Ana Seymour Read Online Free

thumb. The back of her hand was no bigger than a quarter and felt as smooth as a polished stone. “She’s…beautiful,” he said finally.
    Kate looked up, and this time the smile was for him.“Yes, she is. We produced a beautiful child, Sean. And she’s smart, too,” she added eagerly. “She’s already talking.”
    Some of Sean’s fascination with the baby was diverted by Kate’s sudden abandonment of her hostility toward him. It appeared that when she was talking about the baby, she was so intensely positive that there was no room left for old resentments. “Is she now?” he asked with the light brogue he sometimes adopted when he was flirting. “I didn’t think babies could talk this young.”
    Kate was swaying back and forth in a natural, rocking motion to keep the baby content. She seemed to not even be aware of the movement. “Well, not exactly talking. But she makes sounds. And I think they mean something. She says a special goo goo that I think means ‘mama.’“
    Kate shifted her gaze upward again, her eyes laughing. Sean stared at her, entranced. “Mama, eh?” he said softly. “Well, now we’ll have to get her to start working on ‘papa.’“
    All at once, Kate seemed to realize how intently he was watching her, how close he was standing, and that the hand that had been stroking the baby now gripped Kate’s arm. She pulled away and walked past him toward the settee.
    “If you want to visit her while you’re in town, I won’t prevent you, Sean,” she said, sitting on one edge of the couch and laying the baby along the rest of it so that there was no room for Sean to resume his seat. “But I’m going to ask you to come back and doso when Jennie’s here. I don’t intend to spend time with you.”
    Sean’s eyes darkened. “I want to spend time with my daughter, Kate, but you’re the one I need to see. I didn’t come all this way to visit for a day or two.”
    Kate looked up at him. All the glow from her interaction with the baby had left her face. She was pale again. “How long will you be here?”
    Sean’s eyes went to the baby. “As long as it takes to convince you to marry me,” he answered tersely. The minute he said it, he knew it had been a mistake. He’d started out on the right path this morning with the flowers, the gifts for the baby, trying to get Jennie on his side. But meeting his daughter had rattled him. Suddenly it had become more important than he’d realized that he be able to stake his claim on her and on Kate.
    Kate made no reply for a long moment. Finally she leaned over, gathered the baby into her arms and stood. “Be prepared for a long stay then, Sean, because I’ll never agree to marry you. I loved you, I won’t deny it. I was young, and a fool. I thought poetry and flowers and pretty speeches meant that a man had a heart. Now I’ve learned that the sign of a true heart is someone who’s willing to work hard for his family. Someone who’s there when they need them. You weren’t here when I needed you, Sean. And now I don’t need you anymore.”
    The quiet dignity of her tone left Sean feeling for the second time that day like a chastised schoolboy. So far his visit had not gone as he’d anticipated when he left San Francisco. He’d expected that Kate wouldbe somewhat resentful over his abrupt departure, but once she’d given him a chance to explain and turn his charm on her again, he’d figured that they would resume the relationship where they had left off a year and a half earlier. She’d been a sweet, sensitive girl and he’d been her first romance. She’d been desperately in love with him, which he’d found stimulating and intoxicating. But it appeared she’d changed in more ways than one. If she was still in love with him, she was hiding it well. And the rub of it was, the more time he spent witn her, the more he realized that he was as intoxicated as ever.
    He looked down once again at his daughter. She was no longer interested in