“No.” She stared at the wall, her fingers clenching on the thin blanket covering her. “No.” She took a shuddering breath. “I needed you and you were not there. Now,” she added, “I do not need you anymore.”
Helpless, Sean had dropped the roses on the chair by the door and left, knowing that he’d lost something precious. That he’d thrown away what some men only dreamed of having.
And he’d lived with the shame and guilt of that for ten years. Never shared it with his brother—with anyone—just carried it around like a lump of ice in a corner of his heart. But now, he had a chance to let go of that past by being the man he should have been when he was too young and self-involved to know better.
Sean looked into Kate’s lake-blue eyes and read her determination to keep him out of this. To get him to leave. To walk away from her and his child. But it wasn’t going to happen.
He wouldn’t fail again.
“You should sit down,” he said.
“What?”
“You’re pregnant. Sit down.” He steered her back to the couch and hovered there until she sat.
“Seriously?” She flipped her long, loose hair back over her shoulder to stare up at him. “I was on the job site today installing new windows and ripping old paneling off walls, and you think it’s too strenuous for me to stand in my own living room?”
It sounded stupid when she put it like that. But he was off his game. Hell, knocked off his feet. “So cut me a break. I’ve known about this baby for like ten seconds. Might take a little longer to get used to it.”
“That’s my point, Sean. You don’t have to get used to it.”
“Right.” He shoved both hands into his pants pockets. “You really expect that I’ll just say ‘take care’ and walk away?”
The fact that he had done just that ten years ago had nothing to do with this.
“That’s my child you’re carrying,” he snapped, feeling anger and frustration nipping at his insides again, “and it’s my responsibility to see to it that it’s safe.”
“Her.”
“What?”
“You said it,” Kate said tightly. “The baby’s a girl.”
“A girl.” Sean swayed in place as a rush of emotion filled his throat. Another hard hit in a series of them. He had a daughter. That knowledge alone made this all the more real. All the more vital. Sean took a breath to steady himself and looked at Kate. Stubborn fury was etched into her features. She was hostile and prepared to dig in her heels to fight him on this.
It fried him that she’d kept this secret. Kept his baby from him and clearly had had no intention of ever telling him about it...her. Maybe Kate had her reasons, but at the moment, he didn’t give a good damn what they were. So yeah, he remembered telling her that he had no interest in children or a family. And maybe he hadn’t really considered it since Italy. He might not have gone out and deliberately tried to be a father, but now that he was faced with the reality of it, he wanted his kid.
He was here and not going anywhere. Kate was going to have to find a way to deal with it. No doubt the two of them would butt heads over this situation, but in the end, Sean would have things his way. Kate had no idea what Sean could do when he was set on a certain path. Hadn’t he, his brother and their friend built a billion-dollar business from nothing? He hadn’t allowed anyone to get in his way then, and he wasn’t about to start now. Sean made his living by convincing people that he was right so they would fall into line. Kate would eventually give way, just like everyone else.
First things first, though. “Is the baby all right?”
Her face softened in an instant as she stroked her palm over her belly. “She’s fine.”
“Good.” He nodded and swallowed hard over the sudden knot of lust clogging his throat. Were all pregnant women this hot? “That’s good.”
“Sean,” she said on a sigh, “I know what you’re doing.”
“Is that right?” He tucked his hands into his pockets. “What am I doing, Kate?”
She stood up to face him, and he felt the same surge of desire he had felt the first time he’d met her. Kate Wells affected him as no one else ever had—and pregnancy hadn’t changed that a bit. But staring at her now, he wasn’t thinking of the baby, or the lies, or the arguments waiting for them in the coming days.
All he saw was the woman who had been in his mind for months. Her eyes were flashing, her mouth was set in a straight, grim line and that stubborn tilt to her chin only made her look more amazing. What the hell did it say about him, he wondered, that he found a woman who looked like she wanted to rip his lips off so damned irresistible?
“You’re trying to make me feel badly about not telling you about the baby.”
“Don’t you?”
She blew out a breath. “Yes, I do. But I did what I thought was best, just like I’m doing now. I want you to leave, Sean.”
“We don’t always get what we want, Kate.”
“How are you even here? How did you find out where I live?” She threw her hands high, then caught herself and paused. “Never mind. Not important. What’s important is that you leave. Now.”
He grabbed her upper arms and held on to her, when he felt her jerk back in an attempt to free herself. “You weren’t that hard to find, Kate. And now that I have found you—and my daughter—I’m not going anywhere.”
She paled a little but recovered quickly and went on the defensive. “Sean, you don’t have anything to prove. It’s nice that you offered to be involved with the baby, but it’s not necessary.”
“It’s not nice,” he said, feeling that swell of irritation come thick and fast again. “That’s my daughter as much as yours, so yeah, me being a part of this is necessary. You’re not cutting me out, Kate. I’m in this.”
Outside, the sun was nearly gone, and Kate reached out to flick on a table lamp. Golden light streamed through the room, and he could see her even more clearly than he had before. She didn’t look happy, he thought. Well, that made two of them.
“We’ve got things to talk about.”
“No, Sean, we don’t. I’m the one who’s pregnant, so I’m the one making decisions.” She picked up her teacup, stepped to one side and grabbed Molly’s wineglass then headed out of the room, throwing words back over her shoulder. “And since I’m only five months along, I’ve got plenty of time.”
Sean followed right after her. It didn’t take long. You could drop her entire living room, dining room and kitchen into the main room of his condo in Long Beach and still have room left over. In the tiny galley-style kitchen, he walked up behind her and, in effect, trapped her there. Backed up against the kitchen sink and hedged between the stove and the refrigerator, all she could do was stare up at him.
“We’ll both be making any decisions necessary, Kate. I’m not walking away from my kid.” He dropped his hands onto the sink’s edge on either side of her. “I’m here in Wyoming for the next three days. I’d stay longer, but we’ve got the release of our latest game next week and I have to be there to help.”
“Don’t let me stop you,” she quipped and ducked beneath his arm to escape him.
But he grabbed her arm and held on. “Oh, you won’t. You won’t stop me from doing anything.” It was a warning and a declaration all at once. It was time she knew that he wasn’t going to quietly disappear. She was carrying his baby, and that link bound them together.
She’d just have to get used to it.
Seven
Kate felt like she was being stalked.
Everywhere she turned, there Sean was. He watched what she ate, what she drank. He hovered over her on the job site until even her crew stopped coming to her with questions and instead spoke to Sean first. She felt the threads of control slipping through her fingers, and there didn’t seem to be a thing she could do about it.
When she complained to Sean, he only smiled and shrugged, brushing off her anger as if it didn’t bother him a bit. And that only made her more furious.
Molly, of course, was fascinated. While Kate stood beneath a stand of pines at the edge of the lake, she turned her face into the wind and listened to her friend’s voice bubbling over the phone.
“I mean, he’s even more spectacular in person than he is in all those paparazzi photos.” She took a breath and heaved a dramatic sigh. “That’s the kind of guy who makes women dissolve into puddles at his feet.”
Kate scowled and watched two magpies swoop over the lake to disappear into the trees. “That must be why he keeps expecting me to fall in line.”
“Well, why wouldn’t you?” Molly asked. “He’s gorgeous, rich, you’re carrying his baby and he wants to be involved.” Before Kate could say anything, Molly rushed on. “And let’s not forget, you already confessed that the sex was the best you’ve ever had.”
Now Kate winced. She had said that, in spite of feeling disloyal to Sam’s memory. Her late husband hadn’t been the best lover, but he’d had other, more important qualities that Sean lacked.