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  Everything around her faded away. She heard nothing but his breathing and her own heartbeat, felt nothing but the heat of his body surrounding hers as he took her mouth repeatedly, one long drugging kiss moving into another.

  Home.

  He tasted like home and heaven, need and strength, the very essence of what a kiss with a lover should be. The sharp edge of danger in his kiss made it even more powerful and compelling, weakening her knees.

  Liquid heat flowed through her like honey, thick and sweet, intoxicating her and stripping away all of her defenses in a heartbeat.

  She’s always known it would be good, but nothing in her life had prepared her for this.

  Holding her as though he would never let her go, Hayden explored her mouth, taking it thoroughly as though starving for the taste of her.

  Her own hunger fueled the fire, making it burn even hotter. The stroke of his tongue led her on an erotic dance that stirred to life the need inside her that had lain dormant for years.

  Her nipples beaded as they brushed against his hard chest, the sharp pinpricks of pleasure stoking the fire.

  He swallowed her moan, his lips warm and firm as he tightened his hold, preventing her instinctive retreat. His kiss made demands, demands she couldn’t refuse.

  Her head spun and a kaleidoscope of colors whirled behind her eyes. Grabbing his shirt front, she pressed even closer, close to weeping in delight. Leaning into his solidness and warmth, she absorbed as much of it as she could.

  Had she ever felt so safe and warm?

  “Mommy!”

  The sound of her daughter’s frantic cry startled her. It apparently had the same effect on Hayden as he hurriedly broke off the kiss, his breathing uneven. Lifting his head, he kept an arm around both of them, his eyes nearly black.

  Angie frowned and pushed at him, wrapping her arms around Elizabeth’s neck possessively.

  His lips twitched as he stared down at Angie, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “I can’t blame her for being possessive of you, especially when I feel the same way. She’s beautiful, just like her momma.”

  Elizabeth rubbed Angie’s back when her daughter buried her face in her neck. “It’s okay, sweetheart. They’re friends.”

  Chandler stepped forward. “Much more than that, I hope. We’ve missed you very much, Lizzy. It’s good to have you home.” The intent in his eyes as he stared at her lips, still warm and swollen from Hayden’s kiss, made them tingle with anticipation. He picked up the bag at her feet that she hadn’t even remembered dropping.

  Elizabeth stepped back, anxious now. “Are my parents okay? Did something happen to them?”

  Chandler shook his head, his lips curving as he winked at Angie. “No. They’re fine. We asked if it would be all right if we came to pick you up.”

  Angie lifted her head. “Mommy? Where’s Grandma and Grandpa?”

  Chandler smiled tenderly and bent to Angie’s level. “Hello. My name’s Chandler. You must be Angelina. You’re even prettier than your pictures.”

  Angie hid her face again, tightening her arms around Elizabeth’s neck.

  Elizabeth smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry. She’s shy with strangers.”

  Hayden’s eyes hardened briefly, before warming again. “Don’t apologize for her. She doesn’t know us yet, and she’s skittish.” He shot her a pointed glance. “Just like her momma. Don’t worry, we won’t be strangers for long.”

  Chandler moved to her other side. “Do you have any other baggage?”

  Elizabeth adjusted Angie to hold her more comfortably. She was so tired, and her arms wouldn’t be able to hold her daughter for much longer. “No. I sent everything else ahead. All we have is that bag.”

  Hayden nodded, his arm heavy on her shoulder as he steered her toward the exit. “Good. Then we can get the hell out of here. You look like you’re about to collapse.”

  Angie lifted her head, her eyes wide as she whispered, “Mommy, that man said a bad word.”

  Hayden stopped short, keeping Elizabeth beside him. Bending, he looked into Angie’s face. “You’re right. I did and I’m not supposed to. With you around, it’s a habit I’m going to have to break. My name is Hayden. Whenever you hear me say a bad word, you tell me. It’s not nice, and I’ll try not to do it again. Okay?”

  Angie nodded warily, biting her bottom lip and tucking her head beneath Elizabeth’s chin. “‘Kay.”

  Hayden smiled and handed her the big stuffed bear he carried. “This is for you. He’s really soft so you can cuddle with him. He can be your friend until you make friends here. You have to give him a good name, okay?”

  Angie lifted her head and reached out to touch the bear, her eyes wide as she looked at her mother.

  Elizabeth smiled and nodded. “Go ahead, sweetie. You may have it. What do you say?”

  Angie accepted the bear, wrapping her arms around it as she leaned back against Elizabeth. “Tank you.”

  Hayden’s eyes twinkled. “You’re very welcome. Now, let’s get out of here.”

  Both men stayed close, flanking her as they walked through the airport. Their size and the aura of power they exuded so effortlessly had people moving out of the way as if by magic.

  Although they’d slowed their steps for her, Elizabeth struggled to keep up. The sleepless nights had finally caught up with her, making it difficult just to put one foot in front of the other. She shifted Angie’s weight again as her hold weakened.

  Hayden took her arm to pull her aside. “Angelina? Would it be okay if I carry you and your bear to the truck? Your momma’s getting tired.”

  Angie buried her face in Elizabeth’s neck again and shook her head.

  Elizabeth rubbed her back. “It’s okay, sweetie.” She looked up at Hayden. “I’m sorry, she’s just not used to—Hayden!”

  Hayden bent and lifted them both, holding them securely against his chest as he started for the door.

  Surprised at his move, Elizabeth gripped Angie tighter. “Hayden, you can’t carry us through the airport.”

  People around them stared, smiling indulgently.

  Angie giggled. “Mommy, the big man’s carrying us.”

  Hayden smiled down at Angie. “You two don’t weigh anything. And what’s this ‘big man’? Don’t you remember my name?”

  Angie giggled again, turning pink and looking up at him through her lashes. “Hayden.”

  Chandler chuckled and bent to whisper in Elizabeth’s ear. “Your daughter’s a flirt.”

  Elizabeth’s face burned at the attention they drew. Trembling at being held against Hayden this way, especially after the kiss they’d just shared, she avoided his gaze. “Hayden, please put us down. People are staring.”

  Hayden never broke his stride. “Who cares? You’re nothing but skin and bones, and you have dark circles under your eyes. You’re having a hard time carrying her. She’s not willing to let me carry her yet, so this is the only alternative. We’re almost there anyway, so just relax.”

  Resigned to being carried, Elizabeth couldn’t help but smile at Angie as Hayden carried them out to the parking lot. Safe in her mother’s arms, Angie giggled, obviously enjoying this immensely.

  Once they got to the truck, Hayden carefully set her on her feet, lifting Angie against him as Chandler opened the door for her.

  Surprised to see a seat for Angie, Elizabeth looked up at Hayden. “Is that the seat my mother has for her?”

  Hayden settled Angie into the child seat before she had a chance to object, and began buckling her in. “No. Since you’ll both be spending time with us, we wanted our own. The lady at the store assured us that this was the best.”

  Elizabeth kept her tone cool. “I really don’t think we’ll be seeing that much of each other.” She started to walk away to get into the other side, only making it as far as the back of the truck before Chandler grabbed her, pinning her against it.

  With an arm on either side of her, caging her in, he leaned over her until their noses nearly touched
. “Oh, darlin’, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other. We’ve finally got you back, and we’re not letting you get away from us again.” His eyes darkened becoming the color of dark chocolate. “You’re ours, Lizzy. Get used to it.” His gaze held hers as he slowly lowered his head.

  Mesmerized, she watched him move closer, knowing she should push him away. She also knew she couldn’t. Her eyes fluttered closed as need swirled inside her.

  Where Hayden demanded, Chandler coerced, gently seducing her into the heat. His hands moved to her waist, squeezing gently and sending need racing through her.

  Her breath caught as his hands moved higher. Her breasts swelled, her nipples tightening almost painfully in anticipation. Moaning into his mouth, she grabbed fistfuls of his dark, silky hair to pull him closer. When his hands stopped right below her breasts, she groaned in frustration and leaned into him, needing more. Shifting restlessly as the heat from his hands burned the underside of her breast, she gasped against his lips as the evidence of his desire pressed insistently against her stomach.

  Lifting his head, he stared down at her hungrily. “You’ve put us through hell.”

  Dazed, it took Elizabeth a few seconds to make sense of his words. When she did, she pushed him away furiously. “I put you through hell? Listen, you son of a bitch, I left because of you and that Neanderthal you call a brother.” Damn it, she hadn’t meant to say that. Even she’d heard the bitterness and hurt in her tone, something she hadn’t wanted to reveal to either one of them. Taking a calming breath, she tried to ignore his knowing smile and carefully kept her tone cool. “But all that’s in the past. I’m a different person now. I’ve grown up.”

  Chandler’s smile turned cold. “Don’t kid yourself, Lizzy. It’ll never be finished between us. Let’s go. Angie is calling for you.”

  Turning away, Elizabeth hurried to get into the truck, where she immediately began to settle a tired and cranky Angie, almost glad for the distraction.

  Five minutes into the ride, Angie fell asleep.

  No longer having Angie as a buffer, Elizabeth stared out the window as the tense silence lengthened. Searching frantically for a safe topic to break it, she cleared her throat. “How are your parents? I understand they’re travelling.”

  Chandler turned in his seat to face her. “Mom and Dad are having a great time. They’re on a cruise right now. They can’t wait to see you again, and they’re dying to meet Angie.”

  Elizabeth blinked. “They know I’m home?”

  Chandler frowned. “Of course they know. They know we’ve been waiting for you. We’ve had some changes made at the ranch as soon as we heard about the divorce.”

  Elizabeth gaped at him, aware of Hayden’s rapt attention to the conversation. “I don’t understand either one of you at all. Before I left, you made it clear what you thought of my feelings for both of you.” Just thinking about it made her face burn. “You were right. I was childish and selfish. I’ve grown up since then. All I care about now is what’s best for Angie.”

  In the rear view mirror, Hayden shot a glance at Angie, before looking at her. “We were young and confused then, too, Lizzy. If you hadn’t taken off in a huff, things would have worked out differently. But make no mistake, sweetheart, your fate has already been sealed.”

  Gritting her teeth, she tamped down her anger, not wanting to yell and wake Angie. “I know you’ve always felt obligated to take care of me because our parents are friends.” It had taken her several months after she’d started college to realize the truth. “But I came home to raise my daughter close to my parents. I’m a big girl now and have been taking care of myself and Angie for a long time. Just butt out of my life. You have no right to plan my future.”

  Hayden’s cold smile made her more than a little apprehensive. “Your future, Lizzy, is already set in stone. Believe me, you don’t want to talk to me about our rights concerning you right now.”

  Before she could formulate a response, Hayden came to a red light and turned in his seat to face her and gestured toward Angie. “She should have been ours. Make no mistake, the next one will be.”

  Chapter Two

  After finally getting her daughter to sleep, Elizabeth tiptoed out of Angie’s bedroom, quietly closing the door behind her. Her movements were lethargic as she walked out to the living room. She wanted nothing more than to go to bed, but she needed to talk to her parents while Angie slept.

  Her mother greeted her with a cup of chamomile tea. “Drink this and go to bed, sweetheart. I told you we shouldn’t have unpacked all of those boxes today.”

  Elizabeth accepted the mug and sat on the sofa, tucking her legs under her. “I want to talk to both of you while Angie’s asleep.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  Elizabeth smiled as her father came into the room. “I know both of you were upset that I didn’t want you to come to see me in New Jersey when I was going through the divorce, and I owe you an explanation.”

  Jeb Reed narrowed his eyes. “What have you been keepin’ from us? Spill it, girl.”

  Wincing at his tone, Elizabeth took a sip of her tea. “I handled it, Dad. I just didn’t want you and Mom in the middle.” Setting her tea aside, she faced them both. “Richard’s been cheating on me from the beginning. I found out about it within the first six months.”

  Paula Reed shot to her feet. “What? He’s been cheating the whole time? I thought you divorced him because you’d just learned he was having an affair.”

  Elizabeth shook her head. “No. Our marriage was over before Angie was born, but we had to put on a show because of Richard’s father.”

  Jeb scowled. “The senator? Did he know about it?”

  Elizabeth laughed humorlessly. “Oh, he knew about it. He and his son sometimes saw the same women. But Richard wouldn’t agree to a divorce because it would hurt his father’s image. Richard Sr. told me that if I tried to divorce his son, he would see to it that I lost Angie.”

  Jeb plunked his coffee mug on the coffee table, some of the contents sloshing over the sides. “That bastard! And you kept all of this from us?”

  Picking up her own mug, she sighed. “There was nothing you could do. The senator’s a powerful man. They would have taken Angie. Richard and I have had separate rooms for years. When you came to stay with us, he slept on the floor.”

  Her mother and father looked at each other before turning back to her. Her mother’s lips firmed. “I can’t believe you kept this from us.”

  Even though Elizabeth had long since reached the age of consent, her stomach knotted at the look on her father’s face. “I didn’t want you to worry.”

  Her father jumped up from his chair, his tone furious. “Didn’t want us to worry?” Glancing toward the direction Angie slept, he scrubbed a hand over his face and lowered his voice. “We’re your parents. We should have known. I can’t believe you didn’t come to us with this. At least Hayden and Chandler had the courage to talk to us when they figured out how they felt about you.”

  Elizabeth felt all the blood drain from her face. “Hayden and Chandler told you?”

  Jeb frowned at her. “Of course they told us. As soon as they found out you were getting a divorce, they came to us and told us how they felt about you and that they both wanted you.”

  Speechless, Elizabeth looked down into her tea, her face burning. “I can’t believe they told you that.” Shaking her head, she set her tea aside again. “It doesn’t matter what they said. You don’t have to worry. I would never do something like that to you or Mom. I had a crush on both of them when I was younger, but I see now that it’s totally unrealistic. I just want to get a job and make a life for myself and Angie.”

  Her mother sat back, smiling, and shot a glance at her husband. “You didn’t even ask what your father said when they approached him.”

  More than a little uncomfortable with this topic, Elizabeth grimaced. “I can only imagine.”

  Her father picked up his coffee again. “I was furious, as they knew
I would be, but they still had the guts to come and talk to me. Over time I had a change of heart.”

  Elizabeth gaped at him. “You did?”

  Her mother laughed softly. “Did you think we didn’t know how crazy you were about them? Did you think we didn’t see how you were always so careful when you talked about them when we came to visit? Didn’t you think I figured out that you only married Richard because you were pregnant?”

  Elizabeth shrugged, trying to cover her embarrassment. “The senator insisted. Richard’s mother, Vivian, was furious. She said she didn’t want the scandal of the senator having an illegitimate grandchild.”

  Her mother’s lips thinned. “And they didn’t want you to divorce him because of the senator’s career either, right? What would have happened if the senator and his son got caught cheating on their wives? I guess that wouldn’t have hurt his career either, right?”

  Elizabeth smiled bitterly. “I don’t think they thought they’d ever get caught.”

  Her mother got up and moved to sit with her on the sofa. “So what made them finally agree to a divorce?”

  “They didn’t have any choice. Richard had been giving me extra money, thinking that would keep me satisfied. I used the money to hire a private investigator and to get proof of his affairs and the senator’s. Once I had that, they had to agree.”

  Her father shook his head. “And to think I kept Hayden and Chandler from going up there. If I’d have known, I would have turned them both loose on Richard and his father.”

  Elizabeth shifted uncomfortably. “About Hayden and Chandler—”

  Her father lifted a brow. “What about them?”

  “What did you say to them?”

  Her father regarded her steadily before answering. “I told you I was mad as hell at first. But then when I saw how unhappy you were, I started to listen. I knew they’d always watched over you when you were growing up, but I didn’t figure they felt that way about you. They made me see that they would do a better job of making you happy than Richard had.”