Brenda Jackson - Irresistible Forces

A baby.

Taylor Steeles 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 wasnt 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 nations capital and purchasing a beautiful condo with a view of the Potomac River from her bedroom window. That wasnt at all bad for a twenty-five-year-old woman whod made the decision after college not to return to her hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, and work for her familys 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 off-spring. 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 womans fantasy and a major player in numerous womens 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 shed ever encountered. Besides that, she knew from the many charities he was associated with that he was highly intelligent and caring. And although she wasnt privy to his health records, she had no reason to think he wasnt in the best of health and could not father a child. The man was as virile as any man could get.