Zack Baker

Tegan moved to the window, staring at the ocean. Waves crashed to the shore in the distance, and a few dolphins grazed along the surface of the water.

She folded her arms protectively.

The house rang with silence, unlike the way it had sounded when she’d previously spent the night there. Then it had been filled with quiet kisses and satisfied sighs.

Now the air was thick with tension. What had gotten into him, she wondered, when she’d almost entered the wrong room?

Downstairs, when he’d wrapped her hands in his, she’d look into his eyes and seen hope. In an instant, all that had changed. Despite the summer sun streaming through the window, she shivered.

She had no choice but to marry the man, share her life with him. It would come at a huge personal cost to herself.

Marrying him was the right thing to do, she knew. The only thing to do.

So why was doing the right thing so scary?

Tegan saw Zack stride toward the beach, then lost sight of him. She tried to rest, but couldn’t even sit still…not now that her world had been dumped upside down, making her question if she’d ever be the same.

Silence oppressed her, and she couldn’t stay in the room another minute. Deciding to find something to drink, she headed toward the kitchen, only to pause outside the door he’d told her was off-limits.

She shouldn’t invade his privacy. But if she was going to be his wife, sharing her life with him, sharing this house with him…

Squaring her shoulders, she went downstairs and filled a glass with water. She took a deep drink, noticing that her hand shook.

Pacing, she wondered when Zack would be back, wondered what secrets he his behind a closed door.

Five minutes later, she gave up the internal fight. Climbing the stairs, she turned the knob he didn’t want her to touch.

Her heart thrummed.

Rusty hinges groaned before reluctantly opening. Then the air vanished from her lungs.

A crib nestled against one wall, and a fluffy comforter was draped over the wooden side, as if waiting for a tiny body to snuggle under it. A stuffed pink turtle rested beside a small pillow, and a mobile dancing with cartoon characters hung from the ceiling.

Despite herself, Tegan was drawn into the room, her footsteps muffled on the thick, rich carpeting.

A rocking chair sat in the middle of the room, next to a table with an abandoned pacifier.

She covered her middle with one palm, then, with her free hand, picked up the book lying on the table. It’s spine broken and pages yellowing. How To Be a Great Daddy the title read.

Tears sprang to her eyes.

In that instant, she knew…

Zacky had said she didn’t know a thing about his marriage, didn’t know a thing about his feelings for Shanna.

He was right.

The gossips had been wrong…she’d been wrong.

Zacky had loved his child; he wouldn’t have kicked out his wife and baby. And now he’d be doubly determined to be part of this child’s life. He deserved that chance.

“I’d forgotten I bought that.”

She jumped, the book crashing to the floor. Guiltily she spun around to face him, her skirt swishing around her knees.

He stood in the doorway—filled the doorway—one shoulder resting against the jamb. His jacket dangled from his index finger and his sweat-dampened t-shirt clung to the width of his chest.

“Zack, I…” She trailed off, pressing her hand more firmly against her middle.

He shook his head.

“I’m sorry.” She blushed.

“You have the right,” he said. “It’ll be your house, too. Guess it was inevitable you’d come in here.” Lines were sharply grooved between his brows, but resignation was the only thing in his deep green, unreadable eyes.

“Haven’t been in her for three years.” Pushing away the wooden casing, he moved toward her.

Stopping only a few inches away, he tossed the jacket on the table and stooped to pick up the fallen book. His frown deepened. How To Be a Great Daddy, he read.

“You were never given that chance.”

“No.”

She reached for him, curling her hand around his wrist.

His head snapped up and his gaze burned into her.

She felt his heat, his strength, the differences in their sizes. “Why didn’t you stop the gossips?”

Tegan saw the tiny throb in his temple.

“They were wrong, weren’t they?” She persisted. “You didn’t throw Gena out f your home.”

“Yes,” he corrected. “I did.”

Tegan pulled away her hand. It was back, the iciness that frosted his blue eyes.

“Packed her bag and heaved it down the stairs.”

Hearing the coldness in his voice, she swallowed.

“The rumors were right, Tegan. Don’t fool yourself. I fought her every stop of the way in court, too, fought for custody. Ended up giving the lawyer more money than I ever gave her. Nearly bankrupted me.”

He hadn’t released her gaze, and she saw the pain in his eyes.

“And I’d do it all again.”

Definitely meeting his gaze, she said, “There’s more to it.”

“Is there?”

The book that still lay in his hand, telling her so much about him. “You still cared about Shanna.”

“Loved her. Only time in my life I’ve ever unconditionally loved anyone.”

The only time? Even though things had been beyond horrible with Aaron, she’d grown up wrapped in her family’s love. “Then you wouldn’t have thrown her and Gena out without a good cause.”

“Are you sure?”

She’d seen him fight already, had seen his concern for her. She wasn’t foolish; she knew he was worried about their child’s well-being, but he had been about Shanna’s too. “Yes.”

“Like maybe the fact Gena was having an affair?”

Tegan squeezed her eyes against nausea.

“She didn’t come home one night. I told her to move out, that marriage meant people were honest, that they didn’t run around or lie to each other.”

“She broke down and sobbed, telling me she was pregnant.”

Of course Zack took her back. His moral code wouldn’t permit him to refuse. “So…”

“Everything was fine, till David Sampson showed up wanting his girlfriend and his baby.”

Tegan couldn’t breathe.

“Shanna wasn’t my baby.”

“She lied…?” Tegan whispered.

Zack nodded. “And in the damnedest thing?”

The emptiness in the soft-spoken words made her heart twist.

“I told Gena it didn’t matter. Told her I’d keep quiet. No one would ever have to know she was a tramp. I would have forgiven her anything as long as she didn’t take my baby away from me. No one would ever have known Shanna wasn’t my flesh and blood. Didn’t matter t me.” He paused for a second, “I loved her like she was my own. That was the only thing that mattered.”

“I begged, Tegan, begged her not to destroy me and tear apart out family. I begged her to let Shanna know me as her daddy, give her a chance for an intact family.”

“Like you never had.”

“Like I never had.”

Plain for him filled her heart. Gena had betrayed him, then had taken his ideals, his emotions, his love for a child, and stomped on them.

And now that Tegan had tried to keep her pregnancy secret from him, he’d believe she was no better than Gena. Their marriage didn’t have a chance. She didn’t have a chance.

“When she laughed in my face, refusing and saying she was in love with David, that she wanted to be with him, that I would never see Shanna again, I threw her out, just like the gossips said.”

“That’s only part of the story, Zack.”

“Is it, Tegan? Is it?”

“You were within your rights to act that way. You didn’t throw an innocent woman and a baby into the street. No one can blame you for what you did.”

But the bleakness in his eyes said he blamed himself more than anyone else ever would.

“I wondered…what I could have done differently. Should I have worked less hours, not worked as hard with the band? Should I have questioned her when she said she was going to get a cappuccino with her friends? Should I have demanded she be home at a certain time, so that she was in bed when I was?”

“You did everything you could. Don’t blame yourself.”

His lip curled.

She knew, all too well, how easy it was to accept the blame rather than place it where it belonged. But maybe…maybe together they could learn to heal.

“I’ll love our child with my heart and soul,” he swore, reaching out to enclose her in his arms.

“I know.”

Slowly he moved one hand up, his knuckles sliding up the column of her neck, the curve of her cheek, then grazing her ear. Opening his hand, he cradled her head.

“As my wife, you’ll have my protection.”

She didn’t know whether his promise comforted her or frightened her.

His fingers feathered through her hair. She knew she should resist, pull away. Yet somehow, she couldn’t. Zacky wove a spell over her, just as surely as he had the night of Matt and Val’s wedding.

“Don’t do this to me, Zack,” she pleaded, even as her eyes drifted shut and she gave in to the power of his caress.

His thumb massaged her nape, easing the worry that had settled there.

“Don’t do what?” he asked. “This?”

He deepened the pressure and her head drooped forward. Even with her eyes closed, he overwhelmed her senses. He smelled potent, of man and desire.

“Or this?”

His other hand joined the first, working magic on the knots in her shoulders. Absently she wondered if he’d drawn out her common sense along with the tension.

Her forehead rested on him, and she reached a hand out to support herself, finding a fistful of cotton.

At the feel of his skin beneath the shirt, she froze.

She was close, so very close, to surrendering to him once more.

“Or maybe this?” he asked, sliding one hand down her spine.

Tegan pushed away from him, linking her hands together to resist temptation.

To her, he was more dangerous than a flash flood, sweeping her legs from beneath her and taking the ground along with it.

She’d never had a man affect her this way, she realized, sucking in breaths, one shallow inhalation at a time. He made her forget everything—that he didn’t trust her, thought she was no better than Gena; that he didn’t want her, just the baby.

Tegan didn’t dare forget, not ever again.

He was consuming.

And he was going to kiss her.

To save herself, she hurried to the sanctuary of her bedroom, slamming the door and sliding the lock in place.

Leaning against the door, she shook her head.

She’d been right earlier. She shouldn’t have entered the nursery, unleashing a torrent of sympathy for him that made sanity drift away like a hawk riding a rocky mountain thermal.

He had the power to run her life, and he’d use it. That much he’d make clear.

She reached to smooth back her hair, realizing her hand still shook. His scent still lingered on her clothes. Branding her as his? She desperately wondered.

Zack’s footfall sounded in the hallway, loud like crashing timber.

Then suddenly, silence reigned.

Her head drooped forward. He’d stopped in front of her door. In rushing out of the nursery, she’d gotten a reprieve, but it wouldn’t last.

When he knocked, she jumped.

Like a coward, she didn’t answer.

“When we’re married, there won’t be any closed doors between us.”

She shivered, but not from his threat. Rather, from the terrifying realization that part of her didn’t want doors closed between them, either…