The Baby Surprise (9 page)

“Another difference of opinion,” he said easily, and lowered his mouth to hers.

S
he should pull away.

Paige knew that would be the smart thing to do. But Zach's hands were on her face, gentle but firm, holding her immobile beneath the sensual onslaught of his lips. And even if she'd been able to move, the truth was, she didn't want to.

His kiss was as gentle as his touch—and temptingly seductive. He kissed as she imagined he would make love—because yes, she had imagined not just kissing him but a whole lot more—slowly, deeply and incredibly thoroughly.

With a soft sigh, she parted her lips, meeting his tongue with her own. He tasted of the wine they'd both drank, but somehow his flavor was stronger, richer and even more intoxicating. As if of their own volition, her hands slid over the hard planes of his chest, over the tight muscles of his shoulders, to link behind his neck.

His fingers trailed down her throat, skimmed across her collarbone, then traced along the line of her spine, moving
slowly downward until they curved around her bottom and pulled her closer. She felt the hard press of his arousal at the juncture of her thighs and moaned.

His kiss wasn't so gentle now. It was hot and hungry and so fiercely passionate that it made her shiver. Not because she was afraid, but because her own desire was just as powerful and overwhelming.

She was hardly a virgin, but nothing in her experience had prepared her for being kissed by Zach Crawford. The kiss went on and on, and with each racing beat of her heart, the wanting inside of her grew stronger.

She didn't know how far things might have gone if he'd wanted to push for more. But he didn't push at all. In fact, he was the one who eventually eased away.

“I think you should go back up to bed now,” he whispered.

Her blood was still churning, her pulse pounding, her knees weak, but when he spoke, his voice was level and so carefully controlled that she might have thought the bone-melting kiss they'd just shared had no effect on him. Until she looked up at him, and the fire that continued to burn in his eyes proved otherwise.

To be wanted so much by such a man was…exhilarating. To want him so much that she couldn't think about anything else was…terrifying.

She ordered her trembling legs to move and stepped toward the door. “Good night.”

 

Zach watched Paige slip back inside the house, and it took every ounce of his willpower not to follow. But he knew that what he needed right now was space—distance from the far-too-tempting woman who had him all tied up in knots.

Damn.
He never should have kissed her.

If he hadn't, he'd still be in the fantasy stage of wondering if her lips were as soft as they looked, if her taste was as
sweet as he imagined. But the wondering had been driving him to distraction, and so he'd stopped speculating and started kissing—and the jolt of heat had seared him right down to his toes.

Chemistry between a man and woman was an unpredictable thing. Sometimes it was there, sometimes it wasn't. He'd been attracted to other women before, and he'd learned that sometimes the chemistry sparked and sometimes it fizzled. With Paige, it was positively explosive.

A man had to be crazy to walk away from that kind of heat. Except that, in this case, Zach was all too aware that his efforts to stoke the flames between them could very well result in his getting burned.

And as much as he wanted Paige, he wouldn't do anything that might jeopardize his relationship with the daughter he'd only just found. If he hadn't already done so.

Because while he'd told himself it was “just a kiss”—and told
her
the same thing—they both knew it was a lie. There was nothing “just” about the kiss they'd shared. It wasn't a simple touching of lips that was over and done. No, the kiss they'd shared had been a prelude to and a promise of so much more.

And she'd been an equal participant in the kiss. Yeah, maybe he'd started it—but within a few seconds, she'd been just as involved in the lip-lock as he and making just as many promises.

Thankfully, he'd learned a long time ago about the dangers of trusting in a woman's promises, and he wouldn't let himself get sucked in again.

Ever.

 

Paige had promised Zach that she would think about going to California with him, but the more she thought about it, the more she was sure that traveling across the country with him wasn't a good idea. Unfortunately, she wasn't prepared
to share with him the real reason for her apprehension—namely, that she had a hard enough time resisting temptation in her own backyard without giving him the home-field advantage.

But by Monday, Zach was really pressing for a response to his invitation, and when Paige continued to hedge, he asked, “Is it because I kissed you?”

“Of course not,” she lied, because to admit otherwise would be to give the kiss far more significance than she was willing to acknowledge.

“Because we won't be alone there,” he told her, as if he understood the real reason for her hesitation despite her denials.

She lifted her chin. “I'm not worried about being alone with you.”

Zach's gaze dropped to her mouth. His own curved.

“Then what are you worried about?” he challenged.

“Emma,” she said immediately. “She's already been through one recent move, and I'm not sure how she'd tolerate traveling all the way to the West Coast.”

“I'm sure she'll be fine.”

“And have you ever traveled with a baby?” she asked, because she was sure the answer would be “no.” “Do you have any idea how much stuff we would have to haul with us? There's her porta-crib and her booster seat and her car seat and—”

“My sister Lauryn has two kids,” he told her. “When Regan, her eldest, was born, my parents redid Lauryn's room as a nursery, so they have a crib and a change table and a rocking chair and a high chair and one of those exersaucer things and more toys than you could imagine.”

“I just think, at this time, it makes more sense for you to make the trip on your own,” she suggested.

But Zach shook his head. “If you and Emma won't go with me, then I won't go at all.”

She shouldn't care whether he went to California or not, but she knew that his family did. He'd been overseas for the past two years and during that time, he'd been in contact with them only via e-mail and the occasional phone call.

Aside from how much she knew Zach wanted to see them, she knew what it would mean to them to be able to see him in person—because she knew what it had meant to her every time her dad had returned from an assignment. But that was ancient history.

“The test results should be in next week,” she hedged. “Maybe we should wait until then.”

“I've already changed my flight once,” he reminded her.

She sighed. “You're talking about a flight that's leaving in two days. I might not even be able to get a ticket—”

“I'll take care of that,” Zach told her.

Still she hesitated.

“Please, Paige.”

It was the entreaty in those blue, blue eyes even more than the plea in his words that tipped the scales. “All right,” she finally agreed.

 

But two days later, as their plane touched down in San Francisco, Paige wasn't feeling any more certain about her decision.

“I'm really not sure this is a good idea,” she told him.

Zach reached into the overhead bin for her carry-on. “It's a little late now to be having second thoughts.”

“I've had them since you first mentioned this trip,” she reminded him, setting Emma on her feet. “They're just a lot more insistent right now.”

“Everything's going to be fine.”

“I just think this is a little premature. I mean, what if it turns out that you're not Emma's father?”

At first, Zach had seemed both baffled and frustrated by
her continuing denials of Emma's paternity. Now, he just seemed amused.

“Then at least you'll have had a chance to explore California wine country with a native,” he said easily.

“Is it really that simple for you?”

“No,” he admitted. “But I've never been the type to worry about ‘what ifs.'”

“Not even when you're flying?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“
Especially
not when I'm flying. The absolute last thing you want when you're in control of a fifteen-million-dollar plane is for your mind to be wandering.”

“I guess that makes sense,” she acknowledged. “But—”

Whatever she was going to say was forgotten when she caught a glimpse of the tall, stunning blonde who suddenly appeared and threw her arms around Zach.

“I can't believe you're finally home.” She kissed first one cheek, then the other, then hugged him tight again.

Zach cast a guilty glance in Paige's direction. “What are you doing here, Hayden?”

“You haven't been home in two years,” the blonde reminded him. “I was worried that you might not remember the way.”

“I told you I didn't need a welcoming committee at the airport.”

“I'm not a committee, I'm your sister. And since when have I ever listened to you?”

He sighed. “Good point,” he acknowledged, then turned her around to face Paige and Emma. “This is my sister, Hayden.”

But before he could introduce them to his sister, Hayden's eyes grew wide. “Ohmygod.”

And in that moment Paige knew that he had just sprung a big surprise on his sister and all her doubts and uncertainties about this trip multiplied tenfold. When he'd insisted that he
wanted his family to meet Emma, she'd figured that they knew about her. Hayden's reaction proved otherwise.

“This is Paige,” he continued. “And the little girl she's holding is Emma.”

Hayden shifted her attention from the baby to Zach. “She's yours.”

It was a statement, not a question, but Paige felt compelled to interject. “We're still waiting for the DNA results from the lab.”

“She has Zach's eyes—Crawford eyes,” Hayden pointed out.

She reached out a hand, as if to touch the little girl's cheek, but Emma turned away, burying her face against Paige's shoulder.

Hayden's hand dropped back to her side, and when she looked at Paige now, her own blue, blue eyes were as hard and cold as ice. “Why would you deny it? You obviously got pregnant to trap my brother—”

“Hayden,” Zach interrupted sharply.

The blonde shifted her annoyance to him.

“Paige isn't Emma's mother.” He spoke again before she could.

But the furrow that creased her brow suggested that his words added to rather than detracted from his sister's confusion. “Then why is she here with you?”

“Emma's mom was killed in a car accident several months ago, and Paige has been taking care of the baby since then.”

“Oh.” There was both embarrassment and apology in Hayden's voice now. “I'm sorry,” she said to Paige. “I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions.”

“It's okay,” Paige assured her. “I didn't realize that Zach hadn't explained who I was.” She shot him a glance that let him know she wasn't pleased by that fact.

“Zach didn't explain anything. He just said he was coming
home,” she explained. “He didn't mention that he was bringing anyone with him, and when I saw the baby, well, I just assumed—obviously mistakenly—that she was yours.”

“Olivia, Emma's mother, was a good friend of mine.”

“I'm guessing there's a story here,” Hayden said.

“And one that I don't intend to repeat more than once,” Zach told her. “So you're going to have to wait until we get home to hear it.”

“How about a preview?” his sister asked, taking one of the suitcases from him and starting toward the exit.

“No,” he said firmly.

Paige, carrying Emma, struggled to keep pace with him. Although she could understand his sister's curiosity, she had her own concerns.

“You didn't tell anyone we were coming?” She whispered the question behind Hayden's back.

“It wasn't something I felt comfortable trying to explain to my parents on the phone,” he admitted.

“So we're going to show up at their home unannounced and uninvited?”

“It's my parents' home—I don't need to be announced or invited.”

“What about Emma and me?”

“You're my guests,” he said simply.

“Unannounced and uninvited guests,” she muttered, more convinced than ever that coming to California had been a mistake.

 

Paige's apprehension increased throughout the drive.

Within a few minutes, Emma had fallen asleep, leaving Paige to her own thoughts. She watched the countryside as it passed outside the window, but she was too worried about how Zach's mother and father would react to their arrival to fully appreciate the beautiful scenery.

She didn't even realize they'd turned off of the highway
until she spotted the sign that announced Stonechurch Estates Winery. Farther down the long, winding drive was a stunning two-story stone building with dozens of gleaming windows and wrought-iron balconies surrounded by gardens already spilling over with colorful blooms.

“Is that where you grew up?” she asked Zach and Hayden, thinking it looked more like a five-star hotel than anyone's home.

Hayden chuckled as Zach half-turned in his seat to respond to her question. “No. That's the château, as my mother likes to call it.”

“To the rest of us, it's the winery,” his sister informed her.

“That's some winery,” she mused.

“The building also houses the tasting bar, wine boutique and gift shop, café and three private event rooms,” Hayden continued. “Outside the gift shop, although you can't see it from this side, is an enormous pergola that shades half a dozen picnic tables. We get a lot of tourists who like to eat their lunch—either purchased from the café or brought from home—outside.”