She should have known better. He recognized her.

Strangely enough, around them life went on. Babies cried, though not Taylor, who was blessedly silent. Parents chatted. Moms-to-be flipped through baby magazines. Medical staff buzzed noisily, going about their rounds and duties.

Amber saw and heard none of it, her gaze held prisoner by Dax’s stare. He was exactly as he’d been in her dreams-tall, powerfully built. Unforgettable. He wore snug, faded jeans that fit his athletic physique, and a plaid flannel shirt, open and untucked over a simple white T-shirt.

Plain clothes, not such a plain man.

It didn’t help that Amber could remember exactly what lay under those clothes. Though she had never actually seen him in all his naked glory, she’d felt him, every single inch, and what magnificent inches they had been. She knew his every muscle intimately, had personally run her hands over those broad shoulders, his wide chest, his flat stomach, those long, tough thighs…and what lay between.

In her mind she was back there, back beneath that desk, hot and panting for him. If she remembered right, and she was horribly certain she did, she’d actually begged him to take her. Begged.

Heat flooded her face and she was thankful he couldn’t read her mind.

Still, he stood there, strong and silent. Charismatic. Even now, as he remained frozen, there were any number of women in the room shooting him frank glances of admiration.

He didn’t appear to notice. In fact, he seemed to notice nothing but her.

Unsure, weak in the knees, Amber smiled feebly and was thankful she’d found a chair. The urge to fling her arms around his neck shocked her, and she decided it was some sort of delayed reaction to what they’d been through last year. After all, there’d been a time, a very brief time, when he’d been her entire world.

He moved toward her, and she held her breath. She saw the exact moment he registered what she was holding-or rather, whom.

Hunkering down beside her chair, he gazed with awe and wonder into Taylor’s sweet face. “Yours?” he asked.

God, that voice. It should be illegal to combine that mixture of compassion and sexuality. Her pulse beat like a drum as she nodded.

Reverently, he reached out and touched Taylor’s pink blanket.

Amber closed her eyes to the sight of him, big and powerful, kneeling by his baby. His baby. This couldn’t be happening, not like this, God, not like this. How could she still yearn for him, so much that it was a physical ache?

Her heart thundered in her chest, her blood pumping so loudly she could hardly hear herself think.

What to say? How to make this all okay?

How to make him understand?

Dammit, why hadn’t she called him again? Yes, his secretary had been rude and aloof, but what if he hadn’t received the message? How could she have been so irresponsible, just because of her own stupid fears?

“How old is she?”

“Three months. Dax…”

“At least you remembered my name.” He let out a tight smile. “I wasn’t sure there for a moment.”

Shame heated her face, but she didn’t let it show. She’d lost her control once around him. She wouldn’t do it again. “I’ve never forgotten.”

“You’ve obviously forgotten some of it, or you would have contacted me.”

“That goes both ways.”

“Do you really think I didn’t try to find you?”

A thrill shot through her, and it was completely inappropriate. “I tried, too.” But the feeble excuse faded at his expression. And then at his words.

“Three months,” he said slowly. “You said she was three months-But that would make her…Oh my God,” he said hoarsely, staring at Taylor. “Oh my God. She’s mine.”

The pain in his voice was real, very real, and Amber had never known such regret and grief in her life. “Dax.”

“How could you not tell me?” he demanded in a hushed, serrated voice. “Did I hurt you that much? Were you that unwilling? Did you need revenge?”

“No.” His hurt registered and cut like a knife to her heart. She had no idea what to do, how to make this right.

Where was her easy sophistication now, the distance she needed to pull this off? It deserted her in the face of his utterly honest reaction.

In all her life, she’d never purposely hurt another. She’d never had the power. Her father had always been impenetrable that way. Roy, her ex-fiancé, had been her father’s emotional twin, or non-emotional. She couldn’t have hurt either of them if she’d tried.

There’d been no one else, until Dax. When he hadn’t returned her call, she’d figured he was much the same as the other men in her life, but she’d been wrong. Dax wasn’t the cold, unfeeling sort, not at all, and she should have known. He was deeply caring and wildly passionate. She imagined he was that way about his work, his playtime, his life, everything.

He’d never hold back, never ruthlessly control himself.

She admired that. Admired it, and feared it.

He didn’t move, just stood staring down at his daughter with a combination of awe and fear and devastating sorrow.

Amber couldn’t help but notice that he did indeed have the same pale blue eyes as their daughter. His hair, a thick, rich brown, naturally highlighted from the sun, fell recklessly to his collar.

It was the exact shade of Taylor’s.

But the physical attributes weren’t important, not when compared to the heart-wrenching, awestruck way father and daughter stared at each other.

Amber’s chest had tightened at the first sight of Dax, and the fist gripping her heart only tightened with each passing moment. She could hardly stand it.

“What’s her name?” he demanded.

“Dax-”

“Her name, Amber.”

“Taylor Anne.”

“Last name.”

Amber hesitated, only for a second, but he noticed. His jaw tightened. “It’s a simple enough question, I think.”

“Her last name is Riggs,” she said quietly. “But you’re on the birth certificate.”

Dax looked at her then, with eyes as cold as ice and filled with fury.

“I have a copy of it for you,” she added inanely.

“You’re not going to deny it then?”

“No.” Her eyes were filled with bright, scalding tears she refused to shed. “She’s yours, Dax. That was the one thing I never had any doubts about.”

5

“DAMN YOU,” he said softly, the hardened expression on his face melting when Taylor drooled and waved two fists in the air. “How could you not have come to me?”

“I called. You weren’t in your office.”

He swore again, less softly and thrust his hands through his hair. “And you didn’t think that maybe this deserved a second call?”

“I left a message.”

Those ice-blue eyes pinned her to the spot. “I never would have pegged you as cruel, Amber. Never.”

“Oh, Dax. I never meant to be, but I knew how you felt about becoming a father.”

He stared at her in disbelief, so much hurt in his gaze she nearly couldn’t look at him. “You know nothing about me if you thought I’d appreciate your silence on this,” he said quietly.

“I’m sorry.” The words were completely inadequate, and she knew it. “Dax, I’m so sorry. I knew I had to call you again. I planned to, but I just got back into town myself and…” And she’d let her fear stand in the way.

“I looked for you.” His laugh was short and completely without mirth. “I wanted to see you. You were nowhere to be found.”

“I went to Mexico.”

“Alone?”

She nodded.

He looked away from her, down into Taylor’s face. His eyes warmed and he lifted a finger to stroke it down the baby’s face. “What about your family? You didn’t go to them?”

Amber thought of her father, and how he’d reacted to the news of her pregnancy. After his shock, he’d recovered quickly, blaming her mother’s genes. He’d told Amber she was an embarrassment to him. Worse. And that he didn’t want to see her ever again.

She couldn’t admit that shame to Dax. “Going to my family wasn’t an option.”

“No? Well coming to me should have been. You should have told me. I should have been there. For you, for Taylor. For me.”

“I thought-”

“You had no right to make that decision for me, no matter what you thought.” His voice was no more than a whisper, but it was so harsh, she cringed.

“You cheated me,” he said. “You cheated her, your own daughter.”

Amber knew that, God she knew, and she couldn’t possibly feel more cruel or guilty. Speaking past the lump of emotion in her throat was impossible.

“Um…Dax?”

At the soft voice behind them, he stiffened, then drew in an agitated breath before carefully rising to his feet to face the woman who was looking at them, confused.

With clear difficulty, Dax smiled at the beautiful, tall blonde whose stomach seemed ready to pop. “You should be sitting down somewhere,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Waiting for your appointment.”

“What’s the matter?” the woman asked, reaching out for him. “Something’s wrong.”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“No-”

“Suzette.”

Something in his voice must have warned her. Now the woman looked Amber over in frank curiosity, and Amber looked right back. She couldn’t help herself.

Another pregnancy?

“I’m Suzette,” the woman said to her, thrusting out her hand.

Amber stared at it, automatically lifting her own from years of enforced manners, wishing she’d stayed in Mexico, wishing that she and Dax could have had this inevitable confrontation without his “latest” witnessing it, wishing that she was anywhere but here.

“Suzette, this is Amber Riggs,” Dax said.

“Oh, are you a friend of Dax?” Suzette asked her.

Amber figured that as a not-so-subtle attempt to figure out the relationship between her and Dax, and she would have liked to crawl in a hole. “Well-” She glanced at Dax.

No help at all, he just looked at her from fathomless eyes.

Fine. She could handle this. “It’s been awhile since we’ve-”

Dax raised a brow.

“-seen each other,” she finished. “A year.”

“Well it must be nice to run into each other.” Suzette smiled. “And here of all places. How funny.”

Hysterical.

Taylor chose that moment to squeal loudly, making her instant hunger known to everyone within hearing distance. Amber tried to soothe her by giving her a pacifier, but she spit it out and turned bright red, a sure sign of an upcoming fit.

“Let me,” Dax said, reaching for the baby. His eyes dared Amber to defy him.

She wouldn’t, not over this. She handed Taylor over.

At the loss of her mom’s arms, Taylor let out an indignant howl.

“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” Dax asked, expertly cuddling the baby close.

She’s had only me! Amber wanted to say, but at the equal mixture of terror and joy on Dax’s face, she restrained herself. “She’s hungry. I have formula.”

“You aren’t…?” Dax jutted his chin out toward her chest. “Breastfeeding?”

“Yes,” Amber said quickly, feeling herself go red at his bluntness. To add insult, her body betrayed her by reacting to his nonsexual gaze in a very sexual way. Her tummy fluttered, her nipples hardened. “When we’re out, I’d rather give her a bottle.”

“Oh.” Appeased, Dax looked down at his daughter, his expression so bare and honest and fierce she could hardly stand it.

Suzette jumped when her name was called from the main desk. “Oh, dear. It’s time.”

“Yeah.” Dax nodded toward a man who’d just gotten off the elevator. “Look, there’s Alan. You’ll have a ride home.”

“But-”

“See you,” he said, kissing her cheek, nudging her gently away.

The look Suzette shot Dax over her shoulder was filled with questions.

“Have a good one,” Dax said, waving, ignoring her silent curiosity. “Talk to you later.”

“Yeah. You’d better.” With one last glance, Suzette left them to walk toward the man, but that last look Dax received wasn’t difficult to read.

She wanted answers.

Amber wondered if she’d get them. “She’s pretty,” she said inanely. “When is she due?”

“A week or so.”

Taylor reached out with a wet fist, and partly by luck, latched onto the front of Dax’s T-shirt. There was already a drool stain down the front of him, then she tugged, wrinkling it. Amber winced but Dax simply cupped the back of her little head with his big hand and smiled at her.

Watching them, Amber’s heart wrenched. She didn’t want to see how wonderfully perfect the two of them looked together, father and daughter, but there was no missing it. “Shouldn’t you be going into the appointment with Suzette?”