The Perfect Gift: A Christmas Billionaire Sexy Romance (Three Wise Men Book 1) (5 page)

“Okay.”

He wasn’t quite sure what emotion was in her eyes—excitement? Wariness? Amusement? Her lips curved, though, so he knew it was nothing bad.

They were only inches apart, close enough for him to smell her light, flowery perfume and to see the freckles across her nose. Her lips looked soft, and he wanted to kiss her, to dip his tongue into her mouth and see if she tasted as sweet as he suspected. To pull her against him, slide his hands under her T-shirt, and feel her warm skin.

Smiling, he bent his head and touched his lips to her cheek. “Goodbye, Erin.”

“Bye.” She blushed and walked away, giving him a quick glance over her shoulder before she disappeared into the ward.

Brock grinned and picked up his bags, then headed for the stairs. Georgia was waiting there, and she raised her eyebrows as he walked up.

“Did you pull?” she asked.

He tipped his head to the side and gave her an exasperated look. “Subtle, Miss Banks.”

“You don’t pay me for subtlety,” she said as they walked down the stairs.

He laughed. “Thanks for organizing this. I know you were hoping to see Matt.” He winked at her. He had a special fondness for the young woman who worked so hard for sick children. An absolute beauty, Georgia Banks had a troubled past, and he wasn’t at all surprised she wasn’t interested in his brother. He waited for her to say so.

Sure enough, she said, “Not at all,” but to his surprise, her cheeks turned a rosy pink.

He smirked. He’d made two women blush in the space of two minutes. That wasn’t bad going.

He opened his mouth to query her further, but they’d reached the bottom of the stairs and Georgia was clearly not going to let herself be questioned. “See you later,” she said, and walked away to her car.

Brock hefted his bag over his shoulder and tucked the bag with Dixon’s costume under his arm, heading out to the taxi Georgia had arranged to take him to the airport. Someone was playing Christmas carols in their car, and he chuckled when he heard the song We Three Kings.

Humming along, happier than he had been in a long while, he got into the taxi and sat back to daydream as the car drove away.

“So your father and I were wondering if you’d like to go out for a meal on Saturday for your birthday?”

It was Wednesday lunchtime. Ryan had been released from hospital on the Monday, and after a couple of days’ rest, like most kids he’d bounced back as if there had never been anything wrong with him. Erin had been keeping a close eye on him, but he seemed fine.

She was in the middle of making him a sandwich. She’d buttered two slices of bread and was halfway through opening a tin of tuna. Her hand gave an involuntary twitch, and the tin slipped out of the opener and clattered onto the breakfast bar.

“Oops.” She picked it up again and carried on, attempting nonchalance. “Um, I’m not sure what I’m doing yet, but thanks. Can I let you know?”

“Of course.” Karen Bloom sat on the stool opposite her. Erin knew her mother hated doing nothing and was itching to take over and make the sandwich for her, but to her credit she remained still and didn’t comment on the fact that water had leaked from the spilled tin all over the counter. “Are you thinking of going out with your friends? I can babysit if you like.”

“I… um…” Erin had always been unable to lie to her mother. Lying to her teachers, her friends, her partners, even her father, had been easy, but there was something in her mother’s eye that made her feel as if Karen saw right through her to the fourteen-year-old girl inside.

“Okay, out with it.” Karen gave in to her instincts and rose to get a piece of kitchen towel to mop up the spill. “Are you having a party or something?”

“I haven’t had a birthday party since I was eleven, Mum.”

“And I still can’t believe you wanted to wear a Spider-man outfit and not that beautiful princess dress I made for you.”

Erin chuckled. “I stood out a bit, didn’t I?”

“You did rather. So? What’s the plan?”

Concentrating hard, Erin tipped the tuna into a bowl, added mayonnaise, and gave it a stir. “I’ve… um… had an… um… offer. Sort of.”

“An offer? Of what?”

Possibly hot sex with a gorgeous man if I play my cards right.

She cleared her throat. “Brock’s asked me out to dinner.”

Karen’s eyes widened. “Dixon the Dog?”

Erin glanced over her shoulder to where Ryan sat on the floor, playing with his Lego and watching his favorite Disney movie for the hundredth time. He showed no sign of having heard her. The Dixon the Dog plush toy that Brock had given him sat by his side as if also watching the movie. It had been permanently attached to Ryan’s hand since his birthday.

Hiding a smile, she brought her gaze back to her mother. “Yes. Although he probably won’t be wearing the dog suit.”

Karen gave her a wry look. “Well, that’s nice. Where does he want to take you?”

Erin tried very hard not to give a rude answer to that one. “That’s the thing. He’s offered to pay for a night away in a hotel.”

Silence fell like early morning mist. Erin spread the tuna mayo on one slice of bread, topped it with a cheese square out of a packet, and put the other slice of bread on top.

“You shouldn’t give him that plastic cheese,” Karen said. “I bet it has a thousand E numbers in it.”

“Ryan likes it. He doesn’t like real cheese.” She cut the sandwich in half with more force than was necessary, making the tuna squeeze out of the sides onto the counter.

“Or real meat,” Karen said, referring to the fact that her grandson would eat chicken nuggets but not chicken, meatballs but not beef, loved sausages but wouldn’t go near a slice of pork, and only ate fish if it had fingers.

Erin paused, counted to ten, and placed the sandwiches on a plate with a packet of chips. Her parents had been invaluable after Jack had left her. Karen had come to all her ante-natal classes, she’d been at the birth, and she never said no if Erin asked her to babysit. Although Erin lived in a tiny house and barely had two cents to rub together, her father, Pete, made sure they never went hungry, and that Ryan always had enough clothes and toys so Erin didn’t feel a complete failure as a mother. She couldn’t have coped without them, and she was incredibly thankful they only lived ten minutes up the road and were willing and able to help out.

Still, it didn’t mean they never made her want to pull her hair out. She managed her money as well as she could, but occasionally she gave in and treated herself to something—a pretty scarf in the sale, a sparkly crystal to hang in the window, a pot of flowers for the table—things that, to her, made life worth living. Her father worked in a bank, and he’d pointed out more than once that these things weren’t necessities, and until she got herself a proper job and earned enough to clear the bills, she shouldn’t waste her money on frivolities. At the ripe old age of twenty-six, she wanted to tell him to stick his advice where the sun didn’t shine, but he meant well, he was her father, and she knew he had no real understanding of how hard it was for her to get through the days sometimes, so she let it slide.

With her mother, it was slightly different. Karen had brought up her three children on very little money, and often said how tough it had been, so Erin knew she understood not just not having money to buy stuff, but also not being able to pay for a nanny or kindergarten. Now Ryan had turned three, Erin was officially able to place him at a kindergarten for twenty hours a week for free, but that depended on vacancies, and at the moment the kindie nearest to her had no places until the following February when the oldest children would start primary school.

She knew she had it no harder than the majority of single mums across the world. She had only the one child, and she had both her parents around to help out—not every woman was that lucky. But there were times she felt her mother could have made her life easier. Karen had no problem with pointing out areas where she thought Erin could do better, whether it because she thought her daughter had waited too long to toilet train Ryan, when it was connected to her grandson’s eating habits, or when she felt Erin could have been stricter with his behavior. Again, she meant well, and her protectiveness was entirely due to the fact that Erin had struggled to cope when Jack had abandoned her. But even so, it didn’t make life easy.

“What hotel?” Karen said eventually, curiosity getting the better of her disapproval.

“I don’t know. Somewhere in the Bay, he said.”

“He owns Three Wise Men, doesn’t he? He must have a few dollars to his name.”

“Well, he owns it with his brothers, but yeah, I’m guessing he’s not hard up.” Erin took the plate into the living room and gave it to her son.

“Dinosaur’s starving,” Ryan said, and let the T-rex he’d built take a bite out of the tuna sandwich.

“That’s cool. One bite for him, one for you.” Erin walked back into the kitchen.

Karen frowned. “You shouldn’t let him play with his food.”

“Mum…” Erin fought the urge to bang her head on the counter and threw the tin into the sink with a clatter. “Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere?”

Karen waved her hand. “It won’t matter if I’m a few minutes late. What have you said to Brock?”

“I told him I’d let him know.”

Her mother raised an eyebrow. “You know he only wants one thing, Erin. And a man with money knows how to get it.”

“Mum!”

“I’m telling it like it is, that’s all.”

“You were the one who encouraged him on the phone! You told him what to buy Ryan.”

“Buying a sick child a birthday present is one thing. Proposing an affair is another. I know what you’re like—a man flashes a smile at you and everything goes out of the window. You need to keep your wits about you with this one.”

Erin bit her lip hard, then blew out a breath. “I admit I didn’t see through Jack until it was too late, but one incident doesn’t make a trend.”

“Oh sweetheart, come on, Jack was hardly the only one. You have terrible taste in men.”

Opening her mouth to protest, Erin thought about it, then slowly closed her mouth. She wanted to yell at her mother, but Karen spoke the truth. Erin’s first boyfriend had cheated on her with her then best friend. Her second boyfriend broke up with her the day before Valentine’s Day. The third had seemed to prefer spending time with his mates to being with her, and when she’d tentatively suggested they see more of each other, he’d dumped her for being too possessive. Ironically, the fourth had wanted to be with her every minute of the day and had been jealous to the point that he’d scared her, flying off the handle whenever he caught her even exchanging the time of day with another man.

The fifth had been Jack. Karen was right—she had a terrible taste in men, and the realization brought angry tears rushing to Erin’s eyes.

Karen sighed. “Oh, honey…” Hastily, she walked around the breakfast bar and enfolded her daughter in her arms.

Erin gritted her teeth. Karen’s arms were warm, her hand gentle as it stroked her arm. Her mother always had to pick up the pieces after each disastrous relationship ended. It wasn’t surprising she was wary for her daughter.

“Surely statistically I’m due to meet someone nice?” Erin sniffed.

“You’d think.” Karen went over to switch the kettle on.

“He’s really nice, mum,” Erin said softly, thinking of Brock’s smile, and his gentle concern on the phone.

“I’m sure he is. And I suppose he’d be able to provide well for you and Ryan.”

Erin stiffened. “That’s not why I’m thinking about going out with him.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, love. It’s animal instinct, isn’t it? Choosing the best mate we can find who we think will care for our young.”

“Even so. I’m not interested in his money.”

“So you’re paying for this hotel, are you?”

Erin locked gazes with her mother. “I’m not allowed presents on my birthday now?”

“A bunch of red roses is a gift. So is a box of chocolates. You’ve just met the man. You’re really saying you’ll let him pay for a night away in a hotel. What’s he going to do, book two rooms?” Karen laughed.

Erin’s cheeks warmed. “That’s exactly what he’s doing.”

“Oh, sweetheart, come on,” Karen scoffed. “You are so incredibly naive. You’re twenty-six, not sixteen.”

Erin glared at her. “Don’t you think it’s possible for someone to be altruistic in this day and age? To give a gift without wanting something in return?”

Karen folded her arms. “No.”

“Then I pity you,” Erin said harshly. “What a terrible world you must live in.”

“I live in the real world. And I’m not the single mother struggling to make ends meet because her idiot boyfriend wouldn’t recognize his child.”

That really hurt. Erin inhaled and swallowed hard. “Ouch.”

Immediately, regret crossed Karen’s face. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Damn it, I always go too far. I only want what’s best for you, my love.”

“I know.”

“I just don’t want you to get hurt again.”

“I know.”

“Just be careful. It’s possible this man is being unselfish. Maybe he genuinely wants to be nice. But money is a strange thing—it’s like mistletoe. It’s attractive, but it’s parasitic—it drains all the good things out of you. I’m not saying he doesn’t like the look of you, but once he sees your lifestyle, he’ll think you’re after his money. It’ll eat at him, the same way it will eat at you every time you wonder whether you’re only with him because of it, and don’t look at me like that. I know you, and I know how your brain works.”

“I think I’ve had about as much honesty as I can take today.” Erin got her mother’s handbag and held it out to her. “You’d better go or you’ll be late.”

Karen looked suddenly distressed. Although she was often outspoken, the two of them rarely argued. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. You’re probably right. I just need to think about it.”

Reluctantly, Karen kissed her on the cheek, then went and kissed Ryan goodbye before following her daughter to the door. “I really am sorry,” she said when they reached it. “I’m so worried about you getting hurt again, that’s all.”

“I know, Mum. Don’t worry, it’s all good. I’ll see you tomorrow—are you still okay to babysit for Ryan while I go and visit Caitlin?” Erin was due to meet her old school friend up in Mangonui for the afternoon. They’d arranged it ages ago, and although she was reluctant to leave Ryan after he’d been unwell, he was so full of spirits now that she felt able to leave him with her parents for an afternoon.

“Of course. I’ll see you around eleven?”

“Sure. Bye.”

Erin closed the door behind her mother, and went and sat on the sofa.

Ryan had finished his sandwich, and he got up, came over to her, and climbed onto her lap. “I’m still hungry,” he announced. “Can I have a biscuit?”

“I think we should have a walk down to the shop and buy a huge bar of chocolate,” Erin said, knowing that would annoy both of her parents.

Her son’s eyes lit up. “Milky Bar?”

“Absolutely. We’ll get two bars. Milky Bar for you and Dairy Milk for me.”

He flung his arms around her and planted a wet kiss on her cheek. “Can Dixon come?”

She hugged him back, fighting tears once again. “Of course. Does he like chocolate?”