Hell, Dina’d hardly lifted a finger for the kids since they moved in. She’d taken a giant step back, telling him that she was sure he wanted to get to know his children. She left the bathing and feeding to him. She watched as he chased them down every morning just to get them dressed. And she laughed whenever one escaped him.
So Connor knew that she was expecting him to fail. To surrender and say that he wasn’t interested in full custody, that it was too much work or some other nonsense. But she was going to be disappointed. He hadn’t changed his mind. If anything, his resolve had only strengthened over the last week. His children belonged with him and he was going to do whatever he had to do to make sure that happened.
The question was, how to deal with Dina.
“She said no, didn’t she?”
“What? Who? Oh. Yeah.” Connor shook his head and looked at Colt. Smoke from the barbecue on his patio lifted into the sea wind and twisted into knots before dissipating. The scent of cooking burgers filled the air.
A family barbecue had been Penny’s idea. Colt’s wife had wanted to meet Dina and the kids.
“You mean to my offer of buying her off?” Grimly, he smiled at the memory of her outraged expression. “Yeah, she said no. And a few other things as well.”
“Told you it wouldn’t work,” Colt said and took a drink of his beer.
“Thanks. I told you so is always so helpful to hear.”
Colt ignored that. “So any ideas on where you go from here?”
“Plenty.” He nodded, picked up the spatula and flipped the burgers on the grill. Grease dropped onto the coals and flames erupted.
“You should get a gas grill,” Colt mused.
“I like charcoal,” Con told him. “Anyway, Rafe and his crew are coming out next week to sketch out plans for the new nursery suite.”
“And Dina knows you’re doing this?”
“Not yet, but why should she care?”
“Oh, I don’t know, because she thought moving in here was temporary and now you’re making it permanent?” Colt’s eyes narrowed on his twin. “What’s going on in your head?”
“Plans. Okay,” Con said, “I admit, it’s a little tougher than I thought it would be, taking care of so many babies at once.”
“As I remember it, you laughed your head off when it happened to me.”
Connor ignored that. “My plans right now are to get to know my kids, to have the lawyer looking into custody and to get to Ireland.”
“You taking Dina and the kids with you?”
“Why not?” He made it sound casual but the truth was, he had to go on this trip and didn’t much care for the idea of being away from Dina and the babies for a week. He refused to look at why. “Dina’s got a passport and I had the family lawyers arrange them for the babies. We’ll go. Say hi to cousin Jefferson and his family and check out Ashford Castle. Three, four days tops and we’re back in California.” When his brother gave him a knowing look, Con shook his head. “Don’t make more of this than there is. I’m taking the kids and Dina’s part of the package. That’s all.”
“Uh-huh.” Colt took another drink of his beer, nodded to where the women and kids were and said, “If you ask me, she’s quite a package all on her own.”
“Nobody asked you,” Connor snapped. Then he took the burgers off the grill. “Time to eat.”
* * *
“You didn’t tell me you and your brother were identical twins,” Dina said later after everyone had gone home again.
“There are some differences,” Connor said. “I’m the good-looking one.”
She laughed and realized that over the last week, she’d become less anxious around him. Less wary. And that should probably worry her. But at the moment she felt too good to ruin her mood with anxiety.
With the triplets tucked into bed and the housekeeper in her suite at the rear of the house, Connor and Dina were alone. The patio was quiet and cool and the sound of the ocean slamming into the cliffs below was rhythmic, soothing. They sat on Adirondack chairs, each of them holding a glass of wine.
“Colt’s wife is great,” she said. “Did you know she’s having the whole house redone?”
“Yeah. Our cousin Rafe at King Construction is madly in love with her,” Con said with a chuckle. “She’s changing so much it’s turned into a huge project that’ll keep Rafe’s crew busy for months.”
“She pointed the house out to me earlier. The big white one that looks like a box with windows?” Dina had taken one look at the place and hated it. Penny had told her she’d felt much the same way when she first saw it. But she was having Spanish revival style added to the basic box and by the time she was finished, Dina was willing to bet that the house would be beautiful. “Penny also told me that Rafe was going to be taking a break from working on her house long enough to do a job for you.”
“Told you that, did she?” He turned his head and looked at her, and in the moonlight, his blue eyes shone.
“You’re building a suite for the babies but you didn’t tell me?” When Penny brought it up, Dina had felt a quick jolt of panic. Adding onto a home was a permanent thing. To Connor’s mind, this wasn’t temporary at all.
“I was going to,” he said, voice quiet and almost lost in the sigh of the waves below.
“You’re really going to sue for custody, aren’t you?”
He sat forward. “I never made a secret of the fact that I want my kids, Dina.”
“I know,” she said, shifting her gaze to where a full moon hung in a black sky and slanted silver light on the sea. “The problem is, I want them, too, Connor.”
He stood up and pulled her to her feet. She was barefoot and the stone patio was damp and cold, seeping into her bones. With his hands on her upper arms, holding her in place, he looked down into her eyes and Dina felt that tremble of something wild and dangerous rise up inside her again.
“You don’t want to fight me for them, Dina,” he said. “You would lose.”
“If I don’t fight, I’ve lost already,” she pointed out and congratulated herself on keeping her voice steady and even despite the insistent tremble she felt within.
The wind sighed past them, briefly enfolding them in a chilly embrace. Dina’s hair flew across her eyes and Connor tugged it free, rubbing the silky strands between his thumb and fingers.
“We don’t have to be enemies,” he whispered. “We can find a way to work together on this.”
“I don’t see how,” she said, staring into those blue eyes that only seemed to shine more brightly in the darkness.
“This is a start,” he murmured and kissed her again.
Dina melted against him, plying her body along his as he pulled her in more tightly, pressing her to him closely enough that she felt the hard proof of what he wanted. Her insides churned, her heartbeat quickened and her mind went blessedly blank.
Her entire life had been spent trying to avoid the kind of feelings she was right now surrendering to. If she thought about what she was doing, she’d have to stop. Have to be rational. Logical. Clearheaded.
So she didn’t think.
Dina gave her emotions free rein and let herself wallow in the amazing sensation of being held and kissed by a man who could turn her knees to water with a single look. She had known that one kiss would never be enough.
And when Connor pulled back, breaking