Tantalizing Maria (The Temptation Saga 7)

He walked away. Whoever was there would get the message. He just hoped the knocking hadn’t woken Maria.

And again, the pounding. Jeff’s heart stuttered. He had a very bad feeling.

He turned out the light in the kitchen and headed back to the bedroom.

But jolted when the door crashed open.

He blinked, his heart leaping into his throat.

No.

God, no.

It couldn’t be.

* * *

Thirty-Three Years Earlier

Maria’s hands shook uncontrollably as she read the instructions to the pregnancy test once more. Nausea permeated her, and she swallowed back a heave. She hadn’t eaten anything anyway. There was nothing to come up. She hadn’t eaten since she’d had the revelation yesterday, when she’d helped Meghan with her first period. No appetite. Just a perpetual sick feeling from her stomach that flowed through her whole body.

Maybe she’d made a mistake. Maybe she hadn’t done the test properly. All those little test tubes and droppers… It would be so easy to screw it up.

Maybe the test wasn’t positive.

But it was.

She’d known since she had the thought.

And Jeff was in jail. She hadn’t visited him in days. Couldn’t bring herself to. God, she loved him more than anything. How could she have fallen in love with a criminal? He’d robbed his own family. She shuddered, her lips trembling. A man was dead. A man was dead because of what the man she loved had done.

And she did love him. More than anything. What did that say about her?

They’d made a baby together. Created a life. A life that was now growing inside her. If Jeff weren’t in jail, they’d be celebrating right now. Sure, the timing wasn’t perfect. She’d have to put off college. But a baby…

An innocent life. A sweet little baby who deserved better than she could offer. Better than a young and broke trailer trash mother and a criminal father.

The baby deserved the name and life she was entitled to.

A solution came to her. Maria knew what she had to do.

She just hoped she had the courage to do it.

* * *

She’d showered and spent two hours making herself as beautiful as she could. She didn’t want to. But she had to. She wore a denim miniskirt and a hot pink tank top that slid up to show just a sliver of olive skin between the pink and the blue waistband of her skirt. Her legs were bare and on her feet she donned a pair of high-heeled blue leather slides she’d borrowed from Shelley. Now she stood outside the big barn on the Bay ranch. A leering ranch hand had looked her over, nearly salivating, and had finally told her this was where she would find Wayne.

She’d seen him before, a couple of times in town. Shelley had pointed him out. Wayne was attractive, of course. He was Bay stock. But his dull brown hair couldn’t compare to the ebony that was Jeff’s. And his eyes were mousy brown, not dark and burning like Jeff’s. His face was nice, but not as chiseled and perfect as Jeff’s.

Basically, he was good-looking, but he wasn’t Jeff, and he never would be.

But he had the Bay name, and he had the Bay genes.

And damn it, so would her baby.

Maria wasn’t a seductress by nature. Her only real experience had been with Jeff. But for her baby, she’d do what she had to do. Her baby—and Jeff’s—would have the name and future it deserved.

She took a deep breath and entered the barn. Wayne stood at the far end, currying a gorgeous brown mare. His left arm was still bandaged from the skirmish nearly two weeks ago now. Who had shot him? Jeff had said his pal Max had done it. She believed him. But…oh, it was just such a mess. Everything had turned upside down. She loved Jeff so much, but right now, her baby was the most important. Maria had to do right by her child.