Reunited by the Tycoon's Twins

Finn shrugged and gave a half-smile that came nowhere close to convincing her. ‘We were, really. What choice did we have? She wanted to go; I couldn’t make her stay. Squabbling over how we divided things up wasn’t going to change that. I just needed it to be over. To concentrate on getting back on track.’

‘And the babies?’ Madeleine asked, surprised that Finn was opening up to her. And more than a little intrigued about what exactly it was that Caro had hated so much about her life with Finn. From where Madeleine was sitting, it had quite a lot going for it. And she wasn’t thinking about the perfect espresso she’d just downed in two gulps.

‘She didn’t find out that she was pregnant until quite late on,’ Finn said, and once again Madeleine was struck by his honesty. She couldn’t believe that he was trusting her with the details of his marriage. Wasn’t he worried that she was going to sell him out? ‘By then our marriage was already over, and she had accepted a job doing emergency aid work abroad. She wanted the kids raised here, where it was safer. We both did. And she didn’t want to turn down a job where she knew she could save thousands of lives.’

So their marriage was already over. That was interesting. She’d assumed that their breakup was a recent thing, with the babies and all, but it sounded as if it must have happened more than a year ago. And all of a sudden, sleeping in his home, with this spark of attraction she was finding hard to ignore, was seeming like a less and less good idea.

‘And so now you’re a full-time dad,’ she stated.

‘Well, I’m trying to work as much as I can,’ he said with a shrug, that pinched look back around his eyes. ‘But at the moment it’s just not enough. There’s definitely more dadding going on, and I’m grateful for the extra time with them, but I can’t let things slide any further with work. I’m hoping that’s where you come in, while I find someone more permanent, that is.’

Madeleine nodded, thoughtful. ‘I bet people were surprised.’

He frowned for a second before he guessed her meaning. ‘That I want to parent my children?’ he asked. She saw the hardness appear around his mouth and jaw and heard the sharpness in his tone, and realised that she had hit a nerve. But she hadn’t been criticising—either him or Caro. She was just surprised. ‘It’s just unusual that you’re doing it while Caro’s abroad,’ Madeleine said, pointing out the obvious. ‘I didn’t mean anything by it.’

‘She’s a good mum,’ Finn said, his face still hard. ‘She video calls every day. She comes home when she can. All that she wants is for them to be safe and happy. Thousands of men do the same thing every day and no one bats an eyelid.’

Madeleine sat up straighter, a little indignant that he thought she was judging. ‘I wasn’t batting! I never questioned that Caro is a good mum. But you can’t deny that the situation is unusual, that’s all.’

‘Look at my life, Madeleine,’ Finn said, the muscle in his jaw finally relaxing. ‘Everything about it is unusual.’

She nodded. ‘It’s definitely different from when we were growing up,’ she ventured, wondering how he would react to the reminder about his change in circumstances.

‘God, I know. If you’d told me then...’

Madeleine smiled, sensing that this was as far as this conversation was going to go.

‘So, this pizza, then,’ she said, grasping for a change of topic. ‘Are these kiddies going to co-operate and let us eat with two hands? Should we wear them out before bedtime?’

‘That,’ Finn said, standing suddenly, ‘is an excellent idea. Let me give you the grand tour, and we can let them have a roll around on their play mat in the nursery while you get settled.’

Madeleine stood and parked Hart on her hip, where he gurgled and babbled as he reached out to Finn and his sister.

‘I never knew they were so wriggly at this age,’ Madeleine said, pulling Hart in closer so he didn’t dive out of her arms.

‘You should try it with two of them,’ Finn said with a laugh as Bella decided it was her turn to try and escape.

‘Just promise you’re not going to leave me alone with them just yet,’ Madeleine said, her smile fading when she realised that she was basically asking him to spend time with her. That verged dangerously close to needy—and she hated needy.

‘I promise, not until you feel you’re ready,’ Finn said as he led them out of the kitchen and into the hallway, with its elegant sweeping staircase up to the first floor.

‘I thought you’d be most comfortable in here,’ Finn said, showing her into a guest room. The bed held an imposing number of soft furnishings, but it was the desk in front of the window that caught her eye. An elegant writing desk with a simple Scandinavian aesthetic sat in front of a Juliet balcony looking out on the garden.

Finn must have caught the direction of her interest because he said, ‘I had Trudy bring that in here. I wasn’t sure if you’d want to write, or if you were working.’

‘That is so thoughtful. Thank you.’

‘And if there’s anything else that you need, just let me know, okay? I want you to feel at home here.’

And, surprisingly, she thought that she might, for the few weeks that she was planning on staying, at least. The luxuries made that easy enough: the sparkling decanter of water on her nightstand, the toiletries that she could glimpse through the open door to her en suite bathroom. It was a far cry from the mould-infested flat that she’d just been evicted from. But it wasn’t just the luxury of the place. It just had...a vibe. She wasn’t sure what it was. But she felt comfortable here. Maybe it was that she’d known Finn for ever, that he had been a part of her family for as long as she could remember.

But then she looked over at Finn and caught him looking at her. Not at her body—she could tell when men were doing that. But at her. And nothing felt comfortable any more. Because she wasn’t sure that she’d ever seen anyone look at her like that. If she’d ever felt a man’s eyes on her and not felt as if she was being flayed open and they were peering at her insides.

It was the same reason, she told herself. Finn didn’t look at her like that because he’d known her before she had this body. When she’d been a child. Before everyone she met had started judging her on the curves of her breasts and her hips, as if they somehow broadcast something about her personality.

But he noticed her body. She’d seen and cringed at enough reactions to her over the years to be able to read a man’s mind perfectly when he was looking at her. And Finn’s was no different. He saw her curves. He liked them. But she was starting to have the suspicion that he saw beyond them too. That he would still look at her like that whatever shape her body took.

And that was deeply unsettling. Because if there was one thing that she had learnt over the years it was how reliably men reacted to her. What she should expect from them, and what she should ask of them in return. And if she was wrong about that, if Finn was going to tread outside of that familiar, safe territory that she had constructed for herself, then she wasn’t sure what to make of it.