Falling for King's Fortune

by Maureen Child

  She flushed and she knew it. She could feel heat staining her cheeks and hated the fact that she’d never been able to keep from doing that when she was embarrassed. Glancing around the diner, she made sure the other customers weren’t paying them the slightest bit of attention before she said in a vicious whisper, “I took strands of your hair. Remember when you kissed me—”

  “You kissed me as I remember it,” he interrupted.

  That’s right. She had. All part of the plan that had taken a seriously wrong turn almost instantly after her mouth had touched his. And there was the uncomfortable twist and burn inside her. “Fine. I kissed you. Remember I pulled on your hair?”

  “Ah yes,” he said, leaning back into the seat and folding his arms over his chest. “You were feeling wild, you said.”

  “Yes, well.” She shifted in her seat and wished she could get up and move around. She’d always thought better when she was walking. But she couldn’t very well spring out of the booth while Mia was there, strapped into a booster seat. “I needed a follicle of your hair so I could have it tested.”

  “Why not simply ask?”

  Now she laughed. “Sure. I’m going to go up to a strange man and ask for a sample of his DNA.”

  “Instead, you went up to a strange man and kissed him?”

  Frowning, she admitted, “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “And what about the rest of it?” he asked. “Was that part of your plan, too? Spend the night with me to what? Trap me into something somehow? Get me so wound up that neither one of us was considering any kind of protection?”

  She cringed a little. She hadn’t even thought of protection that night. The way she remembered it, she’d been so hot, so needy, so completely over the edge with a kind of desire she’d never known before, the thought of condoms hadn’t even entered her head. And just how stupid was that?

  “I didn’t plan any of that,” she said firmly. “The rest of that night just…happened.” Her gaze snapped to his. “And while we’re on the subject, I’d like to assure you that I’m perfectly healthy. I hope you can say the same.”

  “Yes. I am.”

  One worry taken care of, she told herself.

  “That’s good.”

  “And what about the other concern?” He asked the question slowly, as if judging her reaction.

  “You mean pregnancy?”

  He tipped his head toward Mia. “You seem to be fertile enough, it’s a reasonable question.”

  “You don’t have to worry,” she told him. “The doctors say I would have a difficult time conceiving in the usual way.”

  One dark eyebrow lifted and she squirmed a little. Her personal history was just that. Personal. It wasn’t something she discussed with just anyone.

  “And yet…”

  Again, he nodded toward Mia, gurgling and now slapping that teething biscuit against the tabletop.

  “Look,” he said, capturing her attention again, “let’s leave everything else for the moment and go back to the real matter at hand.” He glanced at Mia and Casey wanted to hide her daughter from his appraising gaze. “You needed my DNA. Why? We’d never met. How could you think I’m the father of your child?”

  More personal history that she would prefer not to discuss. Yet, she’d come here tonight because she’d felt she didn’t have a choice.

  “Nearly two years ago,” she said, her voice low enough that no one could possibly overhear her, “I went to the Mandeville clinic…”

  She saw understanding dawn on his features. His eyes opened, his firm mouth relaxed a little and his gaze, when it shifted to Mia, was this time, more stunned than angry or suspicious.

  “The sperm bank,” he muttered.

  “Yes.” Casey shifted in her seat a little, uncomfortable discussing this with anyone, let alone the “donor” who’d made her daughter’s birth possible.

  He shook his head, scrubbed one hand across his face and said, “That’s just not possible.”

  “Clearly,” she said, “it is.”

  “No, you don’t understand.” His gaze locked on hers again, silently demanding an explanation for how this could have happened. “Yes, in college, I admit, I went to the clinic with a friend of mine. We’d lost a bet and—”

  “A bet?”

  He frowned at her. “Anyway, I went, made the donation and didn’t think about it again until about five years ago. I realized that I didn’t want a child of mine, unknown to me, growing up out there somewhere. I told them I wanted that sample destroyed.”

  A chill swept through her at those words. She glanced at her daughter and as a wave of love rushed through her, she tried to imagine a life without Mia in it. And couldn’t. Somehow, through some bureaucratic mishap, Jackson’s order had gotten lost in the shuffle, overlooked and ignored. She could only be grateful. Knowing how close she’d come to never having Mia only made her treasure her daughter even more.

  She smiled. “Well, I’m glad to say they didn’t do as you requested.”

  “Obviously.”

  It wasn’t hard to judge his current feelings. He was now avoiding looking at Mia at all. And that was fine with Casey. She didn’t want him interested in her daughter. Mia was hers. Her family. Casey was only here because she’d felt that Jackson had a right to know he had a child.

  “I thought sperm banks were anonymous,” he said a moment later.

  “They’re supposed to be.” When she’d gone to the Mandeville clinic, she’d specifically made sure that she would never know the identity of her child’s father. She wasn’t looking for a relationship, after all. She didn’t need a partner to help her raise a child. All she’d wanted was a baby to love. A family of her own.

  When she was assured that their donors’ identities were very strictly protected, Casey’d been relieved. And that relief had stayed with her until about a month ago.

  “I got an e-mail almost four weeks ago,” she said softly.

  “From the Mandeville clinic. It listed my name, the donor number I’d selected and identified you as the man who’d made the original deposit.”

  He winced a little at that.

  “Naturally, I was furious. This whole thing was supposed to be anonymous, remember. I called the clinic to complain,” she told him and with the memories flooding her mind, she felt again that helpless sense of betrayal she’d experienced when she first read that e-mail. “They were in a panic. It seems someone hacked into their computers and sent out dozens of e-mails to women identifying the fathers of their children. It wasn’t supposed to happen, of course, but it was too late to change anything.”

  “I see.”

  Two words, said so tightly it was a wonder he’d been able to squeeze them out of his throat. Well, fine. Casey understood that this was a surprise. But he had to understand that she wasn’t happy about this, either.

  “I didn’t want to know the name of my daughter’s father,” she said firmly. “I wasn’t interested in the man then and I’m not interested now. I didn’t go to a sperm bank looking for a lasting connection, after all. All I wanted was a baby.”

  A muscle in his jaw twitched and an emotional shutter was down over his eyes, preventing her from getting the slightest impression of what he was thinking. “And you found this out a month ago.”

  “Yes.”

  He tapped his fingertips against the table. “Why’d you wait so long to tell me?”

  Though his tone was even, his voice quiet, Casey had no problem identifying the anger behind that statement.

  She took a gulp of her now cold coffee and grimaced as it slid down her throat. “Frankly, I’d considered not telling you at all at first.”

  His eyebrows arched.

  “But soon enough, I realized you had the right to know if you actually were Mia’s father.”

  “You doubted it?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” she countered. “Just because some hacker got into the clinic’s computer system doesn’t mean he did a good job of
it.” Then she looked him straight in the eye. “Besides, you are definitely not the kind of father I wanted for my baby. When I went to Mandeville, I specifically requested the sperm of a scientist.”

  For a second, insult flashed across his face, then he snorted a laugh again and shook his head as if he couldn’t believe they were even having this conversation. “A scientist?”

  “I wanted my child to be smart.”

  He glared at her. “I graduated magna cum laude.”

  “With a degree in partying? Or women?”

  “I happen to have an MBA, not that it’s any of your business.”

  She had already known that, thanks to her research, but the point was, she knew very well what Jackson King considered most important in his life. And it wasn’t intellectual pursuits.

  “It doesn’t really matter anymore,” Casey said with a sigh. “I love my daughter and I don’t care who her father is.”

  “Yet, as soon as you found out her father was Jackson King,” he countered, “you came to me. So what’s this little meeting really about?”

  “I beg your pardon?” She sounded as stuffy as her late aunt Grace.

  “You heard me, Casey Davis. You came here to present me with my daughter—”

  “My daughter,” she corrected, wondering why this conversation was suddenly feeling like more than a verbal battle.

  “So it makes a man wonder, just what it is you really want from me? Money?” He reached into the breast pocket of his suit and pulled out a black leather wallet. “How much are you after? Looking for some child support? Is that what this is about?”

  “That is just typical,” she said, feeling a slow burn of anger start to build within. “Of course you think this is about money. That’s how you see the world, isn’t it? Well, I already told you, I don’t want anything from you.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  She hissed in a breath and devoutly wished she’d never told him about Mia. “You can think whatever you like. I can’t stop you. But I can leave. This little conversation is over.”

  Turning in her seat, she unstrapped her baby from the booster chair, lifted Mia into her arms and cuddled her close as she scooted out of the booth. Feeling Mia’s warmth against her was a soothing balm to the anger churning inside her. It didn’t matter what Jackson King thought or did. She’d done the right thing, now she could put him behind her. She could concentrate on her daughter.

  When she was standing, her purse hanging from her shoulder to slap against her jean-clad thigh, Casey looked down at Jackson. And this time there was pity in her eyes. Because he couldn’t grasp just how much he was missing, not knowing the child he’d helped create.

  “I thought you had a right to know that you’d helped make this beautiful little girl possible, whether or not it was done willingly,” she said, disgust pumping into her words. “But I can see now that was a mistake. Don’t worry though, Jackson. Mia will never know that her father thought so little of her.”

  “Is that right?” He smiled up at her, clearly believing her outrage just another part of the act. “What will you tell her about me?”

  “I’ll tell her you’re dead,” Casey said quietly. “Because as far as I’m concerned, you are.”

  Four

  She moved fast, he’d give her that.

  But then, shock had slowed him down a little, too.

  Jackson was only a step or two behind her, raw emotion pumping through his system. He couldn’t even believe what was happening. At thirty-one years old, he was a father. To a little girl who’d been alive for nearly a year and he hadn’t known it. What the hell was a man supposed to do with information like that?

  His gaze fixed on Casey as she hurried across the parking lot and even as furious as he was, he couldn’t stop himself from admiring the rear view of her. Her jeans clung to her behind and her legs like a second skin and instantly, lust roared up inside and kept time with the anger frothing in his gut.

  Casey was already at her car, putting the baby into a car seat when he caught up with her. A cold ocean wind slapped at him as he approached, almost as if someone, somewhere was trying to keep him at a distance.

  Well the hell with that.

  “You can’t just drop this bomb on me, then walk away.”

  She flipped her head around, froze him with a hard look and muttered, “Watch me.”

  He glanced at the baby, who was watching them both through wide brown eyes. After being around his nieces for several months, Jackson recognized the expression on the baby’s face. The tiny girl looked confused and on the verge of tears. Not what he wanted. So he lowered his voice, tried to force a smile into place and said, “Look, you surprised me. Sandbagged me. And I think you know it.”

  Casey paid no attention to him, instead, she struggled with the straps on the car seat. “This stupid thing always gives me fits.”

  He didn’t want to talk about the car seat. Getting more impatient by the minute, he finally took hold of Casey’s arm, ignored the instant sizzle that touching her caused, pulled her back and said “Let me do it.”

  She laughed. “How do you know anything about infant car seats?”

  “I have two nieces,” he muttered, not bothering to glance at her.

  He’d had plenty of practice over the last year, dealing with all of the accoutrements that seemed to come along with a baby. Emma had more luggage than her parents and in a few short months, Katie’s toys and necessities had completely taken over the vineyard.

  In seconds, he had the buckles snapped securely. He looked at his daughter and tried to wrap his brain around that simple fact. Didn’t work. Still, he traced one finger down the baby’s cheek and got a giggle for his trouble. His heart ached with a completely unfamiliar feeling as he looked into eyes so like his own.

  When he backed out of the car, he was still smiling until he caught the fiery look in Casey’s eyes.

  “Thanks,” she said quickly, then pushed past him to close the car door and walk around to the driver’s seat.

  Jackson stayed right at her heels. Before she could open her car door and escape him, he grabbed hold of her arm again. “Just wait a damn minute, all right?”

  She pulled free of his grasp and he let her go. Shoving one hand through his hair, he took a breath, glanced around at the full parking lot and then looked back at her. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

  “Nothing,” she said and now she sounded almost tired.

  “I’ve already said that. Now I have to go.”

  He slapped one hand against the car door and held it shut. Bending down, he looked directly into her blue eyes and said, “You’ve known about the baby—”

  “Mia—”

  “—Mia,” he corrected, “for nearly two years. I’ve known for—” he checked his watch. “Ten minutes. Maybe you could cut me a break here, huh? It’s not every day a man finds out he’s a father while sitting in a twenty-four-hour diner that smells of corned beef hash.”

  An all-too-brief smile curved her mouth then disappeared again in a heartbeat.

  Jackson’s mind was racing. He’d just received the biggest news of his life. How the hell was he supposed to react?

  “Fine,” she said and he could see that the effort to be reasonable was costing her. “You need time. Take all the time you want. Take eternity if you need to.” Her gaze bored into his. “While you get used to the idea, Mia and I will go back to our lives.”

  “Just like that?”

  She jerked him a nod and the silver stars in her ears winked at him, reflecting off the parking lot lights. “Just like that. You needed to know, now you do. That’s all.”

  He looked through the car windows at the back of the car seat. He couldn’t see Mia’s face, but he didn’t have to. The image was burned into his memory. He doubted he would ever forget his first look at her.

  Something momentous had just happened to him and damned if he could make sense of it standing in a crowded parking lot. So he’d le
t Casey go. Let her take his daughter away.

  For now.

  She’d find out soon enough that he wasn’t a man to be dismissed whenever she felt it was time.

  “All right. Take Mia home.” Easing off the car, Jackson stepped aside and allowed her to open the door. He noticed the wary suspicion in her eyes, but didn’t care to say anything that might ease it. Let her worry a bit. She’d put him through the wringer in a matter of a few minutes. Worrying about it now was the least she could do.

  She tossed her purse onto the front passenger seat, curled her fingers over the top of the car door and looked at him. In the dim light, her deep blue eyes were shadowed. A trick of the night? Or something else?

  “I guess this is goodbye,” she said and mustered up a smile that only managed to tip one corner of her mouth.

  “I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing each other again, so have a nice life, Jackson.”

  He watched her leave, memorized her license plate number and was already making plans as he headed to his car.

  “It went great,” Casey lied as she moved around her kitchen, entangling herself in the phone cord as she went. She really had to get a cordless for this room. Opening the refrigerator door, she pulled out a bottle of chardonnay then went for a wineglass. “He saw Mia, we talked, then we came home and he went…wherever men like him go.”

  Mia was sound asleep in her room, the house was quiet and Casey was still a bundle of nerves. Seeing Jackson again had been way too hard. She hadn’t expected the sexual tug to be as strong as before. And then, watching his face as he looked at Mia and realized the truth had really sucker punched her. He’d looked stunned, of course. But there was an undercurrent, too. A look of a man glimpsing something he’d never expected to find. Like he’d stumbled across a treasure—just before his eyes went cold and calculating again.

  And that worried her a little.

  After all, as Dani had pointed out, the King family was a powerful force in California. What if he decided to take Mia from Casey? Then what? No, she told herself instantly. He’d signed a form when he donated his sperm, giving up all rights to a baby. Though with his family’s power, he could probably negate that form. He wasn’t interested in having a child.