Page 3 of The Duke's Surprise Heir

Well, it had contained all of that stuff. Now, that barn and her home were…ashes.

Edward stared at the sleeping infant, his heart pounding in his chest. “I need an explanation.”

Macie nodded. “Yes, that’s fair. However, could you get me a glass of water first? I’ve been traveling for…” she shrugged and Edward finally took a proper look at her.

Gone were the sparkling, daring emerald eyes that he remembered so well. Gone were the soft, smiling lips that had comforted and taunted him. Instead, Macie sported dark circles under those still-beautiful green eyes, but they were dull with exhaustion. Her lips were the same color as her skin and chapped.

Water.She needed water!

“Fine!” he snapped and turned, heading to the bar off in a corner. He grabbed a highball glass and filled it with water. She probably needed ice, but he needed an explanation. His eyes kept returning to the infant in her arms.

“Thank you,” she whispered, taking the glass and draining it before setting it onto the side table.

“Now will you tell me…?” he snarled, sliding one finger in the loops of his jeans as he glared down at her.

She shifted, sighing softly as her hands gently stroked the dark fuzz of the babe’s head. As she patted the diapered bottom, Edward couldn’t help but note that Macie’s fingernails no longer sported the daring red nail polish. Her fingernails were no longer manicured, but were instead ragged and chipped.

In other words, gone was the beautiful, vibrant woman he’d made love to over and over again during the span of a long weekend twelve months ago. This exhausted, gaunt woman with pale features and ragged fingernails was a ghost of her former self.

“What do you want to know, Edward?” she prompted, then yawned, her hand coming up as if she could somehow hide the yawn.

Why are you here? What happened to you? Why are you so exhausted? Where is the rest of your luggage? Is that my child?

A thousand other questions flashed through his mind. But he was too stunned by her presence here, with a baby in her arms…no, in her luggage…to form any of them into words.

“Yes, Edward, this is Kyle. Our son.”

Chapter 2

Edward stared at the sleeping woman, the baby still cradled in her arms.

“Our son.”

She had said those words, hadn’t she? The baby…Kyle…was his son! Kyle was his son? That would mean that the tiny infant cradled in Macie’s arms was the Sixth Duke of Finhearst! He was his son!

Rubbing a hand over his face, Edward took a deep breath. He wasn’t even sure what time it was. Glancing out the window, he suspected that only fifteen minutes had passed since he’d been woken up. Fifteen minutes ago, he’d stormed down the stairs…he glanced at his bare feet and bare chest…intending to go right back to sleep.

But staring down at the duo, Edward wasn’t sure what his next move was. Hell, he wasn’t sure he could actually move! He was transfixed by the sleeping infant. Was the baby alive? He hadn’t moved since Macie had taken him out of the duffel bag.

Oh, and that’s another excellent question! Why the hell was Macie carrying their child around in a duffel bag? He wasn’t an expert on babies by any means, but he was fairly certain that there were better, safer, ways to carry an infant.

Running a hand through his sleep-mussed hair, Edward paced across the expanse of the room. He didn’t see the oriental carpet or the raw wood coffee table. He barely noticed anything as he tried to make sense of this morning.

Coffee. He needed coffee! It was Saturday, and his housekeeper had the weekend off. So he walked into the kitchen and went through the motions of making a pot of coffee. Usually, he’d make a smaller amount, but he suspected that Macie would wake up soon and want coffee too. A year ago, she’d enjoyed several cups of coffee every day, even walking several blocks out of her way to get a “good” cup of coffee from her favorite shop. He remembered the bliss on her features as she took her first sip, followed by the bright smile of happiness. He’d sipped his own coffee that morning, but at the time, he’d only wanted to get her back to her place so that he could make love to her all over again.

Fiddling with the elaborate coffee maker, Edward tried to figure out…what? Everything? He didn’t have enough information to understand why Macie was here, with a baby. Or why she looked as if she hadn’t slept in a week. He’d heard that new mothers struggled with sleep deprivation, but that only happened during the first week of a baby’s life, right? She should have recovered by now.

Which meant that she must be exhausted because of some other reason.

He walked back into the great room, coffee in one hand and his cell phone in the other. Unfortunately, it was just after six o’clock here in Great Britain. That meant that it was around midnight in Philadelphia. He couldn’t call his Philadelphia director for several more hours. Macie had worked at the corporate headquarters of Linx Airlines, the company that he and his two friends, Sean Byrns and Antonio del Campo, had purchased last year. The joint venture had been risky, but over the past twelve months, they’d more than doubled the number of planes and routes that they serviced. Linx only flew cargo, not tourists. He, Sean, and Antonio had discussed expanding into tourist flights, but dealing with people wasn’t what they wanted at this point. Plus, passenger airlines had a horrible reputation due to the way the airlines embraced the cattle mentality for passenger flights. The spaces each airline allotted for a human body was brutal and very nearly inhumane.

He'd convinced Macie to help out after he’d grasped the far-reaching system that she’d built for Astra Phillips’ event planning business. Macie was an amazing systems developer. Once Astra had married Edward’s friend, Antonio, and was now living with him in a magnificent castle in Spain, Macie had agreed to apply her systems development skills to the new cargo shipping business, Linx, which he and his friends had started. She’d come on board to develop a computer program that allowed Linx to more efficiently schedule and fly cargo all over the world. Her program was better and faster at weight and space management than anything previously found on the market, allowing the cargo handlers to pack a cargo flight faster and with much less wasted space. Without Macie’s brilliant computer system, Linx wouldn’t have been able to grow as quickly as it had.

However, a few months ago, she’d dropped out of sight. Every time Edward had asked about Macie’s absences, her boss had been ambiguous and vague.

So, what had happened to her? When he’d met her in Philadelphia over a year ago, she’d been dressed in a black sheath dress with a double strand of pearls, red heels, and her dark hair pulled back in a sophisticated twist. She’d looked at the other executives with confidence, her green eyes daring anyone in the room to challenge her new program. She’d been sophisticated and confident, alluring and…passionate. He’d asked her to have dinner with him that evening and they hadn’t made it to dessert. The sexual tension between them had been off the charts.

Now, he looked down at the sleeping woman. Her jeans were discolored and the hems torn. Her sneakers were untied, the laces grubby. He turned to eye the duffel bag. Why the hell was she carrying a baby in a duffel bag?

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