Baby’s Watch Read online

  But nothing nearly as romantic as Ryder’s assumption that of course Maria would come with them, because there was no way he was letting the baby out of his sight again for the foreseeable future.

  “I have thought of her that way,” she admitted. “As if there would forever be a connection between you and her.”

  There was a long, silent moment before Ryder said quietly, “And you, Ana?”

  She hesitated for a moment, but only to search for the right words. There was no doubt in her mind that she had finally found what she thought would always elude her, a man she could love and trust completely. A man who would always be there for her and for Maria.

  And no woman in the world could have had better proof of that than she had received today.

  “I can only hope for that for myself,” she said at last. “It is up to you.”

  He kissed her then, and it was everything she had known it would be; passionate, yes, and hot and arousing, but also achingly sweet, and full of a promise that was unlike any she had ever known, because this one she knew she could believe in.

  When at last he broke the kiss and drew back, she could barely breathe.

  “Do you want me, Ana?”

  “So much,” she answered, meaning it with all her heart and body, looking up into the dark, piercing eyes that had been the thing she remembered most about him from the night Maria was born.

  He tightened his arms around her then, and she felt a tremor go through him. It thrilled her in a new sort of way, and she realized that this was only the beginning.

  “When the doctor says it’s all right…it will be good, Ana. I promise.”

  “I already know this,” she said, feeling lighthearted enough to tease him a little.

  As the oddly shaped boat moved along the canal, the gondolier maintaining a discreet silence and distance, Ryder held her quietly for a long time.

  “Do you believe in miracles, Ana?” he finally asked.

  “I believe in you,” she said.

  “I’ve never been worth that,” he said. “But now…”

  “You have changed.”

  “I have.” He shook his head. “I have my life back. And you and Maria to share it with. How lucky can one guy get?”

  “You will be luckier yet,” Ana promised.

  “Can’t be,” Ryder said with a chuckle.

  “Yes,” Ana insisted. “Because soon you will have your brother and sister back.”

  Ryder went still.

  “They will know what you have done, and they will see the man you have become. And they will accept you for who you are now, and forgive whatever you might have been in the past. You will have the homecoming you deserve. This is my promise to you, Ryder Grady Colton.”

  For a long, silent moment he just looked at her. She held his gaze, letting every bit of what she was feeling show.

  He threw back his head and laughed, a loud, joyous laugh unlike anything she’d ever heard from him. It lifted her heart and her hopes, told her she was right, that together they could conquer anything.

  “If anyone can do that, you can,” he said.

  “I will,” she said determinedly.

  “Damn. Boots is going to give me that smug, I-told-you-so look again,” Ryder said.

  She wasn’t sure what that meant, but she was too content at the moment to ask. Later. Nothing mattered just now except that the three of them were here, together, and safe.

  It didn’t matter, Ana thought as the sunset turned the water to fire and they floated under the famous Bridge of Sighs, that they were at the moment living a romantic cliché.

  Clichés, she thought, became clichés because they were the best way to express something.

  And the best way she could think of to express what she was feeling right now, was to kiss the man she loved.

  So she did.

  “…Colton campaign’s swing through Texas is being anticipated with great excitement, now that disgraced Governor Daniels is out of the election picture.”

  The man watching the television report grinned. A dark, roiling sort of joy filled him. He nearly laughed aloud with glee as he watched the video clip of the candidate moving through the crowd, shaking hands, smiling, eating up the adulation like the pig he was.

  It was all coming together. The two people at the top of his list, the two people he most wanted within his grasp, were both going to be within reach at the same time. Obviously he was on the right track, this was meant to be.

  This was the time, and the place. All his work, all his planning, was finally going to bring him his soul’s deepest desire.

  He would finally have his payback.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-2674-0

  BABY’S WATCH

  Copyright © 2009 by Harlequin Books S.A.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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