His Baby Agenda

“I wasn’t sure you’d come.”

“Why not? I like to eat just as much as the next person.”

“This isn’t just about the meal. You’ve been avoiding being alone with me since you moved into my house,” he said.

He wore a pair of perfectly tailored dress pants and a button-down shirt that had been cut to his size. Kingsley wore his wealth well. And she had to admit that she admired him for it. She was sick of seeing men in baggy jeans on the streets. Kingsley took pride in his appearance and she liked it.

She’d worn a sleeveless sheath dress in turquoise that her mother had told her brought out her eyes. Her mom spent a lot of her time making sure Gabi was presentable to the world.

Kingsley led the way to the table and held a chair out for her. She sort of regretted missing dinner last night. She’d feigned sleepiness and gone to bed early. But she’d needed time to shore up her barriers. To focus on what was important—the kids who’d get the playground that his fee was paying for. Conner, who needed a nanny focused on the job of caring for him and not his superhot dad. And rebuilding her shattered feminine self-worth. That was why she’d stayed away, but today, with the sun shining and Kingsley sitting next to her looking as though he’d stepped out of one of her dreams, it was hard to remember any of that.

“Why are you back in California?” she asked. Get to know him. Wasn’t that the first thing every Cosmo quiz told a woman to do? It was also what she had decided she needed to help herself get over him.

“I wanted Conner to grow up with the sea and the sun. Plus, my parents haven’t forgiven me for...”

“Stacia?” she asked. She wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t have that in his past. It was the incident that defined them as a couple. Three weeks of dating culminating in a one-night stand. And she suspected she needed some closure on that, as well. “What did happen that night?”

“I don’t... Are you sure you want to talk about it?” he asked.

“Yes. I thought... Well, that doesn’t matter. I remember that you took me home and stayed until my roommate came back and then you left. What happened next?”

He rubbed the back of his neck and took a long sip of his sparkling water before he put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “I took a long walk around the campus. I didn’t want to go back to the frat house or the party. I needed to think.”

“What about?”

“You, Gabi. You were a freshman and I was a senior. My life was on track at that point. You know the draft was my next goal, but then you came along and things sort of changed.”

“How?”

“You were different and it made me think about something other than football for a while,” he said.

She wanted to believe him. There was no reason for him to lie to her at this moment, but if that was the truth, why had he been so cruel to her at the jailhouse?

“Yeah, right. Listen, we both know I was just some dewy-eyed coed that you saw as an easy score,” she said. “You don’t have to put a different spin on it. I was more than willing to go with you that night.”

“Believe what you will, but that night was special for me. You were different,” he said.

“Then why were you so mean when I came to visit you?” she asked. There had been no reason for that.

“I was protecting you. I had no clear memories of the night before. I only knew that I’d been found with Stacia and Hunter and that she had been killed. The cops were trying to implicate me in some sort of twisted sex game, and I wanted you as far from that as I could get you,” he said.

She swallowed hard. “Really?”

“Would I lie about that? I certainly didn’t leave you and go back to the party to kill Stacia.”

“What did happen? Do you know?”

“I don’t,” he said. “We’ve never found out anything other than they had no evidence to prosecute Hunter and me. Both of us can’t recall the night that clearly. What about you? Do you remember anything from that night?” he asked.

“Just being into you and around you,” she said. She tipped her head to the side to study him. Stacia’s death was still like a fresh wound to Kingsley. Gabi could tell by the way he was talking about it. Hear it in the anger in his voice.

“If you can remember anything from that night that seemed odd,” he said, “I’d like to know about it.”

“Why?”

“Hunter and I have been piecing together stories and memories of that night. Hunter and Stacia were serious about each other. He blames himself for her death.”

“Did he kill her?”

“No. He didn’t,” Kingsley said. “Enough about that. Tell me about your business. How did you go from college to being a nanny?”

She put her hand on his and squeezed it. That knot of anger that had been deep inside her since the moment she’d woken to hear that her lover had been arrested for killing another woman eased. It had been a long time in coming, but she finally felt as if she was seeing Kingsley as the man he could be.

She didn’t trust herself. Didn’t know if she ever would be able to again, but there was a little bit of hope inside her now.

Four

Talking about the night Stacia died always made Kingsley feel anger and resentment. He’d had it all until then. He’d felt untouchable—in part thanks to his family’s money. School had come easily to him and he’d been on the dean’s list every semester. He hadn’t won the Heisman Trophy, but he had been mentioned as a first-round draft pick. His life had been, well, charmed, and he’d taken it for granted.

He’d slept with Gabi, knowing that she came from a good family. He had imagined she’d be the perfect accoutrement for the idyllic life he pictured for himself. One where he outshone his older brother, where after he’d won the Super Bowl he’d retire and have the perfect family. He figured he’d play hard and when Gabi graduated he’d think about settling down with her.

But after the arrest those plans had disappeared. He’d been shocked that he hadn’t been able to talk the cops out of arresting both him and Hunter. It had been inconceivable that anyone would think Hunter would have killed Stacia. Despite his name, Hunter didn’t really have a killer instinct. Which is how they’d ended up being labeled the Frat House Killers.

Sitting in the sun with Gabi just reinforced his need for revenge. To find out who had killed Stacia and make them pay for the plans they’d interrupted, for the life they’d taken. And the years they’d lived with the stigma of being murderers.

Gabi pushed her sunglasses up to the top of her head and leaned forward.

“You look scary. Is that your don’t-sack-me face?”

He forced a smile because he could tell that was what she wanted, but this lunch simply reinforced all he’d lost. If he hadn’t been accused of murder, maybe he would have married better. Maybe Conner’s mother would still be alive if he hadn’t been so...uninterested in anything except making enough money so he could go after his revenge.

“Yeah. You’d be amazed at what it takes to stop a three-hundred-pound linebacker.”

“I shudder to think of facing someone like that. I’m sorry I brought up Stacia. I can tell that it still bothers you,” she said.

“Her killer was never brought to justice. Someone thought that Hunter and I would take the fall for them. They were wrong,” he said.

“Maybe the cops will find that person,” Gabi said.

Doubtful. Especially since most of them believed he and Hunter had gotten off because of their family money. But he didn’t want to get into that with Gabi. He needed to know if she remembered anything else about that night. Hunter thought someone might have drugged them before Stacia was killed. Gabi was still on campus after the party, so she might have heard something along those lines. But for right now he wanted to enjoy this lunch.

He’d had some hot dreams about Gabi last night. Maybe it was the fact that they’d only had that one night together or maybe it was because she was under his roof again, but he wanted her. He wanted to see if the kiss, the sex he remembered with her had been real. Or just another illusion that would be shattered by reality.

“You’re staring again.”

“I’m wondering what it would be like to kiss you,” he said.

She flushed under her tan and licked her lips. Her mouth had fascinated him from the first moment he’d met her. Her lips were full and lush. She’d never worn lipstick in college and now she wore something that made her lips shimmer but didn’t add color to them.

“Well, stop wondering. I’m in your house to be a nanny, not to assuage your curiosity.”

He threw his head back and laughed. “Assuage?”

“Yes, got a problem with it?”

“Not at all. It’s just that I figured since you worked with kids—”

“I’d talk like a toddler?” she asked.

He shook his head. She rattled him and made his legendary charm disappear. It was unnerving and at the same time exciting. She was still different from every other woman he’d ever known.

“My curiosity still needs to be assuaged.”

She shook her head and lifted the cloche off the plate in front of her. “I have to get to my meeting, so let’s eat.”

“Don’t like talking about kissing me?” he asked.

He took his lid off as well and saw that Mrs. Tillman had prepared fish tacos. His favorite. Gabi took a bite and chewed carefully.

Hell, he needed to kiss her and take her to his bed. Get over this odd infatuation he had with her. What else could he call watching her chew and thinking it was cute?

He took a bite of his taco, glad as hell that Hunter had gone to Malibu for a few weeks. He didn’t want his friend to see him mooning over Gabi.

Was that what he was doing?

“So, while you are gone, is it okay to ask your housekeeper to watch Conner if I need to have a conference call?” she asked. “I will do my writing and paperwork either while Conner is having his nap or at night while he’s sleeping. But I’m in the middle of placing two nannies with some rather high-profile clients and I don’t want to lose their business.”

“Yes, that will be fine. She’s not interested in being a full-time nanny but will help out as needed.”

“Great. Now, when will you be back?”

“In a week. Do you feel like you can handle Conner?”

“Certainly. He seems pretty well adjusted. You’ve done a good job with raising him,” she said.

“I had some excellent advice,” he said. “I bought your book.”

She shook her head. “Lots of people have bought my book and still have kids that are out of control. You seem to actually listen to him, which is key.”

“Well, I like my son,” Kingsley said.

“That’s a good thing.”

“I like you, too,” he said.

“Don’t. We have a business relationship.”

“I know that. But what’s to preclude us from having more?”

“Common sense,” she said.

* * *

Maybe it was being back in Cali or just being around Gabi, but he felt young again. Free in a way he hadn’t been since their one night together. She made him want to be the man who had dreams. Not the man who was focused on vengeance.

But the dreamer was gone. And he was a taker now.

He wanted Gabi.

She kept him at arm’s length, which was one thing he wasn’t going to allow. She was part of the reason he was here. Not just revenge.

Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. But now that she was under his roof, his focus was changing. He still craved revenge on whoever had set Hunter and him up, but he also desperately wanted Gabi.

It was her fault.

She sat across from him in the midday California sun, watching him as though she wanted more, too.

Maybe she’d been waiting, too. Waiting for him to come back into her life.

Yeah, right.

Hell.

What if she was involved with someone? Why wouldn’t she be?

“Do you have a boyfriend?” he asked. “Is that why you are busy espousing common sense?”

She shook her head. “So the only reason a woman wouldn’t want to throw away her professionalism with you is because she’s involved with someone else?”

“This feels like a trap,” he said. “I just wanted to know if there was a man in your life.”

“There are a lot of them,” she said.

That didn’t fit with the woman he thought he knew. But then he had to admit that reading her column and her book didn’t give him any special insight into her personal life.

“Fair enough.”

She laughed in a very kind way. It was something he hadn’t heard in a long time. Women didn’t usually laugh around him.

“What?”

“You are so transparent.”

“Am I?”

“Yes.”

“What do you see?” he asked her. He had the feeling she was toying with him and that feeling of being free took him again. It had been a long time since anyone had teased him.

“I see a man who wants to kiss me.”

“I told you that,” he said.

“But you aren’t the kind of man who’d poach so you want to know if I’m taken.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing. It makes me like you a little bit more.”

That sounded like a good thing, but with Gabi he wasn’t sure. “Thanks.”

“Don’t sound scared. It is a good thing. You came into my office trying to get your own way instead of asking the way most people would. So why are you being so polite about this?” she asked.

Damn.

Of course she’d see what few others did. He rubbed the back of his neck and the feeling of freedom slipped away. The chains of the past were once again wrapped around his neck and ankles. Tying him to that one night, that one event. He didn’t want to tell her that it was the fact that Stacia had been raped that night that had also stayed with him. The DNA evidence had been inconclusive and he had no memory of sleeping with anyone other than Gabi, but he wanted to give no woman the chance to say he’d taken her against her will.

“Let’s just say consent is a biggie in my book,” he said.

“It is in mine, too. But one kiss, Kingsley—I wouldn’t begrudge that.”

“If I took it you might later,” he said.

She put her hand on his. “Do you know why I’m afraid to let go of common sense?”

He had a few thoughts on the matter—she might not want to kiss him, which, given the sexual attraction he felt around her, he hoped wasn’t the case. She might have a boyfriend, but he was beginning to think that wasn’t the case, either. But the real reason? Only Gabi knew that. She protected her secrets behind her pretty brown eyes like an armed security guard.

“Not really.”

“You make me forget all of the caution I carefully built into myself over the last ten years. You make me want to be the freshman girl who took a senior football player back to her dorm room. And that’s not smart. And this is the tricky part—I usually think of myself as a smart woman, so kissing you...well, that would be dumb.”

He realized she was talking and rationalizing to keep herself safe. Hell, he didn’t blame her, but every male instinct he had was saying she was his. He’d claimed her that night all those years ago and he wanted her back again.

But he had a son.

He had a mission in California.

He owed Hunter and himself a chance to clear their names.

Something he knew he couldn’t do if he took Gabi to his bed again. She cluttered his mind. She made him want things he had lived a long time without.

But one kiss?

Surely, one kiss wouldn’t do that much damage.

One kiss.

“One kiss,” he said.

“What?”

“One kiss. That’s all I’m asking for. What could it hurt? We are both wondering if our memories are right and if that fire between us was really as scorching hot as we remember.”

“Are we?” she asked, but she took her sunglasses off her head, set them on the table next to her plate and put her hands on the armrests of her chair as if she were about to stand.

“Yes. You know it and I do, too. Common sense isn’t going to withstand curiosity,” he said.

“You’re right,” she admitted, standing up and walking over to him.

He scooted his chair back and before he could stand, she sat on his lap, wrapping her arms around him and tangling her hands in the hair at the back of his neck. Last time she’d been in his arms she’d been a girl, scared and unsure. This time she was a woman and knew what she wanted.

“One kiss, Kingsley. Better make it count.”

He intended to.

* * *

Gabi knew she’d dared him to kiss her. Okay, so maybe she thought that way she’d be able to say he’d forced her into it later, though she knew that wasn’t true.

There weren’t many things she truly wanted for herself but Kingsley was one of them. There was no denying that despite the coldhearted way he’d dumped her at the police station she still wanted him. Still wanted this embrace.

She wanted to tell herself that he’d been so cruel that night because he’d been trying to protect her, but deep inside she had to admit that even if he hadn’t, he was still hot. Still the one man she looked at and felt the kind of sexual longing that made her forget common sense and reason. He made her want to act like...well, like this.

Sitting on his lap in the midafternoon California sun for the entire world to see. Except there wasn’t anyone else around. It was just the two of them.

She’d never really had Kingsley to herself during their brief courtship. He’d been big man on campus and everywhere they’d gone people knew him, had high-fived him and wanted to talk to him.

This was different.

He was different.

Hell, so was she. She’d been different for a long time now. But suddenly his mouth moved over hers and she forgot all of that.

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