Oh, God. Shock washed over her. Icy. Sickening. She had to leave. Now.

Before she could turn and get the hell out, Jesse caught sight of her, pulled free of the blonde’s ass, and shoved the bottle aside with a creative string of curses.

Kimber didn’t wait to see if he was going to dress first orchase her down the hall wearing nothing but a condom.

She made it to the hall before he came at her, white bath towel around his waist, and pushed her back into her empty bedroom.

“Shit, babe. Oh, hell. I—”

“Don’t say anything.” She closed her eyes, but still kept seeing the scene in her mind.

“I’m sorry. This doesn’t mean anything. She doesn’t mean anything!” Kimber flashed ahead to her future. If she actually married Jesse, she had a feeling she’d be hearing those words a lot. And he’d actually mean them…in his way. But she couldn’t change a man who, deep down, didn’t want to give up his wild-child ways.

He’d see that when he was ready, and she could only hope that he wouldn’t hate her in the meantime.

“It does mean something.” Kimber wheeled her suitcase out the bedroom door.

“It means we weren’t meant to be and I’m leaving.”

“No. I don’t love her. I don’t even know her name! I was horny and she was available and I didn’t want to ruin you. Because you—you I need.”

“You don’t,” she countered. “What you need is to look at yourself and decide what you want your life to be. It’s best if you do that alone. Call me if you’re serious about changing yourself, and I’ll be your friend. But I won’t be your crutch, and I won’t be your wife.” She leaned in to kiss his cheek. “I’m not angry, but I have to go.

Good-bye.”

Three days later, her cell phone rang. Again. Kimber lifted her head from the couch in the family room at her dad’s house after dozing. Four o’clock in the afternoon. Wow, a whole eight minutes since the last time the phone rang. A quick peek at the caller ID revealed the name of someone she’d never heard of.

Damn it.

Shaking her head, she flipped it open. “No comment.”

“Reporters?” her dad asked as she slammed the phone shut again.

“I assume so. I don’t talk long enough to find out.”

“No one threatening has called, have they?”

She shook her head. “How about you?”

Dad rubbed the back of his neck, where he kept all his tension. “A voice mail and a fax in the last three days. This asshole is a loon. I just don’t know how serious a loon.”

“Are you worried?”

He hesitated, grimaced, shrugged…then finally confessed, “Yeah. My gut tells me he’s real serious. I really want you to be careful when you leave the house.” Kimber sat up. Her dad was hardly ever worried. Cautious, yes. But worried…

This was a bad sign. Very bad. “What does he say in his messages?”

“Oh, the usual. Payback for busting him and testifying so that he did time. He missed out on his little girl growing up, blah, blah, blah.”

“Does that tell you who you’re dealing with?”

Her dad shook his head. “It could still be one of a dozen loons. Remember, I’ve been in business for nearly fifteen years. If you get a threatening call, you tell me.

But I’d feel better if you just turned your phone off.” Before she could respond, it rang again. Another unfamiliar number.

“No comment.” Kimber sighed and shook her head. When would these reporters get a clue?

“You’d probably feel better if you turned the phone off, too. Hell, girl. Those people are going to keep calling all day and all night as long as they know you’ll answer.” Her dad sounded every bit as irritated as she was.

“I know.”

“Then turn it off. Or are you keeping it on so that you can take another call from Jesse?”

Kimber grimaced. She really didn’t want to discuss this with him. “Dad…”

“I know he called again last night. Sounded like he begged you to come back.” It had been three days since the engagement announcement and her departure.

Since then, he’d called day and night, nearly as often as the reporters trying to get the scoop on their relationship and why she was no longer on tour with him. Just last night he’d called drunk and confessed that he was sleeping next to another girl whose name he didn’t know. And he was miserable.

“He’ll stop eventually.”

“Kimber, honey, underneath that tough exterior that Logan and Hunter beat into you as a kid, you have a soft heart,” he said warmly—a side of him he didn’t show to anyone but her, and it never failed to make her feel loved. “You need to tell that boy to move on with his life. Be firm.”

“I am, but it’s not that simple. He needs a friend right now. I’m it.”

“You can’t save him from himself.”

“I told him that.”

“So why are you keeping that phone on?”

Because she’d made a decision. Being with Jesse had shown her the difference between a crush and real love, between a girl’s hopes and a woman’s wants. She wasn’t a girl anymore, and she wanted Deke. Luc was a big part of his life, and she cared about them both. That’s where she belonged. Everyone knew it but Deke.

She’d let him run her off. Time and perspective had helped her to understand that Deke hadn’t meant an ugly word he’d hurled at her that night. But she’d let herself feel the hurt and dashed off.

Stupid, emotional decision.

Despite her mental bravado, Kimber couldn’t bring herself to call their house. If Deke answered and rejected her… No, she wasn’t voluntarily signing up for pain.

He’d give her plenty of hell later, when she tried to ingrain herself back in his life.

But Luc would call. Soon. And that’s why she left her phone on. He’d want to know the scoop between her and Jesse. When she told him it was over, maybe he’d tell Deke. Maybe it would make a difference…

She grimaced. God, that sounded so high school. If she wanted something, it was up to her to make it happen. Kimber knew that. She’d known it when she’d seen her doctor and started taking the pill two days ago. She’d known it yesterday when she left a message on Luc’s cell phone and indicated that she wanted to talk to him.

“By the way, who the hell is Luc?” her dad asked.

Kimber’s head snapped up. “How do you know about him?”

“When you turned off your phone late last night, he called me to ask if you’re okay. Why does he care and how do you know him?”

“Luc Traverson, the chef.”

“The one with the cookbooks? How did you meet him?”

“He’s Deke Trenton’s cousin.” She didn’t offer more information. She didn’t dare.

Her dad would figure it out anyway.

His eyes narrowed. “You didn’t tell me how you met him.”

“Dad, it’s really not important.”

“Bullshit. The reason you don’t turn off your phone when these reporters are hounding you has something to do with this guy. Why? You couldn’t have met Luc while you were away at school.”

Kimber pretended rapt interest in the TV. It wouldn’t be long now, and she wished desperately that something fascinating would flash on the screen and distract her dad. A beer commercial, despite the big-breasted blonde, wasn’t going to do it.

“You could only have met him through Deke. Why would you see Deke? He always had a hard-on for you and treated you like hell for it. Years ago, I told him if he touched you, I’d cut his balls off.”

Why didn’t that surprise her? She wished that was the reason Deke had refused to make love to her…but she knew better.

“You know what sort of sex Deke is into, right?” Kimber winced. Here it comes…

“Of course you know. Before you went to Jesse, you…talked to Deke about it? Or did you more than talk?”

“Dad, I’m not seventeen anymore.”

“Shit!” The Colonel sighed, raking fingers through his salt-and-pepper hair. Even at forty-eight, he had the look of a warrior.

He prowled the family room like a caged animal. Dad was a man of action, and all this talking had to be grating for him. Kimber tried to hide her smile.

“This isn’t funny,” he warned.

Clearly, he was not amused by the knowledge that she’d seen Deke and possibly partaken in a ménage. “I didn’t imply it was.” Jesse’s face flashed across the TV screen as part of a montage previewing a popular entertainment show.

Then her face.

“Oh my gosh.” Kimber stared at the image of them at the concert, shortly after Jesse’s engagement announcement. She grabbed the remote and turned up the volume. What the hell was going on now?

Then, it got worse. The screen flashed the face of another woman. Young.

Artificial blonde hair. Artificial tears. Something about her face was familiar… The girl was claiming to be Jesse’s longtime lover and pregnant by him.

Suddenly, Kimber placed her.

“She’s lying,” Kimber murmured. “Jesse met her the night I left. I found him and one of his band members having sex with her. He didn’t even know her name.”

“He had sex with her after announcing to the world he intended to marry you?” Her dad all but growled the words.

She nodded, hoping to hear the announcer’s next words.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why bother?” she asked. “You can’t fix it for me. I have to do that.” The Colonel just sighed.

The announcer voiced over a series of pictures of Jesse, then cut again to the artificial blonde. “Jesse McCall is the father of my unborn baby,” she cried. “The announcement of his engagement to Kimber Edgington was a shock to me…” More tears. Kimber’s stomach lurched. Then came a video, grainy, jumpy, a bit dark, of Jesse and the girl. Despite the pixilated blur of various parts of their bodies, it was clear that they were naked. Kimber knew it was Jesse because the bedroom had been his at the Houston hotel suite and he had that exact birthmark on his shoulder. Apparently, Ryan, who enjoyed home movies, had shot this footage. In the video, the girl lay on the bed, on her back, legs spread. Jesse, with his back to the camera, climbed between them.

Kimber quickly realized that must have happened directly after she’d caught him with the other two and left. She shook her head.

Cut back to the artificial blonde. “His proposal to this other woman is both unexpected and heartbreaking. My baby needs a father…” Could this get any worse?

The show cut again to a clip of Jesse on a late-night talk show host’s sofa. The TV

personality sent him a wry glance.

“So tell us about your fiancée. And if she knows anything about your pregnant girlfriend.”

“That girl in the video is not my girlfriend. When you’re a celebrity, people make claims”—Jesse waved away the rest of the host’s question— “Right now, I’m focused and eager to be a fulltime fiancé to Kimber.” Kimber flinched. Damn it, she’d made it clear that she wasn’t going to marry him.

Why didn’t he get it?

Jesse just went on. “You know how it is when you meet the ultimate woman for you, man. That’s it.”

The talk show host, who’d been happily married for many years, nodded. “What do you say about the rumors that your fiancée left the tour the night you proposed?”

“She left to spend time with her family before the wedding. The press has blown it out of proportion. The rest is just a misunderstanding.” Jesse’s mouth wobbled so slightly, probably no one noticed but her.

“I don’t call sleeping with another woman a misunderstanding,” her dad snarled, looking ready to lunge at the TV.

Raking his hand through his signature shaggy hair, Jesse recovered his smile.

“She’ll be back. Are you watching, honey? I miss you.” Then he broke into a few bars of song, something he’d written himself, she guessed, with a sappy melody and lyrics about needing her. It ended with a plea to come back.

She flinched again.

The entertainment show cut to the “pregnant girlfriend” again, holding yet another press conference, now surprisingly dry eyed.

“Jesse McCall is not the father of my baby. I’m a great admirer of his, but I have never met him. I deeply regret if my desire to get his attention caused any harm.” What? “She’s lying again. She did meet Jesse. That’s them on the video.” Cal, Jesse’s manager, appeared next. Grim would have been a pleasant description of his expression when asked to comment about Jesse’s appearance on the talk show.

It hit Kimber then that if Call had tried to pay her off to make her go away, he’d likely done the same thing to this girl, who’d apparently tried to blackmail him with Ryan’s home video footage.