your parents,” she pointed out pragmatically, “and I know you have extended family, as well. They’re all quite real.”
“And yet, for as long as I can remember, I always felt like Quin and I only had each other.”
Faye shifted uncomfortably on her chair. This was getting altogether too personal for comfort. Piers had never really talked about his family at great length. She’d always privately envied him that they, until Quin’s sudden death, were all still there for him. But were they really?
When she thought back, her dealings with his parents and other relatives had hinged around what Piers could do for them, never the other way around. Even thinking about his annual house party here, Piers had always instructed her on what gifts to ensure were under the tree for whom. But, aside from his great-aunt Florence’s questionable Christmas sweaters, had Faye ever heard of anyone bringing him a gift in return?
“I’m sorry,” she said for lack of anything else to say to fill the sudden silence that fell between them.
“This little one isn’t going to grow up alone. I will always be there for him.”
“You don’t even know for sure he’s your brother’s child,” Faye protested.
“It fits. You know what Quin was like. I’m only sorry I didn’t know about Casey sooner—then I could have helped his mom more.”
Faye saw his shoulders rise and fall on a deep sigh. There was a resoluteness to his voice when he spoke again.
“She needed help and Quin couldn’t be there for her. I’ll find her, Faye. I’ll make sure she’s okay before going any further with Casey but I want to offer him the kind of life he deserves.”
Piers’s words made something twist deep in Faye’s chest. Made her see another side of him that was all too appealing. It was the baby, it had to be. After her infant brother’s death thirteen years ago she’d spent some time subconsciously trying to fill that gaping hole in her life. Tried and failed and learned the hard way to inure herself to getting involved, to forming an emotional bond. And here she was, stranded with a man who appealed to her on so many levels—despite her best efforts to keep her reactions under control—and a helpless infant who called on those old instincts she thought she’d suppressed.
Faye rose to take their trays back to the kitchen.
“Here, let me do that. You cooked.”
She swiftly maneuvered out of reach. “I hardly would call reheating soup and making grilled cheese on toast cooking. Besides, he’s waking up. You’ll need to check his diaper.”
“Again?”
“Yup,” she said and, with her flashlight balanced on a tray to light her way forward, she made her way to the kitchen.
* * *
Piers watched her go before turning his attention to his charge. He was determined to get to the root of why she was so unwavering about having nothing to do with the baby.
“I can’t see the problem, can you?” he said softly to the little boy who was now looking up at him and kicking his legs under the blanket.
But maybe it wasn’t the baby she was avoiding now. Maybe it was just him. At first, he could have sworn she was reacting favorably to that kiss he’d given her under the mistletoe. Hell, favorably? She’d been melting under his touch, but that had been nothing compared to how their brief embrace had made him feel. Even now, thinking about it, it still had the power to leave him feeling a little stunned.
He’d kissed a fair few women in his time but, so far, none had moved him the way that simple touch had. The sensations that had struck him from the minute his lips touched hers were electric—curious and demanding at the same time. He’d had to hold back, had to force himself not to pull her hard against the length of his body. Had to fight every instinct inside him to keep the kiss simple, light, when what she’d awakened in him demanded so much more.
“Who would have known?” he said under his breath and lifting Casey in his arms. “Just one kiss, eh? What do we do now?”
What had he unleashed in himself with that embrace? He’d been trying to distract her. Her face, always composed and serene even in the most trying circumstances in the office, had looked stricken. His instinct had been to divert her thoughts, perhaps even to provide comfort. Instead he’d ticked her off—probably just as effective at distracting her, even if it didn’t quite lend itself to them repeating the exercise, as much as he wanted to.
Did he pursue it further when she’d made it categorically clear that she wanted no further intimacy between them? He wasn’t the kind of man who gave up when he reached the first obstacle, but there was a lot riding on this. Faye was the best assistant he’d ever had. Her very aloofness had been instrumental in keeping his mind focused on the job and his busy workdays on an even keel. Her ability to anticipate his needs was second to none. In fact, sometimes he felt like she knew him better than he knew himself.
He’d found her attractive from the get-go. From the interview selection process right through to the day she’d started she’d intrigued him, but he’d respected the boundaries they’d had between them as boss and employee. Boundaries he himself had insisted on after his last two assistants—one male and one female—had complicated things by declaring their love for him. He’d worked with Faye for three years now. He respected her, relied on her and trusted her. But now that he’d kissed her... Well, it had opened the door on something else entirely.
For all her cool and inscrutable manner at work, she’d been different here from the moment he’d arrived. Maybe it was because it was the first time he’d seen her in anything other than her usual neatly practical and understated office attire. He had to admit, despite the horrible sweater he’d forced on her, the sight of her in his clothing appealed to him on an instinctive level, as if by her being dressed in something of his she’d become more accessible to him. As if, somehow, she belonged to him.
And she had, for that brief moment. They’d connected both physically and, he liked to think, on some emotional plane, as well. He’d felt the curiosity in her response, the interest. Right up until that moment she’d pushed him away, she’d been as invested in their kiss as he had been.
“I’m not dreaming, am I?” he said to the baby in his arms.
Casey looked at him with solemn dark eyes and then his little mouth curled into a gummy grin.
“Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to see if dreams really can come true,” Piers said with an answering smile of his own.
He’d have to approach this carefully. The last thing he wanted was for Faye to actually turn around and quit. But surely he could push things forward without pushing her to that extreme. He was a resourceful kind of guy. He’d think of something. He wasn’t afraid of hard work. Not when something was important, and he had the strongest feeling that Faye had the potential to be far more important to him than she already was. And, he realized with a sense of recognition that felt as if it came from deep at his center, he wanted to be equally as important to her, too. If only she’d let him.
When Faye returned to the main room he stood with Casey and held him out to her. She looked as if she was going to instinctively put her hands out to take him, but then she took a step back.
“What are you doing?” she asked warily.
“Handing
