Claiming King's Baby

by Maureen Child

  While the hot tub worked its magic, Justice worked some of his own. Supporting her head with one arm, he used his free hand to undo the front clasp of her bra, freeing her breasts, her hard nipples. He dipped his head and took first one, then the other, into his mouth, rolling his tongue across their sensitive tips, feeling Maggie shudder beneath him as tumultuous sensations gathered within her.

  He couldn’t seem to taste her enough. How had he lived these long months without her in his arms? He suckled her, and she whimpered, both from his attentions and the steady beat of the water on her tender flesh. He knew what she was feeling because he felt it, too.

  The hunger. The need. The raw urgency racing through his bloodstream. He had to have her. Reaching down, he tore her panties down and off her legs and then held her thighs apart so that the warm water could caress her even more intimately.

  She grabbed at his shoulders and groaned from deep in her throat as she lifted her hips into the water jet, aching, needing. He watched her face as her eyes swam with desire and her breath caught in her throat. Then she turned her gaze on him and whispered, “I want you inside me, Justice.”

  That was all he needed to hear. He pulled her toward him, locked his mouth onto hers and eased them both down onto the bench. She straddled him, her knees at either side of his hips, and then lowered herself down onto him, inch by slow, incredible inch. She took him inside, into the heat. Into the heart of her, and Justice couldn’t look away from her amazing eyes while he filled her, pushing himself deeply into her body.

  Their gazes fixed on each other, they moved as one, racing toward the inevitable finish that they both so desperately needed. Justice felt whole. Felt complete. Felt as if nothing else in the world mattered but this moment. This woman. She was all. She was everything. And when her lips parted and she cried out his name as her body trembled and shook with the force of her release, he knew he’d never seen anything more lovely.

  Only moments later, he gave himself up to the wildness calling him and willingly followed her into a dazzling world that only lovers knew.

  “It didn’t change anything,” Maggie muttered while she dressed Jonas in his pajamas that night. Her son smiled and laughed, a rolling, full-throated sound that never failed to tear at her heart.

  She had him lying on her bed, since the two of them were still sharing a room. Thank heaven it was at the opposite end of the hall from the master bedroom. After what had happened between them that afternoon, she didn’t think it would be a wise idea to be too close to him.

  “You think it’s funny, do you?” she asked her son, smiling at him as she bent to plant a kiss on his belly. “You think Mommy is making a fool of herself? You’re right, she probably is. And you know what? She’s still not sorry.”

  The baby pulled at her hair, and Maggie gently untangled his fingers. She put first one chubby foot then the next into his footed blue sleeper, then swiftly did up the zipper, snapping the jammies closed at the neck. Jonas kicked and squirmed on Maggie’s bed until she scooped him up and cuddled him close.

  Nothing in the world smelled better than a baby fresh from his bath. His skin was soft and warm and the heavy, solid weight of her son in her arms eased the ache in her heart substantially.

  She didn’t regret making love with Justice that afternoon, but at the same time she could admit that it had probably been a mistake. Nothing was settled between them. She was still furious with him for insisting on a paternity test when any fool could look at Jonas and know without a doubt he was Justice’s son. And she was frustrated by the fact that no matter how hard she tried to get past the barriers Justice had erected around his own heart, they still stood tall and strong against her.

  “But you know what really gets to me, sweetie?” she crooned, keeping her voice light and soothing as she bounced her son on her knee. “Your daddy wants a paternity test yet he’s still avoiding you. Why’s that, hmm? Do you know? Can you tell Mommy?”

  Jonas laughed and cooed and waved his arms as if he were trying to fly, and Maggie smiled at the tiny boy who had so filled her heart. She couldn’t imagine her life without Jonas now. He was a part of her. Yet, the man who was his father was still a stranger to him.

  “Well, little man,” she said, making her decision in an instant, “it’s time we changed all that, don’t you think? It’s time your daddy discovered just what he’s been missing. I want him to know you. To know what we could all have had together.”

  Jonas burbled something that Maggie took to be agreement. Pushing off the bed, she carried the baby out of the room, along the hall and down the stairs, following the sound of the evening news on a television.

  She spotted Justice the moment she walked into the great room. He was sprawled in one of the comfortable chairs positioned around the room, his gaze fixed on a flat-screen TV on the opposite wall. While a news anchor rambled on about the top stories of the day, Maggie crossed the room with determined steps.

  When she got close, he looked up, directly into her eyes. She felt a quick thrilling rush through her system as heat pooled in the pit of her stomach and then slipped lower. Oh, he was dangerous, she told herself, with his dark eyes, long black hair and stern features. Then his gaze shifted to the baby and a wariness shone in his eyes briefly. Which told Maggie she was doing exactly the right thing. So she took a breath, steadied herself and forced a smile.

  “I brought your son to say good-night.”

  He sat up straighter, narrowed his gaze on her and said, “Not necessary.”

  “Oh, it is, Justice,” she told him, and in a sure, swift movement set the baby onto Justice’s lap. The two of them blinked at each other, and Maggie would have been hard-pressed to say which of them looked more surprised by her actions.

  “Maggie, the test isn’t in yet, so—”

  “He’s your son, Justice. The test will prove that, even to you, very soon. So you might as well start getting to know him.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “You should know him, Justice,” she said, not letting him finish. “And there’s no time like now. So, you two be good and I’ll go get his bottle.”

  Justice’s eyes widened in horror. “You’re leaving me alone with him?”

  Maggie laughed. “Welcome to fatherhood.”

  She left the room after that but stayed in the hall, peeking into the room so she could watch the two men in her life interact. Justice looked as though he were holding a ticking time bomb and Jonas looked uncertain about the whole situation.

  When the baby’s lower lip began to tremble, Maggie almost went back inside. Then she heard Justice say, “Now don’t cry, Jonas. Everything’s going to be all right.”

  And in the hall, Maggie had to wonder if he’d just lied to his son for the first time.

  As the days passed, Justice felt the strength in his leg continue to grow. But as his body healed, his heart was being torn open. Being with Maggie and yet separate from her was harder than he would ever have thought possible. Those few stolen moments in the hot tub hadn’t been repeated, and now that time with her seemed almost like a dream. A dream that continued to haunt him no matter where he was or what he was doing.

  He stood at the paddock in the bright sunshine and leaned his forearms atop the uppermost rail in the fence. With his hat pulled low over his eyes, Justice stared out at the horses being saddle-trained and told himself that he’d do well to simply concentrate on work.

  Now that he was getting around better, he’d begun to take up more of the reins of the operation again, and it was good to feel more himself. Though he wasn’t up yet for taking his own horse out onto the range, he would be soon. Until then, he spent as little time as possible inside the house—though he was seeing more of the baby these days. It seemed as though both Maggie and Mrs. Carey were bound and determined to see him connect with the child.

  And to be honest, Justice was enjoying himself. That little boy had a way of tugging at a man’s heart. Father or not, he was being drawn d
eeper into the web of feeling, caring. Only that morning, Jonas had curled his little fist around Justice’s finger and that tiny, fierce grip had taken hold of him more deeply than he would have thought possible.

  The exercise-and-massage sessions Maggie had devised were getting less tiring as he healed, and he both hated that fact and was relieved by it. One-on-one time with Maggie was dangerous because he wanted her now more than ever. He hated missing those moments, but he also needed the space to do some serious thinking. Once the paternity test results came in, he would know if Maggie had been lying to him all this time. He would know if the baby boy he was becoming more fond of every day was his son.

  And he would know what he had to do.

  If Maggie was lying, then he’d have to let her go again. No matter how much he still loved her, no matter how much he’d come to care for the boy, he wouldn’t be used. By anyone. But even as he thought it, a voice in his head shouted at him that it wasn’t in Maggie’s nature to lie. She was as forthright and honest a person as he’d ever known.

  Which meant that as far as she knew, she was telling the absolute truth. Jonas was his son. If the tests proved it out, then Justice was going to be a part of the boy’s life, whether or not Maggie was happy about that.

  However the chips fell, he and Maggie had some tough choices headed their way. So why clutter everything up further with sex?

  “Hey, boss!”

  Justice turned toward the voice and spotted Mike leading one of the young horses around the perimeter of the ring. “What?”

  Mike pointed toward the house. “Looks like your boy there is a born ranch hand!”

  Justice swiveled his head to look and saw Maggie and Jonas on the flagstone patio. She was kneeling beside Jonas, who sat astride a rocking horse that had been in the King family for decades. Mrs. Carey must have hauled it down from the attic, Justice mused, a smile on his face as he watched Jonas hold on to the reins and rock unsteadily, his mother’s arm wrapped firmly around him.

  Even from a distance, he heard the baby’s delighted laugh and Maggie’s soft chuckle, and the mingled sounds went straight to his heart. If she was lying, how the hell was Justice going to stand losing her and the baby?

  Nine

  M aggie was putting her laundry away when she noticed the corner of a brown envelope peeking out from beneath a stack of T-shirts.

  The signed divorce papers.

  She set the laundry down, reached into the drawer for the large manila envelope and carefully opened the metal tabs. Pulling the papers free, she let her gaze drift over the legalese that would have, if she’d only filed the damn things with the court, ended her marriage.

  But then, that was the problem. Despite going to the trouble of getting the papers, of having Justice sign them, Maggie never really had wanted the marriage to be over. So now, she simply kept the signed documents with her. As a sort of talisman, she supposed. As long as she had them, she was still connected to Justice. Jonas still had a father. And she had a chance at getting back what she and Justice had lost. Was she just fooling herself, though? Torturing herself with thoughts of reconciliation?

  Sex between them was still off-the-charts great. But was that it? Was that all they shared now?

  Sadly, she slid the papers back into the envelope, then dropped the package back into her drawer. Turning from the dresser, she walked to the open window overlooking the front of the house and stared out at the storm blowing in off the ocean.

  The white sheers at the window billowed in the wind gusting in under the sash like ghosts fighting to be free of earth. Tree limbs clattered and seagulls wheeled and danced in the sky, taking refuge inland from the approaching storm. She closed the window against the cold wind and told herself firmly that when she got back to her own apartment, she had to file those divorce papers. But even as she thought it, she knew she wouldn’t do it.

  “You’re crazy, Maggie,” she whispered.

  “I always liked that about you.”

  She spun around quickly, hand splayed across her chest as if to keep her heart in place. “Nothing like a jolt of adrenaline to get the morning off to a great start.”

  “Didn’t mean to startle you,” Justice said as he walked into her room with slow, but even steps. “Thought you would have heard me coming down the hall.”

  She watched him as he moved without hesitating, or limping. He was nearly back to normal and hadn’t used his cane in a couple of days. Soon, he wouldn’t need her at all. Well, wasn’t that a cheery thought?

  “No, without the tapping of the cane giving you away, you’re pretty stealthy.”

  He nodded, reached down to rub his thigh and said, “It’s good to be rid of it.”

  “I’m sure it is.” She moved back to the dresser and tucked her laundry into the proper drawers, then straightened, gave him a bright smile and said, “Well, I really should go down and get Jonas. Mrs. Carey’s had him most of the morning.”

  “It can wait another minute.” He moved to stand between her and the door and Maggie knew the only way she’d get past him was to brush up against him. And she didn’t think that was a good idea. Not since her body remembered their time in the hot tub all too well and was just itching for more.

  So instead she stopped, hitched one hip higher than the other and folded her arms over her chest. “Okay. What do you need, Justice?”

  His gaze locked on hers, he said, “I think it’s time you and I had a talk about what’s going to happen when the test results come in.”

  “What do you mean?” Wariness crept into her voice, but she really couldn’t help it.

  “I mean, in a few days we’ll know the truth. And if it turns out that Jonas really is my son…”

  She bristled. God, she hated that he didn’t trust her and instead needed substantiating proof from a laboratory.

  “—then I’m going to want him raised here,” Justice was saying and Maggie listened up. “On the ranch.”

  A sinking sensation opened up in the pit of her stomach and her heart dropped into it. She shook her head. “No way.”

  “What?”

  “You can’t just take my son.”

  “If he’s my son, too,” Justice argued, “I can take my share of him.”

  She laughed shortly, a harsh scrape against her throat. “What do you plan to do? Cut him in half?”

  He scowled and walked past her to sit on the edge of the bed. Rubbing his leg, he said, “Nothing so dramatic. If Jonas is mine, I want him raised here. I want him growing up where I did. This ranch is his heritage, and he should get to know it and love it like I do.”

  “All of a sudden you’re worried about his heritage?” Maggie stalked across the floor toward him and stopped just before she got within strangling range. Because the way she was feeling at the moment, she really didn’t trust herself. “Up until last week you wouldn’t even admit to the possibility of his being your son. Now he has a heritage and you want to take him from me? I don’t think so.”

  “Don’t fight me on this, Maggie,” Justice said, wincing a little as if his leg was paining him. “You’ll lose.”

  For the first time since she’d arrived at the ranch, she wasn’t concerned with Justice’s pain. With the discomfort of his injury. In fact, she hoped his leg ached like a bitch. Why should she be the only one in pain here? All she knew was that he was going to take her baby from her. Well, it would have to be over her dead body.

  She took a deep breath, held on to her heartache like a shield and said, “Oh, no, I won’t lose. He’s mine, Justice. He’s nearly six months old and up until little more than a week ago, you’d never seen him!”

  “Because you didn’t bother to tell me of his existence.”

  “You didn’t believe me when I did tell you.”

  “Not the point.” He waved that argument aside with a flick of his hand.

  “It’s exactly the point, Justice, and you know it.”

  Outside, clouds rolled in, the wind kicked up into a fie
rce dance and rain suddenly pounded on the windowpanes with a vicious rhythm.

  Feeling as ragged and frenetic as the storm, Maggie stepped back from him and said firmly, “Jonas is going to be raised in the city. By me. My apartment is lovely. There’s a park close by and good schools and—”

  “A park?” Justice pushed off the bed and grimaced a little but kept coming, walking toward Maggie until she backed up just to keep a distance between them. “You want to give him a park when I’ve got thousands of acres here? The city’s no place for a boy to grow up. He couldn’t even have a dog in your apartment.”

  “Of course he can,” she argued, temper spiking, desperation growing. “Pets are allowed in my building. We’ll get a little dog as soon as he’s old enough. A poodle, maybe.”

  He barked out a sharp laugh. “A poodle? What the hell kind of dog is that for a growing boy?”

  “What do you want him to have, a pit bull?”

  “The herd dogs. They’re well-trained—he’ll love’em. We’ve got a new litter due in a few weeks, too. He’ll have a puppy to grow up with and he’ll love that, too.”

  He probably would, but that wasn’t the point either, Maggie thought, surrendering to the fires inside her, letting her temper boil until she wouldn’t have been surprised to feel steam coming out of her own ears.

  “That’s not your decision to make.”

  “Damn straight it is. If Jonas is my son, I won’t be separated from him.”

  “You never even wanted children, remember?” She was shouting now and didn’t give a damn who heard her. The rain hammered the windows, the wind rattled the glass and Maggie felt as if she were in the center of the storm. This was a fight she was determined to win. She wouldn’t give ground.

  “Of course I did!” Justice’s shout was even louder than hers. “I lied to you because I thought I couldn’t have kids.”

  Dumbfounded, Maggie just stared at him for a second or two. A heartbeat passed, then another, as her brain clicked through information and presented her with a really infuriating picture. Eventually that temper kicked back in and all hell was cut loose.