The Billionaire's Baby Chase

In many ways Ruth had reminded Zoe of a butterfly, moving restlessly from flower to flower, hating to be impeded in her travels. She hadn’t struck Zoe as a woman for whom marriage and motherhood were natural choices.

James watched the expressions moving over her face. “I see you know what she was like.”

“I only knew her for a short time when she moved into an apartment across the road,” Zoe explained, her voice deepened by the ache in her throat. “She called herself Ruth Sullivan and said she was working as a courier in the city. Sometimes she left Genie with me overnight, so I was accustomed to having her sleep here. But when Ruth didn’t return to collect her for two days, I went to her address to see if she was ill. There was no answer and her neighbors hadn’t seen her in days, so I contacted the police.”

“Who traced her movements and discovered she’d been killed in that sailing accident,” James supplied. His tone said he was still adjusting to the discovery. In the midst of her own desolation, Zoe felt an unexpected wave of compassion for him.

“According to the police, she was involved with a pretty reckless crowd who encouraged her to try all sorts of dangerous sports,” Zoe added.

His sigh of resignation hissed between them. “Knowing Ruth, she wouldn’t have needed much encouragement. She enjoyed living on the edge. It made her feel alive. Working in the Middle East suited her need for adventure. I should have known better than to expect her to settle into domesticity with me.”

“What happened between you?” Through her hurt, Zoe felt compelled to ask the question, to know everything about Genie’s brief life before she came to Zoe. Until now she’d only had Ruth’s account to go by.

A shadow crossed his chiseled features. “When we found out she was pregnant, I suggested returning to Australia so the baby could be born here.” He lapsed into a long, nerve-stretching silence before continuing. “For a while, things seemed to work out, but Ruth became restless. I had to return to the Middle East to complete our contract. Ruth wanted to come with me, but Genevieve was not yet two. I tried to cut my trip as short as I could. I was only supposed to be gone for a month.”

His deep voice cracked. The pain caused by his memories enfolded Zoe as if it was her own—which in a way, it was. But for these events triggered half a world away, she would not now be facing the worst moment of her life.

“She couldn’t wait a month?” she managed to ask, saying the unsayable for him. How could any woman, the mother of his child, not wait a lifetime for the man she loved, if that was what was required?

“In the end…circumstances…intervened. It was much longer than a month before I was able to return,” he rasped. “By the time I got back she was gone, taking my daughter with her.”

A distant part of her mind noticed that he made no attempt to explain what circumstances had kept him away. Was it the pressure of business? Or, heaven forbid, another woman? Neither were excusable when he had a wife and baby waiting for him at home.

Whatever had happened was none of her business except as it concerned Genie, she told herself. He was probably only telling her the story at all to help her understand how Genie came to be in Zoe’s care. The crazy part was she did understand. In his shoes she would have done everything in her power to find her child, just as James had. But the mother in her railed against it with every breath in her body. How in the name of all that was right and true could she face giving Genie up?

“I know this must be hard for you,” James conceded. Distantly she registered that he felt badly about what he was doing. Yet she also sensed that nothing she said or did, no amount of tears or pleading, would change his course any more than one rock can alter the eventual course of a mighty river.

“Hard?” she echoed, her eyes blurring as she lifted them to him. “This goes way beyond hard, all the way to impossible. I doubt if you have the slightest idea how hard this is, Mr. Langford.”

It registered that familiarity had gone, along with any sense of the attraction she had begun to feel toward him.

He gestured toward the documents lying between them on the coffee table. “Are you sure I don’t know how this feels? If you come back to my office, I can show you files stacked higher than that table with reports and false leads, rumors and red herrings, as well as hard intelligence gathered inch by painstaking inch since the day Genevieve was taken away from me.” His jaw hardened. “So don’t tell me I can’t understand how it feels.”

The difference was that he had had longer to adjust to the situation, if that helped any. Somehow she doubted it. And if he got his way, she would have to live without Genie a lot longer than James had. She forced herself to ask, “What do you intend to do now?”

He paced to the window, parting the curtain to survey the suburban vista beyond before swinging back to face her. Compassion softened the lines etched around his features, but his eyes shone with purpose. “I intend to get to know my child, be a father to her again. We’ve been kept apart quite long enough.”

Her mind refused to deal with any of this. Even acknowledging that she had heard him would lead to discussing ways and means. Suddenly she understood how bereaved people could prattle on about trivial matters, anything to avoid facing the reality of their loss.

She locked her hands around her knees, her thoughts stupidly sticking on the Strathfield mansion. Why had he wanted to see it if he had no real interest in the property? “This whole meeting was a sham, wasn’t it?” she said woodenly. “Have you enjoyed playing cat and mouse with me all afternoon, relishing the moment when you could spring your trap?”

Anger flashed in his vivid gaze. “It wasn’t a sham,” he denied. “My company does intend to purchase a property where we can accommodate visiting executives. But you’re right, it wasn’t why I made the appointment with you.” He glanced around. “I wanted to see for myself what you were like and how my child has been living.”

Zoe drew herself up to her full height, anger running like a river through her. She had a fair idea how inadequate her modest home must seem to someone with his background. “How dare you come here and check me out in such an underhanded way?” she demanded. “I may not have your resources, but Genie has wanted for nothing while she’s been in my care.”

James’s face clouded. He remained as still as a statue at the window, but his hands balled into fists at his sides. “If our roles were reversed, you’d have done exactly the same thing. Fortunately the team of private investigators I’ve had on the case since she disappeared assure me that Genevieve has flourished in your care. What I’ve seen for myself this afternoon bears it out, so you have no need to be angry on that score. On the contrary, I’m eternally grateful for all you’ve done.”

His appreciation fell on deaf ears as she recoiled almost physically at the idea of being investigated. It reminded her all too vividly of Andrew’s endless suspicions and questioning, even to the extent of watching her from his car to make sure she was indeed going to the supermarket and not to a meeting with another man.

“You’ve had me under investigation?” she repeated, revulsion sending shivers arrowing down her spine. “It didn’t occur to you to simply knock on the door and ask me anything you wanted to know?”

He spread his fingers wide. “I didn’t wish to confront you until I was sure of my facts. Over the months I’ve had to deal with a string of false leads and disappointments. If the child had turned out not to be my daughter, you would never have known of my interest.”

Iced water slid along her veins. “I can’t believe you had me watched and every detail of my life investigated without me knowing anything about it. It’s almost…” She sprang to her feet, her mind groping for the right word. “Voyeuristic. How many other people have you spied on without their knowledge, pawing through the details of their lives?”

He was beside her in two long strides, his hands firm as they gripped her upper arms and he forced her to look at him. “Stop this, Zoe. I know you’re shocked and you have every right to be. But I refuse to apologize for using every trick in the book, dirty or otherwise, to find my child. She is what matters here, not my feelings and not yours.”

To her horror she felt two tears slide gracelessly down her hot cheeks. He swore beneath his breath and his hold tightened until she was cradled against the hard wall of his chest. His fingers wound through her hair in a comforting caress. “Don’t, please.”

It was the sort of embrace she might have used to comfort Genie. Yet without Zoe being sure when or how it happened, it swiftly turned into something more. She knew she was vulnerable and her judgment was not to be trusted at this moment, but neither could she deny the lightning flash of awareness that arced between them as his hands slid down her neck and settled on her trembling shoulders.

It came as absolutely no surprise when his lips found the top of her head. Rather, it felt almost inevitable, as if the awareness she had sensed the moment she opened the door to him was no more than a prelude to finding herself in his arms.

Her pulses went haywire as his lips traveled to her forehead. Slowly the shudder of suppressed sobs became something deeper, more elemental. It took every bit of self-control she possessed to remember who he was and why she was in his embrace.

Genie.

Desperately she focused on her child’s name and felt her strength of will flowing back. As soon as she placed her palms against the padded muscle of his shoulders, he released her. But he remained no more than a step away as if expecting her to crumble again, his hair-trigger reflexes set to catch her.

“I’m sorry,” she said as if apologizing only for the momentary weakness.

His quick, wry smile stressed his understanding of her need to deny what they both knew had just happened. It was an explosive situation. Emotions were running at fever-pitch. His expression told her he didn’t believe she was apologizing for her weakness any more than she did, but he was decent enough to let it serve. “No need for apologies,” he said, finally moving away so she could release the breath she’d been unaware of holding. “It’s a tough situation all around.”

Holding all the cards, he could afford to be generous. Still she couldn’t dismiss the gentleness with which he’d held her or the fiery way his lips had burned through her skin when he kissed her.

Spying on her to gain his own ends made him no better than Andrew, she reminded herself although it was an effort. The thought gave her the courage to meet his gaze. “Will you give me some time? I need to examine your documents…” Her voice trailed off. The paperwork was almost certainly in order. A man like James Langford wouldn’t make his move until he knew it was the right one. She was the one who needed time to come to terms with a life forever changed.

Then she needed to prepare Genie to deal with another huge upheaval in a short life that had already seen more disruption than was good for her. That was going to be the most heart-tearing job of all.

James nodded reluctantly. “Take whatever time you need. The papers are self-explanatory, but you can ask me anything and I’ll do my best to answer.”

Only one question burned in her mind: how could he do this to her? It was the one question she couldn’t ask and he wouldn’t answer. Because he had already dismissed it as irrelevant. She was a painful but necessary step in his quest to retrieve his child.

“In the meantime,” he continued implacably, “I want to see Genevieve.”

Zoe felt the color drain from her face. “You aren’t going to simply tell her who you are?”

James locked gazes with her. “What do you think I am? No, don’t answer. If it helps you to cast me as the villain, go right ahead. But it won’t dissuade me from getting to know her again so she can accept me into her life. There will be time enough for the whole story when she’s ready to cope with it.”

He was being fairer than she had any right to expect. And he was right, she was trying to cast him as the villain, if only to have a target for her distress. The real villain was Ruth for involving them all in this terrible situation in which there could be no real winners.

Zoe nodded painfully. “You have the right to see her, of course.” More than she herself did if it came down to it. Inspiration came to her. “I’m taking her to our local street fair on Saturday. One of the highlights is a charity auction I’m involved in. Could you meet us there? It won’t seem as strange to her as if you came here.”

His expression underwent a sea change. Too late she realized how revealing her suggestion must look to him. She had as good as admitted that she wasn’t in the habit of introducing strange men to Genie. Her pride balked at such an admission. Would he think she had succumbed to his embrace because she was starved for affection? It shouldn’t matter what he thought. She only knew it did.

“I mean, I don’t want to give her the wrong idea about you and me…about us.” She stumbled on.

A glimmer of amusement lit his vivid blue gaze. “Heaven forbid she should get the wrong idea about…us,” he said with a mocking lilt. Then he drew himself back to business. “The street fair is a good idea. I would wish to see her sooner, but perhaps we all need the time to adjust.”

For a moment his face became shadowed and a depth of longing almost beyond bearing darkened his eyes. The ache around Zoe’s heart grew as she realized she was asking him to wait yet another couple of days for a reunion that had already been postponed beyond most people’s endurance.

It was on the tip of her tongue to say, “Wait, she’ll be home in a little while. You don’t have to endure another day without seeing her.” But it was her own yearning speaking, so she closed her lips on the betraying words. No doubt he would have accepted her offer with alacrity, and part of her admitted the justice in making it. But she wasn’t ready yet. According him his due as Genie’s father was harder than anything she’d ever been asked to do.

It spelled the end of her life with her child. The end of her world.

The offer remained unspoken as she walked him to the door. She was distantly aware that they made some sort of arrangement to meet at the fair, but the details barely registered with her. Somehow she knew that James wouldn’t forget. He didn’t have her reasons.

The documents proving Genie’s parentage stared up at her in mute accusation when she went back inside. She looked at them for a long time before forcing herself to reach for the folder.

Chapter Three

To Zoe it felt like a century since James had dropped his bombshell about Genie, but in reality only two days had passed by the time the day of the street fair dawned. They were the longest two days of Zoe’s life. Over and over she asked herself why she had agreed to meet James at the fair?

She had little choice, she acknowledged as she went through the motions of getting ready to go. The alternative—inviting James to her home again—was even more unsettling.

He had a right to see his child. Even Zoe couldn’t deny the fact. But he didn’t have to see her under Zoe’s roof. A public place was better, she told herself. Neutral ground. He would see what a wonderful mother she was and decide to leave Genie where she was.

And pigs might fly.

She started as a small figure appeared at her bedroom door. “I’m ready, Mummy. Can we go now?” The child jiggled up and down with impatience.

Zoe swallowed the maternal pride that threatened to swamp her. “As soon as I’m ready, sweetheart. I won’t be long.”

Genie’s features creased with suspicion. “You’re wearing your best dress, and your hair’s all funny and crinkly. You won’t be able to go on the Ferris wheel with me.”

Zoe dropped to her knees beside the little girl. “Of course I will. I felt like dressing up and curling my hair because…well, just because.” Impressing James Langford had absolutely nothing to do with it, she told herself.

Genie’s nose twitched. “You smell different, too.”

Okay, so she had used some of the Chanel No. 5 one of her clients had given her last Christmas. “Must you be so observant?” she asked Genie, hugging her tightly.

Genie struggled free. “What does surfant mean?”

Zoe stood up, smoothing down her one and only designer dress, a simple sheath in a pale avocado silk. The severely tailored lines were softened by a row of amber beading stitched into the neckline. Her neighbor Julie called it a drop-dead dress. “In it, you can tell anyone to drop dead,” she’d explained when Zoe hesitated over spending the money. Was that the reason Zoe wanted to wear it today, to put her on a more equal footing with James? She wouldn’t consider that it had anything to do with his attractiveness as a man.

“Observant means you notice everything,” she explained wryly as she finished dusting fine powder over her even features. All right, so she was overdressed for a street fair, but today she needed all the morale boosting she could get.

Coral lipstick outlined a smile even she had to admit looked shaky. She forced her lips into a more convincing arc and swung around. “Let’s go.”

There was no sign of James when they reached the main street, which had been closed off for the day. A crowd already thronged the fairground attractions and street stalls, but she could have spotted James in any crowd. Not only did his unusual height make him stand out, but he radiated an aura of power and authority that drew all eyes like a magnet.

Zoe’s nerves were now strung wire-taut. She was glad when Genie begged for a turn on a huge inflatable jumping castle that already held several shrieking children.

“I’ll sit over there and have a cup of coffee where I can watch you,” she told the excited child as she paid for a ticket. She chose a seat at an outdoor table surrounded by lush green potted plants and sank gratefully onto a wooden chair. “Cappuccino, thank you,” she told the waiter who appeared at her side.

“Make it two,” a deep voice contributed.

Reaction blistered through her as James took a seat opposite her. She had almost convinced herself he wasn’t coming, that everything would be all right. Now he was here and her stomach churned. She regretted not forcing herself to have some breakfast this morning. His presence made her feel abruptly light-headed.

“You look pale. Perhaps you should eat something,” he suggested with uncanny insight.

“I’m fine,” she denied. Anything she tried to eat under these conditions would probably refuse to stay down.

He nodded distractedly, his gaze sweeping the attractions around them. “Where is Genevieve?”

Her flashing glance gave him the answer. His eyes followed her gaze to the inflatable castle where Genie bounced up and down, tumbling over then righting herself, all the while shrieking with delight.

His reaction was a sharply indrawn breath. “The photographs didn’t begin to show how beautiful she is.”

Against her will, Zoe’s gaze lifted to his taut features. They radiated a look she’d seen in the mirror countless times—a look of pure parental pride. Pain pierced her like an arrow. She hadn’t wanted to see such a look on his face. It would be easier to bear if Ruth had been right and he didn’t care.

But it was all too apparent that he did and his intent expression revealed just how much. “She is beautiful in nature as well as in looks,” she agreed softly, unable to keep her anguish from seeping into her tone.

He brought his gaze back to Zoe with obvious reluctance, as if it was all he could do to tear his eyes away from the happy child. “You’ve done a fine job raising her,” he said, his tone husky with emotion.

Zoe had promised herself she wouldn’t beg, but the words came out anyway. “Then why not let me go on doing it?”

A waiter placed coffee in front of them, obscuring James’s face for a moment, but there was no mistaking the challenge in his voice. “If our roles were reversed, could you walk away?”

She sprinkled sugar over the cocoa frosting of the cappuccino and watched the froth start to dissipate like so many of her hopes and dreams. “No, I couldn’t.”

A muscle worked along his jawline. “Yet you expect me to be able to?”

“You’ve been out of her life for almost two years, two years in which I’ve been the only mother she’s known. You said yourself I’ve done a good job.” She didn’t add that they were years in which she had fixed him in her mind as an uncaring monster. Confusion spilled through her as she was forced to confront the reality of a man determined to get his child back at all costs. Hardly the image of a monster.

“It doesn’t change the facts. I’m her father,” he said, confirming her turbulent thoughts. He cupped both hands around his coffee, then flexed his fingers as if reaching a decision. “I hoped we could reach an agreement without this, Zoe, but your stubbornness leaves me no option.”

Iced water trickled down her spine. “To do what?”

He looked up, his eyes alight with purpose. “I’ve been checking. I thought you simply sold real estate, but you hold a much more senior job in property management, don’t you?”

What was he getting at? “Yes,” she admitted cautiously. “I’m only handling the sale of the Strathfield place as a favor to the owner.”

“For whom you manage several apartment blocks?” She nodded again. “Which means you collect the rents, find tenants, solve their problems and generally take care of things for the owner. It must take up a lot of your time.”

“I have plenty of time to be a mother to Genie, if that’s what you’re implying.”

His eyes snapped fire. “I’m not implying anything. I’m stating facts. Your work takes up a good deal of time.”

A hollow sensation invaded her. His spies must have been thorough for him to know so much about her. “It doesn’t mean Genie’s neglected,” she asserted. “I love her. I work hard to give her everything she deserves. As a foster mother, I get a welfare payment but it doesn’t stretch to the life I want for her.”

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