Married For His Heir

His heart pounding, he forced himself to step back slightly, and his gaze was captured by the baby, who stared at him with huge eyes.

She was soft, warm and smelled of soap and lotion. She wore a white blouse and a pink jumper.

“Hi, Hattie,” he said quietly.

She touched a button on his shirt and then touched his chin.

He felt little fingers moving over the stubble on his chin while he gazed at her as solemnly as she looked at him. She ran her tiny fingers over his face. “I’ll contact the state human services and let them know that I have my baby. I think that will take her name off any list they have.”

“It will as soon as you’ve notified them that you’re taking her permanently. My attorney checked and I can’t just come calling and then take her home with me. I have a friend who is an attorney and he’s been keeping up with this. When you step in and actually take care of her and she lives with you, they have to back off and leave you alone unless they get a complaint about the way she’s being raised, which they won’t. Since Madeline’s death, Hattie hasn’t had any family except me. There’s no one else who cares about her except the women at the day care. They think she’s sweet and adorable.”

“So except for those ladies, you’re her whole world. We’ll definitely have to work something out so you can come see her.”

Her blue eyes widened and he saw hope blossom in them. Then she turned them to the child he held.

“Hattie, this is your daddy. Daddy,” she repeated distinctly and looked at Nick. He looked down at her, and for a few seconds all he could think about was Talia and how close she stood, how tempting she smelled. She looked back at Hattie. “Daddy,” Talia repeated.

“Da,” Hattie said, running her fingers on Nick’s jaw again.

“God love the little children,” Nick said softly and turned away. Emotions tore at him when she ran her tiny fingers over his chin because Hattie made him think about Artie. He would never hear Artie say “Daddy,” and it hurt. He missed his son and felt conflicted over the little girl in his arms. He pulled out his handkerchief and wiped away tears, trying to get a better grip on his emotions.

“Do you want me to take her?” Talia asked.

“No. I’ll pull myself together. Sometimes it just hits me out of the blue and I miss Artie.”

“That’s the way I’m going to feel about Hattie,” Talia said so softly, he didn’t think she was even talking to him.

He heard her and knew she was right, and that disturbed him. “At least you can come visit and I’ll let her visit you,” he said, making another commitment that might be difficult.

Hattie’s little fingers ran over his cheek, her mouth turned down, and she looked worried by his tears. He smiled at her and she stared for a few seconds and then smiled.

“Da,” she repeated. He looked into her big green eyes and they stared at each other. Could he be a real dad to her? Would he grow to love her the way he had loved Artie? Right now, he felt at a loss and he hurt. Guilt rocked him for missing Artie each time he looked at Hattie. It wasn’t right, but he couldn’t help himself because he longed for his little son. Hattie was a little girl he didn’t know.

“One thing’s for sure,” he said. “She’s related to me. She has the Duncan hair and eyes. I’m glad I have the DNA results, but this child is a Duncan.”

Holding Hattie, Nick walked across the room with her. He wasn’t sure what to do next. At a store specializing in babies, he had bought a small stuffed pink bunny for Hattie. The bunny was in a gift sack with pink tissue paper covering it and he had placed it on a game table.

He picked up the small sack and held it in front of her. “Hattie, this is for you from me. It’s your present,” he said quietly.

She looked up at him and then down at the sack. He held it closer in front of her. “This is for you.”

She looked at the sack and at him in uncertainty, but then she pulled one of the pieces of tissue paper. As it came out of the sack, Nick smiled encouragement. “A bunny.”

“Bun,” she repeated and retrieved the small pink stuffed rabbit. He took the sack from her to set it on a table. “Mine,” she said, hugging the bunny, making him smile.

“That was sweet, Nick,” Talia said softly. “She likes you. She hasn’t protested going to you or wanted me to take her. That’s good.”

He walked to Talia and held out Hattie. “I’ll give her to you.”

“Of course,” she said, taking Hattie from him, their hands and arms brushing and bringing that same electric awareness of touching Talia that he felt each time they had contact. He glanced at her as he stood so close and she looked up, their gazes meeting. For another moment he was more aware of Talia than of Hattie. He couldn’t understand the physical attraction, especially at a time when they both were torn up emotionally.

Moving away, he didn’t want to pursue the feelings she stirred. His life was tangled enough already and he didn’t need one more emotional pull. He suspected she wasn’t any more enthused about the sparks flying between them than he was, but he couldn’t figure how there could be one little glimmer of appeal under their current circumstances. She had brought him a monumental problem, changing his life, demolishing the little calm and peace he was beginning to get back after losing Regina and Artie. Talia was awakening feelings he hadn’t experienced in a long time and he wasn’t ready to deal with them. He didn’t want to complicate his life with Talia as well as Hattie. Hattie was all he could deal with at present. A baby girl who needed two loving parents and siblings, but that wasn’t possible.

He stared at her and thought about Stan telling him to marry Talia. “My brothers are filled with curiosity and eventually I’ll have to tell my grandmother.”

Talia’s expression changed and she looked stricken. “You don’t think your grandmother will like Hattie?”

“Talia, relax,” he said patiently. “My brothers will be in awe because they’re uncles now. My grandmother likes babies and was devastated by the loss of Regina and Artie. The reason I said I’d tell her eventually is because my grandmother is a take-charge person and she will be all over me with ideas about what I need to do. I can handle that, but it’s tedious because I don’t want to hurt her feelings.”

Talia ran her hand across her forehead. “I know your mother is deceased and your dad lives in Palm Beach. You’re the oldest son at thirty-four. Your brother Stan is thirty-three, Adam is thirty-one, and the youngest, Blake, is twenty-nine. Your dad started Duncan Energy. You took over later and then stepped down, and Adam is CEO. Blake works for him while you, as well as Stan, are on the board.”

Startled, he looked up again. “How do you know all that?”

“I hired a PI to find out about you before I contacted you. I’m sorry that I pried into your life but I wanted to know what kind of person I would be dealing with.”

He nodded. “I don’t blame you. My dad will have no interest in Hattie one way or another. He’s into his own life and we don’t see him. He was a good dad and we loved him and everything was fine until Mom died when I was sixteen. Dad never has recovered. He drinks and he’s married to his fifth wife. He doesn’t come home to Texas, and when he does come back, my grandmother ties into him. She’s my maternal grandmother and those two don’t get along.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t have family, so family seems special and important to me, something valuable to be cherished.”

He nodded. “That’s a good outlook.”

She blushed. “Well, again, I’m sorry for prying into your life. By the way, I know your age, so if you want to know mine, I’m twenty-nine. Madeline was twenty-eight when she was killed in the car wreck.”

“She was beautiful and talented. I remember that much. Talia, forget hiring a PI. You had a good reason. That’s how you found my attorney, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” she admitted.

“I wondered.” Hattie chose that moment to let out a shrill giggle as she played with her bunny, eliciting a smile from Nick. “She is a happy little girl, isn’t she?”

Talia put the baby on the floor so she could play. “She’s a sweetheart. She’s had a big loss in her life but she’s still happy. I’ve tried to make up for the loss of her mother as best I can, which just means being there for her and showering her with love.”

“You’ve done a good job and I’m grateful.” He looked at Talia again. Her long blond curls framed her face and he realized he could spend the day looking at her. His gaze lowered to her mouth and he wondered what it would be like to kiss her. When he realized the drift of his thoughts, he tried to shift his focus. He reached down and ruffled Hattie’s brown hair, which earned another giggle.

“She’s been around a lot of kids at the day care and her mother used to take her to music tryouts and rehearsals,” Talia said, “so she’s comfortable with people. You’ll see.”

“Artie was happy, too. He was so easy.”

Hattie was busy with her new bunny, making sounds as she played with it. She was a beautiful baby but he couldn’t feel like she was his yet. Nor could he keep from wanting Artie and Regina.

Talia watched Hattie, another of those concerned looks on her face. He knew what she was thinking about—that moment when she would have to give up little Hattie, when she would have to hand her over to Nick forever. He ached for her because he knew how she felt. He missed his own little boy, the baby he had rocked, kissed, fed and held. Hattie and Talia were bringing back memories that ripped him apart.

“Aw, hell, Talia, this is tearing us both up,” he said, turning to her. “Let’s figure where we’ll go from here, what we’ll do next and get this over with. I have to take her, but not today. We’ll continue to send her to day care until we work out what we’ll do. Then I’ll take Hattie, so the state will have to back off and get the hell out of our lives.”

He glanced at the child. “Thank goodness she doesn’t know what’s going on. She’s going to miss you like hell.” Talia had become mama to her. When they loved each other, a mother and child formed the tightest possible bond. Nick rubbed his forehead as he thought about what he was doing—taking a baby from the only mother she now knew. When Hattie woke crying in the night and he came to comfort her, would she be scared?

He looked intently at Talia and she stared at him.

“What?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“As far as she knows now, you’re her mother,” he said.

“Yes, but you’ll be her daddy before you know it,” Talia answered solemnly. “And suddenly you’ll be a family. You’re bound to marry again and then she’ll have a mama who loves her.”

Talia looked away and he knew she was fighting tears again and he couldn’t blame her.

He barely knew her, yet he ached for her. He wanted to put his arms around her and try to comfort her and to calm his own nerves and feelings of loss, but they had a fiery chemistry between them that he didn’t want to ignite. He didn’t know why sparks flared when they touched, but he didn’t want the physical attraction to escalate. He didn’t need that to complicate his thinking. He had to avoid crossing a line where they had more emotional problems between them to deal with, but it was a strain to keep from reaching out and comforting her. He fought the urge and stood facing her as he said, “Talia, you should raise her.”

She turned her back to him and he suspected she lost the battle to try to avoid crying. “That was my biggest fantasy, that I was a stay-at-home mom and with her every day,” she said in a soft voice as if talking to herself. After a moment she wiped her eyes while her back was still turned. “This is hard, Nick. It hurts because I love her as if she was my own baby. I’ve had two miscarriages, so I’ve lost two babies and I’m going to lose another one now—one that I love with all my heart.”

This time he couldn’t keep from stepping up close to her to pat her on the shoulder, and even that touch just made him want to pull her into his arms and hold her. “Shh, Talia,” he whispered. He looked at the baby seated on the floor, still playing with her new bunny. She looked up at him and smiled, holding out her arms.

“Talia, she wants to be picked up,” he said.

Glancing over her shoulder, Talia moved instantly, wiping away tears as she turned to get Hattie before he did. She scooped her into her arms and held her, hugging her and kissing her cheek. Hattie smiled and held Talia.

And Nick hurt for them and for himself.

Talia sat on the floor with her, doubling her long legs under her. He couldn’t keep from letting his gaze sweep over her gorgeous, long shapely legs. As he watched them play, he couldn’t deny his attraction. She was a beautiful woman.

Again, he thought Talia knew how to take care of Hattie better than anyone else on earth. She stood and faced him while Hattie curled up on the floor and played with her bunny.

“She’s getting sleepy, so we should go. You’ve got your DNA results and you’ve met your baby girl. I’ll take her home with me tonight. You plan what you’ll do, get baby equipment—and I will be happy to help with any or all of that if you want me to—and then I’ll turn Hattie over to you. It really shouldn’t take you long. I can give you a list of baby furniture she’ll need. I don’t want to give mine up because I hope you’ll let her stay with me sometimes.”

“Of course she can stay with you. She can stay a lot. Talia, she’ll be lost without you,” he said.

“She’ll adapt. Children do adapt,” she said and he heard the strain in her voice. “Whatever help you need, let me know.”

“I’m letting you know right now,” he said, suddenly wanting her help and knowing Hattie needed someone who loved her to be with her. If this were Artie, Nick absolutely wouldn’t want him handed over to a house of strangers. Talia was the one person Hattie would know and love. And who would love Hattie with all her heart in return. Babies thrived on love. Talia would be the most possible help because she was already parenting Hattie.

The thought struck him like a lightning bolt. Suddenly he knew exactly what he had to do.

“I need your help,” he said. “Move in here while we work this out. You don’t have to tonight, but soon. I can have someone drive you to school and pick up you and Hattie.”

“In a limo?” she said, smiling and shaking her head. “I’m almost tempted to answer yes just to see everyone’s reactions. I would be the most famous person in the school. No, Nick, thanks. I can’t move in with you. We’ll get this over and done with without me moving in because all too soon, I’d have to move out again. I’d cry over her every day.”

“Okay. Come over for dinner tomorrow night, bring Hattie, and I’ll have my first questions and problems lined up. And I will need the list of baby furniture. I got rid of the baby furniture that I had because I couldn’t see any point in keeping it.”

“If you want me to go shopping with you, I will.”

He looked into wide eyes that made him momentarily forget baby furniture. “I won’t go shopping,” he said. “I’ll hire someone to buy everything. You can earn some money on the side if you want to do it.”

“I’ll get it but you don’t have to pay me. Just pay for the furniture. Where do you want it delivered? Here or the ranch?”

“I’ll need it at both places. I live here and I live there. She’s so little and yet she needs enough things to fill a big truck.” He let out a deep sigh. “I need a wife.”

“I’m sure you can find a wife easily enough,” she said. “But please get one who really likes Hattie and means what she says.”

He meant his comment as a joke, but he saw the sincerity in Talia’s eyes. They were filled with worry and he was part of the problem. He stepped close, placing his hands on her shoulders, feeling her warm, smooth skin where her dress was sleeveless.

“I can’t tell you to stop worrying because I know this hurts, but you’ll always get to see Hattie. You’ll get to be with her. She isn’t going out of your life. Hang on to that. I’d give anything if I could see Artie.”

She blinked and her eyebrows arched. “Oh, Nick. I’m sorry. I’ve probably been making things worse for you.”

“We both hurt.”

“Just love Hattie. She’s going to need your love. She lost her mother, never knew her grandparents and now she’s losing me. She’ll need your love.”

Her eyes filled with tears. “Sorry, Nick, sometimes I just can’t avoid crying. I love her so much.”

“I understand. I’ll love her because she’s my child. I only knew Artie two months, but I loved him beyond measure,” he said so quietly, he didn’t know whether she heard, but it didn’t matter.

“There’s just no way I can be her mother in the eyes of the state,” Talia said, looking at Hattie. “Love doesn’t even fit into their equation.” Talia looked up to find Nick studying her intently.

He gazed at her in silence so long that she focused on him, frowning when she studied him. “What, Nick? What’s wrong?”

Lost in his thoughts, he blinked. “I’m thinking. There’s one way you can become her mother as far as the state is concerned. It would be legal and binding.”

Frowning, she shook her head. “I don’t think so. We don’t have any—” She broke off to stare at him while her frown deepened.

“We can marry,” he said.

Three

“Excuse me—did I hear you propose marriage?” she asked, her heart thumping wildly. “Did you just propose to me?” Shocked, she stared at him and he gazed steadily back.

“Yes, I did,” he replied, sounding surprised, as if he were telling himself as well as her.

“Oh, my heavens.” Her head swam and she gulped for breath while she stared at him. “I may faint. I’m not going to,” she added hastily. “I’ve never fainted.”

“Hattie needs someone with her who loves her. I’m a stranger and so is my whole family. Anyone I’d hire would be even less concerned with her welfare. You love her and shower her with love and she loves you. Hattie needs someone to love her. You and I can have a marriage of convenience.”

Talia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She would get to be with Hattie. She turned to look at the baby playing on the floor. She would get to be Hattie’s real mother. “Nick, if we married, I could adopt Hattie. She would really be my baby, my daughter. Actually, our baby.” Her hands flew to her chest. “I feel as if I’m in a dream. A dream come true. Do you really mean that? You’re actually proposing marriage?”

“A marriage of convenience. We’ll both benefit. I know we’re not in love. I can’t love again and we don’t even know each other. But it’d be a legal marriage to keep Hattie happy and help us both out.” He grasped her hands and asked her again. “Will you marry me in a marriage of convenience?”

“I don’t think you know what you’re doing, Nick. How happy I am.” Excitement made her shake. “I can adopt her legally and Hattie would really be my little girl.”

“That’s right. You could adopt her.”

She held back a gasp when it finally all sank in. “But you’re right, Nick. We don’t even know each other. Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am,” he said quietly, looking as if he was still giving it thought.

“Nick,” she gushed and stepped closer to throw her arms around him.

He caught her, slipping one strong arm around her waist while he laughed softly.

Smiling at him, she felt light-headed and giddy. “Oh, my. You just made my biggest, deepest wish come true—to get to be Hattie’s legal mother. I get to watch her grow up. You just gave me the world.” She leaned back to look at him, gazing into green eyes that hid whatever he was thinking or feeling. Then she hugged him tightly.

“So... I take it your answer is—”

She stepped back to laugh. “Yes. My answer is yes. I’ll marry you, Nick Duncan.”

“You do realize I mean a legal marriage, but not a real marriage. That wasn’t what I had in mind,” he said. “You’ve heard of a marriage of convenience, right?” He didn’t wait for her response. “We can marry and work out how we’ll live. If we marry legally, the state can’t touch us and you can legally adopt Hattie.”

“I understand, Nick. Your proposal is still a dream come true. I love Hattie more than anyone or anything else and you are enabling me to keep her, to raise her, to love her and be with her. You have my forever thanks.”

“There’s no need to thank me,” he said. “We’ll be helping each other out.” He gestured to the sofa and they both sat. “You’ll have to get me up-to-date about your life and your history. You seem to know mine sufficiently.”

That part was true, she silently acknowledged. She stared at him. She could easily see that Nick Duncan was a sexy, good-looking man, but her research had told her a lot about him. He was a billionaire oilman, rancher, widower with three brothers. He had a father he rarely saw and a grandmother living on his ranch. The Duncans were part of Texas history because it was a generations-old ranching family with immense wealth and political influence partially because his great-grandfather had been in the Texas Senate.

And here he was, offering her a marriage of convenience.

She looked at Hattie and couldn’t get her breath. She hadn’t imagined there was any way on earth to get to keep Hattie, and yet Nick was holding one out to her. While she couldn’t imagine marrying a man she didn’t know, that was what she was going to do. But she wasn’t worried. The PI hadn’t turned up anything bad about Nick. If she married him, she would always have Hattie. She could barely think beyond that point. She would become Hattie’s legal mother, and as long as they both lived, Hattie would be part of her life.

Her gaze went from Hattie to Nick and she was suddenly overwhelmed by emotion. “Nick—” She broke off, placing her hands over her face.

In seconds, she felt his hands on her upper arms, gently holding her. “Talia, don’t cry.”

“I can’t keep from it. I’m sorry. It’s just so overwhelming.” She fumbled in a pocket to pull out a dainty handkerchief and wipe her eyes.

“Talia, if you need them, I can give you references. I promise you, I’m a good guy. I—”

She looked up at Nick, her brows knitted. Why was he talking about references? Then it hit her, and she smiled. “I don’t need references, Nick. I’m crying for joy. Because it’s too miraculous to be possible that I might get to keep Hattie.”

“Oh.” He smiled sheepishly.

“You just thought that up, didn’t you? The whole marriage-of-convenience idea.”

“Yes, but the more I think about it, the more I think it will work.” He stood up, walked to Hattie and picked her up.

“Talia, this is my child. I don’t want to take her from someone she loves and trusts and thrust her into a houseful of strangers, most of us men. She needs a loving mother. I couldn’t bear to have had Artie put into a home of strangers. She’s only fourteen months old and I know she’ll adjust, but if we marry, she will go right along being the happy little child she is and she won’t have a big adjustment to make. I’ll have someone I think I’ll like to love and take care of Hattie and help me raise her. And you’ll be with Hattie and be her legal mother.”

Her thoughts swirled and she looked at Hattie in the crook of his arm, which looked so natural.

Nick sat with her on his lap and Hattie immediately climbed down. Holding to his knee, she reached for a small table and then moved to plop down on the floor in front of a brass box filled with magazines. Hattie pulled one out to toss it behind her and Talia hurried toward her.

“Let her play with the magazines unless she’ll get paper cuts,” Nick said. “She’s not going to hurt anything in that box. Those magazines will be recycled whenever Tina and her cleaning crew get to them.”

“Cleaning crew, a limo, two mansions... Nick, I don’t have that kind of life.” Under normal circumstances she didn’t think it would ever work out between her and someone like Nick. But this was a marriage of convenience. “But I can’t get beyond the realization that now I get to keep Hattie and I’ll become her mother. I can hardly sit still. I feel like dancing around the room. I feel as if I could dance all night and shout for joy.”