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Sweet
Surrender,
Baby Surprise
Kate Carlisle
The Secretary’s
Bossman Bargain
Red Garnier
Sweet
Surrender,
Baby Surprise
Kate Carlisle
“We can talk about sleeping arrangements later,” he said easily, moving closer. “It’s great to see you, Julia.”
Smiling tentatively, she said, “Really?”
He skimmed his lips along her hairline and breathed in her fresh scent. “Yeah.”
She sighed and closed her eyes, clearly swayed. “But what about your rule?”
Watching her closely, he lowered his head toward hers. “What rule is that?”
Her eyes fluttered open as she whispered, “Once you’ve finished with a woman, you never go back.”
Cameron frowned. “I told you that?”
Nodding solemnly, she said, “It was the last time I saw you. You said you had a great time but you wouldn’t call. You said you didn’t want me to get the wrong idea.” Her voice quavered as his lips hovered within millimeters of hers.
“I’m an idiot,” he said, cupping the nape of her neck in his hand.
With a smile, she gazed into his eyes. “You said it’s a long-standing rule of yours.”
“Rules are made to be broken,” he murmured, and covered her mouth with his.
Dear Reader,
Years ago, wealthy young widow Sally Duke adopted three troubled boys, Adam, Cameron and Brandon. She gave them love and affection, strong values and a sense of family they’d never had before, and they grew up to be confident, handsome and powerful businessmen.
Now it’s payback time. Sally Duke wants grandbabies and she’s willing to play hardball to get them! You may have already read Adam Duke’s story. Now, in Sweet Surrender, Baby Surprise, it’s Cameron’s turn to face his mother’s matchmaking machinations. When he runs into lovely pastry chef Julia Parrish, he has no idea that their last romantic tryst resulted in the birth of a darling baby boy—but Sally knows!
The dramatic central California coast is the setting for my Duke brothers stories. As a California girl myself, I’ve grown up spellbound by the rugged beauty of the cliffs, the Zen-like dignity of the singular palm tree wavering in the wind, the power of the ocean waves pounding against the shore. But mixed in with all that power and ruggedness is the laid-back relaxation that California is famous for. My three handsome heroes have their own easygoing style and it works well for them— until they’re confronted by love!
I hope you enjoy Cameron and Julia’s story. Please stop by my website at www.katecarlisle.com and let me know.
Happy reading!
Kate
About the Author
New York Times bestselling author KATE CARLISLE was born and raised by the beach in Southern California. After more than twenty years in television production, Kate turned to writing the types of mysteries and romance novels she always loved to read. She still lives by the beach in Southern California with her husband, and when they’re not taking long walks in the sand or cooking or reading or painting or taking bookbinding classes or trying to learn a new language, they’re traveling the world, visiting family and friends in the strangest places. Kate loves to hear from readers. Visit her website at www.katecarlisle.com.
To the wonderful Susan Mallery, with love and thanks for being a true and generous friend. Drinks are on me!
One
All Cameron Duke wanted to do was rip off his tie, grab a beer and get laid, not necessarily in that order. He’d been working too hard for way too long on the current Duke Development project and he was damn tired of living in a hotel suite.
On the other hand, he reasoned as he slid his key card into the door slot, he couldn’t really complain about it. After all, he owned the hotel. And the owner’s suite of the Monarch Dunes resort hotel was two thousand square feet of luxury: all the comforts of home with a wide terrace, fantastic ocean views and room service. Nope, he couldn’t complain about that.
As he stepped inside the foyer of his suite, Cameron vowed that as soon as the hotel’s international catering conference was over, he would go fishing. The resort was up and running to capacity, so it was time for him to take off for a few weeks, get away and do nothing. Maybe he’d rent a houseboat up on Lake Shasta, or grab a raft and float down the King River. Or maybe he’d just make a few calls….
Not to put too fine a point on it, he definitely needed to get laid.
Pulling his tie loose, he dropped his keys on the foyer side table, placed his briefcase on the marble floor and stepped into the living room, where every light in the room was turned on.
“Now, what’s wrong with this picture?” he muttered, knowing he’d switched the lights off when he left two days ago.
Not only was every light on in the suite, but the drapes were all closed. Housekeeping knew he preferred the drapes to stay open in order to take advantage of the incredible Pacific view. The room was on the top floor of the Craftsman-style hotel, and the double-paned windows were tempered glass and lightly tinted. It wasn’t as if anyone could see inside.
He shrugged out of his suit jacket. Maybe there was someone new working in Housekeeping. They must’ve left the lights on and closed the drapes without knowing his preferences. It could happen. But it wouldn’t happen again.
Taking a few steps into the room, he saw a strange paperback book, opened and facedown on the coffee table. Then his gaze focused in on another foreign object draped over the arm of the couch.
Moving closer, he carefully picked up the soft bit of fabric. Pink, trimmed with paler pink lace around the edges. Lingerie. Expensive. Absurdly feminine. He fingered the fancy silk and the lightest scent of orange blossoms and spice wafted up and enveloped him. The fragrance was vaguely familiar and his groin tightened as an inexplicable need arose in the pit of his stomach.
“What the hell?” He tossed the camisole back on the couch. Not that he didn’t appreciate a nice bit of feminine adornment as much as the next guy, but right now he was more concerned with how in the world it got in here.
“Beer first,” he decided, and cut through the spacious dining room to get to the kitchen. That’s when he saw the high heels. Sexy ones. Red. Tucked under the dining room table.
He hated to repeat himself, but what the hell?
Red high heels? It had to be a joke. Something like this was right up his brother Brandon’s alley. And if Cameron hadn’t already been annoyed at having his quiet evening interrupted, he might’ve managed to laugh about it.
He moved cautiously past the bar into the kitchen. No, Brandon wasn’t hiding there, waiting to jump out and yell that Cameron had been Punk’d. But that didn’t mean his brother wasn’t around somewhere. Cameron grabbed a beer from the refrigerator, twisted the cap off, took a long, slow drink, then stared at the row of empty baby bottles lined up next to the sink.
Baby bottles?
“Okay, that’s enough,” he said, then shouted, “Brandon? Where are you?” There was no answer.
“I know you’re in here somewhere,” he said as he walked through the double doors and down the wide hall toward the master bedroom.
That’s when he heard the singing.
He froze. A woman’s voice, slightly off key, singing some old song about piña coladas and getting caught in the rain. Some woman was singing in the shower. His shower. In his bathroom.
He glanced at his navy polo shirt neatly tossed over the back of the chair in the corner. Those were his running shoes tucked under the chair, too.
Good. He was in the right suite. Which meant that some woman was definitely in the wrong one. Cameron swore under his breath. This had to be Brandon’s work. It would be just like his brother to hire a woman as a “surprise.” It was the only explanation, because without the approval of a family member, there was no way the front desk would ever allow a strange woman into his room.
He stood listening to the soft singing and wondered what his next step ought to be. He should probably be a gentleman and wait for whomever it was to finish her shower, dry off and put some clothes on before he kicked her out. But then, he’d never claimed to be a gentleman.
Besides, he wasn’t the one guilty of breaking and entering. And showering. So he stood at the entrance to the bathroom and waited as the water was turned off and the shower door opened.
One incredibly shapely, bare, wet leg emerged at the same time as a well-toned, lightly freckled arm reached to grab a towel. Cameron pulled one off the rack and handed it to her. “Allow me.”
Her scream was shrill enough to peel the paint off the bathroom wall.
“Get out!” she cried, then dropped the towel in her anxious rush to cover herself up.
“Funny, that’s just what I was about to say to you,” he told her.
Cameron wasn’t normally a voyeur. He should’ve moved away from the door immediately and given her some privacy, but he couldn’t. All he could do was gawk like a school kid at her wet-dream-inducing breasts. High, round orbs with tight pink nipples that he imagined would fit perfectly in his hands. And his mouth. His imagination didn’t stop there. He wanted to reach out and touch the smooth skin of her stomach, then let his fingers wander down to the delicious patch of dark blond hair at the apex of her curvaceous thighs.
A spark of light drew his gaze back to her navel, where a small diamond twinkled. She had a pierced belly button. For some reason, that made him smile.
“Will you stop staring and get out of here?” she shrieked as she grappled with the towel, finally covering up those spectacular breasts of hers.
Show’s over, his rampant libido thought mournfully, and he brought his gaze back up to her face. Whoa. He would know those flashing dark blue eyes anywhere. They belonged to the one woman he’d never quite been able to get out of his mind.
“Hello, Julia,” he said.
“What do you think you’re doing here, Cameron?”
He leaned back against the doorjamb. “Well, since I live here, I was thinking I’d throw some shorts on, have another beer and watch the football game.” He folded his arms across his chest. “A better question might be, what are you doing here?”
She huffed out a breath as she stepped fully out of the shower, the towel wrapped around her like a terry-cloth shield. “I was told this suite would be unoccupied for the next two weeks.”
“I seriously doubt anyone on my staff told you that.”
“Well, it’s true,” she grumbled, then walked into the bedroom and over to a small open suitcase on the luggage rack near the window.
He took a sip of beer as he watched her pull out some clothes. “Maybe when you’re dressed, we should have a little talk about boundaries.”
“Oh, stuff it,” she said irately, but her hands shook as she pushed her wet, wavy hair back off her face. “Why are you here, anyway?”
“Me?” He probably shouldn’t be smiling still, but after all, he was just a man, and she was gorgeous. “Last time I checked, this was my suite.”
“But you’re not supposed to be here!”
“Honey, I own the place.”
Gripping her towel together with one hand, she pushed past him to the walk-in closet to dress quickly. She emerged less than a minute later, dressed in loose shorts and a T-shirt.
Cameron swore under his breath. If she thought putting on clothes would decrease his desire to stare at her, she was wrong. The small, thin shirt outlined her breasts vividly and Cameron was even more intrigued now than before.
“So, you ready to explain what you’re doing here?” he asked, wondering if it was getting hotter in here.
Fluffing her hair with her fingers to dry it, she began in a calm voice, “Look, Cameron, Sally said that—”
“What?” Every nerve ending in Cameron’s body began to twitch and not in a good way. “Wait a minute.”
Hearing her invoke his mother’s name was not a good thing. Sally Duke, the incredible woman who had adopted him when he was eight years old, was a force of nature. Cameron was well aware of her mission to get her three sons married off and knew she wouldn’t be satisfied until the deed was done. Damn it, if Sally had something to do with Julia being here, Cameron was in for nothing but trouble.
“Exactly what does my mother have to do with you being wet and naked in my bathroom?”
Julia gazed at him warily, seeming to gauge his temper. “Um, absolutely nothing. I misspoke.”
“You misspoke?” he drawled. “About my mother? You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I’m not kidding,” she said, and straightened her spine in righteous anger. Which caused her breasts to thrust forward. Her wet hair had dampened the T-shirt enough that it molded even more firmly to her skin. But she didn’t seem to notice as she persisted. “You’re not supposed to be here. And since I was given a key by your hotel management, I think it’s only right that you should leave.”
“Trust me, that’s not going to happen.” He prowled toward her, studying her every move. “Now exactly what did my mother tell you? “
Her eyes widened and she took a step back. “Never mind. On second thought, I think I’ll just pack my things and get out.”
“Not yet,” he said, grabbing her arm. “I want to know what my mother has to do with you being here.” “All right,” she said as she tried futilely to pull away. “Sally said you’d be gone during the conference and that I would be more comfortable in a suite than a regular room. She told your manager to give me the key.”
Her words sent icy tendrils of pure dread down Cameron’s spine. Yes, he’d originally planned to stay up north another two weeks, but he’d called Sally yesterday to tell her his plans had changed and he was coming back tonight.
His mother had set this whole thing up.
Did Sally really think that Cameron would take one look at this woman, fall on his knees and beg her to marry him? If so, then Mom was doomed for disappointment.
But as Julia squirmed to pull away from him, Cameron’s lower body came to life in a big way. Did it really matter, in that moment, what his mother had done? No. He’d deal with Mom later. Much later.
Right now he had his hands on a lovely, skimpily dressed woman. A sexy woman he’d once known in the most intimate way a man could know a woman.
Holding her close, he again caught that intriguing fragrance of orange blossoms along with something deeper, something exotic. He’d never forgotten her, never forgotten her scent, despite his every effort to do so.
He could still remember meeting her that first time. Talk about lust at first sight.
It all happened after his mother had discovered Cupcake, Julia’s bakery in Old Town Dunsmuir. Mom had tried her pastries and cupcakes and had insisted that her sons try them for themselves. They all agreed that her products were incredible and soon thereafter, the Duke resorts began carrying Julia’s line of pastries, cookies and breads.
Julia had been invited to attend a one-day vendor orientation at one of the Duke resorts up the coast. She’d planned to stay through the long weekend as a guest of the Dukes. That was where Cameron first saw her, walking across the lobby on her way to the hotel lounge. He’d approached, she’d shown equal interest, and they’d ended up spending that long weekend together.
And that had been the end of it.
She’d haunted his dreams on more than one occasion, but Cameron had refused to contact her again. He had a steadfast rule when it came to women. Once the affair was over, he always made a clean break. He never went back, never looked back. It was safer that way, and simpler. For both parties. Otherwise, women tended to get the wrong idea and hold out hope of a relationship growing. Cameron didn’t want to hurt anyone so he stuck to short-term affairs with women who knew the score.
He remembered receiving a few emails from Julia, asking him to call her. He’d thought about it, wanted to, but personal experience had taught him that renewing the affair would only lead to disaster. For her sake as well as his own, Cameron had ignored her requests and eventually, she stopped contacting him.
But here she was, he thought, a year and a half later. In his hotel suite. Wearing those sexy shorts and a practically see-through top. And a belly ring. She gazed up at him with her startling blue eyes and in that moment, he wanted nothing more than to watch those eyes go dark with passion, to taste her lush lips again as well as every other part of her stunning body. Was he honestly going to kick her out of his suite?
Was he nuts?
“Look, I’m sorry,” he said in a soothing tone as he ran his hands up and down her arms. “My people must’ve forgotten I was coming home today. It’s late. We can both stay here tonight and I’ll find you a room in the morning.”
Her eyes clouded with worry. “I suppose I could sleep on the couch.”
“We can talk about sleeping arrangements later,” he said easily, moving closer. “It’s great to see you, Julia.”
Smiling tentatively, she said, “Really?”
He skimmed his lips along her hairline and breathed in her fresh scent. “Yeah.”
She sighed and closed her eyes, clearly swayed. “But what about your rule?”
Watching her closely, he lowered his head toward hers. “What rule is that?”
Her eyes fluttered open as she whispered, “Once you’ve finished with a woman, you never go back.”
Cameron frowned. “I told you that?”
Nodding solemnly, she said, “It was the last time I saw you. You said you had a great time but you wouldn’t call. You said you didn’t want me to get the wrong idea.” Her voice quavered as his lips hovered within millimeters of hers.
“I’m an idiot,” he said, cupping the nape of her neck in his hand.
With a smile, she gazed into his eyes. “You said it’s a long-standing rule of yours.”
“Rules are made to be broken,” he murmured, and covered her mouth with his.
A soft moan escaped her throat as she melted against him. He used his tongue to urge her to open for him and she relented. He thrust into her warmth and felt as though he’d come home. The problems of his world faded and all that mattered was her taste and his need for more.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pressed herself even closer. Sweet, was all he could think. Sweet and warm and passionate. He’d missed her, he realized. He shoved that thought away as her tongue teased and tangled with his.
He heard whimpering and wanted to hear more. Wanted to hear her shout his name. Wanted to hear her begging, demanding, crying out for …
Crying?
Cameron stiffened. Yes, that was definitely the sound of someone crying somewhere. Outside? Next door? That was odd, since it was almost impossible to hear anything going on outside the suite. The walls of all the rooms were reinforced and soundproofed.
But there it was again, muffled but discernible. He eased back a few inches to make eye contact with her. “Did you hear that?”
“Yes, I did,” Julia said, pushing him away and glancing around. Her eyes were sharp as she seemed to be waiting for it to happen again. But there was nothing, and after a moment, Cameron pulled her back into his arms.
“Must’ve been next door,” he whispered, then proceeded to plant soft kisses on her lips, across her cheek, grazing her ear before moving to taste her sexy neck.
She groaned as Cameron maneuvered his hands down her back until he gripped her supple bottom. He pressed his rigid length against her as his mouth devoured hers, then began to guide her toward the bed. He was hot, hard and ready for her.
“Oh, Cameron,” she whispered.
“Yeah, baby, I know.” He sat on the edge of the bed and eased her closer until she was standing between his legs. He reached for the hem of her T-shirt and began to pull it up, just as a sudden, wailing scream filled the hotel suite.
Julia moaned loudly as she eased out of Cameron’s arms. A million and one thoughts raced through her mind all at once. First, the baby needed attention. She’d foolishly left the baby monitor in the master bathroom when she was so rudely interrupted by Cameron, but she knew that if little Jake was fussy, she’d hear him from anywhere in the suite. After that initial scream for attention, he was quiet, but experience had taught her that he wouldn’t remain so for long.
Her other million thoughts were all centered around the realization that Cameron would finally meet Jake. She knew it would’ve happened eventually, but since he hadn’t brought up the subject tonight, she was fairly certain that Cameron, stubborn to the end, had never looked at her emails and therefore, had no idea about the baby. Well, she really hoped he liked surprises.
She headed down the hall toward the bedroom door to face the inevitable. “I’d better take care of this.”
“Take care of what?” Cameron asked, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist.
“The noise you heard before? The crying?”
“The noise from next door? I don’t hear it now,” he said, and continued his sensual onslaught by kissing her neck, then nibbling that most sensitive spot behind her ear.
She couldn’t help but sigh deeply. Her skin tingled everywhere Cameron’s amazing lips touched her. As his hands worked their magic over her body, Julia recalled that everything about Cameron Duke excited and delighted her.
But why in the world had she trusted Cameron’s staff when they’d promised he would be away this whole time? But even his mother had insisted it was safe to stay in the suite. Julia should’ve known by the twinkle in the older woman’s eye when she insisted that Julia stay in Cameron’s suite, that she was being set up.
Her first instinct had been to leave Jake at home with the nanny while she traveled to the conference. But their nanny had a chance to go on a cruise with her daughter, and many of Julia’s old friends attending the conference were bringing their families with them. They’d all wanted to see little Jake. For that reason, plus the fact that she missed her baby when he wasn’t with her, Julia had decided to bring Jake along, too.
It figured that Cameron would cause all her plans to go awry. It wasn’t as if she never wanted him to see the baby, but there was no getting around the fact that this was going to get very awkward, very quickly.
“Mmm, that feels so good,” Julia murmured as she turned in Cameron’s arms and kissed him with all the ardor she could muster. It wasn’t a hardship. The man was incredibly sexy and handsome as sin. He seemed taller than she remembered, and definitely stronger. More confident, too, if that were possible. His dark green eyes watched her with a predator’s gleam. She shouldn’t have found it so absolutely thrilling, but she did.
But damn him for showing up like this! It was just her bad luck, which was the only kind of luck she’d ever had when it came to Cameron Duke.
She’d met him eighteen months ago and willingly succumbed to his charms. They’d had an incredible, torrid four-day affair. Weeks later, she realized she was pregnant.
She’d tried to do the right thing and contact him, but Cameron had all these damn rules about women. Sure enough, true to his word, he never looked back, never contacted her again.
She’d tried emailing him a few times, but it was sadly obvious now, he’d never read any of her messages. And maybe it was just as well. With his so-called rules regarding relationships—or rather, the obsessive need to avoid them—she’d come to the realization that Cameron Duke wouldn’t want to have anything to do with raising a child.
She could just imagine what he would think of her for bringing the baby here, especially when he found out Jake was his. Cameron was a decent man so it wasn’t as if he would toss her and Jake out of his suite. But he might accuse her of setting this whole thing up and there was little doubt that he would deny the baby was his.
“Oh,” she whispered as he pressed himself closer to her. It was getting impossible to think straight with the delicious onslaught of his mouth and hands, but Julia was starting to wonder if she might possibly distract him long enough to get Jake settled. Then she could deal with everything tomorrow morning. Perhaps it was cowardly, but she could live with that.
Whatever she did would have to happen fast, before her baby decided to take matters into his own chubby baby hands.
“Look, Cameron,” she said, finally catching her breath. She needed to get him out of the hallway, now. “Why don’t you go get a fresh beer and I’ll just slip into something more—”
“I don’t need a beer, Julia,” Cameron said, running his hands down her sensitive thighs. “I just need this.”
“Mmm, me, too,” she said as she moved her fingers along his tight, muscled shoulders. “But first, I need a minute to freshen up.”
“You took a shower ten minutes ago,” he reminded her as he nuzzled her neck. “You’re fresh as a daisy.”
She moaned, then reluctantly wriggled out of his grasp. “But I really need to dry my hair.”
“Yeah?” He brushed a few curling strands away from her face. “It looks fine to me.”
“Thanks, but I don’t want to catch a cold.”
He looked at her skeptically. “Right.”
She smiled brightly. “So how’s that fresh beer sounding?”
“What?”
“Beer,” she repeated. “In the kitchen. And didn’t you say you wanted to watch the football game?” “Yeah, sure. But—”
“Go ahead, then. I’ll be right there.” She tried to push him toward the living room but the guy was like a brick wall. Unmovable.
“What’s going on here, Julia?”
Just then, Jake cried out, “Mama, Mama!”
Cameron’s eyes widened.
So much for distractions. She could tell from the tone of Jake’s cry that he wasn’t hurt or hungry, but that didn’t make this moment any easier. “Fine. Look, I didn’t want to have to—”
“Okay, I definitely heard that,” Cameron said, ignoring her words as he stepped around her handily. “I think it came from the other bedroom.”
“No, no, no.” Julia jogged just as quickly around to stop him. “It’s probably just a cat. I’ll take care of it.”
“A cat?” Cameron frowned as he glanced down the hall again. “I don’t think so.”
The baby cried out again and Julia sagged against the hallway wall.
“Aha!” Cameron said and walked toward the second bedroom.
She dashed in front of him and blocked the door. “This is none of your concern, Cameron. Why don’t you go turn on the game?”
Cameron was staring at her as if she’d gone insane. Maybe she had. Seeing him again was causing her to behave completely contrary to her usual sensible self. She could blame him for that, too.
“Move it, Julia.”
She held up her hand to stop him. “No way. This may be your suite, but you’re not going in there without me.”
“Then open the door.” His look said he wasn’t going anywhere until he’d investigated what he’d heard.
“Fine,” Julia said. He’d been bound to find out sometime. The most important thing now was to make sure Cameron didn’t upset Jake. She huffed out a breath as she pushed the door open slowly. “But it’s not what you think. I mean, it is, but—”
“Oh, really?” he said, stepping into the room and spying the portable crib. Julia followed and saw Jake wearing a great big grin on his face, gripping the railing with both hands as he bounced on the mattress.
“Because I think it’s a baby.” Cameron turned and glared at her. “What do you think?”
She walked over to the crib, smiled down at her son and whispered, “Looks like a baby to me, too.”
Jake’s little cheeks were red with exertion and Julia felt a sharp ache in her heart. He held out his arms and his knees began to wobble. “Mama, Mama.”
“Hello, my darling.” She bent to pick him up and perched him against her shoulder, rubbing his back. “That’s better. Don’t worry, sweetie, I’m here. That’s my good boy.”
“What in the—?” Cameron’s tone held a dangerous edge. “Julia, is this your kid? “
She smiled and kissed Jake’s soft cheek, inhaled his warm, powdery baby smell, then turned to face Cameron. “Yes, he’s mine. And yours. Cameron Duke, I’d like you to meet Jacob Cameron Parrish, your son.”
