Millionaire Dad's SOS by Ally Blake Page B

ever since she’d got off the phone from saying goodnight to Olivia and Violet, Brendan’s girls.
    They’d sounded bright, cheery, happy. What had she expected? They were seven and four, and they had ponies, ballet lessons, piano, rock climbing, Chinese and French lessons, summer trips around the world with their grandmother, twenty-year-old nannies who spoilt them rotten, and a dad who clearly wrestled with the amount of time he spent at work while they grew up without him there to see it.
    But as she lay back on her bed, the pale summer moon spilling light through the far window creating a hypnotic play of light and shadow on the ceiling,the fairy dust cleared from her eyes and Ruby’s small face looked back at her instead.
    She’d seen so much of herself in the kid’s mutinous streak. That spark could be so easily deflated. Or worse, it could spin out of control. She hoped not. With all her might. Not just for Ruby. But also for Zach.
    Big, bad, daunting, noble, solid Zach Jones.
    Growing up in her family, the only kind of masculine strength she’d understood till she met him had been overt. Overpowering. Uncompromising.
    Zach’s strength came from somewhere much deeper. A place he didn’t feel compelled to proclaim to the world. The fact that she’d been allowed to witness it in the revelation of how he’d changed his life for his little girl made it that much more compelling. It was like seeing a fireman rescue a kitten from a tree.
    She’d hate to see all his good work go to waste. But since Zach’s parenting skills were now obviously nothing like her father’s, Ruby might not need the intervention her adolescent mutiny necessitated after all. She struggled with deciding what to do.
    One thing she knew had been a bad decision on both their parts had been that kiss.
    Her fingers lifted to stroke her lips as they must have done a few dozen times that afternoon. She could still taste his sweetness, sense his warmth allaround her, feel his hardness imprinted on every inch of her body as if it had happened mere moments ago.
    Soft, dreamy, luxurious, deep, unguarded, magic.
    And indefensible. Because Zach Jones had a child.
    When she’d ruled out any chance of having kids of her own, kids who—just because they were hers—would never live up to her father’s expectations of them, it had never occurred to her that she might one day meet a man who came with kids of his own. Her usual types were never that proactive.
    Then Zach had to come stomping into her life, shaking loose old choices she’d never thought she’d have to revisit again.
    But no. Her nieces were living proof of why she’d done the right thing.
    They seemed fine, now. But they were little kids. They ought to wear gumboots and get into mud-pie fights, not wear dresses and tights and patent leather shoes when playing in the backyard.
    The pressure for them to live up to her father’s unwavering ideal of what a Kelly had to be was mounting. And soon they’d be old enough to feel it. Soon they’d be old enough to know.
    There was no way she’d wish that pressure on any child. Not by blood, and not by association. Because she knew the consequences.
    She threw her phone across the room and it landed with a thud on a couch in the corner.
    She tried humming Stevie Wonder to clear herhead, but it didn’t work. Zach’s deep voice rang louder still.
    She liked the guy. She adored how he kissed. She was smitten with his efforts to do right by Ruby. And she was in his debt for letting her get away with the unforgivable slip about her exceedingly private dealings with her father.
    But she wasn’t any good for him any more than he would be good for her. He might not see it yet, but he had the natural inclination to be some kind of dad. He’d want more kids down the line, and with her insides the way they were she could never give them to him.
    Meg turned on her side, tucked her thighs against her belly, and slid her hands beneath her pillow. The