The Agent's Redemption (Special Agents At The Altar 4) by LISA CHILDS Page B

of eyes peered through at her. One gaze was the same blue as her own. The other gaze was the amber brown that haunted her dreams along with his deep voice.
    “See,” Alex said as he shoved open the door the rest of the way and ran into her room. “I told you she would be up. Mom never sleeps late.”
    “That’s because you always wake me up.” She reached out and caught her little boy, pulling him into bed with her. He squirmed and giggled as she tickled him.
    Jared stared at their son now, his gaze full of longing. Then he looked at her, and resentment flashed in those amber eyes.
    Guilt churned her empty stomach. She’d been so unfair to keep him from his son. But she hadn’t known that he would want him. He hadn’t wanted her; why would he want a child they had made together?
    “Mom! Mom! Stop!” Alex protested. And his face reddened as if embarrassed for giggling in front of the FBI agent.
    She let him wriggle free. “Why did you want me to wake up?”
    “Agent Bell said you have something you need to tell me.”
    Her stomach lurched now. Jared was going to force her to tell their son right away? Before she’d even had coffee? She could smell the rich aroma of it; the scent had her mouth watering. Then she realized why the scent was so strong when Jared held out a mug to her.
    He’d made coffee? He’d brought it to her?
    He should be furious with her. He had every right. She’d only seen that brief flash of resentment. Where was his anger? She searched his face but could find no trace of it. His eyes weren’t hard at all; they looked almost haunted.
    Like he was afraid.
    She was afraid, too. And not of a voice on the phone or a face in the window. She was afraid of the reaction her son might have when he learned the truth. She suspected Jared shared that fear.
    “Alex wanted to know why I was sleeping on the couch,” he said.
    “You weren’t sleeping,” Alex said. “You were just lying there with your hand on your gun.” Her precocious little boy missed nothing.
    Jared had been protecting them. Her and his son.
    She could see from the dark circles beneath his eyes that he hadn’t slept at all. And he was so tense that a muscle twitched along his heavily shadowed jaw.
    “I didn’t know what I should tell him,” Jared said. He wouldn’t want to tell a child about a threat. “He didn’t believe that’s the way all FBI agents sleep.”
    Alex snorted. “They would be too tired to catch bad guys if they never closed their eyes.”
    He was definitely his father’s son—too smart.
    The corners of Jared’s mouth turned up into a slight smile of amusement and pride. “He didn’t buy that I had too much coffee, either...”
    “He wasn’t jumpy,” Alex said, “like you get when you have too much coffee.”
    She nearly sputtered on the sip of coffee she’d just taken. Given that Jared had had his hand on his gun, she was glad that he hadn’t been jumpy. He might have shot their son if Alex had exploded out of his bedroom like he usually did. “FBI agents can’t be jumpy,” she said.
    Alex nodded as if she’d just made a good point. With his intelligence, she always wondered what he would become. A doctor. A lawyer. An FBI agent...
    The possibilities were endless for him...as long as whoever was watching her caused him no harm. She was glad that Jared knew now that Alex was his son. She should have told him so much sooner.
    And she could wait no longer to tell their son. “Jared stayed last night because we need to tell you something.”
    Jared sucked in a quick breath as if bracing himself for what she was going to reveal. But he already knew. He just didn’t know how Alex would react.
    Neither did she.
    “What?” Alex asked. “Are bad guys after us? Is that why he stayed?”
    “No,” she assured her son. “Nobody’s after us—” She hoped.
You’re being watched...
    “But the man looking in my window—”
    “Was just a reporter,” Jared said.
    “They were here about Aunt