Expecting the Boss's Baby (3 page)

“What do you mean?”

“Like I said before, now that you’re not my assistant, you’re fair game.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and brushed his lips over her fingers. “We’ll talk soon.”

Her fingers burned as she watched him walk out the door. She felt as if she’d walked into a cyclone, or perhaps one had walked into her. She rubbed her hand over her face and sagged against the wall. She hadn’t counted on Michael’s insistence. She hadn’t counted on him pursuing her with the same
fervor and intensity with which she’d watched him pursue his business interests.

Her chest tightened when she remembered the you-can-fight-but-you-won’t-win look in his eyes. Her emotions were all over the place. She felt exhilarated, seduced…. She spied his financial statement on the floor and scowled in disgust. She scooped it up and crumpled it into a tight little ball.

The man was a mass of contradictions. He wanted to protect her, seduce her and marry her.

But not love her.

Kate didn’t know what to do. This was definitely not a sentimental story of a proposal on bended knee in the ice cream parlor. She tried to imagine repeating this story to her child. “Yes, a lot of men propose with words of love and devotion and diamond rings, but your Daddy brought me his financial statement instead.”

Kate groaned and tossed the paper across the room.

The next morning Kate left before Michael could call or visit. She invited her close friend, Donna, to meet her at a park in downtown St. Albans for lunch. Kate had known Donna since they’d both entered Virginia Tech’s computer science program as freshmen, and she valued the longevity and comfort of their friendship. Donna’s wide-eyed baby face belied her worldly-wise mind.

“I’m surprised you were able to get away from work,” Donna said as they shared a small table
overlooking the pond. “It seems like your lunch hours are always used for special projects for the mighty Michael.”

“I’m not working for the mighty Michael anymore,” she said. “I quit.”

Donna’s brown eyes rounded. “You’re joking!”

“No. I’m pregnant,” she said, and Kate told her the whole story to the accompaniment of Donna’s repeated gasps.

“His financial statement,” Donna said and tried unsuccessfully to swallow a chuckle. “I’m curious. What did it say?”

Kate threw her a sideways glance. “I didn’t look. I already know he’s got a lot in the bank. I just don’t know how terrible it would be to marry him knowing he doesn’t even believe in love.” She tossed some breadcrumbs toward the geese that begged from the luncheon crowd.

Donna made a face and sighed. “It’s admirable that he wants to take care of you and the baby. I hate to say it, but he may be too damaged from his upbringing to really be able to love someone. This won’t be a marriage like your parents have.”

Donna was voicing all of Kate’s concerns. “I know,” she said glumly. “It’s not that he’s a bad person, but since he didn’t have an example of how to live in a family, I’m afraid he really won’t know how.”

“You can’t tell me you didn’t see this coming like a freight train,” Donna said. “You’ve worked with him for three years.”

Kate felt a rush of embarrassment at her foolishness. “That’s part of the problem. The only way I know him is through work, and even though that might have consumed a lot of hours, there are things Michael never mentioned about himself. I know it sounds silly, but I just thought I had a terrible, terrible crush. Since we spent that night together, I’ve been on an emotional seesaw.”

Donna groaned. “How hard is he pushing?”

“Very hard,” Kate said, feeling the beginning of a headache.

Donna reached over and squeezed her arm. “You could always move to France.”

Kate gave a half-hearted smile. Throughout their friendship, they’d taken turns offering the fantasy of moving to France as a way to escape the crisis du jour.

“Whatever you do, don’t fall in love with him until he falls in love with you,” Donna said.

Kate frowned. “What do you mean don’t fall for him? I thought I already had.”

“You fell into lust, infatuation. Both of those are temporary. Real love is terminal,” Donna said cheerfully. “My mother always told me never to marry anyone who didn’t love me more than I loved him. So if you decide to marry him, you just need to make him fall in love with you. Or make sure you don’t fall in love with him.”

“Great,” Kate said wryly. “Do any of these pearls of wisdom come with a magic wand?”

“M
ichael, if you don’t stop talking about the financial arrangements pertaining to this marriage, I’m going to throw up.”

Michael blinked. “Okay,” he said, setting his papers on the end table beside her sofa.

His unswerving focus on her never failed to unnerve her. She would have to find a way to get over that if she was actually going to go through with this. She’d been unable to sleep thinking about it. It seemed so terribly wrong not to marry for love, but in the stillness of the middle of the night when it was just her heartbeat and her baby’s, Kate asked herself if she’d be able to live with
herself if she didn’t try. Looking at Michael, she prayed she was making the right choice. “I have other concerns.”

“Such as?”

“Where we will live, how we will relate to each other, the wedding,” she said, thinking that those barely scratched the surface.

“That’s easy,” he said, waving his hand. “You can choose a house where you’d like us to live. We’ll relate to each other the way we always have. And we can get blood tests and be married by a justice of the peace within three days.”

Kate bit back a sigh. She agreed with one out of three. They had nowhere to go but up. “I don’t mind finding a house for us, but I’d like to know some of your likes and dislikes. I don’t think we will be able to relate to each other the way we always have.”

“Why?”

“Because you are no longer my boss.”

“That means I’ll negotiate instead of giving orders.”

“Okay. I need you to do something that has nothing to do with stocks and trust funds.”

“Name it,” he said with such strength and assurance that her heart flipped over.

“I want you to discuss our wedding arrangements with my mother. But I still don’t want you to tell her I’m pregnant.”

“When?”

“Later,” she said, her stomach dipping at the thought. “One thing at a time. Will you talk with my parents?”

“Done,” he said. “Your parents seemed like very nice, reasonable people. I negotiate with cannibals all the time. This should be cake.”

That night, Michael pulled into Kate’s driveway beside an unfamiliar car, a vintage Corvette at that. Curious, he climbed the steps of her porch and rang the doorbell. She answered the door wearing an uneasy expression. “Trent Cavoli is here,” she whispered.

Michael immediately recognized the name of the man who’d tried, unsuccessfully, to seduce much of CG Enterprises’ talent to Cavoli’s company. “What is he doing here?” he demanded.

“I don’t know,” she said. “He stops by every couple of months to offer me a job or ask me out for dinner.”

“Did you go?”

She gave him a dark glare. “I’m sure he wants CG secrets. I can’t imagine him being truly interested in me. He’s just as hung up on business as you are.”

He felt the slightest sting from her words as she turned away from him. She might be partly right in her assessment, but Michael knew Trent had a reputation with the ladies. If he’d known Trent was sniffing around Kate, he would have…. Michael told himself his territorial feelings were related to
the company. Stepping inside, he glanced at Trent’s smoothly polished appearance and wondered if the man appealed to Kate at all.

Trent’s eyes widened when he caught sight of Michael. “Michael Hawkins, I never expected to see you here.” Trent extended his hand. “You look a little hassled. How’s business?”

“Great,” Michael said, barely touching the man’s hand. “Kate tells me you’ve visited her more than once.”

Trent smiled. “You can’t blame me. She’s a smart, beautiful woman. I’d be glad to have her as an employee or a dinner companion. Word is she’s no longer working for you, so I thought I’d take my chances.”

Michael felt the surprising, yet overwhelming urge to knock a few bleached teeth from Trent’s smile. He moved next to Kate. “You’re out of luck again. Kate’s not available. She’s not my assistant anymore because she’s going to be my wife.”

Trent’s eyebrows flew upward. “Damn. I was sure she was your most underrated natural resource. Congratulations and best wishes,” he said and gave a little salute.

“Thank you,” Kate said politely, as if she sensed Michael’s hostility.

Trent walked toward the door and glanced back at Kate. “If anything changes, give me a call.”

Kate closed the door behind him and Michael
scowled. “Son of a bitch,” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me he was making offers?”

Kate shrugged. “It was more a minor nuisance than anything else.”

“If he ever comes around you again—”

She waved her hand in a dismissing gesture. “He won’t. Think about it. A baby would really cramp his style.” She gave him a long glance that almost made him feel as if she could see his entire hellish day written on his brain. “Rough day?”

With her big blue eyes and pink cheeks and lips, she looked so innocent. But Michael knew the truth. Kate had sent him into the lion’s den. “I talked to your parents.”

Her eyes rounded. “Oh. How’d it go?” she asked in a tone entirely too casual.

He followed her around the couch. “How do you think it went?”

She bit the inside of her lip. “I can only imagine.”

He put his hands on either side of her, trapping her and forcing her to meet his gaze. “I want her on my negotiations team for my next merger.”

Kate laughed breathlessly. “Piece of cake?”

“Why didn’t you warn me?”

“You seemed so confident. So when’s the wedding? Next year?”

“Two weeks,” he corrected and watched her eyes widen in surprise. He lifted his hand to touch her jaw. “She wanted six months. You weren’t
using this as a ploy to procrastinate about marrying me, were you?”

Kate wiggled slightly beneath his hands and glanced away. “Not really,” she said.

“Good,” he said, nuzzling her cheek. “My feelings would be terribly hurt,” he told her in a mocking voice.

She shot him a look of disbelief. “Yeah, right,” she said. “As if feelings would affect you at all once you’ve decided to do something.”

“I’m glad you understand that about me,” he said. “Because you could put ten of your mother in a room with me by myself and it still wouldn’t stop me from marrying you.” He brushed his lips over hers in a lingering kiss. Damn if he didn’t feel like he’d earned it. “So if this wasn’t a procrastination ploy, what was it? A test?”

Kate seemed to have trouble removing her gaze from his mouth. “Uh, no.” She forced her gaze to his chin. “It wasn’t really a test.”

“Then what was it? Really?”

“I just thought you should know part of what you’re getting into,” she said, her eyelashes forming a sexy shield over her eyes and reminding Michael of all the times he’d wanted to lay her down and take her.

“Did you honestly think she would scare me off?” he growled.

“No.” She looked up at him. “I know there isn’t much that scares you.”

The almost hidden come-hither look in her eyes grabbed at his gut, combining with his frustration over the negotiations with her mother and running into a competitor he detested. Drinking in her scent, he slid his fingers through her silky hair and took her mouth with his. She tasted sweet and forbidden, and kissing her only made him want more of her. Sucking at her bottom lip, he consumed her mouth the way he planned to consume her body.

He skimmed his hands down her sides and pulled the hem of her skirt up her legs. Cupping her bottom, he rolled his hips against her.

“What are we doing?” she asked against his mouth.

“Making love,” he told her. “Every time I think about how good it was between us that night…” He slid his hands beneath her silk panties and swallowed her gasp with his mouth.

Kate pulled her mouth away, turning her cheek to him. “I—uh—” Her cheeks blooming with color, she seemed to struggle for breath. “This feels kind of fast to me.”

“This isn’t the first time.”

“I know, but—” She broke off and raked a hand through her hair. “That was before.”

“Before what?”

“Before I knew about your anti-love policy.” She sighed. “You won’t understand this.”

“Try me.”

She stepped to the side, putting a little distance
between them. “Too many hairpin turns. First, I’m your assistant, then we’re lovers for a night, then I’m your assistant again, then I’m pregnant, and I’m not your assistant, then you want to marry me.” She met his gaze. “I need to catch my breath. It all feels a little unreal to me.”

Michael looked at her and saw the conflicting emotions spilling from her. She was a complex creature. Knowing her as a woman, he thought, would be far different than having her as his assistant. She was a seductive mystery to him. The urge to possess her raged through him, but he reined it in. “Okay,” he said, and told himself things would be different in two weeks. She would be his wife.

The following morning, Kate greeted the day with a trip to the bathroom for her regular bout of morning sickness. Her hands trembled as she turned on the water faucet to splash her face and drink water. She would be so glad when she got through this stage of pregnancy. Patting her hand over her flat tummy, she could almost think the baby was her imagination if not for her telltale nausea.

The night she’d shared with Michael could have been a dream. Her wedding, however, was coming at her with the speed of an oncoming train. Her mother had already called to chat about plans. Kate
scowled into the mirror. Perhaps that had contributed to her nausea.

She opened the bathroom door to Michael. Surprised, she muffled a squeak. “When did you come in?”

“Long enough ago to know you’re sick,” he said, concern darkening his eyes. “I’ll take you to the doctor.”

She shook her head. “No. It’s just morning sickness.”

“Can’t the doctor give you something?”

She shook her head more emphatically. “A lot of medicines aren’t good for the baby. I don’t want to risk it.”

“How often does this happen?”

“This is how Cupcake wakes me up every morning,” she said with a weak chuckle and headed for the kitchen.

His frown deepened. “How long will it last?”

“The doctor didn’t offer any guarantees.” She lifted crossed fingers. “But it could be gone in four weeks.”

“Four weeks,” he said appalled. “Are you sure you shouldn’t see the doctor? I don’t like the way you look.”

She fought a wave of self-consciousness. “I could take offense at that, but since you helped get me into this state, you are partly responsible.” She opened her cabinet and pulled out a half-empty box
of soda crackers. “Besides, you could have called first or knocked. How did you get in anyway?”

“I picked your lock,” he said. When she stared at him in inquiry, he added, “When you didn’t answer, I thought I should check on you in case anything was wrong.”

She felt him watch her set crackers, a glass of club soda, and a prenatal vitamin on the counter. “What is this?”

“Breakfast,” she said and sat down on a bar stool to nibble at a cracker.

“This is no breakfast for a woman who’s pregnant. You should be eating fruit or cereal, pancakes, eggs.”

Kate blanched. “My objective is to eat something that will stay down,” she said, then switched focus. “What brings you here so early?”

“Oh yeah,” he said as if she’d reminded him. “I got something for you yesterday and forgot to give it to you last night.”

Wary, she looked at him. “This isn’t another financial recap or trust fund or—” She gulped when he placed a jeweler’s box on the counter in front of her.

“No,” he said. “You may need to get it sized, but the jeweler assured me he’d be happy to do it while you wait.”

She stared at the box and struggled with a myriad of emotions. If she opened it, then her engage
ment to Michael would be more real, even though in her heart it still felt like a farce.

“Open it,” he said.

Kate felt a lump rise in her throat.

“Kate, it won’t bite. Okay, I’ll open it,” he said, flipping the box open.

Kate gasped at the size. “Omigod. It’s so—” she blinked “—big.” She looked up at him. “Why did you get such a big one?”

“I’m told that no matter what women say, size matters,” he said, his gaze falling over her intimately. “With diamonds and other things.”

Kate felt her cheeks heat. She would never forget that Michael had been an incredible lover. He had left her with the sensation of being thoroughly taken, yet incredibly satisfied. She resisted the urge to fan her cheeks and cleared her throat. “I was talking about the diamond in the ring.”

“Do you think it’s pretty?”

She moved her head in a circle. “In a big way.”

“There are larger diamonds,” Michael assured her.

“Yes, I saw the Hope Diamond at an exhibit once. I didn’t think it looked that much bigger than this one.”

“Kate, I can afford this. It’s about the same as buying a forty-foot cabin cruiser. Let’s put it on your finger and see if it fits.”

Kate pulled her hands to her chest. “No.”

“Why?” he asked, impatience edging into his tone.

“It’s too big,” she said. As if remembering her upbringing, she quickly added, “I mean I appreciate the thought and it’s lovely, but I can’t imagine wearing it.”

He spun her stool around so she was nose to nose with him. “Why not?” he demanded.

She bit her lip and appeared so nervous he almost felt sorry for her. “I’m sorry, Michael, but I just can’t imagine wearing a cabin cruiser on my finger.”

He counted to ten. He couldn’t explain why it was so important for Kate to wear his ring. He just knew it was. “If you don’t like this, then what would you like?”

She slid her gaze to the ring, then back at him and lifted her shoulders. “I don’t know. Something that doesn’t scream
rich guy’s wife.
Something more like me,” she said in an unsteady voice. Her eyes turned sad. “Something that doesn’t make me feel like a fraud.”

That night Michael didn’t visit Kate. Instead he called and they shared a muted, brief conversation. After such an inauspicious beginning to his day, he buried himself in his work and fell asleep when his head hit the pillow. The phone awakened him.