Her Baby's Hero. Karen Sandler

Ashley call his bluff?

      She had to know he wouldn’t take no for an answer, that he wasn’t going anywhere without her. If she believed he’d stay right here, take up residence on her turf, would that be enough to bring her to her senses? Convince her to pack up her things, climb in his Mercedes and return to San José with him?

      It sure as hell had better. Because staying here in Small Town, USA, was most certainly not on his agenda. With Kerrigan Technology still struggling out of its financial doldrums, his father’s estate still in a mess, he didn’t have time to play country boy.

      He focused on Ashley, on her delicate face, the lines softened by pregnancy, her belly large with child. His child. His responsibility. He had a duty to protect her and the child she carried, whether she liked it or not. The moment she had stepped from her house, pregnant with his baby, his obligations had extended beyond just his brother, Steven, and his stepmother, Maureen, to encompass Ashley and the life inside her. He couldn’t—would never—turn his back on that obligation.

      Her gaze narrowed on him. “I’m not leaving.”

      “I’m not, either.”

      She tipped up her chin. “Then stay.”

      Okay, this might take a little time. He made a quick mental assessment of his weekend and decided he might have a day or two of wiggle room in which to work on Ashley. She’d always been a sensible woman, surely she would see reason if he made a clear case to her.

      He motioned toward the sofa. “Sit down.” He took a breath. “Please.”

      She eyed him warily, edging around him to the far end of the sofa. When she groped behind her for the sofa arm, he couldn’t just stand there and let her flop back onto the cushions. He took her hand to help her down.

      The warmth of her skin against his was a shock. Her wide brown eyes locked with his, stirring up memories he’d buried away six months ago. He forced himself to release her, then eased himself into the adjacent armchair.

      She rubbed her palms together. “Don’t you have a business to run?”

      What waited for him at home pressed down on him, but he shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “What did you expect, Ashley? That I’d take one look at you and run?”

      Color rose in her cheeks. “I didn’t think that far ahead.”

      Obviously, she wasn’t thinking now, considering her adamant insistence on staying. He’d have her convinced by tomorrow.

      “How long?” She smoothed her skirt over her rounded belly. A maternity dress shouldn’t look so sexy, but there was something about the swirl of colors, her slender hands, that stirred heat inside him.

      Heat that hazed his thoughts. “What?”

      “For the weekend?”

      “We need time to work out the particulars.”

      Her lips compressed. She didn’t like that answer. “You’re not staying here.”

      He looked around at the tiny space, imagined sharing it with Ashley. They’d be shoulder to shoulder, brushing up against each other at every turn, in each other’s space. Touching, breathing each other’s air.

      “No. Of course not.” He suppressed his body’s reaction. “Where do you suggest?”

      “The Hart Valley Inn.” As she hooked a strand of silky hair behind her ear, her hand shook. “Pretty much the only place to stay unless you want to go down to Marbleville.”

      Better to stay as close to her as possible. All the better to keep the pressure on. He needed to tie things up as quickly as he could, get back to San José.

      Fate had just wrenched his life into a sharp U-turn, not toward disaster as it had twenty years ago, but toward…something new. Unexpected. He didn’t like surprises.

      He just needed time to wrap his mind around it, to understand how his world had lurched into unpredictability. He’d learned twenty years ago that if he didn’t want the rug pulled out from under him, he’d better keep himself in line, have every detail worked out completely. Otherwise, chaos would sit on his doorstep.

      Ashley’s brown eyes drew him, tugged at something inside him. Without a mother for so long, he never learned the knack for giving comfort, had never considered it something expected of him. That was a woman’s purview. But Ashley’s troubled gaze drove him to reach for her.

      He folded her hand in his, intending to give her a pat, a smile to ease her. But the moment he touched her, his world shifted again, lust and a baffling longing wrestling inside him.

      With the chair and sofa sitting at right angles, his knees nearly brushed hers. The lightweight fabric of her flowery dress shaped her legs, tempting him to run a hand along her still-slender thigh. It might have only been one night, a cataclysmic hour of lovemaking, but he remembered distinctly the feel of her taut skin as he trailed his fingers up to that sweet mystery shrouded in rose-gold curls.

      His heart pounded in his ears as he leaned closer, fitting his knee between hers. Balancing on the edge of the chair, he lifted his hand to curl around the back of her neck, threading his fingers into her hair. Her wide brown eyes fixed on him, the heat in them unmistakable. Her lips parted, inviting him in, begging him to brush his mouth against them.

      He was near enough to hear her breathing, to catch a trace of her scent. Her inner thigh felt impossibly hot against his leg and an urgency to press her back against the sofa, to cover her body with his exploded inside him.

      He let go of her hand, intent on exploring her body. But the terrain had changed, and with the first light contact against her rounded belly, he froze. She’s pregnant! What the hell are you doing?

      He pushed back, jumping to his feet. “God, I’m sorry.”

      She just stared at him, looking as stunned as he felt. Color had risen in her cheeks, whether from embarrassment or arousal he didn’t want to consider.

      “I had no right to touch you.”

      Her chest rose as she took in a breath. “No, you didn’t.”

      “But my intentions here…” He struggled to frame what he wanted to say. “My only purpose here is to fulfill my obligations. There won’t be any other relationship between us.”

      She tipped up her chin. “Of course not.”

      Feeling like a complete idiot, he edged toward the door. “I should go. Get myself set up at the inn.”

      When she started to push to her feet, he motioned her back down. “I’ll call you.” He shoved open the door and let himself out into the afternoon sunshine.

      He didn’t let himself think until he’d pulled the Mercedes back onto the road. He had a to-do list a mile long in his PDA, most of which he could take care of with his laptop and a data line. He’d have to call his stepmother, Maureen, and his brother’s caretaker, Harold. He’d only brought one change of clothes, so a trip down to that big box store in Marbleville would be in order. Shopping somewhere that didn’t stock Gucci and Armani would horrify his stepmother, but he doubted anyone in Hart Valley would notice the lack of designer labels.

      Could he reach his attorney this late in the day? He needed a trust fund set up for the baby. Another one for Ashley. Maureen would squawk about that, too.

      Should he call his stepmother’s butler, have him set up a suite of rooms for Ashley in the mansion? He’d want a place ready for her when he brought her back with him. Preferably in the east wing, opposite his own rooms at the other end of the sprawling Tudor. As far from his as possible.

      Like the sweetest fragment of a dream, Ashley’s face drifted into his mind. He ought to blot it immediately from his consciousness, but he let it linger as he slowed at the town limits. He hadn’t allowed himself to feel even the least anticipation at the prospect of seeing her again. Now something very akin to pleasure