Could he deliberately seduce Carly and win her trust, then stab her in the back by taking the kid?
Guilt punched him a time or two, but he ignored it. It would be nothing more than doing to Carly what her sister had done to his father. Marlene had set up his father, then taken something from him.
Mitch had to carry out his father’s last wishes or lose his and his siblings’ inheritance. If that meant he had to blur the lines of decency, then so be it. The boy would be well cared for, and no one would be hurt in the long run.
The kiss had proved he and Carly were physically compatible. He studied the curve of her br**sts, her narrow waist and the length of her toned legs, and arousal buzzed through his veins.
Sharing her bed wouldn’t be a hardship. But how far would he have to go?
As far as it takes.
He’d even marry her if he had to and adopt the child. When the marriage ended, he’d have custody of the kid and Carly would have a healthy bank account.
A win-win situation.
“He looks just like you, Mitch, except he has Carly’s eyes.”Carly opened her mouth to correct the woman Mitch had introduced as a member of his yacht club, but Mitch cut her off.
“Rhett definitely has his mother’s eyes.”
“Don’t tell me Miami’s most eligible bachelor is finally going to settle down?” the anorexic, overly tanned, forty-something blonde asked.
Mitch gave her an enigmatic smile and a slight shrug.
Carly wanted to kick him under the table. What was he trying to pull?
To Carly she said, “Kudos, my dear. You have accomplished a miracle.”
Carly stiffened at the implication that she’d landed Mitch. Or that she’d even want to. “I—”
“Thanks for stopping by, Sandra,” Mitch interrupted. “Tell William I said hello.”
“I will. And again, I am sorry about Everett. It’s great seeing you, Mitch, and meeting you and your adorable little one, Carly. Ta ta.” The skinny body slinked away.
Ta ta? Who said ta ta these days? But Carly had bigger fish to fry. “What on earth were you thinking? You let her believe Rhett was yours. And mine.”
The idea of having Mitch’s baby made her stomach churn.
Mitch glanced at Rhett, who had almost finished smearing and eating his dinner. “You said the kid had a short attention span. Do you really want to waste time explaining this convoluted mess my father and your sister left behind when we could be finishing our meal before he has the meltdown you predicted?”
“No. But—”
“Forget it, Carly. Sandra isn’t worth the worry.”
“But you lied.”
“Replay every word I said. I never lied. She assumed. I didn’t correct her, nor did I confirm her speculations. Give it a rest. The media frenzy my father’s death created is just beginning to die down. I’d rather not jump-start it with the kind of scandal his illegitimate child will create. That’ll happen soon enough.”
Media frenzy. She suppressed a shudder.
She hated that Mitch was right almost as much as she hated that he’d chosen the perfect restaurant and been completely charming and polite throughout the meal. He’d even smiled at Rhett a couple of times.
But he’d been nothing but distrustful and acerbic before tonight, and that made her wary. “Why the chameleon act?”
A dark eyebrow lifted. “I beg your pardon?”
“Why are you being nice?”
“You’ve stated your case. You’re not going to give up the bo—Rhett. That means we will be sharing a roof for the next fifty-plus weeks. No reason why we can’t do so amicably.”
“I stated my case the day we met. Nothing’s changed.”
“I thought you’d change your mind. Now I realize you won’t. We’ll make the best of our alliance.” He wiped his mouth and laid his napkin beside his plate. “Would you care for dessert?”
She blinked at the sudden switch in topic. An inkling of suspicion wiggled like an earthworm inside her. Leopards didn’t change their spots. Or so the cliché said. And clichés were clichés for a reason. They were usually true.
Mitch had to be up to something. The question was what?
But even more worrisome, Carly had actually enjoyed Mitch’s company tonight. She’d better watch herself, because he was still the same rat bastard who’d hurt her sister and had recently threatened Carly’s custody of Rhett.
Letting her guard down around Mitch Kincaid wouldn’t be a smart move.
Five
W ooing a woman he didn’t like but wanted to sleep with was a unique experience for Mitch.
Carly was too smart to fall for the usual bought-without-a-thought generic bouquet or jewelry trinket. Lucky for him, his personal assistant, Marie, knew where to find the right ammo.Mitch rounded the house with Carlos, the Kincaid Manor groundskeeper, and two large potted plants on hand trucks. Carly looked up from Rhett on his new riding toy. She said something and the kid looked Mitch’s way, then abandoned his wheels to scamper over.
The huge grin on the boy’s face hit Mitch in the solar plexus with memories of other grins, other kids who’d been happy to see him back in the days when he used to rush home from KCL in time for dinner instead of working until the cleaning crew ran him out of his office. Kids who’d moved from Miami to Los Angeles and out of reach when their father had been traded to a west coast basketball team.
“What’s up, little man?” He released the hand truck and extended a hand for a high five, but Rhett bypassed it and twined himself around Mitch’s pant leg and stuck like a thorny vine.
Carly followed at a slower pace. Today’s tracksuit matched the blue sky above. She’d shed the jacket, and her white tank top hugged the curve of her br**sts. Her hair had been released from its usual ponytail to drape her bare shoulders, and a breeze lifted the strands away from her face. How had he never noticed that she didn’t wear earrings? Her lobes weren’t even pierced, and he found the nak*d, virgin flesh unusually alluring. Did he even know another woman who didn’t have at least one hole in each ear?
Carly nodded to Carlos as she joined them. “What are those?”
“Bud-something. To attract hummingbirds.” Odd how tight his throat was this afternoon. He patted the head bumping his thigh.
“Buddleia. That’s not what I meant. I know what a butterfly bush is. I have three in my yard. Why do you have them?”
“You said the—Rhett liked to watch hummingbirds. These should draw them, since the feeders alone didn’t do the trick.”
“Up. Up. Pig me up.”
Mitch couldn’t shake the kid off and he lost a few leg hairs trying. Admitting defeat, he bent and scooped the boy into one arm, and earned himself a slobbery kiss on the chin.
“Mitt.”
Mitch swallowed. Hard. He wasn’t ready yet to let Rhett squeeze his heart with those stubby little fingers.
Hands on hips, Carly stared at him through narrowed eyes. “Why?”
“I gave you the reason.” He passed the kid to Carly and turned to the other man. “Carlos, set one pot on each corner of the patio.”
Carly persisted, “And I might believe that was your only motive if you hadn’t bought Rhett a wading pool yesterday and the riding toy the day before that.”
“The plastic pool is to keep him away from the big pool. And he loves that blue train.”
Carly cocked her head. “Have any Greeks in your ancestry?”
“As in, ‘Beware of Greeks bearing gifts’?”
“Yes.”
“Haven’t you ever heard, ‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’?”
“I also know that one end of the horse bites and the other one kicks. I’m still trying to figure out which end you are. I’ll tell Della you’re home for dinner. She wasn’t expecting you.” She turned on her heel and marched through the French doors.
Shot down. Again. He’d known Carly would be a tough nut to crack. He even admired her intelligence in not accepting the gifts at face value because he did have an ulterior motive.
He shoved his hand truck into motion. What would it take to get through to her? And why did it suddenly matter so much?
“Buy you a drink?”The quietly rumbled question broke the hard-won silence. Carly pivoted away from the crib and jerked a finger to her lips. “Shh.”
Mitch leaned against the doorjamb of Rhett’s room. Since they’d eaten out together last Friday, Mitch had shown up for breakfast and dinner each of the past seven days. Given Della said Mitch had rarely made it home for evening meals before Carly and Rhett had moved in, Carly had to question the sudden change. And while she was suspicious, she didn’t want to rock the boat because dining with him furthered her goal of bonding the brothers. Rhett loved “Mitt’s” company.
Unfortunately, so did she.
She joined Mitch in the hall. Once her eyes adjusted to the brighter light, she noticed he’d exchanged his suit for a black polo shirt, a pair of worn jeans that fit him like a designer glove and leather deck shoes. It might be the Fourth of July and a national holiday, but Mitch had gone to work.
“Rough night.” The low midnight pitch of his voice made the hairs on her arms lift.
“Rhett’s new molar is giving him fits. I gave him Tylenol hoping that’ll help him sleep through the night.” Rhett had been exceptionally fussy during dinner. Mitch had stuck out the entire miserable hour which had a) earned him points with her, and b) proved they’d made progress. And then her nephew had been nearly impossible to settle for bed.
“A glass of wine might help you unwind enough to sleep. Join me on the patio.” Mitch pointed to the baby monitor in her hand. “We’ll take that with us.”
The wine sounded good, but a voice in her head shouted, “Not wise.” She nibbled the inside of her bottom lip in indecision. Just because she’d begun to enjoy their shared meals and verbal sparring, and just because she’d learned to tell the difference between Armani, Brooks Brothers and Hugo Boss, and just because Mitch looked mouthwateringly gorgeous in all three didn’t mean she’d do something stupid like fall for him. Thanks to Marlene, she knew too much about him to ever do that.
Which meant she could safely join him for a drink.
“Okay, sure.” She hooked the monitor on her waistband and walked beside him down the hall, the stairs and into the kitchen. He snagged a bottle, a couple of glasses and the corkscrew from the counter and tilted his head toward the back door.
Carly opened it and stepped outside. The flagstones radiated remnants of the day’s warmth against her bare feet. The patio glowed in the flickering light of the dozen pewter pole torches surrounding the area, and the scents of citronella oil and the sweet aroma of the butterfly bushes mingled in the humid night air.
“You must have been pretty confident I’d join you to light all these.”
“I know I needed a drink after dinner. I assumed you would, as well.”
She sighed. “You assumed right. Rhett’s not usually like that.”