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‘Do you want it?’ he had asked doubtingly, earning her hatred with every syllable of that leading question ‘Scratch that It was politically incorrect Naturally I will support you in whatever choice you make’

How could she co recollection and act norht of Elyssa’s innocent sweetness and the reality that her father didn’t want her, had never wanted her, and the knowledge hurt Merry,her wonder if her own father had felt the sa any kind of contact between father and daughter would only result in Elyssa getting hurt at soel was too selfish and too spoiled to be a caring or committed parent

As she rounded the corner of the tiny office building a startling scene un aiainst the wall of the kennels opposite as though he had not a care in the world

‘Will you call this el demanded with derisive sibilance when he heard her footsteps and without turning his arrogant dark head ‘She won’t let me move’

‘It’s all right, Sybil,’ Merry said tautly ‘Elyssa is in the barn’

Angel’s arrogant dark head flipped, the long, predatory power of his lean, strong body suddenly rippling with bristling tension ‘What’safter her?’ he derowl

Sybil lowered her shotgun and broke it open to safely extract the cartridges ‘I’ll take her back hoel

‘Come into the office and we’ll talk,’ Merry framed coldly as his dark eyes locked on her tense face

‘I’ed without ehtened ‘That’s why I use lawyers’

In an angry defensive movement, Merry thrust wide the door of the little office before spinning back round to say, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

‘I warned you that I intended to visit,’ Angel bit out impatiently

Merry thought about the letter she had bottled out of opening and uneasily looked at him for the first time in months The sheer power of his volatile presence s wobble He was still so wickedly beautiful that he made her teeth clench with fierce resentment It wasn’t fair that he should look so untouched by all that had passed between thelossily well grooner suit It was especially unfair that he should still have the nerve to voice a deht he had surrendered entirely of his own volition before their daughter was even born ‘And I’ve already told your lawyers that I won’t accept any kind of visit from you!’

‘I won’t accept that, not even if I have to spend the rest of elher to know that there would be no escape froot what he wanted He would not accept defeat, regardless of what it cost him He had lost his father’s respect and he was deteret to know his child

Frowning, black broering, he studied Merry, incredulous at her continuing defiance while th he sensed in her, which he had never noticed in a wolossy abundance to just below her shoulders He was ridiculously disappointed by that fashion update There had been so hair that he had liked She was also thinner than she had been and there had not been in with, he conceded reflectively She looked like a teenager with her long, coltish legs outlined by distressed deni at the cotton of her top so that he could see the proritted his teeth, furious with himself for that weakness but… Thee mou, shorn of her conservative office apparel, she looked ridiculously sexy

‘Why can’t you siet we exist?’ Merry deo, that’s what you wanted and I gave it to you I signed everything your legal team put in front of me You didn’t want to be a father You didn’t want to know anything about her and you didn’t want her associated with your precious naed?’