The Tycoon's Misunderstood Bride (8 page)

But now, sitting in the formal, ultra modern waiting area of Montenegro Industries, she almost felt sick at what she’d have to discuss.  She hadn’t seen Jason since the wedding which had been several days ago.  So she had no idea what to expect from him.  

“Come on in, Emma,” Jason said as he passed by the waiting area, heading towards his office. 

As she followed behind him, she wondered if Jason would notice the different outfit she’d worn.  She and Nancy had worked so hard to get rid of the excess fabric, to make it look like something a person her age would wear.  It was still conservative, and Emma longed for the fashionable clothes she saw others wearing on the streets, but she didn’t have the money to buy those things.  Yet!  Hopefully, Jason would assist her with that problem as well. 

Jason sat down behind
his
large, w
ooden desk, waved to a painful
looking black leather chair positioned in front of the desk, indicating that she should sit down. 

“What’s on your mind?” Jason asked when she was finally settled.  After that kiss at the wedding, he’d had to stay away from her.  He wasn’t sure what had happened, but the lust that had shot through him at her soft, tende
r lips, that tentative touch, it had taken him this long just to calm his body down. 

Unfortunately, even now, as she perched on the edge of the chair with a file folder primly sitting on her lap and her face blushing like she’d just ran naked across the school auditorium and been caught, his body was reacting once again.  That damn show of innocence had to be the allure, he thought. 

“Emma?” he prompted when she still didn’t speak.  With a sigh, he leaned forward.  “Emma, I have another meeting in ten minutes.  Either tell me what you came here to discuss or get out.  I don’t have time for your games.”

Her eyes swung up to glare back at him, furious that he would call her meeting a game.  “I need to get pregnant!” she almost shouted out.  When she realized what she’d done, she gasped and put her hand to her
forehead
, trying to calm down.  “That is to say, I really need to fulfill the terms of the contract.  And since you are the only person who can do that, I would be sincerely grateful for your assistance to….speed things along.”  She couldn’t believe she’d spoken so freely about a subject that was painfully embarrassing. 

Jason almost laughed out loud.  She needed sex?  He’d never really been propositioned so eloquently before, and what’s more astonishing is that he knew he was going to follow through.  The bastard really had him cornered.  “When was your last period?” he demanded. 

Emma gasped and looked down once again.  “Um….well, that is to say…”  Goodness!  She knew she had to do this, and she’d finally done her research and understood why he needed to find out that information, but did he really have to be so blunt? 

“Emma, don’t fool around.  I’m down to eight minutes.  Either tell me, or get to a doctor and have him give me the most optimum time to get you pregnant.  We need to be expeditious about this and your cute little blushes won’t help.”

Emma cleared her throat and nodded.  “Yes.  You’re absolutely correct.  I apologize for being…” she thought back to his statement and remembered his word, “non-expeditious but bear with me since this is the first time I’ve actually contemplated trying to get pregnant.”

“We’re both in the same boat there, Emma.  My encounters to date have been about avoiding that outcome so I’m working on mentally bracing for this event myself.  But I have priorities so we need to go about this properly.”

She cringed at the implication that any child born from this effort would be only an “outcome”.  “If you wouldn’t mind, we’re going t
o have a baby.  Not an ‘outcome’
.  I know that you’re not generally the fatherly type, but having a child is still a wonderful thing,” she said softly.  “We shouldn’t be so cavalier about this.”

“Quite right,” he said with a grimace.  “Your period?” he prompted again, glancing at his watch. 

Emma ignored the painful blush and stared at her hands.  “
The first day of my last period was on the eighteenth.”

Jason glanced down at the calendar on his computer and raised an eyebrow.  “So you’re at your peak fertility in two days’ time.  Correct?”

She could only nod.  She stood up and handed him a piece of paper.  “Here’s an address where we can….conceive,’ she said awkwardly, remembering the tour of the fertility clinic.  She’d even been shown the room where the men would be sent to provide the male half of the donation, along with all the magazines and movies that would….stimulate…a man’s interest so that he can attend to his business even in a clinical setting. 

“What’s this?” he demanded, noting the address on the paper. 

She sighed and stared at her fingers again.  “It’s a place where….” A lump formed in her throat at the thought of conceiving a son…or even a daughter… “we can combine both of our donations to better insure the desired outcome,” she finally said and looked out the window. 

“I see,” he said, assuming she meant to meet him in a hotel room.  It was probably some upscale suite where she’d get all her flowers and champagne, something to remember the conception with. 
“When would you like this to happen?”

Emma cleared her throat and twisted her fingers.  “Well, if you could cooperate a day before peak fertility, that would give time for the….activities to happen after the fact,” she explained, thinking of how the doctors would need to put the sperm and eggs together in a dish to ensure fertilization.  She now knew so much more about the whole process than she’d ever wanted to know.  She’d always pictured conceiving of her children with a loving husband, in a bed, perhaps after a delicious dinner and lots of love and affection.  Doing it this way, in a clinic with doctors helping with each step seemed…intrusive. 

“Fine.  Make an appointment with my assistant and she’ll make sure I’m there,” he said dismissively. 

Emma breathed a sigh of relief.  “That’s great,” she said and started to stand.  But then she shook her head, mentally berating herself.  “There’s one other thing,” she said softly. 

“What’s that?” he asked, already gathering up his papers, intent on heading down the hallway to his next meeting.  Or more specifically, away from this woman and her soft charms, all of which he was ridiculously eager to sample.  Knowing that he would be tasting her, probably tomorrow, and feeling all of her softness, was quickly making it hard for him to
be able to stand.  Much more of those thoughts, and he’d have to stay behind his desk for a while. 

“I was just going to let you know that I’m going to find a job.  I want to work,” she explained.  “Just until the baby arrives.  And then I’ll stay home with the baby, of course, but just until…well, we don’t know how many cycles this procedure will take so….I wanted to gain some work experience.”

Jason shook his head and stood up.  “Whatever you want to do.  A nanny will be able to take over after the baby is born anyway,” he countered, not willing to allow a woman of her less than trustworthy morals to raise his son.  He wasn’t going to let her know that yet, but would spring it on her later.  It was good that she wanted to work.  Hiring a nanny would make the separation between mother and child easier. Or at least the influence would be minimized. 

Emma smiled, her eyes lighting up brilliantly.  “That’s absolutely wonderful!  Thank you so much!” 

Jason watched with fascination as she stood up and walked out of his office.  One would think he’d just given her the crown jewels instead of agreeing to let her work until the child was born.  Not that he thought he had any right to tell her whether to work or not.  It wasn’t any of his business, although he suspected that he wouldn’t really want his real wife to work.  If things were different, if Emma really was as sweet an innocent as she appeared to be, Jason would be much more protective of her.  He wouldn’t want her in the work force, at some boss’s mercy who might take advantage of her. 

He knew he was being ridiculous because men in the work force were generally not focused on seducing and taking advantage of inexperienced women.  Emma could take care of herself.  One look from those sweet, gentle eyes or a hint of a blush, and any man who was trying to take advantage of her would find himself stuttering out an apology versus taking advantage of her. 

He sighed and realized that he had to wait out going to his meeting
after all
.  His body was still in the zone of impregnating his lovely, if promiscuous wife.  Apparently, his mind didn’t really have control over what his body wants. 

Emma skipped happily out of Jason’s office, her back straight and proud as she stood directly in front of his assistant’s desk. 

“Good morning, and I’m horribly sorry to bother you, but Jason mentioned I should work with you to get an appointment on his calendar.”

The older woman looked up at Emma with kind eyes.  “Of course.  How can I help?”

Emma pulled the
brochure to the fertility clinic out of her file folder.  “Jason needs to be here in the next twenty-four hours,” she explained.

Betty
looked down at the brochure and almost laughed out loud.  “You want me to schedule an appointment with Jason Montenegro at a
fertility
clinic?”

Emma nodded, blushing only a little this time since this woman seemed very kind.  “Yes.”

Betty
put the brochure down and looked at the lovely woman with suspicion.  “I think I’d better clear this with Mr. Montenegro first.  What’s your name?”

“I’m Emma….” She laughed slightly, “Montenegro.  Wow, that’s the first time I’ve actually said that out loud.” 

Betty
just about dropped her pen.  “You’re his wife?” she gasped and quickly stood up. 

“Yes.  We were married a few days ago.”

“Of course.  I’m so sorry!  Ms. Montenegro, please forgive me,” she
gasped
and extended her hand.  “I’m
Betty
, his personal assistant.  Please call me if you need anything at all and I’m terribly sorry for making you wait out here instead of in Mr. Montenegro’s office.  It won’t happen again.”

Emma took the woman’s hand gratefully, but looked confused.  “Don’t worry at all.  I didn’t mind sitting out here.  And it would seem like a terrible invasion of
Mr.
….um, Jason’s privacy if I went into his office without him.”

Betty
sighed with relief.  She’d worked for other executives in the past and some of the wives had been more haughty than the men who paid their bills.  “Thank you very much.”  She glanced down at the brochure again, then handed it back to Emma.  “Here.  We don’t want to leave this laying around.  I don’t think Mr. Montenegro would appreciate others knowing about….this…” she said and smiled.

Emma agreed and slid the brochure into her file folder once again, not wanting to relinquish the information anyway.  “You’re absolutely correct.  Does he have time on his calendar tomorrow?”

Betty
glanced at her computer.  “I will reschedule his meetings tomorrow to ensure that he’s there.  What time?”

Emma shook her head.  “Oh, please, make it at Jason’s convenience.  I can be there anytime.  Make it whenever it’s easiest for you to reschedule all of his appointments.  This is probably a huge burden to you but I’m very grateful for your help.”

Betty
flushed under Emma’s praise and sympathy for all that it would require to shift around appointments on Jason’s calendar.  But then again, people made time for Jason, it wasn’t the other way around so it wasn’t as difficult.  “Let’s make it at ten o’clock in the morning, is that okay?” she asked.

Emma smiled.  “That’ would be perfect.  I’ll meet him there to introduce him to the doctors.”

Betty
set the appointment and sent the address to Jason’s calendar as well as his chauffer’s so they would both know where to go.  “It’s all set,’ she said. 

“Thank you very much!” she replied, then happily walked off to the elevators.  As she stepped in to the elevator to descend to the lobby once again, she thought about how nice it was to meet kind, helpful people.  What a difference!