Inside her fabulously appointed bold green and yellow suite, Katherine was not feeling charitable. The minute she saw the child, love had swamped her and then came the anger.
"She had no bloody right keeping something this important from you. I say we take her to court."
"Don't be ridiculous!"
She turned at her mother's sharp tone.
"Why on earth not? Cade just stated that this woman wants to keep the child to herself. He deserved to have been informed. That's our flesh and blood right there."
She swung around. "Daddy, we have a fleet of vicious lawyers..."
"Slow down, darling." Kenneth sent his daughter an indulgent smile. "We're navigating a minefield here and have to be delicate about it." He turned to his youngest son. "You said you gave her forty-eight hours."
"Which ends tomorrow." His face was strained. "And I intend to honor my word."
"Something you had a hard time doing in the past."
He turned to look at his brother. "Is there something you want to say to me?"
"Just that this is typical you. No doubt, you selfishly seduced that poor girl and dumped her after using her. Now we're faced with a woman scorned and a child on top of it."
"Damn you..."
"Enough."
They both backed down at Eloise's authoritative tone. "We'll discuss this again after Kincaid has spoken to the mother."
For a moment, silence settled over the room, thick and unresolved. Katherine's fists clenched at her sides, her mind racing with possibilities and what-ifs. She couldn't help but worry that, beneath all their strategizing, the needs of the child might be lost in the tangle of adult grievances and pride.
Still, she resolved to stand her ground, for the sake of her family, but most of all, for the little girl who had changed everything in an instant.
"Will you stop the bloody pacing?" Cade was certainly in no mood to play this game with her. His head was throbbing, and he needed to get some sleep to have his wits about him for tomorrow.
She hadn't called him, not that he expected her to, of course. And he was certainly not looking forward to sparring with her over their daughter. But if it came down to it, he was absolutely going to. She could count on it.
He had been herded into his sister's suite as soon as the meeting had finished downstairs.
"I can pace in my own space."
"Then I'll go." When he rose from a peaches and cream love chair piled high with cushions, she pushed him back down.
His eyes flared. "You don't want to mess with me right now. You'd lose."
"We're on the same side." She sat next to him, placing a hand on his thigh. "Darling, I know what was said downstairs, what the totally insensitive brother of ours said, hurts you."
"But he's right, isn't he?" He asked grimly. "I seduced her. I was with someone else that night. And for the hell of it, I cannot remember her name.
I saw this beautiful girl and decided I wanted her. Nothing was going to stop me. I was bored and wanted to be entertained. The moment, the very instant I saw her up close, I knew she was innocent.
Did it give me pause? Maybe a second or two, but I wasn't going to allow anything to stop me." He rose, shaking off her hand and started pacing. Her gold colored carpet swallowed his feet and hushed his footsteps.
"I didn't think of possible consequences, and I keep asking myself over and over if I went bare back with her at least once."He turned, eyes burning. "I remember everything, that's the sad part. I've been with a good number of women before and after her and I can distinctly recall what we did that night.
The way she tasted and felt. The brightness of passion in her eyes. And the fact that I made love to her three times. Also, that I wanted her to stay the entire night."
He shoved his hands in his pockets and wandered over to the window facing the east side of the grounds. The full moon bathed the area, highlighting the moisture on the leaves and soft petals of the flowers that still braved the cold and bloomed.
"I ran away because it had become more than a bloody hook up. I was arrogant enough to shy away from what might have been a meaningful relationship."
