One Night Stand With The Wolf President

3

Chapter 3

Alicia hadn't even listed Jason's on Patrick's birth certificate. But it didn't matter how Jaden Clark Clifford had learned the truth, he was planning to use the baby against Jason. She couldn't let that happen. "Your plan isn't going to work, Jaden. Jason doesn't even know about Patrick.

"He will after you tell him."

"Tell Jason? she couldn't tell Jason. Not now. Not after all this time. "But I--”

"You what?"

Her knees wobbled. She sank onto the bed, grasping the edge with one hand to keep her balance. "I will do what ever you want. I will tell him tonight."

"I thought you had see things my way. You want me happy, Alicia. For your baby's sake, you want me happy. Understand?"

"Yes I understand." She forced herself to breath. She had to do some thing. Any thing. Spotting the Memo button on the answering machine, she pushed it. At last she could get Jaden's voice on tape. She would have proof if his threats. "After all I tell Jason, then what?"

"Can you tell me more now? Can't I do something? please." She couldn't just sit and wait. Not while Patrick was in the hands of this monster..Not while her baby was hungry and cold and wanted his mother. Not while Jaden Clark Clifford might--

She bit the inside of her cheek until the coppery taste of blood tingled her mouth. She couldn't think about what Jaden Clarke Clifford might do to Patrick. She couldn't function if she thought about that.

"You just let Harrington know he has a son. I will be in touch."

"Please. You can't do this to me. Give me back my baby, my precious baby--”

The line went dead.

......

Jaden Clark Clifford pulled his sweet, red Corvette to the curb in front of the little ranch house and killed the engine. Alicia Petrakis's question and challenges still rang in his ears. Damn. A woman's mouth was only good for one thing, and it sure as hell wasn't talking. He couldn't stand women who talked too much. Especially the smart, superior type like Alicia Petrakis.

He would have loved to do what he had gone to her house to do . He would have loved to grab her by her long res hair and out her in her place. He had been looking forward to it.

But then he had seen the baby.

He glanced at the sleeping bundle next to him on the passenger seat. His little pajama clad body. His Nearly white hair that barely covered his scalp.

Jaden Clark Clifford had learned a lot about Jason Hunter while he had been stewing in that hellhole. A lot about him. He knew Jason Hunter and the redhead had been tight. They had almost married, the private investigator he had hired had said. That's why Jaden Clark Clifford had chosen her as his first after getting out of prison.

That coupled with the fact that she had performed the DNA test that had gotten him out of prison seemed too ironic a combination to pass up. But seeing the kid had thrown him. He had figured the kid had to be Jason's.

Just as his chat with Alicia Petrakis had confirmed.

Jaden Clarke Clifford gathered the sleeping kid in his arms. Throwing the strap of the bag filled with baby things he had swiped from the bedroom over his other shoulder, Jaden Clark Clifford climbed out of his Vette. He carried the child to the door of the house and rang the bell.

A light blinked on in the bedroom. Great. Nanny had been asleep. She wouldn't be happy with him for waking her, but it couldn't be helped. As soon as she saw the baby, she had forgive him. Nanny never could hold a grudge.

The frilly white curtains over the front door's small window lifted and a withered eye peered out. It widened in surprise. The curtain fell and the door rattled then opened.

"Do you know what time it is Jaden?" Nanny stood in the door way watching him with stern yet gentle eyes, the way she used to every day when he was growing up.

He shoved the feeling aside and stepped past the old woman and into the house. He would never be puny and weak. Never again. And neither Jason Hunter's scathing words nor Alicia Petrakis's superior tone would make it so. Tonight he hadn't come for Nanny's comfort. He had come for her help.

He walked into a tiny living room jammed with so much furniture it would have looked like a warehouse if not for the crocheted doilies covering every surface.

Nanny followed him on tottering legs. "What do you have there? A child?

He turned his best pitiful expression on her. "My child, Nanny. His mother doesn't want him. she abandoned him as soon as I was freed from prison."

"Your child? That child is too young. You were in prison when it was conceived?"

"Haven't you heard of conjugal visits? They arrange for prisoner's, you know."

she nodded as if this was a totally plausible explanation.

Jaden Clarke Clifford laughed to himself. If she had brought that story, this was going to be easier than he had thought.

"I was in love with his mother. I wanted to marry her."

He dropped his head as if he were ashamed. "Unfortunately she didn't feel the same way for me. I had loved her from the dept of my heart and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her but she didn't agree or give me the chance."

Pity and concern washed over Nanny's wrinkled face.

"I need your help, Nanny. I need you to take little Bart."

She frowned.

"You know me," he continues, I can't take care of myself, let alone a baby."

Well that's true enough."

"Besides, I want my son to have the best care a boy can have. I want him to have the only thing that was good about my childhood. I want him to have you."

Nanny's old face softened into a smile