Max blinked, opening his eyes to the sight of Lilli, with sleepy eyes, sexy puffy lips and the sound of one of Beethoven’s symphonies from his alarm clock. He shook his head to clear it. He must have slept so soundly that he didn’t hear his alarm when it first went off. He reached over and turned it off.
He never hit the snooze button and he always got out of bed within ten seconds. Glancing over at Lilli, he paused a good sixty.
“If you’re going to stare at me, you can at least make yourself useful and hug me, too.”
He chuckled and rolled back toward her, pulling her against him. She snuggled her br**sts to his chest and pressed a kiss to his neck. Her body felt like silk.
Growing hard, he groaned. “The problem with holding you when you’re n**ed is that I want to do a lot more than hold you.”
“What’s stopping you?” she asked in a sexy sleep-husky voice.
She might as well have lit a match next to a gas pump. He took her with a thoroughness that left both of them gasping for air.
Reluctantly, he dragged himself from bed. He looked back at her, nude, with a dazed, just-taken expression on her flushed face. He couldn’t resist going back for one more kiss from her petal-soft lips, then forced himself to pull away.
Just as he reached the door to the bathroom, he heard her voice. “You can call me during the day if you want. It’s not required,” she quickly added. “But you can if you want.”
She heard him last night after all, he realized. His heart gave a strange stutter. He couldn’t tell if it was pleasure or pain. He’d gone skydiving a few times, and this sensation reminded him of free-falling out of an airplane. Was this what it felt like to fall for a woman? He swore under his breath. He didn’t have the time to think about it right now.
“Thanks for the invitation,” he said and headed for the shower.
Over the next few days after Lilli moved into Max’s bedroom, Lilli felt almost like a newlywed. Max arrived home early. They shared dinner and took care of David then retired to Max’s bed for nights of amazing lovemaking. She began to hope that he would eventually love her.
Saturday night after they’d visited a park and enjoyed a gourmet picnic prepared by Max’s chef, they returned home. David had been fussy most of the afternoon. She fed him part of an extra bottle, hoping he would settle down, but he continued to fuss. She noticed he felt warm to the touch and took his temperature. It was elevated, but not overly so. Still, every time she tried to put him in his crib, his little body stiffened and he cried until he shook.
Max stepped inside. “Does he need another dose of the Wall Street Journal?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think he’s feeling well.”
His demeanor immediately changed. “Does he have a temperature?”
“Not much of one,” she said, showing him the thermometer. “All the baby books say to keep calm. But I think I may need to take him to the doctor tomorrow.”
Max nodded in agreement.
“It may be a long night,” she told him. “He’s only calm when I hold him.”
“I can understand that,” he said, meeting her gaze, making her stomach jump at his double meaning. “I’ll take a turn holding him if you can’t get him settled.”
“Thanks,” she said and sighed when he gave her and David a hug. His arms felt so solid, so strong.
“Wake me to take a turn,” he told her again.
“Maybe later,” she said, but she didn’t ask him. She finally succeeded in getting David settled and crawled into bed. She kept the nursery monitor directly beside her and heard him when he awakened in the middle of the night with a heart-tugging wail.
Max stirred beside her. “What is—”
“No, I’ll take care of it,” she said, quickly climbing out of bed and heading for the nursery. She almost collided with Maria, who’d already picked David up.
“Oh, the little sweetheart, he’s burning up with fever,” Maria said. She made a tsking sound. “He got sick in his bed.”
“Oh, no. Let me hold him,” Lilli said, taking him into her arms and biting her lip at the heat emanating from his tiny body. She pressed the thermometer against his ear, aghast at how quickly it had risen.
Fear clutched at her. David began to cry. “I wish I knew what was wrong with you, sweetie. I wish you could tell me where you hurt.” David gave a high-pitched scream and Lilli fought a rising tide of panic.
Max stepped inside the room. “What’s wrong?”
“His fever has gone up and he got sick in his bed,” Lilli said, holding him close to her as she stroked his forehead.
As David let out another scream, Max nodded his head decisively. “Okay, that’s it. We’re taking him to the emergency room.”
Chapter 13
There was no wait at the emergency room for David Maximillian De Luca. It seemed everyone knew that Max had made generous donations to the Children’s Hospital. The admissions tech quickly took down the insurance information and escorted Max, Lilli and David behind a curtain.
Max looked at David, who was clearly in pain, and felt his gut wrench. His son. It was his responsibility to alleviate his pain.
A very young woman in a white coat stepped inside the curtained cubicle. She picked up the chart and glanced at it. “Are you the parents?” she asked.
“Yes, we are.”
“I’m Dr. Jarrett.” She extended her hand and shook his. “Let’s see what’s wrong with your son.”
Lilli continued to hold David close, cradling his head as he let out cries and sobs. As Dr. Jarrett looked inside David’s right ear, the baby howled and the doctor winced. “I think I’ve found the problem. An ear infection. A nasty one at that.” She rubbed the baby’s head. “We can take care of that, sweetheart.
“We’ll start him on antibiotics right away, and I have some other recommendations for pain. The good news is that these little guys tend to respond to antibiotics within twenty-four hours or less.”
“Thank goodness,” Lilli said. “He’s been miserable.”
“And he made sure you knew it, too, didn’t he?” the doctor said with a smile.
“Yes, I guess he did.” Lilli met Max’s gaze. “I’m glad we came.”
“Me, too,” he said and asked the doctor a few more questions. Dr. Jarrett left David’s file open on the tray while she left the area for a moment. Max glanced at the file, seeing David’s birth information, his height, weight and blood type. He digested the information without focusing on it. The doctor returned, apologizing for the interruption.
After picking up the medication from the hospital pharmacy, Max helped Lilli administer it to David. He ushered both of them to his car, and David fell asleep on the way home.
Max pulled into the driveway and Lilli put her hand on his elbow. “I’m afraid to take him out of the infant seat,” she confessed.
Max chuckled. “We can’t leave him in the car the rest of the night.”
“It’s almost morning,” she said and reached closer to touch his jaw. “You are so amazing. And I am so lucky.”
His heart swelled in his chest. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I was ready to panic over what to do about David, and you knew what to do immediately.”
“You would have figured it out.”
“Thank you,” she whispered and kissed him. “I know you don’t believe in love, but you’re making me fall in love with you.”
He didn’t say anything, but she made him feel ten feet tall. She made him feel as if he could conquer anything and he wanted to do it for her and David.
He took a breath to clear his head. “We need to put him to bed,” he said.
“Yeah,” she said reluctantly.
“We can do it,” he encouraged her. “We can do it together.”
She nodded as if she found strength in his words. “Sure we can. Okay, let’s go.”
Surprisingly enough, David only gave a few peeps between the car seat and the crib. He made just enough sound to reassure Max and Lilli that he was uncomfortable, but okay. Lilli placed him in the crib and appeared to hold her breath.
David continued sleeping and Lilli let out a sigh.
“Time for Mama to get some sleep,” Max said, taking her hand and leading her to bed.
She insisted on brushing her teeth then fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Max wasn’t so lucky. Something nagged at him. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but something he’d seen or observed at the hospital still bothered him.
Propping his hand behind his head on his pillow, he mentally backtracked his way through the evening.
Finally he remembered viewing David’s file, his birth record, his weight. His blood type. His brother’s blood type didn’t match David’s. Lilli’s blood type had been listed above David’s. David’s didn’t match hers, either.
He shook his head in disbelief. There had to be something wrong, a mix-up. But insidious doubts poked at him. If not Tony, then who was David’s biological father?
The next question hit him so hard his chest squeezed tight with the pain. If not Tony, then who had been Lilli’s lover?
Max felt nausea back up into his throat. Realization coursed through him like a slow-moving poison. Sitting up, he felt himself break into a sweat. Had she deceived him? Had sweet, angelic Lilli who’d baked cupcakes for his birthday pulled off the ultimate charade?
She’d made him believe she was going to give birth to his brother’s son. With her wide blue eyes and fairy hair, she’d looked so innocent, so pure. And she’d played him to the hilt when she hadn’t accepted his repeated offers for money.
He looked over at her sleeping in his bed as his wife and nearly drowned in disgust for himself. Shaking his head, he rose from the bed and thought of the way his father had acted like a fool over a woman. Max had made a vow to himself never to lose his head over a woman. But he’d gone and done just that.