Billionaire's Jet Set Babies & The Nanny Bombshell: Billionaire's Jet Set Babies / The Nanny Bombshell

“Thanks,” she said tightly, stabbing at her pudding.

“Seriously. You’ll make a good mother someday.”

She shook her head and shoved away her half-eaten dessert. “I prefer to have a husband for that and my only attempt at marriage didn’t end well.”

The bitterness in her voice hung between them.

He tipped back his crystal glass, eyeing her over the rim. “I’m really sorry to hear that.”

Sighing, she dipped her finger in the water and traced the rim of her glass until the crystal sang. “I married a guy who seemed perfect. He didn’t even care about my family’s money. In fact, he sided with my dad about signing a prenup to prove it.” Faster and faster her finger moved, the pitch growing higher. “After always having to second-guess friendships while growing up, that felt so good—thinking he loved me for myself, unconditionally.”

“That’s how it’s supposed to work.”

“Supposed to. But then, I’m sure you understand what it’s like to have to question everyone’s motives.”

“Not always. I grew up in a regular farming family in North Dakota. Everyone around me had working class values. I spent my spare time camping, fishing or flying.”

“Most of my friends in private school wanted the perks of hanging out with me—shopping trips in New York. For my sixteenth, my mother flew me and my friends to the Bahamas.” She tapped the glass once with a short fingernail. “The ones with parents who could afford the same kind of perks were every bit as spoiled as I was. No wonder I didn’t have any true friends.”

Having to question people’s motives as an adult was tough enough. But worrying as a kid? That could mark a person long-term. He thought of his children asleep in the next room and wondered how he would keep their lives even-keeled.

“So your ex seems like a dream guy with the prenup…and…?”

“His only condition was that I not take any money from my family.” Her eyes took on a faraway, jaded look that bothered him more than it should have for someone he’d just met. “My money could go into trust for our kids someday, but we would live our lives on what we made. Sounded good, honorable.”

“What happened?” He lifted his glass.

“I was allergic to his sperm.”

He choked on his water. “Uh, could you run that by me again?”

“You heard me. Allergic to his swimmers. We can both have kids, just not with each other.” She folded her arms on the edge of the table, leaning closer. “I was sad when the doctor told me, but I figured, hey, this was our call to adopt. Apparently Travis—my ex—didn’t get the same message.”

“Let me get this straight.” Seth placed his glass on the table carefully to keep from snapping the stemware in two with his growing anger. “Your ex-husband left you because the two of you couldn’t have biological children together?”

“Bingo,” she said with a tight smile that didn’t come close to reaching her haunted blue eyes.

“He sounds like a shallow jerk.” A jerk Seth had an urge to punch for putting such deep shadows in this woman’s eyes. “I would be happy to kick his ass for you. I may be a desk jockey these days, but I’ve still got enough North Dakota farm boy in me to take him down.”

A smile played at her lips. “No worries. I kick butts on my own these days.”

“Good for you.” He admired her resilience, her spunk. She’d rebuilt her life after two nearly simultaneous blows from life that would have debilitated most people.

“I try not to beat myself up about it.” Sagging back in the wrought-iron patio chair, she clutched the robe closed with her fists. “I didn’t have much practice in making smart choices about the people I invited into my life. So it stands to reason I would screw that one up, too.”

“Well, I’m a damn good judge of character and it’s obvious to me that he screwed up.” Seth reached across the table and touched her elbow lightly where the sleeve fell back to reveal the vulnerable crook. “Not you.”

Her eyes opened wider with surprise, with awareness, but she didn’t pull away. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I know there had to be fault on both sides.”

“Still, that’s not always easy to see or say.” His hand fell away.

“What about your ex?” She straightened the extra fork she hadn’t needed for her dinner. In fact, she hadn’t eaten much of her fire-grilled sea scallops at all and only half of her bread pudding. Maybe the cuisine here didn’t suit her. “Does she make it a regular practice to run off and leave the kids?”

“Actually, no.” Pippa was usually diligent when it came to their care. In fact, she usually cried buckets anytime she left them.

Alexa tapped the top of his hand with a whisper-soft touch. “Come on now. I unloaded about my sucky marriage story. What’s yours?”

Normally he preferred not to talk about his failures. But the moonlight, good food—for him at least—and even better company made him want to extend the evening. If that meant spilling a few public knowledge facts about his personal life, then so be it.

“There’s no great drama to share—” And yeah, he was lying, but he preferred to keep it low-key. He was used to glossing over the truth in front of his kids, who were too young to understand paternity questions. “We had a fling that resulted in a surprise pregnancy—” Pippa had just failed to mention the other fling she’d had around the same time. “So we got married for the children, gave it an honest try and figured out it wasn’t going to work. We already had divorce papers in motion by the time the babies were due.”

“If you don’t mind my asking—” she paused until he waved her on “—why did you get married at all then?”

He’d asked himself the same question more than once, late at night when he was alone and missing the twins. “Old-fashioned, I guess. I wanted to be around my kids all the time. I wanted it to work.” Wanted the babies to be his. “It just…didn’t.”

“You’re so calm about it,” she said with more of those shadows chasing around in her eyes.

Calm? He was a holy mess inside, but letting that anger, the betrayal, fly wouldn’t accomplish anything. “I have the twins. Pippa and I are trying to be good parents. At least I thought we were.”

Her hand covered his completely, steadily. “By all appearances you’re doing a great job. They’re beautiful, sweet babies.”

The touch of her soft skin sent a bolt of lust straight through his veins, pumping pulsing blood south. He wrestled his thoughts back to the conversation, back to the care of his offspring. “They’re hell on wheels, but I would do anything for them. Anything.”

So there was no need for him to stress over the fact that Alexa turned him on so hard his teeth hurt. He’d been too long without sex, only a couple of encounters in the year since his divorce. That had to be the reason for his instantaneous, out of control reaction to this woman.

Gauging by the pure blue flame in her eyes, she was feeling it, too.

He was realizing they had a lot more than just a hefty dose of attraction in common. They were both reeling from crappy marriages and completely focused on their careers. Neither of them was looking for anything permanent that would involve more messy emotions.

So why not hook up? If he wanted to act on their attraction and she was cool with the fact that being together had no effect on his business decisions, this could be the best damn thing to happen to him in months. She could be the best thing to happen to him in months.

Yeah, this could work.

Simple, uncomplicated sex.

They had an empty second bedroom waiting for them. He always carried condoms these days. One surprise pregnancy was enough. They had moonlight, atmosphere. She was even already half-undressed. There was nothing stopping him from seeing if she was amenable.

Decision made, Seth pulled the rose from the vase and stroked it lightly down her nose. Her eyes blinked wide with surprise, but she didn’t say a word, didn’t so much as move. Hell, yeah.

Emboldened, he traced her lips with the bud before he leaned across the table and kissed her.

Chapter 4

The warm press of Seth’s mouth against hers surprised Alexa into stillness—for all of three heartbeats. Then her pulse double-timed. Surprise became desire. The attraction she’d been feeling since first laying eyes on him, since he’d taken off his tie, since she’d felt the steamy glide of his gaze over her damp clothing now ramped into hyper-drive.

He stood without breaking contact, and she rose with him as they stepped around the small table into each other’s arms. She gripped his shoulders, her fingers sinking into the warm cotton of the shirt she’d chosen for him earlier. Her defenses were low, without a doubt. The romantic meal, moonlit turret and alluring dinner companion had lulled her. Even the soft classical music stroked over her tensed and frazzled nerves. It had been so long since she’d relaxed, too busy charging ahead with rebuilding her life. Even opening up about her divorce had felt—if not good—at least cathartic.

It had also left her bare and defenseless.