Avery awoke to soft sheets, and the glare of the morning light trickling in through the windows. She moaned and stretched, shedding off the remaining glimpses of a dream. She kept her eyes shut while soaking in the warmth of the covers.

Reality intervened when she suddenly recalled where she had fallen asleep at some point during the early hours of the morning. She peeked through her eyelashes and cringed. Where she still was.

She turned her head and her vision was filled with warm, caring eyes that shimmered as clear as the blue sky outside. She became aware of the heat of his body and his legs that were entwined with hers. His head rested on his bend arm as he gazed at her, drawing slow circles with his palm on her stomach.

“I’ve often wondered who the delightful masked woman was who seduced me that night. I even tried to find you but none of my friends knew your identity.”

“You tried to find me?” Avery asked with wonder in her voice.

“Yeah, but eventually I had to give up.”

He stroked the gentle curve of her belly. His expression turned serious, thoughtful.

“Twice in my life I’ve fucked a woman without protection. Once, a little black masked elf on Christmas Eve a year ago, and the second time, a saucy little chef against her car in the cold night. It’s a miracle I didn’t leave you with a little Christmas present the first time.”

Stone’s hand stopped its gentle caress when her body turned rigid under his palm. His watchful glare sucked something out of Avery. She visibly wilted as he clipped her name through tense lips.

“Avery?”

She lowered her eyes and dragged the covers higher to cover her nakedness. She tried to swallow the bile that tasted bitter in her mouth. Fear began to unfurl inside her body.

“You better start talking. Did I make you pregnant last year?”

“Stone, you—”

“Answer me, damn you!”

“Yes! Okay, yes, you did!”

His body turned into a statue, hard, unmoving and as cold as granite. His gaze fell onto her like an act of violence, a glare to stop her heart.

Oh god, I waited too long.

“Did you have an abortion?” The level of his voice had dropped to such an extent that Avery had to strain to hear him. She could see the censure flashing in every shimmer of fury in his eyes.

“No”.

“Did you have a miscarriage?” He snapped immediately.

Avery took longer to answer, and when he reached for her to drag her up against him, she cried fearfully, “No!”

His eyes turned into orbs of violence that set shudders of fear to course through her.

“Are you saying you had my baby and didn’t bother to tell me?”

“Stone, please. I need to—”

“Answer me, Avery. And don’t give me some cock and bull story that you didn’t know where to find me. You knew who I was. I didn’t wear a mask at that ball. All you had to do was pick up a fucking phone and ask Dave for my number.”

He snorted at the shocked look on her face.

“Yes, Avery, once I realized who you were, I remembered the day you ended up on your ass. You have had ample opportunities to reach me.” He shook her hard. “I’m waiting Avery, and my patience is running out,” he stated flatly through clenched teeth.

“Yes,” she said. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. Avery saw the darkening of his gaze as an indication of the beginning of the end of what had just started to develop between them. “I had a little boy. His name is Wyatt and he’s three months old.”

Stone’s eyes hazed over. His face turned pale and the look flayed her bare. She cringed and trembled in the face of his fury.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she whispered.

“How am I supposed to look at you, Avery? You kept my child from me—my flesh and blood. You had no right to do that.”

He got up and began to yank on his clothes.

“Get dressed,” he spat with anger.

“Stone, let’s just discuss this, please.”

“There’s nothing to discuss. You had a year to talk to me. You chose not to. Now, I have no interest in listening to your lies.” He seared her with a derogatory look. “I said, get dressed.”

Avery bit her lip and forced back the tears that burned behind her eyelids. Crying now wouldn’t achieve anything. Especially not when it was her own fault. She didn’t know how she managed to get dressed based on how badly her fingers trembled.

“Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

He spun around with a look that condemned her all the way to hell and back.

“I’m going to meet my son, Avery. And I fucking warn you, don’t even think to attempt to keep him away from me.”

Those were the last words either of them spoke all the way to her house. Jill and Kim were in the kitchen having coffee when they arrived.

They couldn’t miss the suppressed anger from the man who stood behind Avery, his hands curled into tight fists.

“Well, I guess we better get going. He’s just been fed, Avery, so he’s sleeping,” Kim intoned gently with a quiet smile of encouragement.

Avery was tempted to beg them to stay, but one look at Stone stopped her from asking. She smiled tremulously, and watched them leave before silently leading Stone upstairs to Wyatt’s room.

Stone examined the room that Avery had turned into a soothing environment for a little boy. Animated animal pictures adorned the soft gray walls that were trimmed in white.

Avery leaned into the crib to plant a soft kiss on Wyatt’s cheek, brushing her finger over his brow. A small frown appeared on his forehead. She smiled as he began to wiggle and twist until he managed to squirm his hands from the tight blanket.

“He hates his hands to be contained within the blanket,” she whispered, aware of Stone standing next to her, his gaze glued on the tiny baby.

“Me too,” he said through unmoving lips. Instead his mouth remained in a grim line amid his neat stubble. He didn’t move, needing to savor the moment—the first time he laid eyes on his son. He reached out and touched Wyatt’s tiny starfish-shaped hand, dragging a painful breath into his lungs in reaction to the small fingers that curled around his.

“I want to be alone with my son.” Stone didn’t hide the rancor in his voice, intended to cut all the way into her soul.

Avery knew better than to argue and walked to the door. She glanced back, her eyes blurred as she watched Stone gently lift Wyatt in his arms, cradling him against his wide chest. The expression of wonder and instant fatherly love took her breath away.

Stone had helped raise Jesse and had been there since his birth. He knew what it felt like to hold a baby, but the emotions that soared through him when he held his own son was overwhelming; unsurpassed by anything he had ever experienced before. Stone struggled to swallow down the lump that formed in his throat. He cherished the feeling of lightness created by holding Wyatt’s perfect little body against him. Stone deeply inhaled the soothing baby smell as though he had never held a baby before. But this was different.

Wyatt was his.

Stone was startled when in the next moment he found himself staring into shining blue-green eyes as Wyatt woke up the same way he himself always did. Alert and wide awake. Wyatt stared at him unblinkingly, like he was assessing the role this big man would play in his life. He emitted a soft baby gurgle followed by a satisfied smile and closed his eyes.

In that brief moment, the bond between father and son was woven—their souls forever tied.

Stone kissed his soft cheek and didn’t bother to wipe the tears from his own. His vow echoed in the room, “I will protect and love you all my life, my son.”

He sat down in the rocking chair next to the crib and stared at the precious bundle in his arms for a long time. No thoughts, just the realization that the one thing he’d been yearning for had been granted. He cherished that hour he sat with the tiny bundle in his arms, offering his warmth while soaking in the trust he believed the little human had given him with that one brief glance.

Stone placed Wyatt carefully back in the crib and covered him with the blanket. His little hands felt cold and a search in the drawers offered the tiniest little baby mittens which he gently pulled over each of his hands. He stared at him for a moment longer before he went downstairs in search of Avery.

He found her at the kitchen counter, staring out the window with a mug of hot chocolate in front of her.

“I made a decision,” he said caustically; a tone of ambivalence in his voice. He watched her as she silently prepared hot chocolate for him and handed him the steaming mug. He noticed how her hands trembled when she ran them through her hair.

“You made the wrong choice not to inform me that I was going to be a father, Avery.”

“It was one night, Stone. One and you . . . I didn’t think you were ready to be a father,” she admitted softly.

“You didn’t fucking know me,” he grated through thin lips. “You had no right to keep something this important from me. He’s as much my flesh and blood as he’s yours.”

Avery forced back the fear that made her insides quiver. Surely Stone wouldn’t be so cruel to take her child from her? His next words shocked her even more than her thoughts did.

“We’re getting married.”

“We . . . no, Stone,” she croaked. “We can’t get married.”

“Yes, Avery, we are.” He rinsed the mug and placed it in the dishwasher to give him time to get his thoughts in order. “I don’t trust you. You kept my own child’s existence from me. I refuse to allow you the opportunity to disappear with him.”

Avery stared at him with dismay but couldn’t blame him for his mistrust.

“I would never do that, Stone. My whole life is here. I have nowhere else to go.”

“Good, then it’s settled. We—”

“No, it’s not settled. I’m not getting married to you just because you’re the father of my child. That’s not why two people get married. What about mutual respect, love and . . . happily ever after?”

He walked toward her, smirking when she retreated until he pressed her against the wall. He pushed his face into hers.

“If you think for one moment that I will allow another man into my son’s life to be a father figure to him, you are sadly mistaken. Wyatt will only know one Dad and it’s going to be me. You brought this on yourself, Avery. My son will know what it’s like to have both parents in his life—together, and we will make a marriage work for his sake. Come hell or high water.”

He spun away and stalked to the front door. “Start packing, Avery. I will pick you and Wyatt up this afternoon.”

“What do you mean?” she cried after him.

He seared her with a scathing look over his shoulder. “You’re moving in with me and we’ll be married in two weeks.” He continued through the door only to walk back in seconds later. “It will be a proper wedding, Avery. Church bells, white lace and flowers, the whole nine yards, so I suggest you and your friends start planning.”

“But—”

He didn’t wait to hear her protests and she stared at the closed door. She wilted under the realization that her dream was about to come true. To be the bride of Stone Jenning.

If only it had been because he loved her, then, it would have been the perfect ending. Somehow, the cold expression on his face indicated to her that what he was offering was anything but wedded bliss.