Their Baby Bargain

CHAPTER SIX

LUKE arrived home at midnight on Monday night. Home…

He pulled into the farm driveway and stared up at the darkened house, feeling a gut-wrenching gladness at reaching his destination that he hadn’t felt since he was a child. This really was his home.

Hell, he’d never realised how much he’d missed it.

The place looked somehow different than when he’d left, even in semi-darkness. The moon was almost full, and he could see the ancient rose bushes around the front entrance had been pruned back, and the garden beds had been dug over. The last of the boarding over the windows had been removed. There was gleaming glass in every frame, and there were curtains behind the glass. The place looked clean and welcoming, and a couple of old chairs had been dragged outside onto the veranda so one could sit outside and watch the distant surf.

It looked great!

Quietly he climbed from the car, stretching weary limbs. A twenty-four hour flight followed by a spot of urgent shopping and a huge drive on top was a bit much for anyone. He should have stayed overnight in the city, he acknowledged, but he’d felt such a compulsion to be here… And besides, there was Bruce.

They’d be asleep, he thought, as Bruce was now sleeping, but he knew where they’d be. He wouldn’t disturb them.

Taking off his shoes he made his way softly up to the veranda. Through the living room to the kitchen beyond.

‘Visitors should ring doorbells,’ Wendy said from behind him and he jumped about a foot. It was all he could do not to yelp.

Somehow he lost his voice as he wheeled to face her. That was a shock again. Wendy was wearing her gorgeous, faded nightgown, and her curls were tumbling free around her bare shoulders. Baby Grace was lying in her arms as she stood in the doorway between kitchen and living room. By the moonlight flooding through the French windows, Wendy’s face was tender and somehow vulnerable-and she was such a contrast from the woman he’d left in London that for the life of him Luke couldn’t think of another thing to say.

But she took pity on him and broke the silence. ‘I guess you’re not really a visitor.’ She smiled, and motioned to the sleeping baby she was cradling. ‘Don’t turn on the light. I’ve just got her settled.’

‘Is she…?’ Luke moved forward in the moonlight, peering down at his half-sister. She was deeply asleep, her tiny mouth curved into a smile of such bliss that Luke’s heart twisted. ‘Is she…okay?’

‘What do you think?’ Wendy chuckled softly into the stillness. ‘She shouldn’t be having a bottle in the middle of the night, but do you think I can persuade her of that? This young lady has a mind of her own-like her brother, I’d say. She’s just got her own way-again-and very pleased she is, too.’

‘I…see.’ He didn’t. For some reason his brain was all fuzzy. But luckily Wendy appeared not to notice.

‘And now it’s bedtime, miss,’ she was telling Grace. ‘For the whole night!’ Wendy fixed the sleeping baby with a look of stern warning, but the tenderness behind her eyes gave her warning the lie. The stirring in Luke’s gut grew deeper. This feeling he was experiencing. It wasn’t just his baby sister doing the damage here, he decided. Help!

But Wendy’s attention was still not on him. She was concentrating solely on getting Grace back to bed without her waking. ‘Wait,’ she told him softly. ‘I’ll just be a minute.’

Without another word she turned and carried the sleeping Grace out to her bedroom. He waited silently. There was nothing else to do, and to stay completely still, letting the atmosphere of the beloved old house seep into his bones, suited him very well until she padded barefoot back-to where he was waiting with the same look of stunned confusion on his face that she’d left him with.

Then she flicked on a table lamp, and his mixed emotions grew even more muddled. Even more lopsided.

He stared around at the transformed kitchen in amazement. ‘What on earth have you done to this place?’

She smiled at that. ‘I scrubbed it,’ she said proudly. ‘And I painted the walls. I don’t mean to boast, but it looks great, doesn’t it?’

It certainly did. When Luke had left, the kitchen had been grimy and dreary from years of neglect, and in the few days he’d been away Wendy had totally transformed it. The stove was gleaming, and the table and old wooden benches had been scrubbed to within an inch of their lives. The walls had been painted a pretty powder blue and there were fresh gingham curtains hanging in the window. It looked…wonderful.

‘You did all this?’ He could hardly believe it.

‘With the help of your credit card.’ Wendy’s smile was teasing. ‘Elbow-grease and money. What a combination!’ Then her smile faded. ‘Did you get what we needed from Lindy?’

He nodded, lifting the precious documents from his breast pocket. But he wasn’t thinking about papers. He was having trouble thinking past Wendy. She was so incredibly lovely. So incredibly desirable.

She was so…Wendy!

Hell! He was acting like a moron here. With a wrench he hauled his thoughts back to the subject she was interested in. Documents. Grace. Not him.

‘Lindy’s signed the pre-adoption papers,’ he told her. ‘She did it in London, in the presence of two lawyers and a witness from the embassy. If she doesn’t change her mind in the cooling off period-and I’d be amazed if she does-then Grace will be ours.’ He faltered then at the look on her face, and he was suddenly uncertain of his ground. ‘I mean-’

‘You mean she’ll be yours,’ Wendy said gently. ‘Remember, I’m just the nanny.’

‘I…yes. I guess.’ He was all at sea here. He was trying to concentrate on Grace’s adoption, but all he could see was Wendy. She was so gorgeous-so sexy!-it was all he could do not to lunge around the table and take her into his arms for a passionate kiss.

‘Your bed’s made up in your grandparents’ room,’ she said placidly, as if unaware of the crazy mix of emotions charging around the room all by themselves. ‘At least, we assumed it was your grandparents’ room. The big front one with the double bed.’

‘Yes.’

‘It should be okay,’ she told him. ‘There’s clean linen and bedding. The only thing is…’

‘There’s a problem?’

She grinned. ‘Well, there’s sort of two bumps that you’ll have to straddle. I’d assume at a guess that you’re a lot bigger than your grandpa.’

That shook him. He didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. ‘Two bumps?’

‘I’d bet your grandma and grandpa had the same bed for their entire married lives,’ she told him cheerfully. ‘Gabbie and I made the bed up yesterday and you can see exactly where they slept. There’s deep contours linked together at the hip where they’ve lain side by side for years.’ The tenderness returned to her face. ‘I guess it won’t be too comfortable for one big person sleeping in the bed, but I don’t know. The bumps look…sort of…nice.’

It was nice at that, Luke thought, and blinked. His grandparents… Two lovers lying side by side, making their indentations in their mattress night after night as they slept-husband and wife for forty years. Why did the thought have the capacity to kick him sideways?

But he hauled his thoughts back together again. Somehow.

‘It’ll be fine.’ His voice was gruffer than he meant it to be and, for a minute she stared, sensing his confusion.

Then she too pulled herself together. Maybe she was starting to feel the emotion zooming around the room like electricity searching for a grounding. Maybe.

Or maybe she just thought he was a moron.

‘Can I make you a cup of tea before I go back to bed? Or can you manage on your own?’ She wanted to leave, he could see. Grace had woken her from sleep and now she wanted to slip back into her own bed and sleep again-alone. As was right and proper. He was her boss. She was his hired nanny.

But still he wanted to prolong the moment. Desperately. ‘How’s…how’s Gabbie?’ he asked.

As a delaying tactic, it was a good ploy. Her face softened. ‘Gabbie is great. Just great,’ she told him. ‘She loves this place, just like me.’ She smiled up at him with gratitude and the instinct to kiss her surfaced again and then some.

‘I brought her a present.’ His voice was gruff again. Too gruff. Stupid!

‘A present?’

‘I…’ He was stammering like a schoolboy, and that was how she made him feel. As if he was about thirteen years old-a schoolboy suffering his first serious crush. ‘It’s in the car. I need to bring it in straight away.’

‘Won’t it wait until morning?’ She was confused, and still she was intent on getting back to her bed. Away from him. ‘Gabbie’s asleep. A gift can wait.’

‘I might be only driving a hire car,’ he told her firmly-a man had some standards! ‘But I hate to imagine what even that would look like if I left this until tomorrow morning. No, Miss Maher…’ he somehow managed to smile at her confusion ‘…I won’t take you up on your offer of a cup of tea, but I’d appreciate very much if you could heat a little hot milk. I’ll fetch Bruce now.’

‘Bruce?’

‘I know I keep doing it,’ he said apologetically. ‘I just can’t seem to help myself. I’m sorry, Wendy, but I’ve brought you another baby!’

‘What?’ Her jaw dropped about a foot and he grinned at her reaction.

‘Just wait and see.’

He hadn’t known what to expect.

On the plane on the way to England he’d thought of this and it had seemed the most wonderful idea. He’d rung his Australian secretary while he’d been in London; she’d done all the legwork while he’d been talking Lindy into signing adoption papers, and when he’d landed back in Australia it had been organised so all he’d had to do was go and pick Bruce up and pay unseemly amounts of money.

At his first sight of Bruce it had seemed an even better idea. Bruce was…well, Bruce was just Bruce from the first moment he’d seen him. For a man unaccustomed to falling in love at first sight-or even love at all-Luke had come pretty close when he’d met Bruce.

But now, carrying the sleeping puppy into the kitchen, he had his first major doubt. What if Wendy didn’t like dogs? What if she hated animals? What if…?

And then his worst fears were confirmed.

He entered the kitchen and put the tiny, still sleepy and befuddled basset-hound puppy down onto the kitchen floor. Bruce stared up at his new surroundings in amazement, and he was all eyes and ears and tummy.

What next? Wendy stared down at the puppy in stunned silence. The puppy stared back at Wendy for one long moment, and then, sensing a mother figure and smelling the warming milk, he waddled solemnly forward-so his dangling ears were brushing the hem of Wendy’s nightgown and his huge eyes were gazing straight up at her. His small liver-and-white-spotted person quivered with anxiety. He looked and looked, and his tiny, whip-like tail slowly started to rotate in canine hopefulness.

She had to like him. To Luke, watching in silence, Bruce Basset looked almost irresistible.

But Wendy stooped down to floor level without saying a word. She touched Bruce lightly on his velvety ears-and she burst into tears.

Hell! This was appalling. What to do now? Of all things-to have made Wendy cry…

‘You don’t have to keep him. I didn’t mean… If you think I’ve already dumped enough on you I can take him back.’ Luke started forward, but then he paused as the puppy was scooped up into Wendy’s arms and she glared up at Luke as if she was a mother hen protecting her entire brood.

‘Take him back?’ Her voice was laced with emotion and tears were slipping down her face unchecked and unheeded. ‘Take him back? Don’t you dare!’

‘But…’ Hell, she was crying! ‘Don’t you like him? Wendy, what’s wrong?’ Unconsciously he stooped too, so his eyes were on a level with hers. The puppy was squirming in her arms, and his small pink tongue came out to lick away a tear.

Hey, the puppy knew what to do. Luke grabbed his handkerchief and moved in to help. Now there were two males attending to Wendy’s tears and it was all too much. Wendy was falling backwards, sitting on the floor and sobbing helplessly into Bruce’s velvety coat.

But she was also…smiling? Laughing through tears? Luke managed to get a piece of his handkerchief to her cheeks. It was licked aside by the puppy and, hell, he was jealous of a puppy!

‘You don’t want me to take him back?’ he tried cautiously and now he was sure she’d been chuckling. She was smiling at him through her tears and her eyes were shining like raindrops in a sunshower. She hugged the crazy, wriggling bundle of puppy, and she smiled and smiled-and Luke’s heart lurched as if it had never lurched in its life before.

‘Luke, if you knew how much I’d wanted to give Gabbie a puppy…’ It was all she could do to get her voice to a whisper. She hugged Bruce again, venting her overstrung emotions on his small squiggly person. ‘We have Home dogs-specially trained dogs skilled in being hugged by children in need-and Gabbie’s loved them. But they’ve never been hers, and every time she’s moved it’s been to a different dog. But this little one… She needs something to love so much…’

‘And you do, too,’ he said thoughtfully, watching her face. Somewhere inside something was starting to feel really, really good. He’d done something right! He’d made this woman happy. Luke Grey, independent mover and shaker, had made this lady happy.

And it felt-fantastic!

‘And me too,’ she admitted shyly. She lifted the little dog high so woman and dog were nose to nose. ‘I admit it. I haven’t owned a dog since I was a child, and I’ve wanted one so much. Now I have Gabbie and I have Grace, and I have Bruce.’ She turned to look at him with exactly the same look she’d bestowed on Bruce. Unswerving love. ‘Oh, Luke, thank you. I don’t know how to say it…’

‘You don’t need to.’

‘But Luke…’

‘No.’ He reached forward and caught a last errant tear, whisking it away with his forefinger.

And then suddenly he was so close. She was so lovely. God help him, a man would have to be inhuman to resist a sight like this.

He wasn’t inhuman. This lady before him was Wendy. Wendy! She’d been weeping and she was so, so near…

He moved just inches closer. She gazed at him with eyes that were loving and misty with tears, and his fingers caught her under the chin.

Some things were just inevitable. He kissed her.

And wow!

Heaven knew what went into that kiss. It was a kiss that had the power to change the world-or change the world of the two persons whose lips touched-and change the world it did.

She was so gorgeous. So…

Her lips were just as he’d known they would be. Just as he’d remembered from that fleeting kiss with the children between them. They were full and soft and warm and yielding-and tasting slightly of salt where the tears had slid unchecked.

The puppy was still there, somewhere between them, but his small warm presence did not intrude. He’d been woken from sleep, but a pup could tell these two soft bodies meant a small creature nothing but good. It was clear that Bruce believed he was on to a very good thing here…

As did Luke. Wendy felt so wonderful. It was all part of the magic of the night, he thought. It was part of the discovery of coming home. Home…

Here was his home.

Wendy was his home.

The discovery was no lightning bolt. It was more a sweet, insidious knowledge, creeping softly into his consciousness. He’d never known what he was missing until this moment, but here, in this moonlit kitchen, with the soft wuffling of a puppy between them, he found a missing link in his life that he hadn’t known was broken.

And Wendy?

For the life of her she couldn’t pull away. The knowledge that was already with Luke was playing its magic part on her as well. It was like a spell, numbing her brain, making her unaware of anything but how good this man felt, how strong were the hands that gripped her shoulders-how warm was the mouth on hers…

How achingly empty her life was without…

Without what? A man?

Dear God. Where had that thought come from? It slammed into her brain like a zillion volts and it scared her rigid. Of all the stupid, stupid things to think…

Luke was still kissing her-she was still letting herself be kissed-but suddenly things weren’t the same. The numbness had worn off. She’d been down this road before, letting emotion sway her… Letting hormones do their thing until she’d risked so much she had no right to risk!

No!

‘No!’

Heaven knew how she uttered the word. Heaven knew how there was enough space between them to say it but somehow, somehow she dragged herself back, and her eyes were fear-filled and dreadful.

He let her go. ‘Love, what is it?’

What had he called her? Love? He had to be joking.

‘What on earth do you think you’re doing?’ She clutched the puppy to her. Bruce looked up in faint reproach; it had been really cosy cradled between chest and breast, and he wouldn’t have minded staying there!

Luke’s voice, when he found it, was a bit shaken. ‘I thought I was kissing you.’ Somehow he managed a faint chuckle. ‘And I thought you were kissing me right back.’

‘It must have been the puppy.’ She gasped and scrambled to her feet. ‘I wouldn’t…’

‘You wouldn’t have kissed me? Liar!’

‘Luke!’ There was real distress in her voice and he heard it. A frown creased his eyes.

‘Wendy, what’s wrong?’

‘This…this is ridiculous.’

‘Us kissing?’

‘Yes.’ She took a jagged breath, searching for control. ‘Ridiculous,’ she repeated. ‘You’re my boss. We have a business relationship.’

‘A business relationship?’

‘Yes. Nothing more.’ She closed her eyes and hugged Bruce closer. ‘Nothing else. Otherwise it’d be…a disaster.’

He nodded, watching her face. If he took one step closer to her now she’d run, he knew, and he also knew quite desperately that the last thing he wanted was for this woman to run. And it wasn’t for the sake of two small children and one puppy…

Keep it light, he told himself. He’d scared her. What woman had ever reacted like this to him kissing her? he asked himself, but Wendy was doing just that, and it was Wendy he wanted most desperately to stay. So he had to learn some new rules. Fast.

‘I always kiss women who weep,’ he said, making his voice light. ‘It serves you right for turning on the water-works.’

‘I didn’t cry.’

‘Ha!’

‘I just…I just got a bit emotional when I saw the puppy.’

She was playing for lightness, too. Good. They could take it from here.

‘Great. Soggy puppy. Soggy woman. I have a houseful.’

‘He’s…’ She’d withdrawn, but she had herself almost under control and she was searching for a safer topic. ‘He’s really for Gabbie?’

‘He’s really for Gabbie.’ He gave her an encouraging grin. ‘But not tonight. If we give him some milk now he can sleep in my room.’

She looked up at him, startled, and he gave a mocking smile. ‘Now, why does that surprise you?’

Her brow creased. ‘I guess I had you down as the sort of guy who’d say put him on the veranda to sleep.’

‘Yeah, right.’ He had his voice almost completely back under control now. Pity about his emotions. ‘I tried that. Or sort of.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I put him in a cardboard box when I picked him up from the dealer. I put him on the back seat for the drive here and it lasted exactly five minutes. First of all he howled so much I sounded like a police car belting down the freeway, and then he proceeded to eat the cardboard box. Once the box was eaten, he threw up, then kept right on howling.’

‘Oh, Luke!’ The tension of moments ago was passing. Almost. He had her chuckling. ‘So what did you do?’

‘What any sane man had to do,’ Luke said, sighing. ‘He spent the remainder of the trip on my knee, which is a totally illegal, dangerous but admittedly peaceable way to carry a dog. About half an hour from here he fell into such a deep sleep that he fell sideways and upside down onto the passenger seat, but even then he kept an eye on me. So if I stick him on the veranda, what’s the chance of us getting any sleep at all tonight?’

‘Somewhere about zero, I’d say,’ Wendy agreed, grinning, and Luke nodded.

‘Well, there you go, then. You have your baby for the night and I have mine. Opposite ends of the house and I hope my baby doesn’t need feeding any more than yours. And I hope to high heaven mine doesn’t snore.’

He did.

Bruce snored happily well into morning, wuffling contentedly in a basket right underneath where Luke lay. He snuffled and snorted and it was enough to drive a man mad-but then, to be fair, maybe it wasn’t Bruce who was driving him nuts. Maybe he was feeling he was going nuts anyway.

Above, on his grandparents’ lumpy bed, Luke lay awake and stared into the darkness, searching for answers that weren’t there. He didn’t know why he was feeling like he was. He didn’t even know for sure how he was feeling! All he knew was that every time he saw Wendy she had the power to shift his world on its axis.

He wanted her so much it was a physical ache.

Why?

She wasn’t his sort of woman, he told himself over and over. How would she fit into his life?

She wouldn’t. He couldn’t see her entertaining his sophisticated friends back in the city, but then… Suddenly the thought of entertaining his sophisticated friends didn’t seem so desirable any more. Not when the alternative was being here.

Being with Wendy.

It was a passing phase, he told himself desperately, rolling over and thumping his pillow as if it was personally responsible. It was just that he’d never met anyone like Wendy before, and she was a novelty. It’d wear off. If he spent a bit more time here…

Hmm. A bit more time here… He turned the idea over in his mind and he liked it.

Well, why not? What was so urgent back in the city, after all? He had his laptop computer here-he never travelled without it. He had his mobile phone. He could set up one of the spare bedrooms as an office, hook up an internet connection and really get to know this place again. Get to know Grace and Gabbie. Play with Bruce.

Get Wendy out of his system.

Yeah, right.

Well, a man could only try. Underneath his bed, Bruce snuffled again in sleep, nosing round anxiously for another of his litter. He really was being incredibly brave for a puppy having his first night away from his mum, and Luke’s heart went out to him. His hand dropped down from the bed to fondle the little dog’s ears, and next minute Bruce ended up right in there beside him, snuggled into his grandmother’s bump.

‘I’m no soft option here,’ Luke warned him. ‘I don’t do attachment.’

Bruce wuffled his agreement and a warm pink tongue came out and licked his face from jaw to nose. Then the little dog snuggled closer.

I don’t do attachment…

‘What the hell am I letting myself in for?’ Luke demanded of him. ‘Do you have a clue?’

But there was only silence, and then, finally, Bruce’s soft puppy snoring as the little dog slept.

Luke was left to figure things out alone.

Damn, he was tired. He should sleep. He must sleep!

How could a man sleep when in the other end of the house there was Wendy?

Not that Wendy was getting any sleep, either. While Luke tossed and turned and had useless conversations with one small canine, Wendy was doing pretty much the same with the sleeping Grace.

‘He’s dangerous, your brother,’ she told the snoozing infant. ‘Of all the stupid things to do, to let him kiss me…’

Unconsciously her fingers came up to her lips, tracing the pressure Luke had placed on her mouth. It had felt just wonderful-right! As if it was meant to happen.

‘Which is stupid!’ she told herself fiercely. ‘I don’t get attached. I’m not interested in men in general, nor one man in particular. I am especially not in the market for some short-term fling that will mess up my future, and I sure as hell don’t want anything more than a short-term fling.’

She sighed and thought it through, and when she spoke again some of the bitterness was gone, leaving only bleakness.

‘Not that he’s offering anything more,’ she told the dark. ‘Luke’s a man who takes what he wants when he wants it. Anyone can see that. He’s rich and he travels and he’s here for a night or so and then gone. Gone! So, Wendy Maher, you can take what your crazy emotions are telling you, and you can go wash those feelings down the sink with some ice water. Get a grip on yourself, woman. Right now!’

Which was all very well, she told herself an hour later, and an hour after that. It was all very well, but it was totally impractical advice when all she could think of was how that kiss had felt.

Impossible!

Finally she rose and crossed to look out the window to the sea beyond. Luke’s precious car was parked just below the veranda and the sight of that extravagance helped her resolve.

‘He’s like Adam,’ she whispered. ‘They all are. Men! And if you let him get close-if you let emotions muck up your employee-employer relationship-then you’ll need to leave this wonderful place that’s so right for Gabbie, and you won’t be able to take care of Grace any longer.’

‘That’s right.’

‘So be sensible.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ she told her wayward heart. She sighed again and went back to bed.

But not to sleep.