"You are a life saver," Cassidy Franzone said as she opened the front door.

At 39 weeks pregnant she needed food when she wanted it.  She was single and fine with that.  She'd made the choice to have her baby on her own, but she hated going out in the August in the Charleston heat to pick up her favorite she-crab soup if she didn't have to. 

Her father had put all of his employees at her disposal.  If she needed anything no matter what time of day it was, someone on the staff at Franzone Waste Management was available.

"Am I?"

The man standing in the doorway wasn't a delivery boy...in fact he was the father of her child. 

Cassidy gapped at Donovan Tolley.  He was still the most attractive man she'd ever seen.  With his thick hair ruffled by the warm summer breeze.  His designer clothes were tailored perfectly to his frame not for vanity's sake but because he liked quality. 

"What are you doing here?" she asked.  She hoped that she sounded nonchalant as if the reason were not really important but she couldn't help but cover her stomach with one arm—protectively.  How had Donovan found out that she was pregnant or had he? 

Maybe it was the fact that she was so hungry or maybe it was the fact that it had been so long...almost eight months to be exact since she'd seen him.  But she felt a sting of tears in the back of her eyes as Donovan smiled at her.

"Can I come in?  I don't want to talk to you in the doorway."  He seemed a bit dazed but as he pushed his sunglasses up to the top of his head she saw in his eyes that he was busy processing the fact that she was pregnant.

"What do you want to talk about?" she asked.  What if he didn't believe he was the father of her child?  What exactly did he want?  And why the hell was she still attracted to this man after he'd broke her heart and left her alone for almost eight months?

He eyed her belly and arched one eyebrow.  "Your pregnancy for starters."

She hadn't told Donovan that she was pregnant with his child, but then again he'd made his views on children quite clear when he'd made his rather businesslike marriage proposal to her.  "I know everything I need to about how you feel about kids."

"I'm not so sure about that.  Invite me in, Cassidy.  I need to talk to you.  And I'm not going away."

She hesitated.  Any other man she would have shut the door on, but with any other man she wouldn't be pregnant with his child.  Donovan was the only man she'd ever loved.  Still she didn't need this kind of tension right now.

She was hungry, the baby was moving around and she wasn't exactly sure she wanted to send Donovan on his way.  This wasn't like her.  She'd always been very decisive, but lately she wasn't herself.

She felt a bit faint and that was probably due to the heat.  She made up her mind to send Donovan away.  She'd deal with him after the baby was born when she had her stuff together.

A late model black-windowed Mercedes pulled into her driveway and Cassidy smiled.  Finally her food was here. 

"Got your soup, Ms. Cassidy."

"Thank you, Jimmy," she said as the young man handed her a brown bag.  The young man nodded at her as she took the bag and then he walked away.

Donovan still stood next to her, not saying a word.  "Crab Shack?"

She nodded.  She always tried not to focus on the fact that the soup she loved so much came from the place where she and Donovan had eaten at least once a week while they'd been together.  The Crab Shack was a famous Charleston institution. 

"I'll keep you company while you eat," he said.

"I don't think so.  We can talk later this week.  I'll call your secretary."

"I'm not leaving, Cassidy."

"Are you really going to force your way into my house?" she asked.

"No," he said, bracing one arm on the doorframe and leaning in over her. 

His cologne was one-of-a-kind made for him by an exclusive perfumery in France and at this moment she really hated that company because Donovan smelled so good.  The scent reminding her of the many times she'd lain cuddled close to his side with her head on his chest.

"Cassidy, baby, please let me in," he said, leaning closer so that his words were more of a whisper. 

Everything feminine inside of her went nuts.  Her breasts felt fuller and her nipples tightened against the fabric of her bra.  Her skin felt more sensitive, her lips dry.  She wet them with her tongue and saw his eyes narrow as he watched her.

"Is there anything I can do to convince you to go away?"

"No.  I've missed you, Cassidy and leaving is the last thing I want to do."

She hated the little thrill she got when he said he'd missed her.  She tried to be nonchalant when she stepped back so that he could enter her house.

Donovan closed the front door behind them and she hesitated in the foyer of her own home.  She should have never let him back into her house.  She wasn't going to be able to keep any kind of distance between the two of them right now she was thinking about sex.  Thinking about being back in his arms one last time.  Her hormones had been crazy during her pregnancy and now that all came to the fore.  She wanted this man.  She hadn't even tried dating in the last eight months though a few guys had asked her out.  She didn't want anyone but Donovan.

She led the way to the first floor screened porch.  It over looked the wooded area behind her house and with tall ceilings and the shade provided by the oak and magnolia trees was a cool refuge from the heat.

"Can I get you a beer or tea?" she asked.

"Beer would be great," he said.

She set her soup on the table and went to the wet bar to get Donovan's beer.  He liked Heineken same as she did.  Though she hadn't had a beer since she'd gotten pregnant she still kept her refrigerator stocked for when her brothers and friends visited.

She got a bottle of Pellegrino for herself and then came back to the table.  Donovan stood up and held her chair for her.  The gentlemanly courtesy one he had always performed and she appreciated it.  That was one of the things that had always set Donovan apart from other men.  She thanked him and sat down.

Food suddenly became very unimportant as she realized the man she loved was sitting here next to her.  She had to cross her fingers in her lap to keep from reaching out to touch him.  To keep from leaning across the table and making sure he was really here.

"How are you, Cassidy?" he asked.

"Good.  I haven't had any complications from the pregnancy."  She was twenty-eight years old and in great shape thanks to a lifetime of exercise and eating right.  The baby was healthy something that she sometimes thought was due to the fact that she and Donovan had both been so much in love when he'd been conceived.  But she knew that was her imagination running away with her. 

"I'm glad."

"Are you?" she asked, trying for sarcasm but knowing she'd sounded a bit pleased that he was concerned about her health.

"Yes."  He leaned back in his chair.  "Why didn't you tell me about the baby?  I'm assuming the baby is mine."

She hadn't been interested in any man other than Donovan and she suspected he knew it.  She hadn't hidden the fact that she was in love with him when they were together.

"Yes, it is yours.  I didn't tell you because it didn't seem like the type of information you'd be interested in."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Just that if something doesn't have to do with Tolley-Patterson Manufacturing or any of your other business interests, you usually don't pay much attention to it."

"I paid attention to you," he said.

"When there wasn't a crisis at the Company you did pay attention to me." 

But she had always been very aware that his position as executive vice-president at the company his family owned was the most important thing in Donovan's life.  He was also very consumed with his other business interests and increasing his holdings.  He co-owned a sporting goods company with his college roommate; he had an interest in an Island resort on Tobago with a friend from his boarding school days.  For a while that hadn't mattered.  But the last few months while they'd been apart she'd come to realize she had sold herself short in their relationship before. 

Donovan had always been trying to prove there was more to him than just his trust fund.

And she wasn't interested in doing that again.  Getting over Donovan was hard.  The hardest thing she'd ever gone through.  She'd thought she wasn't going to recover at first and then when she'd gotten confirmation that she was pregnant with his child, she'd made up her mind that the baby was the reason she'd been brought into Donovan's life. 

His child would be the one she'd pour all the love that he'd never really wanted from her.  But now he was back and she had this tingly excitement in the pit of her stomach that made her hope that he might be back for good.  But that scared her more than facing a future alone.