The CEO's Baby Surprise. Helen Lacey
like to be comfortable,” she said, and touched her head self-consciously. “And I can’t help the way my hair gets all curly in the humidity.”
His gaze flicked to her hair and she saw his mouth twitch fractionally. “I didn’t say a word about your hair. In fact it’s quite...it’s...it’s...”
“It’s what?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said, and shrugged. “I would like to know your plans.”
Mary-Jayne stared at him. “I don’t have any plans other than to have a healthy baby in five months’ time.”
He looked around the room. “When are you leaving here?”
“Audrey’s back in two weeks. I’ll go home then.”
“Have you told your family?”
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
“Have you told anyone?”
She met his gaze. “You.”
His expression narrowed. “And since she didn’t mention it while you were throwing up in her garden, I’m guessing you haven’t told my grandmother, either?”
“Just you,” she replied, fighting the resentment fueling her blood. “Like I said. Incidentally, Daniel, if you’re going to disbelieve everything that comes out of my mouth, it’s going to be a long five months.”
He grinned unexpectedly. “So you do know my name? I don’t think you’ve ever used it before. Well, except for that night we spent together.”
Her skin heated. She remembered exactly how she’d said his name that night. Over and over, whispered and moaned, as though it was the only word she’d known.
“Like I said, you know the way out.”
He didn’t budge. “We still need to talk.”
“We’ve talked enough,” she said tensely. “You don’t believe me and you need a paternity test. And you think I’m after your money. Believe me, I’ve got your message loud and clear.”
“You’re angry because I want proof of paternity?”
He actually sounded surprised. Mary-Jayne almost laughed at his absurd sense of entitlement. “I’m angry because you think I’m lying to you. I don’t know what kind of world you live in where you have this compulsion to question someone’s integrity without cause, but I don’t live in that world, Daniel. And I would never want to.”
She spun on her heel and left the room, barely taking a breath until she reached the sanctuary of the main bedroom. She leaned against the closed door and shuddered.
It’s done now. He knows. I can get on with things.
She pulled herself together, changed into sweats and sneakers and loitered in the room for more than ten minutes to ensure he’d be gone.
She strode into the living room and then stopped in her tracks. The room was empty. He’d left. As if he’d never been there.
A strange hollowness fluttered behind her ribs. She was glad he was gone—arrogant and disbelieving jerk that he was. She was well rid of him. With any luck she’d never have to see him again. Or speak to him. Or have to stare into those smoky gray eyes of his.
She could go home and have her baby.
Simple.
But in her heart she knew she was dreaming to believe he’d just disappear from her life. She was having his baby—and that made it about as complicated as it got.
* * *
When Daniel woke up he had a crick in his neck and his left leg was numb. It was dark out. He checked his watch: six-forty. He sat up and stretched. When he’d left her condo, he’d walked around the grounds for a few minutes before heading back to his own villa. Once he’d sat down, the jet lag had hit him with a thud. Now he needed coffee and a clear head.
He got to his feet and rounded out his shoulders. The condo was quiet, and he walked from the living room and headed for the kitchen. He had to refocus and figure what the hell he was supposed to do for the next five months until the baby came into the world.
The baby.
His baby...
I’m going to be a father.
Maybe?
Daniel still wasn’t entirely convinced. Mary-Jayne potentially had a lot to gain by saying he’d fathered her child. He wasn’t naive and knew some people were mercenary enough to try to take advantage of others. He remembered how devastated Caleb had been when he’d discovered the boy he’d thought was his son turned out to belong to his then girlfriend’s ex-husband. And Daniel didn’t want to form a bond with a child only to have it snatched away. Not again. Losing Simone and their unborn daughter had been soul destroying. He wasn’t going to put himself in a position to get another serving of that kind of loss.
He made coffee and drank it. Damn...he felt as if his head was going to explode. He’d had it all planned out...come back to Port Douglas, reconnect with Mary-Jayne for a week and get her out of his system once and for all.
Not going to happen.
Daniel rounded out his shoulders and sucked in a long breath. He needed a plan. And fast. He swilled the cup in the sink, grabbed his keys and left the villa.
By the time he reached her condo his hands were sweating. No one had ever had such an intense physical effect on him. And he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. The crazy thing was, he couldn’t ignore it. And now that had amplified a hundredfold.
They needed to talk. There was no way around it. Daniel took another breath and knocked on the door.
When she answered the door she looked almost as though she’d been expecting him to return. He didn’t like the idea that he was so transparent to her.
“I’m working,” she said, and left him standing in the doorway. “So you’ll need to amuse yourself for ten minutes before we get into round two.”
The way she dismissed him so effortlessly should have made him madder than hell. But it didn’t. He liked her spirit, and it was one of the things he found so attractive about her.
He followed her down the hall, and when he reached the dining room she was already standing by a small workbench tucked against the wall in one corner. She was bent over the narrow table, one elbow resting, using a small soldering iron. There was enough light from the lamp positioned to one side for him to see her profile, and despite the protective glasses perched on her nose he couldn’t miss the intense concentration she gave her craft. There were several boards fashioned on easels that displayed her jewelry pieces, and although he was no expert, there was certainly style and creativity in her work.
She must have sensed him watching her because she turned and switched off the soldering iron. “So you’re back?”
He nodded. “I’m back.”
“Did you call your lawyer?”
“What?”
She shrugged a little. “Seems like something you’d do.”
Daniel ignored the irritation clawing at his spine. “No, Mary-Jayne, I didn’t call my lawyer. Actually, I fell asleep.”
She looked surprised and then frowned a little. “Jet lag?”
He nodded again. “Once I sat down it hit me.”
“I had the same reaction when I returned from Thailand last year. It took me three days to recover. The trick is to stay awake until bedtime.”
There was something husky and incredibly sexy about Mary-Jayne’s voice that reached him deep down. After they’d slept together,