably ended, you lost not only the woman, but the child you’d formed an attachment to. He’d experienced that once, years ago, and that ache had stayed with him for a long time.

“I can’t believe this.”

“I’m not walking down an aisle or anything, Garrett. For God’s sake, you sound hysterical.”

“I never get hysterical.”

“Then quit shouting at me when you’re too far away to punch in the face.”

Garrett sighed through the phone. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Always,” Griffin assured his brother, although, as Nicole came closer and closer, he sort of doubted himself.

Garrett snorted, but let it go. In an abrupt change of subject, he said, “Look, I’m calling to tell you I’ve got a guy here in Cadria who wants to hire us to protect his gem collection. He’s loaning it to a museum in L.A. and he doesn’t trust their security.”

“Hah. Good call.”

“That’s what I told him,” Garrett said. “Anyway, I’ve faxed the information to Janice at your office. You’ve got to come up with the plan and the details on fees, since you’re the one on-site.”

Griffin scrubbed one hand across his face and nodded at Nicole as she dropped to the sand beside her son. Now that Connor was in safe hands, Griffin stood up and walked a few steps toward the water’s edge.

Just a few days ago, he’d been wishing for work, something to keep his mind busy. Now he glanced back at the woman and child kneeling in the sand. The sun was setting and the pale wash of golden light lay across the two of them as if they were highlighted in a painting.

Frowning to himself, he turned back to look at the sea and the shimmer of light dancing on the surface of the water.

“Griff?” Garret asked. “You there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. When’s he need the estimate?”

“Couple of days. When you’ve got it, fax it back to me at the palace and I’ll take it to him and sell the rest of the deal.”

Chuckling, Griffin shook his head. “At the palace,” he repeated. “Doesn’t that ever seem weird to you? That you live in a castle?”

“All the time, man. All the time,” Garrett mused. “But Alex lives here, and I live with Alex.”

“Yeah,” Griffin said. “I get that.”

“Do you?” Garrett laughed a little. “Well, now, there’s a surprise. Aren’t you the one who suggested that Alex give up the whole princess thing and move back to California with me?”

Yeah, he had. Griffin hadn’t understood why Garrett had been so willing to give up his own life in favor of living in Cadria full-time. Turning your world upside down for a woman just hadn’t computed with Griffin.

Now, he got it. Though he didn’t really want to consider just
how
he’d come to the realization. Another glance at Nicole and he was rewarded with her smile. His chest tightened, so he looked away quickly.

“I’ll go to the office, pick up the papers,” Griffin said. “Then I’ll get it back to you ASAP.”

“Okay…” Garrett said slowly. “Griff, is there something you want to talk about?”

“What is this, a chick flick?” Griffin countered, shaking his head as if his twin could see him. “No, I don’t want to talk. There’s nothing to talk
about.
”

“Right. How about the situation with Nicole and her
kid.
” Garrett paused and said, “Let’s remember the last time you got involved with a single mom.”

“Let’s not.” Griffin’s scowl was fierce, but since he was facing the sea, no one could see it.

“It about killed you to lose that boy. He even ran away from his mom and went to you.”

“I remember.” He didn’t want to, but he did. Jamie had been six, and Griffin had been his T-ball coach. He’d relived his own childhood through Jamie, and in a few weeks, he’d come to feel like the boy’s father. But when Jamie’s mom walked away, he’d lost his relationship with Jamie, as well.

Griffin still remembered the afternoon a crying little boy had shown up at his office. Jamie had run to Griffin, hoping to bring him back into his world. There had been nothing he could do to stop the boy’s heartbreak…or his own. He’d returned Jamie to his mother and driven away, vowing never again to get involved with a woman who had a child.

He’d kept that vow. Until now.

“This is different,” Griffin insisted, and wasn’t sure whom he was trying to convince—himself or Garrett. Lowering his voice, he said, “I feel sorry for the kid. He doesn’t have a dad, okay? This thing with Nicole and me isn’t permanent, so neither is the situation with Connor. I’m not getting sucked in again. I won’t let that happen, so relax.”

“Right. If you say so.”

“Look, I gotta go.” Garrett was way too shrewd. Too able to pick up on nuances that Griffin would prefer be ignored. Maybe it was because Garrett was married now, more used to listening, paying attention. But whatever the reason, Griffin wasn’t in any mood to dodge more questions. “I’ll get back to you in a day or two.”