Millionaire in Command / The Bride Hunter: Millionaire in Command / The Bride Hunter

Two

Phoebe bit her lip, cringing inside over having blurted the “proposal” rather than easing him into the idea the way she’d mentally rehearsed.

Too late to call back the words now. The band segued into a Motown ballad, the crooner’s tune filling the silence while she waited for Kyle’s reaction. Not for the first time, she cursed Bianca for disappearing, while praying that her old friend hadn’t landed in some kind of trouble. Or worse.

Meanwhile, she had to make use of whatever allies she could find, and please, please she hoped Kyle would fall into that category. She searched his face for some clue of his feelings, but he guarded his emotions well.

Finally, he raised a hand shoulder-high.

She tensed, wondering, waiting and definitely keeping her trap shut for now. She was a thinker, a plotter, damn it. Bianca was the impulsive one.

Kyle spanned a broad palm along Nina’s back protectively, his gold college ring glinting in the flickering candlelight. “Let me hold the kid for a minute.”

Relief gusted from her so fully that she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding her breath. She’d hardly dared hope it would be this easy for him to connect with his daughter—

Then the glow from the pewter tiki torches revealed the glimmer of alarm in his eyes, quickly covered as he flashed a pacifying smile.

Damn.

He thought she was off her rocker to the point he feared for Nina. As if she would do anything to harm this child. Although she’d surely screwed up in pushing so hard and fast for his help.

“I’m not crazy, and I’m the last person who would ever hurt Nina.” She cradled the sleeping girl closer until he relaxed his hands, if not his stance. “I didn’t mean to spring that last part on you so bluntly, but you were ready to leave and I don’t have time to be subtle.”

“Is there a subtle way to ask a total stranger to marry you?”

Phoebe ignored his sarcasm. “Child services is going to take her since I can’t find her mother. I just need to buy a little time until I can settle things for Nina.”

She didn’t know what else to do. Nina had no one except her…And this man. Her father.

“I still think you’re half-cracked, but I’m listening.” He folded his arms over his chest.

Was he settling in or blocking her exit? Either way, she needed to talk fast.

“Okay, so maybe the marriage idea seems extreme, but I’m desperate here.” Backing off the proposal seemed prudent since she had a serious aversion to ending up in a straitjacket. “My primary concern is keeping Nina secure. She’s already had too much upheaval, with Bianca dropping out of her life so abruptly.”

“This is a lot to digest,” he said, his voice neutral, his eyes still watching her guardedly.

His military aura swelled unmistakably. He might not be thinking of himself as Nina’s father, but he clearly would stand between the baby girl and any perceived threat all the same.

Her frayed nerves snapped. “If you can think of another alternative to keeping her out of the foster care system, I’m more than happy to climb on board.”

He cocked a thick, dark brow. “Excuse me for being slow on the uptake, but I didn’t know until ninety seconds ago that I even had a child.”

“If you’d stayed in touch with Bianca after you deployed, you may have—” She bit her tongue to keep from saying anything else, when she longed to shout out her frustration as she saw her last hope for help slipping away.

His eyebrows slammed down and together. “You can’t actually be blaming me because Bianca kept this a secret. If what you say is even true. I had my hands full fighting a war.”

Her anger defused and sympathy slid into the void. “I’m sorry. You’re right. This is a lot to take in and I don’t mean to be combative.”

His jaw flexed as he paused to gather his composure. “Arguing won’t get us anywhere.”

“I completely agree.”

Still, he kept his post in front of the arbor trellis, sprawling ivy cascading down the sides like spiky tentacles ready to snag her in place. “Regardless of what came before, we need to decide on a plan of action from this point forward, which I absolutely refuse to talk about in a place where anyone could overhear. There are no less than seven people from the press attending this shindig my mother put together to welcome me back.”

He had a point there. While press coverage could be helpful in finding Bianca, it could also bring the wrath of child services down on her head. She had to strike a delicate balance here.

At least Kyle was still talking to her. Maybe he would have an idea, and if not, then she could bring up the marriage idea again with more finesse. It was outrageous, sure, but not that totally out there. She reassured herself for probably the thousandth time that this wasn’t a totally crazy idea. Although she could imagine her long-dead parents wincing over her whole plan.

She’d thought this through. People got hitched in Vegas every day for far more flimsy reasons. Wedding vows meant next to nothing to most people these days.

And they would certainly mean nothing to her ever again.

She started toward him. Their cubby of space went darker as another person strode under the ivy-covered arch, snapping Phoebe back into the present. She needed to be on guard for those press people he’d mentioned. Backlit, the shadowy figure was still obviously a woman.

“Kyle, dear, there you are.” An older blond woman stepped into the glow of the flickering light. She rested a hand on his arm, manicured nails tipped white.

His mother.

Even if Ginger Landis Renshaw weren’t famous for her political prowess as a former senator and then secretary of state, Phoebe would have noticed the family resemblance. Their hair color was different but their faces, their smiles, were the same.

Somewhere in her early fifties and carrying it well, Ginger smoothed a hand over her simple red Chanel evening gown, almost managing to disguise her curiosity. “Our guests are beginning to ask where you’ve run off to.”

“Mom, we need to find an empty room and talk. Immediately.” He stepped aside, clearing the view for the woman’s gaze to fall squarely on Phoebe.

Ginger’s blue eyes darkened from curiosity to concern. “Kyle? What’s going on?”

“Not now, Mom,” he said quietly, his voice urgent. “We need to move this to a room, preferably one with a closed door.”

She straightened with a take-charge efficiency that had won respect around the world during her secretary-of-state days. That political sway continued now in her tenure as ambassador to a small but politically powerful South-American country. “Of course. This way.”

She tucked out of their garden nook and sliced a path straight into the country club. A quick flick of her hand had the manager rushing ahead to unlock his office. Phoebe followed, unable to squelch her awe at this woman who made things happen so effortlessly.

Damn it. Forget awe. She would stand down anyone for Nina if need be. But she hoped she would find an ally in a political powerhouse.

The door clicked closed behind them, sealing them inside an office with looming dark furniture and heavy tapestry upholstery. The scent of furniture polish and fresh-cut flowers coated the air thickly.

Ginger turned toward her son but looked at Phoebe and gestured toward a wingback chair. “Have a seat, dear. Even little babies can grow quite heavy when you’ve been holding them for too long.”

Phoebe blinked back her surprise and sat. Disobeying this woman wouldn’t dawn on her, and her feet were throbbing. All the same, she wouldn’t relax her guard for even a second. Winning his mother’s support was just as important as gaining Kyle’s trust.

Ginger pinned her son with a questioning stare.

He scratched the back of his neck. “Mom, it appears I may have left a child behind when I went to Afghanistan.”

Kyle knew one thing in this crazy, mixed-up night. Give a Landis a crisis and they start things cranking at Mach speed.

He had no more than announced the possibility of this child being his and his mom had spun into action. She’d called for her trusted assistant and gathered the rest of the family. So much for keeping things secret.

With four Landis brothers, two of whom were married, that made for quite a group packed into the country club office. His brother Sebastian sat at the sprawling wood desk, putting his legal eagle-eye and degree to work reviewing the documents. The rest of the family seemed transfixed around the wingback chair where Phoebe fed the little scrap of a kid a bottle. Kyle paced. He damn near wore a hole in the Persian rug as he moved restlessly behind his brother. Sebastian was a year younger than Kyle, but his quiet soberness had always made him seem older. They needed his calm efficiency right now.

Sebastian closed the file and glanced up somberly. “Is she your daughter?”

Kyle stopped in his tracks and dropped to sit on the edge of the desk, his foot twitching. “It’s a distinct possibility.” A possibility that still sucker-punched him harder than the missile that had taken down his aircraft in Afghanistan. He pinched the bridge of his nose briefly before his hand fell away. “If she’s really Bianca Thompson’s daughter, the timing of our, uh, week together lines up.”

“A week, huh?” A rare hint of humor lit his normally serious brother’s eyes.

Kyle wasn’t in the mood to laugh. “We hooked up when I was in between rotations overseas. Neither of us was interested in anything long-term.”

“You never are.” Sebastian looked away and back at the papers.

Yeah, he wasn’t known for serious relationships, but at least he understood himself, rather than sending out mixed signals. “Which makes it all the more ironic that Phoebe would toss out a marriage proposal to me.”

“I think it makes her seem like a more logical type.” Sebastian kept his voice low enough that the cluster of people a few feet away wouldn’t hear. “If she knows your reputation, then she has no reason to worry about you growing attached to her or the baby.”

“She said she only tossed it out there in desperation. That she didn’t really mean it, and could I come up with something else.” Still it rattled around in his head. “You got any suggestions?”

Sebastian scrubbed a hand over his face, a near mirror image of Kyle’s. “I think the first order of business is finding out if she’s really yours. I’ve never been one who could see Great-aunt Whoever’s chin on some infant, but I have to confess, she looks just like a Landis.”

The uncertainty was already chewing him up inside. “Any idea how long it takes for the results of a paternity test?”

“Gotta admit, I’ve never needed one.” His eyes slid over to his wife with obvious affection. Their son had been born a few months ago, a surprise pregnancy after the crushing loss of the baby daughter they’d adopted, only to have the birth mother change her mind. “Jonah should know, though.”

Their youngest brother had always been a hellraiser, so much so that after a while it became tough to distinguish between truth and reputation. Kyle had always understood his younger brother better than the rest of the family, although the military had helped him rein in his wilder impulses.

And yet still, somehow, he may have screwed up. “The sooner we can clear this up, the better.”

“What do you know about her?” Sebastian nodded toward Phoebe, who was lifting the baby up to burp, a hand towel from the bathroom draped over her shoulder.

“Nothing at all.” Kyle flipped open the manila file folder again and thumbed through the papers. “I’d never met her, but those photos of her with Bianca look real.”

“The private investigator I keep on retainer will be able to verify her story by morning. The fact that she lives and works in state makes things easier all the way around.” Sebastian tapped the documents spilling out across the desk. “Everything seems authentic and in order though. We’ll see soon.”

Not soon enough. “So, we’re stuck for now.” Kyle lowered his voice, even though no one across the room seemed to be paying any attention to them. “Either she’s on the up-and-up helping out a friend, in which case she needs help, so the baby stays. Or she’s a nutcase, in which case for the baby’s safety, she has to stay.”

“Be careful, my brother.” Sebastian leaned closer. “There’s a lot of money at stake here.”

Sebastian’s wife glanced over her shoulder. “Men are so cynical.”

Damn, he could have sworn they were keeping their voices down. Could Phoebe have overheard them too? Not that they’d really said anything that mattered. She should expect they would have her investigated.

The wife of their oldest brother, Matthew, stepped aside, opening the circle as she caressed the slight curve of her stomach. “They’re right to be concerned,” Ashley said. “I’ve seen some sad cases of how heartless people can be when it comes to the needs of a child.”

Their youngest brother, Jonah, snorted, lounging on the other wingback chair, one leg draped over the armrest. “Who are you condemning here? The baby’s mother or Phoebe?”

Ginger rested a hand on the back of Phoebe’s chair and shot her sons a censuring stare that hadn’t lost its impact over the years. “I’m sorry you had to hear that. My boys should be more diplomatic.”

Kyle watched his mother win over Phoebe with a few well-chosen words. There was no doubting who wore the diplomatic mantle in their family.

“I’m not offended,” Phoebe said. “In fact, I’m relieved that you’re all being practical about this. That bodes well for Nina, and I have nothing to hide.”

Jonah twitched back an overlong lock of hair from his brow. “Lady, I have to confess, this all sounds a little hinky to me. You wouldn’t be the first person to want a piece of the Landis lucrative pie.”

“I’m not here for money.” She patted Nina’s back steadily until the baby burped, then lowered her to the crook of her arm. “I only need time. I want to keep her out of foster care until we can find her mother, and if we can’t, then it’s my hope I can adopt her.”

Jonah tugged his dangling tux tie free…not that it had even been tied before they stepped back here for the family confab with Phoebe. “Then let the legal system sort it out. If you’re best for her, that’s where she’ll land.”

Ginger waved her rebellious youngest son up from the chair and motioned for pregnant Ashley to sit.

Ashley smiled her appreciation as she sat with a heavy sigh. “It’s not that cut-and-dried. I was lucky.”

Phoebe smoothed her hand over the baby’s head with obvious affection, but her face creased with concern. “Yours is a success story, then?”

“My foster sisters and I found a wonderful home with ‘Aunt’ Libby and were better off. Claire’s biological mother wanted to keep her, but was too young and didn’t have the money. Starr’s parents were criminals who refused to relinquish custody. My parents gave me up.” Quiet Ashley grew more fervent as she spoke. “Not all of the girls who were placed with Aunt Libby came straight there from their biological parents, though. Most foster parents are wellmeaning, big-hearted people, but there are some…” She shook her head in obvious disgust.

The defender in Kyle, the military part of him that had spent the past six years of his life protecting, made him want to pluck the kid up and keep her safe from the world.

How much stronger would those feelings become if it turned out the baby was his?

Phoebe rested her cheek on Nina’s head. “I don’t want to run any risk of Nina landing in an unloving home for even a day.”

“Exactly,” Ashley agreed. “Some people don’t have choices. There are options here for little Nina.”

His mother nodded. “I’ve already spoken with my assistant and she’s scheduled a paternity test.”

“On a weekend?”

Apparently Phoebe didn’t grasp his mother’s ability to move mountains.

Ginger toyed with one of her diamond stud earrings. “We’ll have an answer before child services opens on Monday morning.”

Time to test how far she was willing to go with this. He put his hands behind his back, military bearing tough to shake even with his separation papers in the works. “Since you all seem so certain Nina is mine, we might as well start moving her things into my wing of the house.”

“Excuse me?” Phoebe’s eyes went wide with alarm. “Um, Nina and I are already settled in our hotel, but thank you.”

Kyle braced a hand across the door. “If there’s even a chance that’s my daughter, I’m not letting you just walk out of here with her.”

Phoebe looked around nervously, then bolstered, her arms locked around Nina. “I’m not leaving her behind.”

“I don’t expect you to.” Nobody was going anywhere until he had answers. “You’ll both be staying with me at the family compound.”

Three

She didn’t have a choice but to go with him, and she knew it. Sitting in the back of Kyle’s Mercedes sedan beside Nina in her car seat, Phoebe just wished she’d foreseen this twist in the plans.

His broad shoulders, encased in the uniform jacket, spread in front of her in the driver’s seat. He guided the luxury car through the security gate into the Landis family beach compound. As the gates swung closed behind them, she shifted closer to Nina, the infant asleep and drooling in her rearfacing car seat. Morning was going to come early after this late night and she needed any edge she could scavenge to soothe her already frazzled nerves.

By appealing to Kyle for help, she’d also made herself vulnerable. One call from him to child services could steal her few days’ window to secure Nina’s future. She hadn’t felt so powerless since she’d watched helplessly while her husband had drowned.

Her gaze skimmed nervously ahead to the beachside Hilton Head mansion owned by the Landis family. Kyle had told her that his lawyer-brother and wife had a home a few miles away, and the oldest brother, a senator, and his wife had an antebellum mansion in downtown Charleston. Kyle had kept his gear in the third-floor quarters of the mansion since he’d deployed so often.

She’d rubbed elbows with plenty of affluent families at the college fund-raisers, but she’d never visited anywhere nearly this opulent. In spite of insisting she didn’t need money, a hotel over the weekend would have taken a chunk out of her account. She had to keep her savings intact for any legal fees she might need in adopting Nina. Staying here was the fiscally smart thing to do.

She’d seen photos from a Good Housekeeping spread when she’d looked up the Landis family on Google for more details, and she’d read about their diversified fortune that increased under the savvy care of each generation. But no picture could have prepared her for the breathtaking view. On prime oceanfront property, they’d built a sprawling white three-story house with Victorian peaks overlooking the Atlantic. A lengthy set of stairs stretched upward to the second-story wraparound porch that housed the main entrance.

Latticework shielded most of the first floor, which appeared to be a large entertainment area. Just as in Charleston, many homes so close to the water were built up as a safeguard against tidal floods from hurricanes.

The attached garage had so many doors she stopped counting. His sedan rolled to a stop beside the house, providing a view of the dense green bushes behind them and the Atlantic shore in front of them. An organic-shaped pool was situated between the house and beach, the chlorinated waters of the hot tub at the base churning a glistening swirl in the moonlight.

He put the car in Park and reached for the door. “I’ll get your things from the trunk while you unload the munchkin.”

Kyle stepped out before she could even answer. Apparently he’d inherited his mother’s take-charge attitude. Phoebe walked around to the other side of the Mercedes, security lights activating like sunrise coming early, and unhooked the carrier from the carseat base so as not to wake Nina.

He lifted her small suitcase and duffel with a porta-crib out of the trunk. “You sure do travel light compared to most women I’ve met.”

“I had only planned to stay overnight.” She’d pretty much counted on getting his support and then heading home in the morning, a naïve fantasy now that she saw how complicated things were becoming as reality played out. “I have a job to get back to in Columbia.”

He gestured toward the sprawling staircase. “Then you can leave Nina here.”

She hesitated at the bottom step, suddenly claus-trophobic about entering his house. Sheesh, it wasn’t like he could lock them away in the attic. “I won’t abandon her.”

“And neither will I,” he said with unmistakable determination, which made her glad for Nina.

If she could trust him.

She looked away from his persuasive blue eyes and back up the length of stairs. This would be temporary, until he left on his next assignment, then she could resume her life. “It seems we’re at an impasse.”

“What about your job?” His intoxicating bass drifted after her shoulder as he followed her up the outside wooden steps.

“I’m teaching all my classes online this semester anyway.” She’d adjusted her schedule to be with Nina, seeing this as her once-in-a-lifetime chance to take care of a baby. Little had she known when Bianca dropped off her daughter…“I can work from here until we have things settled.”

Until he left.

She would have her life back on track shortly. His job, along with his track record for short relationships, would have him out of her life soon. And she really didn’t have any other options if she wanted to keep Nina.

She pointed to the cluster of live oaks and palmettos framing a two-story carriage house. “Who lives there?”

“My youngest brother, Jonah. He’s finishing up his graduate studies in architecture. He stays here between internship trips to Europe.”

White with slate-blue shutters, the carriage house was larger than most family homes, certainly bigger than her little apartment in downtown Columbia.

“It’s lovely.”

She understood he came from money, but seeing Kyle’s lifestyle laid out so grandly only emphasized their different roots. Phoebe gripped the increasingly heavy car seat with both hands as she reached the top of the stairs. The tall double doors opened before Kyle could even reach forward.

His lawyer brother, Sebastian, filled the entrance, their appearances close enough to be mistaken for twins. Except the lawyer didn’t have Kyle’s laugh lines. “You finally made it.”