Page 8 of Shielding his Legacy
It had been a moment of impaired judgement, enteringher in a dream state, battling with the dragon while he rode the edge of ecstasy and wakefulness like a star shooting between the black sky and earth. But the end result didn’t consider the circumstances. They’d climaxed together, his cock buried balls-deep inside her, his genes staying behind long after he’d walked away.
“Come with me.” He walked past her, the ground not registering beneath his feet as he led her into the nearest office and locked the door behind them, fighting the fog that swallowed his brain at this surreal turn of events.
Why hadn’t she told him she was pregnant? While they hadn’t kept in touch, clearly she was able to find him, and the realization that she hadn’t wanted to before now was like acid filling up his insides. He had a daughter, a perfect little baby girl, and his mind stuttered to fully comprehend this development.
Why had Eva sought him out now? Did she want money? A relationship? He’d happily give her the former, but there was no way in hell they could ever be a couple, no matter how often he dreamed of her. Baby or no baby, he was a danger to any woman who got too close to him—but this one most of all.
She stood in front of him now, her cheeks full of color like they were at the height of passion, those blue eyes tucked too tightly inside his soul for his comfort.
“Do you want to hold her?” she asked.
The question struck him as absurd. He’d never held a baby in his life, and he was barely managing coordinated movements as it was. “No.” He moved to the desk, perching on it as he faced her. He cocked his head, staring at her feet, concern for her wellbeing shifting his focus outward once more. “Where are your shoes?”
She opened her mouth and closed it again on a sigh. “It’s a long story.”
Her voice held a weariness that stirred his empathy, and he noted the faint circles beneath her eyes. Having their child alone couldn’t have been easy, but she no longer needed to handle this on her own. His fingers itched to touch her hair, to hold her close and shore her up, but he didn’t know how to cross the divide that separated them—and knew that he shouldn’t. “Looks like you have a few of them to tell me.”
The baby broke out in a wail, rubbing her face against Eva’s shirt. “She’s hungry. I need to feed her.”
His heart galloped as he imagined her revealing her perky, soft breast and offering it to the child to suckle, that nipple that he’d exalted with his own mouth and tongue, but she only bent down and took a bottle out of a big pink bag.
Thank God.
She was quiet for some time before lifting reddened eyes to his. “I have to get to Phoenix. I don’t have any money or clothes or anything, and I can’t go back to my apartment.” She frowned, and he suspected she was trying not to break down. “I can’t believe I’m asking this fromyou.” She said “you” as if he was beneath human standing, like she had so little respect for him she would gladly be speaking to anyone else, and he felt her disgust like a swift kick to the gut.
Clearly, she saw through him to the rotten core beneath, and as much as it hurt him, he was grateful for that. She wasn’t the naive young woman he’d bedded for days in an orgy of sexual oblivion and mutual adoration. She knew exactly who he was and every good thing he could never be again.
“But I need help,” she said, the words obviously costing her. “Money. Then we’ll get out of your hair. I promise.”
All he had to do was give her a pile of cash, ignore the myriad questions circling in his mind, and she’d leave his life—with his child—forever. It should be everything he wanted. An escape from the intense obligation that had just walked through the door.
So why did the very idea feel like dying?
He’d walked away from Eva once, the loss tempered by knowing she was better off without him. But to never see his child grow up… that was a different type of hell all together. He’d only just found out the baby existed, yet his entire nervous system was a pulsing, knotted cluster of emotions. When he spoke, his voice was strangled. “What’s her name?”
“Abby.”
The two simple syllables seared his soul like a brand. His daughter’s name was Abby, and he understood nothing in his life would ever be the same—just like when he’d met Eva.
His stare raked over Eva like a hawk’s hooked talons over warm, supple flesh. She was weary and worn, yet stunningly beautiful, his eyes soaking up her essence. She’d put on weight, and it suited her, adding a voluptuousness to a figure that was already deeply alluring, and he longed to feel the shape of her in his hands.
He couldn’t get enough of her.
Every cell in his body wanted to get close to her body, to pull her against him and shelter her from the storm, but she was more of a threat to his sanity than Cleats had been. If he’d hurt Cleats, Razorback would have stopped him. But no one could keep Eva safe from what the dragon inside him might do.
Shame crested over his mind, bathing his thoughts in regret. She deserved so much better. Both of them—this woman and his child. But the only way to keep this woman safe was to keep her away—even if it meant staying away from his daughter, forever.
5
Eva was humiliated. She knew this was going to be difficult, but the reality of facing Gavin with their child surpassed even her expectations.
He had taken one look at Abby and completely shut down. He didn’t want to hold her—didn’t want to look directly at her, even—and his reaction hurt Eva more than she would have thought possible.
For in her heart, her daughter’s entire life was laid out as a series of hopes and dreams, but more than anything she wanted Abby to have the family she herself had not. Eight years in foster care had scraped up her insides like a scalpel rolling around in her soul. She knew what it was to be unwanted, and she physically ached from Gavin’s reaction. And while she’d thought she’d finally found a family in the Livingstons, she knew now that had been a fever dream that reality couldn’t contain.
She’d been holding out hope for more, and even though she’d told herself it wasn’t going to happen, now it was a certainty. Abby’s father didn’t want anything to do with her.
Suddenly, it was all too much.
