Page 34 of The Disputed Legacy
“See? She’s not in the mood for being teased.”
I sighed, realizing I was no juggler. Letting the toys fall to the floor, I handed Isa her bottle and waited to see if she’d let me help her hold it up or if she’d express her independence and swat my hands away.
She smiled, her lips curling around the bottle as she got her milk. I narrowed my eyes at her as I grinned back, charmed by my niece. She could do no wrong.
“I wasn’t teasing her,” I replied to Katerina.
She rolled her eyes then gazed at her daughter as she started to doze, milk drunk. They were too easy to handle at that newborn stage. Milk, burp, sleep, poop. That was all they did then. Isabella was becoming trickier to manage as she grew bigger and faster. It was all fun. And I had to poke a little fun at myself.
Look who’s becoming an expert on children now, huh?
As I watched Isabella have her milk and calm down further, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of a baby Oscar had been for Willow. He was such an easygoing kid that he couldn’t have been a devil. Yet, I tried to imagine it.
More than anything, I tried to picture Willow pregnant or with a newborn.
With someone else’s son.
It aggravated me to accept that she’d been with another man before. Obviously, she had, but because of that deep connection that formed from the second I saw her, I was stupid with this illusion of being her first.
Of her being mine.
I never thought I’d be a sucker for love at first sight, but that was the only explanation I could settle on. She was still a mystery, still a stranger, and still distant. Yet this need to have her and learn about her consumed me.
Katerina could joke all she wanted and call me a tease, accusing me playfully about teasing Isabella with that bottle just out of her reach.
It made me think about Willow, though. How she was probably thinking that I was a tease, almost kissing her like I had last night.
Recalling that tense moment of control, I enjoyed the memory of how I’d surprised her. How perfectly she’d molded against me, not too tall or short, but just the right height for me to dip my mouth toward hers.
I anticipated that she wouldn’t want Oscar to see me making a move on his mom. Maybe he was still in contact with his dad. Or something else. It was obvious Willow wanted to go slow with me, and I interpreted that to mean she didn’t want to be seen kissing me.
So, I took my chance when he had his back to us. It’d been my goal to follow up with the element of surprise and just kiss her when she least expected it, but the second I had her slender body in my arms and I saw the dreamy desire in her eyes, I realized how much of a crime it would be to rush anything with her.
I wanted to savor it. I wanted to relish everything she could give me, so instead of kissing her on the lips, I prolonged the torture to tease her with a soft brush of a kiss on her cheek, but so near her mouth that I’d caught her reacting to it. She’d turned. She’d been ready to meet me in the middle and kiss me back.
Damn, does she drive me crazy.
Waiting for her to let me in was an adrenaline rush.
Seeing how affected she could be was a hell of a triumph and victory.
For as long as I’d been wanting her and keeping my distance just to watch her and admire her, to wonder if she could really be the woman I hadn’t known I was waiting for, there was no need to hurry her along.
I was that confident that we’d get there. I was that smug that I could refrain and hold myself back and be patient. Most of all, I was that certain she’d cave, sooner or later, and when she did…
I couldn’t help the wide smile that stretched over my face.
“So.” Katerina cleared her throat and arched one brow at me. “Who is she?”
“Huh?”
She tipped her chin up at me. “Who are you thinking about that’s got you grinning like a lovestruck fool?”
“Love?” Hell, Willow hadn’t reached thelovephase with me yet. She was still warming up to friendship. “Nah. Not love.”
“Oh.” She perked, keeping her voice quiet for the babies we were tending to while I visited. “So there is someone?”
I sighed, irked at her nosiness.
