A Baby For The Billionaire
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“King men are difficult even at the best of times,” Maura told her suddenly, as if deciding to skip the polite niceties and just get to the meat of the matter. “But I can tell you from personal experience that they’re worth the trouble.”
“It’s not like that with us, Maura,” Dina said quickly.
Maura laughed. “Ah, yes. I remember fighting it myself. Jefferson was forever tossing his money about, waving it in my face. Did you know that he actually bought me a lorry without even speaking to me about it?” Shaking her head as she remembered, she continued. “Red it was, and as shiny as a promise, and though I shouted and raged at him for buying the bloody thing, I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. I still drive it now and it’s as lovely as ever it was.”
Dina laughed and shook her head. “He bought you a truck.”
“Aye. Because he said I needed it whether I wanted to admit it or not. And he was right, though I was loath to admit to it. My old beast was on its last wheels, so to speak. But that’s who the Kings are, you see. They make a decision they feel is right and good luck to you trying to convince them otherwise.”
“I don’t like being managed,” Dina said.
“And who does? But that’s not saying you can’t do some managing of your own, is it?”
Dina smiled at the other woman. “You know, I think you and I are going to be great friends.”
“I feel it already,” Maura said with a matching grin. “And, as Jefferson has decided that we must all fly to California next month to take the heathens to Disneyland before this one is born, I’ll be seeing you again soon. You can tell me all about how the managing of Connor King is coming along.”
Next month. Dina didn’t even know if she’d still be at Connor’s house in a month.
“Maybe we could all go to the amusement park together. That would be lovely.” Maura turned her face into the wind. “I’ll call my sister, Cara, and make sure she’s available for it as well. As busy as she is, she does love to see the children when we’re in the States.”
“Cara.” Dina thought about that for a moment. The sign at the front of Maura’s farm still read Donohue Sheep Farm, despite the fact that the owner was a King now. So...Cara Donohue. “Your sister is Cara Donohue?”
Maura’s features lit up. “You’ve seen her films then?”
“I have. She’s wonderful.” And she’d had no idea that Hollywood’s favorite young actress was related to the King family.
“She is that,” Maura said proudly. “It was the film Jefferson shot here on the farm that gave her the big break. She’d done some soaps in London, but after this small film here, Jefferson signed her to do—”
“O’Malley’s Bride,” Dina finished for her.
“The very one.” Maura practically beamed with pride. “She was nominated for best actress for the role. She didn’t win, of course, but the nomination itself was a wonder.”
This whole trip was a wonder, Dina told herself. Maura was kind and friendly, Jefferson was warm and funny, and Connor...she looked at him, and as if he felt her watching him, he caught her gaze and gave her the smile that made her knees weak and her insides nearly purr.
“Oh, yes,” Maura whispered, giving her a little elbow nudge. “There’s plenty there to be managed, Dina. Up to you, of course, but a King, as I said, is more than worth the trouble.”
* * *
Whatever the two women had been talking about earlier had put Dina in an odd mood. Though she’d been patient with the triplets as always, it was as if her body was there, but her mind somewhere else. Back at the castle, with the babies asleep, Connor joined Dina at the open window in the living room. A cold wind rushed inside, but she made no move to shut it. Her long black hair lifted and twisted in that breeze and flew about her face in a dark halo. Her hands gripped the windowsill and her face was turned into the wind, the night.
“Are you all right?”
“I don’t know,” she said softly.
He took her arm and pulled her around to face him. Studying her eyes, he tried to read what she was thinking, feeling, but though those chocolate depths called to him as always, he couldn’t make out what she was hiding from him. The only way to find out was to dig beneath the surface.
Exactly what he’d been aching to do for too long.
He’d never known this kind of overpowering desire. Usually when he wanted a woman, he had her. But for too long all he’d been able to do was ache for Dina. Most of the women he’d come across in his life had leapt at the chance to climb into his bed. The problem had always been getting them to leave again.
Naturally, Dina was different. And he liked that. In fact, everything about her appealed to him. Her gentleness with the babies, her willingness to stand up to him for what she believed was right—the fact that she didn’t want anything from him except what he owed the babies. She had even been insulted at the thought of him buying her off. She was damned fascinating in every way and he hadn’t expected that. Con wasn’t interested in feeling anything other than the desire that pounded inside him. He wasn’t interested in depth. Wasn’t looking for forever. What he wanted was her.
“You’re thinking,” he said, in a quiet, teasing tone. “That can’t be good for me.”
Reluctantly, she smiled. “Might not be good for me, either,” she admitted. “Look, Connor, I think we have to figure out what we’re doing here. I can’t continue to stay at your house with the trips indefinitely. I have a life and a business to run. I can’t just walk away from that.”
“Who’s stopping you from running your business from my house?”
“That only solves one issue,” she said, clearly frustrated. “I can’t stay with you, Connor, just because you think it’s more convenient.”
“You’ll be with me, Dina,” he said, “because you won’t lose the triplets and I’m not giving them up.”
“So where does that leave us, exactly?” She shook her hair back from her face and looked up into his eyes. “Neither one of us is willing to give in, so we just live with a stalemate?”
He couldn’t give her an answer because he didn’t have one. On this trip, it had felt almost as if they were a family. He’d allowed the castle manager, Sean, to assume Con and Dina were married—he’d considered it expedient earlier, but maybe the truth was that he hadn’t minded the assumption as much as he would have expected.
And that realization was staggering, so he put it aside to look at later. Maybe. Right now there was only one thing he was interested in and he was done waiting.
“Why worry about any of this tonight, Dina?”
“We have to—”
“Right now, all we have to do is this.” He cupped her face in his palms, bent his head and touched his mouth to hers. Soft, gentle, barely a brush of lips to lips before he pulled back and looked down into her eyes.
“I want you, Dina,” he said, his voice as quiet as his kiss. “I have from the first moment I saw you.”
“I know,” she whispered. “Me, too.”
He smiled and bent his forehead to hers. The knots inside him loosened and his body went hard and ready in a heartbeat. “Then what’re we waiting for?”
Eight
Taking her hand, Connor grabbed the baby monitor from a nearby table before stalking to his bedroom while Dina hurried to keep up. Once inside, he closed the door, set the monitor down and drew Dina into the circle of his arms. He indulged himself with a long, deep kiss, savoring the taste of her, the feel of her, the sweet surrender she offered to the fires burning between them.
Moonlight slanted through the windows and lay across her face and hair like molten silver. She shimmered with beauty that had haunted him from the first. His mouth went dry as he pulled back to fill his gaze with her.
The room was dark but for that pale wash of moonlight. A four-poster spindle bed took up most of the space but there were tables, chairs and a blue tiled hearth that lay dark and cold.
“This is probably a mistake,” she said and Connor’s heart stopped for a second.
“That mean you want to stop?” He’d stop if she’d changed her mind, but he was pretty sure it would kill him.
“No,” she said with a small shake of her head.
“Thank God.” They’d waited long enough. Too long. This tension between them had been building since that first day when she’d faced him down in her tiny kitchen. They’d been headed here, to this moment, ever since. Con knew she was right—this probably was a mistake—they still had so much to work out between them, sex would only complicate things. But he’d figure that out later. Right now, they’d waited long enough.
He backed her up to the bed, lifting the hem of her sweater to help her tug it off. Connor couldn’t wait to get his hands on her. He wanted to feel her skin beneath his hands. Wanted to touch and explore every tempting curve he’d been dreaming about for days.
Her hands worked at his sweater just as feverishly, her eagerness feeding his own. And yet, even in the rush to get her naked, Connor felt a driving need to take his time, to savor this moment that had been so long coming.
Deliberately, he slowed things down, forcing himself to strangle the urge to toss her onto the bed and bury himself inside her. He unbuttoned her shirt and carefully slid it down her arms to drop to the floor. She shivered as she stood before him wearing only her bra and a pair of blue jeans.
“Are you cold?”
“No,” she said. “The way I feel right now, I may never be cold again.”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “Good. That’s good.” He trailed his fingers down her sides, sliding over her rib cage, down to her abdomen and up again to the front clasp of the black bra that looked devastatingly sexy against her smooth, honey-colored skin.
He thumbed the clasp open and let her breasts spill into his hands. He cupped their weight and rubbed his thumbs across the tips of her hardened nipples. In response, she sucked in a gulp of air and swayed unsteadily. Connor knew how she felt. His insides were twisted together in heavy, hungry knots. He’d never known such overpowering desire for anyone. Never experienced such pleasure from a simple touch. Maybe it was because of the growing connection they shared because of the triplets. Maybe, he told himself, it was because they’d waited so long to satisfy their shared hunger. Maybe his own dreams were feeding the reactions scuttling through his body like skyrockets.
But the why didn’t really matter. All that did matter now was her and the smooth, silky feel of her.
He bent his head to taste her, taking first one nipple, then the other into his mouth. Her breath raced in and out of her lungs. She arched into him, silently asking for more. His heartbeat galloped when she responded by lifting her hands to his shoulders and holding him to her with a nearly desperate grip.
But she couldn’t keep him still, not when he wanted to explore all of her. He was a man on a mission now, with nothing more on his mind than fulfilling all of the fantasies he’d indulged in over the last week or more. He slid down her length, his hands moving to release the snap of her jeans and then the zipper. Slowly, he pushed the denim, along with the black panties they’d been hiding, down her legs, following their trail with his mouth. Her legs went weak until she locked them in place. He pulled her jeans off, stroking every inch of her skin as he did, then he stood up again slowly, sliding his hands over her body, reveling in the sweet feel of her. This was so much more than he’d imagined it would be. Her desire fed his, fanning the flames within until he was a walking inferno, ready to combust.
When he straightened again, Con took her mouth in a hungry kiss while allowing his right hand to shift to the sweet spot between her thighs. A muffled groan tore from her throat when he touched her so intimately for the first time. Then she pulled him closer as their mouths fused and their tongues tangled in nearly frantic desperation.
She was hot and slick and so ready for him, Connor could hardly breathe. He tore his mouth from hers so he could look down into her passion-glazed eyes as he worked her body into a frenzy. His fingers stroked and delved deep. His thumb slid across that hard nubbin of sensation at her core until she whimpered with the crashing need consuming her.
His hand cupped the back of her neck, holding her steady as their gazes locked. She was helpless to hide her response from him and didn’t try. Her hips rocked into his hand as he pushed her higher, faster. Caressing her inside and out, he drove her to the edge of completion then pulled her back, refusing to allow her to find release too quickly. He wanted...needed to keep touching her. To hear her sighs, her whispered pleas. He wanted to stare into her eyes and watch as passion flared.
Her hands curled into his upper arms and even through the fabric of his shirt, he felt that contact like match points, burning into his skin.
“Let go, Dina,” he told her softly, unable to look away from her amazing eyes. Such fire. Such passion. All for him. “Stop fighting it and let go.”
“Connor—” She gasped for breath, his name barely more than a strained whisper shuddering from her throat.
“Do it, Dina,” he demanded and plunged two fingers into her heat.
She exploded. Her body shook, her hips pumped wildly against him, and she tossed her head back, crying out his name in a strangled gasp.
Before she had even stopped trembling, Connor reached down and threw back the dark red duvet, exposing crisp white sheets. He laid her down, stripped out of his own clothes and paused only long enough to grab a condom from the bedside table, rip open the package and sheathe himself before he joined her on the massive bed. She lifted her arms in welcome and he slid into the circle of her heat, her warmth, like a man who had been freezing for far too long.
She parted her thighs and took him inside her. He entered her in one long stroke, feeling her silky heat surround and envelop him. For one long, heart-stopping moment, he held perfectly still, savoring the sensations of finally being where he most wanted to be. Then her legs came up to wrap around his hips, pulling him deeper, closer. He moved within her, slowly at first, setting a rhythm she matched, even as her hands moved up and down his back, her short, trim nails scoring his skin, driving him on. His hips pistoned, his body claiming hers in an ancient blending of selves.
They moved as one, pushing each other toward a release that hung just out of reach. He kissed her again and again, their mouths taking and giving as their bodies raced to completion. He felt the tremors of her release take her and when she tightened her grip on him and shouted his name, he let go and joined her, submitting to the inevitable as his soul shattered.
* * *
Dina held him long after the last aftershocks of what could only be called a nine-point-five on the Richter scale slowly faded away. She’d never known anything like that. Hadn’t even guessed that her body was capable of feeling so much. Oh, she wasn’t a virgin, reacting to the first experience of a male-driven orgasm. But in a weird way, the fact that she’d had three previous lovers only underlined the extraordinary truth of what had just happened.
Until tonight, she would have said that sex was good and orgasms were pretty nice. But those pitiful words didn’t come close to defining what had just happened to her. With his every touch, Connor had set her body and soul on fire. She’d felt him right down to her bones and even they had trembled under his sensual onslaught. Now, with his weight pressing down on her, she felt...complete somehow, in a way she never had before.
And that’s when it hit her. She loved Connor King. Dina didn’t know when it had started, or when she had taken that last slippery slide into love, but it was here now. She was sure of it. Oh, God, how clichéd was that? Have incredible sex and assume you’re in love?
She squeezed her eyes shut as her brain raced. This wasn’t just about the sex, her brain argued. It was about everything else—the way he handled the triplets, his loyalty to family, his willingness to include her, even his stubbornness—and the amazing orgasms were pretty much just the icing on an incredible cake. Yet another part of her mind demanded to know how this was even possible. She’d known him about two weeks. It shouldn’t have been feasible to love someone after such a short period of time. It was nuts to even think it, but this feeling she had was undeniable.
Opening her eyes again, she stared up at the ceiling as the irony of her situation sank in. For most of her life, Dina had avoided situations that could lead to love, and here she found herself loving the very man she’d been at odds with from the beginning. It had to be a cosmic joke at her expense.
But while she worried over the implications, she also couldn’t help relishing the moment. Love. Whether it would eventually bring her joy or pain, she didn’t know. Sliding her hands up and down Connor’s back, she relished this moment, this realization, even though it terrified her. For right now, she was at an Irish castle, in bed with the man she loved, and she wasn’t going to waste another second worrying about what tomorrow would bring.
There would be time enough to tangle her thoughts around trying to trust that a man could accept her as she was without expecting her to change and be what he preferred. Plus, there was the fact that the only thing holding her and Connor together was the triplets. If he got custody of those babies, he wouldn’t need her anymore and she’d be gone. She knew that and hated it.
Oh, loving him was a tremendous blunder, but God help her, she didn’t know how to correct that error now, when it was too late to turn back.
“Are you okay?” he asked, lifting his head to look down at her.
Could he sense what she was thinking? Feeling? No, she told herself firmly. If he could he would be leaping off the bed and putting some distance between them. So she buried her newly realized emotions deep and kept her response light. “I’m great,” she said, smiling into those ice-blue eyes.
He gave her a brief, hard kiss. “Me, too.” He skimmed one hand over to cup her breast and she gulped. Amazingly enough, her body, hardly recovered from that first incredible round, was clearly ready to go again.
She felt him pulse inside her and knew he felt the same. “Connor—”
He shook his head, his smile gone, replaced by the stamp of fresh need on his features. “I want you again. And again. And again.”
“We should probably talk about this—”
“Yeah, not really interested in talking.” He eased away and off the bed. “Don’t move,” he ordered.
She didn’t think she could move if she had to. Besides he was back a moment later. He grabbed a fresh condom, slid it on and was joining her in the bed an instant later.
“No more talk,” he whispered, sitting on his heels, drawing her with him until she straddled his lap, holding his hard length deep inside her. Dina shook her hair back from her face, looked into his eyes as his hands settled on her hips and dismissed the notion of some awkward conversation. There would be plenty of time for that later.
She squirmed on top of him, twisting her hips, creating a delicious sort of friction that rekindled the fire still licking at them.
“Ride me, Dina. Take me to the edge and then jump off with me.”
She nodded, breathless at the explosion of sensation rocketing through her. Moving on him, she set a blistering pace, helped along by his strong hands at her hips. The only sound in the room was their eager gasps and the good, healthy slap of skin on skin.
She took him deeper, higher than she would have thought possible, until Dina was convinced he was actually touching the tip of her heart. She moved her hands from his broad shoulders to cup his face and then she kissed him, parting his lips with her tongue, demanding entry. Demanding he give her all that he had and then just a little more.
He threaded the fingers of one hand through her long, thick hair and held her head in place while he gave her just what she needed. And this time, when their shared release crashed down on them, their mouths were fused and each swallowed the other’s moans of indescribable pleasure.
When it was over, they stared at each other and Dina wished she could read what was in his mind, his heart. Did he feel anything for her beyond desire? Was there caring and affection, too? Could that turn to love if given enough time?
And would they have that time? This move to his house was temporary and she knew it. Now, especially, she couldn’t continue to live with a man she loved knowing he didn’t love her in return. Could she?
He bent his forehead to hers and fought to steady his breathing. Their eyes met and he smiled. “Give me a half hour and we can go again.”
Since her body was still buzzing with the kind of pleasure she’d never known before, she liked that idea. “It’s a deal,” she said, still willing to put aside all of her recent revelations until she could be alone with the craziness now settling in to stay in her mind.
“You are definitely my kind of woman,” Connor said, grinning now as he rubbed her nipples with his thumbs.
She sighed, loving that near electrical charge zipping through her system. “Keep that up and we’ll never make your half-hour timeline,” she warned.
“I’m willing to risk it,” he said, dipping his head to plant his mouth at the pulse point at the base of her throat.
Dina tipped her head back to give him access and felt the deliciously slow build of excitement stirring in her again. “You’re not playing fair.”
He smiled against her skin and whispered, “I’m a King, honey. We always get what we want.”
Her heart turned over. He wanted her. But for how long?
From across the room, the baby monitor erupted with a half cry that splintered the haze of passion as surely as hitting a light switch chased away darkness.
Sighing, Connor pulled back and looked at her. Smoothing her hair from her face with his fingertips, he said, “Duty calls.”
Duty. Why had he chosen that word in particular? Were the triplets merely duty, in spite of the way he treated them? The way he acted when he was with them? Was she a duty? Or was she simply handy?
“Yeah,” she said, shifting to move off of him as her thoughts darkened and doubts spilled through her veins like tar. “I should go take care of that before whoever it is wakes up the other two.”
“No,” he said, catching her hand as she moved to grab her clothes. “I’ll take care of it. You don’t have to do it all anymore, Dina. You’ve got me.”
He pushed off the edge of the bed, pulled on his jeans but didn’t bother buttoning the fly. He cupped her chin in his palm, tipped her face up and gave her a quick kiss followed by that half smile that always tugged at her heart. “I’ll be back. Don’t go anywhere.”
She didn’t. Dina sat on the edge of the rumpled bed and thought back to what he’d said before. She had him. Did she really?
* * *
A week later, they were back in Dana Point and Ireland was nothing but a great memory.
Connor grinned to himself as he walked up to the front door of his house. He’d never enjoyed a business trip more. Sure, he’d secured a new adventure for his and Colt’s business, but it was more than that. It was spending time with his family—the triplets, Maura and Jefferson and their brood—and it was discovering just how good he and Dina were together.
He hadn’t expected it, but maybe he should have. She was nothing like any other woman he’d ever known, so why would sex with her be ordinary? Instantly, his body went tight and hard and he wasn’t even surprised. Simply the thought of Dina stirred the hunger that was always close at hand.
Connor opened the front door of his house and was hit by a wave of delicious scents pouring down the hall from the kitchen. Mexican food. And since his housekeeper, Louise, had never once cooked Mexican for him, he knew exactly who was at the stove. Smiling to himself, he followed the amazing aromas and pushed the kitchen door open. He stopped in the doorway, fixed his gaze on her and just enjoyed the show.