Little Secrets--The Baby Merger

by Yvonne Lindsay

  One white lie leads to one little secret...

  The truth is, Sally Harrison’s one-night stand with the breathtaking business tycoon Kirk Tanner was the most mind-blowing sex of her life. But after discovering that Kirk’s her new boss, she feels used. And finding out she’s pregnant has upended her life.

  The intensity of Kirk’s attraction to Sally is off the charts. But after concealing his identity that night, Sally’s unwilling to ever believe him again. Besides, she resents that he’s been put in charge of her father’s company instead of her. But when Sally’s suspended for corporate espionage, can Kirk prove her innocence...and his love?

  “What? Did you forget to frisk me before I leave the building?”

  “Don’t tempt me, Sally,” Kirk said.

  “Don’t be so pompous. You’ve lied to me from the moment you met me. Why not try being honest for a change?”

  “You want honest? I’ll give you honest. You caught my eye the second you arrived in the bar that night. I didn’t recognize you immediately but I couldn’t take my eyes off you.”

  She snorted. “I may be naive, but don’t expect me to believe that. There were any number of women far more beautiful than me in the bar that night.”

  “And yet I only had eyes for you.”

  The look she gave him was skeptical. “A little clichéd, wouldn’t you say?”

  “Stop trying to put up walls between us.” Kirk stepped forward and took her by the arm. “You’re still carrying my baby,” he said. “I have a duty to care for...my child.”

  He wasn’t holding her firmly, but he wasn’t letting go, either. It drove home the fact that the life she thought she’d had was not her own.

  * * *

  Little Secrets: The Baby Merger is part of the Little Secrets series: Untamed passion, unexpected pregnancy...

  Dear Reader,

  Every now and then I have been lucky enough to visit the beautiful city of Seattle in the course of my husband’s work. It’s a city I’ve grown to love and it genuinely feels like a home away from home for me now. In fact, I wish I could visit more often and get to know the city and the whole of Washington State a great deal better. It felt only natural to set this story in the Emerald City. Any mistakes in setting are very much my own.

  After briefly meeting Sally in a previous book I’d written (Arranged Marriage, Bedroom Secrets) I felt she needed her own happy ever after and in Little Secrets: The Baby Merger, Sally is determined to prove to her father she is intelligent and worthy of standing at his side in business. But her father’s appointment of a new VP shows her exactly what he thinks of her and her abilities. When an attempt to drown her sorrows leads to an uncharacteristic one-night stand with a handsome stranger, the last thing Sally expects to find is that she’s pregnant...by her new boss!

  For Kirk Tanner, Sally’s pregnancy is an unexpected wrench in the works, especially since he suspects she may be responsible for the leaks that could lead to a hostile takeover of the company.

  I do hope you’ll love reading Little Secrets: The Baby Merger. Feel free to drop me a line via my website, www.yvonnelindsay.com, or visit my Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/yvonnelindsayauthor.

  Happy reading!

  Yvonne Lindsay

  Yvonne Lindsay

  Little Secrets: The Baby Merger

  A typical Piscean, USA TODAY bestselling author Yvonne Lindsay has always preferred her imagination to the real world. Married to her blind-date hero and with two adult children, she spends her days crafting the stories of her heart, and in her spare time she can be found with her nose in a book reliving the power of love, or knitting socks and daydreaming. Contact her via her website, yvonnelindsay.com.

  Books by Yvonne Lindsay

  Harlequin Desire

  The Wife He Couldn’t Forget

  Lone Star Holiday Proposal

  One Heir...or Two?

  Wed at Any Price

  Honor-Bound Groom

  Stand-In Bride’s Seduction

  For the Sake of the Secret Child

  Courtesan Brides

  Arranged Marriage, Bedroom Secrets

  Contract Wedding, Expectant Bride

  Little Secrets

  Little Secrets: The Baby Merger

  Visit her Author Profile page at Harlequin.com, or yvonnelindsay.com, for more titles.

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

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  This one is dedicated to my family, each of whom hold a piece of my heart in their hands and whose love and support keep me going every day.

  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

  Excerpt from Can’t Hardly Breathe by Gena Showalter

  One

  A flash of pale gold hair near the entrance caught Kirk’s attention in the dimness of the bar. A woman came through the door, a tall, well-built man close behind her. She turned and said something, and the muscle looked like he was going to object, but then she spoke again—gesturing vaguely across the room—and he nodded and disappeared outside. Interesting, Kirk thought. Clearly the guy was an employee of some kind, perhaps a bodyguard, and he’d obviously been dismissed.

  Kirk took a sip of his beer and watched the woman move through the area, searching for someone. There was an unconscious sensuality to the way she moved. Dressed down in a pair of slim-fitting trousers topped by a long-sleeved, loose tunic, she seemed to be trying to hide her tempting mix of curves and slenderness, but he saw enough to pique his interest. Most women hated it when they had well-rounded hips and a decent butt, and judging by the way she’d dressed to conceal, she was one of those women who wasn’t a fan of her shape and form. But he was. In fact, he really liked her shape and form.

  Who was she meeting here? A partner, he wondered, feeling a small prick of envy as his eyes skimmed her from head to foot. The weariness that had driven him here tonight in search of better company than employee files and financial forecasts slid away in increments as his eyes appreciatively roamed her body.

  He knew the instant she saw the person she was looking for. Her features lit up, and she raised a hand in greeting, moving more quickly now toward her target. Kirk scanned ahead of her, feeling himself relax when he saw the couple who reached out to greet her affectionately. Not a partner, then, he thought with a smile and took a sip of the malty craft beer he’d ordered earlier.

  He noticed one of her friends pass her a martini and pondered on the fact that they’d already ordered her drink for her. Obviously she was a reliable type, both punctual and predictable. Too bad those were not the traits of someone who might be interested in a short, intense fling, which was all he was in the market for. He had his life plan very firmly set out in front of him, and while his company’s merger with Harrison Information Technology here in Bellevue, Washington, would definitely fast-track things, a committed relationship was still not in the cards for a lon
g time. When he was ready, he’d tackle that step the way he did everything else, with a lot of research and dedication to getting it right the first time. Kirk Tanner did not make mistakes—and he definitely wasn’t looking for love.

  Kirk turned his attention away from the woman, but something about her kept tickling at the back of his mind. Something familiar that he couldn’t quite place. He looked across the room and studied her more closely, noting again the swath of pale gold hair that fell over her shoulders and just past her shoulder blades. Even from here he could see the kinks in her hair that told him she’d recently had it tied up in a tight ponytail. His fingers clenched around his glass, suddenly itching to push through the length of it, to see if it felt as silky soft as it looked.

  As if she sensed his regard, the woman turned and glanced past him before returning her attention to her friends. This gave him the most direct view so far of her face—and yes, there was definitely something familiar about her. He’d certainly have remembered if he’d met her before but perhaps he’d seen her photograph somewhere.

  Kirk searched his eidetic memory. Ah, yes, now he had it—Sally Harrison, the only child of Orson Harrison, the chairman of Harrison Information Technology. The very firm his own company was officially merging with at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow. The idea of a merger with Sally Harrison held distinct appeal, even though he knew she should be strictly off-limits.

  Her personnel file had intrigued him, although the head shot attached to it had hardly done her justice. He scoured his memory for more details. Since high school she’d interned in every department of the head office of HIT. In fact, she probably knew more about how each sector of the company ran than her father did, and that was saying something. She’d graduated from MIT with a PhD in social and engineering systems. And yet, despite her experience and education and the fact she was the chairman’s daughter, she’d apparently never aspired to anything higher than a mediocre middle-management position.

  Granted, her department was a high performer and several of her staff had been promoted, but why hadn’t she moved ahead, too? Was she being very deliberately kept in place by her father or other senior staff? Was there something not noted in her file that made her unqualified or ill-suited for a more prominent position in the company?

  And—the more compelling question—did she perhaps have sour grapes about her lack of advancement?

  Her knowledge about the firm made her a prime candidate for the investigation her father had asked him to undertake as part of his staff evaluation during the merger.

  Under the guise of seeing where staff cutbacks needed to be made, he was also tasked with investigating who could most likely be responsible for what could be unwitting or deliberate leaks to HIT’s largest business rival. Orson suspected that the rival company, DuBecTec, was accumulating data to undermine his company with a view toward making a hostile takeover bid in the next few months. He had instructed Kirk to look at everyone on the payroll very thoroughly. Everyone including the very appealing Ms. Sally Harrison.

  Kirk took another sip of his beer and watched her across the room. She’d barely sipped her drink yet but swirled the toothpick in her martini around and around. Just then, as he was watching, she removed the toothpick from her drink and, using her teeth and her tongue, drew the cocktail onion off the tip and crunched down. His entire body clenched on a surge of desire so intense he almost groaned out loud.

  Sally Harrison was a very interesting subject indeed, he decided as he willed his body back under control. And before he left the bar tonight, he would definitely find a way to get to know her better.

  * * *

  Company merger. For the best.

  Even though she was going through the motions, saying all the right things as her friends excitedly told her about their recent honeymoon, Sally couldn’t stop thinking about her father’s shocking announcement over dinner tonight. If she hadn’t heard it straight from the horse’s mouth, she would have struggled to believe it. She still struggled to believe it. And the fact that her father hadn’t shared a moment of what had to have been an extensive forerunner to the merger with her raked across her emotions.

  It was a harsh reminder that if she was the kind of person who actually stood with her father, versus sheltering behind him, she’d have been a part of the discussions. Not only that, if she’d been the kind of person she ought to be, confident and charismatic instead of shy and intense, this entire merger might not even have been necessary.

  Her whole body trembled with a sense of failure. Oh, sure, logically she knew that her dad wouldn’t have entered into this planned merger if it wasn’t the best thing for Harrison IT and its thousand or so staff worldwide. And it wasn’t as though he needed her input. As chairman of HIT, he held the reins very firmly in both hands, as he always had. But, until now, HIT had been the family firm, and darn it, she was his family. Or at least she was the last time she’d looked.

  Of course, now the company would be rebranded—Harrison Tanner Tech. Clearly things were about to change on more than one level.

  She could have predicted her father’s response when she’d questioned the secrecy surrounding the merger.

  “Nothing you need to worry about,” he’d said, brushing her off in his usual brusque but loving way.

  And she wasn’t worried—not about the company, anyway. But she did have questions that he’d been very evasive about answering. Like, why this particular other company? What did it bring to HIT that the firm didn’t have already? Why this man, whoever he was, who was being appointed vice president effective tomorrow? And why did her dad want her to be there during the video link when he and the new vice president of the newly branded Harrison Tanner Tech would make the merger announcement simultaneously to the whole staff? She couldn’t think of anything she’d rather do less. Aside from the fact that she hated being in the public arena, how on earth would she look her colleagues in the eye afterward and possibly have to face their accusations that she’d known about this merger all along? Or worse, have to admit that she hadn’t. Just the thought of it made her stomach flip uneasily.

  Her father had always told her he worked hard so she didn’t have to. She knew he worked hard. Too hard, if the recent tired and gray cast to his craggy features was anything to go by. It was another prod that she hadn’t pulled her weight. Hadn’t been the support he deserved and maybe even needed. Not that he’d ever say as much. He’d protected her all her life, which hadn’t abated as she’d reached adulthood. To her shame, she’d let him.

  Thing was, she wanted to work hard. She wanted to be a valued member of HIT and to be involved in the decision making. She wished she could shed the anxiety that led to her always hovering in the shadows and allowing others to run with her ideas and get the glory that came with those successes. Okay, so not every idea was wildly successful, but her phobia of speaking in groups had held her back, and she knew others had been promoted over her because of it. Her personality flaws meant she wasn’t perceived to be as dynamic and forward thinking as people in upper management were expected to be.

  When her crippling fear had surfaced after the death of her mom, and when years of therapy appeared to make no headway, her father had always reassured her that she was simply a late bloomer and she only needed time to come into her own. But she was twenty-eight now, and she still hadn’t overcome her insecurities. She knew that was a continual, if quiet, disappointment to her father. While he’d never said as much, she knew he’d always hoped that she could overcome her phobia and stand at his side at HIT, and she’d wanted that, too. She’d thought he was still giving her time. She hadn’t realized he’d given up on her. Not until today.

  This latest development was the last straw. Her father had always included her in his planning for the firm, even implemented an idea or two of hers from time to time, but this he’d done completely without her.

  The shock co
ntinued to reverberate through her. The writing was on the wall. She’d been left in the dark on this major decision—and in the dark was where she’d stay going forward unless she did something about it. She couldn’t make excuses for herself anymore. She was a big girl now. It was past time that she stretched to her full potential. If she didn’t, she’d be overlooked for the rest of her life, and she knew for sure that she didn’t want that. Things had to change. She had to change. Now.

  Gilda and Ron were still laughing and talking, sharing reminiscences as well as exchanging those little touches and private looks that close couples did all the time. It was sweet, but it compounded the sense of exclusion she felt at the same time. In her personal life as well as in the workplace, the people around her seemed to move forward easily, effortlessly, while she struggled with every step. She was happy for the others, truly—she was just sad for herself.

  When they both looked at their watches and said they needed to be on their way, she didn’t object. Instead she waved them off with a smile and stayed to finish her barely touched drink.

  She should go home to her apartment, get an early night—prepare for the big announcement tomorrow. Should? It felt like all her life Sally had done what should be done. Like she’d spent her life striving to please others. But what about her? Change had to start from a point in time—why couldn’t that change start now? Why couldn’t she be bold? Accept new challenges?

  “Ma’am? The gentleman over there asked me to bring you this.”

  A waitress put another Gibson on the table in front of her. Sally blinked in surprise before looking up at the girl.

  “Gentleman?”

  “Over there.” The waitress gestured. “He’s really hot.”

  “Are you sure it was for me?” she asked.

  “He was quite specific. Did you want me to take it back?”

  Did she? The frightened mouse inside her quivered and said, oh, yes. But wasn’t that what she would have done normally? In fact, since she’d dismissed her personal security, wouldn’t she normally have left with Gilda and Ron and shared a cab so she wouldn’t be left on her own like this? Open to new experiences? Meeting new people? Flirting with a man?

 
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