Baby comes first! Will love follow?
HIS INHERITED FAMILY
BARBARA DUNLOP
MAXINE SULLIVAN
MYRNA MACKENZIE
New Arrivals His Inherited Family
Billionaire Baby Dilemma
Barbara Dunlop
His Ring, Her Baby
Maxine Sullivan
Cowgirl Makes Three
Myrna Mackenzie
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Billionaire Baby Dilemma
About the Author
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
His Ring, Her Baby
About the Author
Dedication
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Cowgirl Makes Three
About the Author
Dedication
PROLOGUE
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Copyright
Billionaire Baby Dilemma
Barbara Dunlop
BARBARA DUNLOP writes romantic stories while curled up in a log cabin in Canadas far north, where bears outnumber people and it snows six months of the year. Fortunately she has a brawny husband and two teenage children to haul firewood and clear the driveway while she sips cocoa and muses about her upcoming chapters. Barbara loves to hear from readers. You can contact her through her website at www.barbaradunlop.com.
One
Lucas Demarco was a man who liked certainty. He liked concretes, and he liked control. What his cousin Steve Foster was proposing lacked every one of those essential elements.
Primarily Brazil, Steve was saying. But East Palites is a free trade zone for all of South America. Pacific Robotics would be in on the ground floor for high tech.
Lucas hoisted his dripping wet sea kayak and paddle over his head and started back up the short path from the familys private dock on Puget Sound to their boathouse. The political situation is far too unstable.
Theyre not going to nationalize the high-tech sector, Steve countered, as he followed along in business suit and a pair of loafers. That would be suicide.
Lucas flipped the kayak onto the grass outside the boathouse and uncoiled a garden hose. Right. Because lunatic dictators always make rational decisions.
If we dont do this, Lucas, somebody else will.
Let them, said Lucas, unzipping his life jacket and slipping it off over his wet suit. It was a warm May evening, but the ocean temperature was still cold enough to turn a person hypothermic. I dont mind being second into a market like that.
Steves hands went to his hips, wrinkling his dark suit jacket. This isnt your decision.
It isnt yours, either. And a stalemate means we stick with the status quo. And that was fine for this particular stalemate. But Lucas knew they had to resolve the situation around his orphaned, baby niece Amelia, and theyd have to do it very soon.
He and Steve each owned forty-five percent of Pacific Robotics, making Amelias ten percent the key to the corporation.
Lucas knew it, and Steve knew it, and so did several dozen lawyers, company executives and competitors. Whoever controlled Amelia was the swing vote in every Pacific Robotics corporate decision from here on in.
Both Lucas and his brother Konrad had put their hearts and souls into the billion dollar corporation. As long as Konrad was alive and in control of his daughters shares, both Amelia and the corporation were safe. But with Konrads death, Lucas needed permanent guardianship of the baby girl in order to have deciding control. It was the only way to protect her from outside corporate vultures whod try to use her, and the only way to ensure the future of Pacific Robotics.
You son of a bitch, growled Steve.
Lucas shrugged and spun the outside tap, pointing the stream of water at the kayaks deck to hose off the salt. Lucky my mothers not alive to hear you say that.
Ill fight Granddads will, Steve vowed, raising his voice. Dont you think I wont prove what Konrad did.
Konrad got married and had a baby, said Lucas, squelching the shot of pain that came with uttering his dead brothers name. By fathering Amelia, Konrad had met the conditions of their grandfathers will and secured the family inheritance for the Demarco side of the family, instead of the irresponsible risk-taking Fosters, who were more interested in jet-setting vacations than annual reports and balance sheets.
Though Lucas had his own concerns about the speed with which Konrad had fallen in love and married Monica Hartley, hed never share them with Steve. And he was confident that Konrad had at the very least been well on his way to loving her when they got married.
In any event, it was a moot point. As the firstborn, Amelia was their grandfathers heir. Steve had already insisted on a DNA test, and it had proven Konrad was Amelias father.
Lucas flipped the kayak over and began hosing down the bright blue hull.
So, whens the temporary guardianship hearing? asked Steve, the change in his tone putting Lucas on alert.
Monica had died in the light plane crash along with Konrad, and her sisterDevin Hartleywas fighting Lucas for guardianship of Amelia.
Next week, Lucas answered, glancing up.
Steve nodded, a calculating look entering his eyes. And, if Devin wins?
Bingo. There it was.
You stay away from Devin, Lucas warned, sending Steve a dark look. Not that he intended to lose. Not that he expected Devin to be a factor in the long term.
Steves gaze wandered to the sun setting over the mountains of Bainbridge Island. Its a free country, he mused in a calculating tone.
I mean it, said Lucas, cranking off the tap. It is not open season on Devin Hartley.
She seemed like a decent woman, a little bohemian and flighty, and definitely more emotional than Lucas would have liked. Still, he couldnt help remembering there was something inherently sensual about the way she moved and the way she smiled. Her blue eyes had sparkled that night at Konrads wedding, as if she were hiding a secret, and he found himself wanting to discover it.
He knew that his reaction had been ridiculous. And hed eventually discounted the memory. Until now. Not that it mattered one way or the other. Bottom line, he was not about to stand by and let Steve cozy up to her in the hope of opening up a division of Pacific Robotics in South America.
Steves smile was sly and confident. If she wins, there is no way to stop me from presenting my case.
Lucas jerked the rubber hose back into a coil. And you called me a son of a bitch.
In this instance, I call you cowardly and unimaginative.
Lucas stuffed the hose back on the wall bracket. And I call you reckless.
So, we agree to disagree?
Stay away from Devin.
Seriously, Lucas. Who died and left you king?
Granddad.
No. He died and left Konrad king. Steve gave a thoughtful pause. And, you know, I could have lived with that.
Lucas dragged down the zipper of his wet suit, trying not to be surprised by the unvarnished, frontal attack. Are you saying you wish Id died instead?
Im saying Konrad was the better man. He was like me. He knew how the game was played.
Konrad was nothing like you. Konrad might have had a reckless streak, but he wasnt devious and conniving. Lucas could trust his brother to be honest and to operate in the best interest of the family. Steve could only be trusted to look out for his own tainted agenda.
Steve took a step forward, leaning in, eyes narrowing. This is an era of global diversification, Lucas. We need to expand. Those who do will thrive. Those who dont will wither and die.
And those who lose their industrial assets to a military coup?
At least they had the gonads to try.
Lucas stripped out of the tight, black wet suit and hung it up on the outside rack. Theres a difference between bravery and reckless stupidity.
Steve shook his head as he scoffed out a laugh. Thats just what the cowards tell themselves.
Lucas tamped down his frustration. At the same time, he battled a brief burst of loneliness. Steve had been a jerk for most of his life, but Konrad had always been around to help turn Steves behavior into a joke.
Lucas and Konrad had each led their own lives, there was no doubt about that. Konrad had spent most of his time at his apartment in Bellevue. And for the past year, hed been pretty obsessed with getting his estranged wife back into his life. But until hed lost his brother, Lucas hadnt realized how much he counted on having someone around who understood the pressures and conflicts of running the company, someone who could laugh at the foibles of relatives who were tied so closely together through the family business.
You might want to man up on this, said Steve.
And you might want to start using your brain instead of relying on blind ambition.
Then I guess Ill see you in court.
Youre not invited.
Its a free country, Steve repeated, the words clearly a challenge.
When Lucas refused to react, Steve shook his head and turned up the path to the mansion.
Lucas jerked out six feet of hose and turned the spray on his wet suit.
Hed struggled most of his life not to flatten his annoying cousin. Konrad had always been the diplomat of the family, convincing a teenage Lucas that he couldnt win against Steve by using his fists. But with Konrad gone, and no buffer left between them, Lucas was sorely tempted to try.
With Amelia finally down for her nap, Devin Hartley moved through the living room of her lakeside cottage, picking up plastic toys, blankets and the assorted books and magazines that had been strewn around the room. Since Amelia had started to crawl last month, shed been pulling up on the furniture, and even taking the odd shaky step while she held on to the furniture, so Devin had baby-proofed the lower three feet of the house. Still, by noon most days, the place looked like a war zone.
All quiet? It was her neighbor Lexis soft voice, as she carefully slid open the screen door from the deck.
Devin smiled and motioned Lexi inside. The woman was in her early forties, with three grown children whod all left the state for either jobs or college.
Lexi had lost her husband six years ago in a boating accident. And it was her empathy and understanding that got Devin through those first terrible weeks after Monica and Konrads plane had crashed.
Get any sleep last night? asked Lexi, sliding the door shut behind her. The mosquitoes were out already, and the bumblebees who were attracted to the gardens and wildflowers were beginning to make their presence known.