Her Bad Boy Billionaire Lover (Billionai - By Bretton, Barbara Page 0,46

waited her turn on the pony. "Look at her. Take a good long look at her and tell me what you see."

He looked toward the child with the red hair and golden eyes. That sense of recognition he'd experienced a few minutes ago returned, stronger this time. The child was laughing about something, her eyes crinkling at the outer corners.

The same way his eyes crinkled when he--

A dark, fierce emotion rose up from the deepest part of his soul, blocking out the sun. He turned toward Megan. "She's mine."

She nodded.

He went to grab her by the arm but the memory of that fierce little girl stopped him in his tracks. "When the hell were you going to tell me, Megan? When she turned twenty-one?"

"Never," she snapped. "If I had my way, you'd never have known about her."

"You don't think I had the right to know I was a father?"

"You weren't around, Jake. I couldn't tell you."

He didn't want logic. "What does she know about me?"

"Nothing."

"She thinks I'm dead?"

"Jenny knows we're divorced. There are a lot of single parent families out there these days, Jake, in case you haven't noticed. We've done just fine on our own and we'll continue to do just fine."

He grabbed her arm and dragged her behind a huge rhododendron bush. "Not this time, Megan. You're not calling the shots again." She'd walked out on him twice. He wasn't going to let it happen a third time.

"Take your hands off me," she said. "You have no say in this, Jake. None."

"The hell I don't." He wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled but he wasn't sure he could stop.

"You're hurting me."

"You're lucky I don't kill you."

Her face contorted as she fought tears. He used to be a sucker for women in tears but now he didn't know how he felt about anything. A scrap of conversation came back to him and he reached out and grabbed it. "You said you tried to call me after your father died." He gestured toward Jenny who was giggling as a young woman led the pony around the yard. "Is that why?"

Megan nodded.

"Why didn't you keep trying?"

Her eyes flashed fire. "Detectives cost money, Jake. I was too busy worrying about keeping a roof over my daughter's head to spend it chasing a dream."

That look of vulnerability he'd noticed on the Sea Goddess...the soft uncertainty in her eyes. He hadn't imagined any of it. She'd walked through the fire and been made stronger by it and he found his rage battling with profound respect for all she had accomplished.

"You could have had an abortion," he said, pushing for answers. "You didn't have to give birth to her."

"Yes, I did," she said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "I loved her from the first second I knew about her."

He was at a loss to understand the primal emotions she talked about. That fierce maternal bond that began long before the child was born. All he felt was a bewildering sense of shock.

"You were dead broke. How the hell did you think you were going to take care of her?"

"I didn't think," Megan said. "I just felt." She'd hocked her jewelry first thing and lived off the proceeds while the bones of her father's life were picked clean by creditors. "I don't think I would have survived if it hadn't been for the baby. Knowing there was a reason to get up each morning got me through the worst of it."

"What about your medical bills?"

Her eyes flashed with fire but she answered his question. "I worked as a receptionist in a health club. Fortunately they catered to mothers-to-be and I was a walking advertisement." The health benefits had picked up the obstetrician's bill and the hospital stay.

"And after she was born?"

"I found a way. The first moment I saw her I knew I'd do anything for her." She looked at him. "But you just don't get any of this, do you?"

He thought of his own life. The arid expanse of his childhood. His wandering teens. The years ruled by ambition at the expense of love. "No," he said. "Not one bloody bit of it."

"Then go. You're not looking to be a father, Jake, and I don't want you to be one."

"You've made enough decisions for me. It's my turn now."

His words hit her like a slap in the face.

"Look at her," she said, unable to mask the emotion in her voice. "She doesn't need any confusion. She doesn't need anything