Sold to the Highest Bidder (10 page)

“I don’t know,” she whispered back, horrified at how unsettled her voice seemed.

“Are you late?”

With a huge lump in her throat, Ella nodded. “About a week or so.”

“You haven’t done a test?”

“It never crossed my mind until tonight.”

Ella sat back on the bench and covered her mouth with a hand. She slid her fingers over her chin and closed her eyes. There was no possible way. It would be an unmitigated disaster. “Amy, I can’t be pregnant. I can’t.”

“Did you sleep with Devin?”

She nodded, eyes still closed.

Amy was silent for a few moments before saying knowingly, “Then I’m afraid, Ella, you can.”

The idea terrified her. She lowered her hand and rested it against her belly. Was it possible that after all this time she was carrying Devin’s child? The irony wasn’t lost on her. She’d run away to avoid this very thing—being tied down with a family, no way out. And now, just as she’d thought she was close to getting everything she wanted…

Devin’s baby.

“Let’s not panic quite yet,” Amy advised. “Let’s get a test first. We’ll go back to your apartment and I’ll stay with you, okay?”

Ella looked over at Amy. Amy had used hot rollers to put gorgeous curls in her brown hair, then left it to cascade onto her shoulders. Her leather skirt was short and the halter top beyond sexy. Amy always looked like she belonged in a fashion magazine. But what Ella really saw at this moment was a friend. A friend that she needed very badly.

“I’d like that,” Ella admitted, standing and taking a breath to fight off the weakness she felt in her limbs.

They grabbed a cab and Ella waited while Amy dashed into a drugstore for the test. When she came back out, they drove the rest of the way to Ella’s apartment in silence. Ella paid the cab driver and took out her keys.

Amy didn’t know Ella and Devin weren’t divorced. Amy also didn’t know the shocking bit of news that Ella had uncovered today. Devin wasn’t who he seemed. Oh no, he was much, much more. He wasn’t the man she knew at all. She’d read through the information with a sinking heart—ending with the recent article in
Colorado Entrepreneur
. She’d been played. And she was still married to him. Possibly carrying his child. Panic threaded through her. She’d accused Devin of many things, but he’d never been deceitful. Until now. How could she trust him with anything? Why had he done it?

“Have you taken one of these things before?” Amy asked as she dropped the shopping bag on the dining table.

Ella shook her head, trying to wrestle her thoughts to the present. There had never been any need for pregnancy tests before. Despite dating occasionally, she hadn’t actually been with anyone other than Dev. She knew Amy would be shocked at that tidbit of information. In this day and age it was inconceivable that she’d been celibate for this long. But without being officially free, she couldn’t bring herself to take things to a sexual level, not and keep a clear conscience. She’d made her own life, but being married to Dev had held her back in ways he probably hadn’t imagined.

“Okay.” Amy opened the box. “Basically, you pee on this end. Then you wait.”

Ella’s hand shook as she took the test and stared at the blank spot. “And if I am?”

“One line you’re in the clear. Two lines and we’re shopping for teddy bears.”

Ella looked up into Amy’s solemn brown eyes.

“Ell, I’ll be here for you no matter what, okay?”

Ella gave Amy a quick hug. “I’d better go do this.”

She went into the bathroom, locked the door and tried to catch her breath. Pregnant. It wasn’t possible. The test would prove it. The next time she saw Dev, it would be to get the truth. All of the truth.

The minutes ticked by, but before the big hand hit the seven on her watch, she already knew.

Blinking past the stinging at the backs of her eyes, she opened the bathroom door and held the stick out to Amy.

“Congratulations,” Amy said quietly.

***

Ella’s briefcase doubled as carry on baggage as she stepped off the commuter plane. Inside was her laptop, notebooks and pens, chargers for both laptop and cell phone. In addition was a small clear bag with makeup essentials, clean underwear, a spare pair of pantyhose and one bottle of prenatal vitamins.

Her stomach churned as she stepped across the tarmac towards the entrance. It had nothing to do with the breakfast she’d eaten before departure. Nope. It had everything to do with seeing Devin again. And once again, having to combine work with a personal errand.

This time he had to sign the papers.

She picked up her rental car and drove straight downtown to the address she’d entered in her PDA. This was a different area of town from where she had visited last time. Not the rough edges of Ruby Shoes saloon or the small, weathered cabin where she and Devin had spent the weekend. Durango was small town, but the core had been revitalized in recent years. She parked on the street outside one of the many brick, square-fronted buildings. In younger years it had been home to a real estate company and legal office. Now it housed DMQ Properties. Devin’s business. The venture she’d known nothing about until she’d been researching Betty’s case for the follow-up article. Why had he kept it a secret? What kind of head game was he playing? Or had he simply taken pleasure in making a fool of her?

For several minutes she stayed in the car, measuring her breaths and collecting her thoughts. She had been so determined to leave Dev behind that she’d locked away any curiosity, flatly refusing to use her resources to check up on him. She didn’t want to know where he was or what he was doing. That’s what shutting the door on an old life meant. No moments of weakness. No wondering what if. Just a clean slate.

She’d never guessed she’d run into him on an assignment years later. Or how involved he’d actually
be
in that assignment. She’d failed to do her research out of some sense of self-preservation and now she looked incompetent.

Now here he was, up to his eyeballs in Betty’s plight and her job relied on her following the trail where it led. Her boss had made it clear—he’d been like a dog with a bone. He wanted a follow-up article
yesterday
. The paper had even sprung for her flight and rental expense, something they hadn’t done before.

At the heart of it all was Devin. The cabin was not his home, the ranch not his work. He had a condo overlooking the mountains and a thriving company. He was rich. Far more than they’d ever dreamed while lying in the field and counting stars at night. Stinking rich. Rich enough that Betty Tucker had no more medical bills to worry about—they had been paid in full. How many other people had he fooled? Why hadn’t he just paid for her treatment from the beginning?

There were so many questions he had to answer. But most of all her pride hurt. He’d deliberately let her believe he hadn’t changed…all the while seducing her with his sexy grin and bedroom eyes. Knowing which buttons to push. Laughing at her.

She blinked furiously at the angry tears that gathered in the corners of her eyes. She would not cry about Devin McQuade ever again. She would not let anyone make her a laughingstock ever again. She would not be played for a fool.

Ella pressed her hand to her still-flat tummy. It seemed impossible that there were such life-altering changes going on inside when outwardly she looked exactly the same. That this one thing was happening to her while the rest of the world was spinning out of control.

Ella closed her eyes, seeing Devin’s face behind her lids. Smiling. Laughing. Darkly intense in the moment before he kissed her.

If he knew about the baby he would never sign the divorce decree. And time was running out. If he didn’t sign them this trip, she’d either have to go through this all again, or go in front of a judge and try for an uncontested divorce. And if Devin knew about the baby there’d be a whole lot of contesting going on. He’d never give up his own child without a fight. The last thing she wanted was an ugly court battle.

Opening her eyes, Ella filled herself with all the resolve she’d been storing up for days. She would talk to Devin. She would get her answers and her divorce. He’d kept enough secrets from her. She was entitled to a few of her own.

But the mere thought of deceiving him didn’t sit well with her conscience. What was good for the goose wasn’t necessarily good for the gander after all. And this was a child. She knew she couldn’t go through the rest of her life denying Devin the knowledge of his own son or daughter. She would tell him.

But later. When she was used to the idea, when she had a plan. She had to believe it would all fall into place. She grabbed the handles of the briefcase and shut the car door firmly.

The reception area of DMQ Properties was welcoming, quiet and professional. The walls were a restful taupe with wide white trim. The reception desk was dark wood with a frosted glass wall behind it. Ella could see the bulky shadows of filing cabinets and a copy machine through the frosted glass. A woman in perhaps her mid-forties sat behind the desk, her wire glasses perched on her nose.

“Ella…Turner for Mr. McQuade,” Ella announced herself at the desk.

The woman looked down her spectacles while simultaneously raising her gaze to Ella’s. It resulted with Ella being made to feel like a disobedient school girl. She pushed a polite smile onto her lips. “I believe he’s expecting me,” she added.

The receptionist’s smile was more a false gritting of teeth than a genuine expression of pleasure. “Please have a seat,” she suggested, before disappearing down a short hall.

Ella sat in one of the padded chairs, placing her briefcase beside her on the floor. The tailored skirt and jacket she wore had once been a confidence builder and now felt tight and cloying. Already her figure was changing in small, invisible ways.

The phone rang and the receptionist returned to her desk, answering and swiveling in her chair as she reached for a file. Ella looked around her. It was impossible to believe Devin owned this. Impossible to believe he hadn’t mentioned it during their time together only a few short weeks earlier.

“Ella. Please come in.”

Her lashes snapped up and she saw Devin standing next to the reception desk. She fought to keep her expression bland, but it was a struggle. This man was as familiar to her as breathing, each inch of his flesh imprinted on her memory. Yet today he seemed a stranger in a charcoal gray suit. He wore no tie, and his white shirt was unbuttoned at the top. Ella wet her lips as she rose, grabbing the handles of her case. Without a word to the receptionist, she followed Devin down the hall to his office, her heels echoing on the floor with each step.

Once inside, he immediately went back to his desk and sat, without pleasantries, without waiting for her to be seated first. Ella ignored the snub and went to stand before his desk, raising one eyebrow as his gaze flickered over her. He leaned back in his leather chair. “I suppose you’ve brought the papers back.”

A cold, impersonal smile touched just the corners of her lips. “You lied to me. You never signed them as you said you would.”

“Maybe I wasn’t ready to let you go after our weekend together.”

He ran a finger along his lower lip. The gesture made Ella’s blood simmer with anger. He was playing games, and she didn’t like it one bit. She’d put up with their weekend together, and she’d played by his rules. A little too well, she remembered, resisting the urge to touch her belly once more. But she was done playing games. He’d made her a bargain and then he’d failed to deliver on his part. He would sign the papers today. She should have done as her lawyer suggested and gone through the courts from the beginning. She was kicking herself for it now. The last thing she wanted to do was wait for a court date so long that her…condition…would be readily apparent.

“Ready or not, we had a deal and you didn’t keep it. I hope you honor your business agreements better than your personal ones.”

The finger stopped moving and his eyes darkened. “Be careful, Ella,” he replied softly. “Marriage is also a legal agreement, and one that you didn’t honor in the least.”

The blood rushed out of her face. Little did he know how much she actually had been faithful to their marriage. “I have never moved on. Not in the way you think. It’s one of the reasons I want to make it official.”

“What do you mean, never moved on? You managed to make it like I never existed.”

Her gaze was drawn to the slight sneer of his lips. Is that what made him angry? Thinking she’d forgotten him? Because she’d tried. She really, really had.

“I never pretended you didn’t exist.”

He didn’t respond immediately, instead letting the silence speak for him. In those moments she could almost hear his thoughts. Knew the last part had been a lie.

“Yes, you did,” he said finally. “I was something you swept under the rug. An inconvenience to your professional life. A dirty secret. Tell me,” he said bitterly, “did it also inconvenience your sex life? Having a paper husband?”

She felt the heat rise up her neck. He could think a lot of things about her, and many of them would be true. But the one thing she hadn’t done was sleep around. “What sex life?” she challenged quietly.

Devin stood from his chair. “You mean you haven’t slept with a single man since leaving me high and dry? I don’t believe you.” His voice ground out the words, and she heard the underlying skepticism.