Her Secret, His Child

"We aren't other people."

"I got it—you don't trust yourself not to jump my bones, right?"

Jamie laughed, glanced up at the handsome man at her side and sobered. "I don't want to be a tease."

"It's impossible to tease a man who already knows the score."

"This isn't fair to you, Kyle." She knew he wanted her. An expert on men's sexual needs, she could read all the signs.

"I'm a big boy," he told her with complete seriousness. "I can make my own choices."

Tempted, tired, vulnerable, Jamie could think of nothing but the need to feel his arms around her, to have his body there to lean against. "Okay," she said softly. "Let's dance."

Of course, the minutes she spent in his arms were pure torture. But never had torture felt so good. Jamie could happily have been convinced to stay that way forever.

They'd never danced together before, though she shouldn't have been surprised that they did so perfectly. Everything about her and Kyle fit perfectly— except the one thing that would never fit at all. The woman Jamie had been.

"Has Karen told her husband she's pregnant yet?" Kyle asked as they swayed to the music.

Jamie shook her head. Kyle wouldn't even have known about the pregnancy if Karen hadn't had a

HER SECRET, HIS CHILD

bout of morning sickness the week before, when the three adults had taken the girls out for pizza and skeeball.

"You think she'll tell him this weekend?"

"I hope so." Jamie was getting really worried about her friend.

Worrying seemed to be all she did anymore. About all of them. And now Ashley wanted a sister. She was going to want one even more whe

n Kayla found out that Karen was having another baby. The thing was, Jamie would have given just about anything to grant the child her wish. But she just couldn't do it.

They were on their fifth song in a row when, suddenly, a male hand tugged at Jamie's shoulder.

"Little Jamie Archer! I don't believe it!" The man pulled her around. His voice was loud. And slurred from too much alcohol. But Jamie still recognized it.

She recognized the hand, too. It had touched her body enough times.

Panicked, she thought her knees were going to give out on her. "Do I know you?" she asked the man who had once been one of her most lucrative clients.

He'd always been sober back then.

He was also Tom Webber's accountant.

"Nelson Monroe," he told her. "Come on, baby, give an old man a thrill," he said, lurching sideways as he grabbed for her breast. "For old times' sake."

"You touch her, you die." Kyle put himself between the man and Jamie.

TARA TAYLOR QUINN

Crumbling inside, Jamie wished she were dead.

Nelson lurched again. "Oh, hey, man," he said easily, "I didn't know she was taken for the evening."

"She's taken, period." Kyle's voice left no room for misunderstanding.

Too stricken to do anything but stand there and wait for her life to come crashing down on her, Jamie watched the two men, horrified, transfixed, as if witnessing a fatal accident.