The Ballantyne Billionaires

Mind your own business, Ballantyne. She’s a client, nothing more.

But there was definitely something odd about the very gorgeous Ms. Mills, Jaeger decided as he watched her walk across his office and yank open the door. She turned back to look at him and lifted her index finger to point at him. “I’m trusting you to look after my stones. Trusting you, after everything that’s happened, is a very big deal for me, Ballantyne.”

Before he could reply, she walked out of his office. Jaeger stared at his half-open door, feeling like she was leaving him with just a few pieces of a puzzle.

He’d find the missing pieces, he thought, sitting back down behind his desk. He’d start by running her name through as many databases as he had access to and see what popped up.

Because, he was damn sure, something would.

* * *

Why hadn’t she called Jaeger on his BS?

The question played on repeat in her head, like nails on a chalkboard, since she’d hurried out of Jaeger’s office eight hours before. Why hadn’t she mentioned their past to get it out in the open? Why did she go along with his I’ve-never-met-you-before attitude?

Piper turned the corner onto her street, her tote over one shoulder and her arms around two brown sacks of baby food and diapers. And chocolate... After a day like today, she needed chocolate. Baby food, diapers and chocolate... God, her life was so exciting.

Not.

Well, it had been! Back when she was with that six-foot-something slab of sexiness... No, that wasn’t what she meant to think! Dammit! So why didn’t you say anything about the time you spent together in Milan, Mills? What was with that nonsense?

Piper shifted her sacks and tried to blow a curl out of her eye. Pride...pride was a factor. She’d wanted him to mention Milan, to be the one to go there, to say how nice it was to see her again. She’d wanted him to ask if he could take her to dinner...to bed. She’d never thought, not once, not even after he’d shut her out completely, that she’d be so utterly forgettable.

And, man, it killed her—in a dagger-to-the-heart way—that he didn’t remember her. Spending the night with him was a highlight of her life. Conversely, she was, for him, a forgettable experience in what was obviously a long line of sexual encounters.

And Jaeger forgetting her, forgetting about Milan, made all her feelings around her father and his neglect bubble to the surface. She was an adult, and she should have been over feeling hurt by Mick’s actions, but she couldn’t help remembering the times she’d opened the door to him and watched him struggle to remember her name. Her mother and whatever she gave Mick were important to him, not Piper. When her mom died, her father stopped visiting the house in Brooklyn altogether, and the only time he’d spoken to Piper after the funeral was to demand she give him the sapphires.

She’d lived with rejection all her life. Jaeger not remembering her was just another version of the same thing.

That being said, Jaeger’s actions still didn’t make sense. Why the pretense? They’d agreed to keep it businesslike when they met again, so why not take her calls right after Milan? Why did he go to such lengths to ignore her and then pretend not to remember her?

What game was he playing?

Maybe she should’ve avoided Jaeger altogether and gone directly to Moreau’s. Why hadn’t she?

Jaeger paid better, according to Mr. Hendricks, than all the other gem dealers. She’d also, in Milan, promised Jaeger she’d bring the stones to him. Thanks to her father being a thief, it was important that she kept her promises. Piper strongly believed in keeping her word, in doing the right thing.

So, was not telling Jaeger about Ty the right thing to do?

The thought slammed into her, holding all the power of a rogue wave. Of course it was. Meeting Jaeger again changed nothing! She knew, everyone knew, that Jaeger wasn’t daddy material. He’d openly admitted a wife and kids weren’t part of his plans.

There was nothing worse than knowing who your parent was and knowing he didn’t care enough to be a part of your life. Piper wouldn’t put her son in the same position she’d been in.

Approaching her house, she pushed the wrought iron gate open with her hip and noticed her lemon verbena and geraniums needed water and the pots needed repainting. Yeah, that probably wouldn’t be happening anytime soon.

“Piper!”

Standing on the top step, Piper whirled around quickly. She wobbled, her bags tipped and she struggled to find her balance.

“Dammit, Ballantyne!”

Jaeger walked up to her, his hands in the air. “Why so jumpy? I just called your name.”

He didn’t need to know she’d been thinking about him and felt like she’d conjured him out of thin air. “It’s been a long day. Why are you here?”

Her skin prickled as Jaeger slowly approached her, his long legs eating up the space between them. As he came closer, she caught a hint of masculine cologne, warm skin. God, she remembered the smell and texture and taste of him—spicy, warm...

He interrupted that train of thought by taking her groceries from her and looking into the bags. “Wine, baby food, diapers, a popular men’s magazine, tampons, chocolate and hummus. That’s quite a mixed bag.”

Piper blushed, then frowned. “Stop examining my shopping. It’s rude.”

“Are you going to invite me inside?” Jaeger demanded, and Piper knew it wasn’t a suggestion but an order.

Piper shifted from foot to foot as she thought about what to say. Ceri, her nanny and good friend, was upstairs with Ty, and Piper really, really didn’t want Jaeger and Ty meeting. She didn’t know what game Jaeger was playing by pretending not to remember her, but until she’d figured out the rules, she wasn’t going to introduce a new player into the arena. Especially when that new player was her innocent son.

The decision was taken from her when the front door opened behind them and Piper turned to see Ceri and Rainn standing there, each with a hand on Ty’s stroller. Piper immediately dropped to her haunches and kissed her son’s cheek. “Hey, there’s my favorite guy.”

Ty wasn’t as excited to see her as usual, but he did pat her face before pushing her away so he could look around to see who was out and about.

Piper stood up, glanced at Jaeger and saw nothing but mild interest on his face when he looked at Ty. Her heart slowed down when she realized he didn’t see what she did; he didn’t see anything of himself in Ty. Thank you, God.

“We all needed some air, so we’re going to take a walk,” Ceri said, worried. Her eyes bounced off Piper’s face, onto Jaeger’s and her mouth fell open. “Wow, you’re—”

“Jaeger Ballantyne.” Jaeger smiled at Ceri, his eyes crinkled and Piper’s stomach flipped over once, twice. She’d forgotten how sexy his smile was, how it transformed his face from hard-ass to gorgeous. Jaeger shook hands with Rainn after the twins carried Ty’s stroller down the steps.

“I’m Ceri Brown, and that’s Rainn. And the cutie is Ty.”

Piper started to explain that Ceri was her nanny, that Rainn was her twin and that they lived in the apartment below hers, but she stopped. She didn’t owe him explanations of any kind!

Ceri managed to pull her admiring gaze off Jaeger to look at Piper. “Do you want to join us? We’ll be back in about a half hour.”

Piper bit her lip and shook her head. “I think I’ll skip. Jaeger needs to have a word.”

Ceri tipped her head to the side, curious. “How do you two know each other?”

“That’s a long and complicated story,” Piper replied. So long and so complicated. “I’ll see you in a bit, okay?”

Piper and Jaeger stood on the top step and watched Rainn tip the stroller back on two wheels. Ty’s belly laugh drifted over to her; it was another of his favorite games. There went her heart, she thought. Her kid and the two people as close to her as siblings.

“Cute family,” Jaeger said. “They are young to have a kid.”

Piper started to tell him Ty was hers, not theirs, but she just managed to catch the words. She darted a look at him, her interest caught by the emotion in his eyes. Longing, sadness, pain? Why would Jaeger Ballantyne—who’d routinely told the world he would follow in his uncle Connor’s footsteps and remain resolutely single—look envious of what he erroneously assumed was a young family on their way to a park? She had to be misinterpreting his look and his emotions, Piper decided. This was Jaeger Ballantyne, after all, who thought the world was overpopulated.

Who’d refused her calls and pretended not to know who she was.

He didn’t deserve her explanations.

At the corner, Ceri waved at them, and Piper rolled her shoulders.

“Are you here to make an offer for my stones?” Piper asked, wincing at the eagerness in her voice. Maybe this ordeal would be done sooner than she’d expected.

“I’m no closer to offering you a deal than I was earlier,” Jaeger replied.

Damn.

“Invite me in, Piper.” Jaeger reached past her to push open her front door. “We both know that we have a lot more than sapphires to talk about.”

Now he wanted to talk about what happened in Milan? And really, after all her unanswered phone calls, what was there to discuss? Apparently everything they’d needed to say had been captured in the last kiss they’d shared outside the hotel entrance. It had been tender and sweet, regretful and poignant but very, very final.

Thank you and goodbye, think of me occasionally, remember this time we spent together with a smile. Have a wonderful life.

A silent but powerful acknowledgment that when they met again, they would not pick up where they left off...

They hadn’t agreed to treat each other like strangers...but maybe it was better if they did. Jaeger still had the ability to keep her off balance.

“You’re giving me the silent treatment again. I can’t decide if it’s because your mind is revving or because you are being stubborn.” Jaeger bent his knees so their eyes were level. “Either way, we are doing this. We can talk either here or over a cup of coffee or, if the gods are smiling on me, a glass of whiskey. But we are going to have a conversation, Ms. Mills.”

Yeah, they were. Piper saw the determination in his eyes, saw the hard-ass negotiator who bought and sold valuable gemstones on six continents. Jaeger wasn’t going anywhere until he’d said whatever was on his mind. She had to be very careful to keep control of this conversation; they had to stay on topic. She wanted to know why he’d blocked her from contacting him after Milan, but Ty was firmly off-limits. As was the fact that she wanted him naked and panting.

Why did she keep thinking that?

She felt like she was standing in a field planted with land mines and she needed to carefully pick a path to safety.

“I would give a rare red diamond to know what you are thinking,” Jaeger said, breaking into her thoughts.

Piper blinked and refocused. She pushed her hair back and briefly closed her eyes.

“I’ll make us coffee,” Piper capitulated, resigned.

Jaeger put a hand on her lower back and pushed her toward the stairs leading up to her living quarters. “Sounds good. It would sound better if you offered a shot of whiskey with it. I’ve had a rough day, too.”

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