One Kiss in... Miami: Nothing Short of Perfect / Reunited...With Child / Her Innocence, His Conquest. Katherine Garbera

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ proposing?” She looked at him again, allowing a hint of her own yearning to slip through. “I stay here for however long it takes you to find a new place to hide—”

      “I’m not hiding.”

      Daisy couldn’t help herself. She laughed, the sound almost painful. “Oh, please.”

      “I’m protecting my privacy. If the general public knew where I lived—”

      “The general public couldn’t care less. Maybe the media would express some interest. But I suspect the only ones you need to worry about are other mad scientist wannabes.” She leaned her hip against the kitchen table. “So, what’s the real reason, Justice?”

      He took a slow drink of his water, no doubt to give himself time to consider the most logical response to her question. He must have come up empty, because he asked instead, “How did you find me?”

      She’d been waiting for that, wondering when he’d get around to it. “I had help, which is another reason you can’t keep me here against my will. Jett will eventually grow concerned and alert the authorities.”

      “Jett.” His eyes flamed before he regained control. “Boyfriend? Husband? Lover?”

      Two could play this game. She folded her arms across her chest and lifted an eyebrow. And waited.

      “How did this Jett person find us, Pretorius?” Justice asked while his heated gaze remained locked with hers.

      To Daisy’s shock, a disembodied voice responded. “I’m working on it.”

      “Work harder. I want him traced and shut down.”

      “You think I don’t know that? I know that. This Jett is good. Real good.”

      “I thought you were the best.”

      “Go to hell, Justice.”

      Much to Daisy’s relief, a peeved tone rippled through Pretorius’s voice, confirming his status as a living, breathing human versus a machine. Even though Justice had claimed Pretorius was his uncle, she wouldn’t have put it past him to have considered that some sort of private joke. Of course, that would mean Justice would need to possess a sense of humor, something he’d probably worked long and hard to eradicate, along with every other emotion.

      Well, except desire. That remained fully operational.

      “I think I found how he traced us. Shutting him down. Okay, he’s cut off.”

      Justice offered a wintry smile that perfectly matched the raw November day. “Is that it?” she asked. “We’re now invisible to Jett? You do realize that I got here with a GPS. I was tracked every step of the way.”

      “It won’t take long to relocate.”

      “I find that difficult to believe unless you already have a backup site ready to go.” The glitter in his tawny gaze confirmed her guess. “Okay, fine. You know something, Justice? You go right ahead. Keep me here until you and your uncle are ready to run to wherever your new cave is located. Then you can hang from the rafters in the privacy of your latest den of doom and gloom. Frankly, I don’t give a damn.”

      “I already told you we’re not in hiding. And mad scientists hide in basements not in rafters.”

      Okay, that was definitely a joke. Who knew? Not that it mattered. She brushed the comment aside with a sweep of her hand. “Whatever. That’s not why I’m here. You’re so worried about the hows and whys of my finding you that you’ve totally ignored the main question.”

      “Such as the reason you wrote twenty-six letters and requested they be forwarded to me? Not to mention why, after all this time, you’ve gone to so much trouble to track me down? Those main questions?”

      He’d received her letters and still never got in touch? Fury ripped through her. “Yes, those main questions,” she said through gritted teeth.

      “Don’t keep me in suspense. What could you possibly have to say that we didn’t cover nineteen months and fifteen days ago?”

      He wanted it straight? Fine. She’d give it to him straight. “You have a daughter.”

       Five

      Justice had always considered himself a rational man. Intelligent. Sensible. Calm and collected. His emotions firmly within his control. But with those four simple words he discovered just how mistaken he could be. Only one other time had he experienced this severe a brain disconnect—the hours following his accident. He opened his mouth to say something, only to discover that every last word had emptied from his mind.

      “Wha—”

      “What’s her name? It’s Noelle.”

      “Whe—”

      “When was she born? Eleven months and a handful of days ago. Christmas morning, to be exact. If you need further exactitude, which I’m sure you do, they recorded the precise time on her birth certificate. I’ll arrange for you to receive a copy.”

      “Ho—”

      “How do I know you’re the father? Because you’re the only man I’ve slept with in the past three years. No doubt you’ll want a DNA test and I have no objection. I thought you should know about Noelle, so I’ve spent the past year and a half trying to track you down without success. But then, since you received all my letters, you already know that, don’t you?” She paused for a beat. “Are you listening, Pretorius?”

      “Uh—” came his uncle’s disembodied voice.

      “I thought so. I can hear the family resemblance. It only took Jett a few short weeks to find you.” She shot Justice a steely look. “I think that means my computer expert outcomputes your computer expert. Now. What were you saying about keeping me here?”

      The logjam clogging Justice’s vocal cords cleared. “Son of a bitch!”

      Daisy planted her hands on her hips, glorious in her outrage. “I trust you won’t use that sort of language around our daughter. She’s quite verbal for so young an age. She tries to parrot everything you say.”

      “I want her.”

      Something very much like hurt flashed across Daisy’s expression and her eyes darkened to the deep green of a mountain forest. For some reason it shredded his defenses and arrowed straight to the emotional core of him. How was that possible? How could a single look possess the power to stir a combination of guilt and defensiveness? He’d worked diligently for over a year and half to eradicate any and all reactions to her from his emotional makeup. And yet from the instant she appeared on his doorstep he’d discovered that he hadn’t eradicated anything at all. One glimpse of her elegant face glaring up at the camera and desire came storming back, eclipsing logic and self-determination.

      It defied comprehension.

      He hastened to amend his earlier statement. “I want both of you.”

      He СКАЧАТЬ