Expecting the Boss's Baby (9 page)

Giving a groan of approval and pleasure, he gently ground her against him. Kate felt her breath slip away. It was so easy for her to want him, to want to feel the power of his arousal, to allow him to take her at the same time she took him. It would be so easy to make love with him now, here in the kitchen, against the wall, or in the bed she shared with him.

Justin’s taunt rang through her mind like an ill-tuned key on a piano. The hurt sliced through her again. She pulled back and dipped her forehead. The sounds of their fast breaths were mingled in the darkness. She felt the tug of unspent passion in her pulse and his.

“You’re remembering what Justin said,” Michael said in a low voice. “Forget it.”

Her heart twisted. “I can’t,” she said. “Not yet. Too soon.”

He gave a ragged sigh.

“You’ve given up your bed enough for me. I’ll take the couch.”

“No,” he said. “We’ll sleep in the same bed.”

“But—”

“It’s where you belong. I’ll wait for you.”

Kate searched the planes of his face in the darkness. “Wait for me to do what?”

He looked at her and his gaze had the impact of a sexual loaded pistol. “For you to want me again.”

As if by mutual consent, Kate and Michael stayed busy every night. The following week they took a whirlwind tour of homes for sale and found
the
house on the seventh night. The two-story brick colonial boasted four bedrooms, a study, a den, formal living and dining room, kitchen with a nook and a surprise sunroom. Kate was pleased to see several young children playing in the neighbor
hood and Michael had no complaints about the twenty-minute commute.

True to form, Michael didn’t waste time. He signed a contract for the house the same night they found it, then left for the west coast the next morning. Out of consideration for Cupcake, Kate stayed in St. Albans. She’d read that flying and early pregnancy might not be a great combination, so she made a few purchases for the new house.

Every night as she went to sleep, she looked at the pillow beside her and remembered how it had felt to share the bed with Michael. She tried to deny it to herself, but every night she missed him more.

The evening Michael was scheduled to arrive she went to the airport even though they’d agreed he would catch a cab. She watched him disembark and immediately sensed something was wrong. His face was lined with strain and his gaze was focused somewhere out there. She had to call his name twice to get his attention.

“Michael,” she said for the third time, stepping in front of him. “Hello,” she said with a laugh.

He blinked, then glanced from side to side. “Hello,” he murmured. “What are you doing here? Was there an emergency call from the office?”

“No,” she said, growing concerned with his strange attitude. “I wanted to surprise you.”

Then he looked at her and really saw her. He
dropped his carry-on and took her in his arms. Kate could have sworn he was seeking some kind of solace. She returned the embrace. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“Not much,” he said, but his tone didn’t echo his words.

She pulled back and searched his face. “I think you’re not telling me something.”

His eyes were hard. “I think this is none of your business.”

Kate stared at him in shock. He was so far from her he might as well still be in California.

“I
s that everything?” Kate asked, after Michael had loaded the trunk.

The weight of her concerned gaze and determined cheerfulness grated on him. After this trip, however, everything on the planet would grate on him. “Yeah. I’ll drive,” he said, wondering how he could be so damn glad to see her at the same time that he didn’t want to see her at all.

“Oh, no. I’ll drive. You’re tired,” she said, letting herself into the driver’s side of the vehicle. “And cranky.” She smiled a little too brightly. “It’s always been my belief that cranky people don’t belong on the road.”

“That could cover half the population at one time or another,” he said, sliding into the passenger seat and closing the door.

“My point exactly.” She pulled away from the metropolitan airport and pushed a CD into the player. The familiar guitar strains filled the car. Eric Clapton.

Michael took a deep breath and tried to relax.

“Y’know,” she said calmly as she pulled onto a main thoroughfare, “if I weren’t so happy to see you, I’d club you for talking to me that way in the airport.”

Michael did a double take. “What way?” he asked, even though he knew. He was chomping at the bit for a fight.

She shot him a quick glance. “None of my business,” she quoted him.

“It is,” he said grimly, “none of your business.”

Kate’s cheeks turned pink. She jerked the steering wheel to the side and pulled into a gas-station parking lot. She turned on him. “I’m your wife, bozo brain. If something’s bothering you, it sure as hell is my business too.”

She rarely swore, Michael thought, taking in the glorious sight of her anger. Pink cheeks, sparks shooting from her eyes, and tongue primed to rip him to shreds. “Bozo brain?”

“If the shoe fits,” she said, over-emphasizing her consonants. He would have to remember that
sign for the future. “Only a bozo wouldn’t tell his wife if something was bothering him.”

“I don’t want you worrying.”

“Cut the bull, Michael. You know as well as I do that you didn’t marry any fragile flower. If I could take three years as your assistant, I can handle whatever happened to you in California.”

“Takeover,” he said, amazed at the instant relief telling her provided. “Only I’m not doing the taking this time. Another company is prepared to make a hostile takeover of CG Enterprises.”

She stared at him silently for a long moment.

He rushed to reassure her. “You don’t need to worry about money. We’re set if I don’t work another day. You and the baby will be—”

She covered his busy mouth with her fingertips. “At this moment, I am much more concerned about you.”

Michael felt his chest swell with the oddest, most disconcerting emotion. He didn’t know what to make of it. He just knew it wasn’t all bad. “I’m okay,” he said. “I have to get together a strategy for how to fight this. It will involve some long hours,” he warned her.

“But not tonight,” she said, and leaned forward to kiss him. “I’m glad you’re home.”

Michael settled back in his seat as she drove toward the apartment. He was ironically uneasy with the ease he felt with her. He trusted her, but he always had. There was something else. After a
cross-country flight, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he wasn’t totally comfortable with the situation.

He carried his luggage inside and Parkay greeted him with her customary snarl. He wondered if that cat would ever accept him. He inhaled a heavenly aroma. “What do I smell?”

Kate smiled. “Chocolate chip cookies. I made them this afternoon. Milk or beer?”

“Beer,” he said.

He stowed his luggage in the bedroom, then returned to the den and sank down on the sofa. He started to go through the mail, but she took it from him and handed him a beer and two cookies.

Kate sat down beside him. The silence between them was easy. He wolfed down the cookies, swallowed the beer, and drank in the sight of her. Her blue eyes held secrets he wanted to know. Her hair looked like rich silk, her cheeks glowed, and her mouth looked inviting. It felt as if it had been forever since they’d made love. His gaze traveled down her body. Everything about her seemed more ripe, including her belly.

“You look pregnant.”

“Thank you,” she said, beaming. “Wanna see my belly?” She poked it out at him.

Charmed, he nodded. “Do I get to touch?”

“Yes. Cupcake is moving.”

He felt his gut tighten. He slid his hands up under her blouse. “You felt the baby move?”

She nodded, clearly delighted. “At first I thought it was gas, but it’s the baby. It might be a few more weeks before you can feel the movement.”

Losing his company, knowing his baby was moving. He was hitting both ends of the scale at once. Michael closed his eyes at the dichotomy of emotion. He felt Kate’s fingers on his forehead and wanted more. But he’d made a promise, he reminded himself.

Unwilling to test his ragged control tonight, he stood. “I’m beat. I’ll take the sofa tonight.”

Her eyes met his, seeing possibilities in him he hadn’t known existed. She stood too. “No. You belong in our bed.”

He felt a knot in his stomach. Knowing he could probably persuade her to give him ease in the most sensual sense didn’t mean it would be best in the long run. “Kate, I want you tonight, and I’m fresh out of any Boy Scout chivalry.”

She laced her fingers through his, and even that sensation affected him. “I think you should get ready for bed. There’s something I want to tell you.”

Too tired to argue, he headed for the bathroom and washed the day off himself. When he finished, he looped a towel around his waist and walked through the open door.

With the bedside lamp’s gentle illumination, she sat in the middle of his bed wrapped in a short
white filmy nightie that revealed the hint of her dusky nipples and the slight swell of her belly. She reminded him of all the Christmas presents he’d ever wanted and not received. She crooked her finger at him and patted the bed beside her.

He took the dare in her eyes and dropped the towel before he joined her on the bed. “What do you want to tell me?”

“Number ten,” she said, touching his face with one hand, skimming her other palm down his shoulders and chest.

Michael would have traded his soul for her touch. He wasn’t sure his soul was worth much, but it was all he had, save his millions. And Kate, being Kate, wasn’t interested in his millions.

“What is number ten?” he asked, closing his eyes and giving into the pleasure of her slow touch.

“The tenth reason I want you,” she said.

He grinned slightly. “Ah, the secret reason. The one you wouldn’t tell me the night before our wedding.”

“Right,” she said. “The reason that kept me from running.”

“What is it?” he asked, opening his eyes.

“Chocolate chip cookies.”

Confused, he wrinkled his brow. “Chocolate chip cookies,” he echoed, wondering if she was missing a few cookies herself.

“You used to race to the front of the cafeteria
line and you always got cookies. But you always gave your cookies to Harold Grimley.”

Stunned, he stared at her. “How did you know that?”

“That’s for another time,” she told him, waving her hand in a dismissing gesture. “Now is the time for me to show you what happens to the man who gave his cookies to Harold Grimley,” she said and kissed him.

She flowed over his body like a soft, sensual shower. She lingered with her mouth on his, then dragged her lips down his throat to his chest. Her combination of tenderness and passion nearly undid him.

She nuzzled his chest and he felt her chiffon-covered breasts against his crotch. Each movement of her body taunted his burgeoning hardness. Michael felt his blood soar through his veins.

Continuing her trail of sensual destruction, she drew her sensitive lips down his abdomen. Now he felt the stiffened peaks of her breasts on his thighs. He was achingly swollen.

“Kate,” he said, trying to warn her. Before he could form another word, she kissed him intimately. All air left his lungs.

She took him into her mouth with mind-blowing strokes from her tongue. Each caress from her tongue pushed him nearer the edge. But it had been too long since he’d had her. He didn’t want to go this way.

He urged her head from him and pulled her upward.

Her eyes dark with passion, she looked at him with sensual confusion. “Why did you stop me?”

“Because I want more of you,” he said and kissed her mouth. The fact that she tasted of his essence made him wild. He quickly discarded her filmy nightie and groaned at the sensation of her naked silky skin against his.

He touched her full breasts, then slid one hand between her thighs. She was already wet and swollen. The knowledge was too much for him. Holding her with an endless kiss, he gently rolled her on her back and plunged inside her.

She gasped, and a sliver of concern raced through him.

“Too rough?” he asked.

She shook her head and rocked her hips so she enclosed him more deeply. “Don’t stop.”

Her openness did something to him emotionally, physically. His restraint ripped in two and he pumped inside her wet, tight femininity. Her ripple of climax sent him into blissful oblivion.

It took a few moments for Michael to regain his faculties. He pulled her against him.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“That’s supposed to be my line.”

Her eyelids lowered, giving her a mysterious look. “Not necessarily.”

“If I ever see Harold Grimley again, I’ll have to thank him.”

Kate laughed and the sound made everything inside him feel lighter. How did she have such a powerful effect on him? Uneasy with the strength of his emotions, he silently held her.

She snuggled closer to him and it occurred to Michael that he could get used to this. He could grow to count on her. Michael knew that would be a mistake. Nothing was forever.

Michael turned his attention to the company with a vengeance. Kate understood that the company was like a child to him, but she missed him. Their finest moments seemed to come at night after they made love.

Summer turned to fall and she kept busy managing the move from the apartment to their new home and tutoring the girls at the home for unwed teenage mothers. She told herself that Michael’s business crisis wouldn’t last forever, but she feared another would take its place and she would essentially have an absentee husband. The possibility hurt, but she buried it as best she could.

Her doctor scheduled an appointment for her ultrasound and she invited Michael. She even went so far as to write a note on the refrigerator so he wouldn’t forget.

When she reclined on the examination table and the doctor put cold goop and the ultrasound device
on her growing belly, she was by herself. As she watched the screen in fascination, she counted the fingers and toes of her baby. The joy she felt was so great that she almost didn’t need Michael, she told herself.

That night, she followed an impulse and met Donna for dinner at a trendy downtown bistro. “You look glorious,” her friend said with the slightest trace of envy. “If I knew any men who’d make a decent father, I’d be tempted to follow in your footsteps.”

Kate winced and took a sip of herbal tea. “You might not want to do it exactly the same way I did.”

Donna gave Kate a searching glance. “How’s your husband?”

“Busy with the company right now,” she said. “Very busy.”

The waiter delivered their salads and Donna lifted her eyebrows. “How busy?”

“Home late almost every night. He works most weekends.” She pushed a broccoli floret around her plate and confessed, “He missed the ultrasound today.”

“Ah,” Donna said with cool eyes. “The un-husband.”

The unusual term gave Kate pause. “I hadn’t really thought of him that way.”

“But it’s true.”

Kate didn’t want to be disloyal. “He does have a legitimate crisis at work.”

“How long are you going to give him to figure things out?”

Kate’s stomach tightened. “What do you mean how long?”

“I mean if this is impossible, you don’t have to be miserable with him the rest of your life.”

“I’m not miserable,” Kate said, feeling tears threaten. “I just wish he didn’t always seem so far away.”

Donna took a bite of salad and swallowed, then leaned forward. “You haven’t fallen in love with him, have you?”

Kate sat there silently, that small voice inside her screaming
yes.
Her heart sank. When had it happened? she wondered. Or perhaps, she always had. Not like this, however, she thought. She had not cared for Michael as if he were a part of her before. But now she did. Now, his happiness meant nearly everything to her.

Donna looked at her with sympathy. “Oh, Kate.”

Unwilling to wallow in self-pity, she shook off her sadness and took a deep breath. “I’m okay. This is temporary,” she said firmly, as much for herself as for Donna. She just hoped it was true.

Michael was drowning in a sea of paperwork. The VP of Wayland Inc., the company that wanted
to acquire CG Enterprises, was known as “the shark.” He devoured the companies Wayland acquired until they bore little resemblance to their original state.

Michael and his legal department were working overtime scrutinizing every word of the offer in order to protect CG and Michael’s staff. One of many bones of contention was a vague clause suggesting the whole company be moved to the west coast.

Michael knew he probably couldn’t stop the takeover. Wayland was too large, with deep pockets, but he’d negotiated enough of these from the other side to know the company being acquired often possessed more leverage than they believed.

The idea of giving up his company turned his stomach, but Michael was determined to look at it from a business angle. It was the only way he could keep a clear head, and too many people were depending on him for him to lose his perspective now.

A knock sounded on his door and he frowned. He’d told the latest assistant to turn away all visitors and callers. Irritated, he turned back to his work. The door opened and he didn’t look up. “I’m busy,” he said.