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I pull back and stare down into her face. “She must have been trying to tell you how exquisite you look tonight.”
Laura’s lips quirk to one side. “Flattery will not get you back to the place we were at before your daughter came looking for you.”
“Good, because that’s not what I want.” Even as the words come out of my mouth, I know they’re partially a lie.
Laura knows it too, if the way her brows arch is any indication.
“Not right now, at least.” I smooth a hand over her cheek. “Laura, I never planned on meeting you.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No.” My eyes leave her face and drift across the room to the corridor toward Bailey’s. “It’s just ...”
“Liam.” Her fingertips applying gentle pressure to my cheek capture my attention. “If you loved your daughter any less, I wouldn’t be as attracted to you as I am. Fatherhood is very appealing on you.”
My chest rises and falls with the force of my exhale. Laura continuously surprises me. She quickly summed up my concerns and still managed to amp up my desire. She’s willing to take me as I am. Christ. It’s more of an aphrodisiac than her luscious body or incredible brain.
She’s openly displaying the heart her uncle sang about tonight—the stunning compassion that eclipses even her beauty. A miracle that managed to resurrect itself after the trauma she survived.
My heart tumbles over and over when I clasp her back against me. All night, I’ve been wondering what’s so different.
It’s her.
It’s the realization I’m falling for her as easily as my daughter is.
Chapter
Fifty
I’m lying in the sun in my backyard thinking. My thoughts are racing through my mind, chasing one another as much as I tried to chase passion the other night.
Much like my night with Liam ended, I can’t find satisfaction.
It’s been two days and nights since the ball, since I felt Liam’s touch. Since I learned the truth about Bailey’s mother and my heart broke for both of them. Instead of staying, which had been a real possibility before Bailey woke up, I laid my lips against his cheek and murmured, “You need time.”
He walked me to the door that night and embraced me one last time before causing a fissure in a heart I’d only just repaired. The thing is, his words repaired it just as quickly. “I wouldn’t be the kind of father I promised myself I’d be if I didn’t take into account that whatever happens between us will have a lasting effect on Bailey. She loves you, Laura.”
“I love her too.”
“I just want to make certain what I want isn’t going to deprive her of what she needs.”
I rode home in silence, clutching the bouquet he gave me earlier that night, bombarded by everything that had happened since I first walked out my front door and falling for the man who gave it to me with every second we were apart.
Turns out we both needed the time albeit, for very different reasons.
After getting home, I was startled to find another doll waiting for me—this one carrying a bouquet mimicking the one I was holding. Shattering my illusions about my stalker easing off, I whipped out my phone and contacted my father.
Within minutes, a team of agents swarmed my home. Not long after that, my father stormed up my driveway. He took one look at the doll and declared, “This ends soon. They need to get the evidence.”
“Daddy, do you know who it is?”
“I have an idea.” His voice is calm and steady.
“Because if Liam or Bailey is in danger, I have to let them know ...,” I began, but he whirled me to him.
“Laura, you can’t share with anyone what’s occurring. Not even your cousins.”
For a moment, instead of the safety of my father’s embrace, I’m hurled back into the arms of Paulie Tiberi. I scratched and clawed to escape the man who has treasured me since I was seconds old. My voice was hysterical when I shrieked, “Let. Go. Of. Me!”