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“Absolutely,” Slade said, and sain as the patrol car’s taillights winked, then faded into the night “Picking me for your stud service was a bad idea”
“Look” She exhaled sharply and tucked her hands into the back pockets of her jeans “Maybe I—maybe I shouldn’t have made such a—a unilateral decision…”
Color rose in her face at his bark of harsh laughter
“Do the words ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ have any ar?”
“I wanted a child, Slade And I promise you, I’ll raise him with love You don’t have to worry about that About anything I told you, I don’t want anything from you”
“You already have it My donation to your own private sperm bank” A muscle knotted in his jaw “That was all you wanted from me that day Isn’t that what you said?”
“I—yes Yes, that’s right”
He moved toward her She took a step back but with the car behind her, there was no place to go
“Why me?” She flinched as he reached out and ran the back of his hand along her cheek but though his voice was rough, his touch was gentle “You wanted a man in your bed, you could have had your choice How come I was the lucky sap?”
“I told you” His hand was in her hair, his fingers warainst her scalp His breath arainst her skin “You were—you had the right attributes And you were there at the right time”
He looked into her eyes “You trembled in my arms”
“I—I don’t see what this has to do with anything Slade, please—”
“That’s what you said to me when I kissed you, the first time Please, you said, Slade, please…”
He lowered his head, slowly, slowly, even as his brain asked hi He didn’t want her She’d used hi, she’d have kept him from the truth, if it hadn’t been for a quirk of fate
He paused, a whisper from her lips Her eyes ide and fixed on his His thuain and he could feel the race of her heart
“Tell me the truth,” he said huskily “That you wanted me, not just a substitute for a test tube”
He gathered her close She was rigid but a little sound escaped her, a soft moan that filled hith of her back, cupped her bottos, into the hardness of his arousal
She ain, lifted her hands to push hiers into his shirt, teetered on the brink of lunacy…
With a cry, she tore herself from his arms
“All right” She shuddered with the enormity of the admission “It’s true Michael is your son”
Slade bowed his head For one heart-stopping instant, she alht herself before she could do anything so foolish
“And—I adht have made a couple of poor decisions”
He looked up, his expression unreadable, his eyes cool and watchful
“I’ll see to it the birth certificate is changed” She waited for hirew unnerving “And—and I’ll tell hih to understand”
Still, Slade said nothing
“Dammit,” she said, “what more do you want?”
“You don’t pay attention, Sugar, or you wouldn’t need to ask I already told you I intend to be a father to ood father”
Lara ran the tip of her tongue over her botto she could do to stop it
“All right,” she said unsteadily “We’ll arrange for—for visiting privileges You can come to see him, I don’t know, one Saturday a month—”
“Wow”
The softly spoken word oozed sarcasm Her head ca to be easy, giving him up to you for a Saturday?”
“I don’t much care what it is, for you” He spoke cal like a drum “It’s Michael who counts I don’t want our son to spend Saturdays with a er”
Our son An o to the words but, in her desperation, Lara ignored it
“What would you suggest, then?” Her heart skipped a beat “I’ to let you take him away from me, Slade I swear, if you try—”