One-Click Buy: November Harlequin Presents

by Susan Stephens

  It seemed like for ever before finally he heard the lock being released and the door opened slowly. All her colour was gone, her features suddenly pale and tight.

  ‘So you’re pregnant,’ he snarled, hoping for a denial, fearing there would be none.

  She flicked her eyes up at him, the fight in them long gone before she flattened herself against the wall, and she slid unsteadily past him in the direction of the living room. ‘I was going to tell you that today as well.’

  ‘Of course you were. I can hear it now. “Happy Christmas, Maverick. Hey, guess what? I’ve been impersonating your PA for two months. Oh, and, by the way, I’m pregnant”.’

  ‘Yeah, well, it always promised to be a big day.’ She looked around but the living room was empty. Morgan had obviously taken refuge in her room and wouldn’t have to be party to the revelations and fallout, part two. Smart move.

  He grabbed her by the upper arm and pulled her around to face him. ‘You think this is funny? Because I sure as hell don’t.’

  ‘And I thought it was such a scream. Or maybe it’s just throwing up that puts me in such a fun mood.’ She glared down at the hand circling her arm. ‘And now, if you’d kindly unhand me?’

  He let her go with a snort, wheeling away and striding around the living room, shrinking it to a fraction of its size and filling the space with his dark-thundercloud presence.

  She rubbed the place he’d held her as she watched him pace. He hadn’t hurt her, but that old familiar burn was there, like he’d branded her skin with just his touch and left it heated and craving still more. Then he jerked to a stop in that gunslinger stance she’d come to know so well, pointing his finger at her like he was set to fire off a gun.

  ‘What the hell led you to believe you’d get away with this?’

  She hugged both arms and shook her head. There was no point wanting him now. No point craving his touch.

  Because she’d lied to him.

  Because she was pregnant.

  And he’d found out about both in the worst possible way.

  She was damned.

  Would he understand if she tried to explain? She hardly understood it herself. But the least he deserved was an explanation.

  ‘It wasn’t about getting away with it. Rather, just a case of trying to get through it with the least possible damage to everyone. And I was going to tell you today. After lunch with Nell. I’ve actually tried to tell you a few times now, but every time I’ve tried something else has happened to get in the way.’

  ‘How convenient!’

  ‘Frustrating, more like it.’

  He shot her a glance that told her he didn’t believe a word she said. ‘I bet.’

  ‘Okay, if it makes you feel better, I found a way to justify any delay in telling you every time. I convinced myself that I was doing the right thing, and maybe I wasn’t. But do you think I enjoyed lying to everyone—having everyone believing I was my sister? No. It was supposed to be for one week, when you wouldn’t even be there. Instead it’s turned into my own personal hell. But, damn it, I did try to tell you, and every single time something happened that meant that I couldn’t.’

  ‘Like when?’

  ‘Like the Monday morning, just after that first time…’ She lifted her eyes, caught the spasm in his jaw. ‘I’d left you Saturday to go and pick up Morgan from the airport, hoping she might somehow forgive me for sleeping with her boss, and no doubt ruining the job she’d asked me to babysit—only to find a message that she’d been involved in an accident and wouldn’t be back for weeks. I knew it was wrong to keep pretending. And I couldn’t do it, especially not after what had happened between us. So when I went into the office that next Monday I was intending to tell you the truth.’

  ‘But you said nothing!’

  ‘I started to! But then you sprang the news that Phil Rogerson wanted me as part of the design team, and before I knew it we were headed out to his office and he told me that he felt I was someone he could trust. How do you think I felt? How could I say anything then? All I could do was make sure I did the best job I could.’

  ‘And that’s it?’

  ‘No. Then you talked me into an affair that was going to burn out in two weeks. Two weeks!’ She laughed, the idea so crazy in retrospect. ‘And I was so tempted. Because I knew I could do the job—you believed I was Morgan, and she wouldn’t be back until long after our “two-week fling” was over. So I convinced myself it could work.’ She paused, and held out her hands.

  ‘But it didn’t burn out, and instead I let myself get more deeply involved, with the work and with you.’ She swallowed, hoping she was making sense as Maverick’s stone-cold gaze flicked over her, his silence every bit as damning as his harsh words of earlier.

  It was no doubt pointless, but she had no option other than to plough on. ‘And when every attempt I made to tell you backfired,’ she whispered, ‘I wasn’t really sorry at all—and yet I knew that the longer my masquerade continued the worse it had to get. Then I found out I was pregnant…’

  ‘So who’s the unlucky man?’

  Shock exploded like a bomb blast inside her, horror following in its wake.

  ‘You can’t mean that,’ she whispered, her whole body trembling, her voice quaking as instinctively she placed a hand low over her belly to protect her unborn child from its father’s cruel words. ‘I can’t believe you even have the audacity to ask.’

  He made a sound like a low laugh. ‘With your track record, what do you expect?’

  ‘We’ve been having an affair for something like six weeks now, and still you have to ask me how I happen to be pregnant? Can’t you work it out? There’s been no one else, before or during this relationship. This is your baby, Maverick. Your baby growing inside me. And, heaven help the poor child, but it’s yours whether you believe it or not.’

  ‘I used protection!’

  ‘Which obviously failed to protect!’

  His jaw was set like stone, his eyes glittering like dark stars.

  ‘How long have you known?’

  ‘I found out when you were in Milan,’ she admitted softly, her nerves tangled and snarled like plant roots wound tightly around the confines of a too-small pot.

  ‘You’ve known for two weeks?’

  She flinched at the harshness of his tone, only managing a nod in response.

  ‘And, even when you discovered you were carrying what you say is my child, you chose to keep me in the dark.’

  ‘It is your child!’

  ‘That you obviously decided I didn’t need to know about.’

  ‘No,’ she conceded. ‘As its father you have every right to know.’

  ‘A right that you were more than happy to deny me!’

  ‘I was going to tell you. Today!’

  He shook his head. ‘If I hadn’t turned up today I’d still be in the dark. And you’d still be lying and pretending.’

  She dragged in air, her gut churning anew, her brain churning in sympathy. ‘Look, I did try to tell you about the baby—that day I picked you up from the airport—but Nell phoned, and the next thing I know you expect me to be at this lunch today.’

  ‘You could have said no and kept on talking.’

  ‘I didn’t want to come! I told you that. But you insisted, because I was part of the team, because Nell wanted me there. So I put it off. For Nell.’

  ‘For Nell,’ he repeated, his words as deadpan as his eyes. ‘You apparently do things for other people all the time. You do things for your sister—you lied for her. You were forced to maintain the deception—for Rogerson. You neglected to tell me you’re pregnant in deference to Nell’s wishes for Christmas. You’re a very noble person, it seems. Or is it that you just like to blame everyone else for the bad decisions you make? To see if you can make circumstances work out better for you?’

  ‘Stop twisting things! I was going to tell you! I tried to tell you, but it was you who insisted I come to lunch today because Nell was expecting me to be there. That�
��s the only reason I agreed.’

  ‘Is it? Are you absolutely sure there isn’t another reason you decided to hold back?’

  She pulled back, stunned by his certainty, terrified of the implications. Surely he couldn’t know! If he had any idea that she loved him, that the promise of living as his mistress for just two more weeks had been too great a temptation for her to resist, then she would not have a shred of pride left to add to her already non-existent self-respect.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I think that when you heard about this lunch you dreamed up a much more creative way of exploiting the news.’

  Cold fingernails scraped down her spine. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

  ‘No? So you weren’t planning on dropping news of your little secret into the lunch conversation, then?’

  She frowned and shook her head. ‘With everyone there? Of course not. I told you, I was going to tell you afterwards. Why would I do anything else?’

  ‘Because it’s Christmas,’ he stated, ignoring her protests. ‘And I think you saw the perfect trap. You figured that if you announced your pregnancy during lunch, with everyone including my grandmother in attendance, that I’d be forced into doing the honourable thing and marry you to keep her and everyone else happy.’

  ‘What? That’s crazy!’

  ‘Then why wait to tell me until now—when it presents a perfect opportunity to shame me into marriage in front of everyone?’

  ‘And you think you’re such a prize? No, thank you. I’m quite capable of taking care of myself and my baby.’

  ‘And if it is my baby as well, as you claim?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. You’ve made it more than plain that you’ve no interest in this child, which suits me just fine. You’ve been informed. I’ve discharged my responsibilities. So now you can forget I ever told you. It’s no skin off my nose.’

  ‘And how am I expected to just forget an accusation of paternity now?’

  ‘The same way you quite easily seem able to write off all the good work I have done for your business while I was doing Morgan’s job.’

  ‘Not to mention all the good work you performed on your back!’

  Icy claws shredded what was left of her heart. ‘I can’t believe you’re saying these things. Haven’t you learnt anything at all about me during these last few weeks?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said coldly. ‘I’ve learned you’re a consummate liar. I’ve learned you’re someone not to be trusted, someone who can twist circumstances to what she’d like them to be.’

  She reeled back, stunned by the extent of his hostility. She’d been expecting his censure, she’d been expecting his outrage that she’d deceived him for so long, but she’d never expected his total vilification of her character.

  Tegan felt the churning in her stomach take a turn for the worse. ‘Oh God,’ she muttered, putting one hand over her belly and the back of the other to her mouth, feeling as if she was about to violently lose the next-to-non-existent contents of her stomach once again. It was hardly sympathy she got from him.

  ‘Go and do what you have to do,’ he demanded coldly. ‘Then get dressed. I’ll wait in the car for you. But let me warn you now, don’t you dare say a word to anyone!’

  Tegan shook her head, not believing, not wanting to believe. ‘You’ve got to be kidding. There’s no way…You can’t expect me to go. Not now…’

  ‘Just get dressed!’ he ordered. ‘You don’t get out of lunch with my grandmother that easily.’

  The restaurant was fully booked, but their table was set in a private room fringed by tall potted-palms, and overlooking a sparkling blue infinity-pool that merged into the sea and azure sky beyond. It was like the Pacific Ocean began and ended at their feet. It was the sort of place that would make you feel good just being there—that is, if you weren’t seated next to the Grinch.

  ‘Isn’t this nice?’ Nell insisted as she took a sip of her champagne cocktail, oblivious to both her party hat slipping sideways and the simmering tension between two of her lunch companions. ‘I haven’t had so much fun for ages.’

  Tegan smiled thinly and sipped her water, just wanting the ordeal to be over so she could go home and be with her sister. They both had plans to make. Morgan had rehabilitation to organize, and ultimately the search for a new job. Tegan had different plans, plans that included being a single mum and somehow raising a child she felt nowhere near prepared for.

  She’d bluffed her way past Maverick’s claims, telling him she neither wanted nor needed his help. But she knew her savings wouldn’t last for ever, and, while Morgan would be happy to let her stay as long as she needed, she really needed to find a more permanent arrangement before the baby arrived. A single mother. Never in her life had she imagined that would be her fate. Never in her life had she felt so in need of a plan.

  But plans and home-making would have to wait. There was still pudding to come, coffee and port, the mere idea of which threatened to turn her stomach again. But nobody else in the party seemed in any mood to hurry things along. It had been a successful year, and with the go-ahead for Royalty Cove the future looked even brighter. Everyone bar Tegan seemed set to celebrate.

  She tried to participate in the party mood, and for a while she chatted, but right now the conversation around her blurred into so much white noise as she looked longingly at the sparkling water. She could be floating weightless out there, with not a care in the world, the cool water at her back, the sun warming her face. She’d just drift away, letting the water carry her along, out over the edge of the pool and away into the endless sea, floating away on the gentle waves to where nothing mattered—not an unplanned pregnancy, not the guilt of weeks of deception and not the fact she was in love with a man whose regard for her was so low it didn’t register.

  Had he ever felt anything for her? She’d thought he had. She’d imagined he must care when he’d cradled her against his warm body at night. If he had once, she’d snuffed out all hope of that today.

  She’d let him down. She’d lied to him for the best part of two months, pretending to be someone she wasn’t. And then, to top it all off, he’d discovered she was pregnant in the worst possible way.

  Was it any surprise he’d called her a consummate liar? Was it any surprise he had doubts that it was even his? Could she really blame him?

  ‘Nell asked you a question.’ She looked around to see Maverick staring at her, his features hostile, his eyes carrying a warning for her not to say too much. She knew he still expected her to make some kind of announcement about her pregnancy, and he had planned to seat her half a table away where she couldn’t whisper in Nell’s ear. But Nell had put paid to that the moment they’d arrived, grabbing hold of Tegan’s hand and telling her that she was sitting next to her. Maverick had insisted on sitting alongside her, as if guarding her.

  ‘Sorry, Nell,’ she apologised, back to reality. There would be no floating away with this man beside her. Maverick would happily see to it that she sank. ‘What was it?’

  ‘I asked what you wanted for Christmas.’

  In spite of herself she couldn’t help but smile. Nell was so child-like in her delight of Christmas and all the trimmings that went with it. She’d tugged hard on at least half a dozen Christmas crackers, and had laughed wildly at all the jokes. Maybe Tegan should take a leaf out of her book and stop feeling so miserable. At least until lunch was over. It wouldn’t have been such an effort, though, if her stomach didn’t seem to feel so permanently queasy.

  ‘I’m not expecting anything special,’ she said. Not now, she thought, with more than a tinge of regret for how Christmas might have been if things had been different, and had she not made such a botched job of letting Maverick discover the truth. But then she was kidding herself. He’d never been going to take the news well, no matter how gently she’d informed him of her deception and the baby. Weeks of pretending to be someone she wasn’t, topped off with an unplanned pregnancy—it wasn’t the kind o
f news any man was likely to take kindly to.

  Nell patted her hand, the touch of her leathery skin strangely soothing. ‘I just bet Santa’s got something special in his sack for you.’

  Tegan smiled and nodded, but she knew that what she wanted for Christmas, she would never get. Maverick had snuffed out any faint hope that he might forgive her duplicity. There was no way he would ever want her love, let alone reciprocate.

  ‘I know what you need,’ Nell continued. ‘One of these lovely champagne thingies. Someone pass the wine. Vanessa’s glass is empty.’

  Phil Rogerson cocked a quizzical eyebrow in her direction as he took a bottle of sparkling wine and topped up Nell’s glass before turning to Tegan’s. ‘No thanks,’ she said, covering her glass. ‘I’d rather not.’ Not when the thought of drinking anything with bubbles, be it alcohol or soft drink, filled her with dread. She didn’t need anything else fizzing in her stomach right now.

  Phil shrugged and moved on to the next glass. Nell was suddenly watching her like a hawk, and Tegan used the excuse of reaching for her handbag to turn away and hide her face for a few moments, certain her colour was up. She should have let him fill her glass. She didn’t have to drink it, after all. At least this might provide a diversion.

  She retrieved the small gift she had luckily remembered to bring in all the excitement. ‘I was saving this to give you when Christmas pudding arrived, but maybe you should open it now. It’s just something small, but I hope you like it.’ She held out the small package in the palm of her hand. ‘Merry Christmas, Nell.’

  ‘Oh, I love presents!’ said Nell, clapping her hands gleefully, an undisguised glint of joy in her eyes. ‘What is it?’

  Tegan smiled. ‘Open it and see.’

  Nell ripped off the paper like a six-year-old, and opened the small box with such a look of anticipation that Tegan couldn’t help but feel good, no matter what the man at her side thought of her.

  ‘Oh, it’s beautiful!’ Nell cried. ‘Look, Maverick, look what Vanessa’s given me.’ Her gnarled fingers did battle to manoeuvre out the antique cameo-brooch from the box then undo the pin.