The Tycoon's Secret Child (Texas Cattleman's Club: Blackmail 1)

“If you had more toys available, you could get into more hospitals, right?” He studied each smiling face on the board as if committing them each to memory.

“Well, yes,” she said, watching him. “We’ve been moving slowly, running on donations and what we can produce. It’s taking longer than I’d like.”

“Then let me help,” he said, and this time he turned to her and reached out to hold her upper arms in a soft, firm grip. “What you’re doing is something special. Something important, and it makes me proud that you started it all. So let me in, Belle. Let me be a part of what you do.”

Her heart jumped into a fast, heavy rhythm. His eyes on hers, she saw his sincerity. Saw how much he wanted this and what it meant to him. She was touched more deeply than she’d expected. With Wes’s help she could grow her program faster than ever before. They could reach more children. Offer more comfort. That he wanted to do this meant more to her than anything else he could have done.

“I’d like that very much,” she said.

A slow, satisfied smile curved his mouth, and his eyes gleamed. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms, creating a friction that kindled the heat already building inside her.

“Thanks for that,” he said. “I think we’ll make a great team.”

Isabelle smiled, but her heart hurt a little, since five years ago, she’d thought the same thing.

Six

If anyone had told Wes a month ago that he’d be sitting front row center at a four-year-old’s dance recital, he would have called them crazy. Yet, here he was. And most amazing of all, he was having a good time.

Isabelle sat beside him, and next to her were Edna and Marco. On Wes’s right, Chance, Eli and Tyler sprawled in the too-small chairs, trying to get comfortable. The elementary school auditorium was packed with parents, grandparents and kids of all ages. The room was big, the chairs were uncomfortable and in the corner beside the stage, an elderly woman was playing a piano that looked as if it could have been one of the first ones ever made.

Smiling to himself, he shook his head and leaned in when Isabelle whispered, “Look over there.”

He followed her gaze and spotted Caro, standing in the wings, peeking around the stage curtain. When she saw him, she grinned and her little face brightened. She waved, then made the sign for thank you. His heart did a slow, hard roll in his chest as he signed back you’re welcome.

Of course she didn’t have to thank him for coming. There was literally nowhere else he’d rather be than here, waiting to see his little girl take part in a dance recital. With the help of the hearing aids she wore, Caro could hear the music well enough to participate in the dancing she loved. Wes frowned thoughtfully to himself as Caro ducked back behind the curtain to join her class.

How long, he wondered, would the hearing aids work? How long before she entered a completely silent world? He’d been doing research on the cochlear implant, and the more he read the more certain he was that he wanted to get Caroline to a specialist as soon as possible. Yes, he knew that there were many, many happy, healthy deaf people and he knew that Caro would no doubt have a fulfilled life no matter which path she took. But was it so wrong for a father to do everything he could to try to make his chi

ld’s life a little easier?

He glanced at Isabelle, who had the look of a nervous mom. Her blond hair waved and curled across her shoulders, and as she listened to Edna, she laughed quietly and her greenish-blue eyes shone. She wore a red silk shirt and black slacks, and just looking at her sent a jolt of desire whipping through Wes that he fought like hell to tamp down.

Ever since their talk in her office a couple of days ago, the tension between them had eased in one way and tightened in another. Though there was less anger, more understanding now, the sexual buzz they shared was stronger than ever. Hell, it had been five years since he’d been with her, and sitting beside her now, it was all he could think about.

But he had to move carefully. Slowly. He couldn’t give in to what he wanted if his desires were going to make everything else harder. He needed to get his daughter to a specialist. He needed to save the merger, though right now that looked impossible. And soon, he was going to have to be back in Texas to take care of the business he couldn’t handle over the phone. And he wanted Belle and Caroline to go with him. Sex would just complicate everything.

Damn it.

“Oh, hell,” Chance muttered from beside him. “Hide me.”

Frowning, Wes looked up and saw Kim Roberts headed their way, her gaze fixed on the oldest Graystone brother. Wes was so pleased her laser focus was on someone other than him, he couldn’t even feel sorry for Chance.

“They’re starting!” Isabelle reached over, grabbed Wes’s hand and squeezed as the piano music got louder and the lights in the hall were dimmed.

“Thank God,” Chance mumbled as Kim had to retreat and find a seat. “Saved by tiny dancers.”

Wes grinned, then everything in the room faded away but his daughter, one of a dozen little girls dressed as butterflies as they pranced across the stage. Brightly colored tissue paper wings fluttered, pigtails bounced and nervous giggles erupted in more than a few of the performers. In the darkness, he and Isabelle held hands, linked together by one beautiful little girl and the heat threatening to engulf them both.

After the performance, Wes stood apart from the group of parents, siblings and relatives. He was watching them all as his mind raced. His gaze fixed on Belle, behind the refreshment counter, laughing, talking and serving punch, cookies and cupcakes. And he thought he’d never seen anything more beautiful.

Wes wasn’t kidding himself. He had no more interest in love than he ever had. But he could admit he wanted Belle. And that he needed her. In more ways than one. If he could convince Teddy Bradford that he, Belle and Caroline were really a happy little family, then he might be able to salvage the merger that meant so much to his company.

If he felt a twinge of something that could have been guilt, he denied it. He wasn’t planning to use Belle and Caroline. But it was hardly his fault if being with his daughter and Belle helped solve a major problem.

He wandered toward the table and stepped up in time to listen in as Caro began a step-by-step description of the performance they’d just seen. Words rushing, fingers flying, his little girl was quivering with excitement, and Wes loved every second of it. Seeing his daughter with her blond hair in pigtails, big aqua eyes wide with happiness, made him smile. She was so small that her butterfly wings really did look as if they could lift her into the sky, but it was her tiny pink ballet shoes that for some reason struck his heart like an arrow.

She’d gotten to him, he realized. In little more than a week, Caroline had become so important to him, he couldn’t imagine a life without his daughter. He’d never expected, or wanted, to be a parent, and now he couldn’t imagine why. He wanted to tell Caroline he was her father. But he wasn’t going to do that then disappear back to Texas and only be involved in her life in the most peripheral way.