One Night, So Pregnant! (6 page)

‘Who?’

‘Dr Hillier in Pacific Heights. She handled my friend Eva’s pregnancy.’

He pulled a smart phone out of his back pocket and keyed in something. ‘Right, I’ll have her checked out and get her to bill me.’

‘No, you won’t,’ she said, adding a hint of steel to her voice as her fine hairs went haywire. ‘I can pay for my own medical care, thank you very much.’

He looked up from his mobile, apparently oblivious to the steel. ‘Uh-huh, how?’

‘Look, Nate,’ she replied, the hint of steel now replaced with a whole foundry. ‘This is not your responsibility.’

One dark brow lifted in a sceptical arch. ‘The kid’s mine, Tess,’ he said patiently, as if he were talking to an imbecile. ‘And I’ll lay odds that in your line of work you don’t have proper healthcare coverage,’ he added, with such implacable logic she wanted to scream. ‘So your healthcare costs are the least of my responsibilities.’

‘I have savings,’ she said, desperately trying to avert the conversation she had a bad feeling was heading her way.

Who knew Nate Graystone would turn out to have the most overdeveloped sense of responsibility of any man on the planet? He might not want to be a father, but he was obviously determined to do the right thing. And while on some levels that was admirable, on others it was terrifying. She didn’t want to become the responsibility of any man, least of all a man like Nate.

‘That’s beside the point,’ he said, tucking the phone back into his pocket.

‘No, it’s not,’ she blurted out, the thin note of panic making her voice rise.

He tucked his forefinger under her chin, nudged her gaze back to his. ‘Why are you so determined to do this on your own, when there’s no need?’

The penetrating stare made her insides feel as if they were shrinking. ‘Because I like my independence. It’s important to me.’ She didn’t want to become dependent on him, in any way. She’d survived on her own since she was fifteen, becoming emotionally and eventually financially self-sufficient. And she couldn’t afford to lose that. Especially not to a man who could make her body yearn for things it shouldn’t need. How did she know she could trust him not to use that against her?

The flush crawled up her neck as Nate leaned back in his chair studying her.

He gave a rough chuckle. ‘Tess, you’re having a child in seven months’ time. In case you haven’t figured it out already, your independence is history.’

She suppressed the silly little clutch in her chest at the easy affection in his tone. And realised that trusting Nate wasn’t her biggest problem.

How did she know she could trust herself?

* * *

Nate took in the bright flush of embarrassment on Tess’s cheeks, and had to resist the powerful urge to hug her. ‘Let me help.’

Despite being the one woman who genuinely needed his financial assistance and had every reason to demand it, Tess Tremaine really didn’t have a hidden agenda. The thought made the unfamiliar flutter of admiration under his breastbone increase. And the desire to help became all the more acute.

Placing his palm on her cheek, he hooked a stray tendril of hair behind her ear and wondered where her fierce desire to remain independent came from. ‘We made this child together, so it’s only fair that we both deal with the consequences.’

‘I don’t think that’s—’ she began.

‘And it isn’t only the cost of healthcare. What about your living situation?’ he interrupted, deciding to approach the problem from a more pragmatic angle—because while her insistence on not wanting his money was clearly genuine, and commendable, it was hardly practical. ‘You can’t stay on your friend Eva’s floor for ever, now can you?’

She scowled. ‘I am going to murder Ed next time I see him.’

‘Don’t blame Ed. I can be very persuasive.’

‘Believe me, I know that.’ Her cheeks coloured and he felt the instant spike of heat at the double entendre he hadn’t intended. Her chin rose. ‘But it’s not a floor. Nick and Eva have a very nice guest room. Plus, I’ve been checking out the want ads regularly. I’m sure I’ll be able to land something soon that will give me a more reliable income and hopefully maternity benefits too.’

He doubted that. The economic climate was making it tough going for everyone, especially people in the hospitality business.

Taking in the stubborn look on her face, though, he refrained from stating the obvious a second time. He’d already tried to bully her into accepting his help, and it had backfired spectacularly. He now knew a little more about her, enough to know that her pride and her dogged determination to maintain her independence were not going to work in his favour. But no way was he cutting her adrift—she was carrying his child, so it was already too late for that.

‘If you won’t accept my money, would you at least accept my offer of a place to stay?’

‘What place?’ she asked, sounding wary.

Wary was good, he decided, because it wasn’t an instant no. ‘I own a house on Highway One, about an hour’s drive outside the city, not far from Half Moon Bay.’

‘I’m not moving in with you. I think we both know that would be a disaster.’ She sounded so adamant, he almost recited his golden rule. That he’d never invited any woman to move in with him.

But as his eyes skirted over her full breasts, pressed enticingly against the front of her blouse, he realised that if their circumstances had been different he might have considered breaking the golden rule. If only for a little while.

He forced the thought away.

Unfortunately Tess was right. Giving in to temptation again had the potential to be disastrous. Tess might be the most independent woman he’d ever met, but adding sex to their relationship would only complicate it—and loosen his control on a situation that had already spiralled out of his control once.

‘I don’t live there,’ he said casually, oddly regretful when the stubborn tilt of her chin softened. ‘The house I’m talking about belonged to my grandfather. It’s where I grew up, but it’s been empty for the last ten years. I’m in the process of having the place rehabbed.’ And sold, if he could find a buyer for the monstrosity.

‘Thanks, but I’m not sure living on a building site is actually a step up from Eva and Nick’s guest room.’

The caustic comment only made him grin because he could see the worry in her eyes. She might be fiercely independent, but she was a smart woman and she had to be as aware as he was that she didn’t have a lot of options.

‘Actually, the rehab is mostly done. But I wasn’t thinking of the main house. There’s a cottage in the grounds which you could use.’ He checked his watch, trying not to sound too enthusiastic—after all it could only be his determination to get her living situation sorted out that was making him want to hear her say yes.

‘Why don’t I drive you down there this afternoon? You could have a look at the place.’

She bristled and he saw the refusal coming. ‘I don’t—’

‘You don’t have to make a commitment,’ he cajoled, more determined than ever to hear her say yes. ‘But you need a more permanent place to stay. And if you don’t have to pay rent, your savings will last that much longer while you look for a job.’

‘Fine, I’ll have a look at it,’ she added. ‘I can drive down and meet you there tomorrow afternoon. But if I do decide to stay there, as soon as I find a more stable job,’ she continued forcefully, ‘I’ll pay you rent.’

No, you won’t
, he thought, just as forcefully, but remained silent. He’d got what he wanted for now, no need to push for more too soon.

He placed a firm hand on the slope of her back and ushered her towards the door of Walter’s office. ‘Give me your cell number. I’ll text you with the directions. What time can you get there?’

‘Not until four o’clock,’ she replied, deliberately naming a time that would preclude them having lunch together, he suspected.

‘Then I’ll see you there at four,’ he said, deciding that where Tess was concerned it was a much better strategy to concede the battle if you planned to win the war.

She walked out ahead of him, and he felt the quiver of awareness beneath his palm.

Winning the war involved figuring out a level of commitment to the child he was comfortable with—and getting Tess to accept it. He would win the war, because he had to—the ghosts of his father’s crimes wouldn’t allow him to do any less by his own child.

He watched her leave, the seductive sway of her hips making arousal tug hard. However, forgoing the spoils of this particular war was going to be a whole other problem entirely.

CHAPTER NINE

A
S
THE
Jeep ate up the miles along Highway One the next afternoon, Nate squinted at the bug-cemetery on his windshield, his eyes gritty with lack of sleep. He’d woken up three times in the night, rigid with desire, after the sort of lurid dreams that hadn’t troubled him since puberty. And Tess Tremaine’s soft, supple, fragrant body, the heavy weight of her breasts and the tight, wet clasp of her fisting around him had been the star attraction in every one.

He tapped his thumb on the steering wheel as the rush of heat hit his groin. Shifting in his seat, he stamped on the accelerator and cruised around another tight bend, the road hugging the rusty red earth of the cliffs.

Eventually the painful erection began to subside. But as he cranked up the car’s stereo and beat the wheel in time to the blaring rock, he acknowledged the fact that forgoing the spoils wasn’t just going to be hard, it might as well be impossible. Because for the first time since his teens, he wasn’t sure will power alone was going to cut it.

* * *

Close to an hour later, Tess drove past the ornate wrought-iron gates mentioned on Nate’s meticulously detailed instructions, then risked a glance at the cracked clockface on the dashboard.

Blast. Four fifty-five.

It was worse than she’d thought. She was nearly an hour late, which would be yet another tick in the ‘Tess needs a keeper’ column. She’d lay bets that Nate had arrived bang on time. The car’s engine whined as the drive swooped round a tight bend and then climbed through a grove of palm trees.

Don’t you dare die before we get there.

Paying no attention to the threat, the car shuddered and a cloud of stream belched from the vicinity of the radiator grill. Why hadn’t she considered the woeful state of her transport options before she’d rashly agreed to drive herself up here? The answer was simple, and sadly humiliating—she hadn’t wanted to spend an hour in a car with Nate Graystone.

Her heart was already beating double time at the thought of seeing him again. And that could not be good.

She needed to get her response to him under control, because she was going to have to take him up on his offer of a place to stay. She might have been able to kid herself a little while longer, until she’d burst in on Eva and Nick canoodling in the kitchen this morning. Eva had gone bright red, and Nick had just chuckled as he sent his wife a roguish look that spoke volumes. The evidence spoke for itself. After a week of staying in their guest room, Tess had outstayed her welcome. She couldn’t impose on her friends any longer.

And Nate’s offer was her only viable option. As long as the guest cottage he was talking about had a roof and running water, she was going to have to be gracious and grateful if it killed her and accept it.

She’d once prided herself on being calm under pressure—it was one of the prerequisites of her job, being able to juggle everything from catering catastrophes to wardrobe malfunctions to the best man breaking his ankle on the big day and still put on the perfect event. That talent seemed to have deserted her ever since she’d set eyes on Nate Graystone, but she intended to wrestle it back. Starting now. Which meant being sensible, and forgoing some of her precious independence, for the time being at least.

She shifted into first to take the incline and winced as the gearbox protested, loudly.

But she didn’t intend to keep mooching off Nate for long, which meant she needed to get real about her employment situation and start making viable plans. And after deciding to accept Nate’s offer, she’d made a few crucial decisions on the long and tortuous drive down the coast road.

Firstly, there was no way she was going to be able to get a good enough job in any of the major events-planning firms in San Francisco before her pregnancy started to show. Even with her killer portfolio and some amazing contacts it didn’t alter the fact that no one was hiring. Every firm she’d contacted so far was laying people off, not taking on new staff and, anyway, she’d probably have to do a probationary period before she’d be entitled to maternity benefits.

But once she’d faced that fact, she’d admitted to herself that the thought of working for someone else had filled her with dread. She had her own very distinctive ideas about how to plan and execute the perfect event—and she doubted she would have got much job satisfaction working for anonymous corporate clients who simply wanted big and brash and had no time for personal or creative. She’d been saving to start her own events planning firm instead of simply freelancing on an ad-hoc basis and she had a string of satisfied clients who could send business her way if she approached them properly. She’d done a course in web design last year with a view to setting up her own website and had even taken business admin classes at the local community college. But she’d never quite had the courage to take the next step—to think about going into partnership with an investor. Eva had offered on numerous occasions to be that partner—an offer she’d made again this morning—but Tess had always resisted, saying she didn’t want to put a financial strain on their friendship. When the real reason was that she had been scared to commit to a project that might curtail her active social life and her freedom to pick and choose what she wanted to work on. But now she had the perfect reason to jump off that cliff. Her high-rent apartment was history, and in seven months’ time she would have a responsibility that wasn’t going to fit around an active social life or last-minute decision making.

Starting her own business would require a lot of hard work in the next six months. But if she could get it up and running, with her own savings and Eva’s investment, and schedule the events she took on either before or six months after the baby’s due date, it could work. It was a huge risk, but she couldn’t afford to let her career coast any longer. And there was no getting around the fact that Nate’s offer of a free place to stay couldn’t have come at a better time. But if she was going to be sleeping under Nate’s roof, one thing she absolutely must not do was end up sleeping in his bed too.

Quite apart from making her even more susceptible to those silly heartbumps, it would send out all the wrong signals.

She sucked in a careful breath and gripped the car’s steering wheel. So stop hyperventilating at the thought of seeing him again.

They weren’t an item. Not in any real sense. They’d had monkey sex. Twice. And made a baby. By accident. And okay, he wasn’t the cold, ruthless, irresponsible guy he’d first appeared to be. And neither his motives nor his personality nor his past were as black and white as she’d instantly assumed. There were definite shades of grey there, complexities she never would have guessed at. But that didn’t alter the fact that he was not really her kind of guy. He was arrogant, super-confident and had a bad habit of trying to tell her what to do. When they weren’t tearing each other’s clothes off, what did they really have in common, except an accidental pregnancy?

They had seven months to establish a civil and manageable relationship with one another, which should be centred on the baby growing inside her and definitely not on the highly combustible monkey sex they had already indulged in.

She chewed on her bottom lip, willing the steam to stop hissing. And felt somewhat gratified when her heartbeat slowed a little.

At a girl, Tess
. All she needed to do was focus on all the things that made her and Nate completely incompatible. Then she shouldn’t have a problem dealing with the areas where they were far too compatible.

The engine wheezed painfully and Tess focused on whispering words of encouragement as the car struggled up the last rise and crested the hill. Then her jaw went slack, and every sensible thought flew right out of her head, chased away by utter astonishment. ‘Good grief!’

She peered over the dash, her stunned gaze taking in the enormous edifice of stone, wood, granite and stained glass at the bottom of the driveway.

Turrets and towers and gables decorated with rococo flourishes soared into the cloudless sky like something conjured up during Sleeping Beauty’s one-hundred-year sleep. The riotous tumble of hedgerows and flowering scrubs, awash with blooming rosebuds, hugged a wide curving staircase that led up to a giant arched doorway.

Had Nate actually described this place as a house? The man certainly knew how to do understatement.

No way was that a house. Fairy-tale castle didn’t even begin to cover it. The glorious jumble of architectural styles from bygone eras looked like the Emerald City, Prince Charming’s Palace and the Fortress of Solitude all rolled into one.

Tess’s heart began to pound against her ribcage. It was totally and utterly mad, and yet at the same time totally and utterly magnificent.

Sputtering to a stop in the circular driveway behind a huge black SUV, Tess climbed out in a trance, her breathing speeding up again.

The scent of bougainvillea and seawater perfumed the breeze as she scanned the area. Apart from the Jeep, which had to be Nate’s, there was no sign of the man himself. As she studied the sleek, discreet and defiantly masculine mode of transport, then gawped at his childhood home again, her curiosity was piqued.

How the heck could he have grown up in a place like this and become so serious and intense? The man didn’t appear to have a frivolous bone in his body—except where sex in confined spaces was concerned—and yet this place had about as much gravity as Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

Swinging round in a circle to take in the rest of the estate, and imagining how much fun she would have had running wild in a place like this as a child, she turned towards the cliffs—and let out another staggered gasp.

The estate’s landscaped gardens dipped down the hill towards a spectacular infinity pool perched on the cliff edge and shielded from the sea by a series of fanciful Grecian arches. Tess couldn’t quite contain her grin as she crossed the manicured lawn to get a better view. Thankfully, she’d worn a simple T-shirt, jeans and trainers combo for the trip so she didn’t have to worry about breaking an ankle.

As she got closer she made out a marble statue of Poseidon cavorting with a mermaid lover in the centre of the pool, their sculpted forms gloriously naked. The cerulean blue water sparkled and gleamed in the glare of the late-afternoon sunlight. Tess shielded her eyes to gaze past the cliffs towards the tumbling breakers hitting the coastline below, then stumbled to a stop, her heartbeat rising back up her throat as two hands appeared at the far side of the pool. A dark head emerged, swiftly followed by a tanned and nearly nude male body as the swimmer levered himself out of the water in one fluid movement and stood dripping on the marble tiles.

Nate.

Tess recognised him instantly, even though she’d never seen him with so few clothes on before. The broad shoulders, the imposing height, the lean waist and long legs were unmistakeable. As were the swift, controlled and economical movements as he leaned over to grab a towel draped across one of the marble water nymphs at the edge of the pool.

Despite the tremble of reaction and the trickle of sweat pooling between her breasts, Tess couldn’t drag her gaze away from him.

The short black trunks he wore clung to muscular thighs but did nothing to disguise the display of bunching muscles and flexing sinews as he rubbed the towel over his head. Having made his short hair stick up in spikes, he concentrated on working the towel in efficient strokes down his arms and over his bare chest—and Tess’s knees began to shake. The low hum of desire turned into the insistent punch of red-hot lust.

I’m toast!

Nate Graystone had the most magnificent body she’d ever seen. His gloriously masculine physique more perfectly formed than the Sea God lounging on the central plinth. And to think he’d been hiding all that under a business suit.

She cleared her throat, struggling to draw an even breath, and Nate’s head came up. He straightened, and faced her, as his gaze locked on hers.

Tess’s lungs seized to a halt, the heat flaring in her abdomen and shooting up to make her nipples thrust into hard aching peaks against her T-shirt as she took in the full glory of him. And two errant thoughts flashed through her mind at the exact same moment. Despite having made a baby with this man, she had never seen him completely naked... And she really, really wanted to.

Her gaze edged down, inexorably drawn towards the clinging black trunks and the impressive bulge beneath—and the place between her thighs went molten.

Her pulse pummelled her eardrums, drowning out the distant roar of the surf, the hungry cry of a seagull and the whispered words of caution. Her heart wasn’t just beating double time now, it was about to explode right out of her chest. She rubbed the heel of her hand between her breasts, trying to kickstart her lungs before she died from the adrenaline rush, as he slung the towel around his neck and strolled towards her.

With each step he took, every pulse point in her body pounded harder and faster. And suddenly the decision she’d made not to sleep with him again seemed a lot less doable.

‘Hello, Tess, so you finally made it,’ came a gruff voice from a million miles away as he drew level, the hint of censure in his tone not nearly as disturbing as the way his voice seemed to rake over her sensitised skin like sandpaper. ‘Sorry, I wasn’t out front to meet you. But you were late and it’s hot, so I took a swim.’

‘No problem,’ she croaked.

Except that I’m about to swallow my own tongue if you don’t put some clothes on.

She coughed, struggling not to fixate on the fascinating happy trail of hair that bisected an iron-hard six-pack and disappeared beneath the low-slung waistband of those damn trunks. She forced her eyes to his face. Surely there ought to be a law against a man with that much heft wearing stretch fabric.

The low hum built in her throat as she tried to think of something sensible to say, while she was in the early stages of a cardiac arrest.

Then the Greek god looked past her shoulder, cursed sharply and murmured: ‘Please tell me you didn’t take Highway One in that heap of junk?’