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

None of the Stern men was really built for long-term happiness in relationships. He was very glad to see his brothers settled with new fiancées, but at the same time a part of him feared that it wouldn’t last. And he wanted more happiness for them than their father had found in his marriage to their mother.

Cam had been watching after his brothers for so long that it was hard to realize he finally didn’t have to really worry over them any longer. He was at a point in his life where he had everything set in motion. Now he could relax.

“How about brunch on Sunday at my place?” Cam said. “I think that will give me the time I need to get used to Becca being there and figure out where we are going next.” Then he could control everything if he had them to his house. He was the kind of person who didn’t like to be surprised by any eventuality.

He and Nate walked into the club, and, as always when he crossed the threshold into Luna Azul, he paused to appreciate everything he’d worked and sacrificed for to create. Jen was waiting for Nate and came over to them. Cam left them and made his way to the bar on the main floor. He needed to check on the situation with the Mercado and then meet with the head chef and make sure that everything was going well in the back of the house.

He told himself he walked away so quickly because there was work to be done, but he knew that it was really because he wanted what Nate and Jen had. Sure, he already had a son; now he needed to see what kind of arrangement he’d have with Becca. It couldn’t be anything as pure as what Nate and Jen had, right? He didn’t like himself for thinking that way, but he still felt so empty over the time Becca had stolen from him and his son.

Becca got out of bed in the middle of the night and walked out onto the porch. It was April, and the smell of jasmine was heavy in the air. She walked away from the house carrying with her the small listening unit to the baby monitor. She found a bench nestled next to the pool and sat down.

She knew that, for her, fear came calling in the middle of the night. It was the time when she felt most alone and most afraid of the decisions she’d made in her life. At this moment she felt she shouldn’t be here in this house. Coming to Miami had been part cowardice—because she hadn’t wanted to stand up to Cam—and part fantasy—because she’d hoped and prayed for some white knight to come and rescue her.

She didn’t know if that made her a masochist because Cam was the man who’d left her high and dry. And while he wanted to play up the fact that he didn’t know about Ty, in her mind it came down to the fact that he hadn’t loved her.

She was here because … she glanced up at the moon and had no real idea why she was here. She felt lost in a way that she hadn’t felt since her mother died. Even Ty’s presence in her life, as unexpected as it had been, hadn’t shaken her the way Cam had. And she had no earthly idea what to do next.

“Trouble sleeping?” The voice was deep and steady. Cam. Of course he’d be out here when she was.

“Yes. I keep trying to figure out what to do next,” she said. No use lying to him or pretending a bravado she didn’t feel. Tomorrow morning she might be stronger, but tonight she was lonely and confused and needed a pair of strong arms around her to tell her she wasn’t alone.

“With what?”

“With you,” she said.

“I already told you what I want. I want you. I’m not sure what to do with you once I have you but I know I’m not going to let you walk right back out the door.”

“How about if we try to build a realationship together?” she asked. “Something slow where we get to know each other beyond the sex?”

“That won’t work.”

She couldn’t really see his features since he was hidden by the shadows. He stood just out of the light provided by the landscape fixtures.

“Why not?” she asked. She shook her head and leaned forward to put her head in her hands. “I just need time to breathe.”

She didn’t hear him move, but a moment later his big hand was on her shoulder rubbing in a circle. “I can give you that.”

She turned her head to the side and looked up at him. He didn’t have on a shirt, just a pair of low-slung pj bottoms. It was hard for her to see him but she remembered that muscled chest with the light smattering of hair. She reached out and touched him. “I’ve dreamed so many times that you came back to me.”

“You did?”

“Yes. It was so hard doing this alone and I wanted to tell you.” She started crying, surprising herself with how much emotion she’d bottled up since Ty’s birth. “You have no idea … it was only the echo of your words that you wanted a mistress and nothing more that kept my silence.”

He stroked his hand over her head and then bent down and lifted her up. He sat down on the bench with her or his lap. “You still should have told me, but I understand why you were hesitant to. I’m truly sorry.”

“I am, too,” she said, looking him straight in the eyes. She had no place to put her arm but around his naked shoulder, and she did just that.

“I want to start over. But not from a place of anger,” she said.

“I can try,” he admitted. “But I’m not making any promises. What do you suggest?”

“It’s obvious we both want to be parents to Ty. I suggest we try to work and live together for his sake.”

“And sex?” he asked.

“I’d like to see it develop naturally,” she said. “Not because of some arrangement. Or out of spite.”

She held her breath. Hoping that Cam was the man she’d glimpsed earlier tonight while they’d played with Ty and made him supper. Hoping he could see that with all this anger between them, they were never going to be able to move on.

“Okay,” he said. “But if you hide anything from me again all bets are off. Ty will be my son alone and you will have no rights to him. I’ll make sure of that.”

“I’m not hiding anything else from you,” she said.

“I’m not kidding,” Cam said.

“Neither am I,” she promised. She wanted that family of her dreams too much to do anything to compromise it. And if Cam was offering her a second chance, she was going to jump on it with both feet.

He held her in his arms, and they both said little. His hands moved over her as she sat there just listening to the sound of his breathing. She knew that the answers she’d come here seeking were still just out of her reach. But she felt closer to her dreams of a real family and a man who she could trust than she’d ever been before.

When he tipped her head back and lowered his mouth to hers, she knew she should push away and go back inside. She knew that sex with this man wasn’t safe for her. But she also knew that she’d been alone too long with only her dreams to keep her company—and that every one of them had been of him.

Becca might need some breathing room, but all Cam needed tonight was Becca. He’d heard her leave her room. He’d put her in the room next to his so he could come and visit her at night once she became his lover again. And he’d had no doubt that she would become his lover. He was determined to have it all this time.

Becca’s lie about their son had given him a nice safe place from which to approach this entire relationship. He didn’t trust her, and that meant he was safe from falling in love with her. And love was something the Stern men weren’t particularly good at. But making love to a beautiful woman—well, that was something else entirely.

And Becca was the only lover he’d never been able to forget. He skimmed his hands down her back and around her hips. He flexed his fingers and squeezed her before moving his mouth from hers.