That's My Baby! (6 page)

Everything came back to him, and he glanced over at the bed to see if Jess was still in it. The bed was empty. He panicked. She’d left him after all. She didn’t trust him not to call her parents and give her location away.

“Come back later!” he called to the maid. Then he heard water running and dashed into the bathroom to find Jess calmly brushing her teeth. Naked.

“What’s wrong?” she asked around a mouthful of toothpaste foam.

“I thought you’d taken off.” He grabbed her and kissed her, foam and all. And just like that, once they were skin against skin once more, he was in the same condition he’d been ever since he and Jess had arrived in this hotel room. Apparently he’d stored up a lot of sexual tension in the past
seventeen months, and he’d become very particular about who could relieve it. He’d narrowed the candidates down to one, as a matter of fact.

He filled both hands with her breasts. “Come back to bed,” he coaxed between kisses.

“We need to call the ranch,” she said.

“We will. But I need fortification first.” A true statement. And despite her protest, she was responding, heating up like the blast furnace he knew she could be.

Her words came out breathy and excited. “We’ll call right after?”

“We’ll call right after. I promise. Please, Jess.” He was begging and he didn’t much care. Besides, it looked as if he could win this one, and making love to her one more time would give him courage for that phone call. He started backing his way out of the bathroom, bringing her with him. “Come in where the condoms are.”

She tugged on him, and she’d found a very effective handle. “I have a better idea.”

“There
is
no better idea.” God, he loved it when she wrapped her fingers around his erection like that. He wondered if he should try some caveman tactics and throw her over his shoulder, except he hated to interfere with all that terrific fondling she was doing.

“Toothpaste,” she whispered against his mouth.

“Yeah, I know.” In his gusto to kiss her he’d smeared both of them with the foam. It was all over his beard and her chin. “I probably have it everywhere.”

“Not quite.” Leaning back, she grabbed her toothbrush from the counter where she’d tossed it, stuck it in her mouth and worked up another head of foam.

“What in hell are you—”

“Tell me if you like this.”

Before he understood her intentions, she’d dropped to her knees and taken his penis in her toothpaste-filled mouth.

He gasped as cool tingling foam met hot pulsing flesh. Then he groaned in delight as she added embellishments with her tongue. Gripping the counter, he closed his eyes. Oh, this was good. This was very good. Heaven. He wanted it to last forever. His grip on the counter tightened as he trembled and fought for control.

Then he made the mistake of opening his eyes. The mirror running the full length of the counter reflected Jess, totally involved in her task. He came in a rush. The sensation was so intense that if he hadn’t been holding on to the counter, he would have toppled over.

He stood there gasping and quivering as she licked him clean and slowly rose to kiss him gently on the mouth.

“How was it?” she murmured.

He sucked in a shaky breath. “Okay, I guess.”

“Liar.” She kissed him again. “I wasted you.”

“You did.” He managed to focus long enough to look into her laughing eyes. Then a really unpleasant thought occurred to him. “Where did you learn that?”

She chuckled. “I’m so glad you can be jealous, too.”

The wonderful languor that had settled over him disappeared. He’d asked her last night if there
was
anyone else, but he didn’t ask if there had
been
anybody else. He slid his hand behind her head and held it gently but firmly so she couldn’t look away. “Where, Jess?”

Her expression wasn’t the least bit evasive. Instead, she seemed extremely proud of herself. “I read it in a book.”

His tension melted, and he smiled. “Oh.”

“Unlike some people in this bathroom, I haven’t even been naked with anyone since you left, unless you count my obstetrician, Cliff.”

Nat wasn’t sure he could tolerate even that thought. He didn’t know where this possessiveness was coming from, but it was very strong. “Is he single?”

“No.”

“Good.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her cheek against his chest. “And now that we have that settled, can we call the ranch?”

He knew the time had come. Although he didn’t look forward to talking with Sebastian about the situation, he couldn’t postpone it any longer. “Okay.”

“Before you do, I need to tell you something.”

His gut tightened. “What?”

“I wanted to make sure I was the one to tell you about Elizabeth, so I didn’t tell Sebastian you’re her father. When you call, he’ll be hearing that news for the first time.”

Nat grimaced. If he’d been dreading the phone call before, he purely hated the thought of having to make it now.

S
EBASTIAN
D
ANIELS
got down on all fours so his wife, Matty, could prop Elizabeth on his back.

“Giddyap, horsey!” Matty said.

Elizabeth chortled and bounced as Sebastian whinnied and started off around the living room. Matty walked alongside to steady the baby and make sure she didn’t fall.

Sebastian hated having only one week in three to spend with Elizabeth, but it was the only fair arrangement, and Sebastian valued fairness. When Jessica had named him the baby’s godfather, she’d also included Travis Evans and Boone Connor in that honor. The kicker was that each of them thought they might be Elizabeth’s daddy. All three of them had been pretty drunk the night of the avalanche reunion party, and each of them vaguely remembered making a pass at Jessica, who had stayed sober and driven them back to their cabin.

Ever since Jessica had left Elizabeth on Sebastian’s doorstep eight months ago, the men had hotly debated the baby’s parentage. Finally they’d submitted to paternity testing and discovered none of them was the baby’s father. Trouble was, they and their wives had become so darned attached to the little cutie-pie. Until the real father showed up, or Jessica came back to clear up the mystery, they’d agreed to take turns with Elizabeth.

The baby trade always took place on Saturday morning, and whenever he picked up Elizabeth, Sebastian was on top of the world. The following Saturday, which happened to
be today, was a different story. But both he and Matty tried to keep their sadness from Elizabeth.

Besides having to deal with Elizabeth leaving, Matty was extremely hormonal in this fifth month of her pregnancy. He loved the way her belly had begun to round out, and she seemed softer all over. She wore her blond hair loose all the time now, and Sebastian could barely keep his hands off her. But he’d noticed she could get weepy at the drop of a hat, and this morning he’d noticed her swiping at tears when she thought he wasn’t looking.

Elizabeth seemed oblivious to their distress. Decked out in denim overalls and a bright red shirt, she laughed and bounced happily on Sebastian’s back. Every so often she kicked his ribs with her moccasined feet, which was his cue to snort and pick up the pace. His knees were sore and his ribs were getting tender, but he didn’t care a bit. He hoped that just this once Travis and Gwen would be late.

They weren’t. The doorbell chimed at eleven, right on schedule.

“That’ll be them.” Matty lifted the baby off Sebastian’s back.

“Travis never used to so damn punctual,” Sebastian grumbled as he got to his feet and brushed off the knees of his jeans.

“I think it’s Gwen’s doing. Marriage to her has really domesticated that man.” Matty propped Elizabeth against her hip and started toward the door.

“Here, let me take her,” Sebastian said, hurrying after her. “You shouldn’t be carrying—”

“I’m fine. Let me keep her a little longer,” Matty said, a slight quiver in her voice.

Sebastian backed off. When she got that little tremble in her voice, he knew she was close to tears. He’d adjusted to her frequent crying, but she hated turning into a water faucet all the time. She’d cried more in the last couple of
months than in the entire ten years they’d been neighbors, before they got married, and he knew it embarrassed her to be so emotional. It made him feel manly and strong, but he didn’t dare tell her that, or she might whack him with the frying pan.

He was doing everything he could to stay on Matty’s good side, because then he could enjoy one of the other side effects of pregnancy. Much to his surprise, Matty wanted to make love more often than ever, and he was quite happy to oblige.

He thought about that as Travis and Gwen came in, all smiles because they were about to make off with Elizabeth. Once they left, he’d coax Matty back to the bedroom. A hot session in the old four-poster would help ease the pain of having to be without the little girl for two weeks.

Gwen was dressed to emphasize her Cheyenne ancestry, with her long dark braid and a fringed outfit. Sebastian had seen the combination on her before, but for some reason he couldn’t put his finger on, she seemed different today. Maybe she was trying out some new brand of makeup or something. Gwen was much more into that sort of thing than Matty.

Travis was his usual debonair self, strolling in with one hand behind his back. “Hey, Lizzie!” he said. “Lookee here!” He brought his hand out from hiding and waggled the raccoon puppet he held. “Hello, Mizz Lizzie,” he said in a falsetto. “Wanna come home with me?”

Elizabeth squealed and wiggled impatiently as she held out both arms toward the puppet. Matty relinquished her to Travis.

Sebastian had always been a little jealous of the way Travis could charm the baby in two seconds. “Show-off,” he muttered.

Travis whipped the puppet’s head around toward Sebastian. “Spoilsport,” he said in falsetto.

“Okay, you two,” Gwen said, stepping forward. “Play nice.”

“We always do,” Sebastian said with a wicked grin aimed at Travis. Then he looked at Gwen. “Say, are you trying out a new shade of lipstick?”

“No.” Gwen seemed taken aback.

“Lipstick?” Matty chuckled. “You are the last man on earth I expected to comment on a woman’s lipstick color.”

“I just think Gwen looks different today. I thought it might be the lipstick.”

Gwen gave him a startled glance. “You really think I look different?”

“I’m probably imagining things.”

Travis gazed fondly at his wife. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that.”

“Then there
is
something different.”

Gwen looked at her husband and smiled. “In a manner of speaking.”

Matty figured it out before Sebastian did, and she hollered with delight as she threw her arms around Gwen. “When? When did you find out?”

“About a half hour ago,” Gwen said, hugging her back. “We wanted you two to be the first to know.”

Sebastian eyed Travis and tried to pretend great seriousness. But inside he was jumping for joy. To his way of thinking, the more babies around, the better. “Seems to me the last time this happened, the guy responsible got tossed in a snowbank,” he said. Travis and Boone had lost no time wrestling him out the door the night Matty announced she was pregnant.

“See, I plan these things better than you, Daniels.” Travis looked ready to burst his buttons with pride. “I waited until the snow melted and I had a baby in my arms. Plus, you don’t have Boone around to help, so I reckon I’m pretty safe.”

“Don’t count your chickens, buddy. The day’s not over yet.”

“This is so wonderful,” Matty said. “Does your mother know, Travis?”

“Not yet. Like Gwen said, you two are the first.”

“Luann will be out of her head with happiness,” Matty said. “I’d love to see the look on her face when—” She stopped as the kitchen phone rang. “Excuse me a minute,” she said as she started toward the kitchen. “That might be the vet. Stay right there until I get back, okay?”

“They will,” Sebastian assured her. “Anybody for coffee? We have leaded and unleaded around here these days, so we can handle your new regime with no problem, Gwen.”

“Thanks, but as soon as Matty gets off the phone, Travis and I need to get home. We have a ton of chores waiting, and besides, Luann counts the minutes until she sees Elizabeth again.”

“I can relate to that,” Sebastian said. “I—”

“Sebastian?” Matty hurried back in, a smile on her face. “You’ll never guess. It’s Nat! He’s in New York!”

“He’s back?”

Matty nodded.

“Hallelujah,” Travis murmured.

“About time,” Sebastian said. “This is turning out to be a real red-letter day.” Relief and happiness washed through him as he started toward the kitchen. Nat’s decision to help war orphans made some kind of crazy sense, given his background, but Sebastian had worried about his safety. They all had. Nat pretended to be so together, but inside he was one of the walking wounded. As a result, he took chances he shouldn’t take, and it would be just like him to get himself killed doing something stupid and heroic. Apparently he’d escaped that fate…again.

“Tell him to get his sorry ass back to Colorado,” Travis
called after him. “I want the sheepskin vest I loaned him, and I want it before the snow flies.”

“I’ll tell him,” Sebastian said. He was grinning as he picked up the receiver and put it to his ear. “Hey, you crazy son of a gun. What the hell do you mean staying over there so long? We thought you’d gone native!”

“Hey, Sebastian.” Nat’s voice was thick with emotion. “It’s good to hear your voice again.”

“I’m glad, because I plan to run up your long-distance bill while I chew on your ear for being gone so damn long on that extended vacation of yours. When you finally show up at the Rocking D, I suggest you bring some identification. We’ve all forgotten what you look like.”

“Yeah, I know I was gone too long.” Nat sighed.

Sebastian’s grin faded. He’d expected at least a chuckle out of Nat. A chilly finger of anxiety ran down his backbone. “Are you okay? Don’t tell me you got shot up over—”

“No, no. I’m fine. But…look, Jess is here with me.”

Sebastian almost dropped the phone. “She
is?
” He felt as if somebody had short-circuited his brain. “You mean
our
Jessica?” he repeated, his mind still not operating on all cylinders.

“Yeah. And that baby of hers you’re watching is…mine.”

“Yours?”
Sebastian roared. “What the hell do you mean,
yours?
You weren’t even
there.
”

Matty hurried into the kitchen followed closely by Gwen and Travis, holding the baby. They all stared at Sebastian, and Elizabeth started to fuss.

“Yeah, I was there, the night before you arrived,” Nat said. “Is that her?”

The night before.
Sebastian couldn’t figure how Nat had been there and nobody had known about it. “Is what her?”

“I hear a baby. Is that her?”

Sebastian felt shell-shocked. And absolutely sure that Nat Grady was not Elizabeth’s father. He couldn’t be. “Yeah, that’s her. But I don’t know why you think—”

“I don’t think. I know. After the avalanche I started seeing Jess. We had a…relationship…for almost a year, and—”

Pain sliced through Sebastian. “You were seeing Jessica for an entire year and you didn’t tell me? I thought we were friends!”

“I’m sorry. I should have trusted you more. Should have trusted all of you more. But I was afraid you’d be after me to make a commitment, and I didn’t think that was going to happen, so I asked Jess to keep it between the two of us.”

Anger followed on the heels of Sebastian’s sense of betrayal. Matty came forward, as if to offer her support, and he waved her off. Later he’d cling to Matty like there was no tomorrow, but at the moment he needed to concentrate on this conversation and make sure he understood what Nat was telling him. “Go on,” he said to Nat in a tight voice.

“The week before the avalanche reunion party I went up to Aspen to spend some time with Jess before the rest of you arrived. The night before you guys came up, Jess and I had a big fight. She wanted to end the secrecy.”

“Imagine that.”

Nat sounded desperate. “She wanted marriage and a family, Sebastian! I knew I couldn’t do that.”

“Then you should have been a wee bit more careful, shouldn’t you?” All the muscles in Sebastian’s body clenched in denial. Shifting Elizabeth around every week wasn’t a great solution, but at least he hadn’t lost her completely. Now he might. He couldn’t bear to look at Matty, and especially not at Elizabeth, so he stared down at the worn linoleum.

“Yes,” Nat said quietly. “I should have been more careful.”

“So now what?” Sebastian asked dully. “Are you coming back to pick her up? Is that what you called to tell me?”

“No. I’m still not sure what to do about the baby. I’ll provide all the financial support Jess needs, of course, but I’m not a fit person to take on a little kid, as we all know.”

“Why not? You’ve been over there taking care of nobody
but
little kids!”

“They had nothing. No one. And there were plenty of other people around, so I never worried that I’d do the wrong thing. But put me in a house with my own kid, and I don’t trust myself.”

“That’s pure, unadulterated bullsh—” Sebastian caught himself as he remembered that Elizabeth was in the room. He’d vowed not to use those words around her, because in another seven or eight months she might start talking, and he didn’t want…. Then he realized that in another seven or eight months Elizabeth could be gone.

“Call it what you want,” Nat said. “It’s the truth as I see it. I’m bringing Jess back to her baby, and we’ll take it from there.”

Sebastian fought so many conflicting emotions he couldn’t think straight. He couldn’t imagine a man turning away from Elizabeth, and he took it as a personal affront. Yet he wouldn’t want a man to claim her if he wasn’t planning to be an A-number-one dad. “When will you be here?”

“That’s just it. I’m not sure. We might have to take a roundabout route. Jess has someone on her trail, somebody who’s apparently trying to kidnap her. That’s why she left the baby with you.”

“Good God. Why would they want to kidnap Jessica?”

“Ever hear of a guy named Russell P. Franklin?”

“Why, sure I—” Then it all clicked into place. “Well, damn.” He’d always suspected Jessica had come from money. Maybe it was the way she held a fork, or her posture, or her choice of words. Sebastian hadn’t dreamed how
much
money, though.

He glanced over at Elizabeth in sudden fear. The child he loved so fiercely was an heiress, and that was potentially life-threatening. “Is the baby in danger?”

Travis frowned and wrapped his arms tighter around Elizabeth.

“Apparently the kidnapper doesn’t know about the baby,” Nat said. “Neither do Jess’s parents. Now that Jess has been separated from Elizabeth for six months, she thinks it’s safe to come back and see her.” Nat lowered his voice. “She needs to, Sebastian. This has been really tough on her.”

It’s been tough on all of us,
Sebastian thought.
And it doesn’t promise to get any easier.
But complaining wouldn’t get them anywhere. “Has she notified the police about this?”