Michelle Celmer - Reunited...with Child / One Month with the Magnate - Reunited...with Child

He sat across the aisle and hadn’t said more than two words to her since they’d gotten on the plane. The gentle lover of last night was clearly gone, and she had no idea how to reach him again. But she did know if she was going to move to Miami with her son, she wanted at least a shot at some kind of real relationship with Cam.

She wanted that picture-perfect family she’d always fantasized about. She knew she should try to break the ice but talking to him about Ty wasn’t the way. Cam had demonstrated he was too volatile where their son was concerned.

Once they were in the air and could get up and move around, she took off Ty’s seatbelt, but he was sleepy and nodding off in his car seat.

“There’s a bed in the back,” Cam said. “I can lay him down.”

“Um … let me see the bed. We’ll probably have to pile up some pillows around him. I don’t want him to fall off.”

Cam nodded. She reached over to unlatch the car seat and Cam was waiting right there. “I want to carry him.”

“Of course,” she said. Cam had been like this all day. He was genuinely trying to get to know his son, and she had been very careful to let him.

Cam lifted him, and his blanket fell to the ground. Becca picked it up and then followed them to the bed at the back of the jet. It was luxuriously appointed and very comfortable-looking. He laid Ty in the center of the bed, and they worked to put some pillows around him so he wouldn’t roll off the bed.

“I am amazed that I have a son,” Cam said.

“I am, too. He’s such a precious little gift. I … my life changed the moment he came into it.”

“I bet it did,” Cam said.

He moved to leave the bed area, and she followed him. The jet pitched as they hit a pocket of turbulence, and Becca fell forward into Cam. He wrapped one arm around her as he fought to find his balance and keep them both on their feet. When the plane steadied, she looked up at him and he was staring down at her.

“Thank you.”

“No problem,” he said, but he didn’t let her go. “I can’t believe we are in this situation, Becca.”

“What situation?” she asked. “Being parents?”

He shrugged. “That, but also moving in together. I still want you.”

“I think we need to figure out how to be parents before we do anything else,” she said.

“I would agree except for a pressing problem,” he said.

“And that is?”

“I can’t look at you without wanting to kiss you and make love to you. I want to strip you naked and take out all my frustrations over your actions on your lovely body.”

“Sexual revenge?” she asked. His words thrilled her, sent molten heat pooling between her legs and made her nipples hard. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t want Cam. That he wasn’t the only man she thought of night and day.

“Yes,” he said.

She shook her head. “Would you forgive me if I gave in?”

“I don’t know. I think so.”

She didn’t know if she could do what he was asking. Being in his arms was one thing; knowing he wanted her just as some sort of way of getting back at her … well that wasn’t exactly what she was into.

“Think about this,” he said, lowering his head. His mouth took hers slowly and gently. She felt the warmth of his breath over her lips and then the first foray of his tongue rubbing over hers. His hand tightened on her waist and the other one went up to the back of her neck.

His fingers tunneled through her hair, and he held her head firmly in his grip as they continued to kiss. She wanted to think that this wasn’t making her agree with his idea, but it was. It reminded her of how long it had been since she’d had a lover. And she wanted him; she wanted release.

She put her hands on his shoulders and slid them down his arms. He was strong and muscled, and she liked the way he felt under her touch. She continued touching him, finding his belt with her fingers and caressing her way along the edge of his waist to the center of his pants and the belt buckle. She tiptoed her fingers lower until she felt the hard ridge of his erection. She rubbed him through his pants, up and down until his hips canted toward hers.

He lifted his head and stared down at her. His eyes narrowed, and the flush of desire burnished his cheeks.

“Let me know what you decide,” he said and walked back to his seat.

Becca stood there aching, wanting, and realized that Cam was still angry at her. She slowly walked to her seat and sat down, taking a magazine out of her bag. She flipped through it but didn’t see the pictures or articles on the pages. She only saw herself and Cam, and she knew that if they were going to have a chance at a future together, one of them was going to have to bend. Was it going to be her? She wanted so badly for Ty to have everything she never had, and that included the family of her dreams. One with Cam.

They arrived at Cam’s house safely in the early evening. The drive was quick. The estate sat back from the road at the end of the palm-tree-lined drive. The yard was lusciously landscaped with blooming trees and perfectly mowed emerald-green lawns. The building itself was something out of a design magazine, and made Becca feel a bit like she had when she’d met Amelia. Out of place. She liked it, but it didn’t look like somewhere she would live.

As she went in, she glanced around the high-ceilinged arched entryway and let out a low whistle between her teeth.

“Nice digs.”

“Thanks,” he said. She’d put Ty down, and he was crawling toward the living-room area. “I will show you both to your rooms.”

The little boy toddled over and tugged on his pant leg as he had earlier, and this time, Cam bent down and picked him up.

“Hello, there,” he said to Ty.

“Hi,” Ty said before putting his thumb in this mouth. He shook his head; Nate used to do the same thing when he was little. Cam’s memory of that time was a little fuzzy, but this boy reminded him very strongly of his brother.

“How am I going to convince your mommy to just do what I want her to?” he asked Ty.

“Coffee,” Ty said.

Cam lifted one eyebrow at the boy. Did he even understand what was being said? Cam suspected he did to a certain extent, but having a conversation with an eighteen-month-old wasn’t going to give him any answers to Becca.

The boy held on to his shoulders as Cam turned to face Becca. There was something sweet about holding a baby—his son.

“I’ll take him.”

She held her arms out, but Ty didn’t make any move to go to her. “Ty.”

The boy took his thumb out of his mouth. “I like the man.”

“I’m glad,” she said, taking him from Cam and putting her son on a blanket where she’d laid out a couple of toys. She took Cam’s hand and led the way to the hallway where they could still see Ty but he couldn’t see them. “I … I wanted to talk to you.”

“What about?”

“I …”

“Stop hesitating. You are a woman who knows her mind,” he said.

“You have shaken me. I didn’t expect to see you or tell you about Ty. Not like that. And then you kissed me and got me all hot and bothered but you want to make it about revenge and I’m not sure that’s healthy for me.”

“I think it would be excellent for me,” he said. “But I am willing to talk to you about this. I’m still so angry, Becca.”

“I get that. But we need—”

She glanced over at her son. And he saw the biggest change in Becca compared to the woman she was over two years ago. She had someone else to worry about when she made decisions.

“Is it because of the paternity suit that you’re so bitter?” she asked.

“Not at all. I’m mad at you and you alone, Becca,” he said. “You owe me an apology after the secret you kept from me. But if you choose to beg forgiveness in my bed, I won’t complain.”