Marion Lennox: The Billionaire's Christmas Baby

There was an appalled silence. It stretched on and on and she thought uh-oh, she shouldn’t have said. Kid of a drug addict? It was a wonder he even let her near his baby.

But it seemed he wasn’t thinking that. ‘You make me feel ashamed,’ he said at last.

‘There’s no need to feel ashamed,’ she said with asperity. ‘Unless you intend to let a fourteen-year-old girl beat you at the eulogy stakes. Let me have Phoebe. You can write your eulogy in peace.’ She unhugged her knees and headed over to take the baby from him.

But he held on, just for a moment.

‘Thank you,’ he said simply.

‘You’re paying me.’

‘Not enough for what you’re doing tonight.’

‘I don’t think you realise how big a deal Gran’s chocolates are,’ she told him. ‘For those alone I’d have written your eulogy for you. Now, off you go and write. The intro’s easy. Lords, Ladies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen...there’s the thing half done.’ And she scooped the now sleeping baby into her arms and backed away.

She needed to back away, she thought. The look on this man’s face...

This was a night out of frame. The intimacy between them was something that couldn’t be replicated and could never exist in the light of day.

She needed to back off fast, and she did. And he let her.

‘I’ll write in the bedroom,’ he managed and she nodded.

‘You came out for something? Or to check on me.’

‘I came out for a whisky.’

‘It won’t help the jet lag. Or the eulogy.’

‘I know that,’ he told her. ‘And I don’t need it any more. You’ve given me all I need.’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’

She grinned. ‘Hooray. Advice by Auntie Sunny. Off you go then like a good boy and get it done.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ he said and cast her a look she didn’t understand. A look full of questions she couldn’t hope to answer.

He rose and left.

She settled Phoebe again with care, and told herself to sleep.

Sleep didn’t come. For some reason the memory of that appalling time, her mother’s dreadful funeral, was suddenly all around her.

She was thinking too of the grand funeral waiting for Max tomorrow, and she was thinking there were similarities.

She hugged Phoebe because she suddenly needed the comfort and she thought again of the man through the bedroom door. Who did he hug?

It wasn’t any of her business, but the question stayed with her until finally sleep overcame her.

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