Reunited...with Child / One Month with the Magnate: Reunited...with Child. Michelle Celmer

      “I do,” he assured her. He took her hand in his and led her back out into the lobby. It was odd to think of the passionate embrace they’d shared happening so close to the real world and strangers.

      “You sound confident but there are things you don’t know, Cam,” she said.

      “Then tell me about them,” he invited. “I want to know everything this time, Becca. No halfway for us.”

      “I’m not ready to talk about all my secrets,” she said.

      “I’m not going anywhere, so when you are ready we will talk. There are things that take time to find their way out,” he said.

      “Do you have secrets?” she asked, then shook her head wryly. “Of course you do. You are a complex man.”

      “Am I? I think I’m a simple man with simple needs.”

      “And what are they?” she asked as they approached the front door of the hotel.

      “Right now, they involve you in my arms. But that’s not happening tonight.”

      “So what are you going to do?”

      “I think I’ll go to my room and pour myself a drink.”

      “Drinking is never the solution,” she said.

      “I know that, but it will take the edge off my wanting you.”

      “Does that really work?” she asked.

      “I have no idea, but I’m going to give it a try,” he said.

      She turned and then leaned up and kissed him really quickly. Just a brief touch that sent sparks through his already aroused body.

      “Thank you.”

      “For?”

      “Stopping and not pressuring me. It would have been very easy for you to change my mind,” she admitted.

      He knew that, but he wasn’t going to say it out loud. “I want more than one night with you, Becca.”

      She tipped her head to the side to study him. “I hope so. I’m not that temporary woman I was back then.”

      “I can see that. I hope you will learn that I’m a different man, too. I’m ready to settle down with the right woman,” he admitted.

      “I’m not sure I’m that person,” she said.

      “No pressure. I just wanted to let you know that I’ve changed, as well.”

      “I could tell right away. No BlackBerry in your hand during dinner,” she said.

      “With you by my side I’m not focused on work as much as pleasure.”

      She flushed. “You are very good about pleasure.”

      “Thank you.” He kissed her hard and deep. “See you in the morning.”

      She nodded and walked to the car. He watched until the car drove away and then turned and headed back upstairs. He needed to know more about Becca but he had to be careful. He didn’t want to be the man to hurt her … again.

      Four

      Becca woke early, as she always had since becoming a mom. She fed Ty his breakfast and then set him in his playpen while she checked her email. Last night she’d managed maybe two hours of sleep. Her dreams had been plagued with visions of Cam. The dreams were an odd mix of passionate embraces and tearful explanations. And today she felt very apprehensive about inviting him to her house for breakfast.

      But it was too late. Cam and she had too much between them for her to just let him walk out of her life this time. And she couldn’t move forward until he knew about Ty. It was going to be hard … how did you tell a man that he’d fathered a child with you nearly two years earlier?

      She hoped he’d be accepting and understand why she hadn’t contacted him earlier, but she wasn’t too confident of that.

      The paternity suit he’d mentioned yesterday bothered her. She wished she had more time to do some research on it. But when she’d done a cursory search of the internet, she’d found nothing.

      She glanced over at Ty and thought about Cam. What would he think of his son? She should just tell him, she thought, now, before things went any further between them. But she was afraid.

      And she hated to give up control of a situation. Right now she made every decision in Ty’s life. She chose the nanny and the food and when he went to bed. Once Cam knew about his son, everything would change.

      Her life wasn’t easy, but it was hers. And the choices she made about Ty’s upbringing were hers and hers alone to make. She knew that when there were two parents, things could be difficult. Yet it was a dynamic she’d never experienced since just her mom had raised her.

      Growing up alone with just one parent hadn’t been easy, but it was what she was used to. So once she’d realized she was pregnant and made the decision to go it alone, she’d settled into it very easily. She’d felt she already had the best example of how a mom handled being a single parent.

      The doorbell rang and she glanced at the clock. It was nine. It was a little early for Cam, but she wasn’t expecting anyone else. She picked up the baby monitor, leaving Ty playing happily in his playpen, and headed for the door. A quick glance out the window confirmed that it was Cam.

      She opened the door. He wore a pair of chinos and a golf shirt. He smelled of aftershave and looked well put-together. She felt frumpy in her slim-fitting yoga pants and T-shirt—so not ready to face the world or Cam Stern yet.

      “You’re early.”

      “Good morning to you, too,” he said with a smile. “I brought bagels and coffee so I hope I will be forgiven.”

      She shook her head. Cam threw her off balance. Even without trying, he was doing it to her this morning. She needed that thirty minutes to get her mind wrapped around how to tell him about Ty. “No, you’re not. I wanted to change out of messy clothes before you got here.”

      “You look lovely,” he said.

      “I don’t feel it. I should make you wait on the front step but that coffee smells really good.”

      “Then I will come in and sit in the other room while you get changed.” He seemed so reasonable that she started to feel a bit like a grump.

      “Sorry I’m being so grouchy, but I am not a morning person. You can come in and wait for me on the back patio while I get changed,” she said. She opened the door and turned to lead the way through the house.

      “I’ll want a tour later.”

      “If you’re lucky,” she said. She led him to the back screened-in porch where she had a glider in one corner and a small round table with four chairs. In the winter months she had glass windows installed to make the room usable year-round.

      “I will take care of breakfast. I brought everything we’d need.”

      She thought she was handling the surprise of him very well when one word from the baby monitor shattered her composure.

      “Mama?”

      “Mama?” Cam asked.

      “I … I have a son. Sit down and I’ll be right back.”

      She left the patio and a perplexed Cam and went to get Ty from his playpen. She bent down and scooped him and kissed his little head. She hugged him close and closed her eyes, pretending that the next few minutes weren’t going to completely change their world. But there was no denying it.

      As they returned to the back porch, Ty became talkative. “Hi, man,” Ty said, from her shoulder.

      “Cam, this is Ty.”

      Cam looked at Ty and then back at her. And then back