Bound By Their Scandalous Baby

‘Yes, I did. Remember I told you he’s your daddy’s brother?’

‘My daddy that’s dead?’

‘That’s right. Lukas is a very special brother to your daddy called an identical twin, and he’s come all this way to meet you, and hopefully to help you get better.’ If the treatment didn’t work she would deal with it, but right now she wanted to feed the glow in Nico’s eyes. Whatever else Lukas Blackstone did, she would always be grateful to him for giving Nico hope.

Her eyes stung again when Nico’s lips crinkled into the cheeky smile she’d missed so much. ‘Is he a superhero?’

‘Yes, he is. He’s your own personal superhero—that’s pretty cool, isn’t it?’

‘Is that the Superman?’ Nico pointed over her shoulder. ‘He’s super-big.’

Bronte glanced over her shoulder. The blood rushed to her cheeks. And pounded hard in her chest. Despite the deliberately bright and airy surroundings of Harry Potter Ward, Lukas Blackstone looked as austere and forbidding as ever as he approached the bed with two men in dark suits and a woman in high heels holding a smartphone and busily typing things into it.

Keeping her hand securely on Nico’s narrow shoulder, Bronte got off the bed to face him, disconcerted by the huge height disadvantage. She knew she wasn’t a tall woman, but did he have to be quite so enormous?

‘Hi, Lukas, we’re so happy to see you,’ she said, trying to put as much friendliness and warmth into her voice as she could for Nico’s sake. If she found the man intimidating, how would a three-and-three-quarter-year-old feel?

‘Are you?’ Lukas said, the cynical lift of his eyebrow making her feel unbearably self-conscious before his gaze transferred to the child.

‘Yes, absolutely,’ she lied, wanting desperately to mean it. Clasping Nico’s hand, she was about to introduce them when Nico—who was clearly much braver than her—pushed up in the bed.

‘I’m Nico,’ he said. ‘Auntie Bronte says you’re my superhero. And you’re going to make me better.’

Lukas glanced her way before saying to the boy, his voice even gruffer than usual, ‘I’m going to try.’

With a burst of energy that reminded Bronte poignantly of the little boy he had been, Nico leapt forward and scrambled across the bed to wrap his arms as far as he could around Lukas’s waist and bury his head in his shirt front. ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you!’ the little boy declared. ‘I hate being sick—it’s horrid.’

And then he began to cry, deep heart-wrenching sobs that tore at Bronte’s chest as she gripped his shoulders, trying to soothe him, desperate to draw him away from Lukas, who had tensed and lifted his hands—looking for a split second both shocked and wary...and completely lost for words.

Clearly the big bad billionaire had zero experience with kids.

The situation would almost be comical if Bronte hadn’t been feeling so over-emotional herself. Scooping Nico up, she placed him back in the bed and tucked him under the covers, careful not to put any more strain on the line in his arm.

Ignoring Lukas, who was still standing stiffly by the bed, she smoothed Nico’s hair back from his forehead as the boy bit back the sobs which he must have been keeping in for a long time. ‘It’s all right, Nikky. Cry as much as you want.’

He hiccupped slightly, the tears passing. ‘But I don’t want to cry. I want to be a brave boy.’

‘You are a brave boy,’ she whispered against his face and gave him a little squeeze, making him smile through the last remnants of his tears. ‘Even if you cry, remember?’

He nodded but his eyelids were already drooping, the brief spurt of action having exhausted his frail stamina. ‘Can the superman stay with me?’

Bronte glanced over her shoulder to see Lukas still looking shocked and wary. ‘Of course he can. He’ll stay until you fall asleep, okay?’

Lukas gave a terse nod.

‘’kay,’ Nico murmured, apparently soothed by Lukas’s austere presence. This child wasn’t just brave; he was heroic. But he was still just a little boy—a little boy who had been forced to deal with far too much already. A little boy who desperately needed her to be the brave one right now. As if to confirm the thought, Nico stuffed a thumb into his mouth and gripped a chunk of her hair in his small fist, the way he had done ever since he was a baby. ‘Sing me Puff,’ he said.

She sang his favourite nursery song about a magic dragon, imbuing the notes with all the love she felt and the new sense of hope, until he fell asleep.

Snuggling against him, she breathed in his scent. Even tinged with the chemical scent of the hospital ward, it still gave her the essential rush of love she’d felt the first time she’d held his tiny body in her arms.

‘You’ll be better soon, Nico. I promise,’ she whispered.

Kissing his cheek, she got off the bed, her weariness buoyed by a new wave of possibility. But when she caught sight of Lukas Blackstone, still standing by the bed staring down at Nico, she felt a jolt of panic and even fear.

No matter what happened now, their lives would be irrevocably changed, having this man in them. And right now she’d never felt less ready to deal with that change. And him.