The Tycoon's Marriage Bid
Allison Leigh
HAD SHE FALLEN DOWN A RABBIT HOLE?Self-sufficient Nikki Day didn't know what to think when she awoke to find herself in a strange hospital staring at the man who was unknowingly responsible for her current "situation." And even though she'd tried–apparently unsuccessfully–to put some distance between herself and her ex-boss, she and her unborn baby now depended on Alex Reed's care. Besides, any hopes Nikki had of maintaining a professional relationship crumbled when she saw the "honeymoon cottage" he'd rented. And if the heart-shaped whirlpool tub didn't shift her hormones into high gear, Alex's mere touch certainly did. But when the tycoon made his marriage bid, Nikki faced her toughest task yet. Could she turn a proposal born of duty into one of desire?
“Don’t presume to think you know me so well,” Nikki said stiffly.
“Oh, I know you.” Alex stopped pacing. Stared at her in the firelight. “And I know that out of all the women in my life you’re the only one I ever counted on. And you walked out without one single reason that I can accept. Was I really that impossible to work with, Nik?”
“You didn’t do anything.” Nikki’s voice was husky.
“But someone did. Was it the father of your baby?”
“Just…leave it alone, please.”
“You’re just letting this yahoo walk. Without taking any responsibility at all for the baby.”
“It doesn’t concern you!”
He inhaled. Exhaled more slowly. “Then why does it feel as if it does?”
Nikki didn’t answer.
And Alex knew he was right. If he weren’t, she would have said so. But knowing it with more certainty than ever didn’t make him feel any better.
Dear Reader,
Well, it’s September, which always sounds like a fresh start to me, no matter how old I get. And evidently we have six women this month who agree. In Home Again by Joan Elliott Pickart, a woman who can’t have children has decided to work with them in a professional capacity—but when she is assigned an orphaned little boy, she fears she’s in over her head. Then she meets his gorgeous guardian—and she’s sure of it!
In the next installment of MOST LIKELY TO…, The Measure of a Man by Marie Ferrarella, a single mother attempting to help her beloved former professor joins forces with a former campus golden boy, now the college…custodian. What could have happened? Allison Leigh’s The Tycoon’s Marriage Bid pits a pregnant secretary against her ex-boss who, unbeknownst to him, has a real connection to her baby’s father. In The Other Side of Paradise by Laurie Paige, next up in her SEVEN DEVILS miniseries, a mysterious woman seeking refuge as a ranch hand learns that she may have more ties to the community than she could have ever suspected. When a beautiful nurse is assigned to care for a devastatingly handsome, if cantankerous, cowboy, the results are…well, you get the picture—but you can have it spelled out for you in Stella Bagwell’s next MEN OF THE WEST book, Taming a Dark Horse. And in Undercover Nanny by Wendy Warren, a domestically challenged female detective decides it’s necessary to penetrate the lair of single father and heir to a grocery fortune by pretending to be…his nanny. Hmm. It could work.…
So enjoy, and snuggle up. Fall weather is just around the corner.…
Happy reading!
Gail Chasan
Senior Editor
The Tycoon’s Marriage Bid
Allison Leigh
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
For my family.
Always.
ALLISON LEIGH
started early by writing a Halloween play that her grade-school class performed. Since then, though her tastes have changed, her love for reading has not. And her writing appetite simply grows more voracious by the day.
She has been a finalist in the RITA
Award and the Holt Medallion contests. But the true highlights of her day as a writer are when she receives word from a reader that they laughed, cried or lost a night of sleep while reading one of her books.
Born in Southern California, Allison has lived in several different cities in four different states. She has been, at one time or another, a cosmetologist, a computer programmer and a secretary. She has recently begun writing full-time after spending nearly a decade as an administrative assistant for a busy neighborhood church, and currently makes her home in Arizona with her family. She loves to hear from her readers, who can write to her at P.O. Box 40772, Mesa, AZ 85274-0772.
GRANDMA’S 20-MINUTE BROWNIE RECIPE
2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
½ cup butter
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
¾ cup flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Melt chocolate and butter. Cool. Beat eggs 5 minutes. Add sugar and beat again. Sift dry ingredients and add to egg mixture. Add melted chocolate mixture. Add vanilla and nuts. Spread in a greased 9"x13" pan and bake at 350° F for 20 minutes. Can dust top lightly with powered sugar. Cut and remove from pan while hot.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Epilogue
Chapter One
Nikki Day didn’t want to open her eyes. Not when doing so would confirm that yes, she was very much in a hospital bed, and now she was losing her mind, to boot. Because there was no way on earth that he would really be sitting there in the recliner next to the bed as if he belonged there.
Which meant she was seeing things.
Hallucinating.
As if she didn’t have enough worries already.
Her arm curled protectively over her abdomen as she felt another hard kick. At least that movement assured her that whatever was happening and why ever she was here, the baby was now gunning for kicker of the year. Nikki was in her sixth month. She figured by the time she made it to nine, the baby would be leaving behind permanent footprints—her own personal Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She gingerly shifted to her side, pushing a pillow against her abdomen, trying to find a more comfortable position, and regrettably opened her eyes as she did so.
He was still there.
Dismay shot through her and she hurriedly closed them again.
Tightly.
“Nice to see you, too,” the apparition said in a low voice.
It appeared that when Nikki hallucinated, she could do it with as much accuracy and precision as she’d done most things in her life.
The realization made her want to laugh. Was she hysterical?
She shifted again, wishing she could escape the ache in her back as much as she wished she could escape the rabbit hole she’d fallen down.
“Careful. You don’t want to yank out that IV line.”
She nearly came out of her skin when those long, capable…warm fingers settled over her hand.
Definitely not a hallucination.
She jerked back, sitting up so abruptly the pale blue sheet fell to her waist, displaying a limp, blue cotton hospital gown. The pillow teetered on the edge of the bed, then slid over.
He still held her hand, though. He was evidently concerned about the thin tubing snaking from beneath the adhesive on the back of her hand, because there was no other reason he’d have held her so.
He. Alexander Reed. Alex.
The man who was—inadvertently and completely unknowingly—responsible for the baby that was even now kicking the life out of her kidneys.
He’d been her boss for three years, until she’d resigned last summer.
Nikki’s heart pounded so hard she felt faint.
“Easy there,” he murmured, casually reaching for the button that hung from a cord near her shoulder. “Don’t upset yourself. You’re fine. The baby’s fine.”
She swallowed, his assurance calming the panic roiling inside her. The baby. Concentrate on the baby.
She carefully pulled her hand from beneath his. “How did I get back to Cheyenne?”
He shook his head. “You didn’t. You’re still in Montana. Lucius Community Hospital.”
“You sure are,” the nurse entering the room agreed. “And we’re happy to see you’re awake.” She smiled comfortingly as she bustled around the bed, checking machines and making notes. “The doctor will be right in,” she told Alex as she deftly wrapped Nikki’s arm in a blood pressure cuff. “We’re a little busy today. Two babies on the way.” She finished with the cuff and made some more notes. “How are you feeling, hon?”
Nikki couldn’t formulate a coherent answer. But the nurse seemed to understand. “Just remain quiet,” she told her. “The doctor won’t be long.”
When the nurse departed, Nikki eyed Alex again. “What are you doing here?” Never mind what she was doing there. Not even the nurse had helped to answer that question.
Alex’s dark brown eyes were as unreadable as ever. “They called me when you were brought in.”
“They?”
He moved his shoulders slightly as if he were impatient with the question. She wasn’t surprised. When she’d worked for him, Alex had depended on her to handle the details. The man wouldn’t remember his own birthday if she hadn’t reminded him to check his calendar.
“The woman who owns that inn you were staying at,” he said. “The only phone number she had, other than your home, was your work number. The hospital called me, too.”
Her former work number. “Hadley Golightly?” Nikki wasn’t only trying to get details out of him. She was trying not to betray the fact that she was desperately trying to recall what had happened. “Tiff’s is a boardinghouse. Not an inn.”
“Fine. A boardinghouse.” Alex’s sharp gaze had strayed to the window. Narrow blinds covered it, slanted so the sun wouldn’t shine directly into the room. Not that there was any sun, from the looks of it. Just gray skies, heavy with snow. Typical January whether she was home in Wyoming or vacationing in Montana.
Her temples throbbed. “The baby,” she whispered. “You’re sure about the baby?”
“I’m sure.” He looked back at her, and the steadiness of his gaze eased her as much as his words did.
“I still don’t understand what you’re doing here, though.” Why hadn’t Alex called her family rather than come to Montana himself? It wasn’t as if he didn’t know who they were. Her sister, Belle, had worked for him at Huffington Sports Clinic, too. For a while, at least.
The whispery details of a blue, horse-drawn sleigh straight out of a fairy tale drifted in and out of her mind, as insubstantial as a curl of smoke.
Cody had promised her a sleigh ride for their honeymoon.
But that was years ago.
Nikki had gone on the sleigh ride alone. It was the last thing she remembered. Sitting on the thickly padded seat, the morning air bright and crisp on her face.
Or was that a dream, too?
She couldn’t seem to concentrate on more than one thing at a time, and the elusive details slipped away.
Would it be easier to deal with Alex than her foggy memory?
Probably not.
What was he really doing here?
She’d already removed herself from his life once.
This was backtracking in the worst of ways.
“How…how are things at the office?” She couldn’t seem to prevent the question from emerging any more than she could prevent the nerves jangling through the muzziness fogging her brain.
“Had to let another admin go last week.”
“Another one?” She’d heard the rumblings, of course, about Alex’s difficulty in hiring a permanent replacement for her. No matter how well she’d thought she’d excised Huffington from her life—and the man who’d taken one small Wyoming clinic and turned it into an innovative network spread across the United States— she’d still heard that, after she’d left, he’d gone through his first three administrative assistants in as many weeks. “What number was she?”
His lips pursed a little. It only made her notice them, which she had no business doing. “Six.” His gaze slanted from the window back to her bed.
She braced herself. Even though he’d never really seemed to notice her, it had always given Nikki a jolt whenever he’d looked at her.
She’d almost not taken the administrative assistant position in the first place, as a result of that. She hadn’t wanted to feel any sort of jolt from anyone. Not when Cody was still in her heart.
The jolt was there. As usual.
A dip, a sway, a leap. Deep inside her.
More than three and a half years since the April day she’d sat across from Alex’s desk and accepted the position, and it was as bad—or worse—than ever.
“How’s, um, how’s everything else with the clinics, then?” Her voice was a little breathless. She hoped he’d think it had something to do with whatever had put her in the hospital.
Knowing Alex, he knew more about those details than she.
His expression didn’t change. “You think I came here to discuss business?”
“You called me nearly five times a week at first to discuss business.” He’d stopped calling after that first month, though.
She’d breathed easier, but grieved a little harder for the job she’d really loved.
“I wouldn’t have had to make those calls if the personnel department had a clue about hiring someone competent.”
“It’s your personnel department,” she replied mildly. Huffington was entirely Alex’s baby. There was no higher authority in the company.
She had a fanciful image of herself hovering around the ceiling of the hospital room, watching this particular exchange. Discussing business?
The baby kicked again and she dragged her split persona down from the ceiling. “So…you came here to… what? Ask me to come back to my job?”
“You still consider being my administrative assistant your job?”
She shifted her shoulders. “No.”
“Then you’re employed elsewhere now.”
“I start a job very soon.” She hoped, desperately wishing she knew how long she’d been in the hospital. She’d been living on her savings for months, and her pride simply refused to let her take handouts from her family, no matter how easily they could have afforded it.
She was Nikki Day. She stood on her own two feet.
The practice had kept her together when she and
Belle were only fifteen and their father died, and it had kept her together again when Cody died just as unexpectedly.
She needed the job she was supposed to begin after this trip to Montana.
“A job.”
She had to gather her scattered thoughts again. It was about as easy as gathering up sand with a sieve. “Yes.”
“Where?”
His disbelief wasn’t at all flattering. “It’s none of your business, Alex.” She’d have prided herself on the statement if her voice hadn’t trembled.
He looked disbelieving, but let it slide. Probably out of whatever pity had motivated him to come to the hospital. Then he glanced at his watch. Not overly noticeably, except that she knew him so well, having worked fifty -to sixty-hour weeks for him for three years.
She’d taken one week of vacation during her second year with Huffington. She and Belle had gone to Florida. If she hadn’t made the mistake of taking her cell phone with her, she might actually have managed to leave work behind. Instead, her sister had come back far tanner than Nikki, with a little album full of pictures of herself scuba diving and parasailing.
Nikki had come back knowing the room service menu by heart.
She hadn’t bothered trying to take a vacation again. “Don’t let me keep you,” she said now. She was desperately eager for him to leave, and painfully aware that she was doing a miserable job of hiding it.
He lifted one slashing eyebrow. “What’d I do to piss you off, Nikki?”
“Nothing!”
“Right.”
His dark gaze drifted downward from her face and she felt the heat of a fresh flush. She had to look as washed out as she felt.
She was used to being in control of things. Of herself.
Now, adrift in a tangle of pale blue sheets, she felt completely at a loss.
“Did you quit because of your pregnancy?”
“Of course not,” she exclaimed rapidly. Truthfully. The fact was, when she’d quit, she’d typed up her resignation and placed it square in the center of his computer keyboard—where he’d be certain to see it— before she’d realized she was pregnant.
Had she known, she still would have handed in her notice.
“You could have told me you were pregnant. I would have made some adjustments,” he said, ignoring her denial. He scooped up the pillow from the floor and set it on the bed beside her. “Maybe hired an assistant.”
“That’s what you did,” she pointed out. She pushed the pillow behind her. “I quit. You hired another admin. Simple.”
“Hired you an assistant.” His lips compressed a little, and the slashing dimple in his hard cheek flashed. “So you could work fewer hours or something.”
Alex had never once concerned himself with how many hours she’d put in for him. She was back to hallucinating again. Or maybe she’d wake up and find herself sitting with her nose in her computer outside Alex’s office, and that the last half year had been nothing more than a long, incredibly vivid nightmare.
She rubbed her temples.
“You didn’t have to quit on me,” Alex said.
Quitting was exactly what she’d had to do. And there was no way on earth she’d ever be able to explain that fact to him.
She dropped her hands to her lap and leaned wearily against the pillow behind her. She pulled the limp sheet and thin blanket up to her shoulders.
She wasn’t cold. She just needed more of a barrier between them.
She’d been a good administrative assistant. But nobody was irreplaceable. “I still don’t understand what you’re doing here.”
“Your sister is on her honeymoon.”
She frowned, wondering how he’d known that. “Yes.” “Your mom and her husband are on some cruise or something.”
Her mother had spent months planning the vacation. Squire, Nikki was convinced, had only agreed to plant his cowboy boots on a cruise ship deck because of the wife he adored. “Yes,” she confirmed warily. “But what’s that have to do with you?”
His shoulders moved again. He stood and walked to the foot of the bed. “So I came to Montana,” he said flatly. “Someone needed to.”
He’d hardly explained his actions. Aside from her twin sister and her mother, he knew she had a sizable stepfamily. Any one of the Clays would have assisted her in any way they could, just as she knew, without question, that she’d have abhorred even asking.
But Alex didn’t know that. And he never did anything without an agenda.
Not that he couldn’t be kind when he chose. She knew only too well how many philanthropic efforts he’d been involved in, the boards on which he sat. Chaired. Organized. All located in the nine cities— from Florida to Arizona—where Huffington clinics were situated.
But mostly, Alex ate, breathed and slept his business. If she hadn’t been his administrative assistant, he’d have never noticed her.
“Well.” She settled her palms flat on the blanket beside her hips. “I appreciate your concern, but as you can see, I’m fine.”
“A polite way of telling me I can just toddle on out the door now?” His voice was dry.
She winced. Flushed, yet again. “Alex, this is just…embarrassing for me,” she admitted.
“Why?”
Her hands were no longer flat. They curled, bunched into fists, as Nikki wished the ground would swallow her whole. “How would you feel if I walked in on you in the hospital?”
He tucked his hands in his pockets, but the action did little to mar the line of his perfectly tailored black trousers. “Perhaps glad to see a familiar face.”
She felt her cheeks flame even hotter. “Now you’re making me sound ungrateful.”
“If the shoe fits.”
There was a knot constricting her throat. “Please don’t try guilting me into coming back, Alex.” She wasn’t sure she could withstand it again.
“It didn’t work when I tried before.” He stepped across the room and pulled one hand out of his pocket to adjust the window blinds.
More gray light entered the room, and Nikki realized she was staring at the subtle play of muscles beneath Alex’s ivory sweater. Cashmere, undoubtedly, considering the way the soft garment draped his broad shoulders.
His hair was black, tipped by silver around his temples. His nape, too, if he went a week too long between haircuts. But now it was cut as short as ever. Then those salt-and-pepper strands turned, and she swallowed, caught gawking, when he looked back at her.
Not that he made any mention of her staring.
“I came because I was concerned,” he said mildly. “So. Is there someone you’d prefer to have called?” One eyebrow lifted, his chocolate eyes shifting to her midsection. “Maybe the guy who did that?”
She looked down at her hands. They were puffy. She’d stopped wearing all her rings a month ago. Even the amethyst promise ring that Cody had given her.
“He’s gone,” she said. And she refused to get any more detailed. “I do appreciate the fact that you came up here from Cheyenne, Alex. I know how busy you are. But I’m fine.”
He just watched her.
Well, okay, she was lying in a hospital bed, so obviously things weren’t all tulips and daisies. “I’ll be fine,” she amended.
“You don’t even know what happened.”
As long as she felt the baby kicking away inside her, she figured she could deal with whatever had happened. What she couldn’t deal with was facing Alex for any length of time. “Do you know?”
He wasn’t a family member. He wasn’t even her employer anymore. The hospital shouldn’t have divulged any of her personal information to him.
But she knew Alex had a way of getting what he wanted.
“I know enough,” he said.
A statement that did not alleviate any of the nerves jostling inside her. “Meaning what?”
“You were far more agreeable when you worked for me.”
“You paid me to be agreeable.” Again, her voice was shaking.
“Right. Well, nobody knows more than I do just how capable you are, Nikki.” He scooped up a black coat she recognized from the seat of a rolling metal stool stuck in the corner. “You’ll undoubtedly improve efficiency around here by thirty percent before you’re released. The staff will be completely whipped into shape.” Now his tone wasn’t kind at all.
It was tight.
Angry.
And it stunned the life out of her.
What did he have to be angry about?
“Alex. Wait.” The words burst from her lips even as caution screamed inside her.
She wanted him to leave.
Didn’t she?
“Please,” she whispered. “Wait.”
No matter how desperate she was to regain some composure, she couldn’t abide the idea of having angered him. Regardless of his motives, he’d come here.
She’d never known him to take any time away from his business.
Not for anyone. So why had he done it for her?
Chapter Two
Before Alex could respond, a doctor came into the room and took in both of them with a glance. “Good. You’re finally awake. Since you’re both here, we need to go over Mom’s options after I examine her.”
Which told Nikki ever so much.
And she had no idea if Alex would have stayed because of her request, or not.
The gangly doctor—he briskly introduced himself as Dr. Carmichael—set the thick chart he was holding on the rolling table at the base of Nikki’s bed, and stepped up beside her, whipping out his stethoscope with one hand and nudging up his round eyeglasses with the other.
Before Nikki could utter a word, he’d plucked the string holding her hospital gown together at her neck, and nudged her forward a little. The stethoscope was cold against her back and she hurriedly grabbed the front of the gown before it fell completely off her shoulders.
She couldn’t look at Alex now.
Just as quickly, Dr. Carmichael nudged her back against the pillows again, murmuring periodic “mmmhmms” as he delved beneath the neck of the gown to listen to her heartbeat.
Her face was on fire.
She knew her pulse was racing, and it had nothing whatsoever to do with the doctor, who’d already withdrawn his cold stethoscope and transferred his attention to feeling along her jaw and neck, for heaven only knew what.
His mmm-hmming kept on until he stepped back to the foot of the bed, flipped open the chart and made a few notations. The same nurse came into the room then and gently shooed Alex out long enough for the doctor to do a pelvic exam.
When he was finished, the doctor scooted back on his rolling stool, disposing of his sterile gloves. “Looking good. Spotting has stopped.”
The nurse finished deftly adjusting the bedding and retied the back of the deplorable gown, since Nikki was too busy staring at the doctor to deal with it herself. “I was spotting? How long have I been here?” She would remember if she’d been spotting!
“Four days now,” the nurse said calmly. “You were brought in on Sunday. It’s Thursday. Your Mr. Reed has stayed by your side since he arrived Tuesday. Half the nurses in the hospital are pea green with envy, I can tell you.”
Four days?
She’d been thinking maybe four hours.
Distress gnawed at her.
The doctor was still sitting, and the overhead light glinted off his glasses as he waved Alex in when the nurse opened the door once more. “As I was telling Nikki, the spotting has stopped. There’s been no evidence of any more contractions.”
“More?” Her voice rose at that.
Just what had been going on while she was unconscious?
The nurse patted her arm. “Try not to get excited, hon. Your blood pressure was through the roof when the ambulance brought you in. It’s only begun to stabilize in the last twelve hours.”
News that was not helping Nikki become any calmer. “The baby’s been moving,” she said nervously. Alex had told her she and the baby were fine. “So what’s wrong?”
“Nothing that bed rest won’t cure, I believe,” the doctor assured her. He adjusted his glasses, making them glint again. “Frankly, at this point, the baby is healthier than you are.”
“Then I can go home?”
“I’d prefer to keep you here in the hospital. I want you off your feet for the next three weeks.” He glanced at her chart again. “You’ll be in your third trimester then.”
Nikki’s stomach dived down to her toes. Her new job came equipped with medical insurance coverage—which she would desperately need by the time her delivery date arrived—but not until she’d actually been working there for sixty days. Working being the operative word.
If she was here in this Montana hospital for weeks, she couldn’t very well report for her first day at Belvedere Salvage & Wrecking on Monday, now could she?
“But that won’t do,” she said faintly.
“I’m afraid it’s going to have to do,” Dr. Carmichael said, unperturbed. He patted her foot through the blanket. “Don’t worry. The food here will grow on you.”
The knot in her throat had become a vise, and it seemed to be forcing every bit of liquid inside her up behind her eyes.
The doctor wasn’t entirely oblivious to her upset. “It won’t be so bad. After the first week, we’ll reevaluate. And Dad can stay with you as long as he wants, same as he’s been doing.”
Nikki eyed Alex. His long form wavered. The doctor figured he was telling her things that would make her feel better.
But Alex wasn’t the expectant father. How could he be when there had never been anything remotely personal between them?
But he wasn’t disputing the doctor’s assumption, either. “I can’t afford to stay three weeks in the hospital.” She pushed out the words, trying to pretend that he wasn’t standing there listening. “I have to get home. I have to work.”
The doctor looked at her over the rims of his glasses. “I can’t force you to stay, of course. But I promise you that you’ll be endangering your pregnancy if you do not have complete bed rest.”
Endangering.
The word rocketed around inside her like some bizarre pinball machine running amok, setting off small explosions wherever the ball hit.
“She could get the bed rest elsewhere, though.” Alex finally spoke up. “Correct?”
The doctor didn’t look particularly happy about it, but he nodded. “If she can promise me that she’ll remain in bed. And I mean lying in bed. Knees elevated. She can sit up for a few minutes at a time, but that’s it.”
“I’ll go to my mother’s,” Nikki said thickly. Her family would welcome her with open arms, without question. And she’d feel like she was failing them by not being able to stand on her own two feet the way she always had.
“Your mother lives here in Lucius?”
“No. Wyoming.”
Before she’d finished speaking, the doctor was shaking his head. “No travel. Not even an hour.”
“But—”
“Don’t argue, Nikki.” Alex’s voice was smooth. “We’ll do whatever is necessary to protect the baby.”
“We?” Her hands clutched the blanket, bunching it frantically. The monitor beside her began bleating like an angry lamb, and spewed out a stream of narrow paper.
“Ms. Day.” The nurse gently nudged her back against the pillows. “Please. Don’t excite yourself.”
Nikki waved her hand at the doctor. “You just sentence me to bed rest for the better part of a month and I’m not supposed to get excited?” A sharp pain tore through her midsection and she exhaled loudly, drawing up her knees, doubling over.
The nurse and Dr. Carmichael were suddenly all business. Blood pressure cuffs. Syringes.
Nikki didn’t much notice what they did, since panic was rocketing through her, keeping company with the grappling hook that was twisting her insides into a knot.
The baby had been a complete accident.
But that didn’t mean she didn’t want it.
Oh God oh God oh God.
Alex slid his hand into hers.
She stared blindly at him. The pain was excruciating. “Nikki…” His voice was soft. Insistent.
She blinked. Focused. The panic retreated a hair. She was hardly aware of the death grip her fingers had on his. “It hurts,” she gasped.
His intense gaze was steady. Calm.
Familiar.
“I know. Relax.” His voice was almost hypnotic. “Everything is going to be fine.”
She was twenty-seven years old. A modern, competent, independent woman. She didn’t need anyone to tell her that everything would be fine.
She was the one who usually made certain that things were fine.
Only none of that amounted to a hill of beans right now. She was glad he was there. Glad. Pathetically glad.
THE TYCOON’S MARRIAGE BID
Her tears slipped out, streaming down her cheeks. She’d never once cried in front of her boss.
No. He wasn’t her boss any longer.
He was just Alex.
A man she still couldn’t manage to get out of her head.
“Breathe,” he told her. She was vaguely aware that the nurse had been repeating the same thing.
She drew in a slow breath.
“That’s it,” he said encouragingly. “Slow and easy.” The grappling hook was slowly, infinitesimally, loosening.
“I don’t want to lose the baby.” Her voice was thick.
His brown gaze didn’t flicker. His hand never let go of hers. “I won’t let that happen,” he promised.
It made no sense. But she believed him.
“Try and lie back, Ms. Day.”
She felt woozy. Incapable of making herself uncurl. Focusing on Alex’s face was getting harder. But when he leaned over her, gently settling her back against the pillows, she could still make out the subtle variations of brown in his eyes.
Dark, clear coffee rimmed by a narrow circle of chocolate Kisses.
“Melted,” she corrected. Melted chocolate. Rich. Thick.
Addictive.
He was still so close. “Melted what?”
She frowned a little. Had she said it out loud? “My head feels funny.”
“It’s the sedative,” the nurse stated. She unwrapped the blood pressure cuff from Nikki’s arm and tucked the contraption back in its holder beside the bed. “Don’t worry. It won’t harm the baby. You’re just both going to have a little nap.”
“I don’t want a nap. I have to go back to Cheyenne.”
“Not today you don’t. You’ve been out of it for four days, remember?” Alex let go of her and straightened, moving away from the bed.
She wanted to call him back. But the idea took too much effort.
Later. She’d call him later.
No, she wouldn’t call him back later.
Later she’d have to call human resources at Belvedere and see if she could salvage the job she was supposed to start.
Salvage.
She felt an amused giggle rise in her, but it never seemed to make it out.
She’d have to do lots of things.
She just couldn’t put her finger on what they were at the moment….
Alex watched Nikki’s eyes close. The stress wrinkling her forehead smoothed out. Her lips softened.
“She’ll sleep for a few hours,” the nurse told him quietly.
Alex nodded. He followed the doctor outside the room. “You’ve been running tests on her since I got here. I want details.” He wasn’t a physician himself, but he came from a long line of them, and he employed a fair number himself. If he wasn’t satisfied with the doctor’s answers, he’d have Nikki under someone else’s care in a heartbeat.
“We can talk in my office,” the doctor said easily. “I wouldn’t mind getting some medical history on you, as well.”
Alex smiled noncommittally. It suited him to let the doctor believe he was the baby’s father. If the other man knew just how nonpersonal his relationship with Nikki Day was, Alex would have a harder time getting the information he wanted.
He’d still get it.
He just preferred to get it as expediently as possible.
He should have done it all when he’d arrived at the hospital. Instead, he’d sat by Nikki’s bedside.
It was unfathomable even to him.
Two hours later, he’d obtained all the details of Nikki’s and her baby’s health that he wanted. He’d even called his uncle, who was head of obstetrics for RHS Memorial, the Philadelphia flagship hospital of Reed Health Systems, who concurred with Dr. Carmichael’s plan of treatment.
Alex had plenty of disagreements with his family. But when it came to basic medical care, there were few minds finer.
So he sat now in the recliner in Nikki’s room, watching her sleep. There was a little more color in her face than there had been when he’d first arrived.
His first sight of her had hit him in a way he was still trying to figure out. When she’d worked for him, he’d never seen her with a hair on her auburn head out of place, and he’d never seen her lose her composure. Not with temper or tears. She’d been efficient as hell. The best assistant he could ever have wanted. She’d kept his hectic life in order, and he was still reeling all these months after she’d left him flat.
It wasn’t a fact he particularly liked admitting, either. He didn’t like depending on anyone. Not when they invariably failed you.
But he’d depended on Nikki.
Right now, she seemed miles away from that fearsomely competent young woman who’d often beat him to the office in the mornings, and generally outlasted him at the end of the day. Aside from the swollen soccer-ball-size mound her slender arm was curled protectively over, she seemed too thin, and ridiculously young.
Vulnerable.
Her hair waved across the white pillow in a fiery river, looking more red than brown. There were no cosmetics to make her ivory complexion perfect, and it was smooth as velvet anyway. Her lips were softly parted and her oval chin was relaxed, missing its typical no-nonsense tilt.
Nikki Day was beautiful.
He supposed that wasn’t really a news flash to him. The vulnerability, though. That was as unexpected as finding her pregnant.
Which didn’t explain, even to him, what he was doing here.
Nikki was right to be surprised. Suspicious, even.
He had a dozen things—give or take a hundred—to deal with regarding Huffington. He hadn’t been exaggerating about the competence of the assistants that HR had been sending his way. And having a barely tolerable assistant just now was worse than having no assistant.
Nikki shifted, turning on her side, and tucked her hand against her cheek. Beneath the thin blanket, her leg moved, and the bare tips of her toes sneaked out from beneath the covers. Her toenails were painted a soft peach color.
His favorite fruit had always been peaches.
Annoyed with the thought, he looked back at her face.
Her eyes were open. Dark blue. Slightly unfocused. But they cleared almost instantly.
“It’s not some bad dream?” Her voice was little more than a soft sigh.
He shook his head and hoped to hell those blue eyes didn’t fill with tears again. Seeing Nikki Day in tears unnerved him. It wasn’t a sensation he welcomed. “No. How’re you feeling?”
“Woozy.” One slender arm was still crossed protectively over her abdomen.
“The baby’s okay. And Carmichael has been in contact with your OB in Cheyenne.”
She looked distinctly discomfited at the news. “I probably don’t want to know how you know that, nor how Dr. Carmichael even knows who my doctor there is, do I?”
Since that was true, he kept silent.
She turned on her back. Started to fold her arm over her eyes but didn’t, giving the IV taped to it a baleful look. “Belle and Cage got married before Christmas. They put off their honeymoon until after the holidays. If I call them now, they won’t have a chance to get away again until summer, and then…”
Calling her sister was the logical answer. Yet she sounded miserable over it.
“Where’d they go for their honeymoon?” he asked.
“The Caribbean.”
Her eyes were wet. Damn.
“Belle was so excited. Not just because it’s her honeymoon, but because she’s always dreamed of traveling to places like that. But at least they’re probably reachable.” Nikki’s voice went a little hoarse. “My mother and Squire are floating somewhere on the Mediterranean. I know they can be reached in an emergency, but—”
He lifted his hand. He really didn’t like seeing tears in her eyes. “You don’t have to reach anyone.”
She shook her head. The tears glinted. “I can’t afford one week in the hospital, much less three.”
He could tell reiterating the admission cost her. Not that he hadn’t figured it out for himself. She hadn’t been working anywhere in Cheyenne—not that he’d been able to discover, anyway. And to his chagrin, he’d tried. He knew her mother’s husband had money, but he also figured that asking for help was not Nikki’s particular forte.
Since he was generally more in the position of cleaning up other people’s messes than being in need of cleaning in his own life, he figured that was something they had in common.
When had Nikki had time for any sort of personal life?
The thought kept coming to the forefront.
He’d kept her too busy for a personal life.
Or so he’d thought.
He marshaled his thoughts. “I’ve rented you a place.”
Silence descended on the room as she absorbed his statement. Then her eyes widened. Color touched, then just as quickly fled from her cheeks. “Excuse me?”
“I took care of it while you were sleeping. The sheriff’s office recommended a few places. Someone from the inn packed up your stuff, and it’s been moved to the rental.” He figured just about any place would be better than the Lucius Inn, which didn’t even possess a proper suite.
“How…efficient.”
“Then it’s settled.”
Her eyebrows rose. She pushed herself up on her elbow, and there was nothing dazed in her eyes now. Incredulousness shone clear and sharp.
“No, it’s not! How am I supposed to afford—” she waved her hand, a brief motion conveying a wealth of frustration “—this place you’ve arranged? And I’m still going to need help, if I’m supposed to have bed rest. No matter what, I’m going to have to call my family.”
“Hold it.” He sat forward, resting his arms on his knees. “First of all, I said I rented you a place. Period. As for calling your family, you can if you want. I’m just telling you it’s not necessary, if you really want to go this alone.”
Her brows drew together at that. “Are you going to hire me a nursemaid, too?” She looked everywhere but at him. “I wasn’t that perfect of an assistant, Alex. You cannot possibly be so desperate for me to come back to work for you that you’d go to these lengths. I don’t want to owe anyone!”
“Anyone, or just me?”
Confusion and pride tangled in her eyes. “Does it matter?”
Did it?
He didn’t like owing favors, either. “I’m not hiring a nurse,” he said evenly, scrapping the plan to do just that. “I’ll stay with you myself.”
Chapter Three
Nikki saw Alex’s lips move. She heard the words he spoke. But they still made no sense. “You’ll stay with me,” she repeated slowly.
He nodded once.
“Here. In Lucius.”
Again, the single nod.
“At this place you’ve rented for me.”
A third nod.
She pressed her fingertips to the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes, then opening them again. “That sedative they gave me is really messing with my head.”
“No, it’s not.”
No. It wasn’t. If it had been, she’d at least have an explanation. She dropped her hand to her lap, her palm upward. “I don’t want your pity.”
His jaw hardened. “You’re not getting it. You’re an intelligent woman, Nik. This is the easiest solution all the way around.”
On the surface, maybe. But spending time—personal time—with Alex? There wasn’t anything easy about that, at all.
“What about Huffington?” she asked, determined to keep her tears at bay. She cried far too easily these days. It was maddening.
“What about it?”
It seemed unfathomable, but she could tell by his bland tone that he wasn’t going to talk business.
Yet business was the only thing they’d ever had between them.
So what sort of business was he up to?
“No,” she said abruptly, stomping down on the panic that rose in her at the very thought of him staying with her. “Thank you for the offer, but I really can’t accept.”
“Why not?”
Her hands flopped. “Because it’s not…appropriate!”
His eyebrows rose a little. A muscle twitched at the corner of his lip. “Appropriate,” he mused. “Sounding a little virginal there, Nik.”
Her face went hot, but she managed to keep her chin up. “I don’t care what it sounds like. It’s true.”
“Definitely more agreeable when you worked for me,” he observed. He unfolded from the chair. At six foot four, he was the only man she knew who rivaled her stepbrothers in sheer physical presence. “I have a room at the Lucius Inn. Call me when you change your mind.”
“I won’t.”
His head tilted slightly in acknowledgment. Then he picked up his coat again and left the room. The hospital door swung shut behind him, leaving her alone with nothing but the lingering hint of his aftershave and the rhythmic ticking of the stark round clock hanging very high on the wall.
Maybe the hospital administrators were afraid their patients were likely to abscond with the ugly, utilitarian thing if they hung it at eye level.
She slowly smoothed her hands over the thin blanket, removing every bump and wrinkle. The baby moved. Only a few weeks ago, it had felt more like butterflies darting around inside her. Now, the motions were more distinct. More…real.
She folded her hands over her belly.
Eyed the closed door through the tears that wouldn’t be held back no matter how hard she tried, or how desperately she focused on everything around her except her situation.
She would not call Alex. She could get through this in the same way she’d gotten through every other painful episode in her life.
On her own. One aching hour…day…week at a time.
Twenty-four hours later, Nikki called Alex at the Lucius Inn.
Twenty-six hours later, she left the hospital—and very nearly the last chunk of savings she had in her bank account—behind, and was sitting beside him in the luxurious, spacious SUV he’d rented.
She stared out the window beside her as they drove through town. Lucius was a small community, like a dozen others. It had a main drag where most of the businesses seemed to be located. An older, clearly residential area at one end of town. Fortunate evidence of continued growth—a bustling discount department store, apartments, the Lucius Inn, a medical plaza—at the other end of town. She got a good look at all of them when Alex continued driving right on past, leaving the town behind.
She closed her fingers around the softly padded armrest. “Where is this place that you’ve rented?”
He flicked a glance her way. “Another few miles.”
She wanted to ask how few, but didn’t. Instead, she turned and stared blindly out the window again.
After a disappointing but unsurprising phone conversation with the salvage company that confirmed they would be unable to hold open the position for her, she’d actually started to call the Caribbean resort where Belle and Cage were staying, but hadn’t been able to bring herself to dial the number. What was worse? Calling back her twin from her honeymoon or accepting Alex’s inconceivable offer?
If Belle and Cage returned, the entire family would be bound to find out about it, and she hated worrying them. Hated it. It was bad enough that she knew they’d been worrying over her since she’d announced she was pregnant. They’d harped in the most loving of ways to get her to Weaver or the Double-C, where they could take care of her.
But she took care of herself.
She always had.
But to choose Alex now…that was a different kettle of fish entirely.
Instead of calling Belle, Nikki had left a voice mail message for Emily, one of her stepsisters-in-law, that she’d decided to stay in Montana for a few more weeks, and would call when she got back.
Then she’d hurriedly called Alex.
She still wasn’t sure she’d made the right choice, either.
The cadence of the tires on the highway deepened and she looked ahead as Alex slowed and turned off on a narrow road. It had recently been plowed, judging by the freshly turned snow neatly mounded at the sides. Not even a thin layer of white powder marred the single lane, which seemed barely wide enough to accommodate the SUV’s bulk.
After another ten minutes or so, the pavement ended, but the SUV took the graded gravel in stride. And before long, Alex pulled to a stop in front of a sprawling cabin.
Enormous logs. Stone foundation. A lone window that would let in only twelve square inches of sunlight at a time.
The place looked as if it had been built as a miniature fortress about a million years ago, and for a moment Nikki found herself longing for the confining hospital room.
Alex propped his wrist over the top of the steering wheel as he peered through the windshield at the structure before them. His long, blunt-tipped fingers slowly drummed on the dashboard.
“The sheriff recommended this place?” Nikki finally asked. It was the only glimmer of hope she held.
“He gave me a list of three places. This was the only one available right now. Owner’s name is Tucker. Spends winters in Arizona.”
“Maybe I should just go back to the boardinghouse.” Not that she knew how she’d pay for it.
She realized she was nibbling at her thumbnail, and hurriedly dropped her hand to her lap.
“Can’t.” Alex was still looking ahead at the dwelling. He seemed as enthusiastic as she was to actually look inside it.
But then Alex lived on the top floor of the Echelon, the finest hotel in Cheyenne. Well, the entire state of Wyoming, for that matter. The Echelon wasn’t enormous, but it was “quality.”
“Has she already rented out the room I was using?” Nikki’d had the room reserved for a week, Sunday to Saturday. It was only Friday.
He lifted his shoulder. “Called over there this morning and some girl answered. Said Tiff’s is more or less closed for a while. The owner—Hadley—had some personal stuff to take care of.”
Nikki was chewing her thumbnail again. “I hope she’s okay.” Hadley was a nice woman, about Nikki’s age. Tiff’s hadn’t been booming with business by any stretch, and Nikki had felt as if Hadley was more a taker in of strays than a dedicated innkeeper. Still, Nikki had had a reason for wanting to stay at Tiff’s. And Hadley had been more than accommodating.
“Town’s small enough,” Alex murmured. “Gossip would have gotten around fast enough if she weren’t okay.”
True enough. Her mother’s family, the Clays, all lived in or near the small town of Weaver, Wyoming, and Nikki knew how effectively gossip could travel there.
Alex’s fingers stopped drumming on the dashboard. “Don’t move. I’ll take a look inside.”
Nikki propped her elbow on the armrest and dropped her chin in her hand. “I’m not going anywhere,” she murmured to his back as he got out of the vehicle.
How could she?
She’d been lifted from the hospital bed into a wheelchair to exit the hospital, and then lifted from the chair into the SUV that had been idling, warm and cozy, at the curb outside the hospital entrance.
And Alex had done the lifting.
The doctor’s instructions had been adamant. The only thing Nikki was allowed to do was sit up for very brief periods of time every few hours. And use the bathroom more or less under her own steam.
She was embarrassingly grateful for that particular mercy.
Her thumbnail found its way between her teeth again. She watched Alex go up the rickety-looking steps. The security system consisted of a door key hidden inside the ancient metal mailbox affixed to the wall alongside the door.
He glanced back at the SUV for a moment, then went inside.
Nikki wondered what he was thinking.
When she’d been in his employ, she’d believed she’d been able to anticipate his thoughts.
But now she couldn’t. The uncharted waters were too vast for her to navigate.
He’d left the door open, but she could see little inside because of the shadows from the steeply pitched porch roof. Assuring herself that the sheriff would not have recommended a place to Alex that had crumbling floorboards and other hazards he could be encountering in there alone, she focused instead on the landscape.
Dozens of winter-bare trees dotted the land around the cabin. And there were evergreens that seemed to reach a mile into the sky.
She suspected that during the rest of the year, the beauty of the landscape compensated for the stark log cabin. Now, though, the place seemed terribly barren.
And her eyes were burning all over again.
She blinked rapidly and sniffed hard. Enough with the waterworks, already. This was just another unexpected challenge to work through. It wasn’t as if it were the only hitch in life she’d ever encountered.
As long as she followed the doctor’s instructions, the baby would be fine. As long as she concentrated on that, she’d get through this. And when the doctor sprang her, Alex would go on his way again, and she would get on with her life.
Nothing all that different than what she’d been doing since last summer, anyway.
The door beside her opened and she jumped.
Alex released her safety belt. “I’ll take you in.”
She wasn’t sure she wanted to leave the warmth of the SUV, where she could entertain fanciful notions of wriggling behind the wheel and driving off. “Is it as ancient inside as it looks outside?”
“Not exactly.” He slid his arms beneath her.
The third time to be carried by him.
She buried her face from her chin up to her nose in the ivory scarf wrapped around her neck, and tried not to breathe. Tried to pretend she wasn’t fifteen pounds heavier with baby weight, and tried not to justify just how smoothly Alex traipsed across the snow to the cabin.
Yes, he was a large man. But he was a tycoon, not a lumberjack. Carting her—carting anything—around wasn’t really his style.
Yet he managed it with as much style as he did most everything else.
She stifled a sigh, only to hold her breath a moment later when he went up the steps, which creaked ominously. He turned sideways to go through the door, then kicked it shut behind them.
The solid slam seemed to echo inside Nikki’s head as she stared in disbelief at the interior.
“Oh…my…word.”
Alex didn’t comment. He merely crossed the gleaming, wood-planked floor that was partially obscured by a massive leopard-print shag rug, and set her on an enormous sectional couch upholstered in racy red leather. “There’s a shed of some sort on the other side of the cabin. I’m going to move the truck there after I bring in the groceries. Then I’ll get you some lunch. You okay here for that long?”
She nodded weakly and tucked her hands deeper into the pockets of her ivory coat. Anything that would occupy him long enough for her to regain her composure—scrambled from the unlikely interior of the cabin, as much as the unlikely prospect of Alex cook-ing—was a good thing.
He shut the door behind him when he left, preserving the little bit of warmth that the interior possessed. Her gaze settled on the soaring stone fireplace that dominated the center of the room. She had little doubt the cabin would warm up considerably when a fire was lit in it.
The cabin would warm.
The mammoth, circular bed that she could see through the empty fireplace had velvety pillows mounded against an enormous black, leather headboard. And it would warm.
The heart-shaped whirlpool bathtub that took up a chunk of floor space near the couch would warm.
The kitchen and intimate dining nook with its satiny pine table and chairs would warm.
When she and Cody had been planning their wedding, she’d seen advertisements in the bridal magazines of honeymoon cottages that weren’t as blatantly sexual as this place. But sweet Cody had only had one place in mind for their honeymoon. Tiff’s. Where his parents had spent their honeymoon together.
She jumped a little when Alex entered again, his arms loaded with grocery bags, and she dragged her eyes away from the empty bathtub, feeling as if she’d been caught doing something…scandalous.
There was little in the cabin that couldn’t be seen from where she sat on the couch—everything seemed oriented around the fireplace—and she watched him dump the bags on the kitchen counter, then stride back outside.
He hadn’t done any shopping personally, of course.
He’d merely stopped outside a grocery store after picking her up at the hospital, and as if by magic, a young clerk had dutifully trotted out with the bags, loaded them in the back of the SUV, collected some bills from Alex and disappeared again.
The world according to Alex Reed.
There were a few closed doors in the cabin, and plenty of windows running along the back side of the structure. Unlike the miserly one she’d seen from the outside, there seemed to be a dozen of them. All large and un-adorned and overlooking more trees and a narrow, winding stream.
By the time Alex returned after moving the truck, Nikki hoped she’d managed to wipe most of her shock over the cabin interior from her expression.
Not that he’d have noticed, anyway.
He went straight to the kitchen again and began rummaging around. Opening smooth, walnut-planked cupboard doors. Pushing items into the sleek, stainless-steel-fronted refrigerator.
“Alex?”
His head lifted. He looked at her. She could see him through the slice of space between one corner of the fireplace and a bulging green ficus that stood guard over the far end of the sectional couch.
“Do you actually know how to cook?”
His teeth flashed in a surprisingly amused grin. “I can punch a microwave button as well as anyone.”
She hesitated a moment. “Um…Alex? That’s what you said about using the coffeemaker at Huffington.” He’d punched buttons on the commercial-style appliance and the repairman had actually been forced to install a new machine when he’d been unable to fix it. After that, Alex had wisely stayed away from the employee break room.
“We’re going to have to take our chances,” he said dryly. “This microwave is built-in. Don’t think I can move it over there next to you so you can do button duty.”
She heard the microwave door shut, followed by a few beeps. Alex rummaged around a little longer, then approached her, extending an opaque glass toward her.
“Here.”
She took it. Looked inside the squat rim. “It’s milk. I don’t drink milk.”
“You’re pregnant. You’re supposed to drink gallons of it, aren’t you?”
She’d managed not to so far, courtesy of the prescription she took daily, which her obstetrician vehemently assured her were actually prenatal vitamins and not horse pills.
Alex’s expression was much the same as it always was: a hint of amusement underlying his otherwise impervious calm. There was no particular reason for her to take the glass. Certainly not because she wanted to please him or something.
That would be ridiculous.
She was pregnant, so he gave her milk.
She needed to stay off her feet, so he made sure she was able to do so.
Why?
She took the glass and began drinking. He pushed the mirror-topped, iron coffee table closer to her end of the couch before returning to the kitchen. Several minutes later, he was back again, tray in hand. The mirror reflected his image as he leaned over to set the tray on the table.
“Interesting decor,” he murmured as he handed her a chunky white mug filled with soup. “Hope you like chicken noodle. It’s salt free,” he warned. “Carmichael said your sodium intake needed to be minimal.”
Considering she’d just drunk nearly an entire glass of milk, she suspected she’d have eaten the soup, too, even if she didn’t like it. “It’s fine,” she said truthfully.
In fact, she was suddenly starving, and it was all she could do not to attack the soup with him standing right there watching her. But as soon as he saw her scoop up a spoonful of slippery noodles, he went back to the kitchen.
A moment later, she heard him talking on his cell phone.
At least that was typical behavior for him. Alex and his cell phone had always been nearly surgically attached. The man was a serious workaholic.
Somewhat comforted by this small piece of normalcy, she devoured the soup. There was also a banana and two rolls on the tray, and she ate them, too.
Her gaze kept straying to the slice of kitchen she could see. Alex’s voice was a low murmur, too indistinct for her to make out words. Given the coziness of the cabin, she knew he was deliberately keeping his voice low.
A personal call?
Alex was forty-two and the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. He was also extremely wealthy.
Women always flocked to him.
She brushed a bread crumb from her chest and leaned her head back against the arm of the couch. It was no business of hers whatsoever who Alex was speaking to.
Was it Valerie?
Still?
She closed her eyes. But while she could block out the sight of the cabin for lovers, she couldn’t block out the low ebb and flow of Alex’s voice. And she couldn’t block out the thoroughly unwelcome fact that, while it was none of her business, she couldn’t pretend that she didn’t care.
She scooted down farther in the couch, wishing she could burrow beneath the red cushions and erase the past week.
Erase the past year, for that matter.
If she could, then Alex would still be the guy who changed women almost as often as he changed shirts. She’d still be working at his side, doing a job she really had loved, and keeping her own feelings for him sternly under wraps, because she was definitely too smart to think seriously about a man who sent nearly every woman off with some tasteful gift that Nikki had arranged for him.
If she could wish away the past year, Alex’s ex-wife, Valerie, wouldn’t have come back into his life, and Nikki wouldn’t have had to quit her job because of her own foolish behavior.
She wouldn’t be lying here now in this rabid honeymooner cabin, pregnant with the child of a man whose only appeal to her had been his strong resemblance to Alex.
Chapter Four
Alex couldn’t sleep.
He couldn’t blame it on the couch, though. It was comfortable enough, for a leather sectional large enough to host a cocktail party. No. It was the fact that he was listening for every sound that came from the massive bed on the other side of the fireplace.
He’d built a fire earlier that evening, but the logs had burned way down now. The only thing left of it was the warm scent and orange glow from the embers, which did nothing but illuminate the foot of the bed.
He wished the embers would die. Then he wouldn’t be lying here peering through the firebox at the way the dark bedspread spilled partially off the rounded foot of the bed. It’d be better if Nikki would just kick it all the way off, he decided blearily. As it was, the velvety red fabric clinging tenuously to the mattress made him think of the way a woman’s dress would cling to her shoulders as it was nudged off by her lover.
A woman?
He turned on his back, scrubbing his hands down his face.
Clearly, he’d been alone too damn long when he was thinking of his young former assistant in that way.
From the other side of the cabin, he heard a soft sigh. A rustle of bedding.
He slanted his gaze sideways.
Had the bedspread slid another perilous inch?
Annoyed, he swung his legs off the couch, knocking his ankle on the tacky coffee table. He cut off the none-too-quiet oath midsyllable.
What the hell was he doing here?
“Alex?” Nikki’s voice was soft and husky from sleep. “Are you all right?”
His jaw tightened, along with every other part of him. “Yeah.” It came out more of a grunt. Good to know his Ivy League education was so useful. He gingerly rotated his foot. “Are you? What’s the matter?”
Again the rustling bedding.
God. He was something. The woman was having a crisis with her pregnancy and he was having visions of her peach-tinted skin draped in red velvet.
He should be asking what the hell was the matter with him.
“Nothing’s wrong,” she assured him. “You’re the one who’s over there swearing.”
“You feeling more pain? Dizziness?”
“No.” But she’d hesitated just a moment before answering. He reached over and grabbed his pants, hitching them up his hips as he rounded the fireplace.
There was a skylight above the bed, but the sky was so dark it didn’t help illuminate the bedroom. There were only those orange embers casting their glow, softly enough for him to see the shape of her lying in the center of the round bed. “This isn’t going to work if you’re not honest about how you’re feeling,” he told her.
She moved, and the rustling sound made Alex feel as if something was brushing against him. He shook off the sensation and stepped closer. He could see the way the sheet draped over her knees. She’d sat up against a mound of pillows at the padded leather headboard.
Details he could’ve done without.
“Well?” he demanded.
She exhaled. “I don’t lie.” Her voice was tight.
Another few steps and he was at her bedside. He wasn’t certain, but the sheets didn’t look exactly white. More like silver. With a sheen.
He’d slept on five-hundred-dollar sheets that were smoother than silk, and five-dollar sheets that were as rough as sandpaper.
He’d never slept on satin sheets covering a round bed. There probably wasn’t a single member of the Reed family who had.
You’re not going to be the one to change that.
The voice inside his head was mocking.
“Okay. So you don’t lie.” Truth was, when she’d been in his employ, Nikki had been unfailingly honest, even when it meant tactfully telling him he was acting like an arrogant jerk. “But you can’t hold back things, either.”
Her hands flopped on the mattress and he realized she hadn’t just drawn up her knees, she’d been hugging her leg. “I had a charley horse.” Even husky from sleep, her voice managed to convey embarrassment.
He sat on the bed and stifled a sigh when she practically jumped six inches back. “Relax.” He reached over and caught her leg through the sheet.
Satin. Definitely.
“What are you doing?”
“Where’s the cramp?” His hand slid down her shin. Circled a very narrow ankle. He couldn’t say he’d ever noticed before how delicately formed they were.
She’d usually been dressed from head to toe in very conservative, very tailored pantsuits.
She twisted her foot, trying to brush his hands aside. “It’s gone now.”
“And you wouldn’t admit where it was if it weren’t gone. It’s not a crime to accept help, you know.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Yeah, but you don’t want to be.”
Her foot stopped moving. “And you do? Pull the other leg. It’s got bells on.”
He reached a little farther and caught the leg in question. “Nope. No bells ringing there.” Just a cacophony of warning buzzers going off inside his head. He let go of her and stood. Shoved his hands in his pockets. “Is the bed comfortable, at least?”
“Yes. Except I feel like I might slide off the edge if I’m not careful. The sheets are pretty slippery. And I’ve, um, never slept on a round bed. It’s a little…”
“Kinky?”
“Odd.” Her voice sounded strangled. But she moved her feet again, and again he felt the sound like a physical thing. “I, um, I really could have taken the couch, you know. I didn’t mind.”
Shortly after lunch, he’d carried her from the couch to the bed, over her protests. “I’d mind.”
She made a soft murmur that seemed distinctly female, and as such, was completely incapable of interpretation.
“Do you want some water or something?”
She reached out and picked up the glass he’d given her already. “Still full.”
“Well, you should be drinking it,” he murmured. Her arms were bare. When he’d put her to bed, she’d been wearing a long-sleeved sweater.
“If I were drinking glasses of water all night long, I’d be constantly going back and forth to the bathroom,” she said huskily. “And since you’ve been dogged about carrying me there, too, you would get no more sleep than I would.”
“Be glad the doctor said you didn’t have to stay put so much that you needed a bedpan.”
He couldn’t see it, but he knew that she was blushing. Ornery bastard that he was, it made him smile.
“I’ll drink it later,” she assured him, holding up the sheet with the other hand. Making him wonder what she wore beneath it. He’d put her suitcase on a chair within reach of the bed. Presumably she’d had a nightgown in there or something.
“Let me know if the charley horse comes back.”
“Fine.”
“I mean it, Nikki.”
“Or what? You’ll fire me?” The tart comment seemed to surprise her as much as it did him. “I’ll let you know.” She slipped down to her side.
At the foot of the mattress, the bedspread gave up the ghost and sighed to the floor.
Alex’s hands fisted inside his pockets. He returned to his side of the fireplace, but didn’t bother lying down on the couch. He wasn’t going to sleep.
He went into the kitchen and turned on the small light over the stove. At least here, there was a wall separating the space from the bedroom. The light shouldn’t disturb Nikki.
He quietly carried an iron-backed bar stool from the minibar in the minuscule dining area and set it in the kitchen. His briefcase was already open on the counter next to the toaster, and he pulled out a stack of papers and envelopes—mail that he’d grabbed on his way out the door to the airport days ago and still hadn’t read— and dumped everything on the counter.
Then he poured himself a small measure of bourbon in one of the plentiful glasses the cabin was stocked with.
He sat down, propped his elbows on the counter and swirled the liquor gently in the glass.
The other advantage of the wall between the kitchen and bedroom was that he couldn’t waste any time wondering how long it’d be before a damn bedspread fell off a damn mattress.
He tossed back half the contents of the glass and set it aside. Too bad he didn’t have a handy wall inside his head, cordoning off the question that had been squatting there.
What kind of man could capture Nikki’s attention deeply enough to leave her pregnant?
And why the hell wasn’t the guy with her?
The heavenly smell of coffee woke Nikki the following morning. She didn’t even open her eyes at first. Just lay there still as a mouse, cradled in a soft jumble of pillows, as she slowly breathed in that wonderful, wonderful aroma.
Oh, what she wouldn’t give for a good dose of caffeine-rich coffee. But all caffeinated drinks and any foods that were remotely salty—and therefore flavorful—were now stricken from her allowable list.
So she lay there and savored the smell, and pretended not to notice that she was practically salivating all the while.
But lying there like a bump could only last so long before her back started to ache, so she turned over, stretching out her legs, pointing her toes. When she’d first seen the silver satin sheets, she’d been somewhat appalled. But the fact was, they felt pretty darn nice. Slippery, true. But nice.
So she swished her legs lazily over them a few more times, her head still buried in the pillow.
“I had a dog once who chased rabbits in his sleep.”
Nikki froze at the amused comment. The cool satin warmed beneath her still legs.
“Corkscrew would be nearly snoring, but his legs would be going a mile a minute. That’s what you remind me of.”
Since the earth wasn’t likely to mercifully swallow her whole anytime soon, she lifted her head out of the pillow and eyedAlex. “A dog named Corkscrew. How…flattering.” And trust Alex, the wine connoisseur, to have had a dog named Corkscrew. “What happened to him?”
“Died of old age. Now he’s chasing rabbits for eternity.”
She pushed her hair out of her face and propped her head on her hand. Looking at Alex was dangerous, but she couldn’t very well avoid doing so for the next few weeks.
He hadn’t shaved, but his wet hair was ruthlessly combed back from his face. He’d obviously showered, and the fact that she’d slept right through it gave her a moment’s unease.
She’d never lived with anyone. Not that she was living with Alex, of course. But she’d have thought she’d be more aware of sounds around her that weren’t made by, well, her.
He was wearing a thick, ivory fisherman’s sweater, which made his shoulders look about a mile wide. That wasn’t so odd in itself. Nor was it odd that he was unshaven. There’d been plenty of times when he’d worked all night and in the morning would pull out his electric razor, running it brusquely over his lean cheeks while they’d gone through the upcoming day’s business.
What was odd was that he was wearing blue jeans. Well-worn jeans, in fact. So worn they were nearly white in certain places. A person could purchase jeans in that condition these days, but Nikki had one stepfather, five stepbrothers and a brother-in-law whose jeans all looked remarkably similar, so she recognized the real deal when she saw them.
She wouldn’t have expected Alex to have a pair so broken in. Maybe he’d hired the task out to someone. A surrogate jeans breaker-in-er.
Good grief, did she ever need caffeine.
“Last one I ever had,” he mused, lifting his mug of that wonderful-smelling stuff to his mouth.
She moistened her lips. Was it the coffee that had her mouth watering, or was it the man drinking it? “Last what?”
His eyes crinkled a little at the corners. “Dog.”
She felt her cheeks heat. Corkscrew. “Right. I never knew you had a dog.”
“That’s because I was nine.”
She sat up a little more. She had a hard time envisioning Alex as a boy. “Why didn’t you get another dog?”
He shrugged. “Went away to boarding school. No point in having a dog if you’re not around to give it some attention.”
She felt as if she’d learned more about Alex in the last two minutes than she had in years. “Was your school far away from home?”
“An hour or so.”
The baby shifted when she tucked a pillow beneath her knees under the sheet. “Did you go home on weekends?”
“Rarely. How do you want your eggs?”
“Emily, one of my sisters-in-law, went to boarding school when she was a teenager. But it was back east somewhere, I think. She says she hated it.”
“Some people do. Over easy or scrambled?”
“I’m not sure how I feel about you cooking for me.”
“Scrambled it is.”
Her lips parted as he turned away. She saw his legs through the fireplace when he walked through the living area on the other side. Then she couldn’t see him anymore, but could hear him in the kitchen. Opening cupboards. Rattling pans.
“Over easy,” she called after him. “Thank you.”
She heard his cell phone beep and then his low voice. “Hi, babe.”
Great. If it wasn’t Valerie, it could have been any other dozen women he was addressing. She didn’t want to overhear another word, and she started to swing her legs off the bed, intending to go to the bathroom.
The tips of her toes were engulfed in shaggy animal-print carpet before she stopped. She slowly drew back her feet until they rested on the mattress, and her knees would have been under her chin if not for the bulge of the baby.
She wasn’t supposed to walk anywhere. How could she forget that? Just because Alex was talking to his latest squeeze?
She pushed both hands against her temples, then raked back her hair, holding it behind her neck, and studied her reflection in the mirrored wall opposite the bed. The football jersey she wore was old, the once-deep red now faded to a milky, tomato soup color.
It had been Cody’s.
For a while, when she’d learned she was pregnant, she had stopped wearing the shirt to bed. Feeling as if continuing to wear it would be a betrayal of him, somehow. But when she’d lain awake night after night, she’d finally dug it out of her drawer and put it on.
Her sleep had improved, but only marginally.
“Want toast?” Alex asked loudly.
“Yes.” She wondered if he cooked breakfast for his female guests.
Doubtful. She’d arranged a few dinner meetings for him at the Echelon. Alex need only express a request and the staff there hopped. The breakfast, tastefully arranged on sterling, dome-covered platters, would arrive on a linen-draped cart. Like something out of a movie.
She lowered her forehead to her knees and closed her eyes. Her fingers absently worked through the tangles in her hair.
Speculating over who Alex shared breakfast with had never particularly pained her. Not until he’d broken his own record of loving and leaving them within a few weeks by continuing to see Valerie for months. On end.
That had hurt. Seeing his smile whenever Valerie dropped by for an unexpected visit—during which he always shut his office door. Normally, Alex never shut the door between his office and Nikki’s. Not even when he was firing someone.
“Here. You got scrambled, anyway. Yolks broke when I cracked the shells.”
She looked up to see Alex holding out a plate. Along with the eggs, there was toast. Cut in half diagonally and a little too brown beneath the red jam, but she was too hungry to complain.
“Thanks.” She started to take the plate, but he held it out of reach.
“Scoot back.”
She lowered her legs, flushing a little because Cody’s shirt was falling off one shoulder and the hem ended midthigh. She slid back on the bed, swiftly pulling the slippery silver sheet over herself as she did so. When Alex finally handed her the plate, his eyes were full of amusement.
So she didn’t look at his eyes. She focused on the plate. Before she could set it on her lap, though, he whipped a red-and-blue-checked dish towel over her thighs. “Wouldn’t want to get strawberry jam on the sheets,” he murmured.
Without thought, Nikki snorted softly. “A little strawberry jam is probably the most innocent thing this room has seen on the sheets.” She was cringing before the last word left her lips, and she shoved half a toast slice in her mouth to confiscate the jam.
Alex had an unholy grin on his face when she finally was able to swallow. But he said nothing. Just handed her the tall glass of milk he held.
She took a sip and set it aside on the nightstand, then started on the eggs. “They’re pretty good.”
“Imagine that.”
She took another forkful, glancing up at him. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
“Already did.”
“You, um, don’t have to stay here to keep me company while I eat. You must have things you need to do.”
“Watching the ficus grow?”
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