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  Her eyes chilled several degrees. “If you don’t mind…”

  “Amber.” He controlled himself, but the smile remained. “Admit it, you’re jealous as hell.”

  Aghast, she stared at him. “You’ve been drinking.”

  “I don’t drink.”

  “Then you’re delusional.” She leaned forward. “Just so you know, I never get jealous. Certainly not over a nitwit who enjoys dating brainless-”

  “Careful,” he said, laughing again. “You might prove my point.”

  She was still for a long beat. Then regally she rose and pointed an elegant finger at the door. “I think you should leave.”

  “So you can recapture that famous control?” He rose, too, and came around her desk. “I don’t think so. Watching your temper rise is fascinating, Amber. In fact, everything about you is fascinating.”

  She shook her head, her composure slipping enough to show her genuine confusion. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

  “Lots. But I’ll start with this.” He hauled her into his arms and kissed her. It was a stupid move, uncalculated as it was genuine, but he didn’t stop.

  She went still as stone, but didn’t push him away. Taking that for permission, he dove into her sweet mouth, mating his tongue to hers, giving, urging, pouring everything he had into that kiss until he felt her hands open on his shoulders, then grab fistfuls of his shirt.

  “Yeah, now that’s what I’ve wanted all damn day,” he whispered. “That and this…” He kissed her again, his hands gripping her hips, pulling her closer, then closer still.

  With a little murmur of acquiescence that made him even hotter, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back until he couldn’t remember his name, much less his point.

  When the kiss ended, he murmured in her ear.

  “The women meant nothing to me,” he said. “It was an obligation, one I made months ago.” Lifting his head, he looked into her eyes. “They paid big bucks. Money that will be well spent.” He kissed her again. The helpless sounds of arousal she made were the most erotic he’d ever heard. “Be jealous, Amber. Wish you could take their place if you want. Kiss me stupid again if it helps. But please, don’t be mad at me anymore.”

  She touched her wet mouth, looking shell-shocked, as if she couldn’t believe how she’d lost herself. “I’m not angry,” she whispered and sank into her chair. “I need to work now.”

  She needed to think, he realized, and he would let her because that was how she worked, and he didn’t intend to rush her.

  Hell, he didn’t want to rush himself.

  Leaning in close, he gave her one last kiss, pleased to feel her cling to him for just a second.

  He was half out of her office when she called him. Turning, he looked at her over his shoulder.

  “I wasn’t jealous,” she told him. “Much.” Her mouth curved as she offered him a smile, and Dax felt the weight of the world lift off his shoulders.

  8

  T HAT NIGHT , arms full of her briefcase, a diaper bag, dinner and Taylor, Amber let herself into her condo. Her feet were killing her and so was the whirlwind her life had become.

  Going back to work had been good for her self-esteem because she was still good at it. She needed the money, too, having depleted her savings over the past year in Mexico. But balancing her wild hours with her newfound motherhood was much tougher than she could have imagined.

  Naturally, before she could set a thing down, the phone rang. Dropping her purse and dinner to the counter, she freed up a hand to grab it.

  “Let’s start all over.”

  The low, sexy voice liquefied her bones. “Excuse me?”

  “I want to start over,” Dax said.

  Amber settled the phone between her jaw and shoulder, and kicked off her heels. “From where?”

  “From the beginning, but I’d settle for the night I brought you dinner. Was it good by the way?”

  Amber placed Taylor in her swing. Her jacket hit a chair and relieved of all her weight, she sagged against the counter. “I suppose I should apologize for that. But yes, it was good.” She paused. “So was yours.”

  Dax laughed softly and the sound vibrated through her body, pooling in certain erogenous spots she rarely thought about.

  “I like a woman with a healthy appetite.”

  She thought about the smile she could hear in his voice and wondered if all the women he rescued fell for him. Probably, she admitted.

  But she was above such things.

  “How was lunch with my father?” she asked, purposely hardening herself. “I never got to ask you.”

  “Your father is a single-minded, opinionated, walking, talking ego.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “Okay…You care what he thinks of you.”

  How was it that he went directly to the heart of the matter every time? And how was it that she let him?

  “He’s also stubborn as hell,” he said. “Just like his daughter.”

  Amber laughed, then shook her head at herself. Distance, she reminded herself. She needed to keep her distance.

  Never an easy thing with this man.

  She set a sleepy Taylor in motion by gently pushing the swing. “Is this why you called, to list my failings?”

  “I grew up with five sisters, I know better than to list a woman’s failings. But I could give you a full list of your positive attributes if you’d like. I have a most excellent memory.”

  Her breath caught. Laughter faded, replaced by a needy emptiness she didn’t want to face. “It was a long time ago. It’s best forgotten.”

  “I’ll never forget.”

  Her hand stilled on Taylor’s swing. “You think about sex far too much.”

  “Well I’m red-blooded, aren’t I?”

  “Yeah.” He most definitely was.

  “But I’ve told you, it was far more than just sex. Let me prove it to you.”

  His voice alone could convince her. She could only be thankful he wasn’t here in person to add his smile, his eyes, his incredible hands to the magic.

  With a sigh, she set a kettle of water on the stove. She needed tea, her own personal comfort drink. “What did you want, Dax?”

  “To talk.”

  About their kiss? About the fact she’d nearly let it go much further than a kiss? “About?” she asked cautiously.

  “Lots of stuff.”

  Could he really have called just to talk? With her?

  “But let’s start with your father.”

  Her stomach clenched. Of course not.

  “He’d like to see Taylor sometime. I told him that was entirely up to you.”

  “I’ve offered to take her to him before,” she said coolly.

  “He wasn’t ready. He is now.”

  “I suspect you had a great deal to do with that.”

  “I thought you’d be happy.”

  She should be, should also be grateful, but instead she only resented the fact that Dax had accomplished overnight what she hadn’t been able to do it in a year’s time. “I’ll think about it,” she said, knowing she sounded prim, polite. Difficult.

  “Fair enough,” he said, accepting her answer so quickly she felt suspicious.

  With good reason.

  “I have another favor. This one’s a toughie.”

  She’d nearly forgotten to be leery of him! How had he done this to her, gotten her to actually almost trust him? “I don’t care to be pushed into a decision about seeing my father.”

  “My favor has nothing to do with your father. I wanted you and Taylor to come with me to a barbecue tomorrow night. At my parents.”

  She blinked and drew a careful breath as her brain struggled to shift gears. “Why?”

  “I don’t know, maybe because you’re the mother of my child?” He laughed at her silence. “It’s not a death sentence. You go, you eat, you smile, you laugh-Wait…it doesn’t hurt you to laugh, does it?”

  “Sometimes.�