“Yes, they do, but Bella Ann never felt like an accident to me. The moment I learned I was pregnant . . .” She bit her lower lip as she looked at him, unsure how much she should say. But Alex stared back at her with his cool blue gaze and she felt that she could trust him with this at least. Her mother had said if she was going to find a husband, she needed to find one she could confide in.
“Yes?”
“It just felt right. I had never dreamed of being a mother, but once I knew I was going to be, I couldn’t imagine life any other way,” she said, glancing down at her daughter, who was awake and chewing on her pacifier.
“AndGio?” he asked with so much inflection on her ex-lover’s name that Fiona knew he didn’t like the other man. It was clear to him that the man had been after one thing with Fiona and as soon as he got it, he was out the door.
“He couldn’t think of anything worse that being tied down to a child or to me. He offered me money, but I didn’t want that kind of man in my life or in Bella Ann’s. I decided to find a man who could be a husband to me and a father to my daughter.”
He leaned back and crossed his arms, which drew the fabric of his button-down dress shirt taut over his chest. She was surprised to see the bulge of his muscles through the light fabric. He was a game developer, and she had an image of a man sitting around in a dark room full of computers with only the glow of a monitor for company. But he was tan and fit.
“What exactly do you do? Are you more of a figurehead . . . CEO-type guy?”
“Why are we talking about me?” he asked. “I thought we were still on the subject of you.”
He wasn’t the greatest conversationalist, she thought. He was blunt and liked to keep control of everything. “Because I want to know more about you.”
“Well, I do both. I run the company and deal with the investors and develop games. Why?” he asked.
“You just look like you’re in good shape for a man who must spend a lot of time at the computer.”
He arched one eyebrow at her. “Geez, thanks.”
She almost blushed, but she’d learned not to be embarrassed a long time ago. “Whatever. You know most people who work at their computers all day usually have pasty-white skin and are out of shape.”
“Your point?” he asked.
“That you’re not like that. Why?”
“My dad’s a gym teacher,” he said. “My mom had this timer when I was growing up that she’d turn on when I was playing a video game. I could play as long as I wanted, but when I was done she’d stop the timer and I couldn’t go back to playing on the computer until I’d spent an equal amount of time outside.”
The more she heard about his mom, the more she liked the woman. She wasn’t too sure that Alex was the right man to be her husband, but she was learning more about what she wanted and needed in such a man from talking to him.
He was too blunt, she thought. And he was a little on the stuffy side. Just looking at him, she wondered if that one kiss he’d given her was a fluke.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
And she decided she had nothing left to lose. “I’m wondering if that one kiss we shared was the real thing.”
“Put the baby down and I’ll show you,” he said. “Having the child here is what stopped me.”
“You need to work on thinking before you speak,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because when you say dumb things like that I want to call everything off,” she said.
“Ah, sorry,” he said. “I just don’t believe in beating around the bush.”
“I can see that,” she said. She turned and put Bella Ann back in her stroller. As soon as the little girl was strapped in and playing with her stuffed bunny, she felt Alex’s arm come around her shoulders.
He drew her closer to him, but didn’t make a move to kiss her. Instead, she felt the feather-light touch of his finger as he traced the length of her neck and then the line of her dress where it dipped below her cleavage. His touch was soft yet sure and everywhere he caressed her he left a trail of goose bumps in his wake.
She shivered as he drew his hand back up to her neck and slowly tunneled his fingers through her hair, cradling the back of her head. She lifted her eyes to his as he slowly lowered his mouth to hers.
This time there was no doubt of physical compatibility as he kissed her with passion and determination. He seduced her with the slow sweeps of his tongue until she was helpless to do anything but wrap her arms around those strong shoulders of his and kiss him back.
Alex was still thinkingabout that kiss four days later as he was in the mock dressing room ofSexy & Single,getting ready to shoot his second date with Fiona. If she hadn’t had the baby with her, he would have swept her into his car and taken her back tohis place. But she did have a baby. And she was thinking about him not just for one night or an affair but as a father and a husband.
