A Daddy For Christmas: Yuletide Baby Surprise / Maybe This Christmas...? / The Sheriff's Doorstep Baby

“You’re a princess. What you do makes the news.” Although even he was surprised at just how intense the media attention had become.

The hotel staff had closed off access to their floor aside from them and the Donavans, a measure taken after a reporter was injured on a window-washing unit trying to get a bonus photo. Rowan rubbed at a kink in the back of his neck, stress-induced from worrying his tail off about all the possible holes in the security. He wasn’t sure he felt comfortable taking Mari and Issa out of the hotel again, even with guards.

“But I wanted to bring positive coverage for Issa. Not all of these cranks...”

And she didn’t know the half of it. Troy had informed him about a handful of the more colorful leads the police hadn’t bothered mentioning. A woman claiming to be Mari’s illegitimate half sister had called to say the baby belonged to her. Another call had come from an area prison with someone saying their infant daughter resembled Issa and she thought it was her twin, whom they’d thought died at birth.

All of which turned out to be false, but there was no need to make Mari more upset by sharing the details. “My contacts will sift through them.”

“Who are these contacts you keep talking about? Like Hillary and her husband?” She picked up the glass again and sipped carefully.

His glass.

His body tightened as her lips pressed to the edge.

He cleared his throat. “I went to a military high school. Makes sense that some of them would end up in law enforcement positions.”

“It was a military reform school.” She eyed him over the rim of the tumbler through long lashes.

“Actually, about half were there because they wanted a future in the military or law enforcement.” He rattled off the details, anything to keep from thinking about how badly he wanted to take that glass from her and kiss her until they both forgot about talking and press conferences. “The rest of us were there because we got into trouble.”

“Your Alpha Brotherhood group—you trust these friends with Issa’s future?”