“I thought you’d never ask, Mr. Incredible.”

Glad that she was wearing pants instead of a dress tonight, she sat down cross-legged on the floor with the toddler. He grabbed a puffy plastic book that she guessed did double duty for teething and baths, and climbed onto her lap.

“Read this.”

He smelled so good she wanted to bury her face in his soft hair. Instead, she read the title, “The Sunshine Princess and the Stinky Dog.”

The little boy in her lap held his nose and made a face. “He’s smelly.”

Mary’s heart turned over inside her chest. She’d never wanted to be one of those girls in her village who married in their teens and were pregnant nine months later. And yet, for all her amazing experiences traveling the world, she’d never had this.

She opened the book up and began to read. “One day the Sunshine Princess was sitting in her bedroom looking out the window at the gray and gloomy day.” For the next few minutes, while adult conversation went on around them, she and Ian got lost in the adventures of the stinky dog hiding from the princess who needed to give him a bath. On every page, Ian would point to something that made him laugh, and she was amazed by how much he noticed about the illustrations and the story.

The moment the story ended, he scrambled out of her lap, grabbed a cracker off the table and shoved it into his mouth in one bite. Mary was just starting to get up when Claudia gave her a hand.

“Thanks for reading to him. He really likes you.”

“It was my pleasure. And I really like him, too.”

“Ian is easy to like,” Claudia agreed. “Even being pregnant with him was easy. This pregnancy is, too, actually. I guess I’m one of those lucky ones, between Max, Ian and baby-on-the-way.” She flushed. “I have a tendency to gush.”

“If I were you, I’d be gushing, too.”

They watched Ian repeatedly jump up to try to reach a signed baseball Ethan had on display on a shelf, his face a picture of concentration. “He really takes after his father,” Claudia said with a laugh. “Easygoing until he decides he wants something. And then there’s no changing his mind.”

“That sounds familiar,” Mary murmured.

“Does it?” Claudia looked extremely pleased by that piece of information, but before she could say anything more, she was dashing across the room again to stop Ian from trying to climb up Ethan’s bookshelf as though it were a ladder.

Mary turned to pick up her glass of wine from the coffee table and found Jack looking at her. She’d seen desire on his face. She’d seen admiration and respect in his eyes. But until this moment, she’d never seen such warmth.

So much warmth that, if she didn’t know better, she would have said it looked like love.

Chapter Ten

“I never thought I’d see one of the world’s most beautiful fashion models sitting on the floor letting a kid drool all over her.” Ethan shot Jack an incredulous look. “How’d you meet her again?”

“Pure luck.” Jack still marveled over it. “Somewhere along the line, I must have done something right.”

“That’s just how I felt the day I met Claudia,” Max said, looking across the room at his wife with love in his eyes. “And I’ve felt that every day since.”

Jack had never tried to fight what he felt for Mary, not when it had been so strong and clear from that first moment they’d met in Union Square. But when he realized she was becoming more important to him than the work that had held his focus for over a decade, he thought he should at least try to apply to the two of them the same arguments and calculations that he had always lived by.

But it had taken him less than ten seconds of watching her read to his little nephew to realize that all the brilliant analysis in the world didn’t mean a damn thing when it came to love.

People had often called Jack Sullivan a genius. Now he’d finally prove they were right by being smart enough to listen to what was in his heart.

Jack wanted Mary as more than another business colleague. He wanted her as more than a stunningly beautiful woman who made his blood simmer.

He wanted her.

He wanted the woman who laughed so easily with a toddler. He wanted the woman whose skin was so soft, whose arms were so strong even as he tried to turn them to rubber with a kiss. He wanted the woman who possessed so much intelligence behind her shockingly beautiful face. He wanted the woman who took care of three young models so that their mothers would know they were safe.

Claudia put Ian into his arms. “It’s your turn to keep him out of trouble while I make good on my promise to put together something for us all to eat tonight.”

Mary ran a hand over Ian’s soft, dark hair, then followed Claudia into the kitchen.

Mary drew Jack like a magnet, so he turned to Ian and asked, “Want to follow the pretty ladies to see what they have for us to munch on before dinner?”

Ian grinned at him, four sparkling white teeth in a mouthful of gums. “Want candy.”

Jack laughed and gave the little boy a kiss on his forehead. “Let’s see what goodies we can find hiding in Uncle Ethan’s kitchen.”

Maybe he should have been surprised to find Mary with her hands in flour and eggs at the kitchen counter while Claudia sat with her feet up on a chair, but he wasn’t. Yes, she was a gorgeous, successful model. But first and foremost, she was a woman who clearly enjoyed children and food.

“Mary offered to make fresh pasta,” Claudia told him as she sipped a club soda and relaxed deeper into her seat. “I assumed it would be too difficult to make at home, so I’ve always bought pasta at the store. Where did you learn to make it, Mary?”

Mary deftly brought the flour and eggs into a ball, then began to knead it on the kitchen counter. “I was barely older than Ian when my grandmother showed me how. Homemade pasta is a tradition in Italy.”

“Is that where you’re from? I thought I heard the slightest hint of an accent.”

“You should have seen how hard I worked to get rid of it when I moved to New York City.” She laughed at herself. “I was so desperate to look and sound like everyone else back then.”

“Are you kidding? I would have loved to have had an exotic accent like yours. I’m sure if I had,” Claudia joked, “the men would have been lining up around the block for me.”

“You’re beautiful,” Mary said in her unaffected manner. “I’m sure the men were already lining up.”