by Beth Yarnall
That afternoon he’d purchased a handgun for Lucy and arranged for shooting lessons. That way if she was ever attacked again, she would have a way to protect herself. He’d do everything in his power to make sure that asshole kept as far away from his family as possible. To that end, he’d had a long talk this afternoon with the mayor about the need to crack down on crime, especially domestic violence. If the mayor also happened to have a copy of the file Lucas had given him on Lucy’s case, well, that might just light a fire under his ass.
Cal drove through the gates of home, looking forward to seeing his family. His family. Who would’ve thought old rabble-rousing Cal would be looking forward to getting home to his wife and daughter? Poppy had charmed him almost as much as her mother. He adored that little girl. Who could’ve predicted it? He’d always liked kids…in small doses. But Poppy was different. Everything she did impressed him. Maybe he’d come to that point in life where he wanted a wife and children.
The good Lord knew he was done with the bachelor life and had been for sometime. Now he had Lucy and Poppy to fill the nights he would’ve spent home alone. He parked his car in the garage and headed into the house. The first thing he heard was Poppy crying. Screaming actually. He dropped his briefcase and tore up the stairs.
Lucy held Poppy’s stiff little body as the child reared her head back and wailed.
“What’s wrong with her?” he asked, the panic in his voice making it too loud.
“Ear infection. I think. This happened once before. I called her pediatrician, but she hasn’t called me back yet.”
“Can’t you give her anything?”
“I gave her some infant pain medication, but it hasn’t kicked in yet, poor bug.” Lucy rubbed the baby’s back. “I know it hurts, precious.” Her cell phone rang.
Cal held his hands out. “Let me have her. You answer that. And it better be that damned doctor.” He took Poppy from Lucy and put her to his shoulder where she always seemed to like it best. “There now, sweet pea. I’ve got you. She’s burning up,” he told Lucy.
“Fever. I’m going to take this where it’s quiet. You sure you got her?”
“We’re fine. Go on.”
He walked back and forth, rubbing Poppy’s back and trying to soothe her. He got her quieted down to long, pitiful moans interrupted by hiccups that tore at his heart. She was so hot and sweaty that she’d soaked his dress shirt. Her red curls lay flat to her head. He kept walking with her, and she eventually fell asleep. He eased down into the recliner and closed his eyes.
Hearing her screams had scared half a year off his life. Forget the diapers and nighttime feedings. This had to be the worst part about having a child—seeing them suffer and not being able to do a damn thing about it. He didn’t think he’d ever felt more helpless, except for when he’d come home and seen the damage on Lucy’s beautiful face.
He settled Poppy in the crook of his arm and gently rocked her. Poor little darlin’. Tiny beads of sweat dotted her forehead and pink cheeks. He pulled a blanket through the slats of her crib, then draped it gently over her, worried she’d catch a chill from being wet.
She looked so much like her momma and—he had to admit—her daddy was in there too.
Lucy came into the room. “The doctor’s calling in a prescription. Will you be all right if I go run and pick it up? Or should I have Sam do it?”
“They’ll probably want insurance information. Why don’t you take Sam with you to the pharmacy? And here—” He gently leaned forward and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. “Here’s your and Poppy’s new insurance cards.”
She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it and stood there blinking at him.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
Lucy didn’t think Cal had ever been any sexier than he was in that moment, cradling his sick daughter and talking about things like insurance cards. The man she was looking at now was not the man who’d knocked her up and then thrown his secretary onto his desk. No, this was the kind of man who would stick around, the kind of man who loved and took care of his family.
“Thanks,” she said around the tear-filled bubble in her throat. “I’ll be back soon. Call me if you need anything.”
“Will do.”
She left the bedroom, knowing her daughter would be taken care of. Throughout her trip to the pharmacy with Sam she kept going over her decision to tell Cal about Poppy and what his reaction might be.
It was a strange and exhilarating feeling to have a potential partner to parent with. She’d been on her own for so long it was going to take her a while to adjust. She wondered how Cal would take the news that he was a father. Was he only enjoying playing at being a daddy, or was he developing feelings for his daughter? When he found out he was a daddy for real, would he stay around or would he leave?
She guessed the only way to be sure would be to tell him. Once it was out, she’d know where she stood and could make better decisions for her and Poppy. Either way they had their deal for a full year. By that time Poppy would be nearly two years old, and Lucy would have a tidy nest egg put away. She supposed she could ask Cal for child support if she had to. He’d pay to keep it hushed that he had a child if he didn’t want Poppy in his life. If that was the case, they were no worse off than they were now.
It all seemed so logical. So why was she holding out the hope that Cal would want to keep fathering his daughter? And then the second, smaller hope that she and Cal would stay married and live happily ever after?
Now there was a dream.
She snorted, which drew Sam’s attention in the car. “Something wrong, Mrs. Sellers?”
They were on their way home from the pharmacy. Lucy had picked up a few other things she thought she might need for Poppy.
“No. Just thinking. Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Do you have kids?”
He grinned. “Three. All boys.”
“You like being a dad? I mean, it must be hard being away from them.”
“Best thing I ever did, and yeah, it’s hard. But when we’re together, we’re really together, you know?”
“Yeah.” She didn’t, but that wasn’t something she wanted to burden Sam with.
She stayed quiet the rest of the ride home. When she got there, Cal was in the same spot and nearly the same position as he’d been in when she’d left, eyes closed.
“Hey,” she whispered.
He opened his eyes. “Oh, hey. I fell asleep. Did you get the medicine?”
She held up the bag. “I hate to do it, but we should wake her up and give her a dose so it can start working right away.”
He looked down at Poppy. “Isn’t there some kind of superstition about waking a sleeping baby?”
“You want her in pain any longer than she has to be?”
“No.” He gently nudged Poppy. “Hey, sweet pea, time to wake up and take your medicine. Come on, sweets.” Poppy started howling. “Now I see why they say that,” he said to Lucy and then turned Poppy so Lucy could drop the medicine into her mouth. “That’s my girl. She took it like a champ. Now what?”
“Now you get her to go back to sleep.”
“Easy.” He rose, lifting Poppy to his shoulder, and walked.
It took only a few minutes before Poppy was asleep again. Cal laid her gently in her crib and backed away.
“Now what?” he asked.
“Now you come with me. I have something I need to talk with you about.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Lucy grabbed the baby monitor, led Cal into her bedroom, and closed the door. She’d been so calm in Poppy’s room, but now alone here with Cal, she was a bundle of sweaty nerves. Where to start? Should she build up to it or blurt it out? How did people do things like this?
She wiped her hands on her skirt. “Have a seat.” She gestured toward the two chairs by the fireplace.
He sat down and propped a booted foot on his knee. He had a big wet spot on his expensive dress
shirt from Poppy’s sweaty little body, his hair was messed up and his eyes were half-lidded and sleepy looking. If she hadn’t been so twisted up inside from what she was about to tell him, she might’ve suggested option number eight or twenty-one. They were similar, but option eight added a twist she’d been dying to try and… She was stalling.
She lowered herself into the chair opposite him. There was really no good way to say this so she just started.
“Back when we were together and I caught you with your secretary—”
“I said it before and I’ll say it again—I’m sorry. And I’ll keep on saying it until you believe it. I’m sorry.”
“No, that wasn’t what I wanted to talk about.”
He shifted in his seat, dropping his foot to the floor and leaning in. “What is it that’s got you so upset, darlin’? Is it Poppy? Is she worse off than you thought?”
“No, it’s not that either. Be quiet a minute and let me get this out, okay?”
He nodded but kept watching her with an intensity that was so Cal.
“I left your office that day, and I swore to myself I’d never see you again. No matter what. And then things got very bad for me financially. If it were just me, I’d have sucked it up, been homeless or gone to live in a shelter or something, but I had Poppy to think of. So I put my pride aside and I went to you for a job. I never expected…” her hand fluttered in a helpless motion, “…that you’d offer me marriage. I figured I had a fifty-fifty shot at getting my old job back. The odds were high enough that I had to ask. For Poppy.
“And then Kevin came back.” Her eyes began to fill with tears, but she held them at bay. Cal started to say something, but she stopped him with her hand. “It was…still is a life-or-death situation. And again, if it were just me, I’d deal with him however I could, but there was Poppy. He only wants her now because she’s the key he uses to get to me. He can’t have children of his own, so he was willing to marry me. I thought I was doing what was best for everyone. He agreed to pass Poppy off as his own. But she’s not. Kevin isn’t Poppy’s father. You are.”
He was quiet so long, his expression unchanged, she grew nervous, waiting for an explosion that never came. “Aren’t you going to say something?”
“Darlin’, I know how to do math.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I knew she had to be mine by the timing. Unless you were cheating on me, which I couldn’t complain about, now could I? I figured she had to be mine. I am much relieved to know you didn’t cheat and that she really, truly is mine.”
She shook her head. “I don’t understand. You knew? Why didn’t you ever say anything? Why didn’t you do anything?”
“What could I do? You married that asshole instead of telling me. Your thoughts on the matter couldn’t be any plainer. You made it clear you didn’t want me in your life let alone Poppy’s life after what I did to you. And rightly so from where I was standing at the time. But I kept tabs and helped when I could. I paid for that private room and your expenses when she was born. She has a trust fund and a college fund. She is also listed as one of the heirs in my will, the main heir. I did what I could for her from the outside.”
Her heart was pounding so hard she couldn’t catch her breath. He knew. All this time. All the while she was taking the beatings from Kevin, he knew Poppy was his daughter.
He scooted forward in his chair. “But now I know her. I’ve held her and rocked her. She’s mine, and I’m claiming her. I won’t allow another day to go by in her life without me in it. I’m here, and I’m not leaving.”
“So that’s it. Everything’s solved in your world.”
“No, everything’s not solved, but it’s starting to work itself out.”
“What about a year from now when this marriage is over and we go our separate ways?”
“If that’s what you want, then that’s what we’ll do. If it was up to me, I’d make you my wife in every way—not just in name—and the three of us would be a family.”
“Why?”
“Well, I thought that was fairly obvious.”
“Obviously not.”
“I’m in love with you.” He said it so simply when nothing that had ever happened between them could ever be classified as simple, including her very complicated feelings for him.
“It took you walking out of my life and into the arms of another man for me to realize it. And I swore—” he took her hands in his, “—that if I ever got another chance with you, I’d do everything I could to be the kind of man you can trust and maybe love in return. And then you walked into my office in your tight blouse and even tighter skirt, flipping your hair over your shoulder, all but demanding that I give you your old job, and I knew. That was my second chance, maybe my only chance to have you back again.
“I know it’s going to take time to earn your trust and forgiveness. Seeing you with that other man, imagining you with him, watching you create a family with him… I got back some of what I must have put you through, and it nearly brought me to my knees. In one stupid, thoughtless act I lost you and my daughter. I lost everything that mattered before I even knew it could matter. So now here I am getting to know my daughter and wooing my wife. And hoping I can win her back.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
She truly didn’t. His declaration left her speechless. Maybe there was such a thing as second chances and do-overs. If he’d been anything in the past few weeks, he’d been consistent, putting his words into action over and over. It was clear he adored his daughter, doting on her and stepping up to be a real father to her. Maybe they could work things out. Maybe she could trust him. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
“You don’t need to say anything.”
“But I do. When you talk like that, Cal, you make me want everything you said. You make me want to trust you again.”
He grinned like he’d been awarded a prize. “I want to kiss you so bad right now, darlin’, that I don’t think I could stop once I started.”
“I’m not sure I’d want you to if you did. Come here, cowboy.” She grabbed him by his still-damp shirt collar. “Kiss me.”
Cal put his lips to hers. This kiss was like none they’d ever shared. Their first kisses had been feverish and hungry, their recent kisses had been tentative and testing, but this kiss…this kiss was sure and hopeful, and it outshone any other kiss. He dropped to his knees in front of her chair and brought her right up against his body, her legs on either side of his hips. The feel of her… There was no holding back. He let his hands wander, relearning her curves.
He trailed a line of kisses across her jaw and down her neck. She sifted her fingers through his hair and held him as though she never wanted him to stop. He made thorough work of kissing her, setting everything free that he’d kept pent up. He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted a woman in his life, more than the first time he’d had her. This was the first, the most important first. She was letting him back into her heart and maybe her body. He grew wild for her, desperate for the feel of skin on skin and her hands on his body.
Gripping her ass, he rocked against her. She worked at the buttons of his shirt. He followed suit, undoing the buttons of her blouse, exposing her an inch at a time until he was looking down at the creamy swell of her breasts spilling out of the cups of her bra.
He bent his head to her beckoning flesh, cupping her breasts in both hands. She’d always been more than a handful, but now after having his child, her body had become a lush wonderland of new curves to explore. God, he wanted her. He pressed his erection against her so she could see for herself how much. She answered with a moan and dug her heels into his backside, grinding against him.
He peeled back a cup of her bra and then the other, and her breasts popped free from their confines. Bending back, she guided him to where she wanted him. He was only happy to oblige, drawing her nipple into his mouth and sucking hard.
“Ahh,” she gasped.
He wanted to be inside her so b
ad he thought he’d die before he’d get the chance. Slipping a hand between her legs, he felt how wet she was through her panties. He had to touch her, dip his fingers into her slickness. He slid his hand into the waistband of her panties, stroking into her with one then two fingers. She arched back farther as he worked her, drawing out her pleasure toward orgasm.
She began panting, and he knew she was close, so close. He drove his fingers into her as he wanted to drive his cock into her, over and over, not letting up until she broke on a low moan, clutching his head to her breast. He nuzzled her, working his way back to her mouth, and kissed her, a long, slow promise that this was only the beginning. There would be more, so much more between them.
“Cal?”
“Hmm,” he answered as he kissed the slopes of her breasts.
“That wasn’t in the option agreement.”
“We’ll add it.” He moved his fingers inside her again. “How about number five? I’m feeling number five real strong, darlin’.”
“Five?” She gasped.
“It’s the one where I put my mouth where my hand is now.”
“No. Just your hands. I want your mouth here and here.” She cupped one breast and then the other, rolling her nipples between her thumbs and fingers.
“Jesus, darlin’,” he breathed.
He gripped her panties and ripped them in half, exposing her. Running his hands up her pale thighs, he couldn’t believe what a lucky bastard he was to have her wanting and willing. He widened her legs, using both hands on her, rubbing her clit and stroking her deep. Gazing up at her, he touched his tongue to her nipple. Her arousal was intoxicating, and he couldn’t stop watching her reactions as he pleasured her. The sounds she made, the scent of her, he was sure he would come right here with his mouth on her and her hand in his hair, urging him on.
She brought her other hand up to her breast and rubbed her nipple. The first gasps of her impending orgasm drove him mad. This was his Lucy, wild and wanton and so uninhibited. He picked up the pace, slipping three fingers inside of her and working her until her hand fisted in his hair and she cried out.
