Home>>read Baby, You're Mine free online

Baby, You're Mine(3)

By:Fiona Davenport


I gently squeezed her and a sweet little sigh fell from her lips. “I think I’ll keep you.”



Sunlight slashed across my face, the bright rays warm but keeping me from staying asleep. Bailey. The night before came rushing back and I smiled, then reached out to pull her soft body into mine. My hand met nothing but sun warmed sheets. I frowned and opened one eyelid, disgruntled that she’d gotten out of bed before I could wrap myself around her naked body and kiss her awake.

“Bailey?” I sighed and lifted up onto an elbow, opening both eyes and looking around the room. I didn’t hear the shower running, but I climbed out of bed and padded over to the bathroom. Her clothes were no longer on the floor and mine had been folded and placed on the marble countertop. The open box of condoms near the sink reminded me that I’d fallen asleep still buried inside her. When I pulled off the condom I noticed a big tear right at the tip. Fuck! The motherfucking condom broke! Shit. Shit. Shit. I took a deep breath and washed my hands. OK, this wasn’t so bad. She was mine, I would be marrying her and starting a family at some point. I just hadn’t counted on doing it backwards.

I wondered briefly if Bailey had noticed when she’d gotten up. Then I dismissed the thought. If she had, I’d probably be attempting to calm her down from a panic attack right now. Where was she? “Baby?” I called, grabbing my robe and walking out to the kitchen. When I didn’t find her there, I called her name again and checked every room. Something akin to dread was stabbing me in the chest, I stalked back to the bedroom, looked around and didn’t find even a note. She must have called a cab and ducked out while I was sleeping. I started pacing, I needed a plan. All I had to go on was her name and the fact that she was only in town temporarily. Fuck!



“Bro, are you still moping?”

I scowled at Jack as he handed me a beer and flopped down next to me on my couch.

“Shut the fuck up, Jackass,” I growled. I took a deep pull from the bottle and dropped my head back, blowing out a frustrated breath.

“No luck finding her, huh?” Jack asked, genuine sympathy in his voice this time. “You’re going to have to let mystery girl go at some point. Why don’t we go out tonight? We’ll hit the bar and pick up some buxom blondes.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“I’m done with that scene, Jack. I’m serious.” I gripped the bottle, my knuckles turning white. “She’s mine. I refuse to accept any other outcome than to find her.”

I’d practically shut down my life for the last month, working and searching. I’d exhausted most of my options. There were literally over four hundred people with the last name Cross in Nebraska. Narrowing it down by the first initial B didn’t do me any good either. Not to mention, I didn’t even know if her permanent residence was in the same state. I’d only spoken to Jack briefly, shortly after the morning Bailey had run out on me. He’d recently discovered that he had a half-sister and the family had been busy getting to know each other. Not that I was even ready to really talk about her with him anyway.

“Wow. Okay,” Jack shrugged. “I guess you were serious about that.”

I didn’t reply, just chugged down the rest of my beer. I needed to get my mind on something else for a little while.

“How are things with the new sister?”

Jack’s face softened, a look I never thought I’d see from him. “She fits right in. Honestly, I wish I’d been there to be her big brother growing up. She’s beautiful, sweet and innocent and I get the feeling that I would have broken quite a few noses, maybe a jaw or two.”

I laughed, the sound rusty and foreign to my ears. It felt good.

“Why don’t you come have dinner with the family and meet her? Dad would love to see you.” Jack rolled his eyes and chugged his beer. “And Sharon. She’d love to see you, all of you.”

I snorted. Jack’s step-mother Sharon was a unique species. She loved his dad, and was faithful, but she had no problem ogling “man candy,” and wasn’t shy about asking to see the “good stuff.” She’d even used a drawing class excuse to try and get me to pose naked for her. She was...interesting. Harmless.

“So?” he queried.

“Sure, why not?” I agreed. I could use a night off from refining my pining and drinking abilities. I didn’t intend to go pro, so all this practice was truly unnecessary.

“Great.” Jack slapped me on the back and stood. “Oh, and when you meet Bailey, remember broken noses and jaws.”

My eyes stopped mid-roll and I started choking on the swig of beer I’d just taken. Did he say...?

I coughed. “What’s your sister’s name?”

Jack was walking out the door but yelled back, “Bailey.”





Chapter 3


Bailey


“I’ve been here a month, don’t you think it’s time you went back to your own home? Dad told me you didn’t even spend this much time here when you were in high school.”

Dad. It was crazy weird to toss that word out there in everyday conversation when I would have given anything to have been able to talk about my dad when I was growing up. I’d loved my mom more than anything in the world, but I’d missed out on so much by not having him around. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer my senior year of high school, I let go of my yearning to know about my father and focused on taking care of her. I changed all my plans and switched to a local college, staying at home instead of in the dorms so I could care for her.

Things were looking up by the time I graduated with my bachelor’s degree and teaching license. Mom was nearing the five year anniversary of her last chemotherapy treatment, and I quickly landed a position at the elementary school I’d attended as a child. Then we got the call that changed our lives—again. The breast cancer hadn’t come back, but she was diagnosed with leukemia, a side effect of the original treatment she’d received.

It was a battle she lost this time around, and she made a deathbed confession that left me reeling. She’d never told my father about her pregnancy. When they met, he’d been a widower with a young son, and she was fresh out of a broken relationship. They found comfort in each other while they healed, but it had never been a love match. She’d discovered she was pregnant after she’d moved away and decided it was better to keep the ties severed and uncomplicated.

When she realized she wasn’t going to survive the leukemia, she hired a private investigator to locate him so I’d have the chance to meet him, if I wanted to. Less than three months later, here I was, sitting on the couch with my older brother in our dad’s home in Nebraska—still struggling with the fact that my mom had kept me from them my entire life.

“Hey.” Jack flicked my ear to gain my attention. “Do you want to get rid of me so much that you’re going to ignore me now?”

“Sorry,” I sighed. “I got lost in my head for a minute there, thinking about my mom.”

His grin quickly turned into a grimace. My mom was a topic of conversation we avoided since he and my dad pretty much hated her for the decision to keep her pregnancy a secret. But, they respected my grief and the fact that, no matter what, she was still my mother, enough to keep their opinions mostly to themselves. As much as I loved her, I couldn’t defend what she’d done. Not after what she’d cost all of us.

I needed to steer the discussion back on track because I didn’t want to ruin everyone’s dinner. “So what were you saying that was so important you needed to inflict bodily harm on me?”

He raised his hands up, palms facing me, an innocent expression on his handsome face. “Who? Me? I’d never hurt my sister.”

“Uh-huh,” I drawled, slugging him lightly on the arm. “Lucky for me, I never said anything about not hurting my brother.”

“Hey!” he protested, rubbing the spot I’d hit. “No fair. It’s a good thing I’ve got reinforcements coming.”

“Reinforcements?”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you. You finally get the chance to meet my best friend, little sis. But don’t worry, I warned him to keep his hands to himself.” He winked, and I forced a laugh.

Unless his name was Wyatt Kincaid, Jack didn’t need to worry about his best friend ever getting the chance to touch me. That man had somehow managed to worm his way into my subconscious in the hours we’d spent together my first night in town. I’d spent every night after dreaming about him and the things he’d done to my body. “You don’t need to warn all your friends away from me. I’m a grown ass woman. I can take care of myself.”

“I’m sure you can with most guys, and I have a friend or two who I might, maybe, consider not killing if you decided you liked them. But you’ll just have to trust my judgment when it comes to my friends.”

I rolled my eyes at his superior tone. “I’m sure I can resist the temptation of your best friend without your help.”

“It doesn’t mean I’m going to stop giving it,” he murmured, standing up and dropping a kiss on my head at the sound of the knock on the front door.