Outlaw's Bride by Nicole Snow

with it?
    He knew. My best kept secret, destroyed, wrecked in the blink of an eye by shattering glass and a hungry baby rudely awakened from his nap.
    All ruined by one mistaken kiss.
    I knew I shouldn't have let Beam get so close. I shouldn't have invited him in for water. And there's no fucking way I should've let him put his glass down, walk me into the other room, push me against the wall and take my lips.
    Now karma was coming to pay, and she was a bitch so mean she'd hold me down, make me lick her bitter tasting boots.
    “Fucking shit.” The harsh words coming out of Roman's mouth didn't sound angry.
    They sounded...stunned. For a second, he stood next to the cradle like he'd just found a winning lottery ticket inside it. Everything beneath my waist went numb, terrified to move, anguish setting in as his huge hands reached inside and picked up my son.
    His son.
    “Fuck, you're mine,” he growled, keeping his back to me the whole time. “Mine. My son...”
    Tears stung my eyes like napalm. Something about watching the biggest asshole in the entire club go to pieces the second he held the kid reached up through my stomach and gutted me.
    Roman was a bastard. An irresponsible jackass. A man who couldn't keep it in his pants for a million bucks.
    But he was also a father. And I'd robbed him of that for more than a year.
    Slowly, agonizingly, the feeling returned to my toes. I forced myself to move through what felt like concrete, inching toward him. If only I could form words from the desert my mouth had become.
    Why wasn't Caleb crying? My baby boy was usually cranky after he woke up, but not now. Nobody except me and the babysitters normally held him. He always squirmed when cousin Norm did too.
    The baby cooed, smacked his lips, and laid his head against Roman's palm.
    Nothing made sense. He cried with almost everyone except me – everyone! – everybody except for this cruel, inked up, mountain of a man rocking Caleb's tiny body in his massive arms.
    “Roman,” I managed, calling to him when I was less than a foot away. “Please put him down. We'll go downstairs, talk this over. I'll explain –“
    “Explain what?”
    Shit. The rumble in his throat was just like a volcano winding up to explode. Slowly, he turned toward me, cradling Caleb tighter against his chest.
    “I'm not interested in a goddamned thing you've got to say. You lost the right to tell me shit the second you decided to keep my own son a secret.”
    Fuck. I couldn't hold the tears in anymore. They went spilling down my cheeks. Apparently for nothing because Roman's face didn't soften a bit.
    His honey colored eyes – the same beautiful hazel gems in Caleb's face – beamed total disgust. Hatred. I wondered where to find the closest cartel spider hole so I could crawl into it and die.
    “Roman!” Fear caused my voice to crack. “Don't do this. Please, whatever it is you need to say to me, just put the baby down. I don't want to see him upset.”
    “Upset?” His lips pulled up in a savage grin. “I'll never upset this amazing little bastard unless there's a damned good reason. Shit, what am I saying? The boy's not a bastard anymore. His father's here, and I'm sure as fuck gonna set things right. I'd say that's cause for celebration – how 'bout you?”
    I didn't have to strain to detect the venom rising in his voice. Oh, God. I'd be lucky to see Caleb or anything else again.
    With the way he was looking at me, I'd be really lucky to end up in a spider hole, and not just a remote ditch where nobody would ever find my body. My heart skipped every other beat, and I stepped backwards, shaking my head, putting my hands behind me to steady my failing knees against the wall.
    “I'm so, so fucking sorry, Roman. You've got to believe me! I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to keep him away forever. I didn't know you'd get out alive, or what you'd even gone away for. I just –“
    “Shut up.”
    My lips clamped shut. Roman stepped forward,