Isabella’s eyes had drifted closed. She had one hand on the bottle, as if she was trying to hold it herself. With the other hand, she reached up and grabbed one of his fingers where it held the bottle. The tiny palm was warm against his skin. Something clenched deep within his chest.
“You do this every night?”
“Feed Isabella? Sure. It’s usually only once or twice.”
And she’d been doing this every night since Isabella was born. “You must be exhausted.”
“Oh, it’s not so bad. This time, in the middle of the night, it’s kind of our time. I don’t get to see her during the day when I’m at work.”
“You work?” He asked the question without thinking and immediately wished he could take it back.
She stiffened, her head jerking up. “Of course I work. How did you think I supported myself?”
“What was I supposed to think? You said you could take care of Isabella during the day for the next couple of weeks.”
She stilled, ducking her head. “I have to take time off work. It’s not a big deal. I’ve got some vacation coming.”
He didn’t press her on this vacation time she’d be taking. It was obviously not something she wanted to talk about.
Besides which, after a few more minutes, Isabella began to drift off to sleep, her body growing more and more relaxed, her eyes drifting closed, her rhythmic sucking slowing to just the occasional twitch.
When her mouth fell open and he pulled the bottle from her lips, his sense of accomplishment was astonishing. Mount Kilimanjaro? Bah. That was nothing.
Lucy took the bottle from him and brought it the sink to rinse out. When she returned, she held out her arms to take Isabella.
How crazy was it that he didn’t want to let her go? Twenty-four hours ago, before he’d known she was his, when she was crying her head off, he would have been happy to hand her off to the first stranger who walked through the door.
But now? Now that he’d fed her and felt her fall asleep in his arms. Now that he seemed on the verge of…
Of what? He didn’t know, but he just didn’t want to let her go.
“I’ll take her now.”
He looked up at Lucy and felt the familiar stab of resentment. He had to force himself to hand Isabella back to Lucy, but he did it. After all, he wasn’t the expert here, she was.
What did he really know about taking care of a baby other than it was a hell of lot harder than the sitcoms made it look.
The tender way Lucy took Isabella from his arms, the way she shushed her when she stirred and rocked gently from side to side, the almost greedy way she clutched her to her chest as she silently walked from the room—it left him wondering.
Lucy clearly adored Isabella. She would do anything for her. Hell, she’d taken two weeks of vacation so she could move into a stranger’s house and care for her.
So how had this woman abandoned her baby on that same stranger’s doorstep?
Once again, his gut was telling him something wasn’t right with Lucy. It was time to find out what.
Five
T he following afternoon, Lucy sat in her idling car, her frustrations mounting. She and Isabella had escaped the oppressive atmosphere of the house for the morning. If she had hopes of sneaking back in unnoticed, they were dashed before she even made it inside. Dex’s SUV was hogging the driveway. Big, arrogant, presumptuous.
She’d never liked SUVs. They took up too much of the road. They were pushy. Insensitive to the needs of others. And this one practically gloated that it would be a better mode of transportation for Isabella.Stifling the sudden urge to gun her car and ram the thing, she shifted into Park and set the brake.
Okay. So she was irrationally transferring her resentment to an innocent SUV. The truth was, she was scared.
Not just a little nervous, but honest to God, quaking-in-her-boots terrified that she was going to lose Isabella and that nothing short of absconding to Mexico could prevent it.
She’d been to visit her lawyer that morning. The news wasn’t good. In addition to giving her a talking down the likes of which she hadn’t had since grade school, he’d told her what she already knew. By bringing Dex into the equation, Jewel had really mucked up Lucy’s chances of getting full custody of Isabella. Lying to him about her identity had only made things worse. Much worse.
Her lawyer had thrown around terms like “fraud” and “culpability.” He was almost as bad as her own conscience.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it.” She banged her head against the steering wheel with each “damn it.” Unfortunately, it didn’t make her feel any better. And it didn’t stop her mind from racing.
So far, lying to Dex had only pushed her further away from what she wanted. When she’d decided to pretend to be Isabella’s mother, it had seemed so simple.
But now she was caught in her lies. If she told him the truth, he’d never let her see Isabella again. But could she really continue to lie to him? She didn’t have a choice.
A sharp rap sounded on the door frame. She jumped guiltily and whipped to face the noise.
Dex. Of course.
She pressed a palm to her chest to calm her thundering heart, then leveraged the door open and climbed out.
He eyed her suspiciously. “What’s wrong?”
She couldn’t meet his gaze. “You startled me. That’s all.” She glanced down at her watch. “It’s only four. What are you even doing home?”
“I came home early to check on you. I got worried when you didn’t answer the phone.”
He was standing entirely too close, with one hand pressed to the roof of the car. His mere presence made her feel all jittery.
It’s only because he has so much power over you.
But no matter how many times she told herself that, she wasn’t sure she believed it.
“Let me guess,” she quipped as she ducked under his arm to reach Isabella’s door. She swung open the door so she’d at least have that barrier between them. “You thought that in an act of rebellion, Isabella had knocked me unconscious and gone out for a joy ride.”
“No. I thought you’d panicked again, taken Isabella and left.”
There seemed to be a note of genuine concern in his voice. She paused and looked up at him. The sun was in his eyes and he squinted as he looked down at her, making his expression unreadable.
“I would never do that.”
And yet, just a few minutes ago, she’d been contemplating just that. Not seriously, true. But the thought had crossed her mind.
“I mean it,” she said, and found to her surprise, she really did. “I won’t just leave. I promise. I’ll do everything in my power to convince you to let me keep Isabella. But I won’t skip out on you.”
Was it her imagination, or did he relax a little at her words?
Guilt stabbed at her conscience. Was she judging Dex unfairly? Was she assuming he was a coldhearted monster merely because that was how she wanted to see him? The thought disturbed her more than she wanted to admit.
To keep him from asking where she’d been, she lied preemptively. “I just had to stop by the office to pick up a couple of files.” She held up her briefcase as evidence, thankful she’d tossed it in the back of her car last Friday before any of this had happened. “I can usually get a little work done while Isabella is sleeping.”
When she stood up holding the clunky car seat, he took it from her. Together—he carrying the baby, she carrying her briefcase and the diaper bag—they walked up the driveway to the house. For a moment, they felt eerily like any normal couple meeting in the driveway after work.
“What exactly is it you do?”
“I’m an actuary.”
“An actuary?”
“I crunch numbers for an insurance company. Calculate risks, that kind of thing.”
“I know what an actuary does, I’m just surprised. I’ve never met an actuary before. I didn’t expect something so—”
“Geeky,” she supplied.
“That’s not what I was going to say.”
“No, but you were searching for a more diplomatic word for it, weren’t you?”
They’d reached the door, and as he opened it, he turned to face her fully, blocking her way in with his body. “Actually I was thinking I expected something more feminine.”
The appreciative gleam in his eyes sent heat spiraling through her body. Once again she was aware of how tall he was. How much bigger than her. There was something predatory in his gaze that simultaneously made her want to surrender and flee. Or just tilt her head up to his, let her eyes drift closed and wait to be kissed.
Instead, she scoffed. “Trust me. Being an actuary is the perfect job for me.”
It may be geeky—which was how Jewel always described it—but it was challenging and logical. It was a no-nonsense, fuss-free kind of job. Perfect for her.
Of course, she couldn’t explain any of that to Dex because he didn’t know what kind of person she really was. He thought of her as the exotic, charismatic woman he’d met in a bar one night. The kind of woman who enticed men and let them pick her up for one-night stands.
No wonder he thought the job wasn’t feminine enough for her.
Just one more reminder of the deception she was perpetrating. If he found out who she really was, he wouldn’t be looking at her with something akin to desire in his eyes. And of course her train of thought was ridiculous, anyway. If he knew the truth, whether or not he wanted her would be the least of her concerns. Whether or not he was going to kill her with his bare hands would be a tad bit higher on the list.
Equally unsettling was the easy way they’d been talking just now. At what point had they developed this easy rapport? She didn’t remember it happening. Hadn’t planned on being friendly with him.
He’s the monster, remember? she told herself. He’s the man who’s going to take Isabella away from you. He’s not friendly. He’s not charming. He’s ruining your life.
He walked ahead of her, still carrying Isabella, asleep in her car seat. Lucy stood by the back door, watching him as he headed into the living room. As he settled Isabella’s car seat into a darkened spot, he reached down and brushed a fingertip across her cheek.