Winning Wyatt (The Billionaire Brotherhood Book 1) (20 page)

And,
like everything Wyatt dabbled in, it was perfect—which only added to her
misery. It sounded crazy, but she didn’t want him being nice. She liked it better
when she could convince herself that he was an aloof, self-absorbed,
intellectual billionaire incapable of making a commitment. Of course, a
bedroom, highchair, and car seat didn’t qualify him as father of the year, but
it was impossible to pretend he didn’t have Sean’s best interests at heart.

While
waiting for Kara to finish Sean’s bedtime preparations later that evening,
Wyatt’s patience came to an end. Every time he rocked the chair in Sean’s real
room in Sean’s real house, Wyatt felt like the rocker was passing over a cat’s
long tail. And he was the cat. He tried to keep his many contradictory feelings
about Kara separate from the issue of Sean, but she was making it impossible.

He
had turned his life upside down to move near them, but did Kara appreciate it?
No.

He
had gone to great lengths to set up a room Sean would like, but did Kara give
him any credit for it? No.

Did
she intend to ever allow the child to spend any time with him? No, again, damn
it.

Rock,
cringe. Rock, cringe.

Maybe
she was right about him not having experience with small children, but that
didn’t diminish his resentment. He was an intelligent person. He could learn.

Rock,
cringe.

Followed
by his mother, Sean darted into the room fresh from his bath, wearing footed
pajamas decorated with a cartoon space man. “Me want story,” he said, dashing
over to his bookshelves in the corner.

“Okay.”
Kara knelt down beside him. “Which one do you want? Cat in the Hat, The Little
Train that Could, or Goodnight, Moon?”

“This
one.” His little hands grasped a book too big for him to carry. It slipped to
the floor with a thump. “Oops.”

“Oops
is right. Did you smash your pigs?” Kara picked up the book and placed it back
in his hands, helping him hold onto it until he had a firm grip.

Sean
looked down and wiggled his toes. “Nope.” Struggling, he made it to the rocking
chair with his burden.

“That’s
too long,” Kara said. “Let’s pick one or two stories from it, okay?”

Sean
held the book up to Wyatt. “Daddy read it.”

“Daddy?”
Kara’s mouth dropped open.

“Me?”
Equally surprised, Wyatt took the thick volume from Sean as he climbed into his
lap.

“Yes,
Daddy read it.”

After
the child snuggled against Wyatt’s chest, Sean opened the book, and flipped
inexpertly through it. This was one parental task right up Wyatt’s alley.

“Here’s
one I know. ‘Will you step into my parlor,’” he began in a sinister voice,
“‘said the spider to the fly...’”

By
the time the poem was finished, Sean had developed an unstoppable urge to sing
about an itsy-bitsy spider, complete with hand motions. The boy wasn’t happy
until Wyatt and Kara joined in.

“Read
him something else,” Kara instructed after the sun had dried up all the rain for
the third time. “A more soothing one this time.” She brought Sean his blanket
as Wyatt turned to another page in the book of children’s poems.

“Here’s
a good one.” Wyatt went with his instincts and ignored the urge to see if his
choice met with Kara’s approval. “‘Wynken, Blynken and Nod one night, sailed
off in a wooden shoe...’”

Before
the fourth verse revealed Wynken and Blynken’s true identity, Sean’s little
eyes had drooped and anchored shut. Wyatt rocked him a little longer, savoring
the unfamiliar pleasure of his son asleep in his arms. Now, with each rock of
the chair, his earlier resentment seeped away. His determination to become a
permanent part of this picture expanded and enlarged from a wish and a hope
into a vow.

After
laying Sean in his crib and covering him, Kara made her own adjustments to the
sleeping child, and then motioned Wyatt out of the room.

Downstairs,
Kara headed him toward the door to see him out, but Wyatt stopped her. “You
can’t keep brushing me off. We need to talk.”

He
sympathized with the fear that darted through her eyes, but he didn’t quite
understand it. By now, she should know he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her or
Sean.

“All
right.” With an expression like Joan of Ark’s, she turned into the sitting
room, and took a seat on one of the chintz-covered chairs, folding her hands
primly in her lap. “Talk.”

“What
is your problem?” He dropped into the seat nearest hers.

She
hesitated. “It’s time to set up some guidelines.”

Stretching
his legs out in front of him, he crossed them at the ankles and wished they
were having this conversation in the more comfortable environment of the family
room. “That’s what I’ve been trying to do, but you keep freezing me out.”

“The
first rule,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken, “should be that there will
be nothing of a personal or physical nature between us.”

Aha,
so that explained her problem. Good to know she hadn’t been able to brush aside
the memory of their kiss. “Don’t kid yourself, darlin’.” He smiled at her,
daring her to remember the episode as vividly as he did. “Your kiss said
differently.”

“There
will be no more kissing, no more prediction of affairs.” Twin red flags of
color blazed across her cheeks.

Without
a doubt, he intended to have her in his bed again, but it had probably been
idiotic to tell her so. If he hadn’t seen her so cozy with Dylan that night, he
would have never rushed her. But an uncomfortable jealousy had stemmed from
seeing his old friends flirting with the woman he...wanted? Desired? Cared
about, for want of a better description. And that jealousy had caused him to
act uncharacteristically rash.

“I
was dealing with you quite well,” Kara said, “until you introduced an unwelcome
physical aspect to our relationship. Our situation will be difficult enough for
Sean to understand without muddying the waters with sex.”

“I
can put my sexual plans aside for the time being, if that’s what it will take
to put us on common ground concerning Sean.”

A
lengthy hesitation spoke for itself. He wanted to comfort her, to reassure her,
but giving into the urge every time he wanted to take her into his arms
hindered rather than helped gain her confidence regarding his relationship with
Sean. “You’re going to have to face this. I’m here now, and I’m going to make a
place for myself in Sean’s life whether you want me to have a place in yours or
not. You can’t keep on ignoring me.”

“I’m
not ignoring you.” She failed to meet his gaze.

He
took her chin in his hand, lifting her face toward his. “You’re sure as hell
trying to and I want to know why.”

She
swallowed against his palm before she jerked away. Her pulse raced at the base
of her throat. “Sean is my son. He’s my responsibility. Every moment of every
day, my primary concern is his well-being.”

“I
applaud you for your diligence, but why do you have to be the only one who can
care for him? Why does my involvement threaten you so?”

“Because
you don’t know anything about children. I know you don’t mean him any harm, but
you don’t know anything about taking care of him. He has a busy little mind and
body that can go from quietly watching a movie one second to climbing the
bookshelves to see if he can fly the next.” She raised her chin in challenge.
“Would you know what to do if he ran a fever, or ate a poisonous leaf, or
choked on a hot dog?”

Wyatt
understood her fear, but surely she exaggerated the danger. “How many new
parents know what they’re in for? Kids don’t come from the womb with a set of
instructions attached to their big toes, but love and instinct go a long way.
And, in the past three months, I’ve bought and read just about every child-care
book on the market.”

“If
I’m not all that crazy about seeing him spend time with you, I’m sorry.” Her
expression was combative, rather than sorry. Beautiful, rather than contrite,
but that was a separate issue. “He hardly knows you.”

“But
he’s getting to know me and like me and trust me.” He couldn’t resist pointing
out his proudest fatherhood moment to date. “Tonight he asked me to read him a
story, remember? I want to learn everything I need to know, and I’m willing to
take any steps in that direction that are necessary, but I want to see some
steps being made in that direction. And soon, or you’ll be seeing me in court.”

“Oh,
that’s right.” She jumped to her feet. “I wondered how long it would be before
you started making threats. Just because you have more money than God, you
Maitlands think you can have anything you want, don’t you?”

He
unfolded himself to his full height, looming over her. “For the record, God
still has more money than the Maitlands, and I’m simply advising you of my
intentions, not making threats. All I want is the right to get to know my son.
I’d like to do it the easy way, but you’re the one making it hard. Do you
really want to force me into staging a legal battle over my rights here? That
won’t be good for anyone.”

She
crossed her arms and glared, purple sparks practically shot at him from her
eyes. “What do you have in mind?”

“Just
so you can be sure I know everything I need to know about taking care of Sean,
you can teach me.”

“Why
should I agree to do that?”

“Because
I’m not going to go away, and because it’s the best thing for Sean.”

“I
don’t have the time.”

“Then
come up with an alternative.”

As
she opened her mouth to speak, he held up a finger. “Make it a constructive
one.”
  

Sighing,
she suggested, “Maybe you can come over when the Tag Team has their hours, and
they can instruct you.”

“That
would work.” Not what he wanted, but it was progress. Once he was inside her
house on a regular basis, he would be in a position to remind her how well
their relationship had worked before Sean. He could impress her with his
devotion to Sean. And he could begin to intertwine both phases of their lives.

She
scrunched her eyebrows together while mulling over the details. “How would you
want to set the hours up?”

He
shrugged, pleased to see her showing signs of cooperation. “Except for my class
schedule, I can be available any time.”

“What
about your social calendar?” Her sarcastic tone caught him off-guard. Did she
really care what he had on his social calendar, or was she just being
disagreeable to annoy him?

“Except
for the time I spend in Atlanta, my calendar is yours to command.”

She
eyed him suspiciously. “Do you promise not to try and take Sean anywhere until
I feel comfortable with your abilities?”

“Sure.”

“I
don’t want you taking him around any of your… women.”

“You’re
the only woman in my life.”

“Right.
For how long?” She held up her hand. “Don’t answer that.”

Still,
she regarded him intently, her focus boring into him as if trying to get inside
his head to forecast his future intentions.

He
nudged her toward the agreement he wanted. “This is the best way for us to both
get what we want.”

“All
right.” She sighed hard enough to ruffle curtains. “Let’s synchronize our
schedules. What days do you have class?”

Exasperated,
Kara highlighted the text on her computer screen and hit the delete key. She
couldn’t seem to produce a coherent sentence. The clear and concise notes
propped up next to her keyboard weren’t the problem. The problem came from the
knowledge that Wyatt hovered somewhere nearby. It seemed like he was always
somewhere in her house lately.

True
to his word, he spent as much of his free time with Sean as Kara would allow.
At first, she ignored his visits by working in her office, but Wyatt’s time
with his son began to infringe on her time with her son. Why should Wyatt and
the Tag Team get to enjoy her child’s company more often than she got to?

Wyatt
learned his child-care lessons quickly and well. She didn’t know how much
longer she could make excuses to keep him from taking Sean out on his own. Even
she could see that further supervision was unnecessary.

Both
fascinated and horrified, Kara had watched the growing interaction between
father and son. She often found herself mooning about in the doorway while
Wyatt dressed Sean or joined him in a game of Chutes and Ladders or comforted
him after some little disappointment. Sometimes she wished she could just go in
and join them, but it wasn’t that simple.