The Tycoon's Cupid Surprise (a Valentine's novella) (Holiday Babies) (5 page)

“Chocolate pancakes, triple-choc ice-cream and a generous smattering of chocolate chips.”

“
This is downright decadent,” Brooke said, sitting at the kitchen table as Xander set down a plate. “But, I’m surprised. Where’s the chocolate sauce?”

“
Too much chocolate?”

She laughed.
“You can
never
have too much chocolate.”

Making love
the previous night had been so good that they hadn’t stopped at once…or twice. When Brooke had finally nodded off, it had been late. Nevertheless, he’d moved out into the living room to make a phone call.

When
his eyes opened at six a.m., he’d found her lying beside him, still sound asleep. It took everything to hold back from slowly but thoroughly kissing her awake. Instead, he’d decided to entice her with the unmistakable aroma of pancakes on the grill.

Around seven,
she had edged out of the bedroom, looking like a sleepy goddess wearing a sheet toga-style. His every muscle had clenched and then bucked. He only wanted to take her back to bed.

“
Did you make these from scratch?” Brooke asked, eying the pancakes as she pulled in her chair.

“
And from a secret recipe. I’m partners with a pancake restaurant.”

As
he sat beside her, he named the franchise and her eyes widened.

“I love that place. The menu’s amazing. Ever try their ice
-cream sandwich with sprinkles.”

“Next time
, order the apple pie pancakes. A splash of brandy. Swimming in sweet thick cream.” When those muscles bucked again, he moistened his lips. “Suddenly, I want to take this to the bedroom. What about you?”

When a
n approving grin sparkled in those green eyes, he leaned closer and captured her mouth with his. He felt her melt against him, heard her groan and then sigh as she pulled away.

“
Ella’s dropping Chance off around nine,” she said.

Xander h
ad never spent a better night in his life than he had with Brooke the previous evening, and that included dinner and their walk. The sex had been out of this world, but what made this special—what made this all unique—was everything combined.

The
entire package.

After breakfast, Xander led Brooke into the bathroom. He stripped the sheet off and, a minute later, he was sponging her back while rivulets of warm water sluiced over their skin. He sponged a few other places, too, and then she soaped him up and down. Sharing a shower was supposed to save water. Not in their case.

Later,
he’d dabbed and rubbed her with a towel, making sure to kiss each place he had dried, including her hands and each fingertip.

When he dropped her back at the shop, he leaned across to the passenger side and kissed her goodbye.
“I’ll see you this afternoon,” he said, combing a hand back through her still damp hair.

“You have somewhere to be?
” Her lips twitched. “Some bigwig business meeting?”

“
I’m dropping in to see a friend. An ex-law enforcement officer, more currently, private detective. I wanted to get on to tracking down Chance’s biological father.”

The color leached from her cheeks
. “Already? I’m not sure…”

“
This friend of mine knows his stuff. Luke will pull out all the stops. We can decide what to do from there.”

By late afternoon, Xander’s P.I. friend Luke had done his thing and supplied an address of the man who had enjoyed a romantic affair with Tiffany Bird some months before. When Xander pulled up outside a house set in a middle-class neighbourhood, he noted that the structure looked sound. A kid’s bicycle lay out front, halfway across the driveway. The lawn was maintained, even if everything combined conveyed a wilted look. Should he phone Brooke and let her know where he was at? He didn’t think her anxiety levels over this particular subject needed another hit just yet.

Luke
had advised against confronting the man straight up. He advocated “wait, watch and learn.” He had also offered to do the surveillance himself, but Xander hadn’t wanted to leave this part to anyone else.

After an hour, Xander
was ready to turn the ignition and pull out onto the road; he’d get advice on what to do next. But then a man came into view, walking down the driveway side of the house. Sitting straighter, Xander flipped the sunglasses back down onto his nose. From the headshot Luke had supplied,
that
was Kurt Downing, the adult male resident at this address. The man who had enjoyed intimate relations with Tiffany Bird.

M
arried. Six kids.

Good old
Kurt needed to keep his dick in his pants.

How might this man
take the news that he’d fathered
another
child? Cigars and smiles didn’t come to mind.

When
a child trundled out the front door, Xander’s gut muscles clutched. The boy was around six, same age Xander had been when his father had packed the Dodge and hit the road. No sooner had the kid raced up to his dad than Downing began to bawl the little guy out. With his car window down a crack, Xander only caught snatches…

P
ut your bike away… so help me…toss it in the bay..
.

Followed by a run of expletives.

Nice.

When the boy shrank
away, Xander’s teeth began to ache, his jaw was clenched so tight. Then Mom came barrelling out and started yelling, too, at her husband not the boy, which was at least some consolation. Finally, the woman hunched over and began to cry.

The urge rose up in
side Xander like a tidal wave. He wanted to charge over, sweep that boy up and rescue him from a nightmare that Xander had survived many years prior. Didn’t make it any better when, remorseful, Downing swept his son and wife close and kissed both before taking them inside.

Downing felt guilty? So he should. Didn’t sway Xander one bit.

He knew precisely what to do to help Chance.

When Xander arrived at the shop after closing time that day, Brooke didn’t let on how happy she was to see him…or how worried she had been. He gave her a leisurely kiss before taking Chance from her arms and asking the baby about his night out with the “girls” a.k.a. his aunts. Finally Brooke had to ask. She’d been agonizing about it all day.

“Did your P.I. friend find anything out?”

Xander’s jaw flexed as he handed the baby back. “Yeah. We found the guy. Kurt Downing.”

“
And
?”

“My honest opinion
. Chance is better off without him.”

Brooke
tried to absorb it.

She
would never take back a minute of the time she and Xander had shared the previous night. They had reached a higher level of understanding…certainly of affection. A moment ago, watching him cuddle and talk with Chance, she had only wanted to join in and pretend—

Well, p
retend they were a family.

No
w? Xander had just relayed the news that, not only had he found Chance’s biological father, he didn’t think the matter was worth pursuing. Just like that. He didn’t seem upset over his conclusion, either. Rather, Xander seemed oddly detached.

Certainly, Tiffany hadn’t wanted that man’s name included on Chance’s birth certificate, but
now that Brooke had this much information, and Xander was looking like it was done and dusted…

“Xander,
” she said, “I need to know more.”

His chin went up.
“Kurt Downing is married with six children.”

Brooke folded into a nearby chair. “
Six…
”

“I sat outside the house
for a while. I saw Downing first, then a young boy. His wife came out and joined in the yelling and crying. Dysfunctional is the word I would use.”

“
Did you talk to him?”

“
Given his family situation, I have a hunch he wouldn’t like that a whole lot.”

“
And now…?”

“We bury the information and let Chance get on with his life.”

Her scalp prickled. It was one thing not knowing who or why, but could she shove this aside as easily as Xander obviously could?

“Where does he live?”
she asked.

“Do
es it matter?”

Pushing to her feet, s
he put a stronger note in her voice. “I want to know.” 

“
Trust me, the best thing we can do is try to forget that guy exists. Having a toxic relationship is a hell of a lot worse than having no relationship at all.”

Tiffany hadn’t put Kurt Downing’s name on the birth certificate.
It followed that Xander’s instincts here were right. But what if there was a possibility that Chance might have a relationship with his father one day, even to know where he had come from…

Bottom line?
Tiffany had entrusted
her
with the responsibility of being Chance’s guardian. She needed to make this decision, not Xander Drake.

Two days before the 14
th
of February—Valentine’s Day—Xander was noticeably edgy. Preoccupied. As he focused on unloading that day’s consignment of flowers with a frown rather than a grin, Brooke wanted to admit out loud…she felt edgy, too.  Tension between them was on the rise, and on more than one front. Firstly there was the physical-stroke-sexual side of their relationship.

They spent the vast majority of
time here in the shop. Although Brooke was good with the fact that adults responsible for small babies didn’t go out much, she often thought about the evening she and Xander had shared...a candlelit dinner, that relaxing walk, the amazing, intimate hours at his place.

One part of
Brooke couldn’t wait to know every second of that again. Xander was an even better lover than he was a businessman, not that she was surprised. Whenever she closed her eyes, she imagined his skilled mouth trailing over her skin. She heard the words he had whispered at her ear. In that sense at least, she wanted to be his.

Another part
, however, kept whispering,
Pull it back.

She appreciated everything he’d done for her business. But Brooke
also valued her own opinions. She might not be a corporate genius, but she knew what she wanted for herself and for Chance. She was more than capable of making her own decisions, including any regarding Kurt Downing. In fact, as the baby’s legal guardian, it was her duty to do what
she
thought was in his best interests. Her personal feelings for Xander would not sway how she felt about that—even when her partner’s charm and inherent power was hard to resist.

“
We should take a trip down to L.A. next week,” Xander said, moving to the playpen; Chance was busy chewing his rattle, making his favorite bubbling sounds. “Check out locations for that second shop.”

Brooke
was arranging a pink and white carnation bouquet. “I can’t leave the shop.”

“
The shop’s shut Mondays.”

“
Which is the one day of the week I can give to Chance without needing to rush out whenever the doorbell sounds.”

Xander studied her for a moment before b
ending over to run a hand over the baby’s head. Then he had another idea.

“
We need more staff.”

“Heather
’s coming back next week.”

“
Advertising’s kicking in. Radio slots...that contest on the web.” He straightened. “We’re going to need more than Heather soon. We’re heading for an avalanche later this week.”

Valentine’s Day
.

She was acutely aware of
Xander circling behind her. When his arms looped around her middle, his heat and scent soaked in. Warm lips grazed her ear and she quivered.

“You smell good,” he murmured.

“It’s the flowers.” She didn’t wear perfume to work.

“
No. It’s you,” he insisted as his palms slid down over her hips. “Why don’t you and Chance come over to my place tonight? I’ll cook pancakes.”

She
cut ribbons at the same time one hand slid up to tickle her ribs.

Grinning, s
he wiggled away. “Shop’s not shut yet. We’re supposed to be working.”

“Union says it’s time for a break.”

She set down the carnations and caught his hands as he moved to bring her extra close. “Well, boss lady says it’s time to check the baby’s diaper.”

As she moved to collect Chance, Xander jumped up to sit on the counter
, like Ella sometimes did. Gripping the edge of the laminate, he cocked his head and narrowed his eyes at her. 

“What do you say about finding you a bigger place?”

Carrying Chance, she
headed for the back room. “That’s not in the budget.”

“
I wasn’t talking about the shop,” he said, jumping down and following. “We could find you and Chance something nice nearby. It’d be good to separate the work home thing, don’t you think? ”      

Her tone was
more than half teasing. “Anyone told you lately that you’re really pushy?”

“I prefer decisive.”

“Xander, I can take care of my own accommodation.”

“
Sure. I’m just saying for Chance’s sake, I could help.”

Having la
id the baby on his change table, Brooke pinned Xander with a look. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Use him to manipulate me.”

Xander
blinked twice. “I’m not trying to manipulate you.”

“Now you’re patronising.”

Before she could slip off Chance’s pants for that change, Xander was there, turning her in the sturdy circle of his arms. He lifted her chin with a knuckle. She held her breath as his intense blue gaze probed hers.

“You know what’s happening here, don’t you?”
he asked.

She wished her heart would quit thumping.
“Go ahead and tell me.”

“We
miss each other.”

“We see each other every day.”

He sent her his best slanted grin. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

He
left a lingering kiss on her lips and another before she swam to the surface. “The baby,” she murmured.

“Chance would approve.
  You’re not betraying him,” Xander said, “by having feelings for me.”

She returned her full attention to the baby.

“I would never betray Chance,” she said, finding a clean diaper and clenching her jaw. “And I don’t want to talk about moving.”

Changing the diaper, she held her breath until she heard Xander exhale and leave them alone.