Her Secret, His Child

She told him so later that night, after Ashley was in bed and they sat together on the couch—another newly formed ritual.

"You sure you don't mind my coming along?" he asked as he looked down at her.

Snuggling into his side, Jamie shook her head. "I agree with Ashley. It wouldn't seem right without you this year."

"There is Father's Day in June." He gave her another chance to change her mind.

Jamie stared up at him. "We'll spend that together, too, won't we?" In spite of how well things were going, she couldn't ever seem to get rid of her doubts. Her insecurities.

"Of course we will."

Kyle bent, giving her a soft kiss to seal his promise. A kiss that, as on other nights, led to a heated exchange of the passion she couldn't allow free rein. And moments later, when Kyle's hands roamed to her breasts, when her own hands traveled the road to intimacy, Jamie froze. And Kyle dropped his hands.

Until there was commitment between them, they

HER SECRET, HIS CHILD

could go no further than kisses. Jamie wasn't that kind of woman anymore.

Two mornings before Mother's Day, the second Friday in May, Jamie was in her home office, reorganizing now that tax time was over, when the phone rang.

Thinking the caller would be Kyle, on break between classes, she grabbed the receiver eagerly. "Hello?"

"Jamie?" The voice was male. It wasn't Kyle.

"Yes."

"Nelson Monroe here."

Oh God. Would the nightmare never end?

"How'd you get my number?" Not that it mattered. He had it.

"You're in the book, honey."

>

Of course she was. She just hadn't expected a john from her past to be looking for it.

"I'd really like to…see…you again, darlin'," Nelson said softly. "Your honesty the other day impressed me. A lot. You always were one hell of a woman—even if you were just a kid."

Tears burned her eyes. Her whole body trembling, Jamie said, "No, Nelson. I'm not that kid anymore."

' 'All the more reason for us to get to know each other again." He didn't seem to be grasping the point at all. "We'll have more in common now that you're a little older."

"We have nothing in common."

"We're both accountants."

TARA TAYLOR QUINN

"I get enough of accounting during the day."

"You've got a nice little setup there, haven't you, Jamie?" he asked, his charm slipping. "Does the man who came to your aid so heroically last month know what you really are?"

"He knows about my past," she was stung into telling him.

"Has he asked you to marry him yet?"