Nathan's Child Read Online Free

corporate lifestyle he had rejected. But Carin was the sort of wife who would suit Dominic to a T. She’d be a terrific accessory to his career and not bad on the home front, either.
    So he’d said cheerfully, “You want to learn about men? You want to get to know Dominic? Hell, I’m just like Dominic—” perhaps a stretch of the truth there, but in a good cause “—just stick with me.”
    He figured they’d have a good time that week. He would enjoy a little friendly platonic female companionship, would cement his role as favored brother-in-law in years to come, and at the same time he’d do Dominic a good turn.
    After all, Dominic had gone to bat for him when Nathan had told their father he didn’t want to work for Wolfes’, that he wanted to be a photographer instead.
    The old man had been downright furious. “What do you mean you don’t want to work for Wolfes’? It’s buttered your bread your whole life, you ungrateful whelp.”
    Then Dominic had stepped in, pointing out that what Nathan wanted to do was no more than what Douglas had done when he’d built Wolfes’ in the first place—be his own man.
    â€œHe’s the most like you of any of us,” Dominic had said forcefully.
    Not something Nathan cheerfully acknowledged. But it had stopped the old man. It had made him look thoughtful. And the next thing Nathan knew, his father had been beaming and shaking his hand.
    â€œChip off the old block,” he’d said, nodding his head. “Dominic’s right. You’ve got guts, my boy.” He’d fixed Nathan with a level blue gaze. “Fine. Go hop your freighter or thumb your way around the world, if that’s what you want. It will be hard and long, but it’s your choice.”
    So Nathan owed Dominic. And showing his wife-to-be a good time and giving her a little confidence had seemed a small chore.
    It hadn’t been a chore at all.
    Carin had been eager to listen to his tales of far-off lands and to ask questions about all his experiences. Very few people, Nathan had discovered, listened as well as she did. He had thoroughly enjoyed basking in her worshipful gaze.
    Every day they had gone swimming and snorkeling and sailing. And while they did, he had told her about his family—not only about Dominic, but about their youngest brother, Rhys, and their parents, their mother who had died when they were young, and their father who had been everything to them ever since.
    â€œShe taught us to care,” he said. “He taught us to be tough.”
    And Carin had listened intently, taking it all in, nodding and watching him with those gorgeous blue eyes. He told her about the house on the beach out on Long Island where they’d grown up and about the holidays they’d spent here on Pelican Cay when he was a child.
    â€œDominic has a place in New York,” he’d explained. “But only because the offices are there. He isn’t as much of a city boy as you might think.”
    â€œI don’t think he’s a boy at all.”
    Well, no, he wasn’t. But Carin wasn’t a girl, either. She was a woman.
    And Nathan knew it. The more time he spent with her, the greater his awareness of her had grown. His eyes traced the lines of her body. They lingered on her curves. At night it hadn’t seemed to matter how much exercise he got during the day, he couldn’t settle down, he couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t stop thinking about her.
    She’s Dominic’s fiancée, he’d reminded himself over and over. And he tried to think about her with his brother, tried to imagine her in bed with Dominic. But his mind left outDominic. It only saw Carin. He had fantasies about Carin in bed. And he and not Dominic had been the man in bed with her.
    He should have taken off then. Should have started running and never looked back.
    He hadn’t. He’d stayed. Of course he had