Billionaire's Scandalous Twins

Chapter 10

In Neptune’s Garden, the elegant restaurant on the Splendor Deck, Isobel watched as Nick worked the room.

As the owner of the ship, he wasn’t exactly expected to mingle with the passengers, but Nick was an execu­tive like no other. He not only mingled, he seemed to enjoy himself. And with her arm tucked through his, Isobel felt like a queen moving through an adoring crowd.

Again and again, as they walked to their table, Nick stopped to chat with people sitting at the white linen–covered tables. Making sure they were enjoying the ship, asking if there was anything they needed and didn’t have, if there was anything that the crew could do to make their stay more pleasurable.

Of course the single women on board were more than anxious to meet the gorgeous, wealthy, eligible Nick Falconari. And the fact that Isobel was on his arm didn’t dissuade them from flirting desperately.

“It’s a beautiful ship, Mr. Falconari,” one woman said with a sigh as she shook his hand. She tossed her thick black hair back over her shoulder and licked her lips.

“Thank you,” he said, smiling at her and the two other women seated with her. “I’m happy you’re en­joying yourselves. If there’s anything you need, please be sure to speak to a steward.”

“Oh,” the brunette cooed, “we will. I promise.”

Isobel just managed to keep from rolling her eyes. All three women were looking at Nick as if he were the first steak they’d stumbled on after leaving a spa dinner of spinach leaves and lemon slices. And he was eating it up, of course.

When he turned to go, he led her on through the crowd and Isobel swore she could feel the death stare from those women boring into her back.

“Well, that was tacky,” she murmured.

“Tacky?”

“The way she practically drooled on you.”

“Ah,” Nick said, flashing a quick grin at her as he opened his right hand—the hand the brunette had shaken and clung to. A cabin key card rested in the center of his palm and the number P230 was scrawled across the top in ink. “So I’m guessing this makes it even tackier.”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Isobel snapped, wanting to spin around and shoot a few daggers at the brunette with no class. “I was with you. For all she knew I was your girlfriend.”

His pale blue eyes sparkled and his grin widened enough that the dimple in his left cheek was a deep cleft. “Jealous?”

She tried to pull her hand free of the crook of his arm, but he held her tight. Frowning, she said, “No. Not jealous. Just irritated.”

“By her? Or by me?”

“A little of both.” She tipped her head back to look up at him. “Why didn’t you give the key back to her?”

He looked genuinely surprised at the suggestion. “Why would I embarrass her in front of her friends?”

Isobel snorted indelicately. “I’m guessing it’s next to impossible to embarrass a woman like that.”

“This really bothers you.”

It always had, she thought. When she first went to work for Falcon Cruise Lines, she’d heard all the stories. About how on every cruise there were women lining up to take their place in Nick’s bed. He was a player, no doubt. But for some reason, Isobel had allowed herself to be swept up in the magic of the moment. She’d somehow convinced herself that what they’d had together was dif­ferent from what he found with countless other women.

Apparently, she’d been wrong about a few things.

“One question,” she said, keeping her voice low enough that no one they passed could possibly overhear.

“Okay.”

“Are you planning on using that key?”

He only looked at her for a long moment or two, then sighing, he stopped a waiter, handed over the key card and whispered something Isobel didn’t quite catch. Then he turned to her. “That answer your question?”

“Depends,” she said. “What did you tell him?”

“To return the card to the brunette with my thanks and my regrets.”

A small puddle of warmth settled in Isobel’s chest and even though she knew it was foolish, she couldn’t quite seem to quash it. “Thank you.”

He dipped his head in a faint mockery of a bow. “I find there’s only one woman I’m interested in talking to at the moment.”

“Nick…”

“Here we are,” he said, interrupting whatever she would have said as he seated her in the navy blue leather booth that was kept reserved for him. “Isobel, let’s have some dinner and get started on that talk you wanted.”

Isobel slid behind the linen-draped table and watched him as he moved around to take a seat beside her. “All right, Nick. First let me ask you something, though.”

“What?”

“All the people you talked to as we came through the restaurant…all the women you flirted with…” Isobel shook her head as she looked at him. “You haven’t changed a bit, have you?”

His features tightened as he looked at her, and in the flickering light of the single candle in the middle of their table, his eyes looked just a little dangerous. “Oh, I’ve changed some,” he told her softly, and the tone of his voice rippled across her skin like someone had spilled a glass of ice water on her. “These days I’m a little more careful who I spend time with. I don’t take a woman’s word for it anymore when she tells me who she is. Now I check her out. Don’t want to run across another liar, after all. And I can say that the woman that I am engaged to is nothing like you either.”

Isobel flushed. She felt the heat of it stain her skin and she was grateful for the dim lighting in the res­taurant. Folding her hands together in her lap, she looked at the snowy expanse of the table linen and said, “Okay, I’m going to say this again. I didn’t set out to lie to you back then, Nick.”

“So it just happened?”

“Well,” she said, lifting her gaze reluctantly to his, “yes.”

“Right.” He nodded, gave her a smirk that came no­where near being a real smile and added, “Couldn’t figure out a way to tell me that you actually worked for me, so you just let it slide. Let me think you were a passenger.”

Yes, she had. She’d been swept away by the moon­light and the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen in her life. “I never said I was. You assumed I was a passenger.”

“And you said nothing to clear that up.”

True. All true. If she’d simply told the truth, then their week together never would have happened. She never would have known what it was like to be in his arms. Never would have imagined a future of some kind between them. Never would have gotten pregnant. Never would have given birth to the two little boys she couldn’t imagine living without.

Because of that, it was hard to feel guilty about what she’d done.

“Nick, let’s not rehash the past, all right? I said I

was sorry at the time. I can’t change anything. And you know, you didn’t exactly act like Prince Charming at the time, either.”

“You’re blaming me?”

“You wouldn’t even talk to me,” she reminded him. “You found out the truth and shut me out and down so fast I was half surprised you didn’t have me thrown overboard to swim home.”

He shifted uncomfortably, worked his jaw as if words were clamoring to get out and he was fighting the impulse to shout them. “What did you expect me to do?”

“All I wanted was to explain myself.”

“There was nothing you could have said.”

“Well,” she said softly, “we’ll never know for sure, will we?” Then she sighed and said, “We’re not solving any­thing here, so let’s just let the past go, okay? What happened, happened. Now we need to talk about what is.”

“Right.” He signaled to a waiter, then looked at her again. “So let’s talk. Tell me about your sons.”

“Your sons,” she corrected, lifting her chin a little as if readying to fight.

“That’s yet to be proved to me.”

“Why would I lie?”

“Hmm. Interesting question,” he said. “I could say you’ve lied before, but then we’ve already agreed not to talk about the past.”

Isobel wasn’t sure if she wanted to sigh in frustration or kick him hard under the table. This was so much more difficult than she’d thought it would be.

Somehow, Isobel had convinced herself that Nick would believe her. That he would look at the pictures of the babies and somehow know instinctively that these were his sons. She should have known better.

All around them the clink of fine crystal and the muted conversations of the other diners provided a background swell of sound that was more white noise than anything else. Through the windows lining one side of the restaurant, the night was black and the sea endless. The shimmer of colored lights hanging from the edges of the deck looked almost like a rainbow that only shone at night.

And beside her, the man who’d haunted her dreams and forged a new life for her sat waiting, watchful.

As she started to speak, a waiter approached with a bottle of champagne nestled inside a gleaming silver bucket. Isobel closed her mouth and bit her lip as the waiter poured a sip of the frothy wine into a flute and presented it to Nick for tasting. Approved, the wine was then poured first for her, then for Nick. Once the waiter had disappeared into the throng again, Isobel reached for her champagne and took a sip, hoping to ease the sudden dryness in her throat.

“So?” Nick prodded, his voice a low rumble of sound that seemed to slide inside her. “Tell me about the twins.”

“What do you want to know?”

He shot her a look. “Everything.”

Nodding, Isobel took a breath. Normally, she was more than happy to talk about her sons. She’d even been known to bore complete strangers in the grocery store with tales of their exploits. But tonight was dif­ferent. Important. This was the father of her children. She had to make him understand that. Believe it. So choosing her words carefully, she started simply and said, “Their names are Jade and Carrick.”

 “Family names?” asked Nicholas but before she could even open her mouth to speak she opened it like a fish and then closed it as she watched a woman in gold come in their direction. Her stride screamed money and her heels were encrusted with gold as well. There was a man who was walking behind her with his head downcast, might be her servant.

“Well well well, Nicky darling…you did not tell me that you had a guest and you were going to have dinner with her? Would you not introduce me to her?” asked the woman in such a warm and casual tone but Isobel had no problem at all in understanding the meaning of her words. She had come to know that she was here and she wanted her out of here as soon as possible.

“I did not know that you were going to come here for dinner, Barbara. You have been staying in your cabin since we have been onboard. However, this is Isobel Baker, and Isobel, meet my fiancé, Barbara,” said Nicholas and Isobel wished she had never come on this cruise in her life.

But this was the grave that she had dug it all on her own.