Bargaining for Baby by Robyn Grady

thoughts.
    “I’ll go with you,” she said, “but I have a condition of my own. That you don’t do that again while we’re under this roof.”
    His grin was lazy. “Was the kiss that bad?”
    Her brows knitted. This wasn’t a joke.
    “I won’t deny that I want you to kiss me again, because I do.” At this moment more than she could ever have dreamed possible. “But if we start stealing kisses in every darkened corner, where does that leave Beau? The days that I’m left here, he deserves my attention. All of it.” Maddy thought of Dahlia’s trust in her—that sacred promise—and her throat swelled and closed off. “The least we can do is give him that much.”
    Jack’s gaze turned inward before falling to the baby. A moment later, his hand left her waist. A muscle ticked in his jaw as he nodded.
    “Agreed.”
    “But I will go with you on Saturday,” she continued, “if we leave after he’s gone down for the night and we arrive back early. Can you live with that?”
    Jack studied Beau for a long moment before his gaze found hers once more. His expression changed. A knucklecurved around and lifted her jaw and for a strangled heartbeat Maddy thought he might kiss her again.
    But he only smiled a thoughtful smile and murmured, “I can live with that.”

Seven
    T he next day, back from his early ride, Jack headed for the house, remembering Maddy’s words from the previous night. They’d rattled around in his head all morning. Had made him smile and made him wonder.
    I won’t deny that I want to kiss you again, because I do.
    Maddy had agreed to go to the gala. In effect they both knew she’d agreed to more than that. Knowing he would soon take to bed the woman he’d been physically attracted to from the start left him with an acute sense of anticipation that released a new and vital heat surging through his veins. But their connection was more than physical. Had to be. He’d been intimate with women over the past three years. The acts had left his body sated, but not his mind. Not his heart. Something about Maddy affected him… differently .
    Striding up the steps, he chided himself.
    Of course he didn’t kid himself that making love to Maddy could compare with what he and Sue had shared. It wouldn’t, and that was as it should be. Neither could he pretend that he wouldn’t have the hardest time keeping his promise not to touch Maddy again until Saturday evening. She wanted no distractions from her time left here with Beau. Commendable. But when they arrived in Clancy for the gala, he’d have to make up for lost time.
    Stopping at the kitchen, Jack expected to see Cait by the sink or the stove, but the room, gleaming in the early morning light, was empty. Further down the hall, Maddy’s door was closed. In passing, his pace slowed. He wanted to invite himself in. To break his promise and be done with it.
    Scratching his jaw, he growled and moved on.
    This situation was getting ridiculous. He shouldn’t be so preoccupied with speculations over how Maddy would feel beneath him, her thighs coiled around his hips, her warm lips on his neck, on his chest. Family—now that he had one again—was what mattered.
    He approached the nursery, confirming again in his mind that he wouldn’t fail this boy. Not like he’d failed Dahlia when he hadn’t brought her back all those years ago. But, hell, had rescuing his sister ever been possible? He might have been bigger. He might have been right. Staying at Leadeebrook was far safer for a girl—for Dahlia—than trying to survive on the outside. The rape, her death, proved that. But when Dahlia had left Leadeebrook, she’d been over eighteen. The law said she’d been old enough to make her own decisions, even if they ended in tragedy.
    He stopped outside the partly closed nursery door and took stock. Life was known for irony, and that tragedy had also produced a baby, the only surviving link, other than himself, to the Prescott bloodline. Beau was more