“My name is Jade, and I like green!”
Despite the charged atmosphere, Stephen couldn’t help smiling at the little girl’s outburst. The tyke had personality.
Megan looked down at her daughter. “Time to clean up, sweetie.”
“But, Mommy, we’re not done!”
“Why don’t I finish painting with Jade?” Tiffany offered, stepping forward, though her eyes remained on him.
Doubtlessly, Stephen thought, she was wondering what he was doing standing in Megan’s yard.
“Yes, Megan,” he drawled, “why don’t you let Tiffany take over, since you and I need to talk.”
His tone said she wasn’t getting rid of him. He wanted answers now.
Their eyes met and clashed until Megan broke contact.
“All right,” she said finally, then raised her arms to untie the smock from behind her neck.
Because Tiffany continued to look at him curiously, he said smoothly, “Aren’t you going to introduce us, Megan?” Then without waiting for a response, he held out his hand. “Hi, I’m Stephen Garrison.”
Jade’s father. Megan’s former lover. The guy who just found out he has a child.
“I thought I recognized you!” Tiffany exclaimed. “You’re the owner of the Garrison Grand, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he acknowledged, then shook Tiffany’s hand.
He was used to women stating the obvious when meeting him for the first time.
He knew his effect on the opposite sex. He was tall, well-built and rich. Three qualities women loved. When they weren’t slipping him their phone numbers or hotel keys, they were finagling an introduction from friends.
His image blended with that of the Garrison Grand: life in the fast lane.
“Get around, don’t you?” Megan remarked drily.
He arched a brow as he stepped toward where she stood, waiting for him. “I’m locally known, if that’s what you mean.”
He could tell Tiffany was following their exchange avidly, which made it all the more imperative that he and Megan find a place where they could speak privately.
“Listen to what Tiffany says, sweetheart,” Megan said to her daughter before turning to walk toward the back door.
He followed, watching Megan’s hips swing in tailored shorts and a light blue T-shirt, her feet in flip-flops.
She could have been any suburban mother trying to entertain her kid on a hot weekend afternoon.
Except now he knew she was the mother of his kid.
He trailed her through the house to a cozy living room furnished with tropical-print furniture and strewn with toys.
She stopped and turned to face him.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me I had a daughter?” he began without preamble. “And don’t bother denying it. She’s got the Garrison features, right down to the cleft chin!”
She folded her arms in front of her, almost hugging herself. “I thought it was best.”
“You…thought…it…was…best?” Fury made him enunciate every word. “Best for whom? You? Because I can already tell you, honey, it sure as hell wasn’t best for me.” He stabbed his finger in the direction of the yard. “And it’s questionable whether it was best for that little girl out there to be raised by you alone and denied all the advantages I could have provided for her.”
He’d just given voice to her own niggling doubts over the years, Megan thought.
There were times when she’d thought about contacting Stephen. Times when she’d wondered whether she was doing the right thing by not telling him of Jade’s existence.
And then she’d thought about his betrayal and his playboy lifestyle, and realized all over again he wasn’t father material. There was no way he’d be happy to learn he’d accidentally fathered a child.
Now, though, he’d found out about Jade in the worst possible way.
Still, she rebelled at his judgment of her.
“Why?” he asked.
“It was clear to me our affair was coming to an end.”
“Try again,” he snapped. “You’ve used that line before. It may have sufficed as a reason for breaking up, but it doesn’t explain why you kept my daughter from me.”
“What would you have done if I’d told you?” she flung back at him. “Would you have accused me of deliberately getting pregnant? Of trying to trap you?”
He stared at her hard. “My reaction is beside the point. I had a right to know.”
“You gave up that right when you proved yourself untrustworthy.”
“Untrustworthy? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means you were seeing other women. Having sex with other women.”
He didn’t move a muscle.
Just let him deny it, she thought angrily.
“You’re crazy,” he said finally.
“I saw her,” she responded, dropping her arms. “I saw her leaving your yacht the night I was coming—”
She cut herself off.
“The night you were coming to tell me you were pregnant?” he finished for her, guessing.
“She said you were the best she’d ever had.”
“A nice compliment if it had been true,” he retorted, “but I wasn’t sleeping with anyone else.”
She threw up her hands. “What was I supposed to think? She was straightening her dress while she spoke to me! She was leaving your yacht, it was late, and you had a reputation as a player.”
A reputation that she’d been well aware of. She’d only gone out with him after he’d pursued her persistently while she’d worked on the renovation of Garrison headquarters. Even then, it had been against her better judgment. Of course, once she’d found out about his cheating, she’d castigated herself for her naiveté.
“I can hardly remember who you’re talking about! Women have thrown themselves at me—”
“And that’s the problem,” she retorted. Definitely not Daddy material. Not then, and not now. “You’re the Garrison Grand’s owner. You operate in a sophisticated world.”
A heartless world.
A muscle worked in his jaw. “Even if I’d slept with someone else, it doesn’t justify your hiding Jade.”
“Oh, yes, it does,” she responded. “It meant as far as you were concerned, we weren’t serious. It confirmed you were still a player. I knew you wouldn’t be thrilled to discover I was pregnant.”
If she couldn’t trust him with her heart, how could she trust him with her baby?
At least, that’s what she’d told herself whenever she’d had doubts about keeping Jade’s existence a secret.
“How can you be so damn sure of my reaction when I’m not even sure what the hell my reaction would have been?” he tossed back, then raked his hand through his hair. “How could you have gotten pregnant? We used protection.”
She’d wondered the same thing for a time. Now, she shrugged her shoulders. “I took some antibiotics for a sinus infection. They must have interfered with the pill.”