LITMIR.BIZ

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One

      “Fifty thousand dollars and the baby’s all yours.”

      Adam Quinn swallowed back a quick jolt of anger and studied his adversary. Kim Tressler was about thirty, with white-blond hair cut into a sharp wedge that clung to her cheeks. She wore a black, body-hugging dress that left little to the imagination. Her heavily lined blue eyes were narrowed on him and her mouth was a grim, red slash. She stood hipshot, with her infant son propped on her left hip.

      Deliberately, he kept himself from looking too closely at the baby. His dead brother’s son. Adam had to keep his head on straight to deal with this woman and that wouldn’t happen if he looked at Devon’s child.

      Adam was used to handling all sorts of adversaries. Owning one of the world’s largest construction and property development companies ensured that Adam regularly went head-to-head with many different types of personalities. And he always found a way to win. This time, though, it wasn’t business. It was personal. And it cut damn deep.

      Glancing down at the DNA test lying open on his desk, Adam saw proof that the baby’s father was Devon Quinn, Adam’s younger brother. He kept his gaze fixed on the paperwork even as he admitted silently that the test hadn’t been necessary. The baby boy looked just like Devon. So that meant there was no way Adam could leave the baby with his mother. Hell, he wouldn’t want to leave a dog with her. Kim came across as cold and mercenary. Exactly the kind of woman Devon would go for. Adam’s brother had always had miserable taste in women.

      With one major exception. Devon’s ex-wife, Sienna West.

      Adam felt a flicker of something he didn’t want to acknowledge, then deliberately pushed all thoughts of Sienna from his mind. He was dealing with a very different kind of woman at the moment, and he needed to focus.

      “Fifty thousand,” he repeated, slowly lifting his gaze to hers.

      “It’s fair.” She lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug and when the baby started fussing, she jiggled him furiously to try to silence him. Rather than looking at her child, she slid a fast, careful glance around Adam’s office and he knew what she was seeing.

      His inner office was huge, with a massive, mahogany desk that now stood between him and the woman. Wide windows offered a spectacular view of the Pacific, where surfers and boaters plied the water’s surface. Framed photos of some of his company’s more famous projects lined the battleship-gray walls, and wood floors were softened by deep, ruby-colored rugs. He’d worked hard to put his company where it was at the moment and damned if he cared for having her look around like everything in the place had dollar signs on it.

      When the infant subsided into whimpers, she shifted her attention back to Adam and said, “Look. This is Devon’s child. He promised to take care of me and the baby. He’s the one who wanted a kid. Now that he’s dead, all of that’s over. My career’s taking off and I don’t have the time to take care of it. I don’t want the baby. But since he’s Devon’s, I’m guessing you do.”

      No more motherly instinct than a feral cat. In fact, less, he told himself, immediately feeling sorry for the baby. At the same time, Adam couldn’t help wondering what the hell his brother had seen in this woman. Even considering that Devon had always been as deep as a puddle, why would he choose to make a child with a woman who was so clearly mercenary? She didn’t give a flying damn about her own child—or Adam’s brother.

      He swallowed hard at how easily she dismissed Devon and his memory. Adam’s younger brother had had his issues, but damn it, he deserved better than he was getting from his former lover. But that was Devon. He’d never thought beyond the next adventure. The next woman. Sadly, he’d never had a chance to move on from this one. And though he’d known about his child, he hadn’t left a will because he’d expected to live forever.

      Instead, he’d died in a horrific boating accident in the south of France just a little over six months ago. That wound was still fresh enough to bring a wave of pain that washed over Adam. When Devon died, it had been a year since Adam had spoken to him. Now he never would.

      “Does he have a name?” Since she’d only referred to the child as “the baby,” Adam wouldn’t have been surprised to find she hadn’t bothered to name him, either.

      “Of course he has a name. It’s Jack.”

      After their father. Adam didn’t know whether to be moved or angry. Devon had cut himself off from the family, and then named the child he’d never know after a grandfather dead long before his birth.

      Time for introspection later, he warned himself.

      “What took you so long to bring the baby to me?” Adam leaned back in his chair and studied her, still keeping his gaze from straying to the child.

      “I’ve been busy.” She shook her hair back from her face and winced when the child slapped one hand against her cheek. “Since all of the publicity revolving around Devon’s death, I’ve had several modeling gigs in France.”

      Money made on the broken bones of his dead brother. Kim was trading on being Devon’s last lover and clearly her child was slowing her down. Fury, ripe and rich, boiled and bubbled in the pit of his stomach and he knew he couldn’t afford to let her see it. Damned if Adam wanted to give the bitch a dime, but he also couldn’t see himself leaving a defenseless kid with such a cold woman.

      She sighed and tapped the toe of her high-heeled sandal against the hardwood floor. “Are you going to pay me or do I—”

      “What?” He stood abruptly, planted both hands on his desk and stared into her eyes. He was willing to call her bluff. Remind her that he was the one in charge here. She’d come to him, not the other way around. He had the power in this little scuffle and they both knew it. “What exactly will you do, Ms. Tressler? Drop him off at an orphanage? Try to sell him to someone else?”

      Sparks fired in her eyes, but wisely, she kept silent.

      “We both know you’re not going to do either of those things. Mainly, because I’d put my lawyers on you and they’d tangle your career up so tightly you’d be lucky to get a job posing beside a bag of dog food.”

      Her eyes narrowed and she breathed in fast, shallow gasps.

      “You want money, you’ll get it.” He’d avoided looking at the baby, but he couldn’t stand the thought of her even touching Devon’s kid a moment longer. He came around the edge of his desk, scooped the baby boy out of her grip and held him uneasily. The child stared at him through wide, unblinking eyes, almost as if he were trying to decide what he thought about the whole thing.

      Adam couldn’t blame him. The boy had been dragged halfway across the globe, and then handed off to a stranger. It was a wonder he wasn’t howling. Hell, it was a wonder Adam wasn’t howling. He hadn’t been around kids much and babies, almost never. By design.

      That was, apparently, going to change. Fast.

      “Fine. Then let’s finish our business and I’ll be on my way.”

      He dismissed her with a cool look, then hit the intercom button on his desk phone. When it took a few seconds for his assistant to answer, he knew Kevin had probably been listening at the door. No doubt, the man was ready to toss Kim Tressler out on her well-toned ass.

      “Kevin,” he said curtly. “Get legal in here. I need them to draw up an agreement. Now.”

      “On it.”

      “Legal?” Kim’s eyebrows lifted into high arches.

      “You think I’m handing you fifty thousand dollars without making sure it’s the last time you come to me for money?”

      Adam knew her type. Hell, before Devon died, Adam and the company had paid off dozens of women he’d grown tired of. Again, with the exception being Sienna West. When she and Devon had divorced, Sienna had refused

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