Dad In Demand

Table of Contents

Cover Page

Excerpt

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Copyright

“Katie, Darling;”

Sean said, his voice sharp despite the endearment. “Stop tossing that word friend at me.”

“But we are friends, we.”

“Katie,” he warned. “Stop it, or—”

Her eyes went all dark and liquid. “Or what?” she asked in a voice that had gone as smoky as her eyes.

“Or I haul you into my lap and kiss you until I knock the socks off both of us.”

“But we’re supposed to be friends.”

“Is friendship enough for you?” he asked.

Because right now friendship didn’t seem nearly enough for him. Not when she was looking at him as though he was her fantasy come to life, the knight to slay her dragons. Not when he wanted to be the man to make her believe in fairy tales and magic again.…

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Silhouette Desire—where you’re guaranteed powerful, passionate and provocative love stories that feature rugged heroes and spirited heroines who experience the full emotional intensity of falling in love!

Wonderful and ever-popular Annette Broadrick brings us September’s MAN OF THE MONTH with Lean, Mean & Lonesome. Watch as a tough loner returns home to face the woman he walked away from but never forgot.

Our exciting continuity series TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB continues with Cinderella’s Tycoon by Caroline Cross. Charismatic CEO Sterling Churchill marries a shy librarian pregnant with his sperm-bank baby-and finds love.

Proposition: Marriage is what rising star Eileen Wilks offers when the girl-next-door comes alive in the arms of an alpha hero. Beloved romance author Fayrene Preston makes her Desire debut with The Barons of Texas: Tess, featuring a beautiful heiress who falls in love with a sexy stranger. The popular theme BACHELORS & BABIES returns to Desire with Metsy Hingle’s Dad in Demand. And Barbara McCauley’s miniseries SECRETS! continues with the dramatic story of a mysterious millionaire in Killian’s Passion.

So make a commitment to sensual love-treat yourself to all six September love stories from Silhouette Desire!

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

Please address questions and book requests to:

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Dad In Demand

Metsy Hingle

www.millsandboon.co.uk

METSY HINGLE

is a native of New Orleans who loves the city in which she grew up. She credits the charm of her birthplace, and her own French heritage, with instilling in her the desire to write. Married and the mother of four children, she believes in romance and happy endings. Becoming a Silhouette author is a long-cherished dream come true for Metsy, and one happy ending that she continues to celebrate with each new story she writes. She loves hearing from readers. Write to Metsy at P.O. Box 3224, Covington, LA 70433.

For Rita and James Hingle. Mom and Dad.

With love and thanks for their extraordinary son

and for the gift of their love.

Happy 60th Anniversary!

One

“I’m going to have a baby.”

Sean Fitzpatrick’s size-thirteen foot slipped off the desk, and he grabbed the arms of his chair to keep from sprawling onto the floor. Stunned, he stared at Katie Malloy—the woman who had been his buddy and his best pal for more years than he cared to count. “You’re what?”

“I’m going to have a baby,” she repeated calmly, looking just as innocent now as she had nearly twenty years ago-right before she’d fired that first snowball across the backyard fence and hit him between the shoulders.

She was yanking his chain. Had to be, Sean decided, and reached for his coffee. “Quit joking around, Malloy. I’m not buying it. You might want to try selling that line to Michael and Ryan,” he told her, referring to his brothers and partners in the detective agency. “They’re more gullible than me.”

“But I’m not joking. I am going to have a baby. And I want to hire you to help me find the father.”

Sean choked, sputtering coffee across the stack of files on his desk.

“Are you all right?” Katie asked, already around the desk and pounding his back.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. Stuff just went down the wrong way. You can stop beating me to death now,” he muttered, feeling as though the air had been sucked right out of his lungs. He couldn’t believe it, didn’t want to believe it. Katie pregnant?

“You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said, and waved her back to her seat. While he mopped up the mess, he glanced at her and recognized that I-am-woman-I-can-do-anything look in her eyes. A sure sign of nerves. Sheesh! Of course she’s nervous, Fitzpatrick. The poor kid’s probably scared to death. Anger shot through him like a bullet, and he decided murder was too good for the guy who’d left her in the lurch.

“So, will you help me?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll find him.” And when he did, he was going to take great pleasure in rearranging the jerk’s face.

“I knew I could count on you,” she said, giving him that million-dollar smile that always made him feel ten-feet tall.

“You’d better believe it.” After all, Katie was practically family, had been almost from the time she and her mother moved to Chicago and bought the house next door to his parents. Katie had been a fixture at the Fitzpatricks’ home from the moment she’d teamed up with his cousin Molly and pitted herself against the Fitzpatrick brothers. Except for a brief teenage crush he’d suspected she’d had on him, he and Katie had shared a friendship every bit as close and enduring as the one she shared with his cousin. Heck, they’d grown even closer since he’d moved into her apartment complex two years ago. He considered her his best friend.

And now Katie was pregnant. He could hardly believe it. The last he’d heard, she wasn’t even dating anyone seriously. Sean frowned. At least, she hadn’t been seeing anyone when he left town a month ago on that insurance fraud investigation. A lot could happen in a month, he reminded himself, as he glanced at her still-flat stomach. Obviously it had.

“You have no idea how relieved I am. I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about helping me.”

Sean snapped his gaze back to her face, stung that she’d doubted him. “You thought I wouldn’t help? That I’d turn my back on you when you needed me?”

A haunted look came into her eyes. Old hurts, he guessed, thinking of her father’s desertion, her stepfather leaving after the divorce, the turkeys who’d disappointed her, including the weasel who’d gotten her pregnant and then bailed. “You’re right. I never should have doubted you, Sean. I’m sorry.”

Feeling somewhat placated, his voice gentled as he said, “Just remember that I will always be here for you. All right?”

She nodded, then took a deep breath. “So, what kind of information do you need to get started?”

Sean paused a moment, searched for a way to delicately phrase the question he had to ask her. “I…um, before we get into that. Honey, are you sure about going through with this?”

“I’m positive. I’ve wanted a baby for ages.”

Her decision didn’t surprise him. Knowing Katie and how much she loved kids, he didn’t really think she would consider terminating the pregnancy. But he’d had to make sure she knew there were options. “All right.” Grabbing a pencil, he flipped to a clean sheet on his notepad. “The first thing I need is the name of the baby’s father.”

“Well, I’m not sure yet. I came up with five possibilities initially, but I’ve narrowed it down to three.”

The pencil in Sean’s fist snapped in two. He knew Katie could be reckless, even unpredictable, and he’d long suspected much of her bravado and bluff were her way of masking fear. But one thing Katie wasn’t, was stupid. Five lovers? Katie?

She began digging in the monster-size bag she called a purse and pulled out a sheet of paper. “Here, I’ve written their names down for you.”

Dumbfounded, Sean stared at the woman offering him a slip of paper with the names of her lovers. As a man, he truly enjoyed the opposite sex, and had yet to meet a woman who didn’t garner at least a second glance from him. Because they were friends, he’d made a point of not giving Katie a second or even a third look. But he looked at Katie now-not as her friend, but as a man. She wasn’t beautiful, not even pretty or cute. But pretty or not, a man couldn’t help but notice those wide, whisky-colored eyes or think about removing the pins from those wild, notquite-red, not-quite-brown curls she wore piled up on her head. Noting his own flexed fingers, Sean curled them into fists.

Katie rattled off something about lists and candidates, and he shifted his gaze to her mouth—proud and sassy, just like her. He felt a tug, low in his body, and acknowledged that this wasn’t the first time he’d wondered about that mouth.

He skimmed his gaze down her body, noted the way her small breasts filled out the skinny white top, the way her narrow hips flared beneath the floral skirt. She was built on the thin side for his tastes, Sean admitted.

But damn if the woman didn’t have showstopper legs. Those legs alone could be a source of real trouble for a man.

“So, I put together this list of possibilities.”

She crossed those fantasy legs, and black lace winked at him. And Sean nearly swallowed his tongue. Trying to blot out the image of that black lace and the unholy thoughts it incited, he squeezed his eyes shut. Big mistake, he realized, because suddenly he had no trouble at all picturing Katie in bed-wearing nothing but that sin-black lace. Steamy sex and innocence, he decided, envisioning those long, slim legs of hers wrapped around his waist as she took him inside her.

“Sean? Are you okay?”

He slammed the brakes on his dangerous thoughts and snapped open his eyes. “I’m fine,” he said, his voice gruff.

Get a grip, Fitzpatrick. This is Katie, remember? Katie—your buddy, your pal, practically your sister. She’s the same pest who wore braces and pigtails, who annoyed the heck out of you as a kid. She’s the brat who kept beaning you with snowballs until you pinned her down and kissed her because your mother said a guy couldn’t hit a girl.

Only she wasn’t his sister, and he had definitely not been thinking of her as his pal. Somewhere along the way, little Katie Malloy had traded in her braces and pigtails for the face of a temptress and a body designed to make a man sweat.

And he was sweating, Sean admitted, aware that his jeans had grown painfully snug. Annoyed with himself and with her for being the source of his discomfort, he scowled. “So, which one of the guys do you think is the father?”

Katie flicked her tongue across her bottom lip, a nervous habit he’d seen her employ a zillion times. Only this time the innocent gesture had him squirming in his seat. “I haven’t made up my mind yet. That’s why I’m here. I need your help so I can decide which one will make the best father.”

Sean’s jaw dropped. He snapped his mouth shut and gave himself a mental shake. “Back up a minute. Are you, or are you not pregnant?”

Katie blinked. “Well, of course I’m not pregnant. At least not yet. That’s why I’m here. I need your help.”

“What?”

“You thought—Oh!” Suddenly she started laughing.

“This isn’t funny, Malloy,” he told her. He loved women, Katie included, but no way was he going to get himself tied down with one. At least, not yet. Maybe never, he amended.

“Sorry,” she said, not looking the least bit repentant. “It’s just that your face.” Another set of giggles sneaked out.

“Katie,” he warned.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Fitzpatrick, relax. I didn’t mean you literally. I meant that once you’ve checked out my daddy candidates, I’ll be able to make an intelligent decision about which one to ask to father my baby.”

Sean swore. “Of all the dumb, idiotic-” Biting off the rest, he stomped over to her, gripped the arms of her chair instead of her throat. He shoved himself in her face. Through gritted teeth he asked, “And just what am I supposed to do? Act as your clearing house for sperm donors?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said, meeting his angry glare. “If all I wanted was a sperm donor, I would have gone to a sperm bank-not a detective agency. I intend to choose the man who’s going to father my baby, not leave the decision up to chance.”

Sean swore again, then whirled away so he wouldn’t shake her as he wanted to do. Frustrated he prowled through his desk in search of his emergency stash of M&M’s. He scooped up a fistful, and automatically held out his palm for Katie to fish out the yellow ones. After she had done so, he popped the rest of them into his mouth. “Not that I’m agreeing to anything, but just what is it you expect me to do?”

“Check out the candidates on my list.” She waved the ivory sheet of paper in her hand. “You know, do a background check, sort of like the ones a company does when they’re considering a potential employee.”

Sean snorted. “Sweetheart, you’ve been sniffing way too many fingerpaints at that nursery school where you work.”

Practically vibrating with indignity, she planted her hands on her hips and met his mocking gaze. “I’m serious, Sean. I want to hire you to investigate my daddy candidates.”

“I’ve got a better idea. Save your money, and just have the poor saps fill out an application.”

“I can do without your sarcasm.”

“Better yet, try getting married first. You remember what marriage is, don’t you? It’s that old-fashioned thing that most people do before they decide to have a baby?”

Katie’s cheeks flushed. Temper flashed in her eyes, making them glow like amber. “This is the nineties, Fitzpatrick. A woman doesn’t have to get married anymore just to have a baby.”

“Yeah? Well, maybe they should.”

“It’s not your decision. It’s mine. And I’ve decided I want to have a baby.” She held up her hand before he could object. “This is important to me, Sean. Really important. The most important thing I’ve ever done or probably will ever do in my life. I don’t want to mess up and choose the wrong man. That means I need to learn as much as I can before I make a decision.”

“Fine,” he told her, his own temper fraying. “Then have a D&B report run on the guys on your list. You’ll get all the financial history you need.”

Katie’s lips thinned. “Who gives a flying fig about bank balances? I’m interested in finding out what’s inside here.” She poked her thumb at her heart. “We both know I don’t have the best track record when it comes to men,” she said, referring to her two broken engagements.

“So you had a couple of narrow escapes. You were too good for those clowns, anyway.”

“Maybe. But I need to be sure the man I choose is someone who’s going to stick around and be a loving and supportive parent.”

Sean heard the echo of the lonely little girl she had been, the one who had been so hungry for a father’s love and affection. It tore at him as nothing else she said could. It also made him want to spend ten minutes alone in a back alley with her father, her stepfather and every man who had ever let Katie down. Still, this idea of hers was crazy. He couldn’t let her do it. “Honey, the guys on that list could all be saints, and I’d still think you were making a mistake. Are you really willing to undergo artificial insemination and have some guy’s baby based on a PI report?”

“No, not exactly,” she said sheepishly.

“Well, I’m relieved to hear that. You had me worried for—”

“My insurance won’t cover artificial insemination. I’ll have to get pregnant the, um, normal way.”

“The normal way? You mean—” Sean swiped a hand down his face, tried to wipe out the sudden image of Katie in bed, her naked body tangled in satin sheets. Grateful for the shield the desk provided his lower body, he jerked his X-rated thoughts back to the problem. Clawing a hand through his hair, he muttered. “Of all the dumb, lamebrained—”

The intercom on his desk buzzed. “Heather Harrison is on line two for you,” his secretary told him. “She said it’s about dinner tonight.”

“Speaking of dumb—” Katie said.

“Tell her I’ll call her back.” He shot Katie a quelling glance and, using his most intimidating voice, he said, “I want you to forget about this crazy scheme of yours, Katie.”

“I will not.”

“I mean it,” he insisted.

“So do I. And given your narrow-minded attitude,” she said, her voice as stiff as her spine. “I can see I was right to scratch your name off my list.”

“My—You had my name on that list!” He wasn’t sure if he was angry or glad that she’d considered him.

“Obviously, I was desperate.”

The crack scraped at him, fueled his temper. “What were you going to do? Knock on my door, and ask me if I’d mind sleeping with you so you could get pregnant?”

She hiked up her chin. “As a matter of fact, yes.”

Don’t go there, man.

But it was too late. An image jumped to life in his mind’s eye—Katie lying beneath him, their bodies warm and damp from making love. The ache below his belt worsened. His sex strained against his jeans. Cursing the animal in him, Sean reminded himself that the woman he was lusting after was Katie—his friend.

“Don’t sweat it, Fitzpatrick. You’re off the hook. I’m not going to beg you to have sex with me,” she said, her voice as icy as a Minnesota winter. “Like I said, I was feeling desperate at the time. Obviously, coming here today and asking you to help me was another mistake.”

She jammed the list into her purse and spun around, but not before he caught the flash of pain in her eyes. “Katie, wait. I didn’t mean—”

The intercom buzzed again. “Get a move on, Sean,” his brother Michael ordered. “Adam Stevens is here.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.” He blocked Katie’s path. “If you’d just give me a second to explain…”

“No explanation is necessary. And I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to hire you. Now get out of my way.”

“No,” he countered, angry with himself for being careless. It cut at him something awful to know he’d hurt her.

“Fine. Don’t move. I will.” Stepping around him, she moved past him and reached for the door.

“Aw, hell.” Sean streaked in front of her, slapped the door shut and twisted the lock. Snagging her by the shoulders, he spun her around and pressed her spine against the door, trapping her between his outstretched arms. “You’re not going anywhere until we settle this.” He couldn’t let Katie walk out now. If she did, he had a sick feeling that things would never be the same between them again. He didn’t want to lose her.

“There’s nothing to settle.”

The doorknob twisted. “Sean!” Michael pounded on the door. “Get your sorry rear out here. Stevens is cooling his heels in the conference room waiting to discuss his building’s security.”

“I said I’d be there in a minute. Go ahead and start without me.” Ignoring his brother’s heated reply, Sean kept his eyes trained on Katie’s face. “Look at me.”

When she failed to respond, he captured her face between his palms and more gently he said, “Look at me, Katie. Please.”

She shifted her gaze to his. There was anger simmering in the gold-flecked eyes. Anger. Pride. Hurt. Hurt he was responsible for, Sean acknowledged. His chest tightened with guilt, with regret. “I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter—”

“It matters to me. I’d sooner cut off my arm than hurt you.” And just as he’d done a hundred times before, he brushed his mouth against hers. It was meant to be a friendly kiss, a brotherly kiss between good pals. But heat licked through him like wildfire, setting his body and senses ablaze with desire. Awareness pulsed between them lightning quick. He watched her eyes soften, darken, and then he stopped thinking. He dipped his head again deepened the kiss. Her fingers curled into his shoulders as she parted her lips, and he dove in, wanting, needing to taste her. When her tongue found his, he groaned and pulled her closer.

A foot connected with the door, jolting them both. “Get your sorry butt out here now, Sean. Or I swear I’ll kick this door in and wring your fool neck.”

Sean lifted his head. His breath came in heavy rasps. So did hers. “I think he means it,” she whispered.

“Yeah. So do I,” he replied, and releasing her, he stepped back. Shock hit him first. Then panic streaked in. What in the devil was he doing? Coming on to Katie like this? Retrieving her purse where it had fallen to the floor, he eyed her warily. She looked dazed, nervous, arousedexactly the way he felt. “Are we all right?” he asked, handing her the purse.

“Sure,” she told him. But she looked ready to bolt. “You’d better go before Michael makes good on those threats. I’m sorry I bothered you.”

“Listen, about this baby business…”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll find somebody else to help me.”

Damn! “Katie, I don’t have time to argue now. Just promise me you won’t do anything until we can talk.”

“Really, Sean, I don’t think—”

Michael beat at the door again, issued another string of threats. “Tonight. Just hold off on doing anything until then. We’ll talk when I get home. I’ll even bring pizza.”

She hesitated.

“One with anchovies and a thick crust,” he bribed.

“Anchovies?”

“Anchovies,” he promised, no matter how much he detested the little suckers.

“All right.”

He flipped the lock on the door, and Michael stormed in, angry enough to chew nails. “Excuse me, Katie, while I rip my idiot brother’s head off.”

“Rip away,” she said. “I was just leaving.”

Michael snarled at him. “I ought to knock your block off.”

“Yeah? Well, stand in line,” Sean muttered, irritated with himself. He had a sinking feeling that kissing Katie had been a major mistake.

Kissing Sean had been a mistake, Katie told herself for the umpteenth time. Gathering the ends of her hair, she secured it atop her head with a clip, then reached for the makeup bag. She coated her lashes with mascara, slashed the passion-pink lipstick across her too-wide mouth. For good measure she fastened on the pink sparkly earrings her stepfather had given her the Christmas before he’d split. Stepping back, she surveyed the results in the mirror of the dressing table in her bedroom.

Ordinary. Run-of-the-mill. Nothing special.

The words all but shouted at her like accusations. She stared at her heart-shaped face. Not one single feature stood out. Nothing about her stood out—except maybe her height. She cast a critical eye over the white blouse and cutoffs and sighed. Narrow curves on a five-foot, nine-inch frame might be great for models, but she felt like a scrawny chicken in a world full of peacocks.

Was that why no one in her life ever stayed? Because she wasn’t pretty enough? Wasn’t special enough? Wasn’t lovable enough?