The Cowboy and His Baby by Sherryl Woods

green eyes, he reclaimed her mouth, lingering this time, savoring, remembering.
    He felt her hands on his chest, tentative at first, then more certain as she slid them up to his shoulders and clung. Her body fit itself neatly, automatically, into his, the movement as natural as breathing and far, far more exciting.
    Cody couldn’t believe he had ever walked away from this. He couldn’t imagine how he had lived without the sweetness of her kisses or the heat of her body pressed against his. The swirl of sensations was overpowering, demanding…and totally inappropriate for a sidewalk in plain view, he realized as a passing car honked and the teenage driver shouted out encouragement.
    Melissa backed away as if she’d been burned. Her face was flaming with embarrassment. A warningflashed in her eyes, turning them the shade of soft jade in sunlight.
    â€œThat can’t happen again,” she stated emphatically.
    â€œIt can and it will,” Cody said with just as much certainty. “Count on it.”
    Alarm flared in her expression. “No, Cody, this isn’t about you and me anymore.”
    â€œSure it is, darlin’. It always was.”
    â€œNo!” She practically shouted it, as if volume might make her edict clearer. “You and I are over. You saw to that.”
    Cody dropped his own voice to a seductive growl. “We’ll see,” he taunted.
    â€œDammit, Cody, do you or do you not want to see your daughter?”
    â€œOf course I do,” he said, amused that she seemed to think the two concepts were diametrically opposed. “Meeting Sharon Lynn has absolutely nothing to do with my intentions toward you.”
    â€œYes, it does,” she said stubbornly.
    â€œYou’re not keeping me from my daughter,” he responded emphatically. “And you’re not going to put up much resistance, once I set my mind to winning you back.”
    A scowl darkened her face. “You are the most arrogant, most infuriating man on the face of the earth. It’s too late, Cody. You couldn’t win me back if you courted me from now till we’re both tottering around in orthopedic shoes.”
    A grin tugged at his lips. “Is that a challenge?”
    â€œThat’s a guarantee.”
    Chuckling at her sincere conviction that she could win a test of wills with him, he took her hand and headed for the house.
    â€œYou don’t have a chance, sweet pea,” he told her solemnly as he ushered her inside, where Velma was waiting, her gaze wary. He lowered his voice to taunt one last time, “You don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.”
    Melissa never responded because her mother spoke up just then.
    â€œYou brought him,” Velma said, her tone accusing.
    â€œYou knew I would,” Melissa told her mother. “Where’s Sharon Lynn?”
    â€œDown for her nap,” she said, a note of triumph in her voice. “There’s no need to wake her.”
    Cody was aware of the undercurrents between mother and daughter. Clearly, Velma was angry about his presence. Once again he had the sense that she feared him having any contact at all with his child.
    Melissa shot him a vaguely apologetic look. “I’ll get her,” she said.
    He fell into step beside her. “Don’t wake her. I’ll come with you. Let me just look at her for now. Your mother’s right. There’s no need to wake her yet.”
    If he had expected the suggestion to gain Velma’s approval, he failed. He should have saved his breath. An expression of doom on her face, she trailed along behind them. He had the feeling she would have thrown herself across the threshold to the bedroom if she’d thought it would keep him away from her granddaughter.
    He couldn’t waste time worrying about Velma, though. From the instant he stepped into the room his gaze was riveted to the child asleep in the crib. She was sleeping on her stomach, her