“We can leave for New York as soon as you’re ready. I’ll hire security for Victoria for the next six weeks to make sure she’s safe. I can have someone in place to accompany her by late this afternoon if she wants to drive back tomorrow.”
Caroline nodded, grateful for the way he easily accepted responsibility for her sister.
Victoria hurried down the stairs with a pink duffel bag over one shoulder, her tennis shoes half on and untied. “Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Let’s not get too carried away making plans for other peoples’ lives, okay? I don’t need a keeper, thank you very much.” She paused at the bottom of the stairs to shove her feet more fully into her shoes, jamming the laces down inside with her socks.
Caroline carried the empty bottle over to the sink and washed it. “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you because of me. You can handle a bodyguard for a few weeks until we figure out who kidnapped me and why.” She’d never forget the way her captors had threatened her siblings. Those threats had frightened her far more than anything they’d done to her. “I’m scared enough about our younger brothers, but the police promised to get in touch with their boarding schools to make sure they were on alert.”
“Seriously?” Victoria let her bag fall to the floor with a thunk. “I’ve got way too much research to do this semester. I’ll be lucky to ever leave the library. And I’m going to be stuck with some muscle-head goon?”
She was twenty-four years old to Caroline’s twenty-eight, but sometimes Caroline felt decades older.
“You might come to appreciate muscle if it saves you from being dragged away from your home and held against your will.” Caroline shoved the clean bottle into the diaper bag along with a few baby towels. “Trust me.”
Victoria hesitated. “I know, but—”
Barreling past her sister, Caroline headed toward the door, unwilling to hear complaints about the extra protection they all needed. “Once we have the car seat and the porta-crib, we’ll be all set to go.”
“I can get them.” Damon passed her the baby, his hand grazing her breast and setting off a riot of sensations. “Wait here and I’ll pack the vehicle.”
Their gazes met, heat sparking in a whole other, unspoken conversation going on between them. What a crazy moment to recall that her obstetrician had okayed her to resume all normal activity at her last visit. The printed patient summary she’d taken home had specifically referred to physical intimacy. Clearly, her body had gotten the message.
“I—” She couldn’t even remember what they’d been talking about. “Er. Okay?”
If there were any doubts in her mind that they were both feeling the spark, they faded away at the heated look in Damon’s eyes. Was it the deliberate, calculated seduction of a man who wanted to keep his family together? Or was he feeling a genuine attraction? The hitch in her breathing made her heartbeat skip.
“Good.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek, using it as a way to speak quietly into her ear. “I’m very ready to take you home.”
CHAPTER SIX
After cueing up the playlist Caroline had requested on the house’s built-in state-of-the-art sound system, Damon adjusted the settings so that the nursery was the only room to hear the classical lullaby music. Tapping the app on his phone, he turned down the volume, settling on a barely-there level so Lucas could fall asleep to the soft symphonies.
Meeting his son had helped him to quiet some of the anger still simmering inside him over his wife’s deception. Seeing the boy’s face had raised the stakes. He couldn’t afford to fail at this marriage. So while he had no intention of giving over his heart to Caroline again, he would fulfill his obligations to her. He would be attentive. Solicitous. And he would damn well be passionate. His attraction to her hadn’t dimmed.
They’d all been busy since returning home from the rental house with the baby and Caroline’s sister. Damon had spent time researching private security firms, calling friends for recommendations before settling on a company based in San Jose. It had been started by a former local sheriff with the help of the tech guru who owned a digital security firm called Fortress. Damon used the system on his own properties and had been impressed with Fortress’s founder, Zach Chance, who had given him some welcome input on start-ups in Silicon Valley when Damon first arrived in town. Damon liked having a personal connection to the business at a time when he was questioning who he could really trust in his life.
Once he’d signed a contract and emailed it back, it was less than an hour before the first shift team arrived. They upgraded some of the exterior security systems on the Los Altos Hills property, then divided the protective detail so two people would remain with Caroline and Lucas at all times, and one guard would go to Stanford with Victoria.