Page 17 of Billion-Dollar Baby Shock

Tara was still trembling a little after she’d cleaned the bathroom and gathered Niko’s clothes up to put in the laundry basket.

She caught sight of her reflection in the mirror and groaned lightly.

Her shirt was wet through and clearly showing her underwear.

Her hair was up in a damp topknot after her shower.

There was the faintest pink on her jaw, stubble rash from Dion’s kisses.

She also had it on her thighs. She blushed.

She went to the door of the bathroom and looked into Niko’s suite. Dion was on the floor, with Niko on his back on his playmat, legs and arms kicking happily. Dion was staring at him as if he’d never seen him before, but also not doing much to interact with him.

Tara went into the room, forgetting for a moment about her déshabillé. She came down on her knees and pulled over the frame with things hanging off it that could sit over where Niko lay, allowing him to play with the various things.

She said, ‘This is a good way to let him interact with shapes and toys.’

Niko reached up and grabbed a soft toy and yanked it, making it squeak. He gurgled happily. ‘He’s a contented baby.’

Dion sent her a side-eyed glance. ‘Considering he’s had nannies as mothers for the first six months of his life?’

Tara flushed. ‘I didn’t mean it as a dig. He’s obviously had very good care. Maria is great and I’m sure Elena was too. They just need consistency…obviously a mother is ideal but not everyone is lucky enough to have that.’

‘I had that—I can’t blame my mother for not being there initially but I’d question how good the care was.’

While Niko seemed happily content to play with the mobile, Tara asked a little hesitantly, ‘What happened after your mother left you at the orphanage?’

For a long moment he said nothing, he just kept looking at Niko.

Tara was about to apologise for asking such a personal question when he looked at her and said, ‘Nothing good, that’s what happened.

It was run by a particularly stern sect of nuns who viewed us as somehow defective. I ran away when I was sixteen.’

Tara said nothing. He went on, ‘I was on the streets for a while but then I went to my father and demanded he give me the money he should have been paying for basic maintenance. It wasn’t even that much, but it was enough. I knew I had to get off the streets.’

Tara’s eyes went wide. ‘And he did?’

Dion nodded. ‘I didn’t say it but I let him think I would go to the press and tell them who I was.

It would have ruined his precious reputation and undoubtedly his marriage.

Within a year I’d paid him back every cent he gave me, plus interest, because it had almost killed me to go to him, but my need to survive was greater than my pride. ’

‘That took guts.’

Dion shrugged. ‘It was survival, pure and simple.’

He was so proud. It was visible in the line of his noble profile. But he wasn’t too proud to demand what he was due.

Tara could imagine that he might already be regretting revealing so much and she said, ‘I should dress Niko and give him his breakfast.’

Dion reached down and scooped him up, already displaying more ease with his son. ‘Let me try with the nappy.’

Tara stood up too. ‘Be my guest. Everything is on the changing table. I’ll get him some clothes.’

Dion went over and laid Niko down, still kicking his legs energetically and gurgling in that baby talk. Tara busied herself picking out clothes for Niko and tried not to let the fact that Dion seemed inclined to want to be more involved make her chest swell up too much.

She came back over with the clothes just as Dion was taking out a nappy and unfolding it, and just as Niko went very still and unleashed a perfect arc of urine straight onto Dion’s lower belly.

Tara froze and looked at Dion, who had also frozen.

She held her breath, terrified that this would scupper the very fragile link growing between him and Niko, but then, to her surprise, he smiled and let out a bark of laughter.

Niko smiled gummily back at his father, showing the whites of his emerging first teeth.

Dion bent down towards Niko and put a hand on his belly. ‘You are the only person who is allowed to display such insolence. Next time I better be quicker, hm?’

Niko gurgled in agreement. Tara watched, a little dumbfounded, as Dion found the wet wipes, cleaned Niko up and the surrounding area and then went back to arranging the nappy and putting it on the baby.

Perfectly, of course. Tara could appreciate that the man had become a billionaire because he was extremely ambitious and had an eye for detail that most didn’t.

She moved forward when he’d secured the nappy and said, ‘Not bad for a novice.’

He glanced at her and looked a little shamefaced before admitting, ‘I might have watched some videos on YouTube.’

Tara’s insides melted at that admission. Before he could see the softness she was feeling—especially after his revealing how he’d been treated after his mother had abandoned him—Tara said, ‘Why don’t you get changed and I’ll finish dressing him and get him downstairs?’

Dion was looking at Niko. ‘Are all babies as clever as him?’

Tara’s insides melted even more. ‘No way. He’s special.’ She spoke the truth of biased parents everywhere.

Dion took a step back from the changing table and Tara started to deftly dress Niko in a cute romper suit.

Before Dion left, though, he said, ‘It’s Saturday today.’

Tara had completely lost all track of what day it was. Or how long she’d been here. Days? A week? This was her world now.

‘Do you have to work?’ she asked.

‘Normally I would but maybe we could do something together.’

Tara shrugged. It wasn’t as if she had plans! And the more time Dion wanted to spend with his son, the better.

‘Sure. Did you have anything in mind?’

‘We could go to the island villa until tomorrow night. I have meetings in Paris next week.’

Tara’s heart thumped unevenly when she thought of the villa. It felt like an age ago when she’d been there with her anonymous lover. Not so anonymous now.

She remembered the stark clean lines and the infinity pool. She frowned, ‘That sounds lovely but is it set up for Niko?’

Dion said nothing and she looked at him. He said, ‘It doesn’t need to be set up for Niko. It’ll just be us.’

Tara stopped halfway down buttoning Niko’s romper suit and looked at Dion. She shook her head. ‘I don’t want to leave Niko behind.’

‘But Maria will be here. She’ll be well compensated for extra hours.’

So much for imagining those burgeoning moments of bonding between father and son. He still had Niko compartmentalised somewhere in his life but not in the centre of it.

‘No,’ she said. ‘If you want me to come then Niko comes too. Maria can be there if you feel she’s required.’

Dion looked at her for a moment as if he couldn’t understand what she’d just said and she realised that Dion most likely never had anyone talk back to him or refuse him. Well, tough.

Niko started to crib, clearly hungry by now. Tara said, ‘I’m not going anywhere without Niko, take it or leave it.’ She walked out of the room and avoided checking Dion’s expression, imagining it would be nuclear.

* * *

It took a minute for Dion to realise that Tara had just issued him an ultimatum and then walked away from him. With his son.

Her son too, reminded a little voice.

He also realised that it wasn’t altogether…as irritating as he might have found it if it had been anyone else.

Much like getting peed upon, by his son. He looked down at the almost perfectly symmetrical wet stain on his polo shirt.

Something had just shifted in this room.

Something seismic. Dion wasn’t the sole authority over his son any more.

And perhaps Tara was right. Would he have felt totally comfortable leaving Niko behind?

He had before…but that had been when Niko was still very much an unknown quantity.

More of an abstract idea than a flesh and blood little person with an emerging personality.

But could he take Tara to the island and do the things to her that he wanted to with Niko there too?

It didn’t stop you last night, pointed out that voice, again.

The alternative—not having Tara in his bed—was not an option.

Especially after last night, which had blown the first night out of the water.

So he would just do whatever it took to make this work.

And as soon as he had exorcised her from his system they could draw up a plan and get on with living separate lives.

In any case, he doubted it would even come to that.

Dion had a moment of crystal-clear realisation—Tara was a woman who had devoted herself admirably to her family at the expense of her own needs and freedom.

Once she realised she could have anything she wanted and her freedom, she’d be gone.

All Dion had to do was to take every opportunity to show Tara what she had been missing and then not stand in her way when she was ready to leave.

What if you’re not ready to let her go?

Dion ignored the voice. He would be ready, of that he had no doubt.

* * *

Tara knew she shouldn’t have been surprised by the speed and efficiency with which they were all, including Maria—who’d come to an agreement with Dion to work more fluid hours than she had before—despatched to the villa on the island.

It was even more impressive in the daylight, all sleek white lines and glass.

It was fine for Niko now, as he couldn’t move around much, but would be an absolute deathtrap once he was more mobile.

Maria now knew that Tara was Niko’s mother and she was already deferring to her and Tara had had to reassure her, saying, ‘You still know him better than me, so please don’t feel like anything much has changed.’