by Cat Schield
“No, I’m not sure. I’m taking the test right now. And could you please keep your voice down?”
“Is it Nathan’s baby?” Jaime whispered. “Of course it is. Are you going to marry him now?”
“No.”
Being pregnant didn’t change anything between them. He still didn’t love her. But it gave her an excuse to lie to herself and say that no longer mattered. She was pregnant with his child. An illegitimate child. It had been hard for Nathan to grow up an outsider in his father’s household. Would he let his son suffer the same way?
“How long has it been since you took the test?”
Glancing at her watch, she realized that time was up. Emma raked an unsteady hand through her long hair. “About ten minutes.”
“Go check.”
Emma retraced her steps to the bathroom. She picked up the stick and closed her eyes. With a deep breath gathered in her lungs, she looked at the pregnancy test.
“Positive.” Emma sat down on the bathroom floor. “I’m pregnant.”
“I’m sure he’ll be thrilled.” Jaime’s tone rang with conviction. “Cody said Nathan’s had a thing for you for years.”
Hope curled around Emma like a snake, slowly strangling her good sense. “If by thing you mean he wanted to get me into bed, then I agree. I know I’d be wasting my breath to ask you to keep this from your husband. But please tell Cody not to say anything to Nathan. I need to figure out what I’m going to do. And for heaven’s sake, make sure he doesn’t tell Daddy.”
“Call me later in the week and tell me how you’re doing.”
“I will.”
“And if you need anything, you know Cody and I will be here for you.”
Tears pricked Emma’s eyes. “Thanks.”
“Sorry to interrupt your meeting.” Missy, Sebastian’s executive assistant, stuck her head through the door and smiled in apology. “But I thought you should know that Cody Montgomery is here to see Nathan.”
Sebastian and Max looked at each other then locked their gazes on Nathan. “I thought you told Montgomery Oil that we passed,” Sebastian said.
“I’m sure it’s a social call.”
“Social?” Max demanded. “Since when are you so cozy with the Montgomerys?”
“Since Cody and I went to college together.”
“That’s why you were so damn confident you’d get to do the deal. You had an in with the old man.”
Annoyance briefly flared at Max’s accusation. Then, Nathan shrugged. Why bother defending himself? Let his brothers think what they wanted. Nothing held any appeal for him these days—not besting his brothers, not making money, not even the opportunity to purchase an Onderdonk painting he’d wanted for ten years. Since he’d walked out on Emma, all roads led to regret.
Nathan lifted his feet off the coffee table and strode out of the room. Lately, everything fed his restless streak, from his brothers’ uninspired decisions about the business, to sitting in his office where nothing stirred his interest, to going home to his empty condo.
He hated his life. It was lonely, dull and he’d never been more miserable. He’d failed to impress his brothers with his business savvy. In fact, he’d further aggravated his relationship with them by being surly and distant for the last two weeks. And he’d turned his back on the most amazing woman he’d ever met. He deserved to be miserable.
He found Cody pacing the lobby. “What are you doing in Houston?”
“I met with a couple of our board members this morning, but we got done early and I wondered if you had time for lunch before I head back.”
Nathan glanced at his watch. “The restaurant downstairs doesn’t open for another twenty minutes. Are you sure you have time to hang out in Houston? Isn’t your wife due any day now?”
“We’ve got a couple days to go.” Cody grimaced. “Although she’d probably be happy if it happened sooner.” He glanced around and noticed the paintings on the wall. “Hey, those look like the ones Dad has in his office.”
“Onderdonk.” Nathan nodded, wondering what was up with the Montgomery family and his art collection.
“I thought so. I think Emma got him to buy them. And speaking of my sister, what’s going on with you two?”
Cody’s blunt transition from paintings to Emma warned Nathan that this wasn’t a casual visit. “Let’s go talk in my office.” He gestured down the hall. “Nothing is going on between us.”
The look Cody shot him reminded Nathan of Emma. Pain lanced through him. He didn’t want to hurt. When his mother died, he’d sworn never to let himself yield to loving anyone again. Yet Emma had wriggled her way beneath his guard and he’d begun to open his heart to her.
“Any reason you can’t pick up the phone and see if she’s all right?” Cody’s aggressive tone caught Nathan by surprise.
Had something bad happened to Emma? No, if it had, Cody would have led with that.
“The last time we spoke, she made it pretty clear she doesn’t want to hear from me.”
“You might be wrong about that.”
Nathan’s spirits perked up. “Did she say that?”
“I haven’t spoken with her.”
“Then how do you know she wants to hear from me?”
“She and Jaime talk. Jaime talks to me.” Cody shot him a dark look. “You need to talk to Emma.”
Nathan didn’t know what to make of his friend’s sharp tone. “What you’re saying makes no sense.”
They passed Sebastian’s office, and Nathan caught his brothers watching them with keen interest.
He gestured Cody into his office. “What’s going on?”
Cody glanced pointedly at the open door until Nathan shut it. “Dad’s not giving Emma back her trust fund.”
Nathan’s gut tightened as he pictured her living in her half-renovated condo. She deserved better than that.
“Why?”
“Because she didn’t marry you.”
Remorse twisted in Nathan’s gut like a meal of bad shell-fish. “I don’t understand. She told me she had the hundred thousand she needed.”
“But apparently she needed to have it back in her account by the fourteenth and it wasn’t there until the next day.”
“Ridiculous.” Nathan shook his head. “She had the money. So what if it wasn’t in some account?”
“That’s the old man.” Cody shrugged. “And speaking of the old man, he said that the deal’s still good if you marry Emma.”
All at once Nathan realized that he wasn’t interested in the venture with Montgomery Oil because he no longer wanted to take the business away from his brothers. He wanted to be in business with his brothers. He wanted to be accepted as part of the family.
“She already said no.”
“Perhaps you went about it the wrong way,” Cody countered.
Nathan crossed his arm over his chest. “Perhaps I did.”
There was no perhaps about it. Emma needed the sort of fairy-tale romance he couldn’t give her. She hadn’t been happy with his passion and promises of fidelity. She wanted him to love her. She thought that would make her happy. Ridiculous. Love only led to disappointment and heartache. Look how his mother had suffered as the mistress of a man who would never truly be hers. Look at how he’d been ostracized by his brothers. Look what trying to be accepted by them had done to his life. Love wouldn’t make anyone happy.
“Try asking her again. Things are a little different for her these days.”
“Because she’s broke?”
Cody stared at Nathan like he was the biggest idiot on the planet. “Because she’s pregnant.”
“Pregnant?” Nathan echoed. The floor shifted beneath his feet. “Are you sure?”
“As sure as a pregnancy test can be.” Cody put his hand on Nathan’s arm. “You look like you need to sit down.”
Nathan dropped into a chair. “Emma’s pregnant? Why didn’t she tell me?”
“I figured she had.”
Nathan pinned his best friend wi
th a hot glare. “And you thought I wasn’t going to do the right thing by her?”
Cody shrugged, but before he could defend himself against Nathan’s accusation, his cell phone rang. While Cody took the call, Nathan leapt from the chair and began to pace.
How long had Emma known she was pregnant? Why hadn’t she called or come by to let him know he was about to be a father?
A father. Nathan was lightheaded with relief.
He stared at the art on his walls. He and Emma were permanently linked now. She would marry him. He wasn’t going to give up until she agreed. No child of his was going to grow up illegitimate.
“Looks like I don’t have time for lunch after all,” Cody said. “Jaime’s water just broke. You’ve got to talk to my sister.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Nathan muttered.
After Cody left, Nathan grabbed his car keys and headed for the elevator. He got no farther than Sebastian’s office.
“What did he want?” Max demanded, stepping into the hall and blocking Nathan’s path.
“He came to have lunch.”
“That’s it?” Sebastian stepped from his office and exchanged a glance with Max.
Their nonverbal communication grated on Nathan. He wrestled with the resentment that had become such a part of him and the revelation that he wanted to work with Max and Sebastian instead of against them. But how was he going to make that happen when they shut him out? They’d always had each other. They didn’t need him. Disappointment made him surly.
“And to deliver a message that Silas is still interested in going forward.”
“We’ve already decided that we’re out,” Max said.
“I’ve got some friends who would jump at the chance to get in on this with me.”
Sebastian looked disappointed. “Are you considering it?”
“Any reason why I shouldn’t?” He looked from one to the other.
“Is that what you want?” Max demanded, frowning.
“I thought you came back to Houston because you wanted to work with us,” Sebastian added.
“And you sure haven’t made that easy for me, have you?” Nathan shot back and abruptly ran out of steam. “Truth is, I’m no longer interested in working with Montgomery Oil.”
“Why not?” Sebastian asked.
“I came back to Houston because I wanted to be a part of this company, a part of this family.” He gave the last word a bitter jab. “Ever since we were kids you two have been in a club I could never join. After Dad called and asked me to come back and join the company, for the sake of family, I let you two shoot down every idea I had. I figured that eventually you’d get over whatever problem you had with me and realize that I know what I’m doing. The venture with Montgomery was my chance.”
Sebastian gestured with his head toward Max. “And we stopped it from happening.”
Max shrugged before saying, “Maybe we’ve misjudged you a bit.”
“We’ve let pride get in the way of family,” Sebastian added.
For the first time since returning to Houston, Nathan had a glimmer of hope that what he’d come back to find might be within reach. A powerful emotion swept him, locked up his chest and made him want to grin like an idiot. “I’m willing to work together if you are.”
“Smythe is waffling,” Sebastian said. “If this venture with Montgomery Oil is still on the table, I think we should go for it.”
Nathan shook his head. He no longer had anything to prove to his brothers and everything to prove to Emma. “Let’s hang in there with Smythe. The company is solid. It’s exactly what we need to diversify our holdings. Lucas will come around.”
“You sure this is what you want?” Sebastian asked.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Eleven
Armed with one of Nathan’s dress shirts that she’d accidentally packed when she’d left his condo, Emma stepped off the elevator into the lobby of Case Consolidated Holdings. Since moving out on her own, she’d taken to wearing it to bed at night, comforted by the familiar cologne that clung to the cotton. Newly laundered, it no longer contained his scent.
She missed him.
Ached for him.
Had it only been two weeks since Valentine’s Day? It felt like a year.
Emma’s polite smile for the receptionist faded as the woman told her Nathan wasn’t in. Relief and disappointment tumbled through her. She’d been preparing for this meeting for a couple days, running a hundred different speeches through her mind, even practicing a few in front of the mirror.
In the end, it all came down to, “Nathan, I’m pregnant.”
Funny. It didn’t get easier with repetition.
“Do you want to leave him a message?” the receptionist asked with a bright smile.
“Did he say when he was going to be back?” Now that she’d summoned the courage to tell him, she wanted to get it over with. “Maybe I could wait.”
“He didn’t say.”
“I’ll try back later.” Unless she talked herself out of it.
Earlier, when she’d organized her day, she’d planned to stop at Biella’s first because they’d called to say a check awaited her, but once she’d parked, she’d been overcome with the need to see Nathan and had selected this daunting errand to run first. Now she’d have to get up the nerve to make this journey all over again.
Anxiety snacked on her poise as she returned to the elevator. Before she could press the down button, the door opened and Emma found herself staring into Nathan’s eyes.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
All her carefully prepared greetings evaporated as her stomach flipped like a frisky dolphin. She shoved the shirt she held toward him.
“I brought you back your shirt. It got mixed up in some of my things, and I packed it by accident.”
“And you made a special trip to deliver it.” His voice took on the sexy rumble that always had her out of her clothes in record time. “I’m glad.”
Nathan took the shirt and tossed it onto one of the nearby lobby chairs. Then, he slid his fingers around her arm and pulled her into the elevator. His free hand coasted over her hip and in one smooth move, he pinned her between the wall and his lean muscles.
Giddy with delight at being crushed against his rock-solid frame, she put her hand on Nathan’s chest, feeling the steady, soothing thrum of his heart.
“It was no bother. I was in the neighborhood.”
“And here I was looking everywhere for you,” he said.
Beneath Nathan’s intense regard, Emma’s cheeks heated. Then her blood. “You were? Why?”
“I’ve missed you.”
Emma’s nerves began to purr. She half closed her eyes and peered at him from beneath her lashes. Although she longed to hear a different set of three words from Nathan, these ran a close second. Was it possible that he felt something more for her than simple lust? Could his emotions be more complex than she thought?
“Not enough to call.” She reached deep for a breezy smile and found one. No reason he had to know how heavy her heart had become.
He stroked a strand of her hair off her cheek. “You made it clear that we were done.”
She’d made it clear? “You walked out on me, remember?”
“I was a fool to do that.”
“But you did. What’s changed?”
“We’re meant to be together. Don’t you feel it?”
Did that mean he loved her? Was it possible? Breathless with hope, she lifted onto her toes. As his lips covered hers in a slow, coaxing kiss, Emma dug her fingers into his back and stopped fighting his web of sensual entanglement. Beneath his intoxicating kisses, it was easy to let the last two weeks, and all her heartache, become a vague memory.
For so long, she’d fought to keep from losing herself in him, fearing he would never feel the same way about her. But he was so hard to resist, and she’d slipped further beneath his spell. It had taken all her willpower not to con
fess, over and over again, that she loved him. She could no longer fight what was in her heart.
“I love you,” she said when his lips eased off hers. Once the truth came out, admitting the rest seemed inevitable. “I have for a long time.”
“But you won’t marry me.”
Was marriage even on the table?
“I thought the deal with my father fell through.”
“It did.”
Her heart swelled with joy, but she remained cautious. “Then there’s no reason for you to want to marry me.”
“There are lots of reasons,” he said, but as the elevator gently decelerated and the doors opened, he left them un-voiced.
Taking her by the hand, Nathan towed her past the crowd waiting to get on the elevator and into the office building’s big, bright lobby. With her emotions a melting pot of worry and glee, she was only half aware of the voices, laughter and clink of dishes that echoed through the two-story atrium.
“Let’s go to lunch,” he said.
One of downtown Houston’s best restaurants occupied the open space and drew large crowds to sample the widely reviewed cuisine. Emma balked. She wasn’t eager to confide in Nathan about her pregnancy in a crowded restaurant.
“I have an errand to run. How about we meet in an hour?”
Nathan shook his head. “Now that I have you, I’m not letting you go. We’ll run your errand together, and then I’ll take you to lunch.”
“Somewhere quiet?”
“Anywhere you want.”
They headed outside. After days of rain, the sun had decided to make a brief appearance. Emma savored the warmth against her skin and inhaled the scent of dampness that clung to the pavement and plants. Nathan laced their fingers as they strolled along the sidewalk, his presence a solid, dependable strength by her side. She curled up in the crook of his arm and leaned her head against his shoulder.
For the first time in weeks she felt happy.
“Where are we heading?” he asked.
“Biella’s. I’m bringing more of my jewelry for them to sell.”
At the word jewelry, Nathan lifted their clasped hands and grazed his lips against her bare ring finger. “Did you ever make your engagement ring?”