A Sweet Deal (Crimson Romance) (9 page)

“Or her. Either one. What do you think?” She really was lovely when she smiled. She would be lovely as the pregnancy changed her body, too. He could picture her curves softening, filling out and growing along with the baby inside of her. His baby. A little boy to carry his name or a little girl who looked just like her beautiful mother. He’d never considered trying marriage again, after the pain and humiliation Chelsea had put him through, but this was different. This time there was a common bond beyond emotions, something his first marriage was sorely lacking: a child. With the baby, he’d have the traditional family he so desperately wanted.

“I think I should take some time to think about it.” Her voice was soft, the anger and irritation gone, replaced with a sadness he couldn’t place.

Sensing an outright refusal was imminent, he slid out of his chair and onto his knee. He took her hand in his and looked into her eyes, reminded once again of sweet melted chocolate. She really did seem sweet, nothing at all like the ruthless seductress he had once taken her for. Marrying Yvette would give him everything he had ever wanted. He’d be in complete control of the company that he loved. He’d have a beautiful wife and a child, an heir. The beautiful wife might not have been in his original plans, but if he had to marry again, then he could do worse than Yvette. Creating a family was a compelling reason to take the chance on another marriage.

“Yvette Cruz, will you marry me?” He did his best to look charming and gave her an open smile. It faded a bit when she failed to answer right away.

Silence stretched between them, thick with anticipation and tension. She shook her head sadly, and a single tear slid down her cheek. “No.”

She extracted her hands from his and stood. As she swiped the back of her hand across her cheek, she looked down at him. “This is not at all what I expected. I never wanted to be an unwed mother, and it will just kill my parents, but I’m not sure I’m willing to bring a child into a loveless marriage.”

He stood and took her hand in his. “A loveless marriage? That sounds pretty harsh.”

“You know what I mean. We don’t really know each other, and less than a month ago you actively disliked me.” Tears fell down her cheeks and she brushed them away.

“True, but that was then. I didn’t know you, and I was simply trying to protect the company. Things are different now, much different. The baby changes everything.” He pulled her closer, lowered his voice, and tried to bring her back around.

“I need time to think things through. I never thought I would find myself in this position, and marriage isn’t something I take lightly. To me, it’s a lifelong commitment, so you’ll forgive me if I consider it from every angle before I agree.” She sniffled and wiped the tears from her cheeks, and straightened her spine, holding her head high.

Richard released her hand and pressed a kiss to her forehead. He breathed in the clean fragrance of her hair before moving back and looking into her eyes. “Take all the time you need. I’ll be here for you whatever you decide, and I intend to be a part of this child’s life. You won’t be alone in this.”

“Thank you Richard. I’ll be in touch.” She turned on her heel and walked out, leaving him alone in his office. He stood frozen in place, unsure what to do next for the first time in a long time.

• • •

Yvette paced the length of her living room, certain she would wear a hole in the carpet if her younger sister didn’t arrive soon. She looked to the anniversary clock she’d inherited from her grandmother. Veronica should be here any minute. With every tick of the clock, she grew more nervous, knowing that facing her family with the news would be the hardest thing she’d ever had to do. Things with Richard were complicated, but telling him about the baby had gone much better than she dared hope. The marriage proposal was a surprise. Should she have said yes? Being a single mother wasn’t her first choice, but it wasn’t as shameful as her family would likely think. Surely with time they would come to accept her choice, wouldn’t they? Still, bringing the baby into a family where she was married to the father might not be the worst idea.

Blessedly, Veronica finally arrived, walking in the front door without knocking, her head down as she typed out a text on her phone. Still not looking up, she dropped her handbag on a table in the foyer and crossed the room to meet Yvette before setting her phone down on the coffee table.

Veronica dropped down onto the couch and looked to Yvette. “Hey, I got here as fast as I could. What’s going on?”

Yvette sat in a wingback chair opposite the couch and folded her hands in her lap, took a deep breath, and faced her younger sister. “No sense in beating around the bush. I’m pregnant.”

It felt good to say it out loud to someone other than Richard. Her family was so conservative and traditional that she’d dreaded the moment they’d find out. Their strict Catholic faith meant that it didn’t matter that she was an adult. All that mattered was that she was pregnant out of holy wedlock. Her sister was not as intimidating as her parents, but it wasn’t easy to admit what had happened. Maybe by the time she told her parents, she’d be more comfortable sharing the news. Baby steps, she thought ironically.

Her sister sputtered, the news taking a while to process. “What? You know, for some reason I thought you couldn’t even get pregnant. Did I make that up?”

“No, I thought the radiation made me infertile, but apparently I was wrong. I can definitely get pregnant.” A nervous laugh bubbled up.

Her sister’s eyes were wide with surprise, but there was no judgment in her expression. “I didn’t even know you were seeing anyone.”

“I haven’t been, not really.” She twisted her hands in her lap. Veronica wasn’t judging her for getting pregnant, but her opinion might change once she discovered that it was the result of a wild one-night stand.

“What?” Veronica kicked off her shoes and pulled her feet up onto the couch. Propping her elbows on her knees, she sat forward, as though she were settling in for a juicy gossip session. “Then who’s the father? Do you even know?”

“Of course I know who it is! I had a kind of … fling when I went to Vegas for that conference.” It sounded tawdry when she said it out loud.

“Oh, so is it a guy from work, some candy guy?” She snapped her finger. “It’s not some random guy from Vegas, is it?”

“No, nothing like that. He’s someone who lives here. It’s just complicated.” She chewed on her bottom lip. The further she went in explanation, the more twisted the situation appeared.

“Complicated how? Who is it?” Veronica practically vibrated with curiosity.

Yvette looked at the floor, avoiding eye contact for a moment, as she acknowledged that the mess went further than just an unplanned pregnancy. “It’s Richard Morgan.”

Veronica sat back dramatically, her mouth hanging open. “Richard Morgan, the millionaire? The hot, single millionaire? That Richard Morgan?”

“That’s the one.” Despite herself, Yvette smiled. Her sister did have a flair for the dramatic.

“How did this happen? How do you two even know each other?” Yvette’s fears of judgment disappeared with her sister’s enthusiasm. From the outside, it probably appeared that she’d made quite the catch.

“My company is trying to buy Morgan’s confections division, and I’ve been in charge of the account. Up until that night, we’d never even met, and he didn’t even seem to like me very much when we did. We spent some time together at the conference, and things kind of just got out of hand. After that one night, we agreed not to see each other again, because of the business and how quickly rumors spread, but then this came up.”

“Wow. I wouldn’t mind letting things get out of hand with him.” Veronica waggled her eyebrows comically. “If you know what I mean.”

“Hey! That’s the father of my child you’re talking about.” Yvette smiled a little, though. Her parents were going to be tough, but telling her sister made it seem like things weren’t so insurmountable. Saying it out loud and not facing harsh judgment relaxed her as much as she’d hoped it would.

“Have you told him?” Her sister asked, more serious now.

“Yeah, I went by his office and told him. Now things are even more complicated. I wasn’t sure if he’d be angry, or demand a paternity test, or something worse. I thought that he might think I tricked him, or that I was after his money, who knows. I couldn’t have predicted his reaction in a million years though, because he proposed.”

“What? Oh my gosh!” Veronica squealed and hugged a throw pillow to her chest.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I said no.”

“Why? He’s the father of your baby, he’s rich, and he’s hot—like Channing Tatum-dipped-in-chocolate hot. Why would you turn him down?”

“Because we’re not in love and he just proposed because I’m pregnant. If this hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t have ever seen each other again outside of business. Probably not even for that, if he had any say in it.”

Veronica folded her hands in her lap, her expression concerned and serious. Not a hint of the joking, drama queen remained. “You could grow to love each other, and people get married all the time for far less important reasons. Being married to the father of your child isn’t a bad idea.” Their parents had drilled the importance of marriage and family into them, and Veronica obviously absorbed the lesson. Being young and not as traditional didn’t mean she wasn’t still a good Catholic daughter.

“I don’t think marrying a virtual stranger is such a great idea either, regardless of how we were brought up.”

“Speaking of our upbringing, how are you going to tell Mom and Dad?”

Yvette sighed. Telling her parents was going to be tough, and Veronica’s reaction confirmed it. “I don’t know. I think I might just suck it up and call them. I can’t keep it from them, so I might as well get it over with.”

“Yep, like pulling off a bandage, quick and painful, but over in a flash. I can be with you when you tell them if you want.”

“I can handle it, but thanks. I’ll probably need support afterwards. I’m sure they’ll freak out.”

“Without a doubt. You know, I love you no matter what and I don’t judge you for this, but they really are going to take it hard. After everything they’ve done for us, so that we could have the life we had, this is going to be tough. Really tough. I can already picture Dad yelling about how he didn’t work three jobs to put you through college so you could get pregnant out of wedlock. You should prepare for the worst.”

Yvette chewed on her bottom lip. “I know. I feel horrible about how disappointed they’re going to be, like I let them down. No matter what else I do in life, this is going to trump everything with them. I’m afraid it’s going to be like nothing else matters but this one big mistake.”

“I hate to say it, but you’re probably right—for Dad at least. Mom will probably be upset but understanding. She’ll come around before he does, and she might even help him get through it. She doesn’t think you’re still twelve years old like Dad seems to. You might want to remind him that you’re twenty-seven.” Veronica laughed, short and sympathetic. “Not that it will make a difference to him.”

“I wonder if I should try to make him see that it’s not the end of the world, or if I should just let him go off and wait until his rant ends. Oh, this is so hard.” She dropped her head into her hands and puffed out a sharp breath. “All right, I’m going to call them tonight. Putting it off and obsessing about it won’t make it any easier. No need to postpone the inevitable.” Once she told them over the phone, chances were good that they’d hop in the car and leave their home in Reading to confront her in person.

Veronica stood and hooked her purse over her shoulder. “Okay, just call me if you need anything. Actually, call me after you talk to them regardless. I want to hear how it goes.”

Yvette watched as her sister crossed the living room. “I will. Wish me luck.”

“Good luck,” Veronica said as she spared her one last, sympathetic look before opening the door. “You’re going to need it.”

A full week and a dozen unreturned phone calls from Richard later, Yvette dozed on the pink velvet chaise in her glass-ceilinged library. It was always her favorite room in the house, but never more so than during a thunderstorm. Few things were cozier than curling up inside, safe from the raging weather outside the windows. Rain pelted the panes, and lightning lit up the early evening sky. A pregnancy book lay on the floor, dropped as she drifted off into sleep. She was dreaming, reliving Richard’s proposal, only this time her response was to throw herself into his embrace and whisper “yes.” A chime sounded in the distance and pulled her from her light sleep. The doorbell.

Yvette sat up and looked around the room, blinking, orienting herself. She padded through the darkened rooms of her house, flipping on lights along the way, and peered through the peephole. Her father stood in front of her door, grim-faced and wet from the rain. Yvette unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door, her heart in her stomach.

“Dad.” Tears sprang to her eyes, and she swallowed against the lump forming in her throat. Her father made no move to greet her or take her in his arms like she wanted, so she stepped aside to let him enter. She craned her neck around the corner to look for her mother.

“Your mother is in the car. Your Aunt Celia called as we pulled into your neighborhood.” His tone was clipped, telling her this wouldn’t be a friendly visit. She didn’t expect anything different, but it stung.

She had worried this would happen, that her parents would show up at her doorstep unannounced and barge into her life. The hour-long drive from the neighborhood where she grew up wouldn’t deter them, not when she’d disappointed them so gravely. Their phone conversation a couple of days ago had been just as tense and uncomfortable as she had feared. Telling her parents that she was pregnant was easily the most difficult conversation she had ever had. By the time she could finally hang up, her father’s steely silence was worse than if he had just yelled at her. She could feel their disappointment rolling across the miles, could tell that regardless of her age, they considered having an unwed mother for a child to be a monumental shame.