Daddy's Double Due Date

Back at his office, Hunter spent the next six hours thinking about the situation. Even though he’d had nothing to do with the clinic error, he knew everyone, including his family, would fear he had gone back to his old ways of drinking and carousing. Given his past, he really couldn’t blame them. He couldn’t expect them to believe those days were over. Forever.

He leaned back in his chair, rubbed his burning eyes with his thumb and forefinger, then reread the clinic’s report for the twentieth time. Patient: Laura Ashley Morgen. Sperm donor: Hunter Morgan. He punched in his brother’s speed dial number, needing to talk to the one person who would shoot straight without judging him. But after realizing how news of the baby would hurt Jared, Hunter hung up.

He scanned the report Dianne had given him as she’d left for the day. Since moving to Hale a year ago, Ashley Morgen had been employed at Barnett & Williams. How ironic she should work for the defense firm that opposed him on most cases. Fate obviously had a cruel sense of humor. His gaze skimmed over the information. He paused. Dread knotted his gut. His heart raced. He held his breath and glanced at it once more. Marital status: single.

A sick feeling replaced the knot in his stomach. He scrubbed a hand over his face and swore. Events from his past rushed at him. There hadn’t been a day in the last fifteen years when he hadn’t mourned the loss of his unborn baby. He’d been the only one to grieve, a fact that had irreparably stretched his already-strained relationship with his father to the breaking point. Hunter had never been able to be the perfect son his dad had wanted. By the time Hunter had become a teenager, he’d given up trying to please his dad and turned rebellious. He’d done things to annoy his dad like spinning his tires in front of Buck’s law office. He’d even tried to outrun the police once. It all seemed so long ago.

Now, despite Hunter’s diligence to use protection, he had fathered a child with a woman he’d never met. A single woman who would likely have to struggle to get by. A woman who, without regard for the hell she would put him through, had made him a father, when that was something he hadn’t thought he would ever be ready to endure again. Especially not now when he still awoke sometimes at night with tears in his eyes over the child he had never had a chance to hold.

When Hunter had agreed to let his brother raise any child resulting from Lauren’s fertilization, it was because he’d known they would take great care of the baby. But more than that, he couldn’t bear to see his brother suffering the same want of a child that would never be. Even though donating his sperm would make him an uncle, godfather and part of the family, the decision had been much more difficult than he’d expected. But this situation was entirely different. He knew nothing about this woman, except for a few impersonal facts. Hunter had made a hell of a lot of mistakes in his life. He wouldn’t make another. Not when an innocent child was involved. His unborn child.

Ms. Morgen wouldn’t like his interference. By this time tomorrow, she would likely hate him. Hell, if the situation were reversed, he would pull together a brutal team of lawyers who would go for the jugular. But the clinic had set things in motion when they’d used Hunter’s sperm without his knowledge. If he was more like his father, he would put his feelings on hold and view this as an inconvenience. But he wasn’t like his father.

Fifteen years ago, he’d been way too young. A kid who had no say in his future much less a child’s. Back then he could only watch as his and Courtney’s parents had decided what was best. Hunter’s father had even prepared voluntary relinquishment papers for Hunter and Courtney to sign. Now Hunter was a grown man who knew that sometimes all the medical technology in the world couldn’t stop a woman from miscarrying. This time he would have a say. This time his father couldn’t force him to sign relinquishment papers. He would go to any length to see that this stranger safely delivered his child. Then he would get custody because unlike his father, Hunter intended to be there for his child.

Tomorrow he would pay Laura Ashley Morgen a visit. She needed to know he wouldn’t walk away from the child he had fathered.

Despite not wanting to take a child from its mother, he intended to have a say in any decision involving his child. The only way to make sure that happened was to seek full custody. He didn’t want to hurt this woman, but this time he would take care of his baby.

He had lost one when Courtney had miscarried their child in her fourth month. He wouldn’t lose another.

“I’m Hunter Morgan. I’m the father of your baby.”

Laura Ashley Morgen stared at the man she recognized as the assistant district attorney. She couldn’t think, couldn’t accept what he had just said. No one but the clinic knew she was pregnant. “No,” she said as a wave of dizziness made the room spin.

“Aw, hell. I knew I should have waited and talked to you at home tonight, but was anxious and afraid you’d run if you learned what had happened at the clinic.” Hunter swept Ashley up into his strong arms, despite her protests, and settled her in a conference room chair. He pushed her hair back and gave her a searching look with blue eyes that seemed to see into her soul, then he frowned as if not liking what he saw there. “Talk to me, Laura. Are you okay?”

Without waiting for her answer, he scooped ice into a plastic cup and filled it with water from a beverage tray she’d earlier carried into the conference room.

Recovering from the shock of his words, Ashley realized just how close Hunter Morgan stood and what he had called her. “Ashley,” she managed to say. “I go by Ashley.”

He nodded, then pressed the cup to her lips. “Drink this.”

Ashley sipped, not that he gave her much choice as he tipped the cup. Once the room stopped turning, she pulled away and drew a shaky breath, noticing that what she’d initially thought was anger in his eyes had been quickly replaced by concern.

His sudden lack of arrogance surprised her almost as much as the claim he’d made. She didn’t know a lot about Hunter Morgan, but hadn’t thought him the type to go out of his way for others. Even more surprising was her noticing something personal about the man she’d come to think of as aggressive, condescending, and disagreeable. And those were his good qualities.

He stared down at her hands clasped tightly over her abdomen, her child. Their eyes met and held when he touched the frosty container to her temple. Then he pushed her bangs back and eased the cup across her forehead, the condensation wetting her skin. His tender care was in direct opposition to the determined man she’d seen in action. “Feeling better?”

Ashley captured the hand holding the water and moved it aside. Somewhat off-balance by his nearness and her own confusing reaction, she responded with a nod. Still, she found herself unable to look away from the big man dressed in a dark suit that strained against his shoulders, the same shoulders that now blocked her view. “I—I just found out yesterday. That information is confidential. How could you possibly know?”

“The clinic made a mistake,” he said, as if that should explain it all. “They called me first because your test results were attached to my sister-in-law’s chart.”

“That’s impossible.”

“I have proof that they fertilized your eggs with my sperm.”

“But I talked with the clinic at length before deciding to go there. I can’t believe this happened.”

“They’re investigating now. Believe me, by the time I’m done with them, they’ll make sure it won’t happen again.” When Hunter offered her another drink, Ashley declined with a shake of her head. She noticed the tiny lines fanning outward from the corners of his blue eyes, eyes that made it hard to concentrate.

He placed the water on the tray, his movements sure and confident. “What happened isn’t my fault or yours, but there’s a baby involved. My baby. That’s why I’m here.”

Not liking the turn of the conversation, Ashley pushed from the chair, disregarding the hand he offered to steady her. The initial panic, which had caused the room to tilt, hadn’t eased much, but she refused to let him walk in and start issuing orders the way he did on legal matters. This involved her child. “I don’t know what this is all about or what you expect to accomplish, but you’re wasting your time. You have no right to this child. It’s mine. All mine. Only mine.”

He gave no outward reaction to her statement, but studied her for a long moment with crystalline eyes that made her uncomfortable. “I can prove I’m the father.” He ran his hand along his jaw, his whisker stubble making a rasping sound. “I don’t want to make this any more difficult on you than it has to be, but Texas law gives me certain rights. I want custody.”

Ashley’s knees almost buckled. “No. This is my child. If it’s money you want, then I can pay you for your…services.”

He watched her, his gaze intent. “You think I want your money? Lady, I’m the Kern County assistant district attorney.”

She returned his glare. “I know exactly who you are.”

“Morgan, I thought I heard you.” Ashley’s boss, Richard Williams, lumbered across the conference room’s plush carpet to face Hunter Morgan. “Is there a problem here?”

Ashley froze, unable to do anything but wait to see what, if anything, the assistant D.A. intended to say.

Hunter glanced at her. “Problem? No. Ashley and I were having a friendly disagreement over a common interest.”

Mr. Williams warned Ashley with a cutting look before turning his attention back to Hunter. “If you have a few minutes, I’d like to discuss the Thompson case.”

Without missing a beat, Hunter slipped into his prosecutor persona. “All right.”

“Have a seat, and I’ll get my client. I was going over with him what to expect at tomorrow’s arraignment,” Mr. Williams said.

When Ashley tried to follow her boss from the conference room, Hunter caught her arm, his hold firm, but gentle.

Once assured Mr. Williams wasn’t waiting outside the door, Ashley glanced at the long fingers that held her, then met Hunter’s frown with one of her own. “If I want to keep my job—and I do—then I need to get back to work.”

“We’ll continue this conversation over dinner tonight.”

Ashley checked the urge to chew on her bottom lip. She met his gaze, pleased she accomplished the feat without flinching. Father indeed. What proof could he possibly have? Under other circumstances, being assistant district attorney would give him a lot of bargaining power. But not for her child. Never for her child. “I’m busy.”

“Tomorrow at lunch, then?”

“I already have plans.”

His jaw tightened. “Tomorrow night?”

She tugged her arm free, rubbing the spot that still burned from his touch. “I can’t. If you’ll excuse me.”

“It doesn’t end here, Ashley. I won’t go away. Either agree to meet me, so we can do this nicely,” he said, the underlying threat in his voice letting her know nice was the last thing he intended to be. “Or, refuse, and we can engage in a custody battle in court with the entire world watching our lives being dissected, detail by ugly detail. Which do you want? It’s your call.” The flames leaping into his eyes blazed blue.

Ashley knew that no matter her decision, he would play to win. But so would she. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t want to do either. All I’ve ever wanted is a baby, this baby. You, the father—if that’s true—were never supposed to be in the picture.”

“But I am very much in the picture. I can prove I’m the father. I won’t go away until this is settled.”

“I refuse to enter into a tug-of-war over my child.”