Her Secret, His Child

Again, he silently acknowledged her point. "How could you think that after the night we shared?" he demanded, facing her.

She looked down, but not before he'd seen the shame in her eyes. And wanted to shoot himself. He'd done this to her. Used her. He'd left her with no choice but to feel cheap, ashamed. Abandoned. Left her alone to handle the consequences.

He should be praising the woman, blessing her, thanking her until he was old and gray. She'd made a good life for her daughter. Taken full responsibility and done an incredible job. He couldn't have done better himself.

Except that he should have had the chance to try.

Ashley was his daughter, too.

As he thought of all he'd missed, the first smile, midnight feedings, the pain of loss was almost unbearable. He'd never see the trusting eyes of his newborn daughter gazing up at him. He'd never hear her first words, witness her first steps. He'd missed dirty diapers and doctor's visits. Discoveries. Guidance.

He had to get out.

Ignoring the woman watching him, Kyle strode from the room. But he didn't leave the way he'd come. Instead, he followed his instincts and walked quietly down the short hallway.

HER SECRET, HIS CHILD

Her room was the first one he saw. He stepped inside…and found himself in fantasyland. Magic and dreams. Everywhere he looked happy eyes gazed back at him—and down on the sleeping child. Fish and crabs. A dozen mermaids. A merman. A seagull. Even a handsome young sailor. All keeping his daughter safe and protected in Kyle's absence.

His daughter. She was that bundle over there, all curled up and sound asleep in her bed. Completely unaware that he was there. That she belonged to him.

He crept closer. Scared witless. And yet compelled.

An unfamiliar moistness gathered in the corners of his eyes as he finally stood beside her, within touching distance, and faced all that he'd lost. He couldn't ever remember crying before. Hadn't thought he was capable. Until he felt the first tear slide down his cheek.

His baby girl didn't know him. She thought her daddy had deserted her. That he didn't want her. The one thing he'd always promised himself would never happen had happened without his even knowing it. His own daughter knew the same neglect he'd grown up with.

He didn't think it was possible for his heart to ache any more.

As he stood there, full of emotion and yet so alone, a hand stole into Kyle's. Soft, cool, reassuring. Silently, Jamie slid her fingers between his and held on. He couldn't look at her. Couldn't take on her pain, too. Not then. Not yet. He was still too

TARA TAYLOR QUINN

angry. Too filled with both love and hate. But he took the comfort she offered. Squeezing her hand, he just stood there, all the while making silent apologies to the little girl he'd hurt with his negligence. And making silent promises, as well.

He was her father. For the rest of her life, she'd not only know that, she'd feel it, too. From that day forward, Kyle was going to help raise his daughter.

Until that moment, Jamie thought she'd already traveled the depths of despair, known fear in its highest form. If asked, she could have named the times: the night of her mother's funeral when John had almost raped her; the day Tom's wife had come to her; the same day, when Tom had shown her just how little she was worth; and the morning she'd awakened in Kyle Radcliff's hotel room to find that wad of bills. The morning sh

e'd discovered she'd truly sold everything she had to give. The morning after the first climax she'd ever had.

But none of that compared to the debilitating terror she knew as she followed Kyle from Ashley's room. He had confrontation written all over him. She had things she could never tell him.

His eyelashes were moist, his eyes red-rimmed. Jamie's heart lurched as she witnessed the evidence of what she'd done. She wanted to apologize, to take away the pain, to promise to make things up to him.

She couldn't do any of it. How could she give him back the years he'd lost?

"I'm going to be an active part of her life," he said in a firm, clear voice.

HER SECRET, HIS CHILD

Not trusting herself to speak, Jamie nodded. She'd expected nothing less.

"She's to be told immediately."

Again, Jamie nodded.

' 'I intend to be there when we tell her, even if it means I don't leave this house until morning."