"What's a short-order cook?" Jade asked.
He slanted her a look. "Anyone cooking for someone who can barely reach the light switch."
Jade giggled.
He guided the little girl forward with his hand on her shoulder. "Come on. I'll explain."
"I’ll join you as soon as I change." Megan said from behind them.
He turned back to her quirking a brow. "Need some help?"
The air crackled with energy.
"No thank you." she said, looking at him disapprovingly.
He flashed her a wicked smile. "Your choice."
"Yes."
"But I'm hoping to win the lottery one of these days."
She gave him a quelling look before heading for the stairs.
Later, they wound up having dinner on the patio, where they were able to watch the lowering sun. He grilled on his outdoor range, and Jade got her wish when he served up a Cuban-style burger seasoned with chorizo.
Jades questions and requests peppered the dinner conversation, and Stephen realized this was what he should expect from now on.
They were a little family, the three of them, he thought, and it felt good. More than good.
It should have taken him longer to adjust from being a practiced playboy with honed predatory skills to protective father and husband. But instead it felt like coming home.
After dinner, he and Megan sat back and watched Jade explore and play on the patio.
"You're good with her." she remarked.
He leaned back farther in his chair. "She seemed a little hesitant when I came home today, though."
"That's natural."
He looked over at Jade. "Yeah, but I'm wondering whether something more is going on."
When Jade eventually came back over to join them Megan leaned toward her. "Did you have a good day today, sweetie?"
Jade nodded, hopping back into her chair and taking a drink from her cup.
"Did you have fun at preschool?"
"Yes."
"Did something happen at school?" Megan prompted some more.
This time Jade looked at him from the corner of her eyes.
"Jade?"
Jade looked down at her now-empty plate, and said in a rush. "I told Emily I had a daddy because you got married. She said no. I had a stepfather."
Oh, damn, Stephen thought.
He looked at Megan. It seemed as though their conversation with Jade was upon them faster than they'd anticipated.
Megan opened her mouth, but Stephen silenced her with a look.
"Jade. I am your daddy." he explained gently. "I was away for a little while, but I'm here now and will love you forever."
Jade looked up at him such hopefulness in her eyes, it almost killed him.
"Do you understand?" he asked.
The little girl nodded. "Uh-huh."
"And even if I was your stepfather I wouldn't love you any less."
Jade blinked, then blurted. "Can I call you Daddy?"
His heart did a weird twist.
"Of course." he said, his voice coming out unexpectedly hoarse.
"You'll never know how much I regret not being around when you were a baby," he said.
Jade got down from her chair and threw her arms around him.
His eyes met Megan's over Jade's dark head, and he thought he saw a sheen of tears in them.
Chapter Nine
On Saturday Stephen took them out on his yacht, a sixty-foot Sea Ray.
Jade had pleaded to see the boat, and though Megan had her suspicions about how her daughter had gotten the idea in her head, she gave in.
Stephen had been so good with Jade this past week. The three of them had even toured the Garrison Grand early one evening, seeing the suite that Stephen kept there for his—now their—personal use. She couldn't deny him or her daughter the fun of an outing on Biscayne Bay.
From what she remembered, the yacht, named Wishful Thinking, was Stephen's prized possession. The two of them had spent many carefree hours on it making love and just relaxing and enjoying each other...until shed discovered she wasn't the only woman he'd been entertaining aboard.
Now as she stood in the stateroom, running a brush through her hair near a small mirror, she pushed the uncomfortable thought aside.
Stephen had killed the engine and dropped anchor so that the boat bobbed in the water.
After she and Stephen had taken turns diving and swimming off the side of the boat, they'd had lunch. Then Jade—worn out by the excitement of being on a yacht for the first time—had lain down for a nap.
Her daughter was asleep now on the bunk in the guest stateroom, so there was no innocent little girl around to run interference between her and Stephen. Megan sought to quell the nervousness that seized her.
As if conjured by her thoughts Stephen appeared. He looked relaxed, fit and tanned in swim trunks and a short-sleeved navy T-shirt he'd donned after his swim.
"Hey. there." he said, resting his hand on the top of the door frame.
"Hi." She hated that he looked so at ease when she was a bundle of nerves. Shed intentionally put on a short skirt over her halter-top emerald bathing suit, but she still felt exposed.
It didn't help she'd seen amusement in the depths of Stephen's eyes when she'd done so as if he saw right through her maneuver.
Now as he looked her up and down, her body hummed in reaction. She prayed her ni**les wouldn't harden, betraying her even more.
Despite the ease with which he'd assumed a fatherly role in Jades life, she had to remember he was a rat and their relationship was all business, including this marriage.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Trying to get some knots out of my hair." Her hair had dried from her dip in the water earlier, but despite having had it in a ponytail it had gotten tangled by the wind and water.
He continued to watch her with the same searing gaze he'd had when shed stripped down to her bathing suit earlier.
"Jade want’s to learn how to swim." she blurted.
His lips curved in the lopsided smile that never failed to send heat shooting through her. "I want to teach her. If she’d grown up here, near the water, she might already know how."
Surprisingly, she couldn't detect a hint of reproach in his voice. "She'd love to learn."
He stepped forward. "Here, let me help you."
She lowered the hand with the brush to her side.
"What?" she asked, though shed heard him perfectly well. Her mind had just stopped at the image of Stephen touching her hair.
He grasped her wrist and gently removed the brush from her nerveless fingers. Then he stepped behind her and she felt the movement of thick bristles from her scalp to the curling edges of her wavy hair.