“No, Kaya. A nipple is never just a nipple. Nipples come in different colors, shapes, sizes, and textures.”
The slow, seductive sound of his voice, especially when he said “nipple” coupled with the sensual flame in his dark eyes, caused Kaya’s own nipples to tingle and harden beneath her lacy bra. She was so happy she was wearing one of Lauren’s bulky sweaters.
When his eyes shifted from her face to her heaving chest, then back to her face, she knew that he knew that she knew they’d moved beyond discussing the nipple on a baby bottle. Heat and moisture gathered at the junction of her thighs. Her throat became dry, and she had no power to stop the soft moan that escaped her.
“Babies get attached to the feel and texture of their mothers.”
God, he wasn’t done. If he said that word one more time…
“What you have to do is find a nipple that matches the shape—”
“Okay! I got it.” Just shut up, already.
A satisfied smile curved his lips.
She wanted to smack him. Again. Twice in one day.
Maybe seduction was his way of convincing women to yield to his desires. If he thought he could just sing her a lullaby and she’d lie down beneath him, he’d better think again. She had to remember that they were still at odds when it came to the future of the children. “How do you know so much about babies? You don’t even have kids of your own. Or do you?”
“Kaya, as far as I’m concerned, these kids are just as good as mine.”
Just the answer she was expecting.
He pulled his cell from a case at his waist and strode out the door on his Viking legs, leaving her just as he’d found her—in the middle of the nursery, holding a fussy baby in her arms.
*
“They’ve been up there forever,” Kaya said as she walked into the kitchen from the playroom where she’d just put on a movie for Alyssa, Snoopy, and her dolls.
“It hasn’t been that long,” Bryce replied from the chair where he’d just sat down to feed Anastasia.
“It feels like it.” Kaya stared at the mess of bottles and nipples of varying sizes, textures, and colors scattered on the counter top. There were nipples made from latex and some from silicone; there were angled, orthodontic, and vented-shaped nipples; there were small, medium and large nipples with varying ranges of flow speeds. And then there was a huge variety of bottle textures and shapes to chose from.
There was definitely an acute science to this bottle and nipple amalgamation, Kaya thought as she watched Anastasia suckling greedily from the “nipple she had chosen” according to Bryce—a latex, orthodontic, medium-flow nipple. They’d tried several until she latched on to that one, which Kaya supposed most closely resembled her mother’s.
Kaya finally took Bryce seriously when he said that he was close to the children and knew how to take care of all their needs. He’d called someone who owned a baby store in downtown Granite Falls, and instructed her to deliver one of every baby bottle and nipple she carried. The man didn’t even have to go out. He called, and the town came running. That was how powerful he was around here. Did she really want to go up against such force?
No, but she would do it for her new family—especially Jason, who she still had to win over. The timing of her return to Palm Beach hinged heavily on his psychological and emotional demeanor, and from what she’d witnessed in the nursery, plus the amount of time he was now spending with Samantha, Kaya knew it would be a while. The thought of spending too much time in Granite Falls filled her with anxiety. The longer she stayed, the stronger the bond between Bryce and his godchildren would become. They might realize that they didn’t need her at all. But she needed them.
“Do you think Jason will be okay?” she asked Bryce grudgingly.
He raised his head. Sorrow and antipathy mingled in his glance. “I don’t know, Kaya. Would you be okay if you’d just lost both your parents?”