“Thank you.”
Mrs. Tucker turned to leave, but a thought struck Whitney and she stopped her. “Where’s the nursery?”
“In the left wing beside the master suite and Mr. Andreas.”
“Will the nanny also be beside the nursery?”
“Yes, ma’am. The nanny’s quarters are on one side. Mr. Andreas’s are on the other.”
That just didn’t sit right. Not because of the unexpected jealousy that slithered through her at the thought of another woman being a door or two away from Darius’s bedroom, but because she felt as if she were being eased out. She hadn’t questioned Darius talking her into living at the house in Montauk. Her fears had actually caused her to be relieved he’d thought of it. But now that he’d assigned her to a room across the house from the nursery, suspicions rose in her. He wanted the baby at his house, wanted her at the other side of the mansion. What was he up to?
“Why am I not near the nursery?”
Holding Gino in the baby carrier, Darius stepped forward, caught her arm and directed her to the stairway as Mrs. Tucker scrambled away, obviously glad Darius would field the question.
“I thought you’d prefer privacy, particularly since Mrs. Tucker has agreed to sleep in the nanny’s room to help with Gino until we get a regular nanny.”
He sounded sincere, genuine. But this was a skilled negotiator, a smart businessman, a charming man. And her fears about caring for Gino had blinded her to the way he’d been calling the shots. That ended here. That ended now.
“Isn’t there another suite close to the nursery?”
“Yes, of course.”
“I’d like that one, then.”
Darius stopped walking. His black onyx eyes snared hers, she was sure, in a show of strength, ready to meet her challenge. But within seconds the expression in his dark orbs shifted from serious to sensuous.
As if he only now realized how close they were standing beside each other on the stairs, he pulled in a breath. Tension rose up, shimmering through her. This man was attracted to her. There was no better aphrodisiac for a woman than the realization that a powerful, sexy man wanted her.
Her.
And she’d just insisted she be in a room closer to the nursery, closer to him.
She almost told him to forget about her request for a room change, but knew that if she did he’d realize it was because of their attraction. She also remembered it was her responsibility to love Gino and maybe even to protect him from overbearing Darius, and by God, she intended to. If that meant she needed to be close to him too, she’d handle it.
She smiled, hoping to appear to be a woman who hadn’t even been slightly affected by the way he’d looked at her. “I take my responsibilities seriously, Darius. Though I’m glad Gino will be close to the nanny we hire, I want to be close too. The will says we share custody. I was given a job. I intend to do it.”
His serious eyes suddenly filled with mischief that sent her pulse scrambling. “So you want to be across the hall—” he smiled “—from me?”
She stared into his sexy dark eyes with every nerve ending in her body humming and the blood in her veins virtually singing. Her voice squeaked when she said, “Yes.”
“So be it. I’ll have Mrs. Tucker tell Geoffrey to put your things in the room across the hall from mine.”
With that he pulled out his cell phone, turned and walked up the stairs. Whitney nearly collapsed on the stairway. She heard him speaking on the phone, instructing someone to ready the room across the hall from his, and guessed he was talking to Mrs. Tucker. She hastily climbed the stairs with shaky legs and followed Darius to the nursery. But two steps inside the door, she froze.
A mobile over the cherrywood crib zapped her back in time. She could have been standing in Layla’s nursery. The colors of the wall were different, but most of the furniture and lots of the toys were the same. So were the scents.
Darius carried the baby inside. “I think he needs a change. I’d offer to do it,” he smiled engagingly, “but I’ve never changed a diaper in my entire life.”
Smothered by thoughts of her baby, Whitney couldn’t get her legs to move or her mouth to form words. Memories rolled through her mind. In perfect Technicolor she saw the vision of Layla standing up in her crib, holding the bars, crying for her mother. She remembered the Christmas gifts she had bought and hidden in the closet as if little Layla would somehow know to look for them. It had been almost a year before she had been able to clear out the nursery, if only because she couldn’t step inside without crumbling.
But Darius didn’t seem to notice her paralysis. Pulling Gino out of the baby carrier, he said, “I’d be happy to do it, though, if you want to teach me.”
Whitney cleared her throat. “Sure.” Relief swamped her. For as much as she didn’t want Darius taking over Gino’s life, with her grief perilously close to the surface she simply couldn’t handle touching Gino right now. Whether she liked it or not, take-charge Darius was saving her.
She glanced around until she saw the changing table. She pointed at it. “Take him over there.”
Darius carried the sleepy baby to the changing table.
Whitney frowned. “We left the diaper bag in the car.”
“Geoffrey will get it. But there should already be diapers here somewhere. I told the staff to make sure the nursery was stocked.” With one hand holding Gino in place on the table, he opened the doors of the cupboard beneath it. “Ah. There they are.” He reached in and pulled one out with a smile. “The staff is very efficient.”
She took a cautious step to the changing table. “So I see.”
“Now what?”
Forcing back the memories, she pulled in a slow, cleansing breath. Her grief subsiding, she strolled closer. “Unsnap his pajamas and slide him out.”
He unsnapped the one-piece pajamas but was a little rough in getting Gino’s arm out. She laid her hand on top of his. “Gentler.”
“Okay.” He peeked over at her and smiled stupidly. “His skin is soft, like velvet.”
She remembered thinking that very thing the first time she held Layla and swallowed back the grief, pushed back the memory of the nurse laying her brand-new baby girl into her arms. “I know.”
When Gino was out of his pajamas and wearing only his diaper, Whitney pointed at the tabs of his diaper and said, “Yank on those to open the diaper.”
He yanked on the tabs and to everyone’s joy, the diaper was only wet.
Darius said, “Whew.”
Whitney couldn’t help it. She laughed. “Okay, toss that in the container beside the changing table.” She motioned to the available diaper pail. “Slide another diaper under him, fasten the tabs, put him into clean pajamas and you’re done.”
Darius followed her instructions, needing another reminder about being gentle with Gino’s little arms and legs as he tucked them into pajamas. But again he only smiled when she told him.
Her suspicions about Darius came tumbling back. He was too nice. Too eager. Once again she wondered if he wasn’t trying to edge her out. “I’m surprised you want to learn all this.”
He caught her gaze. “Gino is my family now.”
“Oh. So you’re really getting into the daddy thing?” Her voice dripped with skepticism as she asked the question, but she couldn’t help it. A single man—a single rich man—who wanted to care for a baby was more than an anomaly. It was downright weird.
“My dad didn’t have