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“Shh!” Paige glared at Kay. “Anyone could overhear you. No one knows I’m pregnant, and I certainly don’t want anyone suspecting that Jared is the father.”
“You do realize that sooner or later, you’re going to have to tell him.”
“He may not believe the baby’s his.” Paige lowered her voice to a whisper. “He has no reason to believe me. He’ll probably think that I’m just trying to trap him because he’s rich.”
“Anyone who knows you, knows you aren’t the type.” Kay unwrapped her sandwich.
“That’s just the problem. Jared doesn’t know me. Except as his employee. He doesn’t have a clue as to who I am as a person.”
“Then we’ll have to figure out a way for him to get to know you. And we don’t have any time to lose. You’re going to have to tell him the truth before you start showing.”
“I think it might be better all the way around if, when it becomes necessary, I tell him he isn’t the father. That it’s my boyfriend’s baby.”
“What boyfriend?” Kay took a hefty bite out of her sandwich.
“The imaginary one who fathered my child.”
Kay chewed and swallowed, then washed the food down with water. “What if Jared wants to meet your boyfriend? What will you do then?”
“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. My main concern is keeping this job. I need my insurance, and once I have a child to support, I’ll need my weekly paycheck more than ever.”
“You’ll never be able to look the man straight in the eye and lie to him,” Kay said. “You’re far too honest. Besides, even if by some miracle you pull this off, what will you do when one day L.J. gets a real good look at your kid and notices that it’s a carbon copy of him?”
“I can’t worry about the future. At least not the distant future. I have to concentrate on the present and on the immediate future, and how I’m going to explain to everyone that I’m four months pregnant and not married. I wish I wasn’t so old-fashioned., but I come from a very conservative, traditional family that believes that you marry and then have children.
* * *
Jared had left the office an hour ago with no intention of returning today. Spending an entire morning around Paige had been more difficult than he’d ever imagined. He realized now that getting her out of his system was going to be more difficult than giving up cigarettes. He’d quit smoking seven years ago, but he’d be damned if he didn’t still miss the old habit.
During his burger-and-fries lunch at The Saloon, a local bar and grill, he had decided that avoiding Paige was the act of a coward. He’d stayed away from her for four months, running from his feelings. Now, dammit, he’d returned to Grand Springs to face those feelings head-on…and conquer them.
Entering Paige’s office, Jared found it empty. She had probably gone out for lunch. Fine. He’d grab a cup of coffee in the employees’ lounge and get busy on some phone calls he needed to make.
As he neared the lounge, he heard two female voices and immediately recognized them. Paige and Kay.
“…How I’m going to explain to everyone that I’m four months pregnant and not married,” Paige said.
Jared stopped dead in his tracks directly outside the half-closed lounge door. It couldn’t be! Surely he’d misunderstood what Paige had said. She couldn’t be pregnant. She couldn’t be!
“Look, I think all your worries would be over if you’d just tell him he’s going to be a father,” Kay said. “I’ll bet money that he’ll want to marry you. Something tells me that he’s the old-fashioned, possessive kind.”
“I don’t want him to marry me because of the baby! What kind of marriage would that be for either of us? When a man asks me to marry him, I want it to be because he loves me and for no other reason.”
“I understand how you feel, but maybe you should have given that some thought before you had unprotected sex and got yourself pregnant.”
Unprotected sex! Good God Almighty! Jared eased backward several steps, then turned and bolted down the hallway, toward the elevators. He wasn’t thinking, only reacting, like a hunted animal trying to escape. Escape from what he’d overheard. Escape from Paige. Escape from the possibility that he could be the father of her baby.
Jared wound up back at The Saloon, where he ordered a rusty nail on the rocks, drank it too quickly and cursed a sudden headache. Then he ordered another and wisely sat there nursing the drink.
Paige Summers was pregnant. Four months pregnant. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the child was probably his. Although he didn’t really know Paige, somehow she didn’t seem the promiscuous type. As a matter of fact, even though she’d been as hot and wild for him as he’d been for her that evening in the elevator, there had been something almost innocent about the way she had reacted to his lovemaking. As if she had never experienced desire that powerful or pleasure that intense.
But on the other hand, it was possible that there was another man. Someone before him or after him. He couldn’t be one hundred percent sure the child was his.
“Dammit,” he muttered under his breath. “You know that baby’s yours.” He ran a shaky hand through his neatly styled hair. “How the hell did you get yourself into this kind of situation?”
You know how, his inner voice responded. Because you got so hot and bothered over a tempting piece of— No, Paige was not just another easy conquest. He had desired women before but never lost his head so completely that he forgot to use a condom.
Jared had never wanted a woman the way he’d wanted Paige, and heaven help him, he still wanted her. But she was the wrong woman for him. She didn’t fit into his plans. She was attractive and sweet and intelligent, but she was hardly the kind of wife who could step into his life and be an asset as his life’s partner.
But she was carrying his child. His child! He had no choice. He’d have to do the honorable thing. The marriage would be doomed from the start, of course, since it would be based on neither the love she wanted from a husband nor the suitability he desired in a wife. But even a marriage of short duration would give Paige and their child his name and protection. And it would give him the opportunity to get to know Paige, see her up close, flaws and all. Marriage to her was probably a surefire way to get her out of his system once and for all.
Before he made any definite plans, he’d have to talk to Paige and ask her point-blank if the child was his. His gut instincts told him that she wouldn’t lie to him. After all, a simple DNA test after the baby was born would verify the child’s paternity.
A nagging little thought persisted in repeating itself over and over in Jared’s head. What if Paige, sweet and innocent as she seemed, had known all along who he was? What if she had set out to trap L. J. Montgomery’s millions?
He couldn’t confront her at the office with all his questions. They needed privacy. He’d wait and go to her apartment this evening, and if she told him he was the father of her child, he’d tell her all her worries were over. He would do the honorable thing and marry her. She would become Mrs. L. J. Montgomery and be the envy of every woman in the Southwest. But before they said ‘I do,’ he’d make sure Paige signed a rock-solid prenuptial agreement that would protect all his financial assets.
* * *
Paige changed out of her work clothes and into a pair of much-washed, comfortable purple sweats. She ate a green salad with low-cal ranch dressing and devoured a small bunch of grapes. Her appetite had increased, not diminished, even with the bouts of morning sickness she’d suffered for weeks on end. Her doctor was right, she was going to have to watch her weight. All she had to do was look at her plump, middle-aged mother to know exactly what she’d look like in thirty years.
She put on four of her favorite CDs—Michael Buble, Yo-Yo Ma, Kenny G, and the Tchaikovsky selections of the Vienna Master series. She had eclectic tastes, was a connoisseur of music as a whole and not a slave to any specific type.
Then she sat down at the small worktable in the corner of her living room and picked up the Lucy Peck doll she had been working on the past few weeks. All that was needed to put the finishing touches on the blue-eyed towhead was to dress her in her 1902 frock.
Paige ran a loving hand over the doll’s wax head and mohair-stuffed body. This little lady wasn’t quite museum-piece quality, but there were collectors who’d more than compensate Paige for her time and restoration efforts. Just as she ran her finger across the 131 Regent St. address stamped across the doll’s tummy, the doorbell rang.
Who on earth? Her mother, probably, Paige decided. Always a mother hen, brooding over her chicks, Paige’s mama had become entirely too overprotective since Paige had told her she was pregnant. And Paige hadn’t called her mother today. She’d been so busy, she’d forgotten.
Not bothering to slip into her shoes, she padded across the wooden floor in her sock feet. Taking the proper precaution, she glanced through the peephole. Gasping, she stepped backward, away from the door. Jared! What was he doing here? At her apartment?
Leaving the safety latch in place, she cracked the door and peered out at him. “Hello, Mr. Montgomery. What can I do for you?”
“You can open the door and let me in,” he said. “Or would you prefer we discuss our personal life while I’m standing out here in the hall?”
Our personal life? What was he talking about? She unlatched the safety and opened the door, but blocked his entrance with her body.
“We don’t have a personal life, Mr. Montgomery. Not together, anyway. You’re my boss. I’m your administrative assistant. Anything we need to discuss, we can discuss at the office. Tomorrow.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Paige.” He put special emphasis on pronouncing her name. “We need to discuss an event that occurred four months ago in an elevator.”
Grabbing his arm, Paige dragged him into her apartment, then slammed the door. “I thought we agreed to pretend that didn’t happen.”
“That was before I realized there might have been some consequences to the incident that would make it impossible for either of us to pretend it didn’t happen.”
Jared glanced around her small living room, quickly noting how homey it was. Typical middle-class style, with stuffed pillows lining the floral sofa, a half-dozen plants dotting the tables and bookshelves, and an inexpensive CD player, DVD player and nineteen-inch TV crammed into an imitation wood entertainment center.
“I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Dear Lord, surely Kay hadn’t gone to Jared and told him about her pregnancy, Paige wondered. No, of course not. Kay wouldn’t do such a thing. Besides, Jared hadn’t come back to the office all afternoon, so Kay would hardly have had the opportunity to tell him anything.
Jared surveyed her from head to toe, then smiled. Even in a pair of baggy sweatpants and loose-fitting top, Paige was a knockout. Soft, feminine and so very tempting. He liked her hair the way she was wearing it pulled back in a loose ponytail, the thick mane falling down her back like a cinnamon waterfall. His hand itched to grab a handful of that silky mass and drag her toward him, just enough to devour her pouty pink lips.
“Could we sit down?” he asked.
She glared at him, her lips indeed pouting. “Yes, of course. Please, come in, Mr. Montgomery, and have a seat.”
“Thanks.” He walked over, sat down on the sofa and crossed his legs, acting for all intents and purposes as if he were settling in for quite a stay. “And stop calling me Mr. Montgomery. My name is Jared.”
“I know perfectly well what your name is, Mr. Montgomery.” She sat in an armchair, separated from the sofa by a Duncan Phyfe coffee table that had belonged to her grandmother. “You and I agreed that it was best for both of us if we kept our relationship strictly business. I’m sure you haven’t come here to tell me you’ve changed your mind.”
“That depends.” Jared slipped his hands into the side pockets of his gray wool slacks. His unbuttoned navy jacket fell open, revealing an expanse of white shirt and red silk tie.
“It depends on what?” she asked, scooting to the edge of the chair.
“On whether or not the child you’re carrying is mine.” He made the statement as calmly as if he’d said the sky is blue.
Paige’s face paled. Her eyes widened into huge brown globes. She opened her mouth on a silent gasp. He knew! He knew she was pregnant. But how? No one knew except her parents and Kay.
“How do you know I’m pregnant?” she asked.
“I came back to the office while you and Kay were having lunch in the employees’ lounge.” He watched Paige closely, keeping his gaze riveted to her face, duly noting her worried expression. “I overheard a couple of sentences of your conversation. Enough to learn that you’re four months pregnant and that Kay thinks you should tell the father.”
“You were eavesdropping. You had no business listening to our private conversation.”
“If the child is mine, then your conversation was very much my business.”
“What makes you think the child is yours?” Slipping the fingers of both hands together, Paige repeatedly rubbed her right thumb across her left palm.
“Don’t play games with me, honey.” Removing his hands from his pockets, he balled them into tight fists and leaned forward. “You’re four months pregnant, and we had sex four months ago. Unprotected sex.” He rested his fists on top of his knees.
Ever since the moment the doctor had confirmed her pregnancy, Paige had wondered just what she’d say to Jared at this precise moment. She had played through several different scenarios in her mind, but knew it all boiled down to one very important fact. Jared deserved to know the truth. She counted slowly to ten.
“I am four months pregnant,” she said. “And you’re the only man I’ve had sex with in the past three years.”
“Then there’s no question that the child is mine.”
“No question at all. You’re my baby’s father.”
“I see.”
“Not what you wanted to hear, was it? I’m sorry.” She sucked in her cheeks, then breathed deeply. “I did consider inventing an imaginary other man and telling you he was the father, but I thought you deserved to know the truth. And so does my child.”
“You’re right,” he said. “I’m glad you didn’t try to lie to me.”
“Look, I don’t blame you for the situation. I blame myself. I’m a big girl who should have known better. All I ask of you is to allow me to continue working at Montgomery’s. The insurance will take care of most of my doctor and hospital bills, and I can get by just fine on my salary.”
“You don’t expect me to take care of all your maternity bills? You don’t want some sort of settlement or some form of child support?”
“No. No, I don’t want or expect anything from you,” she assured him. “But I would like to keep my job, at least until after the baby is born. So the insurance will cover everything. Then you can give me a good reference and I can find another job.”
Was Paige for real? Jared wondered. Or was this some sort of game she was playing? Had his fears that she’d deliberately trapped him been groundless? Or was she just a very good actress?
“Are you saying that you don’t plan to tell anyone I’m the father?”
“No, of course not. But someday, I do plan to tell my child about you.”
Jared shot up off the sofa like a cannon blast. “Dammit!” Tightening and loosening his fists repeatedly, he glared at Paige, who sat ramrod straight on the edge of the big easy chair. He didn’t know what to think, didn’t know if he dared to take Paige at her word. Past experience had taught him not to trust anyone. Would he be a fool to trust Paige Summers? “I could use a drink.”
“Oh. Yes. I suppose you could.” Paige nodded, then quickly stood up and rushed into the kitchen. “I’m afraid all I have is some white wine. Will that do?”
“Nothing stronger?” He needed a good stiff belt of something at least a hundred proof.
“No, I’m afraid— Oh, wait a minute,” she called out from the kitchen. “I may have some whisky left over from last winter, when Mama brought a bottle over and fixed me a honey-and-whisky toddy. I had a horrible cold.”
She opened doors and slammed them shut, searching for the whisky. Finally she saw it on a top shelf, far out of her reach. “I found it,” she told him. “It’ll take me a minute. I’ll have to get a chair to reach it.”
She pulled a chair from the table, pushed it over to the counter and climbed up on the seat. Just as she reached out for the whisky bottle, Jared stormed into the kitchen and grabbed her around the waist. She plucked the nearly full bottle of Johnny Walker off the shelf seconds before Jared lifted her into his arms.
“What are you doing?” She stared at him, breathless and flushed, her heart beating ninety to nothing.
“You shouldn’t be climbing up on chairs. You could fall and hurt yourself. Hurt the baby.”
“Oh.”
She clung to the whisky bottle as if it were a golden prize, all the while staring at him with hungry eyes that reflected his own deep, devouring need.
“Paige?” He wanted to carry her to bed and make slow, sweet love to her all night long, if only she’d let him.
“Please, put me down, Jared, and I’ll pour you a drink.”
He didn’t want to put her down, but he did. Easing his hand across the back of her legs, he slid her over the front of his body, slowly, intimately, allowing her to feel his arousal.
“Every time I get near you, honey, I get hard.” He took the whisky bottle from her with one hand while he gripped the back of her neck with the other. “But you know that, don’t you?”
She stared him straight in the eye, unflinching. Her chest rose and fell rapidly with the force of her accelerated breathing. “Please, don’t do this to me. Don’t take advantage of the way you make me feel.”
“How do I make you feel?” He brushed her lips with his and smiled when she gasped. “All hot and damp and needy?”
She squirmed, trying to free herself from his hold. He set the whisky bottle down on the table behind him and clutched her hip, drawing her even closer against his body.
“What do you want me to say?” She looked at him, a fine mist of unshed tears in her eyes. “You make me want you. Want you enough to ignore my common sense. I did that once, the first time we met, and look what happened.”
“Yeah, honey, I guess you’re right.” He loosened his hold around her neck but didn’t release her. Lowering his head, he nuzzled her throat and breathed in her sweet, flowery, feminine scent. The purely male instinct part of him wanted to tell her that the damage had already been done, so what would be the harm of giving in to their desire now? But the sane, sensible part of his brain warned him that Paige wouldn’t see it quite that way.
Raising his head, he stared into her moist eyes and smiled sadly, then tenderly caressed her cheek. He released his hold on her and took a step backward, away from temptation. Paige sighed deeply but didn’t move.
“I could use that drink now, honey,” he said.
“Certainly.” Turning around, she opened a cupboard door, retrieved two small juice glasses and handed them to him. “I could use a drink myself.”
Jared placed the glasses on the round wooden table, then opened the whisky bottle, poured his glass half full and gulped down a large swallow. He blew out a breath as the liquor burned a trail down his throat and landed like a ton of hot bricks in his belly. “Want me to fix one for you?” Glancing around, he noticed her opening the refrigerator door. “Good idea. Get some ice. We’ll have our drinks on the rocks.”
Turning to face him, Paige held a milk carton in her hand. “I’m pregnant. Remember? I’m not supposed to have any liquor. This—” she hoisted the carton of skim milk in the air “—is my drink of choice for the next few months.”
Paige set the carton on the table, then opened the freezer compartment in her refrigerator and lifted out a small plastic container filled with ice cubes. “Here’s your ice.”
Reaching across the table, Jared grabbed the bowl, transferred a couple of ice cubes into his glass and placed the bowl on the table. He filled the glass to the rim with the Johnny Walker, then pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Sit down, Paige. We need to talk.”
She hesitated for a split second, then nodded agreement and sat. Jared sipped on his drink, all the while watching Paige, waiting for her to say something. She didn’t say a word, just poured herself a glass of milk and drank it very slowly.
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