Boardroom Kings: Bossman's Baby Scandal. Catherine Mann
mind.”
He wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. If there was a chance she wanted to resume the sexual relationship, he wouldn’t mess it up again by pushing too fast or walking away too soon. Time to start romancing the mother of his child.
Jason flipped his coat collar up and unlocked the car doors. “Let’s put this conversation on hold until after supper. I have a surprise for you.”
He was certain the specially chosen restaurant would charm her. He just had to hope his best powers of persuasion would be enough to sway this coolly inscrutable woman.
The stakes were too high to consider a loss.
Where had she lost her self-control?
Lauren gripped the banister of the front steps leading up to her apartment building, a restored brownstone. The dinner with Jason had been amazing. His choice of a family-owned Italian restaurant full of plants charmed her. The rustic old homestead was like a warm vineyard inside. Having him notice her love of greenery touched her. He was trying.
She climbed the steps, aware of him at her back. Of course he was trying. He wanted to get his way. Jason Reagert was a driven, ambitious man. Everyone in the ad business knew nothing could stop him when he set his mind to do something. She’d found it admirable when they were work friends.
But as the target of his campaign? She wasn’t so sure anymore. What would have been an enjoyable, intimate evening bothered her somehow, made her want the real thing.
No. She wasn’t ready to go that far. The ring would stay in her purse a while longer.
She glanced over her shoulder as a car slushed past. “Thank you for the thoughtful dinner. You actually managed to take my mind off the mess at work for a couple of hours.”
He turned up his coat collar, his dark hair shiny in the glow of the outdoor lights. “You need to eat. Glad I could be of service.”
Lauren twisted her key in the lock. “You’re not going to use my comment as an excuse to press your plan for a fake engagement?”
“You know where I stand. What more is there to say?” He followed her into the building’s hallway, apparently in no hurry to call it a night. “And before you ditch me on the stoop, I am going to see you safely to your apartment door.”
“For safety’s sake?” She gestured around the entryway, soaring ceiling echoing the low voices of a couple down the corridor and the older lady in 2A calling to her poodle for a walk. Nobody would get mugged here. Too many witnesses.
“Somebody’s gotta protect you from that vicious pup.” He smiled, his five-o’clock shadow adding a bad-boy air to go along with the glint in his eye.
She rolled her eyes and started up the stairs, trying not to think about how long those three flights would feel once she was in her third trimester. “Come on, then.”
He followed, a wooden stair creaking under his foot. “I’m not asking for coffee or anything. Although if you invite me, I’ll pick you up and carry you inside for a night you won’t forget.”
“I had forgotten how persuasive you can be.”
“I didn’t forget how good you smell.” He eye-stroked her. “Have I told you how much I like the scent of flowers on you?” He dipped his head. “Taking you to that restaurant was as much for me as it was for you.”
“Dinner was nice and I appreciate that you picked a spot to win me over, but I don’t like being manipulated. Your honesty calls out to me more than anything.”
A grin creased the corners of his eyes as they reached the third floor. “I forget sometimes that you and I are in the same business.”
“Just be straight with me.”
“I can do that.”
Could she believe him? Leaning back against her door, she searched his eyes for some sign of his deeper thoughts and feelings. She looked and found… passion.
Not a surprise, but unsettling all the same, with her own emotions in such a whirl that she felt the least upset could send her spinning. Before she could think, she reached to dust melting snowflakes off the lapel of his jacket. Hard, male muscles twitched under her touch. Her pulse raced, stirring that pottery wheel inside her faster.
“Whoa!” She jolted back, pressing a hand to her belly.
Frowning, Jason braced a palm against her back. “Are you all right? Give me the key. You need to lie down.”
“I’m fine, totally fine.” She stepped away before she succumbed to the temptation to lean against him. The baby’s swift kick brought her back to reality. “Our kiddo is just exercising off that fabulous chicken marsala.”
His gaze dropped to her stomach. His fingers flexed. The way he didn’t ask for what he so obviously wanted nudged her to offer. “Do you want to feel?”
He nodded curtly.
She took his hand and flattened it to the spot where… “I’m not sure if you’ll be able to feel—it’s still kinda early.” And no way was she inviting him to touch her bare stomach. Would he be at her doctor appointments down the road? Too much to think about. She needed to stay in the moment, one thing at a time. “Wait, just a little to the left.” She guided him. “Right there.”
His eyes widened. He looked up at her quickly, then back to her stomach. “I think I… Yeah. Wow.”
“Sometimes I just lie in bed and feel the baby move until all of the sudden I see an hour has passed. Wild, isn’t it?”
“I had no idea what that felt like. I’ve never… ” He looked up at her again, holding her gaze, no shutters in place for the first time. “Thank you.”
All noise around her faded, the other couple, the barking poodle, became a dull din drowned out by the drum of her pulse in her ears. She linked her fingers with his, wondering what it would be like to follow this attraction.
The heels on her boots brought her closer to his face. He only needed to duck a little, or she could arch up. Only a kiss. Nothing more. A simple… brush of his mouth against hers. She could feel his breath already touching her in a phantom caress and, God, how she wanted this, just this much. Why even bother worrying about whether they would take it further?
She nipped his bottom lip. He growled low, then took her mouth with his, fully, no way to tell who’d opened for whom first because the hunger just took over. They’d kissed in her office before landing on the sofa. It hadn’t been a totally impersonal hookup, but they certainly had made out. Not like this, standing in the hall outside her door, necking with the man who’d taken her to dinner. There was something wonderfully romantic about it. Something that made her want to sink in for a while and just enjoy the moment.
Her fingers tested the texture of his short hair still damp from snowflakes. He smelled of the cool crisp winter air and a hint of oregano from the restaurant, and her ravenous senses lapped up every bit.
“Lauren,” he whispered, scattering kisses up her cheekbone, over her ear, “this is getting more than a little out of control for a public hallway. Do you want to move inside?”
Did she? She inched back to stare up into his face.
Her apartment door swept open, startling her back a step and into the present. Jason stepped in front of her protectively, his back tense under her fingers. When had she touched him again? Her fingers curled deeper into the fabric of his jacket, taut muscles flexing under her grip.
She peered over his shoulder and winced. “Mom?”
Lauren stared at her mother, framed in the open doorway, and tried not to panic. How long would it take those keen maternal eyes to notice the baby bulge