Intimate Secrets (The Love and Danger Series) by Elizabeth Lennox Page A

go down the pathway of the child. 
    He was a father?  The idea was so mind boggling.  All the issues he would have to deal with, all the problems. 
    And then his mind snapped back to holding Lilly while she fell asleep and his heart melted.  It had taken her only moments and he was now in love.  The thought terrified him.
    He tried to close his eyes, tried to sleep.  But the image of his little girl, his baby daughter, kept popping into his mind.  And sleep was the last thing he could do. 

Chapter 5
     
    Amy curled up on her bed, her thoughts swirling around, not stopping on any one thing but bouncing from one issue to the next.  Walker was back!  How was that possible? 
    Oh yeah, the crazy guy who was stalking her. 
    She almost groaned with relief that Walker was downstairs.  She’d spent so many sleepless nights worrying about this crazy guy finding the courage to approach her.  What if he’d done it while she’d been with Lilly?  What if he’d wanted to harm Lilly?  Or herself?  She’d never actually told Walker about Lilly until tonight and there had been several nights that Amy had worried that Lilly wouldn’t have a parent.  Amy was alone in the world, both her parents had passed away and she didn’t have any siblings.  So worrying about what would happen to Lilly had caused her stomach to ache at times. 
    Knowing Walker was downstairs was both comforting…and terrifying.  She smiled into the darkness, picturing him on her love seat.  The man really was a giant and there was no way he was comfortable down there.  Shifting to her other side, she tried to get comfortable while her mind played over their conversation tonight.
    He’d thought she had aborted their child.  She’d thought he was abandoning her when she needed him the most.  Their affair had been so passionate, so intense that they hadn’t taken the time to get to know each other.  And when it was most critical, they hadn’t been able to communicate well enough. 
    For the first time since that horrible conversation, she accepted that there was hurt and distrust on both sides. 
    Could they work through this?  Could they become friends for Lilly’s sake? 
    Amy wasn’t sure.  She stared up into the darkness, wondering how she could just forget all the fear and anger that she’d built up over the past twelve months, all the terrible nights when she’d cried herself to sleep while the fear of the future was almost choking her.  She’d learned to deal with the stress but she silently acknowledged that she was relieved that Walker was here, that he knew about Lilly and he wasn’t rejecting their child. 
    She smiled in the darkness as she remembered the look on his face when he’d held Lilly in his arms for the first time.  No.  He definitely wasn’t rejecting Lilly.  In fact, he was embracing their precious girl!  Who knew?  He was so big and powerful but when he’d held Lilly, he’d been so gently and careful.  He’d done that with her as well.  Walker could be a powerful lover, demanding and passionate, but when he touched her, she’d never feared that he would hurt her.  He knew how to control the strength in that huge body of his. 
    Amy rolled over and stared out of the bedroom window, unaware of the sheets tangling around her legs as her thoughts turned more confused.  She should have given him a chance a year ago, she thought with as much fairness as she could muster under the circumstances.  After their conversation earlier tonight, she realized that she’d probably been wrong during their last conversation.  Her loneliness had been just as much her fault as it had been his.  He’d said some angry things, she’d tossed out angry words…they’d both been hurt.
    How could they move forward though?
    Amy tucked her pillow under her chin, staring out the window at the silent, mocking moon.  How could both of them have so completely misunderstood each other back then?  When something as