All Chapters of Having The Billionaire's Baby: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

THE next three days were mostly peaceful.Both Jake Frost and Murad had gone back to Brisbane and the household relaxed a little.Irene and Nicky explored the islands with Nemo, they swam, they walked to the nearest shopping village of Paradise Point with its pleasant beach and they fished off the jetty.The pool area of the Tuscan villa was especially beautiful. Enclosed in a walled garden, the pool was surrounded by thick emerald lawn and the walls were smothered in a variety of creepers; honeysuckle and jasmine scented the air and the starry little flowers of port-wine magnolia studded the dark green of its foliage. There were beds of creamy-white gardenias and glossy-leaved camellia bushes.In one corner sat a quaint gazebo with a cupola roof. It looked faintly oriental or, Irene thought, like someone’s ‘folly’, but Nicky loved it. He had a toy gun and it gave him a lot of pleasure to clamber around the gazebo or hide under its benches or behind its lattice screens and ambush imag

Especially this girl, he thought with an indrawn breath. How sweet would it be to initiate her into the rituals of love-making? To make her gasp with desire and focus those beautiful eyes solely on him, to very slowly bring alive all her most sensitive erogenous zones. To possess that slender figure, those stunning legs and to be the one to meld the different elements of her personality, her sense of humour, that keen intellect and the scholarly side of her into warm, lovely womanhood…He gritted his teeth suddenly and forced his mind back to her last remark. ‘Uh—yes, I understand perfectly. I’m sorry—’ a smile appeared fleetingly in his eyes ‘—I didn’t realize I was making you feel like that. Actually, going back to what led up to this, one thing I really like to do to relax is fish. I even have a favourite spot that I go up to a couple of times a year. Seisia, but not many people have heard of it.’Irene, who had listened to his apology and deliberate change of subject with an inwar

In the end, Irene did fall asleep on the settee in the den although this time it was Murad Fullbuster not Diane Paxton who slid a pillow under her head and covered her with a warm rug.She’d been enjoying the movie, and his company, but two thirds of the way through the emotional excesses of the evening got to her and she couldn’t keep her eyes open.She was not to know that her temporary employer stood looking down at her for a long time after he’d covered her up, then found himself doing some serious thinking. Nothing could have prepared her for the consequences of it…To complicate matters, Nicky woke up with a fever the next morning.‘I think it’s chicken pox,’ Irene said to Murad in the breakfast room. She was already showered and ready for the golf day—she’d done all that before Nicky had woken—wearing three-quarter khaki trousers and an Argyle sweater, Diane’s choice, not hers.Murad was also already dressed for golf in navy trousers and a pale blue polo T-shirt. He’d just come

‘Part of the household, though—what exactly does that mean?’ she said slowly.He said casually, ‘Much the same as the last three days, when Nicky’s here, at least, but because I’ll be working from down here much more it’ll be like a semi-permanent abode. Whenever you feel you need to go home, though, that’ll be fine.’Irene relaxed a little and couldn’t control an impulse to smile suddenly. ‘What?’‘It’s a job that sort of defies description, doesn’t it?’His lips twisted, then he gave a jolt of laughter. ‘I wouldn’t like to have to advertise it.’ He sobered. ‘But from the moment you made such a hit with Nicky—’‘My fate was sealed,’ she supplied. ‘Part of my fate was sealed. But you are serious about the other side of it?’‘Perfectly,’ he assured her.Irene heard herself say swiftly, ‘Then I’ll do it,’ as if getting it out fast was the only way to do it because once she stopped to let herself think, she’d be tempted to run away and hide. But she couldn’t spend her life running and h

He frowned at her. ‘But in your case it happened in a matter of moments, the way he took to you.’‘I would say—’ Irene sipped her water from a cut-glass tumbler, then picked up her knife and fork again ‘—he’s not much used to men if he’s lived with his mother and his grandmother. And I do have experience with kids of that age.Don’t worry, it will happen, it just takes time,’ she assured him.His frown deepened. ‘You’re also—like a new person, Miss Josephine, if I may say so. Why’s that?’Irene considered, then told him part of the truth. ‘I took myself to task this morning. Look forward, not backward, seek new challenges and goals and—lo and behold!—what should fall into my lap shortly afterwards but your offer. So I’m feeling really positive, you could say.’She’d changed her Argyle sweater for a cotton-knit top and hadn’t noticed the streak of Play-Doh on her sleeve. Her hair was in bunches and she wore her glasses. She looked young but very alive and vital. It was hard to compare