His Secret Child Read Free

thrusting tongue.
    This mad dizziness was a unique sensation. Sheila hadn't felt anything like it since the last time Caleb had kissed her. The night she had given him her virginity and her heart—and he had given her Danny.
    Suddenly remembering her son—Caleb's son, the child he didn't know he had fathered—Sheila ended the kiss and shoved against Caleb's chest.
    Cupping her hip, he pressed her into his arousal and groaned deep in his throat. "We were friends, even lovers for one night. There's no reason why we couldn't be again, since neither of us is attached."
    Pushing him away, Sheila glared at Caleb. Her heart wept for what could have been—and for what could never be. But she looked at him squarely, her eyes dry, her face void of emotion. Calmly and without anger, she said, "When you first walked into your old home a few minutes ago, you didn't even recognize me. I doubt you've given me, our former friendship or our one-night stand a thought in twelve years. I'm not one of your beautiful, sophisticated women, Caleb. I'm a widow and a mother, living in a little town in Tennessee. I'm not in the market for a brief affair with the hometown hero."
    She turned and walked away, out into the yard and down the gravel road at the side of the house. Standing on the back porch, Caleb watched her until she was out of sight. With every soft, natural sway of her womanly hips, his whole body throbbed with need.
    Sheila Hanley Vance had just put him in his place again. Something a woman hadn't done in a long time. Actually not since Sheila had slapped his face the first time he'd kissed her. Women didn't say no to Caleb Bishop, star athlete. Beautiful women, sexy women, rich women threw themselves at him on a regular basis. And now here he'd just been turned down by a big, rawboned, rather plain woman wearing a pair of faded overalls.
    Despite the aching need in his body, he laughed loud and hard and long. Hell, Sheila was right. There had to be a couple of dozen women in Crooked Oak who'd jump at the chance to go to bed with him if he needed a woman so damn bad. But as much as he'd enjoy female companionship, he needed his privacy even more. At least for a while. Until he'd come to terms with being back home. Until he decided what he was going to do with the rest of his life, now that his major league career was over.
    Sooner or later he would get tired of being alone out here. Sooner or later he'd want female companionship even more than he did right now. But the thought of bedding some starry-eyed fan didn't appeal to him. Just once, he'd like to make love to a woman who genuinely cared about him, the way Sheila had cared about him all those years ago.
    Sheila increased her pace as soon as she rounded the bend in the road and knew that Caleb could no longer see her. Breaking into a run, she raced homeward, wanting to put as much distance between Caleb Bishop and her as she possibly could.
    She hadn't meant for him to find her at his house; she'd meant to be long gone before he arrived. Now, as the March wind whipped loose strands of her hair against her cheeks and her heartbeat roared in her ears, tears that she could not—would not—shed lodged in her throat.
    Breathless and damp with perspiration, she bounded up the steps to her front porch. Slumping down on the top step, she covered her face with her hands and rested her elbows on her knees.
    When Tallie had phoned from Nashville to ask her to open up the house for Caleb's return, she'd wanted to tell her friend no. But she couldn't refuse. What excuse could she have possibly given Tallie? Even though Tallie had known Sheila had a crush on Caleb twelve years ago, she didn't know anything about that one night they'd spent together. And she didn't know the truth about Danny.
    Tallie probably thought she'd play matchmaker and throw Sheila and Caleb together, giving Sheila a chance with the guy she'd been in love with at eighteen. But the last thing Sheila wanted was Caleb