His Instant Heir

In fact the only thing he’d ever stuck with was his cousins and Playtone Games.

When he was in this twenties he’d tried to strike out on his own, but then Kell had called and the chance to be part of this new generation of game-making Montroses was too much of a lure. Dec still wanted to prove himself to a generation that was all but gone.

“You still there?” Kell asked.

“Yeah, but I’ve got to go. Dinner meeting tonight.”

“With?” Kell asked. In the background Dec heard the sound of the evening financial news show that Kell watched religiously. He was a genius when it came to reading the market, which was in no small part the reason for their success.

Dec had always marveled that he and his cousins, Kell and Allan, each brought something unique to the table that no one else could. They made a very strong triumvirate, and though he knew he wasn’t a blood Montrose, he was definitely a necessary part of Playtone Games.

“Cari,” Dec said at last. “I’m having dinner with Cari.”

“Good. I suspect that you will keep her off balance and maybe you’ll be able to find out what she is hiding.”

He intended to find out all of her secrets, he thought as he ended the call with his cousin. He wasn’t as concerned that she was hiding something that would affect the takeover; frankly, at this point there was nothing else for the Chandlers to do to save Infinity Games.

He pulled into the parking lot at the Marina del Rey Yacht Club and parked his car. The Playtone offices were in Santa Monica just a few short miles from the Infinity Games offices. Something that Kell had done deliberately to make sure that every day when first old Gregory Chandler and now his heirs had gone to work they’d have to drive past the competition.

Tonight he wanted to see if there was anything real between him and Cari. There had to be a reason other than revenge that he was back in her life. He realized that he wanted to move Cari from competition to lover. His time in her bed had been too short and being this close to home always made him long for things he knew he didn’t need and couldn’t have. But for tonight he was planning to ignore all of that and just enjoy himself.

Cari stood in the foyer of her own house holding her son in one hand and her cell phone in the other. Canceling dinner wouldn’t be construed as running away, she cajoled herself. But then DJ reached up and put his tiny hand on the collar of her shirt and made that sweet little sound. “Mamamama.”

“Ugh,” she said, tossing the phone on the hall table and walking back across the Spanish-tiled floor to the kitchen. She put DJ in his high chair and then leaned back against the cabinet. “What am I going to do?”

He just stared at her as she placed a teething biscuit on the tray in front of him. His eyes were brown. Not just any brown, but Dec brown. She knew that if she canceled this dinner, it would be solely due to cowardice. She knew that. Yet she was more afraid tonight than she had been this morning.

It had been one thing to see Dec in the office where she wore her business suit and had a certain air of authority, but this dinner—no matter how she tried to spin it—was more than business. He’d kissed her. And her body had almost betrayed her secret. She knew she had to tell him about DJ before he found out.

She touched her lips and remembered every sensation of his body pressed to hers. God, she thought, this was nuts. Just cancel and then run away.

Dec might be all into her at this moment, but their past told her that he moved on. His own words told her that he wasn’t ready for commitment, and though a lot had changed in the eighteen months they’d been apart, she knew she couldn’t just spring DJ on him. She owed herself, her son and even Dec more than that.

Some things once done couldn’t be undone.

Her grandmother used to say that to her all the time when she’d been young and headstrong. Wanting to adopt a puppy or bring another cat or rabbit into the house. Grandma was always cautioning Cari to remember that when other lives were brought into the equation, it changed.

She gave herself one last look in the mirror. “Tell him tonight.”

But the look in her own eyes and that feeling in her heart told her that telling him wasn’t going to be easy.

But even though she wasn’t a bossy woman like Emma or a badass rebel like Jessi, she’d never been a coward. And running away wasn’t her style. Besides, she knew it was past time to tell Dec about his son. Until she did, he’d have one thing over her—guilt. She felt guilty about him not knowing about his son.

“I’m going,” she said, smiling at DJ.

He clapped his hands and smiled back at her. She laughed at his toothless grin and drool-covered face. Truly he was the most adorable baby in the world. She scooped him up again and walked resolutely down the hall to her bedroom. She put his blanket in the middle of her bed and propped pillows around him to keep him in place.

He sat in the center, happily chewing on his biscuit while she puttered around getting ready for her date and awaiting Emma, who was going to babysit, along with her son, Sam.

The doorbell rang, and from the security monitor in her bedroom she saw not only Emma and Sam, but also Jessi. She wasn’t ready for both of her sisters. Not tonight. She was so unsure, and hell, she had to admit, scared, that she was tempted to blurt out her secret to her big sister Emma. Then Emma would excuse her and—

Stop it.

She hated that she still sometimes wanted someone else to make decisions for her. She was a grown woman and a mom now. It didn’t matter that it would be easier if she just gave up control of her life. She had to step up.

She pushed the intercom button. “Come in. I’m in the bedroom getting dressed.”

She hurried into her closet and grabbed a retro-style cocktail dress that she’d gotten from ModCloth at a bargain. She didn’t need to save money, but her mother had drilled into her that it was better in her pocket than in someone else’s, and she’d always been frugal.

“Let’s see what you are wearing,” Jessi said as she led the way, ignoring DJ and coming into the closet to stand next to her. Her sister had an aversion for babies and was the first to admit she liked to keep her distance from children until they could walk, talk and order a drink.

She spun around so that Jess could see what she was wearing. The dress was slim-fitting, in a regal purple color that made her pale skin glow. It had a fitted bodice with thin spaghetti straps and a velvet ribbon that accentuated the slimness of her waist. She’d put on a strand of black pearls that their father had given their mother for a long-ago birthday and that Cari had inherited when her parents had died in a tragic boating accident, but she’d changed her mind at the last minute and now wore her usual charm necklace instead.

“Gorgeous, darling! Are you sure this is just a business dinner?” Jessi asked.

“Yes,” she said, though the heat of her blush made her realize that she wasn’t as confident in that answer as she should be. “What else could it be? He’s a Montrose.”

“Don’t forget it,” Jessi said as they both walked back into the bedroom.

Emma gave her the thumbs-up. “You look good,” she said. “What are you not supposed to forget?”

“That Dec is essentially my enemy.”

“Dec?”

“That’s his name.”

“His name is Declan, Cari. And you said it like…” Emma watched her shrewdly.

She didn’t ask like what. Cari knew how she’d said his name. Like he was her salvation and her downfall. And he was both. No matter how she tried to spin it. No matter what she wanted to pretend. No matter that he was a game changer and she had to decide how to proceed.

So far she’d let him get the upper hand at the office, and for her own sake and DJ’s, she couldn’t let that happen tonight. She had to be the one in control.

She glanced at both of her sisters as she sprayed perfume on her pulse points. They looked worried, and she just smiled at them as she adjusted the high ponytail she’d put her hair up in and fingered the bangs on her forehead.

Tonight she was going to be rebel, boss and angel all rolled into one. Tonight Declan Montrose wouldn’t know what hit him. Tonight she would walk away victorious.

Dec was waiting in the bar for her when she arrived at the Chart House restaurant in Marina del Rey. He looked sexy and sophisticated dressed all in black. Pants, tie, shirt and jacket. On anyone else it would have looked like too much, but it suited him. He wasn’t light-hearted at all and this dark attire reflected that.

But it also made him look devastatingly handsome. She noted that women sneaked covert looks at him as they sipped their drinks. She sighed and wondered if she was really up for this. Talking herself into being brave had been a daily ritual since she’d realized she was pregnant. She continued the practice now, put her shoulders back and walked over to him.

He turned just as she approached. And she arched one eyebrow at him in question.

“I saw you in the mirror,” he explained, holding out a drink. “I recall you were a gin-and-tonic girl.”

“Still am,” she said. “But since I need my head about me tonight, I’ll settle for just the tonic.”

He smiled. “I’ll get you a different drink.”

He turned back in a second handing her a highball glass with a twist of lime in it. She took a sip of the refreshing drink and decided to stop her worrying for tonight. Somehow she’d figure out how to tell him he had a child.

“How was it today?” she asked.

“I don’t want to talk shop tonight. I want to catch up on you,” he said. “We’ve got fifteen minutes until our table will be ready.”

He led the way through the semicrowded bar to a small intimate booth in the far corner and gestured for her to sit. She slid onto the seat and took an inordinate amount of time to straighten her dress about her legs.

“I make you nervous,” he said when she looked up.

“Yes. You did when we first met, as well,” she admitted.

“Why? Is it because I’m a Montrose?”

She thought about it. But really she didn’t need the time to consider his question. She’d already spent a lot of time dwelling on Dec Montrose. “No. It’s something about you. You seem so confident and determined…makes a girl feel like she needs all of her wits about her.”

“You don’t seem to have a problem with me,” he said.

“There are one or two ways to keep you off balance,” she said. “But I can’t always count on being able to kiss you.”

His surprised laugh made her smile. The black clothing wasn’t a front where he was concerned. Dec was serious most of the time. So when he did smile or laugh it felt like a sort of gift.

“I’m willing to let you try it.”

“I bet. Tell me about Australia,” she said.

He shook his head. “That’s business.”

“You haven’t done anything but work for eighteen months?” she asked. “I don’t believe that. You seem a bit different than before.”

He shrugged and took a swallow of his scotch on the rocks. “It might be the fact that after ten years of hard work Playtone Games has finally met our goal.”

“Taking over Infinity Games?”

“Yep,” he said. “Guess you don’t want to talk about that.”

“No, I don’t. I should have thought harder about going to bed with someone who has a decades-old feud with me.”

“I’m not feuding with you,” he said.

“Really?”

“Not anymore. I’ve won the battle. Now it’s simply a matter of cleaning up the mess and moving on. No conflict of interest between us anymore.”

But there was a big conflict of interest, and for the first time since she’d given birth to DJ she realized that her son could be the leverage she needed to make Dec do what she wanted him to. As soon as the thought entered her mind, she shuddered with repugnance and pushed it aside. She’d never use her own son as leverage. That was despicable.

As was not telling him. Though she believed her reasons were valid. He hardly seemed like the kind of man who’d want a family or a son. But she owed it to him to let him make that choice now that he was back in her life.

“So, there’s something I should tell you,” she said, not sure how exactly to begin this conversation.

“Is it a secret?”

“Sort of,” she said.

“Kell did want me to find out what you are hiding,” Dec said.

“What?” How did his cousin know she was hiding something? Did he know that she’d had a baby with Dec?

“I told him I thought the day had gone well, except I felt there was something you weren’t telling me.”

“Oh.” So he assumed it was something to do with the takeover. Why wouldn’t it be? They’d had a one-night stand, not an affair or a fling. He’d never guess what she’d been keeping from him because his mind wasn’t going along that path.

“Well, he’ll be disappointed. I’m not keeping any business secrets,” she said.

“I think you are. The security guard said that the staff would do anything if you smiled at them.”

She blushed. He had to have been talking to Frank, who was like a Dutch uncle to her. “Frank exaggerates. Besides, what would I get them to do?”

“Mutiny,” he said.

“You’re not the captain of a ship,” she said.

“But I am. I’m the one who’s going to steer them through the shark-infested waters—”

“I thought you were the shark.”

“Only in your eyes,” he said.

But he wasn’t a shark in her eyes. She reached over and took his hand and squeezed it in hers. “The acquisition isn’t going to be easy, but I don’t blame you for anything you have to do.”

“What do you blame me for?” he asked.

“Leaving me.” The words just slipped out. But now that they had been spoken she realized they were the truth.

“I’m back now.”

“Yes, you are. For some reason, I’m not sure why you are here with me. You already satisfied your curiosity with me, right?”

“I’m nowhere near satisfied with you, Cari. I want more and I intend to get it.”

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