Dare To Resist (Dare Nation 1)

No sooner had he turned off the ignition than she began to slide across the center console and he cleared his throat. “Lots of beds inside. Counters, too. You can take your pick.” Looking at her, he winked, hoping she took his words as charming and not the blow off he was giving her.

This was going to be a long fucking ordeal. Too bad men couldn’t claim headaches and call it a night.

“Jeez.” She unsnapped her seat belt and opened her door.

He met her outside the car and wrapped an arm around her waist in an effort to calm her down by pulling her against him. “It’s going to be good.” He gave her ass a squeeze and she giggled, allowing him to relax.

In the distance, a strange noise captured his attention. “Did you hear that?” he asked.

She shook her head but then the noise sounded again. “Yes. Is that … a cat? A kitten?” She moved more quickly toward the front door and the sound, which was becoming louder and more persistent.

He shrugged and rushed after her. The front porch lights shone down on the steps, and he realized something had been left outside the double doors, his stomach churning at the sight.

Marnie stopped in her tracks. “That’s a baby carrier.”

He blinked to clear his vision because he’d really hoped he’d been wrong, that he hadn’t seen that. “I’m sorry, say that again?” Because he had to be sure. He was suddenly too queasy to be thinking rationally.

“It’s a baby carrier and that noise is a baby!” Marnie’s voice rose in panic.

“What the fuck?” Hesitantly, he took the three steps and looked at the car seat he’d seen his friends with kids use.

Movement came from inside, and as he bent down, two blue eyes stared up at him, and he noticed what looked like a pink sticky note stuck to the shifting blanket.

Frowning, he bent down and retrieved the note with three words scrawled onto it.

Jenny is yours.

His stomach churned and he’d be lucky if he didn’t lose what was left in his stomach.

“Holy fuck, Austin! You have a kid!” Marnie said, obviously reading over his shoulder and now sounding hysterical.

And at her panicked shriek, the baby began to cry, loud wails that traumatized him immediately because he didn’t know what the fuck to do.

“Pick her up!” he shouted over the din.

Eyes wide, Marnie shook her head. “Hell no. That wasn’t part of tonight’s deal.” She’d already grabbed her phone and begun tapping on the screen.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his gaze darting between the woman he’d hoped would take charge and the infant who’d thrown off the white blanket that had covered her. Little legs covered in footed pajamas now kicked up a storm as the screams she let out increased in volume.

“I’m calling an Uber. What do you think I’m doing?” Marnie looked as panicked as he felt.

Desperate, he grabbed her wrist. “Please, don’t go. Stay. Help me.”

She shook her head. “Oh, no. I’m meeting the car at the end of the driveway. Good luck, Austin. You’re on your own.” With that pronouncement, she and her high heels headed down the path and away from him and this bundle of joy as fast as she could go.

He glanced again at the baby screaming her little lungs out. Thank God it was warm out, but maybe too warm, and he picked up the carrier handle in one hand, the bag he’d just noticed in the other, and brought the infant inside the air-conditioned house. He took the baby into the kitchen and settled the carrier on the floor along with what he hoped was a diaper bag. Because Lord knew he had nothing with which to feed a baby. Change a baby. Nausea threatened.

“Jesus Christ,” he muttered under his breath.

The screams continued but he was scared shitless to take the baby out of the carrier and hold her.

Who could he call? His mother? He immediately discounted that idea. Before he knew what this fucking situation really was, he wasn’t telling his mother someone left his baby on the doorstep.

Was it his baby? Fuck.

He ran a hand through his hair. Should he call Bri? He shook his head. His sister would be all over him about how he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants, and though that had once been true, he hadn’t had sex all that often in the last … how old was this baby, anyway? At a glance, he hadn’t a clue.

He paced the floor, his heart pounding as loud as the screams. He needed someone who could handle a crisis. Who wouldn’t panic. Who would take charge and make him feel like everything was going to be okay.

The name of that person came to him immediately, and though he cringed at the thought of dialing her number, he really had no choice. He was desperate, at a complete and utter loss, and she was the one person he trusted to handle things. Even if it changed how she looked at him forever.