"No, Bolton. You're not going anywhere with baby." Taylor stated, she threw her weight to the door, and with a free had she latched the lock at the top of the door. She became desperate and tried to get him to keep the baby there with her. "How do you know she's yours?"
"She's mines alright. Ask your sister." Taylor glared at him and felt the fire of his gaze, the raw masculine intensity of this giant of a male, but she wasn't going to back down. Not to anyone. He seemed hell bent that Naddiewas really Percious' mother, but it couldn't be... or was it? Was it even possible? Who else would know that she desperately wanted a baby, that she would care for an infant as if it were her own, that in her heart of hearts, she would love the child forever? "Now why don't you back up a moment, okay? Your trying to convince me that you and Naddie- who, as I heard it, only dated you a short while- that you had a baby together."
"Looks like it." His dark eyebrows slammed together and his jaw was hard as granite. But Taylor wasn't going to let me bully her.
"Why didn't I hear anything about it?" she demanded.
"Why didn't I" "What?" She was having trouble keeping up with all the twists and turn in the conversation.
"You know your sister. Figure it out. Just like her to try and hide the kid here." He started to pull but Taylor again pressed back harder and keeping the door closed. Troy was losing his patiences and Taylor was a woman on a mission. "Get out of the way."
"No! You just stop right there. I don't know that this baby has ANY connection to Naddie"
"Sure."
"I am sure," she said, her anger elevating with her voice now. "This child"- she jabbed at the bassinet swinging from his strong right arm with her finger- "was left on my doorstep in the middle of a storm and then you... you- how did you get here?"
"It was tricky. I have a four-wheel drive", he said. "And a lot of sheer grit." That was true. She didn't know much about him, but she believed that with his determination he could literally move mountains.
" Just listen for a second", he insisted, and she notched her stubborn chin up an inch. " I thought you knew all about her pregnancy."
"I haven't seen her in months. She was... busy with something, something she wouldn't talk about" That was more than the truth, Naddie was always the type to keep her issues or problems to herself until she WANTED help, if not, you could only imagine what or how she got into messes. But this, Naddie couldn't keep without being scared or worse.
A trace of doubt darkened his gaze. A musky scent of aftershave mingled with the sexual smells of burning wood, and male spice. This dangerous man was so close. And god, if she didn't want him closer 'No, Taylor! Focus'
"But you knew Naddie was going to have a baby." Troy said. Shaking her head, Taylor sighed and rammed her fingers through her soft and glossy, jet black, mid- back length hair. Troy notice this. "Naddie never said a word. For all I know, you could be lying."
"I DON'T lie."
"No, you just storm into a person's home and take what you want, right." A muscle jumped in his jaw and every muscle in his body seemed tense, ready to unleash. His words were measured. "I don't know why Natalie left the kid here, but-"
"You don't even know IF she left the baby here." He hesitated, his full, sexual lips pursing at her statement. His gaze, icy-blue, narrowed on her. Obviously he was trying to size her up, to determine how much she really knew.
Taylor swallowed hard and tried to ignore the rapid beating of her heart. "Didn't...didn't you say you never talked to Naddie?" she pressed. He was so close that his black jacket brushed against her breast. "How do you know that this baby is hers- or yours for that matter?"
"Who else's?" "I don't know, but until I do, the baby stays. Troy smiled had all the warmth of the arctic sea and yet she had thought that he was a hot-blooded man. Passionate. Bold. Fierce one second, tender the next. "You're going to stop me from taking her?" That single thought seemed to amuse him.
"Damned straight."
"You're half my size."
"I-I don't think this is a matter of physical strength" She'd lose in less than a single minute with this built man, not to mention his sheer metal focus to get the baby and information away from her in less than one hour of storming through her home. "But I won't give her up without a fight, Mr. Bolton. You can bet on that."
"It's a fight you're gonna lose."
"I don't think so." She tried to appear taller as she looked up at him an tossed her hair over her shoulders. "If I can't convince you, then I guess I'll have to call the police. They already know about the baby, anyway. A deputy by the name of Richard is supposed to come and take a statement from me after they check and find out if there are any missing infants in the area. Her could be here any minute. So-why don't you and I just wait for him?" She folded her arms over her chest, pushing her breast higher. "I'll even make some hot coco. Or coffee."
"We don't need the police involved."
"They already are."
"Damn!" He shook his head. "That was a foolish move." "It wasn't 'a move'. I just wanted to find out where she came from."
"Sure."
"I did."
"Don't matter. What's done is done." His muscles seemed to stiffen even more, if possible. At the mention of the authorities and the lines of his handsome face deepened. For some reason he didn't want the police involved and for the first time Taylor felt a niggle of fear. Who was this man" What did she know about him other than seen her sister a few times, dropped Naddiewhen he'd gotten bored with her, then laded smack-dab in the middle of Taylor living room with some outrageous story about Naddie having a baby- this baby! None of it was made any sense.
"Fine," he relented. Muttering something under his breath about headstrong women who didn't know when to back off, he crossed the distance to the grouping loveseat and leather couch surrounding the fireplace and set the bassinet in one of the loveseats neat a small table. Throughout it all, Precious slept peacefully and beautifully.
Taylor breathed a long sigh of relief. Now, at last, she was getting somewhere and, the fool she was, she felt that she didn't have anything to fear from Troy- well, other than the possibility that he might take the baby from her.
She settled onto the arm of the leather couch while he warmed the backs of his legs by the gated fire. "So, now, why don't you start over and tell me why you came here- you said something about looking for Naddie."
His jaw slid to one side and Taylor was struck again at how sexy he was when he was quiet and thoughtful. "That's right. I need to find your sister. I just found out a couple of days ago that she'd been pregnant and had a baby- presumably mine, considering the timing. Chad found birth records. No father was listed, but I'm sure that the kid's mine."
Her heart plummeted. Obviously he'd one his homework and she knew in an instant that her short-lived chance at motherhood was over. "Chad?" "Chad Danforth?"
"A best friend, you know him?" "Yeah I do, he is friend's of my ex-husband, we went to school together. So he's a private detective now?" Taylor hadn't spoken to any of her friend's since she divorced Zeke, everything was so messed up and friendships had been strained after Zeke's affair with Sharpay. A friend, Taylor once saw her, not anymore.
Great. She'd hope his far fetched story would prove wrong. "So you came here looking for Naddie or information about her and just happened to stumble on the baby."
"Yep." He rubbed his jaw and avoided her gaze for a second, concentrating instead on the snow piling in the corners of the windowpanes. "There's another reason," he admitted.
"Which is?"
Leaning his hips against the side of the fireplace, he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose for a second as if he could stop the headache coming. "Let's just say Natalie and I have some unfinished business that doesn't involve the baby. I found out about her"- he added as he cocked his head in the direction of the bassinet- "because Chad found out. I had no idea Natalie was pregnant."
"She didn't tell you?" she asked, standing and walking to the bassinet to see that Precious was still sleeping.
"Nope."
"Why not?"
"Good question. One I can't wait to ask her, but let's just say that your sister and I aren't on the best of terms."
"Is that why you hired Chad?" What was Naddie involved in? Normal, regular people didn't employ investigators- or even have their friends check up on old lovers. Or did they? Something was definitely wrong here. Very, very wrong. He moved closer to her and she founded herself so near this man she could barely breathe. The air in the home seemed thick, the light through the windows way too dim.
"Natalie lied. About a lot of things. Not just the baby."
"Such as?" Taylor's heart was knocking, her breathing shallow as her gaze dropped for his to his lips, so bold and red. Too much was happening, way too fast. She felt as if her life was spinning out of control.
"She set me up."
"For?" He shrugged. "My guess is to get the blame off whoever she's protecting. She claimed she knew that before she let Belfry Constructions, I was embezzling. One night, when she just happened to be driving by, she was me go into the office. She concluded I'd gone to doctor the company books and surprised by the security guard, so of course I killed him" He didn't elaborate, just stared at her with unforgiving eyes. "I didn't do it, Taylor. I swear."
"But- but why would she lie?" Oh, God, what was he saying? Naddie wouldn't... COULDN'T fabricate something so horrid. A man wad dead. MURDERED from the sound of it and Naddie thought Bolton was involved? "I-I think you better start from the beginning."
He did, In short, angry sentences he told her about his work, the project with the sports team for the school districts and arena he was working hard on making deals, he'd overseen, the discrepancy in the books, and Naddie suddenly recanted testimony that she'd known he was at the office that night. The problem was that he had been there, but when he'd left Brad Hailstock was very much alive. Troy had thrown a wave to the old man as he'd stepped off the elevator and Brad had locked the door behind him. He finished there; he didn't tell her about being watched by the police, eventually hauled into jail, fingerprinted, and booked, only to have the charges dropped. Hell, what a nightmare.
Taylor stared at him with disbelieving eyes. "On top of all this- which is damn incredible, let me tell you- you're sure that you're the baby's father and Naddie her mother?"
I wouldn't put Natalie in the same sentence with mother." Troy glanced down a the bassinet as Precious uttered a soft little coo. The hard line of his jaw softened slightly and tenderness changed his expression, but only for a moment. In that instant Taylor noticed the wet streaks in his hair where snow had melted and the stubble of a beard that turned his jaw to a dark brown, slight golden dimmed in fire-glow. As he unbuttoned his coat and rubbed kinks form the back of his neck, Taylor was nearly undone.
She had to think, to buy some time and sort this all out. Since he was bound and determined to take the baby with with him, she had to entice him to stay. At least for a while. "Would you like something? I've got Forgers coffee in the pot, or I could make hot coco, it's not coffee shop best but guarantee that it's hot.
"That would be great, the coffee." He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it over the back of the couch as Taylor hurried to the kitchen, twisted the pulling the lifoff the coffee lid, quickly pouring two cups. Her hands were trembling slightly, not out of fear exactly, but because she was a bundle of nerves around the man.
"So, tell me about last night again," he suggested as she handed him a steaming mug. His gaze kept wandering back to that bassinet where Precious slept.
Quickly, she repeated her story of finding the baby, the note, seeing no one, not even footprints leading away from the porch, nothing. As she spoke, sipped form his cup and listened, not interrupting, just hearing her out. ..."So this morning, once I could got through, I started making calls. Everyone from sheriff's department to social services and the hospitals around here, but no one seems to know anything about her."
"I do."
"You think. You really don't know that Precious-"
"Precious?"
"I named her okay? The point is that there's no way t be sure she's your daughter."
The baby, as if sensing the tension building in the room, mewled a small, worried whimper.
"Oh, great. See what you've done?" Disregarding the fact that he was a good foot taller than she and, as if the decided, could stop her from doing anything, Taylor hurried to the bassinet, gently withdrew Precious and the blankets, and held the tiny beautiful body to hers. "It's okay," she whispered into the baby's soft curls and realized the dark hair and the blue-ish eyes of little sprite were incredibly like those of the irate man standing before her.
Precious cried again and Taylor all but forgot about Troy Bolton with his outrageous stories and damned sexy gaze. "She's wet and hungry and doesn't need to deal with all this...this stress.
"She doesn't know what's going on."
"I think that makes three of us!" Taylor felt him silently watching her as she changed Percious' diaper, then warmed her bottle in the microwave that had been heated earlier over the stove.
"Here we go," she said softly as she settled into the slightly, creaky bentwood rocker and, she fed the baby, nudged the floor with her toe. For the first time since Bolton had pounded against the door, there was peace. The wind raged outside, the panes of the windows rattled eerily and a branch thumped in a irregular tempo against the roof, but inside the house was warm, dry, and cozy. Even Troy seemed to relax a little as re rested on huge shoulder against the mantel and, finished his coffee, surveyed his surroundings with suspicious eyes.
"Okay, mommie" Taylor said once Precious was burped and fallen asleep against her should. "Instead of arguing with each other, why don't we figure out what we're going to do?"
"You think you can trust me?" he asked, trying to read her expression.
"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" That much was true. He was here and definitely in her face. She couldn't budge him if she tried. Taylor McKessie was a little thang, but what she lost in stature she made up for in spirit. He cradled his cup in his large hands and tried not to feel an ass for barging in on her, for destroying her peace of mind, for intending to take away the baby that already appeared to mean so much to her.
"Nope, you don't"
"Great. Just... great." Firelight payed in her raven black hair. High, smooth cheekbones curved beneath eyes that shifted form soft brown to dark brown. Arched eyebrows move expressively as she spoke with the most sexy mouth he'd ever seen. A sparkling glow all around this curvy woman, sweet nose and expressive eyes that could melt Troy on the spot. Quick with passion, anger, and joy.
What he knew of her wasn't much. She and he might have gone to the same school, but nothing he remembered of the talking much during or after. She married, then divorced, had moved from closer to home, saw her sister infrequently, and did some kind of teaching and art work for her own business.
"Come on, Mr. Bolton," she prodded as she carefully placed Precious into the bassinet. "Why would Naddie lie to you and about you? Did she just want to get you into trouble?"
"A good question." He wasn't quite ready to tell her that he'd spent several days in a jail cell because of Natalie and her lies. If he confided in her now he was certain she'd be frightened or,worse yet, call the police. There was no telling what she might do. Maybe she'd accuse him of trespassing or kidnapping if he insisted upon taking Precious- Precious?- with him. Good Lord, he was already giving the baby the name she'd put on the kid.
She looked up to find him staring at her. "How'd you find me? Wait, let me guess. Your best friend, Chad. Right?"
"Chad's pretty thorough."
"I don't like my privacy invaded." She said.
"No one does," he flatly said, "but then, I don't like being lied to about my kid." Or LIE about. He finished his coffee and tossed the dregs into the fire. Sparks sputtered and the flames hissed in protest. "So why did Natalie lave the baby here for you without so much as a word? It seems strange."
"I-I don't know." She was lying. He could smell that a horses arse a mile way.
"Sure you do."
"It's personal, okay" Taylor said with attitude.
"So's my daughter." She stopped cold, took in a long breath, and seemed to fight her inner pain as the baby began to snooze again. "I don't know what your relationship was with Naddie, she stared. "As close as my sister and I are, we don't share everything and she... she's been distant lately." Clearing her throat from emotion, she stepped over to the makeshift bassinet as if to reassure herself that the baby was still there. "I've been wrapped up in my own life, settling here, rebuilding, and I guess Naddie and I kind of lost touch. We always managed to make new and keep going, but lately I felt something change. The last time I called her apartment, a operator said the phone had no longer been in service. No one in my family - not even my brother or mother- has heard from her in weeks.
"Isn't that unusual?"
"For Naddie?" A smile touched her full, sexy lips and she shook her head, "Unfortunately, no."
Good Lord, this woman was gorgeous. Her eyes were round and bright in the glowing room. It reminded him of rich, milk chocolate. His favorite dessert, Troy had to fight the urge to lick his lips.
"I've got to find her."
"Why? What good would it do?" Taylor said, slightly jealous, oh hell...
Troy consider that for a second. "First, I want sole custody of my child." He saw the strange look in her eyes turn to disappointment in all her beautiful features, and he suddenly felt like the scum of the earth. "And then there's the little matter of my innocence in Brad Hailstock's death. I want to talk to good old 'Naddie' and find out why she wanted to set me up. I've been cleared, sort of, though I think I'm still a- what do they call it when they don't want to say suspect?- a 'person of interest' in the case. I want to talk to talk to her and find out why she lied about the break-in at Belfry and -" He jerked his head towards the bassinet.
"Perciou- The baby", she finished for him. Quickly try to not get into the name argument. "You know, Mr. Bolton, you make it sound as if my sister's involved in some major criminal conspiracy."
As the fire hissed in the gate and the wind whistled through the trees outside, Troy leveled his disturbing blue eyes at her. "Your sister's in big trouble."
"With you?"
"For starters. I think the D.A. might be interested as well."
"Well, if you think I can help you find her, you'd better think again. She's a free spirit who is a grown woman-"
"That's running for her life, if she's smart." Troy said with a too serious face.
The baby let out a wail certain to wake up the dead in the next four countries. "Oh, God," Taylor jumped up as if she were catapulted by an maternal bod, then carefully extracted the beautiful little girl from beneath her covers as if she were born to be this child mother.
Troy couldn't hear what Taylor was saying as she whispered softly and rock gently, hold his baby close to her breast. As if she were a goddess had cast a quieting spell, the tiny girl instantly calmed.
It was damned amazing. Could he work this magic on the kid? Hell, no! Could Natalie? At the thought of that selfish female, he frowned and stiffen, long and hard finger run tiredly through his dark hair. What was he going to do?
Precious- if that's what the kid's name was- sighed audibly and a smile tugged so sweetly, at Taylor's mouth. For an instant Troy wondered what it would be like to kiss her, to press his mouth against those soft, ruby red lips, so passionately and feel... He gave himself a quick mental shake. What was he doing thinking of embracing her, believing her, wanting to trust her? Oh, not good...
He cleared his throat. "Look, Taylor, the bottom line is this: You have my daughter. I want her. And I'll do anything- do you hear me? -ANYTHING to gain custody of my baby.
"Then you'll have to fight me," Taylor said, her smooth chin lifting defiantly and her back stiffening. "You don't have any proof that Precious is yours."
She tried to look so damned brave as she held the baby and pinned him with those furious glowing eyes. Fr a second his heart turned over for her, She obviously cared about the baby so much. No matter what her true motives were, she had strong ties to her, probably a hell of alot more than Natalie's. Nonetheless, he was the kid's father and as such he had rights, rights he intended to invoke.
"She's mine, all right"
"Then you have no problem with take a paternity test"
"For the love of god. It's not like you could take a maternity test, right?"
"I've already talked to the social services. I'm not claiming to be the baby's mother." 'I wish' Taylor thought.
"Fine. Not a problem. I'll take any damned test." He glanced out the window and scowled at the snow piling over his footprints. Though he'd been inside less than an hour, his four-wheel drive Ford had barely made it to the end of the driveway because of the packed bizarre snow and ice. Without his chain, his wheels had slipped and spun, nearly landed him in the ditch. Though sanding crews have been working around the clock, the snow and freezing temperatures had reduced the snow pack to ice. So driving any distance way out of the question, especially with an infant and no car seat.
Taylor cast him irritated looks as she attended the baby. Finally, when Percious' eyelids had drooped again, Taylor carefully placed Precious into the bassinet. She tucked a yellow baby blanket, gently around her and smiled when the infant movedher tiny lips in a sucking motion. "She's so adorable," Taylor said. "If she is your child, Mr. Bolton, she's the perfection of a little angel, and you're one very lucky man."
He could agree more as he stared at the tiny bit of flesh that sighed softly in a swaddle of yellow blankets. An lumped of emotion filled his heart. He never expected any kind of emotional attachment to the baby, not like this. Sure, he'd felt obligated to take care of his only child- duty bound to see that his kid was financially and emotionally supported. He planned on hiring a full-time nanny to start with and then, as the kid grew, employ the best tutors, coaches and schools money can buy. If he had to, he had supposed, he could even get married an provide a mother of some sorts.
He glanced at Taylor, on that last thought. He felt something he couldn't describe, and he didn't know why.
"However," Taylor said, planting her hands on her perfectly round hips, "if the blood proves that you're not the father, Mr. Bolton, then you have a hellevua alot of explaining to do. Not only me, but to the police."
TBC...
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AN: Thank you sooo much for the reviews, I never thought ANYone would be reading, more or less reviewing with positive feedback.. So thanks most importantly to: Let Me Fall-Let Me Break (my idol), kuropie (the wonderful), CHAYLORISAWESOME312 (THE BEST!!), lilmissmonique (new lovely).. Please review and KEEP review.. I want to know what you guys want, feel or think..
Next chapter is called "The Truth of the Matter".. hmmm, wonder what's that's about :) Happy Valentine's Day!! --^---