The Cowboy's Baby(44)

For a moment, Daniel said nothing. Then, without warning, he hefted her weight to one muscular arm before pushing the door to the nursery open.

The sight that met Esme’s eyes nearly stopped her heart.

It was utterly perfect.

The walls were an eggshell color, with accents of forest green, and along one wall was painted a mural of the moon and stars, gazing down on the room with affectionate aplomb. The furniture was done in light mahogany - from two gleaming rocking chairs to gorgeous bureau, changing table and crib. The room was veritable piled with stuffed animals, the closet brimming with clothes while a carrier hung from a series of intricately carved wall-hooks near the door.

It was, Esme realized, exactly the kind of nursery she might have wanted for her own children – had such a thing ever been in the cards for her. Even as she closed her eyes, the dark-haired woman couldn’t stop the images that flooded into her mind. Her, bent over the crib, humming softly to the baby as she lulled him to sleep. Or seated in the rocking chair, he pressed to her breast. Her chasing a golden-haired toddler around the perimeter of the room and breaking into helpless laughter when he hid behind a huge stuffed bear.

And all while Daniel watched protectively – his eyes full of protective love and affection. Esme felt her heart clench as a tear escaped from the corner of her eye. “It’s beautiful. Can we please go now?”

In direct opposition to her request, Daniel slipped into the nursery, nudging the door shut behind them. He carried her across the room to kneel on a soft, forest green throw before laying her gently on the floor before him. “Esme...” he murmured softly. “The baby’s birth doesn’t have to be the end of us. I know it’s…it’s not what you planned. But if you wanted to see him or her…if you wanted to stay-”

“Please, don’t, Daniel.” She didn’t know if she could take it. Not now, with her hormones raging, while she was so unsure. “You know that’s not how it works. We signed a contract. None of this was ever meant to go so far…we can’t. There’s just no way.”

“If you really believed that, then you wouldn’t run from me after we make love.” The man stretched out on the carpet next to her, his expression utterly serious as he placed a warm hand over the swell of her abdomen. “You would sleep peacefully in bed beside me, knowing you could just walk away when all of this is said and done.”

Esme’s heart skipped a beat as she looked away, swallowing thickly as she tried to get handle on her emotions. She uttered not a single word. What would she even say? Would she lie? Deny that he was right?

“But you can’t walk away, can you? No more than I can. You’ve shown me something, Esme. A bond between two people I wasn’t sure could even exist anymore. I can’t simply give that up.” He lifted his hand to cup her chin, drawing her face upwards until they were face to face. “So screw the goddamn contracts. After the baby is born, we’ll figure something out. And we’ll do it together.”

Esme couldn’t breathe. What he was offering her…what he was suggesting…it was something she had never even ventured to imagine. A possible future with the man who had altered her horizons…and a chance to participate in the life of the child she’d come, inexplicably to long for.

She could still walk away. If she recalled who she had been before she’d met Daniel – before he’d walked into her life and changed absolutely everything, she could go back. She could walk out, and the only thing between them would be the baby.

But that was the one thing she couldn’t do.

“Daniel…” The words escaped her in a breathless whisper. “I’m not his mother…”

“But you could be.” The man searched her eyes with his own, his gaze searing her to her very core. “You’re the only one I’d even begin to consider, Esme. You’ve done something to me. Hell if I know what it is…but hell if I want you to stop.” With that, he pressed his mouth to hers, the heat of his body making her arch from the carpet in want against him.

Esme was utterly lost.

This man wanted her in his life – in the baby’s life….it was the most humbling thing to ever occur in her entire life. Nothing could compare. Not her position at Pierre’s, her first successful recipe, or even the pride she’d felt at her first real sous chef position. This man…he was everything – where she hadn’t known a man could be before.

She kissed him back. Hungrily, she drank from him as if he were life itself. Daniel’s nimble fingers made quick work of her robe, spreading the silken material aside to reveal the swathe of bare skin beneath. For a moment, he just stared at her, his eyes wide as he took in her curves clad in only the briefest of lace panties and a push-up bra – another of her purchases from that afternoon. While Esme had felt somewhat silly donning the racy underwear, now, she regretted not a single thing.