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

“Is he all right?” Connor asked with a sigh.

“He’s fine,” she said. “But it’s nap time, so I should get them home.”

“Right.” Connor nodded, his expression thoughtful. “Home.”

Still holding Sage tight, Dina turned to pick up their things and head to the car. But first she glanced over her shoulder and said, “You might want to stop Sam from eating sand.”

“What?”

She smiled, listening to Connor’s frantic yelp as he dealt with his sand-eating son.

* * *

Con still hadn’t read Jackie’s letter.

He’d planned to, that first night, but he’d been too angry at her to read whatever it was she had to say. Too twisted up over his first visit with his kids and too distracted by thoughts of Dina. Besides, how could Jackie possibly explain away lying to him about his own children? There was no reason good enough, he told himself. No excuse that would take away the pain and the fury of the betrayal still raging inside him.

For years, Jackie was the one woman he’d trusted. The one friend he could count on no matter what. To find out now that she’d used him just as so many other women had tried to tore at him.

Con wandered through his darkened house. He didn’t need lights since he knew the position of every stick of furniture in the place. He didn’t want lights because right now his mood was so dark that light would be offensive. The quiet was overpowering—especially after having been in Dina’s tiny, too crowded bungalow only an hour ago. A smile teased his mouth briefly as he remembered the chorus of noises created by the busy triplets and for a second, he tried to imagine those sounds here, in his big, empty house.

“Funny,” he murmured, just to shatter the silence, “this place never seemed empty before. Just...roomy.”

Sure, he knew a man alone didn’t need a huge house. But why buy a small one? Con had always had some vague, nebulous idea of finding a woman at some point, getting married and having kids. But he’d been in no rush for that. Now he had the kids, but no wife—just two women on his mind. The memory of one haunting him and the other, one he couldn’t stop wanting.

He walked through the living room, skirted the wide coffee table and stepped through a set of French doors onto the patio. Out here, there were solar lights circling the area, but the illumination was so pale, he didn’t really mind it. Barefoot, he felt the cold damp of the flagstones beneath his feet and accepted the chill as part of the June night. Moonlight sifted through a covering bank of clouds and lay across the dark ocean like a pale ribbon tossed on top of black velvet. The pounding waves slamming into the cliffs below were a heartbeat. The wind off the sea was cold and cut right through the fabric of his T-shirt, but he didn’t care. He had too much to work out to bother about being cold.

For three days, he’d been the part-time father he’d thought he would be. Coming and going from the lives of the triplets and Dina like a ghost. He could drop in, harass Dina a little, play with the kids, then leave it all behind and go to his office. There, his new responsibilities were buried beneath contracts, dealing with clients, new business ventures and a hundred other things that demanded his attention.

But always, the triplets and their guardian came sliding back into his consciousness. And every time he left that cottage in Huntington Beach, it was harder to go. Con scraped one hand across the back of his neck as that realization sank in. However it had started—outrage, betrayal, duty—it had become something else. What, exactly, he wasn’t ready to admit yet. But he knew he was deeper into this situation than he would have thought possible three days ago. He knew that he missed those kids when he wasn’t around them.

And yeah, he missed being around Dina, too. Damn, but the woman was fascinating. She was on edge around him most of the time, but that didn’t do anything to dull the desire he felt every time he looked at her. She was prickly, defensive and her temper made those dark brown eyes of hers flash. Damned if he didn’t enjoy that, too.

Then there was today at the park. When Sage was hurt and scared, he hadn’t wanted Con. He’d wanted Dina. Her connection to the babies was deep despite the fact that she’d been their guardian only three months. So Con had to work with that, as well. Did he take those kids away from her? Or did he try to find a way to work with her?

“Hell, this whole mess could have been avoided if Jackie had just told me the damn truth.” He tipped his head back, stared up at the sky and said, “You know you did this, right? You enjoying the show?”

He couldn’t get an answer from the night. The only one he might get was in the house, in Jackie’s letter. And it was time to finally read it. See what his friend had to say to him.

Whatever it is, it’s too little, too late, as his mother used to say.

Shaking his head, Con stalked across the patio to the house, then walked into his bedroom and snatched Jackie’s letter off the dresser. He hit the wall switch, flooding the huge room with light from the ironwork chandelier overhead. He took a seat on the edge of his bed and pulled the letter free. His gaze swept over the familiar handwriting and in his head, he heard Jackie’s voice...

“Con, if you’re reading this, Elena and I are both gone, so no offense, but I hope you never read this. But if you are, I know you’re pissed, and I can’t blame you. Yes. I lied.”

Anger spat at him again.

“I didn’t tell you about the pregnancy or the babies because Elena and I wanted them all to ourselves. Yeah, selfish. I can almost hear you thinking it. And maybe it was, I don’t even know. But when you said you wanted to be a part of the babies’ lives, it made both of us realize that you would only confuse things.

“Wasn’t it enough that they would have two mommies? Did they really need an on-again, off-again daddy, too? Besides, we both know babies aren’t really your thing. Remember how you gave Colt such a hard time over the twins? We named Dina guardian because of the usual sexist reasons.”

Connor laughed in spite of himself.

“She’s a girl. Kids need a mommy. Sue me. Give her a chance. You might like her.

“Con, I didn’t want you to think you had to support them. Or had to do a damn thing. You’d already done enough. You gave us our family and we’re grateful. We gave you your freedom because we thought it was best.

“But never doubt that we thought of you every day. Every time we looked into the triplets’ faces, there you were. So forgive me if you can—and if you can’t, I understand. I still love you—Jackie.”

Pain swamped the anger and for the first time in days, Con felt calm. She was wrong to do it, but he understood. He didn’t want to forgive her, but how could he not?

Holding the letter, he smoothed his fingertip across the boldly slanted writing and murmured, “I love you, too, Jacks.”

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

“Jackie made it clear in her letter that they wanted Dina to have custody,” Colt said quietly when he’d finished reading it. He handed the paper over to Con, who stared at it for a long minute.

“They’re my kids, Colt. My blood.”

Con couldn’t get past that one truth, which kept repeating over and over in his mind, and honestly, he didn’t want to. After reading Jackie’s letter the night before, his thoughts hadn’t been able to settle. He hadn’t slept and he was just killing time here at work. God knew there were details of new contracts to work out, but how the hell could he concentrate on that when the bulk of his life was up in the air?

He hadn’t forgiven Jackie for what she’d done. Did he understand why she did it? A part of him did. The cool, rational, logical voice in his mind could even agree with her. But the reality was, emotion was running the show right now. And he couldn’t get past the fact that he’d lost more than a year of his children’s lives. He’d never get it back. He was a visitor in that house near the beach. A stranger. And that just burned him.

Behind him, there was a wide window, offering a spectacular view of the beach and the ocean, but it might as well have been a blank wall for all the attention he’d paid it that morning. Sunlight streamed through the tinted glass, painting the office a soft gold that glittered in his twin’s eyes as Colt stared at Connor, waiting.

Finally, Con spoke again. “You know that Sage hates taking a bath?”

“What?” Colt frowned at him.

“Sage. He hates the water. Why? I should know that, but I don’t.” He pushed out of his desk chair and stalked around the perimeter of his office. It was a plush room with thick carpeting, framed photographs of their many adventure sites dotting the walls and comfortable furniture for clients. “Sadie loves taking a bath. She splashes and squeals.” He smiled to himself, remembering. “Sam couldn’t care less either way, but Sage...” He shook his head, then whipped a look at Colt. “Did something happen to him? Did he get scared? Of what? By who?”

“You’re overreacting, Con,” his twin said. “Kids are wildly unpredictable. Who the hell knows what they’re thinking or why they react to things the way they do? Trust me on this. Like, for instance, right now, Reid won’t wear shoes.” He laughed to himself. “Takes ’em off the minute you put them on him. It’s driving Penny nuts. But maybe it’s because last week he walked through a deep puddle and his sneakers were squishing. I think he hated the sound so much, it creeped him out.”

“See?” Con jabbed a finger toward his twin as fresh fury erupted inside him. “That’s what I’m saying. Reid has an issue and you know why! Sage hates water, I don’t have a clue.” He threw his hands up in frustration. “I’ve known my own kids for three lousy days. I’m a damn stranger to them, Colt. They’re nuts about Dina and they don’t even know me.”

“That’ll change,” Colt told him.

“Damn straight it will.” Con jammed his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. The wheels were in motion now and things should start happening.

After reading Jackie’s letter, he’d been up all night. And this morning, he’d made his decision. He’d called his lawyers, telling them to put together whatever it was they had to do to get him custody of the triplets. But his lawyer had told him that Dina had good ground to stand on, too. She was the legal guardian. The kids’ aunt. They were settled with her. But it didn’t have to stay that way.

“You’ve already called Murdoch and Sons in on this, haven’t you?”

Con shot his brother a sly smile. “Best team of lawyers in the state.”

“Yeah, I know,” Colt said, standing up to face his brother. “But think about it for a minute. Remember how mad you were when Dina went through a lawyer and sued you instead of just talking to you?”

“Yeah, I remember.” His scowl deepened. “This is different.”