Guard My Baby

by Rebecca Savage

  Lainie loved Trish. Really, she did. She didn't know what she would have done without her friend and confidante when she came to a new city with no friends or family, pregnant and alone and, admittedly, somewhat lonely.

  "Sure thing, sweetie, and I'm placing you in good hands, too, by the way. Just as soon as Cade gets here to... " Trish broke off when the door opened behind her.

  "I'm here now," Cade's deep, sensual, harmonic voice said from behind Trish. He breezed in the door, looking freshly showered and shaved and taking Lainie's breath away.

  Trish ogled him up and down with exaggerated appreciation, and then wagged her eyebrows suggestively in Lainie's direction. Lainie narrowed her eyes in warning and shot Trish a threatening glare. Trish tried to hide her mischievous expression from Cade and managed to ignore Lainie's evil eye. Trish patted Cade on the back and left, saying, "I'll go and get the exit paper work for us all to sign."

  Lainie realized with a start - and a sort of dread and apprehension, and maybe a little excitement mixed with frenzied anxiety - that she was about to be alone - or basically alone - in her house, with her baby's father: Cade Sheridan.

  Heaven help me.

  In too short a time, her house came into view. Home sweet home.

  Lainie had no choice but to accept Cade's help. He virtually forced it on her and refused to let her do anything. She decided to revel in it, wallow in it, and take advantage of it, for however long it lasted. She didn't think it'd be long. He'd get tired of dealing with a newborn, soon enough. If he didn't, she had every intention of firing him and getting a new bodyguard. ASAP.

  Then again, maybe she'd deal with the stalker herself and let the cops handle the case. She had a security system, after all - a very expensive one, top of the line, she'd been assured. She could get a gun, too. Wouldn't all that be enough?

  Within minutes, Cade carried every single thing in from her car, except for Eli. Lainie put her foot down on that one. She'd be the one to welcome her daughter home and carry her over the threshold. She'd introduce Eli to her new surroundings, the smells of her home, the feel of her new bassinet, and the endearing creak of the rocking chair she'd bought at a roadside flea market.

  Lainie loved the rocker. She sat down and tested it out, and Eli burrowed into Lainie's full bosom. Smiling, Lainie bared her already-leaking breast. Eli latched on, sucking for all she was worth. Lainie smiled wider and let her fingertips glide over her daughter's soft skin on her oh-so-small, round, angelic face - the face that was a miniature, a near-replica, of Cade Sheridan's more masculine, angular one.

  Lainie sighed with contentment. At first, Eli's ambition for eating had been painful, but the tenderness was gone now from Lainie's nipples. Only exhilaration at her daughter's enjoyment of her feasting on her mother's nutritious milk remained.

  Cade strolled in and stopped inside the bedroom door, staring. He looked at Lainie, his gaze dropping to her breast where Eli was attached and receiving nourishment. His eyes slid away and roamed the room, bouncing around and landing here and there. His gaze fell on her bed, and then dropped to the bassinet. He swallowed, and his Adam's apple bobbed. He leaned against the door frame all casual-like, and Lainie hid a knowing smile. He was uncomfortable with the intimate setting. Maybe it'd make him leave quicker. Maybe he'd call his brother and get a replacement faster. Maybe she wouldn't have to have the inevitable confrontation and fire him. Maybe...

  His voice broke the silence and interrupted her meandering, wistful thoughts, "I've checked out the perimeter of the building. You're good to go for several weeks, if you want to stay in. If you decide to go out, I'll take you." He looked at her. "Do you have any plans for the next few weeks? Do you have to go back to work any time soon?"

  He sounded as if he intended to stay for the long haul. Lainie blanched. She didn't want to tell him she didn't work as a teacher, as she'd planned and gotten a degree for, and she didn't need to. He didn't need to know. She avoided the issue. "Weeks?"

  He nodded. "Weeks. I bought food while you were in the hospital. The fridge is stocked, and we have plenty of baby supplies."

  "We?" Lainie blinked. "Baby supplies?"

  "Yeah. You had several things here already, but I decided there can never be too many diapers in the house. After what I just went through with diapers and baby wipes in the short time we were in the hospital, I got plenty of those wet wipe things, too." His grin broke through, and the charm and tenderness of it reached out and grabbed Lainie by the windpipe, not to mention her hammering heart. Something scary - and powerful - took hold of her body and sank into her bones.

  How could he do this to her? How could he act like the perfect father, the perfect daddy? He changed diapers, burped his infant daughter, and rocked her to sleep with a binkie in her mouth, for heaven's sakes.

  He'd be leaving someday soon, though. Lainie didn't doubt his impending abandonment even for a minute. He'd go, either of his own accord, or because Lainie wouldn't allow him to stay and get under her skin.

  Fine. Until he tucked his tail and ran, she could resist him. Really. She could, and she would. She had to work harder at ignoring him and not making a big deal over what he'd done for her, or she should say, what he'd done for the sake of Eli.

  Oh, good grief, she was bitter, and she was jealous of her own baby and the attention she received from her father. What a sot she was. She turned her head, dropped her gaze to Eli, and ignored Cade's measuring stare upon her warm face.

  "You have the bassinet in your room," he mentioned, his voice tight, his body looking uncharacteristically taut and erect, as if his spine had locked into place and wouldn't budge. He emanated tension, but what did it matter to him where Eli slept?

  Lainie gaped at the bassinet. "Yeah."

  "Why do you have it in here? You have a nursery set up that'll fit the bassinet fine."

  Lainie swallowed the lump of fear building her throat. "I thought I'd feel safer if Eli slept in here." Her skin crawled. She thought of the horrid man after her baby - the reason Cade was here in the first place. "I want her next to me, at all times, so I can hear her, see her, protect her and... "

  Cade swept across the room and knelt by the chair. He stopped it from rocking. "That's my job now, Lainie. Let me do it. You need to get your rest."

  Lainie adjusted her blouse. Eli had fallen asleep and no longer fed. Lainie stuck her elbow out to force Cade to scoot back an inch. He was too close. Way too damn close for comfort. She lifted herself and Eli from the rocker, and Cade put his hand at her elbow to assist. Damn his chivalry. I'm not falling for any of this. "I'm not discussing this. You watch the house. I'll take care of Eli and... "

  "We'll take care of Eli. She's my daughter, too, Lainie." Cade's fierce eyes challenged her.

  "I'm well aware of that, Cade." Lainie grew distressed and alarmed. Cade might not be all that easy to get rid of, after all. It was all she could do to keep her voice level and low, and not frighten the baby in her tiring arms. Eli stirred, probably aware of the tension flowing from her mother's body. She put Eli in the bassinet and made her comfortable. She looked down at her one last time and sighed. She left the room, motioning for Cade to follow her out. She closed the door behind her. She wouldn't panic. She'd talk some sense into the guy. Easy. Right?

  First, she needed to establish boundaries, apparently. "Look. Believe me, if anyone knows you're the father of my baby, it's me, and I won't keep you from her." She smirked. "Especially at diaper changing time." Cade followed her into the kitchen. Once out of Eli's hearing, she turned on him, forcing her voice to stay cool and composed. She felt anything but. "Cade, you've no idea what I've been through. This scumbag has terrorized me for months. He wants my... our... daughter... dead."

  A tear escaped and trickled down her cheek. Cade stepped closer, the pupils in his shimmering eyes expanding with intensity, and then darkening like clouds before a thunderstorm. He reached up his thumb to wipe away the tear, and then he kissed her brow. The tears rolled freely, and s
he flung her arms in the air. "Damn it, Cade. You can't walk back into my life like this."

  He crossed his arms and leaned against the sink, grinning and looking at her as if to say, "Yeah, right."

  She straightened her shoulders defiantly and glared her rebellion at him. He uncrossed his arms and stepped back up to her, shifting her so she was up against the kitchen table. He placed his hands on each side of her and locked her into a solid prison of arms and legs and the smell of his virility. She sucked in a ragged breath. "What are you doing? You... can't... we... can't... "

  His face loomed mere centimeters from hers. The determination in his rigid stance spoke volumes. "Lust is a very powerful thing, Lainie. Eli came from our lust for each other, our attraction for each other, and I don't regret her. Nor do I regret a single moment of the time I spent with you."

  He looked at her lips - lips that suddenly felt very dry. She licked them, and then stared back at his, remembering how delicious he'd tasted. Damn it. How could he do this to her? She'd just had a baby, only a couple of days ago. It wasn't as if they could do anything about this lust - as if she'd consider such utter stupidity. So why was he teasing her, messing with her mind, and revving up her body to full force rampant desire?

  She put her arms up and shoved him back with her clenched fists and all her might, determined not to let him see that he could get to her. "Stay away from me, Cade." She shook, on the verge of crying, again. She wanted as far away from him as she could get before she let the tears fly. Was this post-partum syndrome? Or some other emotion she hated? "I don't need you bullying me. One man's threats are about all I can take right now."

  He flinched and turned beet red. He growled and strode out of the room, mumbling, "I'm going to check the outside of the house again."

  She listened to his cursing all the way out the door, but he didn't slam it behind him. Too much control in that huge, stubborn body of his for that. He was master of all that steely sinew, Lainie knew from experience, and he wouldn't have slammed the door and jarred Eli awake for anything in the world.

  Lainie had to admit he cared about his child, and if she were honest with herself, she knew he didn't just care. He loved Eli, probably as much as Lainie herself loved their baby.

  That would make it very difficult indeed to make him leave.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Cade wanted to yell at the top of his lungs, but who the hell would he yell at? He couldn't blame Lainie for her anger, doubt and mistrust. He had, in fact, left her. Not that he'd wanted to. Not that he'd meant to leave her pregnant and alone. He'd had no idea he was doing so.

  He had indeed left her, though, and Lainie had suffered for it. She still suffered for it. She was single, and some hair-brained imbecile thought she'd been artificially inseminated. The stupid son of a bitch.

  Cade needed to get this over with and find the man threatening his family.

  The realization drew him up short. His family. Lainie and Eli were his family. He had a real family. Well, almost. He wasn't married to the mother. Yet. Still, it was almost as much of a family life as he'd ever experienced. He'd had a strange childhood, to say the least, and a strange married life with his first wife, so his shots at normalcy and family hadn't worked out so well in the past.

  He curled his hands into tight fists and curved his lips into a snarl. He'd be damned if he'd let Eli go through life without a father. Not that Lainie couldn't marry another man.

  That thought brought him up cold. He turned hot in a flash. His nerves jumped, and his fists wound tighter. Every muscle in his body bunched up, ready to spring, ready to snap, taut and painful.

  No way in hell would he to sit back and watch someone else move in on his family, like the unscrupulous men in his mother's unstable life. The men who'd lived with his mother hadn't treated him and his siblings well. One had been violent and abusive towards the kids - him included - and his mother. No way would that happen to Eli, or Lainie.

  Marriage was his only option. Was he ready for that?

  Too late to think about being ready or not, now. He and Lainie had a baby together. He'd do the responsible thing and marry the mother. They'd already put his name on the birth certificate, so marriage was the next logic next step. What else could be more logical?

  It wasn't as if they'd have an issue with attraction. Their intensity in the bedroom last summer would have matched the heat of Mount St. Helens during a major volcanic eruption. Hell, the intensity in her kitchen a few minutes ago would've blown the lid off a pressure cooker.

  He stopped stomping around the yard and came up short. Lainie would want him to love her, and she'd want to love him in return. Love? Did she love him? Had she loved him last summer?

  He didn't think so. It took time to fall in love. He shook his head and ran a hand through his scraggly hair. He didn't want her to love him. He'd have to make that clear. Their relationship would be based on mutual affection, attraction, and common ground, like Eli and the fulfillment of her needs, and theirs... the physical ones. Emotional needs, for the most part, would be taboo. They could face survival of the daily grind of life together. He spat. Would that be enough to keep her happy and keep her with him? At least until Eli went off to college?

  He stopped in his tracks. He was thinking of years of life with Lainie and his child. Decades of spending time with a woman and their daughter. He blinked. Would Eli be their only offspring? He closed his eyes and rubbed them with the palms of his hands. Lainie would think he'd lost his marbles if he approached her with this idea. She'd probably smack him in the mouth when he explained his position.

  He paced the back yard. No matter. He'd sworn he'd never love another woman again, not after what his nasty ex-wife had put him through. He'd thought he'd loved his first wife, until he'd gotten to know her. He'd been mistaken. He hadn't known her and couldn't have loved her - not if she could abort his child and not even tell him. How could he ever know if he truly knew Lainie? How could he trust her?

  He couldn't, he didn't, and he wouldn't. He stopped prowling the now-downtrodden grass along the fence line at the farthest edge of Lainie's yard and smiled. Whether he trusted and loved her or not, she sure as hell made a great first impression, and she'd had his child, instead of aborting it. He pounded his fist into his open palm with determination. So what? That didn't mean a damned thing. She could change in a heartbeat, just like his ex. Lainie could hide things from him and turn into an evil witch right before his eyes.

  He set his jaw and ground his teeth. He didn't need that kind of heartache again - the kind that came from a woman who destroyed his trust and murdered his child. Or the kind that came from the sudden death of a woman he loved, such as he'd suffered when his sister Rachel died. Or the kind that resulted when a child you adored - like his sweet, innocent niece Brianne - was murdered. Or the kind caused by seeing a woman for whom he cared making the wrong choices in life. He'd been forced to watch his mother do so, and he'd suffered the consequences right along with her - sharing her pain, literally, when the men took out their violent rage on every member of Cade's family.

  So where did that leave him? He sighed. He'd marry Lainie anyway, but marrying her didn't necessarily mean he had to love her or trust her. People married for lesser reasons every day, and he'd be good to her and Eli. What was so wrong about all that?

  He was a man of his word, if nothing else. He'd told Lainie he'd be responsible for his child, and he would. He was no deadbeat dad, and the way he figured it, that was as good a reason as any to get married. Hell, Eli was a damned good reason to marry.

  Cade rubbed his hand over his face and decided he might as well confront Lainie now. No use putting it off. Might as well make his last name and Eli's last name match the mother's last name.

  He cringed. No way would his child be labeled as a bastard. He knew what that was like. His knuckles bore scars, and his heart was marred with the memories of what he'd gone through to prove his worth, by fighting with boys that grew up in whole h
omes. Boys Cade considered snobs. Boys Cade knew had no idea what it meant to have to endure what he'd had to endure.

  He wasn't having it. He simply wasn't having Eli live like that.

  Cade growled to himself and paced the backyard. He punched in the number on his cell for his brother Chuck, whose voice showed his irritation the moment he answered the phone. "Damn it, Cade, where have you been, and why haven't you been answering your cell, or Lainie's phone?"

  "I wasn't at Lainie's, until a few minute ago, and I turned the damned cell off," Cade snapped out.

  A deep breath on Chuck's end. "Listen, bro, let me tell you a little bit about how this working-for-me thing has to go. You call in, you give reports, and you answer the damned phone."

  "Yeah, well, I quit," Cade exploded.

  Silence. Then Chuck demanded, "What the hell are you talking about? You just started working for me, sort of, and Lainie Blanford needs help. She's... "

  "I'm not backing out on Lainie. I spent the last two days in the hospital with her, trying to help her give birth to and care for my baby." Cade dropped the bomb and jolted with the truth of it.

  Silence again. More silence. Cade finally continued in a drawl, "What's the matter, bro? Cat got your tongue?"

  "No, but give me a damned minute. I had to stop pacing and yelling at you, so I could sit my butt in a chair and regroup before I fell down." Hesitation from Chuck's end. "Let me get this straight. You're a father." Chuck spat profanity in Cade's ear. "Why the hell don't I know about a baby, and why haven't we met the woman you were having it with, before she was threatened by some sick bastard that wants my brother's child dead? Aren't you the one who said after what you've been through with your ex-wife and seeing mom and... " More spitting of more nasty words. "Didn't you swear you'd never have kids or get married or fall in love or... "