Читать книгу The CEO's Baby Surprise - Helen Lacey - Страница 10
ОглавлениеHe hadn’t moved. Mary-Jayne looked at him and took a long breath. “This isn’t how I wanted you to find out. I was going to call and tell you and—”
“You’re not serious?” he asked, cutting through her words with icy precision.
She nodded. “I’m perfectly serious. I’m pregnant.”
He raised a dark brow. “We used protection,” he said quietly and held up a few fingers. “Three times, three lots of birth control. So your math doesn’t quite work out.”
“My math?” She stared at him. “What exactly are you accusing me of?”
“Nothing,” he replied evenly. “Simply stating an irrefutable fact.”
A fact?
Right. There was no possible way of misunderstanding his meaning. “I’m not lying to you. This baby is—”
“Yours,” he corrected coldly. “And probably the ex-boyfriend who my grandmother said is giving you grief at the moment.”
She fought the urge to rush across the room and slug him. “I don’t have a boyfriend. Ex or otherwise.”
“You do according to my grandmother,” he stated. “Who I trust more than anyone else.”
No punches pulled. He didn’t believe her. Okay. She could handle it. She didn’t care what he thought. “I only told Solana that to stop her from asking questions about why I’ve been unwell.”
He crossed his arms, accentuating his broad shoulders, and stood as still as a statue. He really was absurdly good-looking, she thought, disliking him with every fiber in her body. His gray eyes had darkened to a deep slate color and his almost black hair was short and shiny, and she remembered how soft it had been between her fingertips. His face was perfectly proportioned and he had a small cleft in his chin that was ridiculously sexy. Yes, Daniel Anderson was as handsome as sin. He was also an arrogant, overbearing, condescending so-and-so, and if it weren’t for the fact he was the biological father of her child, she’d happily never see him again.
“Do I really appear so gullible, Miss Preston?”
Miss Preston?
“Gullible? I don’t know what you—”
“If you think naming me in a paternity claim will fatten your bank balance, think again. My lawyers will be all over you in a microsecond.”
His pompous arrogance was unbelievable. “I’m not after your money.”
“Then, what?” he asked. “A wedding ring?”
Fury surged through her. “I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man left on the planet.”
Her words seemed to amuse him and he looked at her in such a haughty, condescending way that her palms actually itched with the urge to slap his face. In every way she’d played the scene out in her head, and not once had she imagined he wouldn’t believe that her baby was his. Naive perhaps, but Mary-Jayne had been raised to take someone at their word.
“That’s quite a relief, since I won’t be proposing anytime soon.”
“Go to hell,” she said quietly as emotion tightened her chest, and she drew in a shuddering breath. He pushed her buttons effortlessly. He really was a hateful jerk.
“Not until we’ve sorted out this little mix-up.”
“Mix-up?” She glared at him. “I’m pregnant and you’re the father. This is not a mix-up. This is just how it is.”
“Then, I demand a paternity test.”
* * *
Daniel hadn’t meant to sound like such a cold, unfeeling bastard. But he wasn’t about to be taken for a ride. He knew the score. A few months back his brother Caleb had been put through the ringer in a paternity suit that had eventually proved the kid he’d believed was his wasn’t. And Daniel wasn’t about to get pulled into that same kind of circus.
Mary-Jayne Preston’s baby couldn’t possibly be his...could it? He’d never played roulette with birth control. Besides, now that he could well and truly see her baby bump she looked further along than four months. Simone hadn’t started showing so obviously until she was five months’ pregnant.
“I’d like you to leave.”
Daniel didn’t move. “Won’t that defeat the purpose of your revelation?”
She scowled, and he couldn’t help thinking how she still looked beautiful even with an infuriated expression. “You know about the baby, so whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you.”
“Until I get served with child-support demands, you mean?”
She placed her hands on her hips and Daniel’s gaze was immediately drawn to her belly. She was rounder than he remembered, kind of voluptuous, and a swift niggle of attraction wound its way through his blood and across his skin. Her curves had appealed to him from the moment they’d first met, and watching her now only amplified that desire.
Which was damned inconvenient, since she was obviously trying to scam him.
“I don’t want your money,” she said stiffly. “And I certainly don’t want a wedding ring. When I get married it will be to someone I actually like. I intend to raise this baby alone. Believe me, or don’t believe me. Frankly, I don’t care either way.”
There was such blatant contempt in her voice that he was tempted to smile. One thing about the woman in front of him—she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. And even though he knew it was crazy thinking, it was an interesting change from the usual lengths some women went to in order to get his attention. How sincere she was, he couldn’t tell.
“We spent the night together a little over four months ago,” he reminded her. “You look more than four months pregnant.”
Her glare intensified. “So it’s clearly a big baby. All I know is that the only possible way I got pregnant was from that night I spent with you. I hadn’t been with anyone for a long time before that night. Despite what you think of me, I’m not easy. And I don’t lie. I have no reason to want this child to be yours. I don’t like you. I’m not interested in you or your money or anything else. But I am telling you the truth.”
He still wasn’t convinced. “So the ex-boyfriend?”
“A figment of my imagination,” she replied. “Like I said, Solana was asking questions and I needed a little camouflage for a while.”
He kept his head. “Even if there is no boyfriend and you are indeed carrying a supersize baby...we used contraception. So it doesn’t add up.”
“And since condoms are only ninety-eight percent effective, we obviously managed to slip into the two percent bracket.”
Ninety-eight percent effective?
Since when?
Daniel struggled with the unease clawing up his spine. “You cannot expect me to simply accept this news at face value.”
She shrugged, as if she couldn’t care either way. “Do, or don’t. If you want a paternity test to confirm it, then fine, that’s what we’ll do.”
He relaxed a little. Finally, some good sense. “Thank you.”
“But it won’t be done until the baby is born,” she said evenly and took a long breath. “There are risks associated with tests after the fifteen-week mark, and I won’t put my baby in jeopardy. Not for you. Not for anyone.”
There was such unequivocal resolve in her voice, and it surprised him. She was a flake. Unreliable. Unpredictable. Nothing like Simone. “Of course,” he said, and did his best to ignore the stabbing pain in his temple. His shoulders ached, and he could feel the effects of no sleep and hours flying across the globe begin to creep into his limbs. “I wouldn’t expect you to put your child at risk.”
Her child.
Her baby.
This wasn’t what he’d expected to face when he’d decided to come home. But if she was telling the truth? What then? To share a child with a woman he barely knew. It was a train wreck waiting to happen.
And he hated waiting. In business. In his personal life.
He’d waited at the hospital when Simone was brought in with critical injuries. He waited while the doctors had tried to save her and their unborn daughter. He’d waited, and then received the worst possible news. And afterward he’d experienced a heartbreaking despair. After that night he became hollow inside. He’d loved his wife and daughter. Losing them had been unbearable. And he’d never wanted to feel that kind of soul-destroying anguish again.
But if Mary-Jayne was carrying his child, how could he turn his back?
He couldn’t. He’d be trapped.
Held ransom by the very feelings he’d sworn he never wanted to feel again.
“So what do you want from me until then?”
“Want? Nothing,” she replied quietly. “I’ll call you when the baby is born and the paternity test is done. Goodbye.”
He sighed. “Is this how you usually handle problems? By ignoring them?”
Her cheeks quickly heated. “I don’t consider this baby a problem,” she shot back. “And the only thing I plan to ignore is you.”
* * *
He stared at her for a moment, and then when he laughed Mary-Jayne realized she liked the sound way too much. She didn’t want to like anything about him. Not ever. He had become enemy number one. For the next five months all she wanted to do was concentrate on growing a healthy baby. Wasting time thinking about Daniel and his sexy laugh and gray eyes was off her agenda.
“You don’t really think that’s going to happen, do you?” he asked, watching her with such hot intensity she couldn’t look away. “You’ve dropped this bombshell, and you know enough about me to realize I won’t simply fade away for the next five months.”
“I can live in hope.”
“I think you live in a fantasyland, Mary-Jayne.”
The way he said her name caused her skin to prickle. No one called her that except her parents and her older brother, Noah. Even her sisters and closest friends mostly called her M.J. To the rest of the world she was M. J. Preston—the youngest and much loved sibling in a close-knit middle-class family. But Daniel had always used her full name.
Mary-Jayne took a deep breath. “A fantasyland?” She repeated his words as a question.
“What else would you call it?” he shot back as he looked her over. “You’re what, twenty-seven? Never married or engaged. No real career to speak of. And a barely solvent online business. You’ve rented the same house for nearly ten years. You drive a car that’s good for little else but scrap metal. You have less than a thousand dollars in the bank at any given time and a not-so-stellar credit rating thanks to a certain dubious ex-boyfriend who ran up a debt on your behalf over five years ago. It looks very much like you do—”
“How do you know that?” she demanded hotly, hands on hips. “How do you know all that about me? I’ve not told Solana any of...” She trailed off as realization hit. And then she seethed. “You had me investigated?”
“Of course,” he replied, unmoving and clearly unapologetic.
“You had no right to do that,” she spat. “No right at all. You invaded my privacy.”
He shrugged his magnificent shoulders. “You are working at this resort and have befriended my grandmother—it was prudent to make sure you weren’t a fortune hunter.”
“Fortune hunter?” Mary-Jayne’s eyes bulged wide and she said a rude word.
He tilted his head a fraction. “Well, the jury’s still out on that one.”
“Jury?” She echoed the word in disbelief. “And what does that make you? The judge? Can you actually hear yourself? Of all the pompous, arrogant and self-important things I’ve ever heard in my life, you take the cake. And you really do take yourself and the significance of your opinions way too seriously.”
He didn’t like that. Not one bit. She watched, fascinated as his eyes darkened and a tiny pulse in his cheek beat rapidly. His hands were clenched and suddenly his body looked as if it had been carved from granite. And as much as she tried to fight it, attraction reared up, and heat swirled around the small room as their gazes clashed.
Memories of that night four months ago banged around in her head. Kissing, touching, stroking. Possession and desire unlike any she had known before. There had been a quiet intensity in him that night, and she’d been swept away into another world, another universe where only pleasure and a deeply intimate connection existed. That night, he hadn’t been the rigid, unyielding and disagreeable man who was now in her living room. He’d been tender and passionate. He’d whispered her name against her skin. He’d kissed her and made love to her with such profound eagerness Mary-Jayne’s entire mind and body had awakened and responded in kind. She’d never been driven to please and be pleasured like that before.
But right now she had to get back to hating him. “I’m going to get changed and go for a walk to clear my head. You know the way out.”
He didn’t move. And he looked a little pale, she thought. Perhaps the shock that he was going to be a father was finally hitting home. But then she remembered that he didn’t believe he actually was her baby’s father, so that probably wasn’t it.
“We still have things to discuss.”
“Not for another...” Her words trailed off and she tapped off five of her fingers in her palm. “Five months. Until then, how about you treat me with the disdain that you’ve clearly mastered, and I’ll simply pretend that you don’t exist. That will work out nicely for us both, don’t you think?”
Of course, she knew saying something so provocative was like waving a red cape at a bull. But she couldn’t help herself. He deserved it in spades. And it was only the truth. She didn’t want to see him or spend any more time in his company.
“I don’t treat you with disdain.”
And there it was again—his resolute belief in the sound of his own voice.
“No?” She bit down on her lip for a moment. “You’ve admitted you had me investigated and just accused me of being a fortune hunter. Oh, and what about what you said to me on the phone when I was in South Dakota?” She took a strengthening breath. “That I was a flake who dressed like a hippie.”
His eyes flashed. “And before you told me to go to hell you called me an uptight, overachieving, supercilious snob, if I remember correctly.” He uncrossed his arms and took a step toward her.
“Well, it’s the truth. You are an uptight snob.”
“And you dress like a hippie.”
“I like to be comfortable,” she said, and touched her head self-consciously. “And I can’t help the way my hair gets all curly in the humidity.”
His gaze flicked to her hair and she saw his mouth twitch fractionally. “I didn’t say a word about your hair. In fact it’s quite...it’s...it’s...”
“It’s what?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said, and shrugged. “I would like to know your plans.”
Mary-Jayne stared at him. “I don’t have any plans other than to have a healthy baby in five months’ time.”
He looked around the room. “When are you leaving here?”
“Audrey’s back in two weeks. I’ll go home then.”
“Have you told your family?”
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
“Have you told anyone?”
She met his gaze. “You.”
His expression narrowed. “And since she didn’t mention it while you were throwing up in her garden, I’m guessing you haven’t told my grandmother, either?”
“Just you,” she replied, fighting the resentment fueling her blood. “Like I said. Incidentally, Daniel, if you’re going to disbelieve everything that comes out of my mouth, it’s going to be a long five months.”
He grinned unexpectedly. “So you do know my name? I don’t think you’ve ever used it before. Well, except for that night we spent together.”
Her skin heated. She remembered exactly how she’d said his name that night. Over and over, whispered and moaned, as though it was the only word she’d known.
“Like I said, you know the way out.”
He didn’t budge. “We still need to talk.”
“We’ve talked enough,” she said tensely. “You don’t believe me and you need a paternity test. And you think I’m after your money. Believe me, I’ve got your message loud and clear.”
“You’re angry because I want proof of paternity?”
He actually sounded surprised. Mary-Jayne almost laughed at his absurd sense of entitlement. “I’m angry because you think I’m lying to you. I don’t know what kind of world you live in where you have this compulsion to question someone’s integrity without cause, but I don’t live in that world, Daniel. And I would never want to.”
She spun on her heel and left the room, barely taking a breath until she reached the sanctuary of the main bedroom. She leaned against the closed door and shuddered.
It’s done now. He knows. I can get on with things.
She pulled herself together, changed into sweats and sneakers and loitered in the room for more than ten minutes to ensure he’d be gone.
She strode into the living room and then stopped in her tracks. The room was empty. He’d left. As if he’d never been there.
A strange hollowness fluttered behind her ribs. She was glad he was gone—arrogant and disbelieving jerk that he was. She was well rid of him. With any luck she’d never have to see him again. Or speak to him. Or have to stare into those smoky gray eyes of his.
She could go home and have her baby.
Simple.
But in her heart she knew she was dreaming to believe he’d just disappear from her life. She was having his baby—and that made it about as complicated as it got.
* * *
When Daniel woke up he had a crick in his neck and his left leg was numb. It was dark out. He checked his watch: six-forty. He sat up and stretched. When he’d left her condo, he’d walked around the grounds for a few minutes before heading back to his own villa. Once he’d sat down, the jet lag had hit him with a thud. Now he needed coffee and a clear head.
He got to his feet and rounded out his shoulders. The condo was quiet, and he walked from the living room and headed for the kitchen. He had to refocus and figure what the hell he was supposed to do for the next five months until the baby came into the world.
The baby.
His baby...
I’m going to be a father.
Maybe?
Daniel still wasn’t entirely convinced. Mary-Jayne potentially had a lot to gain by saying he’d fathered her child. He wasn’t naive and knew some people were mercenary enough to try to take advantage of others. He remembered how devastated Caleb had been when he’d discovered the boy he’d thought was his son turned out to belong to his then girlfriend’s ex-husband. And Daniel didn’t want to form a bond with a child only to have it snatched away. Not again. Losing Simone and their unborn daughter had been soul destroying. He wasn’t going to put himself in a position to get another serving of that kind of loss.
He made coffee and drank it. Damn...he felt as if his head was going to explode. He’d had it all planned out...come back to Port Douglas, reconnect with Mary-Jayne for a week and get her out of his system once and for all.
Not going to happen.
Daniel rounded out his shoulders and sucked in a long breath. He needed a plan. And fast. He swilled the cup in the sink, grabbed his keys and left the villa.
By the time he reached her condo his hands were sweating. No one had ever had such an intense physical effect on him. And he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. The crazy thing was, he couldn’t ignore it. And now that had amplified a hundredfold.
They needed to talk. There was no way around it. Daniel took another breath and knocked on the door.
When she answered the door she looked almost as though she’d been expecting him to return. He didn’t like the idea that he was so transparent to her.
“I’m working,” she said, and left him standing in the doorway. “So you’ll need to amuse yourself for ten minutes before we get into round two.”
The way she dismissed him so effortlessly should have made him madder than hell. But it didn’t. He liked her spirit, and it was one of the things he found so attractive about her.
He followed her down the hall, and when he reached the dining room she was already standing by a small workbench tucked against the wall in one corner. She was bent over the narrow table, one elbow resting, using a small soldering iron. There was enough light from the lamp positioned to one side for him to see her profile, and despite the protective glasses perched on her nose he couldn’t miss the intense concentration she gave her craft. There were several boards fashioned on easels that displayed her jewelry pieces, and although he was no expert, there was certainly style and creativity in her work.
She must have sensed him watching her because she turned and switched off the soldering iron. “So you’re back?”
He nodded. “I’m back.”
“Did you call your lawyer?”
“What?”
She shrugged a little. “Seems like something you’d do.”
Daniel ignored the irritation clawing at his spine. “No, Mary-Jayne, I didn’t call my lawyer. Actually, I fell asleep.”
She looked surprised and then frowned a little. “Jet lag?”
He nodded again. “Once I sat down it hit me.”
“I had the same reaction when I returned from Thailand last year. It took me three days to recover. The trick is to stay awake until bedtime.”
There was something husky and incredibly sexy about Mary-Jayne’s voice that reached him deep down. After they’d slept together, he’d pursued her and she’d turned him down flat. Even from across an ocean she’d managed to throw a bucket of cold water on his attempts to ask her out. And get her back in his bed. Because he still wanted her. As foolish as it was, as different and unsuitable for one another as they were—he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
She knew that. She knew they were from different worlds. She’d accused him of thinking she was an easy mark and that was why he wanted her. But it wasn’t that. He wanted her because she stirred him like no other woman ever had. From her crazy beautiful hair to her curvy body and her sassy mouth, Daniel had never known a woman like her. He might not like her...but he wanted her. And it was as inconvenient as hell.
“So what do you want, then?”
Daniel’s back straightened. She didn’t hold back. She clearly didn’t think she had anything to gain by being friendly or even civil. It wasn’t a tactic he was used to. She’d called him a spoiled, pampered and arrogant snob, and although he didn’t agree with that assumption, it was exactly how she treated him.
“To talk,” he replied. “Seems we’ve got plenty to talk about.”
“Do you think?” she shot back. “Since you don’t believe that this baby is yours, I can’t see what’s so important that you felt compelled to come back so soon.”
Daniel took a breath. “I guess I deserve that.”
“Yeah,” she said and plucked the glasses off her nose. “I guess you do.”
He managed a tight smile. “I would like to talk with you. Would coffee be too much trouble?”
She placed the soldering iron on the bench. “I guess not.”
As she walked past him and through the door to the kitchen it occurred to Daniel that she swayed when she moved. The kitchen seemed small with both of them in it, and he stayed on the outside of the counter.
“That’s quite a collection your friend has up there,” he remarked and pointed to the cooking pots hanging from an old window shutter frame that was suspended from the ceiling.
“Audrey likes pans,” she said without looking at him. “I don’t know why.”
“She doesn’t need a reason,” he said and pulled out a chair. “I collect old books.”
She glanced up. “Old books?”
“First editions,” he explained. “Poetry and classic literature.”
One of her eyebrows rose subtly. “I didn’t peg you as a reader. Except perhaps the Financial Times.”
Daniel grinned a little. “I didn’t say I read them.”
“Then why collect them?”
He half shrugged. “They’re often unique. You know, rare.”
“Valuable?” she asked, saying the word almost as an insult. “Does everything in your life have a dollar sign attached to it?”
As digs went between them, it was pretty mild, but it still irked him. “Everything? No.”
“Good,” she said, and held up a small sugar pot. When he shook his head, she continued speaking. “Because I have no intention of allowing my baby to become caught up in your old family money or your sense of self-entitlement.”
Daniel stilled. “What does that mean?”
“It means that people like you have a kind of overconfident belief that money fixes everything.”
“People like me?” Daniel walked across the small room and moved around the countertop. “Like me?” he asked again, trying to hold on to the annoyance sneaking across his skin. “Like me, how...exactly?”
She stepped back. “You’re rich and successful. You can snap your fingers and have any number of minions willing to do whatever you need done.”
He laughed humorlessly. “Really? I must try that next time I want someone to bring me my slippers.”
Her green eyes glittered brilliantly. “Did you just make a joke? I didn’t realize you had it in you.”
Daniel’s shoulders twitched. “Perhaps I’m not quite the uptight, overachieving, supercilious snob you think I am.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far,” she said and pushed the mug along the countertop. “There’s milk in the fridge.”
“This is fine.” Daniel took the mug and leaned a hip against the counter. “Thank you.”
“No problem. And you are uptight, Daniel. Everything about you screams order and control.”
“Because I don’t live in chaos?” he asked, deliberately waving a hand around the untidy room. “That doesn’t necessarily equate to being a control freak.”
She crossed her arms. “Chaos? So now you think I’m a slob?”
He drank some coffee and placed the mug on the counter. “What I think is that it’s interesting that you express every opinion you have without considering the consequences.”
“Oh, have I offended your sensibilities?”
“Have I offended yours?”
She shrugged. “I’d have to care what you thought, wouldn’t I?”
In all his life he’d never met anyone who tried so hard to antagonize him. Or anyone with whom he’d been compelled to do the same. Mary-Jayne got under his skin in ways he could barely rationalize. They were all wrong for one another and they both knew it.
And now there was a baby coming...
His baby.
Daniel glanced at her belly and then met her gaze.
“Mary-Jayne.” He said her name quietly, and the mood between them changed almost immediately. “Are you...are you sure?”
She nodded slowly. “Am I sure the baby is yours? Yes, I’m certain.”
Resistance lingered in his blood. “But we—”
“I may be a lot of things, Daniel...but I’m not a liar.” She drew in a long breath. “The contraception we used obviously failed. Despite what you think of me, I’ve been single for over twelve months and I haven’t slept with anyone since...except you.”
A stupid, egotistical part of him was glad to hear it. One part wanted to believe her. And the other...the other could only think about what it meant for them both if what she said was true.
“I need to be sure,” he said.
“I understand,” she replied. “You can have your proof when he or she is born.”
Guilt niggled its way through his blood. “I appreciate you agreeing to a paternity test.”
She shrugged lightly. “There’s little point in being at odds over this. Be assured that I don’t want anything from you, and once you have your proof of paternity you can decide how much or how little time you invest in this.”
As she spoke she certainly didn’t come across as flighty as she appeared. She sounded like a woman who knew exactly what she wanted. Which was her child...and no interference from him.
Which of course wasn’t going to happen.
If the baby was his, then he would be very involved. He’d have no choice. The child would be an Anderson and have the right to claim the legacy that went with the name. Only, he wasn’t sure how he’d get Mary-Jayne to see it that way.
“If this child is mine, then I won’t dodge my responsibility.”
She looked less than impressed by the idea. “If you’re talking about money, I think I’ve made it pretty clear I’m not interested.”
“You can’t raise a child on good intentions, Mary-Jayne. Be sensible.”
Her mouth thinned and she looked ready for an argument, but she seemed to change her mind. Some battles, he figured, were about defense, not attack...and she knew that as well as he did.
“We’ll see what happens,” she said casually as she crossed the small kitchen and stood in front of the refrigerator. She waited for him to stand aside and then opened the door. “I’m heating up lasagna. Are you staying for dinner?”
Daniel raised a brow. “Am I invited?”
She shrugged, as if she couldn’t care either way. But he knew she probably wanted to tell him to take a hike in some of her more colorful language.
“Sure,” he said, and grabbed the coffee mug as he stepped out of her way. “That would be good.”
He caught a tiny smile on her mouth and watched as she removed several items from the refrigerator and began preparing food on the countertop. She placed a casserole dish in the microwave and began making a salad. And Daniel couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was fascinating to watch. Her glorious hair shone like ebony beneath the kitchen light, and she chewed her bottom lip as she completed the task. And of course thinking about her lips made him remember their night together. And kissing her. And making love to her. She had a remarkable effect on his libido, and he wondered if it was because they were so different that he was so achingly attracted to her. She was all challenge. All resistance. And since very little challenged him these days, Daniel knew her very determination to avoid him had a magnetic pull all of its own.
And he had no idea what he was going to do about it.
Or if he could do actually do anything at all.
