Chapter 1

      A baby.

      Taylor Steele’s heart began beating rapidly the way it always did whenever she thought about her most ardent desire. A mixture of relief and anticipation soared through her upon realizing that she was about to embark upon a phase in her life that she had been looking forward to for a long time.

      Motherhood.

      She leaned back in the chair behind her desk and stared out the window while tapping her fingertips against her bottom lip. For the first time she wasn’t appreciating the view of the Lincoln Memorial. Her thoughts were on something else entirely. She was inwardly counting her blessings.

      During this past year she had achieved a number of her goals. First by venturing out and starting up her own wealth and asset management firm, which she named Assets of Steele, and then moving from New York to the nation’s capital and purchasing a beautiful condo with a view of the Potomac River from her bedroom window. That wasn’t at all bad for a twenty-five-year-old woman who’d made the decision after college not to return to her hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, and work for her family’s multimillion-dollar manufacturing company. Instead she had set her sights on New York after accepting a position with one of the major banks as a wealth and asset manager.

      Now she could turn her attention to the final stage of her plan that she needed in place before making her most sought-after dream a reality. And that was the man she had chosen to father her child without the benefit of marriage. She was even open to joint custody of the child, if he wanted to go that route.

      A permanent hookup with someone was not what she wanted, not even a teeny-tiny bit. Nor was she looking for a long-term lover, either. A short-term one could handle the task intended quite nicely. The last thing she wanted was a long-term romantic commitment of any kind.

      But she was selective.

      She had decided very early in her plans that not just any man would do. It had to be someone with all the qualities she wanted to pass on to her offspring. He had to be handsome, intelligent, caring, healthy and wealthy. Definitely wealthy; after all, wealth was her business. And with those “must-have” qualifications embedded deep in her mind, she could think of only one man who met her criteria.

      Dominic Saxon.

      She tried ignoring the warmth of sensations that seeped through her veins. Dominic was one of her clients and she had never met a man who radiated so much sensuality. Part African-American and part French, at thirty-four he was the epitome of every woman’s fantasy and a major player in numerous women’s nightly dreams. The sexiness was there in his looks, his body, when he walked, talked or just plain stared at you. He was definitely the most gorgeous man she’d ever encountered. Besides that, she knew from the many charities he was associated with that he was highly intelligent and caring. And although she wasn’t privy to his health records, she had no reason to think he wasn’t in the best of health and could not father a child. The man was as virile as any man could get.

      From the very beginning she had been attracted to him and for the past two years it had taken everything she had to keep their relationship strictly business, although he’d never given her the impression he expected anything else. Whenever they met he was always professional and courteous. She knew that he merely saw her as one of his employees and nothing more. He was paying a hefty fee for the services she rendered and her job was to take all the wealth he’d accumulated in his thirty-four years and make him richer, which wasn’t hard since he was an ace at making the most of every financial opportunity.

      It was common knowledge that he was the son of a wealthy Frenchman and his beautiful African-American wife, and from the time Dominic was born he’d had the best of everything—schools, social contacts and money, and he’d used all three to his benefit. He rotated residences between the United States and France, although she heard he also owned a beautiful apartment in London, as well as a private island off the French coast of Normandy.

      Taylor picked up the brochure that had been sent to her compliments of her youngest sister, Cheyenne. It was meant to be a joke after a conversation the two of them had shared a week ago when she’d told Cheyenne that she wanted a baby, but not a husband.

      Cheyenne had sent her the pamphlet that she’d come across in her travels as a professional model that advertised procreation vacations. A week on a Caribbean island, plenty of dirty talk with trained professionals, exotic food and aphrodisiac-laden drinks…and if needed, a week’s supply of Viagra. It was advertised as a dream come true and the Bahamas resort encouraged potential guests to use their facilities for a week of near-constant, mind-blowing sex just for the purpose of making a baby. The packet Cheyenne had sent included several pictures bordering the brochure that could be considered X-rated. But they did a good job of getting their point across.

      Compared to the frosty March weather they were experiencing, the island seemed like a really nice place to be right now. She could spend her time resting, relaxing and, of course, making a baby. Now if she could only convince the man she’d chosen