The Best Man's Baby Read Online Free Page A

no cell phone towers?” She yanked her wrist from his grasp.
    “You’re not getting rid of me that easily. We have to talk.”
    …
    Claire’s pretty brown eyes fired up as Jake all but forced himself into her house. He wasn’t used to her being mad at him. As he stepped into the pristine kitchen, he was momentarily distracted by his surroundings. He’d never been in her house. Funny, he’d known her practically his entire life but knew very little about the woman. Not true. He’d always known Claire was too good for him. Too pretty. Too perfect. Too sweet.
    On his way over here, after escaping an imminent beheading at Quinn and Holly’s, he’d stopped on the old lift bridge, gotten off his bike, and just stared into the river. The self-loathing he’d felt nearly made him want to jump. How could he make mistake after mistake in his life? And what about her father? He owed Reverend Holbrook much more than knocking up his daughter. Times like this made him think his own father had been right about him.
    His older brother, Quinn, had salvaged the family business. His younger brother was a surgeon. But Jake…he didn’t know what he was. Actually, he did know. His father had never failed to remind him exactly what he was, either verbally or physically, every day since he’d found out the truth. There were things about himself he was too embarrassed and too ashamed of to ever confide in anyone, even his brothers, and especially not to Claire. She would never understand. She had grown up with perfect parents, in a perfect home, and was the cherished daughter of two of the town’s finest citizens.
    Tonight he was an ass. No, the night of the wedding he’d been an ass. Sure, he had no idea when they stumbled into the suite that Claire was a virgin, but still. Claire was not your one-night-stand kind of girl and he knew that. That was his other problem—it had been the best night he’d ever had with a woman. His need to have his hands and mouth on her, all over her, had taken over all logic. He’d had an overwhelming urge to drown in the passion she was offering, in the sweetness she embodied, and it had been all-consuming, hot and passionate. For the first time in his life he’d connected with someone. What they shared had nothing to do with experience, with the right touch, the practiced moves…it had been real, raw.
    But then they’d each fumbled with their clothes, getting dressed like two strangers, not like two people who’d just shared the most intimate act together. He’d mumbled something about having to leave early, and then he left her there, alone. He had left Claire, the woman he’d avoided his entire adulthood because he thought she was too good for him, alone after taking her virginity. Even when her eyes had glistened with tears and she’d lifted her chin proudly, even when he knew he was breaking her heart, he’d left. So, right now, whatever attitude she was dishing out, he deserved.
    He glanced around the kitchen while Claire clanked vases and mumbled under her breath. He would have bet he heard a few expletives in all that grumbling. Everything in her house was perfect. Feminine, sure, but perfect. Tiny, but cute. There wasn’t a thing out of place. It even smelled feminine and flowery. Hell, if he hadn’t been so blindsided by the pee-stick news he might have felt compelled to take off his shoes.
    A snippy voice yanked him from his thoughts. “So, what do you want to talk about?”
    He didn’t answer for a moment. He was caught off guard by how appealing she was. Claire was beautiful. Sure, he’d always sort of known that, but she’d been off-limits to him. He knew her father probably wouldn’t approve of them dating. As he looked at her, standing in her jeans and shirt on the other side of the breakfast bar, he wondered how he could have repressed his attraction to her for so many years.
    He let his eyes wander over her perfectly formed body, looking for a hint of something, even