The Perfect Gift: A Christmas Billionaire Sexy Romance (Three Wise Men Book 1) (14 page)

She stared at him. “You have the penthouse?”

“Um, yeah.”

Her expression turned wry. “You described your apartment as ‘nice’.”

“It is nice.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you had the penthouse?”

He shrugged. The truth was that he’d worried she might refuse to come. He knew his money intimidated her, and he couldn’t think of anything more intimidating than what she was about to see when they walked out of the elevator.

It dinged, and the doors slid open. Taking Ryan’s hand, she walked into the hallway.

Ahead of Erin on the high wall was a huge painting of an elegant woman in a black evening dress carrying a bouquet of flowers, her hair pinned up in a bun.

She stopped and studied it. “Is that… Fleur?”

Brock chuckled. “No. It came with the apartment.”

Even so, it unsettled her, and she’d only just walked in. The woman’s appearance summarized everything about Brock having money that made Erin uncomfortable. The evening dress, the fancy hairdo, her pale skin, her slim figure, the high heels, the pearls around her neck… He would be used to being with this sort of woman.

Erin suddenly felt very aware of her tanned skin shiny with sun lotion, her scruffy hair scraped back in a ponytail, her faded T-shirt and well-worn shorts. Of Ryan’s sticky fingers that would soon be plastered on every clean surface in this apartment. Of the white carpet he would spill juice on, of the ornaments he would knock off the shelves and the tables he would send flying when he played with his dinosaurs.

“Hey.” Brock took her hand. “It’s just a place to live. Nothing more.”

Erin said nothing and let him lead her along the hallway. He turned left, and they entered the main living area.

A cream leather suite scattered with plum and cream-colored cushions surrounded a glass table in the middle of which sat an elegant vase with a spray of orchids. A tasteful Christmas tree stood in one corner, glittering in the afternoon sun.

Beyond that, all open plan, was a long glass dining table with eight chairs. The pink-and-purple flowers on the table perfectly complemented the purple color of the cushions on the chairs. Behind the dining area, a huge kitchen sparkled with chrome and polished marble work surfaces.

The glass-paneled wall revealed a breathtaking view over the harbor of the City of Sails. Outside, a wide deck housed an outdoor dining suite, a built-in barbecue, and an outdoor sofa and chairs around a long gas fire.

Every painting looked as if it were worth a million dollars. The flowers were all fresh without a sign of a wilted petal. Even the lighting was amazing, and Erin knew the placement of every lamp had been planned to shed the perfect amount of light.

Ryan let go of her other hand and ran forward to throw himself into the cushions on the sofa. Brock laughed, but Erin’s heart jumped into her mouth.

“Relax,” Brock said, obviously picking up on her tension. “He likes it here anyway.”

Saying nothing, she walked over to her son and took off his sandals. “Sit up,” she told him, straightening the cushions as he rolled onto his bottom. She took a couple of dinosaurs out of her bag and gave them to him. “Play quietly please.”

“Erin, you’ve got to relax,” Brock said, a little desperately.

“I can’t.” She was almost shaking with tension. “He’ll get chocolate or ice-lolly on the cushions, or scrape the buckle of his sandals on the leather.”

“I don’t care.”

“Well I do!”

“Sweetheart.” He caught her face in his hands. “It’s okay. Marks wipe or wash off. Scratches can be fixed. If something gets broken it can be mended or I’ll buy a new one. I really don’t care. But I do want you to feel comfortable. If you don’t like it here, I’ll take you to a hotel.”

“It’s just… I don’t know why I’m here,” she blurted out. “You’re obviously used to a different sort of woman, and I don’t understand why you like me. I don’t fit in. I’m embarrassed that you’ve been to my house—Jesus, what must you have thought when you walked in?” Her cheeks warmed with humiliation beneath his hands.

He frowned and glanced around the room. “I know what this must look like to you, and I understand that you feel intimidated. Like I said, I don’t spend a lot of time here, and I know it’s not homely. The consultants I work with take turns in holding dinner parties, plus occasionally Charlie, Matt, and I have business meetings here, and it’s a pleasant place to entertain. To a certain extent, it’s expected of me to have a place like this, you know? But that doesn’t mean I don’t like taking off my shoes and sitting on the carpet.” He smiled. “One day I’d like to have a family home again. Maybe get another dog, have a garden, a pool.”

He stroked her cheeks with her thumbs. “I like you because you radiate beauty in both body and spirit. You make me happy. And Ryan makes me happy—he’s a lovely boy. For the past two years, my life has been all about work. You two have reminded me there are other things than my job. I can’t explain how much I’ve enjoyed today. So I say it again—if you’re going to be uncomfortable here, I’ll happily take you to a hotel for the night. Otherwise, please, just enjoy the place. I was looking forward to bringing you here as you seemed to like Paua Cliffs so much.”

Erin swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She was overreacting, as usual. Brock wasn’t trying to intimidate or impress her. He’d obviously expected her to be surprised, but he seemed genuinely upset by her distress.

And why was she distressed? He was right—it was just a place to live, and she deserved to be there as much as anyone else.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He brushed a thumb across her lips. “You light up my life,” he murmured. Lowering his head, he touched his lips to hers.

It was the briefest of kisses, rose-petal soft, but when he lifted his head she knew she had stars in her eyes.

He smiled. “Come on. I’ll show you the rest of the place.”

With Ryan following behind, Brock took her across the dining area and kitchen, then through to a smaller study with a desk and leather chair that nevertheless still had a wonderful view across the water. Papers and files littered the table along with a laptop, so it was clear that he spent a lot of his time there.

To Ryan’s delight, there was a movie room—a row of comfortable armchairs with cup holders and tables like she’d seen in fancy cinemas facing a huge wall-mounted TV with surround sound.

“We’ll watch a movie in here later if you like,” Brock promised him.

“Can I have a chair on my own?” the boy asked.

Brock put his hands on his hips. “Of course. You’re not a baby, are you?”

“No!” Ryan jumped up and down. Erin tried to hide her smile, and failed.

Brock grinned. “Then you’ll have your own chair, and you can put your drink in here, look. And if mum doesn’t mind, we’ll put some chocolate in bowls and you can put it on your table while we watch.”

“Where’s my bed?” Ryan asked.

“Come on, I’ll show you.” Brock took his hand and led him down the corridor, turning right into a bedroom.

Erin’s eyes widened as she saw the room. He’d obviously told whoever looked after the apartment that he was having a boy to stay because someone had made the bed up with a Ward Seven duvet cover. There were a couple of Ward Seven toys on the bed too, and a large picture of Dixon the Dog on the wall in glorious color.

“It’s peel-off,” Brock said with a smile.

But there were no piles of toys to overwhelm and spoil the boy—just one box of Lego in the middle of the bed, a companion box for the dinosaur Lego he’d bought Ryan for his birthday.

Ryan squealed and climbed onto the bed to examine it.

Brock sent Erin a guilty look. “I’m so sorry, I forgot it was there. I meant to ask you if it was okay that I gave it to him. I just don’t want him to get bored while he’s here.”

“It’s fine,” she said softly, touched he’d considered her feelings.

At that moment, his phone rang in his pocket. “Will you excuse me?” he asked, taking it out.

“Of course,” Erin said. His phone had rung several times during the day. Once it had been his brother, Charlie, a couple of times it had been his assistant, Lee, and the hospital had also rung a few times too.

He left the room, and Erin turned to her son, smiling as she sat beside him on the bed and helped him undo the box of Lego. “You’ll have to say thank you to Brock,” she told him.

“Yes, Mummy.” Ryan rifled through the pieces, picking some up to investigate them more closely. “Will you sleep in my bed tonight?”

She cleared her throat. “Um, probably not. You have your own bed at home, don’t you? Well this is your bed, and I’ll sleep in another bed like I do at home.”

“With Bwock?”

Her mouth went dry. She wanted to handle this right, but she didn’t know what ‘right’ was. Should she pretend it was nothing? Keep the boy in the dark and see how things panned out? He wasn’t old enough to understand the delicate intricacies of relationships.

But she’d survived this long alone with him because even though he was only three, she shared everything with him. He was all she had, and when she had no money, she told him. When she was worried about something, she told him, because she thought otherwise he wouldn’t understand why she was quiet or upset. It might not be the textbook way to bring up a child, but it was her way.

“Yes, I’ll sleep in Brock’s bed,” she said.

He nodded, apparently accepting that. “I like Bwock.”

Those three tiny words caused such a sweep of emotion inside her that they took her breath away. “Oh. Do you?”

“He’s funny.” Ryan clipped two blocks together. “He kissed you.”

She held out another block. She hadn’t been certain he’d seen the quick peck, but he obviously had. “Yes, he did.”

“Why?” He clipped the block on.

“He likes me,” she said, feeling a little glow inside at the thought.

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “He said I make him happy.”

Ryan rummaged in the box for the right dinosaur feet. “Does he like me?”

She smiled and ruffled his hair. “Yes. He said you were a lovely boy.”

“Will you get mawwied?” he asked, his speech impediment twisting the word.

Her eyes widened. She hadn’t even been aware he’d heard of the word, let alone knew what it meant. “Goodness. What made you say that?” She’d told him a while ago that he had a daddy, but that he lived in another country, and had done her best to tell him just the facts and keep her feelings about Jack to herself.

“Will you mawwy Bwock?”

Her heart thumped hard. “I don’t know, sweetheart. I’ve only just met him. People usually get married when they’ve known each other a long time.”

“Why?”

“Because love’s like a flower. It takes time to grow.”

He thought about it as he searched for the right dinosaur tail. “Do you love Bwock?”

“Um… I’ve only just met him, honey.”

He looked up at her and frowned. “Why is your face all wed?”

A chuckle from the doorway made her glance over. Brock was leaning against the doorpost, his hands in his pockets, watching them. Good lord. Had he heard Ryan ask her if she loved him?

Tongue-tied, she pulled an
eek
face and mouthed, “Sorry.” Brock just shook his head and, smiling, walked over to them and sat on the bed beside Ryan.

“Thank you for my Lego, Bwock,” Ryan said.

“You’re welcome, buddy.” Brock found the tail Ryan had been searching for and held it out for him.

“You kissed Mummy,” Ryan observed.

“I did. Very nice it was too.”

Erin bit her lip. Brock glanced up at her and winked.

“Will you kiss her again?” Ryan wanted to know.

“I hope so,” Brock said cheerfully.

“Mummy said she’s sleeping in your bed tonight.”

Brock nodded at Ryan. “Yeah. That’s right.”

“Will you have a pillow fight?”

Brock started laughing, and Erin couldn’t help but join in.

“I stayed with my fwiend from playgwoup, and we had a pillow fight when we went to bed,” Ryan said.

“I think we should,” Brock told Erin. “If we do, I’ll win.”

“Don’t bet on it.” She joined in with the search for the next Lego piece. “I have a strong right arm.”

He chuckled, meeting her gaze. His eyes were warm, and she let herself think about the moment when she’d slip beneath the covers with him tonight, when he’d press his warm, firm body to her, and crush his lips against hers. The heat in his eyes told her he was thinking similar thoughts, and she felt an answering tightening of her nipples at the notion of time alone with him.

“I need his head,” Ryan declared, holding up the headless dinosaur.

Brock laughed and helped him search for it.

Erin sighed and put thoughts of the naked billionaire to the back of her mind. When Ryan was in bed, then she could turn her attention to the man at her side.

Was he frustrated at having to share her with her son? She watched him show Ryan how to clip the head on, doing it once, then removing it so the boy could do it himself. He didn’t look frustrated. He looked contented and happy, and for some reason that made Erin happy too.