Page 67 of This Wild Heart

Everything felt big now. Every interaction consequential.

What did he think when he looked at that precious little face?

The irony of this wasn’t lost on me. The man who didn’t want love, had no intention of making a family, was now stuck at home with a wife and a baby.

And what about me? I did this for a paycheck, and now I had a six-five gifter of orgasms with a dirty mouth and deep emotional wounds, and a stepson as a cute little bonus. I was never going to Vegas again, that was for damn sure.

Parker tucked the swab back inside the sleeve, mimicking what Milicent had done with Leo’s sample. She gave him a polite smile and glanced between us as she packaged everything back up in the box. “The pics of you two went over very well,” she said. “But because of that, and the incredible interest in your relationship, we’ll have to approach this little bundle of joy strategically. Maybe say you decided to adopt quickly, or he’s the kid of a family friend …”

“We tell the truth,” he said firmly. His eyes were still on Leo. “If he’s mine, I’m not lying about what happened.”

A warm sensation bled out from the center of my chest, seeping into my limbs until my fingers curled.

Milicent gave him a brisk nod. “You’re the boss. You said you’re leaving shortly, correct?”

Parker cut me a brief, intense look. Anything we’d dealt with so far was child’s play compared to walking into his family home, pretending to be married, and now with his surprise child in hand.

“Heading home to see my family, yeah.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And how are we breaking the news to them?”

Parker blew out a slow breath. “Hopefully, I’ll figure that out before we get there.”

It wasn’t until Parker yanked the steering wheel, navigating his truck off the side of the road with a sharp jerk that I even realized I was staring.

I blinked over at him. “What are you doing? Aren’t we almost there?”

His eyes didn’t move from mine. “See those two mailboxes past the trees?”

I cut a look in that direction. “Yes.”

“That’s home.”

“Oh.” I cleared my throat. “And are we going to arrive there at any point in the near future? Leo will be waking up soon, and he’ll need to be fed and …”

“Why are you staring at me?”

“Iwasn’t.”

Lies.

My tone was so friggin defensive, I could practically see the bullshit response in the smug way he smiled. “Whatever you say, wife.”

With a huff, I crossed my arms. “I’m a little confused, okay? We’re three minutes from your family home, we have a kid in the back seat that no one knows about, we had sex yesterday and haven’t spoken a word about it, and if I thought you were hard to figure out before both of those things, it is nothing on trying to figure you out now.”

Apparently, almost three hours in the car with no conversation had annihilated my verbal filter. It wasn’t even uncomfortable silence. Leo slept like a freaking champ, and Parker had a classic rock station playing in the background, just loud enough that the low humming of his voice had me strung tighter than a bowstring.

Parker’s wrist hung over the top of the steering wheel, his gaze steely and unreadable. “What’s confusing you, wife?”

“Stop calling me that.”

“Why? That’s what you are.” He held up his ring finger, and the gold band glinted mockingly in the sun. “Have the paperwork and everything. And I’m guessing in about seven business days, you’ll have a big fat check in your bank account to go right along with it. What more could you possibly want out of me?”

Fine. He wanted to be flippant? I felt the hot flare of challenge under my skin, like he’d waved a red flag right in front of the proverbial bull. Somewhere in the back of my mind, a war raged between wanting to kiss him, mount him in the driver’s seat, and smack the bejeezus out of his handsome face.

All I’d done since I woke up in his bed was try to untangle my impossibly knotted thoughts.

Him. Me. Leo. Our families. And now … everything else.Everyoneelse.

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