Книга - Double the Trouble

Double the Trouble
Maureen Child








“What exactly do you want, Colt?”


“That’s easy,” he said. “I want what’s mine.”

What was his? She knew he didn’t mean that he wanted her, so he was talking about her kids. Her babies.

Fear coiled around her heart and made breathing almost impossible. But where she might try to run and hide to protect herself—to safeguard her children she was willing to walk into hell itself.

She watched him through the car window, and when he opened her door to help her out, she looked into his eyes and said, “You can’t have them.”

* * *

Double the Trouble is part of the No.1 bestselling series from Mills & Boon


Desire™— Billionaires & Babies: Powerful men … wrapped around their babies’ little fingers.


Double

the Trouble

Maureen Child






www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


MAUREEN CHILD writes for the Mills & Boon


Desire™ line and can’t imagine a better job. Being able to indulge your love for romance, as well as being able to spin stories just the way you want them told is, in a word, perfect.

A seven-time finalist for the prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA


Award, Maureen is the author of more than one hundred romance novels. Her books regularly appear on the bestseller lists and have won several awards, including a Prism, a National Readers’ Choice Award, a Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence and a Golden Quill.

One of her books, The Soul Collector, was made into a CBS TV movie starring Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Greenwood and Ossie Davis. If you look closely, in the last five minutes of the movie, you’ll spot Maureen, who was an extra in the last scene.

Maureen believes that laughter goes hand in hand with love, so her stories are always filled with humor. The many letters she receives assures her that her readers love to laugh as much as she does.

Maureen Child is a native Californian, but has recently moved to the mountains of Utah. She loves a new adventure, though the thought of having to deal with snow for the first time is a little intimidating.


To Mills and Boon Desire readers everywhere.

Thank you so much for embracing the Kings of California—and me. You make it possible for me to do what I most love to do. Tell stories.


Contents

Chapter One (#u883d4882-b112-5775-8eeb-bd2075e056b2)

Chapter Two (#u09a192bb-3e2a-590f-97b7-f210215a0165)

Chapter Three (#ubd2d0539-89db-5a58-a8ef-9ab7075911e4)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)


One

Colton King never saw the fist that slammed into his jaw.

He shook his head to clear it, then blocked the next punch before it could land. The furious man who’d stormed into Colt’s office only moments before took a step back and ground out, “You had that coming.”

“What the hell?” Colt dropped his packed duffel bag to the floor. “Had it coming?”

Colt did a fast mental review and came up empty. He didn’t know this man and he couldn’t think of a single other person who wanted to hit him—at the moment. His always-temporary relationships with women invariably ended amicably. Heck, even he and his twin brother, Connor, hadn’t had a good argument in weeks.

Yeah, he’d had angry clients show up at the Laguna Beach, California, offices of King’s Extreme Adventures if they didn’t find the monster waves they’d been promised. Or if the dead man’s run on a mountain was closed due to avalanche.

Colton and Connor arranged adventure vacations for the wealthy adrenaline junkies of the world. So, sure, there had been more than a few times when a customer was mad enough to cause a scene. But not one of them had ever punched him. Before now.

So the question was, “Who the hell are you?”

“I called security!” A woman announced from the doorway.

Colt didn’t even glance at Linda, the admin he and Connor shared. “Thanks. Go get Connor.”

“On it,” she said, then vanished.

“Calling security won’t change anything,” the guy who had just punched him said flatly. “You’ll still be a selfish bastard.”

“Okay,” Colt muttered. Not the first time he’d heard that, either. But a little context would be helpful. “You want to tell me what’s going on here?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.” Connor stepped into the room to take a stand beside his twin.

Colt was glad to have him there, though he could have taken the guy who’d gotten in one lucky sucker punch. But probably not good business to have a fistfight here in the office, and having Connor around would help him leash his temper. Besides, fighting wouldn’t give him the answers he wanted. “You took your best shot. Now tell me why.”

“My name is Robert Oaks.”

Oaks. Long-buried memories raced through Colt’s mind in a blinding rush. A ball of ice dropped into the pit of his stomach and his body went utterly still. He studied the stranger glaring at him and in those narrowed green eyes, he saw...familiarity.

Damn it.

The last time he’d looked into eyes like those had been nearly two years ago. At the end of a week in Vegas that should have been ordinary and instead had been...amazing. One specific memory rose up in his mind and Colt wished to hell he could wipe it away, but he’d never been able to pull that off. The morning after he and Penny Oaks had gotten married in a tacky chapel on the strip. The morning when he’d told her they’d be getting a divorce—right before thanking her for a fun week and then leaving her in the hotel room they’d shared.

He didn’t want to think about that day. But hard to avoid that now, with the man who had to be her brother standing in front of him.

Robert Oaks nodded slowly as he saw realization dawn on Colt’s face. “Good. At least you remember.”

“Remember what?” Connor demanded.

“Nothing.” He wasn’t getting into this with Connor. Not right now, anyway.

“Oh, nothing. That’s great.” Oaks shook his head in disgust. “Just what I expected.”

Anger stirred. Whatever was once between him and Penny was just that. Between the two of them. He wasn’t interested in what her brother thought. “Why are you here? What do you want?”

“I want you to do the right thing,” Robert snapped. “But I doubt you will.” His fist bunched. “So I thought punching you would be enough. It wasn’t.”

Impatience stirred and twisted in the anger still balled in Colt’s guts. He had a KingJet waiting to fly him to Sicily. He had places to go. Things to do. And damned if he’d waste one more minute with Robert Oaks.

“Why don’t you quit dancing around and get to it. Why are you here?”

“Because my sister’s in the hospital.”

“Hospital?” Something inside Colt lurched unsteadily. Instantly, memories shifted, his mind filling with images of another hospital, the cold green walls, the grim gray linoleum and the stench of fear and antiseptic flavoring every breath.

For a second or two, he felt as though there was a weight on his chest, dragging him back into a past he never wanted to visit again. Deliberately, he pushed away from the blackness at the edges of his mind and fought his way back to the present. Pushing one hand through his hair, Colt focused his gaze on Penny’s brother and waited.

“My sister had an appendectomy yesterday,” Robert told him.

Relief that it wasn’t something more serious was a small, slim thread winding its way through the tangled mass inside him. “Is she okay?”

Robert snorted a derisive laugh. “Yeah, she’s fine. Except, you know, for worrying about how she’s going to pay the hospital bill. And worrying about her twins. Your twins.”

All of the air left the room.

Colt knew that because he couldn’t draw a breath.

“My—” He shook his head while he tried to get a grip on what Penny’s younger brother was telling him. But how the hell did you make sense of something like that coming at you out of the blue? What the hell was he supposed to do? Say? Think?

Colt scrubbed both hands across his face, forced one shaky breath into his lungs and finally managed to say, “Twins? Penny had a baby?”

“Two,” Robert corrected, and looked from Colt to Connor and back again. “Looks like twins run in your family.”

“And she didn’t tell him?” Connor sounded as stunned as Colt felt.

Fury rose up and nearly choked him. She had never said a damn word. She’d been pregnant and hadn’t told him. She’d delivered two children and hadn’t told him.

He had children?

That weight was back on his chest again but this time he ignored it.

“Where are they?” The demand was short and sharp.

Robert looked at him warily and Colt knew that his expression must have mirrored the anger erupting inside.

“My fiancée and I have been taking care of them.”

Them. Colt was the father of twins and he knew nothing about them. How was that even possible? He’d always been careful. But apparently, his mind taunted, not careful enough.

A small voice in the back of his mind whispered that this might all be a lie. That Penny could have told her brother a lie. That the babies weren’t really his. But even as he considered that possibility, he dismissed it. That would have been too easy, and Colt knew better than most that there was nothing easy about any of this.

“A boy and a girl, if you’re interested.”

Colt’s head snapped up and his gaze narrowed on Robert. A boy and a girl. He had two kids. Hell, he didn’t know how he was supposed to feel. The only thing he was sure of at the moment was that his children’s mother had some explaining to do.

“Damn straight I’m interested. Now tell me what hospital Penny’s in.”

He got all the information from Robert, including the man’s cell number and his address. When building security arrived, Colt sent them away. He wasn’t going to press charges against Penny’s brother—the guy was pissed and defending his family. Colton would have done the same. But once Robert had left, Colt released some of his fury by kicking his duffel bag across the room.

Connor leaned against the doorjamb. “So, trip to Sicily is off?”

Colt was supposed to be in the air right now, heading for Mount Etna to try out a new BASE jumping spot. It’s what he did—searching out the most dangerous, most awe-inspiring sport sites for their ever-growing client list.

But now, he had a different sort of adrenaline burst waiting for him. Colt slanted his twin a hard look. “Yeah, it’s off.”

“And you’re a father.”

“Looks like it.”

He sounded calm, didn’t he? He wasn’t, though. There were too many emotions, too many thoughts crowding his mind for him to even separate one from the other. A father. There were two babies in the world because of him, and he’d had no idea until a few minutes ago. How was that even possible? Shouldn’t he have felt something? Shouldn’t he have damn well been told that he was a father?

Colt shook his head, still trying to wrap his mind around it. He couldn’t. Hell, no kid deserved to have him for a father. He knew that. Rubbing the center of his chest to try to ease the ache settled there, Colt blew out a breath. How was he supposed to be feeling? Anger tangled with sheer terror, then twisted into a tight knot that iced over and left him feeling cold to the bone.

“And you were gonna tell me about this when?”

Colt gaped at his twin. “Seriously? I just found out myself, remember?”

“I’m not talking about the twins—I’m talking about their mother.”

“Nothing to tell.” Lies, he thought. Lies. Truth was, there was plenty to tell, just nothing he wanted to talk about. It was the only time in his life Colt had kept something from his twin. He still couldn’t explain why. Colt shoved one hand through his hair. “It was the convention in Vegas nearly two years ago.”

“You met her there?”

Colt stalked across the room and picked up the duffel he’d packed for his now-canceled trip to Sicily. Slinging it over his shoulder, he turned to face his brother. “I don’t want to talk about this now, okay?”

If he didn’t get out of there in the next ten seconds, he was going to blow. Temper boiling, it was all he could do to hold it together.

“Too bad,” Connor said shortly. “I just found out I’m an uncle. So tell me about this woman.”

His twin wasn’t going to let this go and Colt knew it. Hell, if the situation was reversed, he’d be demanding answers, too, so he couldn’t really blame him. Didn’t make this any easier, though.

“Not much to say,” he ground out, teeth gritted. “I met her at the extreme sports convention. We spent the week together and then—”

“Then?”

Colt blew out a breath. “We got married.”

If he hadn’t been in such a foul mood the look on his twin’s face would have made Colt laugh hysterically. He’d never seen Connor so shocked. Of course, why wouldn’t he be? Colt felt pretty much as if someone had knocked him over the head with a two-by-four, himself.

“You got married?” Connor pushed away from the doorjamb and stalked into the room. “And you didn’t bother to tell me?”

“It lasted, like, a minute,” Colt said. Even now he couldn’t believe that he’d surrendered so deeply to the passion he’d found with Penny that he’d actually married her. He hadn’t said anything to Connor because he hadn’t even been able to explain to himself what he’d done.

Shaking his head, he turned and looked out the window at the ocean beyond the glass. Surfers rode their boards toward shore. Tourists strolled along the beach, snapping pictures as they went, and farther out on the water, sailboats skimmed the surface, bright sails fluttering in the wind.

The world was going on just as it always had. Everything looked completely normal. Nothing out of place. And yet...for him, nothing would ever be the same again.

“Colt, it’s been nearly two years, and you never said a word?”

He glanced over his shoulder at his twin. “Never could find a way to say it. Con, I still don’t know what the hell happened.” Shaking his head again, he huffed out a breath and tamped down the anger still rising within him. “I came home, got a divorce and figured it was done. No point in telling you about it when it was over.”

“Can’t believe you were married.”

“You and me both,” he muttered, and turned his gaze back to the ocean, hoping for the calm that sight usually brought him. This time it didn’t work. “I figured there was just nothing to tell.”

“Yeah, well, you were wrong.”

Understatement of the century.

“Looks that way.” He had kids. Two of them. He could do the math, so he’d already worked out that they were eight months old. Eight months of their lives and he’d never even seen them. Never even guessed that they might exist. Cold fury rose up inside him again and he struggled to breathe past what felt like an iron band, tightening around his chest.

It had been close to two years since he’d seen Penny—though he’d thought about her far more often than he wanted to admit, even to himself. But at the moment, it wasn’t memories driving him. Or the desire he’d once felt for her. It was cold fury, plain and simple. The kind of raw rage he’d never felt before. She’d kept his children from him and she’d done it deliberately. After all, it wasn’t like he was hard to find. He was a King, for God’s sake, and the Kings of California weren’t exactly low profile.

“Fine. So what’re you gonna do?”

Colt turned his back on the ocean and faced his twin. Steely determination fired his soul and filled his voice as he said, “I’m going to see my ex-wife. Then I’m going to get my kids.”

* * *

Every time she moved, Penny felt a swift stab of pain. That didn’t stop her from trying, though. Wincing, she shifted around carefully until she could reach the rollaway table that held her laptop. Swinging it around, she then scooted up higher on the bed, moving much more slowly than she wanted to.

Penny was more accustomed to moving through life at top speed. She had a business and a home and two babies to care for, so hurrying was the only way she could keep up. Being forced to lie still in a hospital bed she couldn’t afford was making her a little crazy.

Every moment she was stuck here was another dollar sign ticking up on the bill she would soon be handed. Every moment here, her babies were without her. And though Penny trusted her younger brother and his fiancée, Maria, completely, she missed the twins desperately. Since she worked out of her home, she was with them all the time. Being away from them made her feel as if she were missing a limb.

She reached out to pull the rolling table closer and gasped at the quick stab of pain slicing through her. “Ow!”

“You probably should lie still.”

“Oh, God.” Penny froze, hardly daring to breathe. She knew that voice. Heard it every night in her dreams. Clutching the edge of the table, only her eyes moved, tracking to the doorway where he stood. Colton King. The father of her children, the star of every one of her fantasies, her ex-husband and absolutely the last man on earth she wanted to see.

“Surprised?” he asked.

That word really didn’t cover what she was feeling. “You could say that.”

“Well then,” he snapped, “you have some idea of how I feel.”

Robert, she thought grimly. She was going to have to kill her little brother. Sure, she’d practically raised him and she loved him dearly. But for going to Colton and ratting her out, Robert had to pay. But dealing with her brother could come later. At the moment, she had to find a way to deal with her past.

“What’re you doing here?”

He walked slowly into the room, his long legs crossing the linoleum-covered floor in a few easy strides. He moved almost lazily, but Penny wasn’t fooled. She could feel the tension radiating off of him in thick waves and she braced herself for the confrontation that had been almost two years in the making.

His hands were tucked into the pockets of his black jeans. His thick-soled boots hardly made a whisper of sound as he moved. His black hair was a little too long, curling around the collar of his bloodred pullover shirt. But it was his eyes that held her. That mesmerized her as they had nearly two years ago.

They were the pale blue of an icy sky, fringed by lashes so thick and black any woman would have killed to have them. And right now, those cold eyes were fixed on her.

He was still the sexiest man she’d ever met. Still had that air about him that drew women to him like metal shavings to a magnet. Still made her want to throw both herself and a rock at him.

“Robert came to see me,” he said lightly, as if it didn’t mean a thing. But she knew better. Yes, they’d only been together for a week almost two years ago, but in those two years, Penny had relived every moment with him hundreds of times. At first, she had tried to forget him, because remembering only brought pain.

But then she’d found herself pregnant, and forgetting was impossible. So instead, she’d reveled in her memories. Kept them fresh and alive by mentally deconstructing every conversation, examining every moment spent with him. She knew the tone of his voice. Knew the feel of his skin, the taste of his lips.

And she knew, just by looking at him now, he was angry.

Well then, they were a match. She didn’t want him here. Didn’t need him here. Penny took a deep breath and braced for the coming storm.

He stopped at the foot of her hospital bed and met her gaze with a steely stare. “So,” he said. “What’s new?”

Anger flashed in those cool blue eyes and a muscle in his jaw ticked spasmodically. One glance down to where his hands were closed over the footboard showed that his knuckles were white with the force of his grip.

“Robert had no right to go to you.” Her fingers tugged at the thin green blanket covering her.

Her brother had been after her since before the twins were born to go to Colt and tell him the truth. But she’d had her reasons for keeping her secret and nothing had changed. Well, nothing but for the fact that her little brother had turned traitor.

“Well,” he said on a sharp, short laugh. “You’re right about that, anyway. You should have told me.”

Ice coated his words as well as his eyes. No doubt he was waiting for her to quiver and shrivel up beneath his hard gaze. Well, Penny refused to back down or to feel guilty about her decision. When she’d first discovered she was pregnant, she’d gone around and around in her mind, trying to figure out the best course of action.

She had argued with herself for weeks over what was the right thing to do. Yes, she might have had an easier time of it the last couple of years if she had gone to Colt in the beginning. But she also might have spent the last two years tangled up in hard feelings, accusations and arguments. Not to mention a custody battle she wouldn’t have stood a chance in. He was a King, for heaven’s sake, and she didn’t have enough money to buy lunch out!

So she’d chosen to keep the truth from him and she didn’t regret it. How could she, when she knew she had done what she felt was in the best interests of her children?

With that thought firmly in mind, she got a grip on her own feelings as anger and frustration began to churn inside. “I understand how you feel but—”

“You understand nothing.” He cut her off as neatly as if he’d used a knife. “I just found out I’m a father. I have twins and I’ve never seen them.” His white-knuckled grip on the foot rail of the bed tightened further and still his voice remained as cool and detached as the icy glare he had pinned on her. “I don’t even know their names.”

She flushed. Fine. Yes. She could see how he felt. But that didn’t mean what she’d done was wrong. Naturally, he wouldn’t see it that way, but what Colton King thought of her really didn’t matter, did it?

He never blinked. He only stared at her, with those ice-blue eyes narrowed as if he were focusing in an attempt to see into her mind and read all of her secrets. Thank heaven he couldn’t.

“Their names, Penny. I’ve got a right to know the names of my children.”

She hated this. Hated feeling as though she were setting her babies up to be let down by a father who didn’t really want them. But she couldn’t ignore his demand, either. Now that he knew about the twins, what was the point of trying to protect their anonymity?

“Okay. Your son’s name is Reid and your daughter is Riley,” she said.

He swallowed hard, took a deep breath and hissed it out again. “Reid and Riley what?”

She knew exactly what he meant. “Their last name is Oaks.”

His mouth flattened into a grim line and it looked to Penny as if he were counting to ten. Slowly. “That’ll change.”

Panic shot through her, riding a lightning bolt of anger. “You think you can take over and change their names? No. You can’t just walk back into my life and try to decide what’s best for my children.”

“Why the hell not?” he countered coldly. “You made that decision for me nearly two years ago.”

“Colt—”

“Did you bother to list me as the father on their birth certificates?”

“Of course I did.” Her twins had the right to know who their father was. And she would have told them...eventually.

“That’s something at least,” he muttered. “I’ll have my lawyers take care of the legal name change.”

“Excuse me?” She struggled to push herself upright and gasped as another sharp stab of pain hit in her abdomen. Breathless, she dropped back against her pillows.

He was at the side of the bed in an instant. “Are you all right? Do you need a nurse?”

“I’m fine,” she lied tightly as the pain began to ebb into a just barely tolerable ache. “And no, I don’t need a nurse.” She needed pain medication. Privacy so she could cry. An eight-ounce glass of wine. “What I need is for you to leave.”

“Not gonna happen,” he told her.

She closed her eyes and muttered, “I could kill Robert for this.”

“Yeah,” Colt countered. “Someone finally being honest with me. There’s a crime.”

Her gaze snapped back to his. He was studying her as he would a bug under a microscope. Damn it, couldn’t he have gotten fat in the last couple of years? Lost his hair? Something? Why did he still have to be the most gorgeous man she’d ever met? And wouldn’t you just know that she’d have the conversation she had been dreading for nearly two years while trapped in a hospital bed? Wearing a god-awful gown? She was in pain, she was hungry because hospital food was appalling and God knew what her hair looked like.

Oh, that’s good. Be worried about how you look, Penny.

Hard not to worry about it though, she told herself glumly. Especially when Colton King was standing right in front of her looking even better than he had two years ago. He’d taken her breath away the first time she’d seen him and apparently he had the same effect on her today.

“So when do you get out of here?” he asked, shattering her thoughts.

“Tomorrow probably.” And she couldn’t wait. Yes, she was in pain but she hated being in the hospital. She missed her babies. Plus, Penny didn’t like having to ask Robert and Maria to watch her children. They had enough going on, with their wedding only a few weeks away.

In hindsight, she should have known that Robert would go to Colt. Should have guessed that her brother, thinking he was doing the right thing, would betray her secrets to the one man who should never have found out the truth. Oh, she was going to have plenty to say to her little brother once she was released from this antiseptic prison.

“Fine, then,” Colt said flatly. “We’ll continue this discussion once you’re home.”

Well, that caught her attention.

“No, we won’t. This conversation is over, Colt.”

“Not by a long shot.” He stared down at her until Penny twitched uneasily, and then he warned, “You’ve got a hell of a lot of explaining to do.”

“I don’t owe you anything.” But those words sounded hollow even to her.

She’d kept a huge secret from him and she’d done it deliberately. She knew that anyone standing on the outside of this relationship would call her some really descriptive names. But they wouldn’t know why she’d done it. She hadn’t even told Robert everything. Penny’d had reasons for her decisions and they were good ones. Ones she wouldn’t regret, even while staring up into the cool blue eyes that still haunted her dreams.

He was angry and he had the right. But she’d had the right to do what she’d thought best for her children. And she wouldn’t start second-guessing herself now.

“You’re wrong about that,” he told her softly, but the gentle tone of his voice did nothing to hide the fury crouched inside him.

A nurse bustled into the room, all business. “I’m sorry, you’ll have to wait outside while I examine Ms. Oaks.”

Penny’s gaze never left Colt’s and for a second or two, she thought he would argue, refuse to leave. Then he took a step back and nodded.

“Fine. I’ll be back tomorrow to pick you up.”

Panic shot through her. “Not necessary. Robert will pick me up.”

The nurse was hovering and Penny could feel her gaze moving back and forth between the two of them.

“We don’t need Robert’s help. I’ll be here in the morning.”

“Oh,” the nurse piped up, “she probably won’t be released until early afternoon.”

Colt paid no attention. “I’ll be here tomorrow.”

Then he stalked out of the room and didn’t look back. Penny knew because she watched him go and continued to stare at the empty doorway long after the sound of his footsteps had faded.

“Wow,” the nurse murmured. “Is that your husband?”

“No,” Penny said. “He’s—” What? A friend? An enemy? The father of her children? Her past come back to wreak havoc with her present? Since she couldn’t say any of that, she said only, “He’s my ex.”

The nurse sighed. “Wow, can’t believe you let that one get away.”

It wasn’t as if she’d had a choice. Still, to avoid more conversation, Penny closed her eyes and let the nurse get on with the examination.

But her mind wouldn’t stop. Thoughts of Colt jammed up in her brain until all she could see were his eyes. Cold. Icy. Fixed.

And furious enough to make Penny wish tomorrow were years away.


Two

He didn’t go to see his twins.

He wasn’t up for that just yet.

Colt didn’t want his children’s first subconscious memory of their father to be of him furious.

So instead, he went to the beach. He needed to burn off some of the fury pumping through him. But the calm waves at Laguna weren’t going to be enough to soothe the temper riding him. What he needed for that was blood-pumping action with a thread of danger. Enough to make his adrenaline high enough to swamp the anger chewing at him.

In Newport Beach, the Wedge was just at the end of the Balboa Peninsula and the waves there could reach thirty feet or more. Because of some “improvements” to the jetty in Newport Harbor sometime in the thirties, the waves here were highly unpredictable. One wave combined with another and then still another until the resulting wave was higher than anywhere else on the coast. Best part was, no two waves were alike, and where they would break was anybody’s guess. Inexperienced surfers avoided the Wedge if they had any brains. As for Colt and the handful of other surfers out on this cold, autumn day...

The danger added to the fun.

Usually, anyway. Today, as he took wave after wave, riding the crest, being tossed into the sea and coming up in a froth of foam, his mind was too distracted to enjoy the rush. Images of Penny flashed through his mind on a continual loop. Visions of babies were there, too. Crying, laughing, sleeping. He couldn’t clear his brain of the thoughts plaguing him, so he pushed himself harder, hoping for clarity. It didn’t come though, and after a few hours in the punishing tempest of the sea, Colt had had enough. He dragged his board onto the sand and flopped down onto it.

Wrapping his arms around his knees, he stared out at the water and tried to make sense of what had happened that day. He’d never expected to see Penny Oaks again. Colt scrubbed one hand across his face and let himself remember her, lying in that hospital bed.

Through the anger, through the frustration and shock, he still had felt that jolt of sexual insanity he associated only with Penny. And insanity was the only word he could use to describe what she made him feel.

Penny, with her jeans and T-shirts and her lack of makeup or artifice of any kind, was just not the type of woman he was usually drawn to. He liked his women fast and sleek, with no expectations other than a great time in bed. Penny, though, was something else again. He’d known it instantly. But from that first moment at the convention nearly two years ago, he’d had to have her. One look at her and all he’d been able to think about was her long legs, wrapped around his waist. Her mouth pressed to his. Her breath warm against his skin.

And damned if she still didn’t affect him that way.

Even lying in a hospital bed, with her long, dark red hair a tangle about her head, with her green eyes shining with both pain and panic, he’d wanted her so badly he’d had a hell of a time just walking out of the hospital.

After Vegas, he’d buried her memory and lost himself in dozens of temporary women. Yet he’d never really been able to wipe Penny from his mind entirely. And now she was back—with his children—and he’d be damned if he’d be cut out of his kids’ lives. Even if, he was forced to admit, he was hardly father material.

The beach was nearly empty and the sunset stained the white clouds varying shades of pink and orange. The waves crashed relentlessly onto the shore, and out beyond the breakers, a few remaining surfers chased the next ride.

“You’re an idiot.”

Colt didn’t have to turn around to know who had spoken. His twin’s voice was unmistakable.

“Thanks for stopping by,” he said. “Go away.”

“Right. That’ll happen.” Instead, Connor settled down on the sand beside his brother and instinctively took up the same position as Colt. Arms wrapped around his drawn-up knees, gaze fixed on the ocean. They were so alike, they generally didn’t even have to speak because each knew what the other was thinking.

But today, Colt realized, even he didn’t know what he was thinking. Sexual desire, yes. Fury, oh, yes. But there was so much more. How the hell could he figure it out? Thoughts raced through his mind, slapped up against the wall of his brain and then rushed back down again to tangle with the others. Much like the legendary surf at the Wedge, Colt’s mind at the moment was a dangerous place to be.

“You don’t surf the Wedge alone and you know it,” Connor said.

True. Even adrenaline junkies knew what line not to cross, but today, he just hadn’t given a damn. Not that he would admit it to Connor.

“I wasn’t alone,” Colt argued. “There are at least a dozen other guys out there.”

“Yeah, all looking out for themselves. Don’t suppose you noticed the riptide?”

“I noticed,” he admitted grudgingly. Riptides were a danger on their own. Riptides at the Wedge were a whole new level of risky. Get caught in one of those and you could be dragged out to sea so far you wouldn’t have the strength to swim back in. “And I don’t need you nagging me.”

“Fine. Won’t nag. Just leave a note behind next time you surf here alone, okay?”

“A note?” He looked at his twin.

Connor shrugged. “You’re gonna commit suicide the least you can do is leave a note—you could say, ‘I should have listened to Connor.’”

Colt shook his head and returned his gaze to the churning sea. White water and spray shot into the air. A cold sea wind whipped his hair back from his forehead, and overhead, gulls shrieked like the dying.

He didn’t even wonder how Connor had known to find him here. For the last ten years, Colt had spent most of his time chasing the next adventure. Always searching out danger and beating it. He just wasn’t the office, suit-and-tie kind of guy.

Hell, even with floor-to-ceiling windows displaying a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean and the California coastline, he felt trapped in the building he and Connor owned on the Pacific Coast Highway. Which was why, he reminded himself, he was the adventure man and his twin was in charge of paperwork.

He shuddered at the thought of being buried behind a desk. Like the clients that King’s Extreme Adventures served, Colt was always looking for the next shot of adrenaline. Skydiving, BASE jumping, extreme surfing, wingsuit flying―he’d done them all and had no intention of ever stopping.

In spite of what he’d learned today.

“Have you seen the twins?”

“No.” Colt narrowed his gaze on the ocean and tried to ignore the sudden, frantic beat of his heart.

“Why not?”

“Because I’m too pissed at their mother.”

Connor laughed shortly. “I’m guessing their mom’s not real fond of you about now, either.”

He turned his head to glare at his brother. “You think that matters to me?”

“No. But I know the kids do.”

Well, that took the fire out of him. “What the hell do I know about being a father?”

Connor shrugged. “We had a pretty good role model for that, I think.”

“Yeah, we did.” Their parents had been the best. Until... Guilt reared up inside him, shouting to be heard, but he shut it down as he always did. The past didn’t have any meaning here. This was all about the now. And the future. “Doesn’t mean I’ll be any good at it.”

“Doesn’t mean you’ll suck, either.”

Colt laughed and pushed one hand through his still-wet hair. “Quite the pep talk.”

Connor grinned and turned his gaze on the ocean. “You don’t need a pep talk. Unless you don’t believe they’re your kids...”

“No.” Colt shook his head and scowled. Naturally, he’d considered that for a split second, right after Robert Oaks had punched him. But he’d discounted it just as quickly. “One thing Penny is not is a liar. In spite of the fact that she hid them from me. Besides,” he reasoned, “if she was trying to push someone else’s twins off as mine, she’d have come to me for money right from the jump.”

“True. Still, you should do a paternity test. Cover all your bases legally.”

He would, eventually. Colt wasn’t an idiot. But tests or no tests, he knew, in his gut, those twins were his. Penny had been too panicked about him finding out about them to have him doubting it for a second. And she was right to panic, he told himself. Because things were going to change. Her life as she knew it was now over.

Because Colton King would do whatever he had to to make sure his kids were taken care of.

* * *

Maybe he’d forgotten to come.

Penny laughed silently at the very idea. Colton King might look like a wild, untamed, crazy adventurer—and he was. But he was also a brilliant businessman who never forgot a detail.

So then if he hadn’t forgotten, why hadn’t he shown up at the hospital this morning as promised? Penny had spent a long, sleepless night, worrying about what she would say to him when he strolled into her room again. Turned out, she needn’t have bothered.

All day, she’d been tied in knots, waiting for him to appear. And he never showed up. Why that should irritate her when she really wished he would just go away and stay away, she didn’t know.

But then, her feelings for Colton King had always confused her. That one week with him had fueled her dreams and her fantasies for months. Even when she was pregnant with the twins he had known nothing about, her mind continued to plague her every night, with alternative endings to their time together. But every morning, she was dragged back to a reality where happily ever afters didn’t exist.

“And you should remember that,” she muttered, giving herself a warning. Yet even while that thought squirmed through her mind, her body bristled with nervous expectation and she couldn’t quite seem to calm it down.

Penny had spent most of the day—when she wasn’t torturing herself with thoughts of Colt—trying desperately to be released from the hospital. Not only couldn’t she afford a lengthy stay—they probably charged a hundred dollars for an aspirin—but she needed to get home. To be with her kids. To be back at her cottage, tucked away from everything so she could... What? Hide? From Colt? Not a chance. Now that he knew the twins existed, Penny would never be free of him.

Her heart rate suddenly jumped into overdrive and she groaned. For heaven’s sake, would she always have that reaction to the man? Wasn’t being tossed aside once enough of a lesson? Did she really want to let him back into her life so he could do it again?

“No way,” she vowed and tossed an angry glance at the still-empty doorway.

A half an hour ago, her stupid doctor had finally arrived to give her one more check and sign her release papers. But had a nurse shown up to wheel her out? No. And every second that passed increased the chances of Colt at last deciding to make an appearance.

Which made her wonder again why he hadn’t come. What was he off doing? Was he at her house, insinuating himself with two babies who wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to protect their hearts? Or maybe, she thought wistfully, he’d changed his mind? Decided to ignore his children after all? Could she be that lucky?

Not a chance, and she knew it. One thing she was sure of as far as the Kings of California were concerned: family meant everything.

During their brief time together, how many stories had Colt told her about his brothers, his cousins, their wives and kids? He’d painted amazing pictures of family gatherings and weddings and christenings, and she’d been both jealous of their deep family connection and intimidated by it.

She didn’t know anything about big families. All she’d had in the world was her younger brother and for years it had been the two of them—united against all comers. Heck, she hadn’t even had a social life before she’d met Colton King and tossed her heart at his feet. She hadn’t exactly been a virgin, but the two encounters before Colt had left her convinced that every woman on the face of the planet was lying about the whole earth-shattering-stars-exploding-orgasm thing.

Which might explain why she’d fallen so hard and so fast for Colt. She actually had seen stars with him. She’d felt things with him she wouldn’t have believed herself capable of. He’d made her feel beautiful and sexy and desirable. He’d swept her off her feet so completely, she’d obviously managed to confuse lust with love. Just look where that had gotten her.

A marriage that hadn’t even been twenty-four hours old when it was dissolved.

She turned her head and looked out the window to a patch of blue sky just visible beyond an old elm tree. Leaves dipped and swayed in the wind she wished she could feel on her face. Maybe it would help clear away all the clutter in her mind.

Because now all she could think of was that last morning with Colt. The day she’d awakened as a bride and in less than ten minutes had become yesterday’s news.

For the past week, they’d spent every possible moment in bed, wrapped up in each other, shutting the rest of the world out of the bubble of passion they’d created. Then on the last night of the convention, they’d been married and had spent hours making love, unable to keep their hands off each other.

But the following morning, with the first feeble rays of sunrise creeping over the sky, Penny had opened her eyes to find Colt standing beside the bed. He was dressed and packed and the expression on his face was grim. Her heart sank and then shattered when he spoke.

“I’m not the marrying kind, Penny.” He pushed one hand through his hair, huffed out an exasperated breath and continued. “Last night was...a mistake. I don’t want a wife. I don’t want kids. Picket fences and the family dog give me hives. This week was nice and the sex was great, but that’s all we share.”

When she tried to speak, he cut her off with a negligent wave of his hand. “I’ll have my lawyer take care of the divorce.”

Finally, one word slipped past the tight knot in her throat. “Divorce?”

“It’s best. For both of us.” He slung his duffel bag over his shoulder, gave her one last look and said, “I’ll have the papers sent to you. Goodbye, Penny.”

And he was gone.

As if their incredible week together had never happened. As if he hadn’t spent every waking moment learning every square inch of her body. As if it was all...nothing.

She could hardly be expected to have warm, fuzzy feelings for him after that, right? And the hot, undulating need she felt was not the same thing at all.

“Oh, this is so not good.”

“Ready to go?” A nurse she’d never seen before popped into the room pushing an empty wheelchair and Penny should have been delighted. But her short trip down memory lane had sort of put a damper on her emotions. Now the time was here. She was leaving the expensive-but-slightly-safer atmosphere of the hospital for her home, where Colton would be showing up, and there was no time left to hide. Nowhere she could run.

But as that thought rose up in her mind, she remembered that scene in the Vegas hotel room again and instinctively stiffened her shoulders. Why should she run? She’d done nothing wrong. She’d only protected her kids from the same heartache she had experienced. She wouldn’t stand by and see their little hearts break when their daddy walked away from them without a backward glance.

“Yes,” she said, lifting her chin, already preparing for the battle she knew was coming. “I’m ready.”

Or as ready as she would ever be.

The efficient nurse pushed her down the hall to the elevator and from there down a long hall headed for the lobby and the wide front doors. As they passed the billing office, Penny turned her head to look up at the nurse. “I’m sorry, but I still have to make financial arrangements and—”

“Oh, sweetie, that’s been taken care of.”

“What?”

The nurse smiled down at her, clearly not registering the look of shock carved into Penny’s features.

“Your husband took care of all of that this morning. He didn’t want you to worry about a thing. Gotta say, you picked a good one there.”

“A good one—my husband—” Dread coiled in the pit of her stomach and sent spindly threads swimming through her veins. Colt had paid her hospital bill. Colt had walked in and taken over and everyone at the hospital had simply fallen into line.

Why that should surprise her she didn’t know. He had the ability to make people jump whether they wanted to or not. Colton King expected to get his own way and knew just how to maneuver people into giving it to him. He’d probably never once considered that she might not want his help. He’d simply done as he always did—steamroller over everything in his path to get what he wanted.

She fumed silently in her wheelchair. It wouldn’t do the slightest bit of good to argue with the hospital. Of course they’d appreciate her bill being paid in full rather than the monthly payments she was going to arrange. Why wouldn’t they take a lump sum? It wasn’t as if they were going to be indebted to the man. But for Penny, this was just one more link to Colt. A link she didn’t want. She hadn’t asked him to ride to the rescue, had she? No. And now, if she wanted to hang on to her pride, she’d have to find a way to pay him back.

The nurse wheeled her outside and the first breath of fresh, salt air lightened Penny’s mood dramatically. Until she saw him.

Colt lounged against a black luxury SUV, his arms folded over his chest, his long legs crossed at the ankle. He looked relaxed, casual, in his boots, blue jeans and dark red shirt. He wore dark glasses over his ice-blue eyes and the wind ruffled his black hair. She thought she heard the nurse behind her give a soft sigh of pure female appreciation, and Penny completely understood.

Just looking at the man was enough to send most women into orgasmic shock. And she was in a better position than most to know that no matter how good a fantasy a woman could spin around him, reality with Colt was so much better.

And in spite of her churning thoughts and suddenly heated, throbbing body, her first instinct was to ask the nurse to turn around. To take her back inside. To run and hide, she was ashamed to admit, even to herself. So she swallowed her nerves, plastered a fake smile on her face and prepared to give the performance of a lifetime.

“Here she is, all ready to go home,” the nurse cooed as Colt pushed off the car and walked closer.

“Right. Thanks.” He slipped one hand under Penny’s arm and helped her stand. Since her knees were feeling a little weak at the moment, she was grateful for the assistance. Even though it was his fault her knees were weak in the first place.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice a husky whisper close to her ear.

She closed her eyes and held her breath. If she had one whiff of his scent, it might just finish her off. “I’m fine. Thanks for picking me up.”

He smirked as if he knew she hadn’t meant a word of that and Penny ground her teeth together. The man was irritating on so many levels. Not the least of which was his apparent ability to read her mind.

She busied herself with the seat belt, only wincing once or twice as she settled herself into the wide, extremely comfortable leather seats. An unwanted comparison to her worn-out four-door sedan jumped into her mind, but she pushed it away again. Her car might not be shiny, with leather seats—and ooh, a minitelevision in the dashboard—but it got her where she was going. So far.

Colt climbed into the driver’s seat, tossed her bag of personal items into the back, then fired up the engine. He hooked his seat belt, checked the mirrors—in fact, did everything but look directly at her. Finally, Penny couldn’t stand it.

“Why are you here?”

He glanced at her briefly. “To take you home.”

“Robert was supposed to pick me up.”

“We came to a different arrangement.”

“You have to stop interfering in my life.”

“No, I really don’t.”

He steered the car down the driveway and out into traffic and she was quiet as the familiar landscape flashed past. Buildings and cars on the left, the ocean on the right as he drove down the Pacific Coast Highway. Sunlight glinted on the surface of the water and made her eyes sting. That’s why they felt teary. Not because of the helpless sensation beginning to build inside her.

“You’re quiet,” he observed. “Unusual for you as I remember.”

“People change.”

“Not normally,” he said. “People are who they are. But situations...they change.”

And here we go, she thought.

“You should have told me,” he said tightly and she risked a quick look at him. His profile was rugged, breathtakingly gorgeous and hard as stone.

“You didn’t want to know,” she said.

“I don’t remember being given a choice.”

“Funny,” she muttered, as the memory of their last morning together rose up in her mind again, “I remember.”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

How could he have forgotten? He’d made his choice long before they even met. But that last morning with him, he’d shared it all with her, searing the memories into her mind. If she closed her eyes, she could still see his face, hear his voice and then finally, the receding sound of his footsteps as he walked out of her life.

“I want to know everything, Penny.” He stopped for a red light and threw her a hard look. “Every damn thing that’s happened over the last two years.”

“Eighteen months.”

“Sue me,” he snapped. “I rounded up.”

The light turned green and he stepped on the gas. With his gaze locked on the road, he said, “And when that conversation begins, you can start by telling me why you thought it was a good idea to hide my kids from me.”

“We’re not in hiding.”

“You know what I mean.”

Yeah, she did. And that’s exactly what she had done, though it sounded a lot colder when he said it out loud. “I had my reasons.”

“Can’t wait to hear them,” he assured her.

Outside the car, it was a typical fall day in Southern California. Sun shining, clear sky, about sixty-five degrees. Inside the car, however, it was midwinter in the Arctic. Penny wouldn’t have been surprised to see ice forming on the dashboard. Colt burned cold when he was furious. She’d seen it firsthand at the convention when they’d met.

Their third day together, Penny was running her booth, trying to win some clients for her fledgling sports photography business. A drunk stumbled onto the convention floor from the casino and had made Penny miserable. Hanging about her booth, demanding a kiss she had no intention of giving him. Chasing away potential clients.

But she’d been handling him until he made a grab for her—and before she could take care of the situation herself, Colton had been there. Icy rage in his eyes, he’d grabbed the drunk by the collar of his shirt and half dragged, half walked him off the floor. When he came back to her, Colt’s anger was gone, but concern had been flashing in his eyes and Penny could remember feeling...cherished. Say what you would about equality, it was hard not to feel a thrill when a man was so protective.

He’d come to her rescue and then treated her as if she were made of glass instead of treating her like the fiercely independent woman she was. And she’d loved every minute of it.

He was excitement and tenderness and sex all rolled into one. No wonder she’d fallen so hard, she told herself. No woman in the world would have been able to resist Colton King. That week with him had been the most magical of her life. In a few short days, she’d fallen so completely in love with him. She’d even married him in a sweet, shabby chapel and told herself that it was meant to be. She’d indulged in dreams and imaginings and let herself drift on a tide of the most incredible sex she’d ever experienced and thought somehow that it would all work out.

Until, of course, the world came crashing down on her and reality took a bite of her heart.

And now cold, hard reality was back to do it all again. But this time, she wouldn’t let herself be vulnerable to him. This time, she wouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that a man who showed such passion in bed must feel something for her. This time, she was ready for Colton King.

“You were never going to tell me, were you?”

“No,” she said, not even bothering to give him her list of reasons. They wouldn’t make a difference to him. He didn’t care why—only that she hadn’t told him.

“Well, I know now.”

“It doesn’t change anything, Colt,” she said, turning her head to look at his gorgeous, unyielding profile.

Heat stirred inside her, despite the lingering pain of her emergency surgery. Despite the fact that she hadn’t seen him in eighteen months. Even despite the fact that the morning after their spur-of-the-moment marriage, he’d walked out on her, promising that a divorce lawyer would be in contact with her.

The only reason he was back now was because of the twins. Her babies. And he wasn’t going to get them. She lifted one hand to rub her forehead in a futile attempt to ease the headache making her eyes throb.

“It changes everything and you know it,” he said, voice as tight as the grip he had on the steering wheel. “You should have told me. You had no right to keep my children from me.”

“Rights?” Stunned, headache forgotten, she stared at him as the humiliation of the last time she’d seen him washed over her. “I absolutely had the right to do whatever I had to do to protect my kids.”

“From their father?”

“From anyone who might hurt them.”

His features went stone-still but his eyes were flashing. “And you think I’d hurt them?”

“Not physically, of course not,” she snapped. “But you walked away from me, remember? You’re the one who said you didn’t want to hear from me again. You’re the one who told me that the week we spent together was ‘fun’ but over. Not to mention when you added that the thought of kids gave you hives. Any of this ringing a bell?”

“All of it,” he said. “But I didn’t know you were pregnant, did I?”

“Neither did I.”

“Yeah, but you knew soon after and you didn’t tell me.”

“It wasn’t any of your business.”

He laughed but there was no humor in the sound. “Not my business. I have two children and they’re none of my business.”

“I have two kids. You have nothing.”

“If that’s what you really think, you’re in for a surprise.”

He made the turn that would take him to her house and Penny frowned. “How do you know where I live?”

“Amazing what you can find out if you’re motivated.” He glanced at her, then shifted his gaze back to the shady, tree-lined street in front of him. “For example. I know your business is getting a slow start—switched from sports photography to babies—an interesting choice. I know you don’t have health insurance. And I know that you’re living in your grandmother’s cottage in Laguna.” He took a breath and continued. “Your brother’s engaged to Maria Estrada and is a general practice intern at Huntington Beach hospital. You’re living off your credit cards and your car is fifteen years old.” He spared her another look. “Did I miss anything?”

No, he hadn’t. In fact, Penny worried about what else he might have found out. He’d scratched the surface of her life, but just how deeply had he continued to dig?

“What gives you the right to pry, Colt?” She didn’t like the idea of her past being spread out for him to pick over. Didn’t like feeling as though she’d been exposed. “We spent one week together nearly two years ago.”

“And apparently,” he added, “we made two babies.” He pulled up in front of her house and parked. When he turned the engine off, he faced her and his eyes looked like chips of ice. “That gives me any right I want to claim.”

To avoid looking at him, she stared at the house she loved. A tiny Tudor with dark shutters and beams flat against cream-colored stucco and leaded windows that winked in the last lights of the sun. Ivy climbed along the porch railings and chrysanthemums bloomed dark yellow and purple in the front flower bed. The house was small and cozy and had always, even when she was a child, signified safety and warmth to Penny.

Now she looked at it and felt a sense of peace she desperately needed steal over her.

“I’m not going anywhere, Penny. Get used to it.”

Peace dissolved as a stir of heat erupted inside her again and Penny wanted to shriek with frustration. How could her body respond to a man her brain realized was nothing but trouble? She felt as if she’d been stripped bare in front of him. Her life was nothing more than a series of facts that he felt free to dissect in a cold, dispassionate speech.

But then, that was Colton’s way, wasn’t it? she reminded herself. Unemotional. Detached.

Distanced from any sort of real human contact, he kept his heart—if he had one—locked away behind a steel door that was, as far as she could tell, impenetrable.

Her voice was barely a whisper when she looked into his eyes and asked, “What exactly do you want, Colt?”

“That’s easy,” he said with a shrug. “I want what’s mine.”

A cold, tight fist closed around her heart as he got out of the car, slammed the door and walked around to her side. His? She knew he didn’t mean that he wanted her, so he was talking about her kids. Her babies. Fear coiled around her heart and made breathing almost impossible. But where she might try to run and hide to protect herself—to safeguard her children she was willing to walk into hell itself.

She watched him through the car window and when he opened her door to help her out, she looked into his eyes and said, “You can’t have them.”


Three

“You can’t have my kids, Colt.” Her voice hitched higher. “I won’t let you.”

“You can’t stop me,” he told her flatly.

Colton had done a lot of thinking in the last twenty-four hours and he’d come to one conclusion. If these were his children, then he wouldn’t be shut out. And frankly, even though he’d already arranged for a paternity test, he knew, deep in his gut, there wasn’t a need for one. When he and Penny were together, she’d been with only two other men before him. She was honest. Straightforward. So deeply moral that she’d never try to pass off another man’s child as his. Hell, her sweet-natured decency was one of the reasons he’d run from her so fast.

Colt wasn’t interested in being with a woman who had romance in her eyes and a plan for the future in her heart. Normally, he didn’t do a “future.” He did “now.” And normally, he preferred women who wanted nothing more than he did out of a temporary relationship. Good sex, a few laughs and an easy exit.

There was nothing easy about Penny Oaks.

Colton watched a flash of fire in her eyes and knew she wouldn’t surrender without a fight. On any other day, he might have admired it. But not today. Today, he was the one with the claim on fury. He was the one who’d been kept in the dark for nearly two years. No, he didn’t want to be married. He’d never planned on being a father—his life was too risky for that—but now that he was a father, things had changed.

And, he told himself grimly, they were going to change even more, soon.

“You don’t want the twins,” she said softly, her gaze locked with his. “You only want to hurt me.”

Hurt her? What he wanted to do at the moment was kiss her until neither of them could breathe. He wanted to reach into the car, drag her out and plaster her up against him so that he could feel every one of the curves he remembered so well. Even through the anger, through the frustration and confusion, desire was clear and simple. Unfortunately, nothing else about this situation was.

“I’m not interested in hurting you.” Understatement. “But I do want answers.” He planted one hand on the roof of the car and leaned in closer to her. “And you don’t want to challenge me, Penny. I always find a way to win.”

“Win?” Her mouth dropped open. “This isn’t a game, Colt. This is about two babies.”

“My babies,” he corrected, and felt a hitch in his chest as he said those words. Since yesterday, he’d done little else but think about the bombshell that had been dropped into the middle of his world. Everything around him felt as if it were slightly off balance. As if the steady, familiar course of his life had been suddenly turned into a roller coaster ride, with dips and turns hidden around every corner.

There were two kids who deserved a father. It was just their bad luck to have gotten him in the genetic lottery. He couldn’t give them stability. A man to count on. Everything he’d had growing up. Still, he’d do the best he could by them because he owed them that.

“What’re you doing, Colt?” She stared up at him, wariness and pain shining in her eyes.

“What needs to be done,” he ground out, refusing to be swayed by the naked emotion he saw on her face.

What he had to remember was that she’d kept his children from him. So much for the “honesty” he’d seen in her at the beginning, he thought cynically. Hell, maybe she was really no different from the countless other women who had tried to convince a King that she was pregnant just to be able to dip into his bank account.

But she was different, wasn’t she? She’d made no effort to contact him. Hadn’t asked for money. Hadn’t gone to a tabloid, selling her story to make some fast cash. Hell, she’d gone out of her way to avoid telling him about the twins. Hadn’t once considered him in any of the decisions she’d made in the last couple of years.

Well, all of that was going to change. She might not be interested in cashing in on the King name. Might have no desire at all for him to be a part of her world. But she was about to find out just what it was like having a King in the family picture.

“We have to talk,” he ground out, keeping his voice low and his gaze locked on hers. “The question is, do you want to do it now, with your brother watching us from your front window—”

She shifted a look to the house at his words and huffed out a breath. Colt had noticed Robert the instant he’d parked in front of the cottage. The man looked just as constipated and irritated as he had the day before. But at least now, Colt could understand why he was such a pain in the ass.

“Or do you want to go inside, get rid of the audience and do this in private? Your choice.”

A couple of tense seconds ticked past.

“Fine,” she grumbled, unhooking her seat belt and wincing a bit as she tried to get out of the car. “But this isn’t over.”

“That’s the first thing you’ve gotten right,” he promised, feeling a twinge of sympathy mixed with concern when he watched her trying to move through pain that was clearly bothering her more than she wanted to admit. Irritated at her stubborn independence even in the face of real discomfort, he reached into the car and lifted her out. He should have put her down at once, of course, but he noticed that her face was so pale that the freckles across her nose and cheeks shone like flakes of gold against snow.

“You can set me down now,” she said, tipping her face back to look up at him.

But he didn’t want to. He liked holding her. Hell, it was feeding that need to touch her. She felt...right, cradled against his chest, and that weird thought worried him quite a bit. But at least lust he knew how to deal with.

“I’m perfectly capable of walking.”

“Sure you are.” He shook his head as he looked down at her. His body tightened further and it was his turn to camouflage a wince of pain. “And it’ll take you twenty minutes to get to the front door. This is faster.”

She glowered at him, but Colt paid no attention. Hard to focus on her irritation when every inch of his body was reacting to her closeness. Holding her to him stirred up feelings he’d just as soon leave buried. But it was too late. Her T-shirt and jeans were worn and soft. Her curves fit nicely against him and with every breath she took, she fired the heat already scorching him.

“Just hold still, will you?” Still shaking his head, not sure if he was angrier with her or with his own reaction, Colt took the crooked, flower-lined sidewalk up to the steps. Robert opened the door and Colt carried her across the porch and into the house.

His first impression was that the place had been built for really short people. It was like a dollhouse. Cute to look at but impossible to move around in. He had to duck his head to avoid a low-hanging beam separating the entry from the postage-stamp-sized living room. And suddenly he felt like Gulliver. All that was missing were the ropes tying him down—although there were two tiny ropes somewhere in this house, prepared to do the job.

“You okay, Penny?” Robert asked as Colt deposited her gently on the overstuffed couch.

“She’s fine,” Colt answered for her. “I almost never beat a woman.”

Robert sneered. “Is that supposed to be funny?”

“Not really,” Colton told him. “Nothing about this situation is funny.”

“I’m fine,” Penny said, shooting Colt a look that plainly said I can speak for myself. Then she turned back to her brother. “How are the twins?”

Robert threw a look over his shoulder at the hallway behind him. “Sleeping. We took them for a long walk and the fresh air just knocked ’em out. Maria’s checking on them.”

“Good,” she said, a smile curving her mouth. “Thanks so much for watching the babies. I can’t wait to see them.”

“Me, either.” Colt looked from Penny to Robert and back again and had the satisfaction of seeing her squirm uncomfortably.

“For what it’s worth,” Robert told him, “I’ve been after her from the beginning to tell you about the twins.”

“Too bad you weren’t more successful.”

“She’s too stubborn for her own good,” her brother argued. “Once she makes up her mind, you couldn’t blow her off course with dynamite.” He glanced at his sister. “And it’s not like I enjoyed going behind her back to tell you the truth. I’m just tired of seeing her struggle when she shouldn’t have to.”

“I understand. And I remember just how stubborn she is.” In fact, Colt recalled plenty about the week he and Penny had spent together what felt like a lifetime ago. He remembered her laughter. He remembered the feel of her curled against him in the middle of the night. The taste of her mouth, the scent of her skin. And he remembered seeing rainbows and promises shining in her green eyes.

It had spooked him, plain and simple. No other woman before her or since had ever gotten so close to him. No other woman had ever made him so drugged on passion that he’d proposed and married her before he could come to his senses.

And no other woman’s memory had stayed with him as hers had.

God knows he’d tried to bury her memory, but it just wouldn’t stay gone. He could be halfway around the world, exploring some new adventure, and hear a soft, feminine laugh—and just for a second, he’d turn and search the crowd for her familiar face. He had dreams that were so clear, so real, that he would wake up expecting to find her lying next to him.

She’d done that to him. One week with Penny had threatened everything in his life. Of course he’d had to leave her.

“Since you remember, you know what it’s like trying to argue with her,” Robert was saying.

“Oh, I don’t intend to argue.” Colt glanced at Penny and watched as sparks glinted in her eyes. “I’m just going to tell her how things are going to be.”

“That I’d like to see,” Robert murmured.

“Maybe I’ll sell tickets.”

“If you two are quite finished,” Penny announced.

“Not even close,” Colt told her.

“Not my problem anymore,” Robert said, lifting both hands in gratitude at being able to hand off the responsibility of worrying about his sister. He looked at Colt. “Good luck.”

“Not necessary.” Colt didn’t need luck. All he needed was a cold shower and then a chance to settle a few things with the mother of his children.

“Seriously?” Penny tried to get up off the couch, but Colt dropped one hand onto her shoulder to hold her in place.

“Don’t move from that spot.”

“You are not in charge here,” she argued.

“Wanna bet?”

He met her gaze and stared, waiting for her to back off first. In a contest of wills, Penny wouldn’t stand a chance. She could be as stubborn as she liked, but she hadn’t been raised a King. In the King family, everyone wanted to be right. And no one ever backed down. So if she thought she could best him in a staring contest, she couldn’t be more wrong.

Took a few seconds, but eventually, she shifted her gaze from his and slumped back into the floral cushions, muttering a steady stream of words he was probably better off not hearing. A reluctant smile twitched his lips. He had to admire her fighting spirit—even though she had no hope of winning.

A pretty, dark-haired woman with big brown eyes walked into the room, passed Robert and Colt, then took a seat on the coffee table in front of Penny. Reaching out, she took Penny’s hands in hers and squeezed. “The twins are fine. They’re sound asleep and since it was so late in the afternoon, we fed them their dinner, too. I know it’s a little early, but with any luck, they’ll sleep the night through and give you some rest.”





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