A Baby For The Billionaire: Triple the Fun / What the Prince Wants / The Blackstone Heir

“Oh, I don’t know, because she thought moving in here was temporary and now you’re making it permanent?” Colt’s eyes narrowed on his twin. “What’s going on in your head?”

“Plans. Okay,” Con said, “I admit, it’s a little tougher than I thought it would be, taking care of so many babies at once.”

“As I remember it, you laughed your head off when it happened to me.”

Connor ignored that. “My plans right now are to get to know my kids, to have the lawyer looking into custody and to get to Ireland.”

“You taking Dina and the kids with you?”

“Why not?” He made it sound casual but the truth was, he had to go on this trip and didn’t much care for the idea of being away from Dina and the babies for a week. He refused to look at why. “Dina’s got a passport and I had the family lawyers arrange them for the babies. We’ll go. Say hi to cousin Jefferson and his family and check out Ashford Castle. Three, four days tops and we’re back in California.” When his brother gave him a knowing look, Con shook his head. “Don’t make more of this than there is. I’m taking the kids and Dina’s part of the package. That’s all.”

“Uh-huh.” Colt took another drink of his beer, nodded to where the women and kids were and said, “If you ask me, she’s quite a package all on her own.”

“Nobody asked you,” Connor snapped. Then he took the burgers off the grill. “Time to eat.”

* * *

“You didn’t tell me you and your brother were identical twins,” Dina said later after everyone had gone home again.

“There are some differences,” Connor said. “I’m the good-looking one.”

She laughed and realized that over the last week, she’d become less anxious around him. Less wary. And that should probably worry her. But at the moment she felt too good to ruin her mood with anxiety.

With the triplets tucked into bed and the housekeeper in her suite at the rear of the house, Connor and Dina were alone. The patio was quiet and cool and the sound of the ocean slamming into the cliffs below was rhythmic, soothing. They sat on Adirondack chairs, each of them holding a glass of wine.

“Colt’s wife is great,” she said. “Did you know she’s having the whole house redone?”

“Yeah. Our cousin Rafe at King Construction is madly in love with her,” Con said with a chuckle. “She’s changing so much it’s turned into a huge project that’ll keep Rafe’s crew busy for months.”

“She pointed the house out to me earlier. The big white one that looks like a box with windows?” Dina had taken one look at the place and hated it. Penny had told her she’d felt much the same way when she first saw it. But she was having Spanish revival style added to the basic box and by the time she was finished, Dina was willing to bet that the house would be beautiful. “Penny also told me that Rafe was going to be taking a break from working on her house long enough to do a job for you.”

“Told you that, did she?” He turned his head and looked at her, and in the moonlight, his blue eyes shone.

“You’re building a suite for the babies but you didn’t tell me?” When Penny brought it up, Dina had felt a quick jolt of panic. Adding onto a home was a permanent thing. To Connor’s mind, this wasn’t temporary at all.

“I was going to,” he said, voice quiet and almost lost in the sigh of the waves below.

“You’re really going to sue for custody, aren’t you?”

He sat forward. “I never made a secret of the fact that I want my kids, Dina.”

“I know,” she said, shifting her gaze to where a full moon hung in a black sky and slanted silver light on the sea. “The problem is, I want them, too, Connor.”

He stood up and pulled her to her feet. She was barefoot and the stone patio was damp and cold, seeping into her bones. With his hands on her upper arms, holding her in place, he looked down into her eyes and Dina felt that tremble of something wild and dangerous rise up inside her again.

“You don’t want to fight me for them, Dina,” he said. “You would lose.”

“If I don’t fight, I’ve lost already,” she pointed out and congratulated herself on keeping her voice steady and even despite the insistent tremble she felt within.

The wind sighed past them, briefly enfolding them in a chilly embrace. Dina’s hair flew across her eyes and Connor tugged it free, rubbing the silky strands between his thumb and fingers.

“We don’t have to be enemies,” he whispered. “We can find a way to work together on this.”

“I don’t see how,” she said, staring into those blue eyes that only seemed to shine more brightly in the darkness.

“This is a start,” he murmured and kissed her again.

Dina melted against him, plying her body along his as he pulled her in more tightly, pressing her to him closely enough that she felt the hard proof of what he wanted. Her insides churned, her heartbeat quickened and her mind went blessedly blank.

Her entire life had been spent trying to avoid the kind of feelings she was right now surrendering to. If she thought about what she was doing, she’d have to stop. Have to be rational. Logical. Clearheaded.

So she didn’t think.

Dina gave her emotions free rein and let herself wallow in the amazing sensation of being held and kissed by a man who could turn her knees to water with a single look. She had known that one kiss would never be enough.

And when Connor pulled back, breaking contact, she knew that two kisses wouldn’t be enough, either.

She was heading down a road she’d never intended to travel. But turning back simply wasn’t an option now.

He cupped her cheek in his palm and smiled down at her. Dina’s only consolation in all of this was that he looked as shaken as she felt. “What’re we doing, Connor?”

“Right now?” He grinned, lifted her chin and planted a quick, hard kiss on her mouth. “We’re saying good-night while I’m still enough of a gentleman to let you walk away from me.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know,” he said and stepped back and away from her. “Dina, I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone before, so I’m giving you fair warning. Leave now, or wake up in my bed.”

Heat pooled in her center and her breath came just a little bit quicker. “I’m not sleeping with you, Connor.”

“You’re right about that, anyway,” he said wryly. “Sleeping wasn’t what I had in mind.”

More heat flared until Dina felt as if she might simply spontaneously combust right there on the patio. Funny, all it took was warning her away from him to make her want him even more. How twisted was that?

“Connor—”

“Do us both a favor and go to bed, okay?” He scrubbed one hand across the back of his neck, then let his hand fall to his side.

“Fine. I’m going.” She hadn’t taken more than a few steps, though, when his voice stopped her.

“Oh, yeah. We’ll be going to Ireland in a few days, if there’s anything you need to take care of before we go.”

“Ireland?”

Seven (#u1520a9a2-a967-5467-bef7-204f8d9acb9a)

Dina was being treated like a princess.

And she felt like a fraud.