Nathan's Child by Anne McAllister Page A

need to talk to me about?” she said when he didn’t speak.
    â€œLacey. Fishing. This parenting bit. How we’re going to handle it.”
    â€œI handle this ‘parenting bit’ just fine, thank you.”
    â€œGood for you. But you’re not handling it alone anymore. There are two of us now. And you’re going to have to remember that. We need to present a united front. We don’t argue in front of our daughter.”
    â€œDon’t tell me how to parent!”
    â€œI backed you up tonight.”
    â€œI said thank you.”
    â€œAnd I’ll expect the same from you when I tell her something.”
    â€œIf I agree with you, I will.”
    â€œWhether you agree or not,” Nathan said evenly.
    â€œNo way! If you think you can just waltz in here and take over and expect me to back you up—”
    Nathan lifted a brow. “Like you took over and never even told me we had a child?”
    â€œYou wouldn’t have wanted—”
    â€œYou didn’t let me decide what I wanted!”
    â€œSo I’m the bad guy in this? I’m the one everybody blames?” Carin said bitterly.
    First Lacey, now Nathan. As if she’d taken on single parenthood for thirteen years to spite them both.
    â€œYou’re not the bad guy, Carin,” Nathan said gruffly.“I’m sure you did what you thought was the right thing at the time.”
    She snorted. “Thank you very much for the vote of confidence.”
    â€œJesus, what is it with you? I’m trying to give you the benefit of the doubt!”
    â€œDon’t bother.”
    He drew a breath, then let it out and sighed. “Look, Carin. I didn’t come here tonight to fight with you. And I didn’t come to Pelican Cay to make your life miserable. I came because my daughter’s here.”
    If Carin had ever dared hope he’d come back for her , she knew now that she’d hoped in vain. It was only Lacey he’d come for.
    She swallowed the hurt, told herself it didn’t matter, that she wasn’t surprised. Which she wasn’t.
    â€œAnd you’re determined to do your duty by her.” Her tone was mocking. She couldn’t help it.
    â€œYes, damn it, I am.”
    â€œBloody noble of you. And unnecessary. We don’t need you.”
    â€œLacey does. She said so.”
    Hell. Oh, hell.
    â€œWell, I don’t need you. And I don’t want you!”
    â€œDon’t you?”
    His quiet challenge made her glare at him in fury. “What are you saying?”
    â€œThat once upon a time, you damned well wanted me!” And he stepped around Zeno, who never even looked up as Nathan hauled her into his arms and kissed her.
    It was a kiss to remember—a kiss so like the passionate kisses they’d shared so long ago that it was as if all the years between vanished in an instant. As Nathan’s hot mouth pressed hers, persuaded hers, opened hers, Carin’s mind fought the surge of desire, the onslaught of memory. But her body did not.
    Her body wanted it—wanted him.
    For years she’d told herself she had imagined the hunger in the kisses they’d shared. For years she’d almost believed it.
    But it wasn’t true. She hadn’t exaggerated. This kiss was as fierce and possessive and hungry as his long-ago kisses had been. And it touched that same chord deep inside her, and she responded. Desire and need and hunger and passion all resonated, reverberated, began to grow.
    Blood pounded through her veins, her heart hammered against the wall of her chest. And against her will, against her better judgment, against everything she had been telling herself for years, she opened to him. Her lips parted, savored, welcomed.
    And then, heaven help her, she was kissing him back.
    Nathan groaned. “Yesss.” The word hissed between his teeth, and he wrapped his arms around her more tightly and pressed his hard body against hers. And far