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Colt climbed into the driver’s seat, tossed her bag of personal items into the back, then fired up the engine. He hooked his seat belt, checked the mirrors—in fact, did everything but look directly at her. Finally, Penny couldn’t stand it.
“Why are you here?”
He glanced at her briefly. “To take you home.”
“Robert was supposed to pick me up.”
“We came to a different arrangement.”
“You have to stop interfering in my life.”
“No, I really don’t.”
He steered the car down the driveway and out into traffic and she was quiet as the familiar landscape flashed past. Buildings and cars on the left, the ocean on the right as he drove down the Pacific Coast Highway. Sunlight glinted on the surface of the water and made her eyes sting. That’s why they felt teary. Not because of the helpless sensation beginning to build inside her.
“You’re quiet,” he observed. “Unusual for you as I remember.”
“People change.”
“Not normally,” he said. “People are who they are. But situations...they change.”
And here we go, she thought.
“You should have told me,” he said tightly and she risked a quick look at him. His profile was rugged, breathtakingly gorgeous and hard as stone.
“You didn’t want to know,” she said.
“I don’t remember being given a choice.”
“Funny,” she muttered, as the memory of their last morning together rose up in her mind again, “I remember.”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
How could he have forgotten? He’d made his choice long before they even met. But that last morning with him, he’d shared it all with her, searing the memories into her mind. If she closed her eyes, she could still see his face, hear his voice and then finally, the receding sound of his footsteps as he walked out of her life.
“I want to know everything, Penny.” He stopped for a red light and threw her a hard look. “Every damn thing that’s happened over the last two years.”
“Eighteen months.”
“Sue me,” he snapped. “I rounded up.”
The light turned green and he stepped on the gas. With his gaze locked on the road, he said, “And when that conversation begins, you can start by telling me why you thought it was a good idea to hide my kids from me.”
“We’re not in hiding.”
“You know what I mean.”
Yeah, she did. And that’s exactly what she had done, though it sounded a lot colder when he said it out loud. “I had my reasons.”
“Can’t wait to hear them,” he assured her.
Outside the car, it was a typical fall day in Southern California. Sun shining, clear sky, about sixty-five degrees. Inside the car, however, it was midwinter in the Arctic. Penny wouldn’t have been surprised to see ice forming on the dashboard. Colt burned cold when he was furious. She’d seen it firsthand at the convention when they’d met.
Their third day together, Penny was running her booth, trying to win some clients for her fledgling sports photography business. A drunk stumbled onto the convention floor from the casino and had made Penny miserable. Hanging about her booth, demanding a kiss she had no intention of giving him. Chasing away potential clients.
But she’d been handling him until he made a grab for her—and before she could take care of the situation herself, Colton had been there. Icy rage in his eyes, he’d grabbed the drunk by the collar of his shirt and half dragged, half walked him off the floor. When he came back to her, Colt’s anger was gone, but concern had been flashing in his eyes and Penny could remember feeling...cherished. Say what you would about equality, it was hard not to feel a thrill when a man was so protective.
He’d come to her rescue and then treated her as if she were made of glass instead of treating her like the fiercely independent woman she was. And she’d loved every minute of it.
He was excitement and tenderness and sex all rolled into one. No wonder she’d fallen so hard, she told herself. No woman in the world would have been able to resist Colton King. That week with him had been the most magical of her life. In a few short days, she’d fallen so completely in love with him. She’d even married him in a sweet, shabby chapel and told herself that it was meant to be. She’d indulged in dreams and imaginings and let herself drift on a tide of the most incredible sex she’d ever experienced and thought somehow that it would all work out.
Until, of course, the world came crashing down on her and reality took a bite of her heart.
And now cold, hard reality was back to do it all again. But this time, she wouldn’t let herself be vulnerable to him. This time, she wouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that a man who showed such passion in bed must feel something for her. This time, she was ready for Colton King.
“You were never going to tell me, were you?”
“No,” she said, not even bothering to give him her list of reasons. They wouldn’t make a difference to him. He didn’t care why—only that she hadn’t told him.
“Well, I know now.”
“It doesn’t change anything, Colt,” she said, turning her head to look at his gorgeous, unyielding profile.
Heat stirred inside her, despite the lingering pain of her emergency surgery. Despite the fact that she hadn’t seen him in eighteen months. Even despite the fact that the morning after their spur-of-the-moment marriage, he’d walked out on her, promising that a divorce lawyer would be in contact with her.
The only reason he was back now was because of the twins. Her babies. And he wasn’t going to get them. She lifted one hand to rub her forehead in a futile attempt to ease the headache making her eyes throb.
“It changes everything and you know it,” he said, voice as tight as the grip he had on the steering wheel. “You should have told me. You had no right to keep my children from me.”
“Rights?” Stunned, headache forgotten, she stared at him as the humiliation of the last time she’d seen him washed over her. “I absolutely had the right to do whatever I had to do to protect my kids.”
“From their father?”
“From anyone who might hurt them.”
His features went stone-still but his eyes were flashing. “And you think I’d hurt them?”
“Not physically, of course not,” she snapped. “But you walked away from me, remember? You’re the one who said you didn’t want to hear from me again. You’re the one who told me that the week we spent together was ‘fun’ but over. Not to mention when you added that the thought of kids gave you hives. Any of this ringing a bell?”
“All of it,” he said. “But I didn’t know you were pregnant, did I?”
“Neither did I.”
“Yeah, but you knew soon after and you didn’t tell me.”
“It wasn’t any of your business.”
He laughed but there was no humor in the sound. “Not my business. I have two children and they’re none of my business.”
“I have two kids. You have nothing.”
“If that’s what you really think, you’re in for a surprise.”
He made the turn that would take him to her house and Penny frowned. “How do you know where I live?”
“Amazing what you can find out if you’re motivated.” He glanced at her, then shifted his gaze back to the shady, tree-lined street in front of him. “For example. I know your business is getting a slow start—switched from sports photography to babies—an interesting choice. I know you don’t have health insurance. And I know that you’re living in your grandmother’s cottage in Laguna.” He took a breath and continued. “Your brother’s engaged to Maria Estrada and is a general practice intern at Huntington Beach hospital. You’re living off your credit cards and your car is fifteen years old.” He spared her another look. “Did I miss anything?”
No, he hadn’t. In fact, Penny worried about what else he might have found out. He’d scratched the surface of her life, but just how deeply had he continued to dig?
“What gives you the right to pry, Colt?” She didn’t like the idea of her past being spread out for him to pick over. Didn’t like feeling as though she’d been exposed. “We spent one week together nearly two years ago.”
“And apparently,” he added, “we made two babies.” He pulled up in front of her house and parked. When he turned the engine off, he faced her and his eyes looked like chips of ice. “That gives me any right I want to claim.”
To avoid looking at him, she stared at the house she loved. A tiny Tudor with dark shutters and beams flat against cream-colored stucco and leaded windows that winked in the last lights of the sun. Ivy climbed along the porch railings and chrysanthemums bloomed dark yellow and purple in the front flower bed. The house was small and cozy and had always, even when she was a child, signified safety and warmth to Penny.
Now she looked at it and felt a sense of peace she desperately needed steal over her.
“I’m not going anywhere, Penny. Get used to it.”
Peace dissolved as a stir of heat erupted inside her again and Penny wanted to shriek with frustration. How could her body respond to a man her brain realized was nothing but trouble? She felt as if she’d been stripped bare in front of him. Her life was nothing more than a series of facts that he felt free to dissect in a cold, dispassionate speech.
But then, that was Colton’s way, wasn’t it? she reminded herself. Unemotional. Detached.
Distanced from any sort of real human contact, he kept his heart—if he had one—locked away behind a steel door that was, as far as she could tell, impenetrable.
Her voice was barely a whisper when she looked into his eyes and asked, “What exactly do you want, Colt?”
“That’s easy,” he said with a shrug. “I want what’s mine.”
A cold, tight fist closed around her heart as he got out of the car, slammed the door and walked around to her side. His? She knew he didn’t mean that he wanted her, so he was talking about her kids. Her babies. Fear coiled around her heart and made breathing almost impossible. But where she might try to run and hide to protect herself—to safeguard her children she was willing to walk into hell itself.
She watched him through the car window and when he opened her door to help her out, she looked into his eyes and said, “You can’t have them.”
Three
“You can’t have my kids, Colt.” Her voice hitched higher. “I won’t let you.”
“You can’t stop me,” he told her flatly.
Colton had done a lot of thinking in the last twenty-four hours and he’d come to one conclusion. If these were his children, then he wouldn’t be shut out. And frankly, even though he’d already arranged for a paternity test, he knew, deep in his gut, there wasn’t a need for one. When he and Penny were together, she’d been with only two other men before him. She was honest. Straightforward. So deeply moral that she’d never try to pass off another man’s child as his. Hell, her sweet-natured decency was one of the reasons he’d run from her so fast.
Colt wasn’t interested in being with a woman who had romance in her eyes and a plan for the future in her heart. Normally, he didn’t do a “future.” He did “now.” And normally, he preferred women who wanted nothing more than he did out of a temporary relationship. Good sex, a few laughs and an easy exit.
There was nothing easy about Penny Oaks.
Colton watched a flash of fire in her eyes and knew she wouldn’t surrender without a fight. On any other day, he might have admired it. But not today. Today, he was the one with the claim on fury. He was the one who’d been kept in the dark for nearly two years. No, he didn’t want to be married. He’d never planned on being a father—his life was too risky for that—but now that he was a father, things had changed.
And, he told himself grimly, they were going to change even more, soon.
“You don’t want the twins,” she said softly, her gaze locked with his. “You only want to hurt me.”
Hurt her? What he wanted to do at the moment was kiss her until neither of them could breathe. He wanted to reach into the car, drag her out and plaster her up against him so that he could feel every one of the curves he remembered so well. Even through the anger, through the frustration and confusion, desire was clear and simple. Unfortunately, nothing else about this situation was.
“I’m not interested in hurting you.” Understatement. “But I do want answers.” He planted one hand on the roof of the car and leaned in closer to her. “And you don’t want to challenge me, Penny. I always find a way to win.”
“Win?” Her mouth dropped open. “This isn’t a game, Colt. This is about two babies.”
“My babies,” he corrected, and felt a hitch in his chest as he said those words. Since yesterday, he’d done little else but think about the bombshell that had been dropped into the middle of his world. Everything around him felt as if it were slightly off balance. As if the steady, familiar course of his life had been suddenly turned into a roller coaster ride, with dips and turns hidden around every corner.
There were two kids who deserved a father. It was just their bad luck to have gotten him in the genetic lottery. He couldn’t give them stability. A man to count on. Everything he’d had growing up. Still, he’d do the best he could by them because he owed them that.
“What’re you doing, Colt?” She stared up at him, wariness and pain shining in her eyes.
“What needs to be done,” he ground out, refusing to be swayed by the naked emotion he saw on her face.
What he had to remember was that she’d kept his children from him. So much for the “honesty” he’d seen in her at the beginning, he thought cynically. Hell, maybe she was really no different from the countless other women who had tried to convince a King that she was pregnant just to be able to dip into his bank account.
But she was different, wasn’t she? She’d made no effort to contact him. Hadn’t asked for money. Hadn’t gone to a tabloid, selling her story to make some fast cash. Hell, she’d gone out of her way to avoid telling him about the twins. Hadn’t once considered him in any of the decisions she’d made in the last couple of years.
Well, all of that was going to change. She might not be interested in cashing in on the King name. Might have no desire at all for him to be a part of her world. But she was about to find out just what it was like having a King in the family picture.
“We have to talk,” he ground out, keeping his voice low and his gaze locked on hers. “The question is, do you want to do it now, with your brother watching us from your front window—”
She shifted a look to the house at his words and huffed out a breath. Colt had noticed Robert the instant he’d parked in front of the cottage. The man looked just as constipated and irritated as he had the day before. But at least now, Colt could understand why he was such a pain in the ass.
“Or do you want to go inside, get rid of the audience and do this in private? Your choice.”
A couple of tense seconds ticked past.
“Fine,” she grumbled, unhooking her seat belt and wincing a bit as she tried to get out of the car. “But this isn’t over.”
“That’s the first thing you’ve gotten right,” he promised, feeling a twinge of sympathy mixed with concern when he watched her trying to move through pain that was clearly bothering her more than she wanted to admit. Irritated at her stubborn independence even in the face of real discomfort, he reached into the car and lifted her out. He should have put her down at once, of course, but he noticed that her face was so pale that the freckles across her nose and cheeks shone like flakes of gold against snow.
“You can set me down now,” she said, tipping her face back to look up at him.
But he didn’t want to. He liked holding her. Hell, it was feeding that need to touch her. She felt...right, cradled against his chest, and that weird thought worried him quite a bit. But at least lust he knew how to deal with.
“I’m perfectly capable of walking.”
“Sure you are.” He shook his head as he looked down at her. His body tightened further and it was his turn to camouflage a wince of pain. “And it’ll take you twenty minutes to get to the front door. This is faster.”
She glowered at him, but Colt paid no attention. Hard to focus on her irritation when every inch of his body was reacting to her closeness. Holding her to him stirred up feelings he’d just as soon leave buried. But it was too late. Her T-shirt and jeans were worn and soft. Her curves fit nicely against him and with every breath she took, she fired the heat already scorching him.
“Just hold still, will you?” Still shaking his head, not sure if he was angrier with her or with his own reaction, Colt took the crooked, flower-lined sidewalk up to the steps. Robert opened the door and Colt carried her across the porch and into the house.
His first impression was that the place had been built for really short people. It was like a dollhouse. Cute to look at but impossible to move around in. He had to duck his head to avoid a low-hanging beam separating the entry from the postage-stamp-sized living room. And suddenly he felt like Gulliver. All that was missing were the ropes tying him down—although there were two tiny ropes somewhere in this house, prepared to do the job.
“You okay, Penny?” Robert asked as Colt deposited her gently on the overstuffed couch.
