The Baby Inheritance

Reed flicked Lilah a glance. “She’s also my problem. Now.”

He would take care of her, raise her, just as his sister had wanted. But first, he had to get things lined up. He’d made his fortune, survived his wildly eclectic family, by having a plan and sticking to it. The plan now entailed arranging for help in taking care of Spring’s daughter.

He worked long hours and would need someone on site to handle the child’s day-to-day needs. It would take a little time to arrange for the best possible nanny. So the problem became what to do with the baby until he could find the right person.

His gaze settled on Lilah Strong. And he considered the situation. She already knew and cared about the baby. Yes, she still looked as though she’d like to slap him, but that didn’t really matter, did it? What was important was getting the baby settled in. He had a feeling he could convince this woman to help him with that. If he offered her enough money to compensate her for her time.

He knew better than most just how loudly money could talk to those who didn’t have any. “I have a proposition for you.”

Surprise, then suspicion, flashed in her blue eyes just before they narrowed on him. “What sort of proposition?”

“The sort that involves a lot of money,” he said shortly, then turned and walked to his desk. Reaching into the bottom drawer, he pulled out a leather-bound checkbook and laid it, open and ready, on top of his desk. “I want to hire you to stay for a while. Take care of the baby—”

“Her name is Rosie...”

“Right. Take care of Rosie then, until I can arrange for a full-time nanny.” He picked up a pen, clicked it into life then gave her a long, cool look. “I’ll pay whatever you want.”

Her mouth dropped open and she laughed shortly, shaking her head as if she couldn’t believe what was happening. Fine. If she was unable to come up with a demand, he’d make an offer and they could negotiate from there. “Fifty thousand dollars,” he said easily.

“Fifty?” Her eyes were wide. Astonished.

“Not enough? All right, a hundred thousand.” Normally, he might have bid lower, but this was an emergency and he couldn’t afford to have her say no.

“Are you crazy?”

“Not at all,” he said with a shrug to emphasize that the money meant nothing to him. “I pay for what I need when I need it. And, as I believe it will take me at least a week or two to find and hire an appropriate nanny, I’m willing to buy interim help.”

“I’m not for sale.”

He smiled now. How many times had he heard that statement just before settling on the right amount? Everyone had a price—the only challenge came in finding the magic number. “I’m not trying to buy you,” Reed assured her, “just rent you for a week or two.”

“You have enough arrogance for two or three people,” she said.

He straightened up, shot her a level look. “It’s not arrogance. It’s doing what needs to be done. I can do that with your help—which allows you to continue to be a part of the child’s—”

“Rosie’s—”

“—life,” he finished with a nod at her correction. “You can stay, make sure the person I hire is right for the job. Or, you can leave and go home now.”

Of course, he didn’t believe for a moment that she would leave the baby until she was absolutely sure of the child’s well-being. That was written all over her face. Her body language practically screamed defensive mode. And he would use her desire to protect the baby for his own purposes. Reed Hudson always got what he wanted. Right now, that included Lilah Strong.

He could see her thinking and it wasn’t difficult to discern her thoughts from the expressions flitting across her features. She was still furious with him for whatever reasons, but she wasn’t ready to walk away from the baby yet. She would need to see for herself that Rosie was settled into her new home.

So, whether she realized it or not, Lilah Strong would do exactly what Reed wanted.

“I’ll stay,” she said finally, still watching the baby stagger around the coffee table like a happy drunk. “Until you’ve found the right nanny.”

Then she turned and looked at Reed. “But I won’t be paid. I won’t be rented. I’ll do it for Rosie. Not you.”

He hid a smile. “Good. Now, I’ve a few more appointments this afternoon, so why don’t you and the—” he caught himself and said instead “—Rosie head over to my place. I’ll be there at about six.”

“Fine,” she said. “Where do you live?”

“My assistant, Karen, will give you all of the particulars.” He checked the platinum watch on his wrist. “For now...”

“Fine. You’re busy. I get it.” She slung the diaper bag over her shoulder, then reached down to scoop up the baby. Once Rosie was settled on her hip, she looked up at him. “I’ll see you later then. We can talk about all of this.”

“All right.” He kept the satisfaction he felt out of his voice. She walked past him and her scent seemed to reach out for him. Lemons, he thought. Lemons and sage. It was every bit as tantalizing as the woman herself.

He watched her go, his gaze sliding from the lush fall of that golden red hair down to the curve of a first-class behind. His body stirred as her scent seemed to sink deep inside him, making him want things that would only complicate an already messy situation.

Knowing that, though, didn’t ease the hunger.

* * *

“You live in a hotel?” Lilah demanded the moment Reed walked through the door later that afternoon.

For hours, she’d wandered the expansive suite, astonished at the luxury, the oddity, of anyone actually living in a hotel. Okay, her own mother and stepfather lived on board a cruise ship, traveling constantly from country to country. They enjoyed being somewhere different every day, though it would have driven Lilah crazy.

But living in a hotel? When there were a zillion houses to choose from? Who did that? Well, all right, she’d heard of movie stars doing it, but Reed Hudson was a lawyer, for heaven’s sake. Granted, a very successful, obviously very rich lawyer, but still. Didn’t the man want a home? A hotel was so...impersonal.

Though she’d noticed a lot of framed photos of what had to be members of his family scattered throughout the two-bedroom, two-bath suite. So, she told herself, he wasn’t as separate from the Hudson clan as he pretended. That made her feel both better and worse.

Better because Rosie would have more family than just this one seemingly cold and distant man. But worse because if he did care about his family, why hadn’t he been there for Spring when she’d needed him?

He shut the door behind him, then simply stood there, staring at her. Those green eyes of his seemed to spear right through her and Lilah could only imagine how good he must be in court. Any opposing witness would quail beneath that steady, cool stare.

“You have a problem with the hotel suite?” He tucked both hands into the pockets of his slacks.

“It’s lovely and you know it.” And, unlike his office, the space was decorated in more than black, chrome and gray.

The living room was wide and dotted with twin lemon-yellow chairs opposite a sky blue sofa, all of them overstuffed and just begging someone to drop in and relax for a while. The tables were a honey-colored wood and the rugs on the tile floor were splashes of jewel tones. There was an oak dining set at the edge of a small, stocked wet bar, and a grouping of cream-colored lounge chairs on the terrace ran the length of the suite. Each of the two bedrooms was done in shades of cream and green and the bathrooms were luxurious, spa-like spaces with stand-alone tubs big enough to hold a party in and showers studded with full-body sprays.

From the terrace, there was a spectacular view of the ocean in the distance, with the meticulously cared-for golf course and a sea of red-tiled roofs in the surrounding neighborhood closer up. The hotel itself looked like a castle plunked down in the middle of a beach city and felt light-years away from her own home, a cabin in the mountains.

Though it was much smaller than this hotel suite, her cabin afforded beautiful views, too, of a lake and the mountains and a meadow that in spring was dotted with wildflowers and the deer that came to graze through it. She was out of her element here and that made her feel slightly off balance. Which, Lilah told herself, was not a good thing when dealing with a man like Reed Hudson.

“Where’s the baby?” he asked, his gaze shifting around the room before settling on her again.

“Rosie—” she emphasized the baby girl’s name “—is asleep in the crib the hotel provided.” Honestly, how was he going to be a parent to the little girl if he couldn’t even seem to say her name?

“Good.” He slipped out of his jacket, tossed it across the back of a chair and walked toward the wet bar near the gas fireplace. As he reached for a bottle of scotch, he loosened the precise knot of his tie and opened the collar of his shirt. Why that minor action should strike Lilah as completely sexy, she couldn’t have said.

“I called ahead,” Reed was saying. “Told Andre you were coming and to see that you had everything you needed.”

“Andre.” Lilah thought back to the moment she’d entered the hotel to be greeted by an actual butler. If it hadn’t been for the man’s friendly smile and eagerness to help, she might have been completely intimidated by the snooty accent and his quiet efficiency. “He was wonderful. Couldn’t do enough to help us and Rosie loved him. But I can’t believe this suite comes with a butler.”

One corner of his mouth quirked as he poured himself a scotch. “Andre’s more than a butler. Sometimes I think he’s a miracle worker.”