Honor Bound(38)

Lucas gently turned the baby this way and that in loving inspection. He rolled him over and supported him in one large palm while he smoothed his other hand down the infant's back and over the tiny buttocks. He touched each toe, each transparent fingernail, and examined the baby's ears.

Finally he laid the child on his thighs and looked up at her. "What is his name?"

She wanted to tell him it was none of his business, but unfortunately it was. "Anthony Joseph." She saw an immediate reaction to the name in his gray eyes. "I had a grandfather named Joseph, too," she said defensively. "I call the baby Tony."

Lucas glanced down at the child who was beginning to wave his fists fretfully. "When was he born?"

She hesitated, giving thought to fudging on the dates and thereby negating Lucas's paternity. But his stare demanded the truth. "May seventh."

"You were never going to tell me, were you?"

"There was no reason to."

"He's my son."

"He has nothing to do with you."

He barked a short laugh. "From now on, he has everything to do with me."

Tony was crying inn earnest now, the novelty of hearing a new, deeper voice having given way to hunger. Lucas lifted the baby to his shoulder, and immediately the wet little mouth went blindly searching. The most unexpected sound Aislinn had ever heard was Greywolf's soft chuckle. "That's one thing I can't do for you, Anthony Joseph." Holding the baby in his arms, he stood up and extended Tony toward his mother. "He needs you."

She took the child and laid him back in his crib, hurriedly replacing the diaper Lucas had taken off. She was made clumsy by the baby's strenuous protests, his churning arms and legs, and by Lucas's watchfulness. When Tony was once again dressed and diapered, she lifted him to her shoulder and carried him to the rocker. Sitting there, she rocked him, patting his back and crooning softly. All ineffectually.

"He's hungry," Lucas said.

"I know that," she snapped, taking offense at his implication that she didn't know her own baby's needs.

"Well then? Feed him."

She looked up at Lucas, the baby acting as a fragile shield she held in front of her. "Will you excuse me?"

"You mean will I leave the room?"

"Yes."

"No."

They continued to stare each other down. Miraculously, Lucas was the first to relent. He turned his back and went to stand looking out the window after adjusting the shutters to allow him a view. Aislinn knew then that if this hard man were ever vulnerable about anything, it would be this son. An unbreakable bond had already been established between them, though Lucas hadn't even known the child existed until minutes ago. Would that he didn't know now. He could make her life hell.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Aislinn, ignoring his question, unbuttoned her blouse and pulled down the cup of her nursing bra. Tony lustily latched onto her nipple and began to suck noisily. She draped a light flannel blanket over her shoulder to cover herself and the baby's head.

"I asked you a question." This time Lucas's tone was imperative.

"Because Tony is my baby."

"He's mine, too."

"You're not sure of that."

He swiveled his head around abruptly. Had modesty not made her flinch, the incisive gray eyes would have. "I'm sure." He was so positive there was no sense in arguing the point. So what if she beat him in a contest on semantics? The facts would remain the same. Tony was his.

"Tony was a biological … accident," she said by way of concession.

"Then why didn't you just get rid of him?"

A shudder ran through her body. "Why didn't you just get rid of it?" her mother had screamed at her when Aislinn informed her parents of her pregnancy. Purposefully she had waited to tell them until it was too late for an abortion, knowing that termination would have been their solution to "the dilemma."

Why hadn't she terminated the pregnancy? Before she went to the doctor, she had had a niggling suspicion in the back of her mind as to the cause of her afternoon malaise. Then there had been the morning bouts with nausea, the sudden bursts of appetite and the sour indigestion after satisfying it. All unusual.

She hadn't consciously entertained the idea that she might be pregnant. She hadn't allowed herself to. But when the doctor told her his laboratory-verified diagnosis, she hadn't been shocked or even surprised. In fact, her first reaction had been a stupendous rush of joy.

After that initial reaction, when reality had set in, she gave considerable thought to the negative ramifications of rearing a child as a single woman. She recognized the grave repercussions, but never did she consider having the pregnancy terminated.

From the moment she had learned of his existence, she loved the child fiercely. Her life suddenly had purpose and meaning. Now she had something to look forward to. There were goals to be met, horizons to move toward.

So now she could answer Lucas's question without hesitation or qualification. "I desperately wanted the baby." Reaching beneath the blanket, she laid her hand on Tony's soft head, lightly rubbing it while he avidly sucked at her breast. "I have loved him from the beginning."

"Didn't you think I was entitled to know about him?"