She’d been so soft and warm, and he’d assumed she was Ash. His body had done what was natural and hardened with need. Something had niggled at his brain that Ash shouldn’t still be there, but his hazy brain had decided she’d come back. Then he’d fallen asleep again. In the morning, when Ash wasn’t in his arms, he’d assumed he’d been dreaming.

“You mean, this could have really happened?” Adam asked.

“Fuck, I didn’t … I mean, there’s no way I could have…”

Ash rested her hand on Dare’s arm. “Can you be absolutely sure? If you thought it was me…”

Could he have done something when she climbed into bed with him? While he was half asleep?

“No, it can’t be true. It can’t.” But doubt spiked through him.

“If you did, it wasn’t your fault,” Adam said, understanding in his warm brown eyes. “She tricked you.”

But even the thought that he could have done that with Helen … his own stepdaughter … made him feel ill.

Ashley got up and sat beside him on the couch. She took his hand and just held it. Adam moved to his other side and took his other hand. The comfort of these two special people beside him was his anchor. With them by his side, he could get through anything.

“Whatever you need to do, we’ll support you,” Adam said.

Dare shook his head, determination spiking through him. “Even if it is true, I won’t leave you.” He squeezed their hands. “Either of you. What the three of us have is special. The love we share is…” His chest compressed. “I can’t lose that.”

But he couldn’t abandon Helen either. Even though what she had done was despicable … if she was carrying his baby …

*   *   *

Dare watched as Helen sat on the couch, looking properly contrite.

“So Ash told you,” she said.

“Of course she told me.”

“I’m sorry. I know I should have told you myself, but—”

“Told me?” he flared. “You shouldn’t have fucking done what you did? What the fuck were you thinking?”

Her eyes widened and she stared at her hands folded in her lap.

“I know that I shouldn’t have—”

“Do you?” he glared at her. He could see that her hands were trembling and she wouldn’t look at him.

He let the silence simmer around them. Let it sink in to her exactly how much trouble she was in with him.

“I…” She shifted under his acidic stare. “I’d been drinking and—”

“Do you think that makes it okay?” he demanded.

“No.” Tears rolled down her cheeks but he steeled himself to her discomfort. “I just…” She bit her lip, clearly reading from his expression that she was getting nowhere.