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PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE DR. ABBY MAITLAND was doing her best not to look as impatient as she felt. Just down the hall in Maitland Maternity Clinic, patients sat in her waiting room on tasteful, blue-cushioned chairs, chosen to afford optimum comfort to women who were for the most part in an uncomfortable condition. She was booked solid without so much as a ten-minute window of breathing space. She’d come into the clinic running slightly behind and praying that no one would see fit to go into labor this morning. That was when her mother had waylaid her. Abby had always had difficulty saying no to her mother, not out of a sense of obligation but one of pure affection. It was hard to say no to a woman who had gone out of her way all her life to make sure that her children were happy and well cared for. Today was no different. Abby supposed that the request to stand by her mother’s side as Megan Kelly Maitland met the press this morning shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Abby had been born into this a
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO KYLE MCDERMOTT SHIFTED in his chair. He’d lost count of how many times now. Had he been wearing the jeans he so rarely put on these days, he would have rested his ankle across his thigh. But that wouldn’t fit, given the three-piece suit he was wearing. Besides, it would somehow seem disrespectful to the other occupants of the room, most of whom looked as if they hadn’t been truly comfortable in months. He glanced at his sister. He knew that Marcie had been uncomfortable for a while now. She was the reason he was here, suffering and growing progressively more agitated. Kyle didn’t like waiting, had never been able to tolerate it. And even if he could have, he wouldn’t have liked waiting here, in a room full of women whose bodies were in various stages of pending motherhood. He felt out of place, the lone male in the midst of some secret female sorority he had no right to be invading. As far back as he could remember, Kyle McDermott had never thought of himself as an actual p
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE SHE LOOKED HARRIED, Kyle thought, when Abby opened the door to admit him. And her eyes looked tired. The kind of tired that came from juggling too many balls at the same time. He’d seen the same look staring back at him from the mirror. Would that work to his benefit or not? Would she give in quickly because she was tired, or would it make her irritable and resistant? He was hoping for the former. The argument he’d had with Marcie on the way home nearly nine hours ago was still fresh in his mind. That about filled his quota for the day. Lately, all Marcie did was argue with him, if she spoke to him at all. He noticed that Abby wasn’t moving aside to let him enter. Behind her, the office was in semidarkness. “I’m early,” he told her. That was probably meant to be another crack about her arriving late this morning, Abby figured. The smile she forced to her lips was as fake as the Monopoly money she used to play with as a child. “I’m sorry but I’m fresh out of roses to pin o
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR ABBY EASED THE DOORS shut behind her. “Sorry I’m late, everybody.” She went no further with her excuse. There was no point, for the moment. Kyle McDermott’s presence in the house had no bearing on this meeting. Her mother was on the sofa, with Beth and Ellie on either side of her. Like a tribunal, Abby thought, amused at the image. Both girls looked like a younger version of their mother. Photographs of Megan Maitland at twenty-five bore that out. Crossing to her mother, Abby bent and kissed Megan’s cheek. “So, did I miss anything?” She purposely infused her voice with a cheeriness she didn’t quite feel. “Nothing more than the rest of us,” R.J. told her tersely. His glass empty, he turned toward the decanter on the bar for a refill. He was drinking his whiskey straight tonight, Abby noted. R.J. rarely drank at all. Was the unexpected appearance of this baby responsible? Or was it just, as in her case, general tension that forced him to seek any kind of relief? Anna, the ol
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE ABBY LOOKED AT HIM for what felt like a long moment. Why had he stopped her? As far as she was concerned, this was a thinly veiled business meeting, and business had just been concluded to his dissatisfaction. Or had it? Marcie had mentioned that Kyle was stubborn. Maybe he was one of those people who lived by the axiom “Never say die.” In that case, she’d better make things clear to him. “I just told you that I’m not about to get in the middle of this, other than to tell you that I think Marcie is rather mature for her age.” She saw by the momentary shift in his expression that Kyle didn’t agree with her. But then, she hadn’t expected him to. He was too close to this. And right now, to her. Deliberately, she freed her wrist from his hand. “There’s no need to continue with dinner. You don’t have to pretend to be polite.” The smile on his lips filtered into his eyes. “I don’t ‘pretend’ to be polite, Doctor. I am. Sometimes so polite, it hurts.” Otherwise, Marcie’s Billy wou
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX THE STAGNANT AIR within the motel room threatened to choke her. The smell of stale cigarettes and cheap perfume clung to the threadbare curtains and stained bedspread, held there by dust that had long since turned to grit. It was too cold to open a window, too stifling to keep it shut. She felt like a caged animal. Any second now, Janelle thought, she was going to crawl out of her own skin. Impatience tightened around her like a vise as she paced the small enclosure, one hand wrapped around the faintly sticky telephone receiver, the other around a chunky glass filled with amber liquid. An opened bottle stood on the chipped dresser. On the other end of the line, Petey was giving her a hard time. As if she didn’t have enough to deal with. That’s what she got for throwing her lot in with a spineless weasel. He was gorgeous to look at, but utterly lacking as far as brains went. She had half a mind to cut him loose and throw him the hell out of her life. The attraction that had
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN “OKAY, SO WHAT’S THIS about you and the gorgeous hunk?” Dana ambushed Abby with the question even before she had a chance to put her tray down on the table. Abby’s friends Katie Topper and Hope Logan, the owner of the gift shop on the clinic’s premises, were already seated on either side of Dana. The last space belonged to Abby. Friends from early childhood, the four had made a pact just after Abby and Hope, who were three years older than Dana and Katie, had graduated from high school. It was a simple pact with one requirement: remain in touch. Part of that pact included having lunch together at least once a week whenever possible. Since they now all worked at the same facility, the effort didn’t require as much maneuvering as it had when they’d been attending three different colleges. But with Abby’s busy schedule, it wasn’t always easy, either. Normally, lunch with “the girls” was something Abby looked forward to. But she wasn’t sure about today. She had a feeling she
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT IT SEEMED TO ABBY that they were driving into a more sparsely populated area away from the city. Straightening, she slid to the edge of her seat. Kyle was heading toward what looked to be a huge airplane hangar. She turned to him. “What’s that up ahead?” Kyle had called the pilot earlier to make sure he would be available for the short trip. The Learjet was the only outward sign of true affluence he allowed himself and for the most part, he used it for business purposes. Just this once, however, the jet was going to be used for personal pleasure. “An airfield.” She straightened in her seat. “And exactly why are we heading toward it?” Ahead of them, she watched the headlights cut through the surrounding darkness. A city-dweller at heart, sometimes it surprised Abby to see just how dark the night really was. “I thought you said we were going to a restaurant.” “We are.” Kyle brought the car to a stop, got out and came to her side. Abby was already getting out. “Just where is
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE THIS YEAR’S FOURTH OF JULY celebration had been history for over two months now, yet someone had obviously forgotten to clear away a huge cache of unused fireworks. Because fireworks were what he found himself in the middle of right now. Brilliant fireworks, exploding in the night sky and setting it aglow with a rainbow of shining colors that lingered before drifting back to earth. Fireworks. In his head as his arms tightened around Abby and the kiss deepened. Fireworks. Deep in his soul. And with them, heat. The kind of heat that came from standing too close to the fireplace. But he had no protective screen to hide behind. All he had was an overpowering reaction to the kiss that he’d begun. A reaction and a gnawing hunger. And no breath to speak of. Disoriented, he sank deeper into the unknown, reveling in it. Abby had been on a vacation when she was barely out of her teens, where she and her friends had gone to Hawaii to enjoy the beaches. Reckless, wanting to live life
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN “IS THAT TRUE?” Kyle turned around to face Abby, once he was fairly certain that the man wasn’t returning. “Is what true?” Abby looked at him dubiously. “Silver gloves, two years in a row?” He laughed. “I’ve never been in the ring in my life. But that guy sure bought it.” “You’re pretty scary when you want to be,” Abby said. She placed Cody back in his bassinet, and the tension began to break. Behind her, Beth and the others were letting out sighs of relief. The children went back to the games they were playing. A smile touched Kyle’s lips. She’d been pretty tough herself with that cameraman before he’d stepped in. “So are you,” he observed. His eyes swept over her. He was finding more and more things that attracted him to Abby Maitland. And therein lay the problem. One of his problems, he amended silently. But how he felt about Abby hadn’t been what brought him here today. “You looked as if you were ready to go head to head with that character if I hadn’t come along.” Ther
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN KYLE’S BACK WAS TO HER when she entered the living room. Even standing still, looking into the dormant fireplace, the man made her think of a caged animal. That had been her first impression of him. A sexy, caged animal. Given that, it surprised her that he was capable of displaying any sort of patience at all. For a second, because he wasn’t looking in her direction, she indulged herself and took full measure of him. Tall, dark, handsome and rich. With qualifications like that, the man should have been working his way through his third marriage by now. It was rather amazing that he wasn’t. But then, Marcie had said Kyle was married to his career. “She doesn’t want to leave.” Kyle swung around at the sound of her voice. Forced to wait alone with his thoughts, he’d been driving himself crazy, worrying about Marcie and how she’d manage on her own in her condition. Abby’s voice was like a lifeline. He crossed to her in swift, sure strides. “You talked her out of it?” “I tal
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE “LET ME LOOK at your knuckles.” Annoyed that he’d gotten hurt because of her, Abby tried to examine the extent of the damage to his hand. Kyle didn’t want her making a fuss over it, especially not when he was trying to get her out of here before the obnoxious photographer could scramble to his feet and give chase. Kyle continued to usher her through the crowd. “It’s nothing,” he almost growled. He glanced over his shoulder, but the crowd had closed ranks behind him. The photographer was nowhere to be seen. Good. The air outside felt cool after the hot press of bodies inside. Kyle drew in a deep breath, on his guard until he could get her inside the safety of his car. “Hey, Mr. Mac,” the bouncer called to him, a bemused expression across his wide features, “you and the lady leaving so soon?” Without looking, he shifted, blocking a couple who were trying to get by him. They slunk back into line. Kyle shrugged casually. “Evening’s young. Places to go, things to see.” The bo
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN MORNING WHISPERED at the curtains, slipping in softly, nudging Kyle awake. He resisted as long as he could before opening his eyes. The surprise of finding Abby beside him, nestled against the curve of his body, faded even as it registered. So, he hadn’t dreamed it. The night of wild passion and phenomenal acrobatics had been real. The wonder of it returned, coaxing a smile from him. Whoever said that still waters ran deep had to have had Abby Maitland in mind. He wanted to remain like this forever, but reality intruded. Though the hour was early, he had to get going. He had a meeting at nine-thirty, and preparations to make before then. Kyle couldn’t resist pressing a kiss to Abby’s bare shoulder. She murmured something in her sleep, rousing. Smiling. And making his blood rush all over again. When she opened her eyes to him, it was all he could do not to take her into his arms again. He couldn’t recall ever feeling this strongly about a woman before. He pushed back a
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN EXHAUSTION HAD HOLLOWED OUT her insides and taken with it most of her tolerance. Feeling uncustomarily short-tempered and irritable, Abby dropped down into the first chair she came to after arriving home. Her purse was on the floor, listing to one side beside the shoes she’d stepped out of the second she’d set foot inside the door. Drained, she was sorely tempted to remain exactly where she was, without moving a muscle, until morning intruded again. It wasn’t so much that it had been a hectic day. For once, there had been no emergency deliveries, no appointments to squeeze in between neatly scheduled ones. Even the press had deigned to back off a bit in their all-consuming quest to information about the ‘mystery baby’ now residing in her mother’s house. Although on that front, she mused, they had found a sidebar to sink their fangs into. For reasons completely unfathomable to her, the press thought that there was reader mileage in the allegations that Ellie had won her
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN KYLE DREW AWAY, and glanced up at the ringing phone. “Do you want to answer that?” He was being understanding. Resigned, she nodded. The last thing she wanted right now was to have to rush off somewhere. Praying it was a wrong number, Abby felt around for the telephone just above her. Securing the receiver, she brought to her ear. “Hello, this is Abby Maitland.” “Help me.” The plea, almost too weak to hear, had Abby bolting upright. “Who is this?” Kyle saw every muscle in her body tense. Concerned, he scrambled up beside her. “What is it?” Abby shook her head, turning from him. She couldn’t afford to be distracted now. Someone needed her. She covered her other ear with her hand, trying to make out the faint voice on the other end of the line. Was that whimpering? “Speak up, I can’t hear you.” The person on the other end of the line struggled to be coherent. “Abby…please come. It’s…Marcie…I…” Fear galvanized her. On her feet in an instant, she hurried into her bedroom. H
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
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