Read Online That's My Baby! by Vicki Lewis Thompson - Free Book Online

me.”
    “She needs you.” He tightened his grip on her wrists. “And damn it, so do I.”
    “No, you don’t!” Tears of frustration filled her eyes. “You just need me for sex!”
    His throat ached with remorse. Of course she’d think that. He forced the words past the lump in his throat. “Oh, I need you for sex, all right. Like you wouldn’t believe. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg, sweetheart.”
    Her response was low and choked with tears. “I don’t believe you. Now let me go.”
    “No. Tell me what danger you’re in. I have a right to know.”
    She gazed up at him and he could tell from the turmoil in her eyes how hard she was trying to be tough, how desperately she wanted to handle whatever she was dealing with by herself.
    He couldn’t let her do it. “Tell me. For Elizabeth’s sake.” Saying the baby’s name, acknowledging her personhood, took another major effort on his part, but he figured it might turn the trick with Jess.
    It did. Her shoulders slumped. “Someone’s trying to kidnap me,” she murmured.
    “Oh, God.” He didn’t remember letting go of her wrists to wrap his arms around her, but all at once there she was in his arms, and he was holding on for dear life as he rocked her back and forth. He buried his face in her hair. “Oh, God, Jess.” He knew about kidnapping. In the political upheaval he’d just witnessed, people had been kidnapped all the time. They never came back.
    “It’s just like my dad predicted!” she wailed, hugging him tightly. “In Aspen I thought someone might be following me. Then a car tried to force me off the road one night. Thank God Elizabeth wasn’t with me. I got away, but I saw the same car following me another time, and I knew for sure then. Somebody has found out who I am. They’ve decided to snatch the Franklin heir.”
    With growing horror he listened as the story came tumbling out. She’d traded in her car for a different one, packed up the baby and taken her to the Rocking D for safekeeping. For the past six months she’d been on the run. But it had been a creative run.
    Using different disguises and modes of transportation, she’d tried to elude the kidnapper. But just when she thought she had, a man would follow her along a crowded street, far enough away that she couldn’t positively identify him, but close enough for her to suspect he was the same man. By keeping her wits about her, she’d stayed out of his clutches.
    When she was finished, Nat held her tight for a long moment. Then he sighed. “We’re calling the police.”
    “No!” She backed away from him. “The minute you do that, my parents will be all over this situation, and then my life as we know it will be over.”
    “Your life as you know it is totally screwed up!”
    “No, it isn’t.” She tucked her wayward hair behind her ears, which made her look like a schoolgirl. A sexy schoolgirl.
    He was determined not to be distracted. “The hell it isn’t. You have a kidnapper on your trail and you can’t even risk being close to your baby as a result.”
    “I can risk it now that you’re home.”
    “Now, wait a minute. Flattering as that sounds, I can’t have you thinking I’m an adequate bodyguard.”
    “You just said you’d changed. And I can see it. You’re more aggressive than you were seventeen months ago.”
    “I’m not a trained bodyguard, and your parents are exactly the people who could—”
    “Oh, gee, look at the time.” She glanced at her bare wrist and started back toward the bathroom. “Gotta run.”
    “Oh, hell.” He clamped a hand on her shoulder to keep her from disappearing behind the closed door. Holding her firmly by the shoulder, he heaved a gusty sigh. “Are you telling me that if I call your parents, you’ll take off and leave me to deal with them?” He didn’t relish the thoughtof facing Russell P. Franklin alone and announcing he’d gotten the Franklin heir with child.
    She glanced over her shoulder. Jess was