A tear slid down her cheek, her expression mutinous and angry. “I am,” she said, her voice trembling. “At least, I might as well be. I should be.”
“You didn’t give birth to Riley.”
She sniffed loudly, another tear sliding down her cheek. “No. I didn’t.”
“Are you running from somebody? Is there something I need to know?”
“It’s not like that. I’m not hiding. I didn’t steal him. I have legal custody of Riley. But my situation was problematic. At least, as far as Child Services was concerned. I lost my job because of the babysitting situation and I needed money.”
She suddenly looked so incredibly young, so vulnerable... And he felt like the biggest prick on planet Earth.
She had lied to him. She had most definitely led him to believe she was in an entirely different circumstance than she was, and still, he was mostly angry at himself.
Because the picture she was painting was even more desperate than the one he had been led to believe. Because she had been a virgin and he had just roughly dispensed with that.
She had been desperate. Utterly desperate. And had taken this post with him because she hadn’t seen another option. Whatever he’d thought of her before, he was forced to revise it, and there was no way that revision didn’t include recasting himself as the villain.
“Whose baby is he?”
She swallowed hard, drawing her knees up to her chest, covering her nudity. “Riley is my half brother. My mother showed up at my place about a year ago pregnant and desperate. She needed someone to help her out. When she came to me, she sounded pretty determined to take care of him. She even named him. She told me she would do better for him than she had for me, because she was done with men now and all of that. But she broke her promises. She had the baby, she met somebody else. I didn’t know it at first. I didn’t realize she was leaving Riley in the apartment alone sometimes while I was at work.”
She took a deep, shuddering breath, then continued. “I didn’t mess around when I found out. I didn’t wait for her to decide to abandon him. I called Child Services. And I got temporary guardianship. My mother left. But then things started to fall apart with the work, and I didn’t know how I was going to pay for the apartment... Then I saw your ad.”
He swore. “You should have told me.”
“Maybe. But I needed the money, Joshua. And I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize your offer. I could tell you were uncomfortable that I brought a baby with me, and now I know why. But, regardless, at the time, I didn’t want to do anything that might compromise our arrangement.”
He felt like the ass he undoubtedly was. The worst part was, it shone a light on all the bullshit he’d put her through. Regardless of Riley’s parentage, she’d been desperate and he’d taken advantage of that. Less so when he’d been keeping his hands to himself. At least then it had been feasible to pretend it was an even exchange.
But now?
Now he’d slept with her and it was impossible to keep pretending.
And frankly, he didn’t want to.
He’d been wrestling with this feeling from the moment they’d gone out riding today, or maybe since they’d left his parents’ house last week.
But today...when he’d looked at her, seen her smile...noticed the way she’d gained weight after being in a place where she felt secure...
He’d wanted to give her more of that.
He’d wanted to do more good than harm. Had wanted to fix something instead of break it.
It was too late for Shannon. But he could help Danielle. He could make sure she always felt safe. That she and Riley were always protected.
The realization would have made him want to laugh if it didn’t all feel too damned grim. Somehow his father’s ad had brought him to this place when he’d been determined to teach the old man a lesson.
But Joshua hadn’t counted on Danielle.
Hadn’t counted on how she would make him feel. That she’d wake something inside him he’d thought had been asleep for good.
It wasn’t just chemistry. Wasn’t just sex. It was the desire to make her happy. To give her things.
To fix what was broken.
He knew the solution wouldn’t come from him personally, but his money could sure as hell fix her problems. And they did have chemistry. The kind that wasn’t common. It sure as hell went beyond anything he’d ever experienced before.
“The truth doesn’t change anything,” she said, lowering her face into her arms, her words muffled. “It doesn’t.”
He reached out, taking her chin between his thumb and forefinger, tilting her face back up. “It does. Even if it shouldn’t. Though, maybe it’s not Riley that changes it. Maybe it’s just the two of us.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t have to change anything.”
“Danielle... I can’t...”
She lurched forward, grabbing his arm, her eyes wide, her expression wild. “Joshua, please. I need this money. I can’t go back to where we were. I’m being held to a harsher standard than his biological mother would be and I can’t lose him.”
He grabbed her chin again, steadying her face, looking into those glistening brown eyes. “Danielle, I would never let you lose him. I want to protect you. Both of you.”
She tilted her head to the side, her expression growing suspicious. “You...do?”
“I’ve been thinking. I was thinking this earlier when we were riding, but now, knowing your whole story...I want you and Riley to stay with me.”
She blinked. “What?”
“Danielle, I want you to marry me.”
Eight
Danielle couldn’t process any of this.
She had expected him to be angry. Had expected him to get mad because she’d lied to him.
She hadn’t expected a marriage proposal.
At least, she was pretty sure that was what had just happened. “You want to...marry me? For
