The Alpha's Baby (9 page)

"I didn't lie." Okay, so she did.

"Then what color was the bird?" he asked.

The question threw her off guard. She'd never been that great at lying. "Uh…"

"That's what I thought." He smirked.

"Blue," she spat out. "It was blue."

"Mmm-hmmm." He smirked.

"It's the tr—"

Before she could finish her sentence, Sebastian seized her wrist and pulled her into his arms. His hand snuck around her waist, drawing her closer against him. One second she was bickering with him, the next, his tongue darted into her mouth. She considered pushing him away, but then, as his silken tongue ran over hers, she melted in his embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck.

During that moment, she was certain that Sebastian's soul was mingling with her own. She squeezed her eyes shut as she let out a groan of desire that shook her whole body. He ran his hand down her back, then balanced his fingers on her ass. The man squeezed her butt cheek, making her suck in air and break free from the kiss.

"What the hell was that?" She stared at him, stunned.

"It was the penalty." He grinned at her.

"You jerk," she said.

"Yeah, yeah." He offered her his hand. "Are you going to eat with me, or aren't you?"

After she humphed, she stared at his hand—and then took it.

****

After a large meal of gnocchi, mozzarella, and homemade tomato sauce, she groaned in delight. If she'd eaten anymore, Sebastian would have had to roll her home.

He let out a content sigh. "It was so good." 

If she wasn't pregnant, she would have been moaning about needing to go on a diet. "Yeah, it was delicious."

The man wrapped his fingers around his soda glass and took a sip. "By the way, do you have to go back to the bakery as soon as we're done?"

She checked her watch. It was a little after three. She'd worked seven hours already, and the reality was, there wasn't much she needed to do until this evening.

"I suppose I don't need to go back right away." She stirred her glass of orange juice with her straw. "Why?"

"I have a training exercise I want to do with you." He looked surprisingly solemn for a man who'd been grinning only a moment before. "You know, for the baby."

"Training exercise?" Her eyes widened. "What is it?"

Sebastian flashed a grin from over top of his soda glass. "You'll see."

Something about seeing his eyes sparkling with mischievousness had her heart thundering a thousand miles per hour.

"Okay, fine," she said. "But it had better not be anything weird."

The man laughed. "Like ice fishing?"

"Yeah, like ice fishing," she said. "In fact, nothing fish related."

"Damn, there goes the whole afternoon." The man smacked the table.

She raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"I'm kidding, of course." He chuckled.

Even though she opened her mouth to respond, the waitress came over to collect the check. Sebastian ignored the way the woman's eyes lingered on his bicep and handed her his credit card.

"Do you want a boy or a girl?" Sebastian asked.

She had been focusing on the simpering gaze of the waitress and blinked in surprise. "Pardon?"

"The baby," Sebastian said. "Do you want a boy or a girl?"

"I don't know." She chewed her bottom lip.

"Oh, come on." His grin was teasing. "Haven't you thought about it a teensy-weensy little bit?"

She blew out a sigh. "I guess. Mmm…Maybe a girl?"

"A girl, huh?" He eyeballed her. "Looking forward to buying all of those fancy clothes?"

"No," she said haughtily. "Well, okay, maybe a little. But mostly it's because I never spent much time around boys. I was an only child, and my dad worked all the time. It was pretty much just me and my mom growing up. I don't know how well I could raise a boy."

"I think you would do fine with either gender," he said.

"And what do you want?" She crossed her arms. "Let me guess. A boy, right?"

"Actually, a girl would be fine." His expression was wistful. "I can imagine a little girl with wavy, golden-blond hair just like yours. And green eyes too."

"So you want a mini me?" She was startled. "Why?"

"You have no idea how cute you are, do you?" Sebastian said, staring deep into her eyes.

His response threw her off guard. She drew back, blinking in shock, as she tried unsuccessfully to think of something to say. Luckily, she was saved by the waitress coming back with the credit card. Though saved was a relative term. The woman was once again eyeballing Sebastian as if she'd like to make a permanent home in the guy's pants. Sebastian once again ignored the woman's interest and stood up.

He extended his hand to her. "Are you ready to go?"

She hesitated before grabbing his hand. The guy tightened his grip on her fingers and pulled her to her feet. The two of them left the restaurant hand in hand, which was a strange occurrence after spending the last two years being single. She'd forgotten how palms became warm to the touch and how it felt when fingers intertwined. 

As he led her down the sidewalk, her focus was still on his hand. She took a step toward his car, but he tightened his grip and pulled her away.

She frowned at him. "Aren't we going somewhere?"

"Yeah, but we're going to walk." His eyes twinkled.

"Walk?" She scrutinized him. "Where?"

The guy grinned and nodded at the park behind them.

"The park?" She was flabbergasted.

He tugged her toward it. "How long has it been since you've visited one?"

"Not since I was a little kid," she said. "Why? Do you make a habit out of coming here?"

"No, but I think we'll have a good time." He led her onto the sand.

Good God, the father of her child was a lunatic. "You don't expect me to play, do you?"

His response was climbing up the stairs and sitting on a double slide designed for two kids to go down side by side.

"Oh God, you do." She was ready to walk back to the bakery.

"It'll be fun," he said.

She shook her head. "How is this a training exercise?"

"When we have the baby, you'll have to come to places like this all the time," he said.

"I don't need to train to know how to push a child down a slide." She snorted.

"Well, then, it'll help me to get in touch with my inner child." He winked at her.

"I think you're in touch with your inner child already, if you ask me." In fact, he may have needed to back away from his inner child a few hundred feet.

"Do you know what I think?" Sebastian grinned.

"I'm not sure I want to know what you think."

Ignoring her comment, the man continued, "I think you want to go down the slide, but you're too scared of what people will say if they saw."

"That's not true." There wasn't anybody around anyway.

"Prove it," he said. "Come down the slide."

"Nope." She shook her head. "I know you're baiting me."

His eyes twinkled. "Chicken."

"I am not!"

"Bak-bak-bak." He flapped his arms as if they were wings.

"You're so juvenile." She rolled her eyes.

He continued to flap his arms.

"Sebastian, stop it," she said.

The guy looked her straight in the eye and clucked.

"Oh, for God's sake." And she, to her utmost shame, climbed the stairs to the slide. "I'm just doing this so you'll stop clucking."

"Took you long enough." He grinned.

"Watch it or I'll walk right down those stairs and take a taxi home," she said.

He made a show of zipping his lips.

Rolling her eyes, she took a seat on the slide to the left. As she settled down, Sebastian's eyes twinkled. "On the count of three."

"Do we really have to?" she asked.

"One."

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Two."

"I need to get my head examined."

"Three."

Sebastian seized her hand, then pulled her down the slide with him. Before she even had time to blink, she was sitting at the bottom of the slide with her sandaled feet in the sand.

"Are you in touch with your inner child yet?" he asked.

"No, but I'm in touch with my inner psycho." She scowled at him.

The guy rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Looks like I still have work to do."

"Work?" She did a double take. "What work?"

Before she had time to blink, Sebastian was pulling her up the stairs again, but this time he was leading her toward the largest slide.

"Come on, slow poke." He laughed maniacally.

"Why are you doing this to me?" She shook her head.

The guy came to a stop. "We're just having a bit of fun."

"Who's having fun?"

Sebastian pushed on her shoulders, trying to force her to sit down at the top of the slide. Groaning, she sat down, knowing that the only way she would get out of this was if she had blood squirting out of her eyeballs. As she groused, Sebastian took his place behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She looked over her shoulder and stared straight into his gray eyes, startled by the sudden closeness.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

"What?" He ran his fingers down the soft inside of her neck. "Haven't you gone down a slide with somebody before? I thought all kids did this."

"Not me." She tried to ignore the way his thumb lingered on her throat. "I always sat on the grass and read books I checked out from the library."

He chuckled. "I should have known."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You just seem mature for your age." His hand inched lower toward the hem of her shirt.

"I got drunk and ended up pregnant." She winced. "That's not mature."

"Everybody makes mistakes sometimes." He swept a strand of hair out of her face.

"Well, when I make a mistake, I make a big one," she said.

His gaze lingered on her face. "Do you really dislike being pregnant that much?"

She chewed her bottom lip, picturing the child she'd dreamed about. "No."

"I'm glad." He placed his hand on her stomach. "To be honest, I'm kind of excited."

His hand on her waist made her stiffen, but she didn't push him away.

"Normally, a man would be running scared."

"Not me." He ran his fingers over her shirt. "Usually, a guy finds the woman of his dreams, gets married, then has a baby. In my case, I found the woman of my dreams, have a baby, and then get married. I'll still have everything I want, just in a different order. What's there to be miserable about?"

"The woman of your dreams?" She scoffed. "More like, the woman of your nightmares."

"Hey, don't talk about yourself like that." His gaze lingered on her face. "Like I said before, you're amazing. Any dream with you in it is heavenly."

"Sebastian…" She swallowed.

The man searched her face. "Uh-huh."

"If you're trying to charm me in order to get me to marry you, it's working."

"Sweetheart, I'm charming you for the sake of charming you." His gaze dropped to her lips. "Of course, if you agreed to marry me right now, I wouldn't complain."

Even though yes was at the tip of her tongue, she said, "Not yet."

"Damn shame." His tongue darted to the corner of his mouth. "Still, I know exactly how to make myself feel better."

Her eyes widened. "How?"

His mouth captured hers for the second time that day. She gasped in surprise, and he took advantage of her shock by slipping his tongue into her mouth. He pressed her against the wall of the slide and ran his fingers through her golden hair. As she tasted the sweet soda he'd drunk at the restaurant, he groaned against her mouth, tantalizing her. His fingers dropped lower until he cupped her breast and traced the aroused nipple through the sheer fabric of her shirt. She gasped in surprise, trying hard to ignore the way juices flowed straight to her sex in response to his arousing touch.

A moment later he pulled back, but his hand still remained on her breast as he tweaked her aroused nipple.

"Why do you always do that?" she asked, dazed.

"Do what?"

"Surprise me." She leaned back.

"Like this?"

"Like wh—whoa!"

In one swift motion, Sebastian wrapped his arms around her waist and then used his legs to push them both down the huge slide. Soon she was slipping down the yellow plastic while in his arms. By the time she skidded to a stop at the bottom, she was stiff from shock. Even Sebastian, the orchestrator of the impish deed, looked concerned.

"You okay?" He waved his hand in front of her face. "Maybe I shouldn't have done that, what with you being pregnant and everything."

She blinked in surprise, and then, to her own shock, began to laugh. The merriment was the kind that she felt deep in her very soul. She hadn't laughed like that in such a long time that the amount of joy she felt during that moment was a surprise even to her.

For a moment Sebastian just stared as if she was nuts—and maybe she was—but then he threw back his head and laughed too. Soon the sound of happiness was all that filled the park, and for the first time, she realized that she might just have to marry Sebastian after all.

****

Two hours later, Sebastian walked Emmy back to her apartment instead of the bakery. She probably should have gone to work, but she had sand in her bra and felt dirty all over. Playing in a park was all well and good until a woman got in the car and realized that she had two tons worth of sand stuck in her hair. Still, she didn't regret rolling around with Sebastian like some sort of little kid.

That was why, as she reached her apartment, she turned around still grinning. Unfortunately, her grin faded the moment she saw the lustful hunger in Sebastian's eyes. He was going to kiss her and possibly much, much more. Despite the fact that she enjoyed his touch, nervousness attacked even at the thought of his fingers running all over her body. Maybe it was because it had been so long since she'd dated someone.

"Sebastian," she said, swaying nervously.

"Uh-huh." The guy's gaze lingered on her mouth.

"Thank you for today."

He nodded, but he didn't move. But then again, she wasn't exactly unlocking her apartment door either. Instead the two of them just stared into each other's eyes.