Mixed Messages: The Secret Child & The Cowboy CEO by Linda Lael Miller

Author:Linda Lael Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

San Francisco

One year later...

Carly wore jeans and a blue T-shirt, and the baseball cap Nathan had given her on Mother’s Day sat firmly on her head, the brim covering her nape. Riding on her back, papoose style, was Molly, who watched her father approach with solemn aquamarine eyes.

Out on the diamond, Nathan was speeding between third base and home. The ball came in from left field; the pitcher caught it and hurled it to the catcher.

Nathan dived, sliding into home plate on his belly, his hands outstretched.

“Safe!” yelled the umpire, who was, like everybody else on both teams, a kid from the neighborhood.

Reaching the place where his wife and daughter stood, Carly still unaware of his approach, Mark leaned over to give Molly a light kiss on the forehead.

She rewarded him with a gurgling chortle and a, “Da-da!”

Carly spun around at that, her eyes big in her dusty, gamine’s face. Her baseball cap fell off onto the ground when she flung her arms around Mark’s neck.

He kissed her soundly, even though he knew he’d hear about it from Nathan. In his son’s world, a guy just didn’t kiss a woman in front of everybody in the neighborhood like that.

“How was China?” Carly asked. Her voice was throaty and low, and her eyes were filled with a blue-green come-hither look.

“Same as always,” Mark answered gruffly. He’d made two trips since he and Carly were married. “Big. Isolated. Awesomely beautiful.”

“I think we should go home and discuss this,” Carly crooned.

He bent to pick up her fallen baseball cap and put it back on her head. This time the brim stuck out to the side, giving her a jaunty, Our Gang kind of look. “You’re absolutely right, Mrs. Holbrook,” he responded, his body tightening at the luscious prospect of being alone with her in the shadowy privacy of their bedroom. “But what about the short person here?”

Carly grinned. “Molly’s due for a nap,” she replied, “and Nathan will be out here playing baseball until you come back and drag him home for supper.”

He lifted his brown-haired daughter out of the back sling and kissed her glossy curls. “You do look tired, kid,” he told the child, his expression serious.

Molly’s lower lip curled outward as though he’d insulted her, then she tossed back her head and wailed.

Twenty minutes later, when her mother had washed her face and hands and given her a bottle, Molly closed her enormous Carly eyes and went immediately to sleep.

Mark led his wife out of the nursery and into their bedroom, taking off her baseball cap and tossing it aside. “As for you, Mrs. Holbrook,” he said, “you’re about to spend some quality time with your husband.”

He saw the tremor of pleasure go through her, watched as her cheeks turned a delicious apricot pink. And he knew he loved her as desperately as he ever had.

“Mark,” she began shyly, “I need a shower....”

He nodded. “So do I,” he answered, catching hold of her T-shirt and lifting it off over her head.

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