Page 40 of Billion-Dollar Baby Bargain

“I don’t want to disturb you,” he said at last.

Didn’t the man know by now that he always disturbed her? Even wearing only a T-shirt and black jeans he managed to make her pulse pick up.

Of course she’d never admit it.

“Would you like a glass of burgundy?” she asked, setting her glass down and reaching for a clean one from the butler’s tray on the side of the couch. “A client gave it to me—and it’s rather good.” Relaxing, too—which she needed now that the realization she and Connor were actually getting married was starting to sink in.

Connor looked taken aback for a moment, then nodded. “Just half a glass. I’m not staying long.”

Once she’d poured, he moved farther into the room. Taking the glass from her, he raised it to his nose before sniffing and saying, “Mmm…nice.” Then he glanced down at her. “I came to ask for a list of friends and family you’re inviting to the wedding. Iris—my PA—will send out invitations if you give me details. She’s a whiz.”

“No.”

That caused his eyebrows to leap to his hairline. “Aren’t you a little busy to be doing it yourself?”

“There isn’t anyone I want to invite.” Victoria took a sip of her wine. “Have a taste, it’s very smooth.”

Settling himself against the antique writing desk across from her, he sipped. “Very smooth. No friends at all?”

She shook her head slowly, supremely conscious of the weight of his stare.

With the exception of Suzy, she’d lost contact with most of her friends over the past ten years, too busy with work. Occasionally she’d gone out with Suzy and her teacher friends to a movie, or to dinner with a group from Archer, Cameron & Edge. But she wasn’t close to any of them.

“What about family?” He shifted, crossing one ankle over the other where he leaned, the rustle of denim loud in the intimacy of the sitting room. “My brother’s coming.”

“I don’t have brothers or sisters.” Victoria dropped her gaze away. “My mom’s dead, and I haven’t spoken to my father in years.”

“Then this might be the time to invite him and mend some fences. Both my parents are dead—at least you still have a father who could be there for you.”

She played with the stem of her glass. Connor couldn’t know what he was asking of her. “I thought the purpose of the day was to get married and provide a family for Dylan.”

“Nothing wrong with using the opportunity for reconciliation, Victoria.”

Connor’s arrogant assumption that inviting her tumbleweed father to her wedding would make amends for decades of irresponsibility and selfish neglect rubbed her the wrong way. “So I take it you’ll be inviting Dana and Paul?”

There was a horrible pause. Then he said, “Okay, maybe we should just focus on the wedding.”

“Good idea.” In an effort to restore the peace she said brightly, “I didn’t know you had a brother.”

He drained his glass and set it down on the desk behind him. “Brett’s been living it up in London for the past few years.”

“And he’s coming all the way out to New Zealand?”

Straightening, Connor gave her a grim smile. “It’s my wedding—probably the only one he’ll ever see me celebrate. Of course he’s coming.”

Less than a week after Connor had asked Victoria to marry him, the wedding took place.

In sharp contrast to Suzy and Michael’s wedding, it was a small affair with no bouquets, flower girls or white lacy bridal dress in sight. In fact, Victoria decided that celebrate was a far too strong word for the civil ceremony that they rushed through in an anonymous Queen Street government building.

Afterward, accompanied by Connor’s brother and Anne—who’d come to take care of Dylan but ended up acting as a witness—they went to a lovely restaurant set in the rolling, parklike gardens of Auckland’s domain. Sitting at a table on a verandah that overlooked a series of lakes shaded by budding willows and frequented by swans, Victoria’s gaze settled on Dylan perched in the high chair beside Anne, and she finally relaxed.

Married.

Her place in Dylan’s life was secure now.

“Congratulations!” Connor’s brother waved a glass of champagne. “Welcome to our family.”

Victoria smiled and raised her glass. Brett’s personality had come as a surprise. Younger than Connor, he had a boyish flirtatiousness that made her laugh.

“Connor needs to be married,” he told her while Connor discussed their meal with the restaurant owner. “Even though I would rather you’d had a very unequivocal, big, splashy wedding instead of this hole-in-the-corner affair.”

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