Baby By Accident: International Billionaires III: The Italians (5 page)

Gritting her teeth, she managed not to sneer. “Don’t tell me he’s gotten to you, too.”

“I’m not a google-eyed girl batting my eyes at him. Come on and give me some credit.”

“I give you all the credit in the world, Hannah. What would I do without you?”

“You’d be fine without me.” The older woman dropped the empty water bottle into the wastebasket and crossed her arms in front of her. “You’re the best boss I’ve ever had. You are intelligent, you’re a wonderful leader, and you’re excellent at building good teamwork with your employees. I believe you could do anything you set your mind too.”

A warm pool of affection welled inside her. “Oh, Hann—”

“Which is why I can’t help wondering at this inexplicable hatred you immediately developed for Mr. Mattare.”

Warmth fled, replaced with a harsh sense of betrayal. If her PA was for him, who could she count on in this fight? “Inexplicable? You’re the one who showed me those tabloids the first few weeks he was here.”

“Yes, I know. I regret that.”

“What?” Lise’s spine went rigid. “How can you say that? You were right to show me what you’d found.”

“I took some gossip from the company grapevine and jumped to conclusions when I saw those photos of Mr. Mattare.” The older woman’s mouth firmed. “That was wrong of me.”

“I can’t believe—”

“I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.”

“You have every right—”

“And you shouldn’t either, Lise.”

Silence fell between them, the only sound being the low burr of the computer. Restlessly, Hannah began to pace. “We should have taken our time in evaluating Mr. Mattare before making decisions.”

“I’m stunned.”

“You shouldn’t be.” Her assistant stopped in front of her. “You pay me to cover the bases you can’t.”

“I know, but—”

“Or won’t.”

The blunt words landed with a solid thud in Lise’s head. “You can’t think Vico Mattare is good for this company.”

“I can.” Hannah’s gaze was steady. “And I do.”

Folding her head into her hands, she avoided what she didn’t want to see. “I can’t believe this.”

“There was lots of gossip rolling around this company before he took over.” The older woman’s voice came soft, but sure. “A lot of it negative. I think we both took all of that in and when he finally bought the company and arrived, we’d already made up our minds.”

“No, that’s not—”

“Wrongly.” Hannah didn’t give in. “I’ve looked over his plans for the company.”

“How could you?”

“Again, you pay me to do this.” The woman clucked in exasperation. “And because you wouldn’t have anything to do with them.”

“Because they are sleazy—”

“No, the plans are smart.”

She couldn’t accept the words or the conclusion. Yes, this was Hannah, and yes, usually she was right when she questioned Lise’s decisions. But in this area, with this man, her PA was wrong. “You’re wrong.”

Her PA sucked in her breath. “Really.”

“Yes.” She rose, a sick feeling in her stomach at rejecting Hannah’s wisdom. However, she couldn’t agree. Not with this. Not even if it meant hurting her assistant. “Vico Mattare is not good for this company. My company.”

The older woman stepped back, but her face still radiated determination. “This isn’t your company to run anymore.”

Now it was her turn to suck a breath in. “How could you—?”

“It’s his.” Hannah’s gaze was tender, even if her words were tough. “You have to work with him.”

“Never.”

“If you work with him than maybe the company can become both of yours. Wouldn’t that be the best for everyone?”

“I’m not going to work with him on anything.” The sick feeling mixed into the residual anger, making her feel queasy and inflamed all at the same time. “I’m going to work against him.”

Her PA sighed. “Eventually, you’ll change your mind.”

“No.” She walked toward her office, ready to get away from this conversation and away from the feeling of betrayal.

“You’re too smart not to finally figure this out,” Hannah called after her. “I know you’re capable of changing your mind, and you will.”

Lise slammed the office door behind her.

“
I
don’t believe it
.” Lise stared down at the test strip in her hand.

“This is not the time to do your usual and stick your head in the sand,” her best friend, Suz, said from the other side of the bathroom.

“This can’t be.” She jerked around in a panic and threw the offending object into the wastebasket. “This must be a mistake.”

Suz sat on the edge of the bath, her hands clasped before her, long, shiny red nails tapping against each other. “This is the fifth test, Lise. Taking one right after the other is a bit obsessive even for you. So I think we can safely move on from the
mistake
comment to the
what are you going to do
question.”

“God.” She turned back to the mirror and stared into her horrified eyes. How could she have done this? How could she find herself in such a predicament? She was Lise Helton. CFO. Confident. Intelligent. “I am a complete and utter idiot.”

“We’ve always known that.” Her other friend, Tracy, lounged back on the bathroom’s door. “It’s one of the reasons we love you, kiddo.”

Leaning her forehead on the cool glass, she groaned. One night. Only one tiny night she’d let herself go. Let herself take a man she wanted. Other girls, hell even Tracy and Suz themselves, had gone wild several times with no tragic results. How could fate be so utterly unfair and malicious? “What am I going to do?”

“Tell Robert?” Suz suggested.

“The cold fish who got married to his new squeeze last Saturday? Only six weeks after he broke his engagement to Lise?” her other friend exclaimed. “He doesn’t deserve to know after what he did to our girl.”

“I’m amazed he had it in him to get her pregnant.”

Vico Mattare.
His
baby.

The horror rushing through her turned from a raging river into rampaging rapids. The tide roared over her and in her, sweeping her emotions down into the cold pit of her stomach.

“Not his.” Her blurted words landed like a bomb in the middle of the conversation. Lise lifted her head and met the astonished eyes of her two friends reflected in the mirror. She hadn’t told them. Hadn’t told anyone. The night she replayed endlessly in her head had stayed right there.

In her head and body and heart.

“What the hell?” Suz stood, her hands waving wildly like red firecrackers in the air. “Whose is it?”

“Are you kidding me?” Tracy crowed. “Our Lise did something crazy for once in her life and fell into bed with another man?”

The truth of the comment stung like acid. Embarrassment warred with horrified comprehension of her new reality.

Pregnant.

From a one night stand.

With her boss.

Yanking herself away from her image in the mirror, she headed for the door. The door blocked by one determined female.

“No you don’t.” Tracy straightened and stepped into the doorway. “You aren’t plunking down such a hot piece of info and then walking away. Not a chance.”

“Let me past,” she hissed. Tears welled in her eyes and she swept a hand across her face to stop them.

“Hey.” Her friend’s hands grasped her shaking shoulders. Big brown eyes filled with concern and caring met hers. “We’re in this together.”

“We’re here for you, Lise,” Suz said from behind her.

“I know, I know.” She allowed Tracy to tug her into her arms. Her other friend came from behind to join in the hug. Bittersweet emotion swamped her and the tears threatened to fall once more. “I’m just…”

“Scared,” Tracy murmured in her ear. “We’ll figure it out, though.”

Their assurance comforted her, but the thought of being pregnant, much less pregnant with Vico Mattare’s baby, was enough to get her thinking about jumping off cliffs or slicing her wrists. Too awful. Too unbelievable.

Too real.

Unprotected sex meant danger. She'd known that. Known she should go to the doctor and get examined, not only for pregnancy but for disease. After all, the man was a walking sex machine and probably had unprotected sex with women from here to Italy. Nevertheless, she'd stalled, hid, ignored. Pretended to herself the night had been some figment of her imagination, like the other dreams she'd had of him before.

Before the night of reality.

Also, she’d been a bit busy. Busy doing things like canceling a wedding. Returning gifts. Consoling her inconsolable mother. Ignoring Robert’s withering emails about returning various presents he’d given her during the course of their courtship. Oh, yeah. And busy dealing with the inexplicably angry Italian in her work life and his nefarious plans she kept pushing back on.

Too, too busy to confront any repercussions from the night she'd gone off the rails and landed in disaster.

Up until a week ago.

When she'd been late.

She’d known, even before purchasing the pregnancy kits—all five of them. As if taking the test over and over would somehow give her a different answer. An answer she already knew in her heart. She’d known as soon as her period hadn’t started on time. On time was her mantra. Not only at the office, but also in her personal life. Her body had always performed as expected.

Except this month.

“Come on.” Suz finally stepped back, her voice bright. “Let’s go make some tea and figure out what’s next.”

Within a few minutes, she’d been hustled into her sterile kitchen and plopped onto a chair behind the steel countertop. Her friends’ worried faces stared at her from across the counter.

“I’ll be okay,” she managed.

“Of course.”

“Never had a doubt.”

Suz placed a cup of steaming hot tea in front of her.

“I’ll figure something out,” she stated.

“Sure.”

“You always do.”

Tracy fiddled with the sugar canister.

She slumped. “This is awful.”

“A surprise, certainly.”

“It could be worse.” Suz’s broad Cockney accent was laden with irony.

Lise’s spine straightened in disbelief. “How could it possibly be worse?”

“The baby could be Robert’s.”

A tense silence bounced between them. Neither of her friends had been keen on Robert. Still, they’d gone along with her when she announced the engagement because she’d been so sure. Sure she’d found the man who fit her. Sure she’d be happy with his refined, courtly manner. Absolutely sure, she’d told them.

“That would have been far worse.” Tracy braved her chilly silence, agreeing with Suz.

A sudden rasp of laughter erupted from Lise’s mouth.

Her friends grinned back at her.

This was perfectly horrid, and yet, yet, they were both right. She couldn’t imagine carrying Robert’s child. Couldn't imagine calling him on his honeymoon to deliver the news.

She knew what he’d say.
Get rid of it
.

The thought hit her with a blunt blow. A moment of crystal-clear awareness.

A baby. Her baby. A tiny, precious gift. A small, little person she could love with everything inside her. Someone who would love her back unconditionally. “I'm going to have this baby.”

Her two friends stared at her. Then their grins widened.

“Oh, man,” Tracy snickered. “Your mother is going to go nuts.”

“Her mother is going to throw a fit,” her other friend joined in.

“My mother is going to disown me.”

“All to the good,” Suz said. “Maybe she'll leave you in peace.”

Her other friend shook her head, her brown hair flying. “Not a chance. Esther Helton lives to aggravate her daughter.”

“True. Too true.” Her best friend’s warm hand patted her back. “Drink your tea, you’re looking green.”

“Or white,” her other buddy joined in. “A whitish-greenish tinge to your skin. Attractive.”

Lise made a face at both of them before she dutifully sipped. The tea filled her mouth, hot and comforting. She sipped again as her friends watched. Her brain stayed blank except for one thing, one exceedingly important thing. The only realization she could comprehend right now stood stark in the center of her brain—she was going to be a mother.

“Now that you’ve calmed down a bit, we can get back to my original question. The all-important question.” Suz pinned her with a determined look. “Tell us.”

Joy splattered over her heart and into her head, drowning out her friend's demand. The emotion filled every empty corner of her soul in blinding excitement. “I'm going to have a baby.”

“Correct.” Her other friend leaned on the counter, staring at her with as equally a determined look as Suz's. “However, the question of the hour, the day, the week—”

“The month, the year—”

“—eternity.” Tracy cut in. “Is whose baby is it?”

Lise looked at each of them. Glanced down at her tea and sipped.

“I hate when she does this,” her best friend grumbled. “It's going to be like pulling teeth, Trace.”

“Yep. Good thing I work for a dentist.”

“The sperm donor isn’t important.” He wasn’t, her brain insisted. Not important in any way. He wouldn’t want to know, her heart claimed. He wouldn’t care if she did tell him. She wasn’t going to tell him. Because he wasn’t important.

Her conscience rumbled inside her. A low, slow roll of guilt.

She pushed it down and away.

“‘Not important,’ the girl says.” Suz inspected her in complete skepticism, her accent now sharp. “This from a girl who's slept with exactly two men in her entire thirty years.”

“Actually,” Tracy folded her arms and winked at the other woman. “She's slept with at least three, now.”

“I'm twenty-nine,” Lise inserted. “And it's only been the three.”

Red nails tapped a refrain on the tiled counter. “The first two sexual partners were duds. Do you remember the geek from Oxford she chose for her first, Tracy?”

“Yep. A total dud.”

“He was nice.”

Both of her friends snorted.

“Then she picked the cold fish,” Suz kept going, “who couldn’t even claim to be nice.”

“I didn't mind going to bed with Robert.” She hadn’t known what real sex was at that point. Consequently, she’d been satisfied. Kind of.

“Right.” her best friend sniffed. “What did you say when I asked you about the sex?”

“She said the sex was fine,” Tracy said.

“Fine.” Suz's eyes sparkled with grim humor. “As I said, Robert was—and is—a dud.”

“You’re sure it’s not his, Lise?” Tracy’s eyes filled with sudden worry. “I mean, the guy’s not only a dud, he’s a cold fish. It would be awful if he were the father.”

“I’m sure it’s not his.”

“Interesting.” Her best friend’s brows lifted. “Except only six weeks ago you broke up—”

“If you have to know,” she gritted through her teeth. “We hadn’t slept together in awhile.”

“Awhile?” Suz’s brows arched even farther. “What’s awhile?”

Silence fell. The kitchen clock ticked. The refrigerator hummed.

“About three months,” she finally admitted.

“I’m thinking Robert is the dudiest dud there ever was.” Suz sniffed in disgust. “You made a lucky escape. Very lucky.”

“Who cares about him? I want to know about the third one.”

“The one we, her-best-friends-since-the-beginning-of-time, do not know a thing about.”

“Which is unbelievable,” Tracy concurred with the other woman. “Extremely uncharacteristic of our Lise. She’s predictable in telling us about her predictable life.”

“The sex was a one off.” She kept her gaze on the remnants of her tea. “A nothing.”

“A nothing which has turned into a very big something,” Suz pointed out.

“Wait, wait.” Tracy's voice rose in excitement. “Our girl had a
one-night stand
.”

“You're right. This is amazing.”

“Astonishing!”

Lise forced herself to look at them. She had to, in order to deliver the scowl both of them deserved. “Stop being ridiculous.”

“I can't believe it.” Tracy fluttered her hand in front of her face, as if she were about to faint. “Our cool, composed—”

“Always-in-control—”

“—friend,” Tracy continued, “got swept away.”

“By some man.”

“Got caught in the moment.”

“By a man who could not possibly be a dud in the sexual department.”

“Not if he cracked through Lise's dignity and got her into his bed.”

“Not only did he crack through her dignity, he swept away any thought of her cold fish of a fiancé.”

“No,” she interrupted, embarrassment warring with irritation at her friends’ delight at her downfall. “This happened after. I wouldn’t have cheated—”

Tracy immediately nodded in instant understanding. “Our Lise does have her principles.”

“Which we applaud.” Suz tapped her long fingernail on her chin. “Still. This had to have developed fast. Out of the blue, so to speak.”

“Yes,” her other friend chimed in. “Our girl hasn’t been looking at any other man since her engagement.”

Not true.

She’d been looking at
him,
dreaming of
him
, for two long months before she’d fallen into his trap. Ever since he’d strode into the company’s conference room and eyed her with disapproval. His censure of her hadn’t stopped her looking at his broad shoulders as he shrugged her suggestions away or his tight butt as he walked away from her presence. All the looking she’d done had continuously galled her during the past few months.

But now? During these last six weeks?

Now it was even worse. Now she knew what lay beneath those Italian silk suits. Now she held the image of his naked body in her head. Now she had memories instead of dreams.

Something on her face must have alerted them to her thoughts. Damn it.

“Not true.” Suz’s arms waved in the air as she jumped around. “Our girl has been looking.”

Her other friend joined in the stupid dance. “More than looking, clearly. Maybe not a one-night stand. Maybe something far more. How long has this been going on?”

“This,” Lise said, her teeth grinding in her mouth. “This is not a
this
.”

“Well, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Suz chided.

“There is nothing to this. It was just, just…”

“So it
was
a one-night stand.” Tracy’s brown eyes went wide. “A very memorable one-night stand.”

The memory of the night, of the man, the passion swept through her against her will. His long black hair draped across his shoulders. The tensing of his muscles as he drove into her. The blaze in his tawny eyes as he took her and put his stamp on her.