Nine Months Part 2 (36 Hours)

by Beverly Barton

  “Come on, doomsayer. Paige needs time to open her gifts and collect her thoughts before the man in question arrives.” Kay led Greg toward the door. “She’s giving him his ring back as soon as he comes in.”

  “I’d give a month’s salary to see that,” Greg said.

  Kay closed the door on her way out, leaving Paige alone, staring at the two pink boxes. Go ahead and get it over with, she told herself. They’re gifts, not bombs. Maybe she shouldn’t open them. Maybe she should just return them to him still prettily wrapped when she gave him back his ring.

  Reaching out hesitantly, she ran her finger over the satin ribbon on the larger box. What sort of presents had Jared sent? Paige untied the ribbon, ripped off the paper and removed the lid. Beneath the pink tissue paper lay a white leather photo album. A handwritten note had been placed on top.

  With trembling fingers, Paige picked up the note. For all the pictures we’re going to take of our little girl. Tears welled up in her eyes. She already had the first pictures of their baby—the sonogram pictures—and she hadn’t shared them with Jared.

  Wiping her tears, Paige opened the second gift. Inside, a tiny silver spoon nestled against another note. After picking up the spoon, she saw the letter A engraved on the handle. She lifted the note. I’ve decided I like the name Angela. Do you?

  What was she going to do with Jared Montgomery? How was she going to fight a man so determined to marry her, especially when she would not only be fighting Jared, but her own desires, too?

  * * *

  Smiling and self-confident, Jared breezed into Paige’s office at ten o’clock. “Good morning, honey.” He glanced at the roses on her desk. “It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it? Bright sunshine, crisp autumn air, red roses for my favorite redhead and—”

  “Jared, may I see you in your office right now?” Paige scooted back her chair, stood and walked around her desk.

  “Did you get the gifts?” he asked.

  “Yes, thank you. They’re both very nice. You must have gone to a lot of trouble to buy the roses and the gifts and have them delivered before business hours.” She nodded toward his closed office door.

  “Money has its privileges.” Jared opened the door, stood back and waited for her to enter first. The minute she was inside his office, he closed and locked the door. “I assume you want our conversation to be private.”

  “Yes. Although I don’t know why. We don’t seem to have any secrets from Kay and Greg. For all I know everyone else at Montgomery’s knows that I’m pregnant with your child.”

  “I didn’t tell anyone else. Did you?” Slipping his arm around her waist, he drew her close, lowered his head and covered her mouth with his.

  She wanted to lose herself in the kiss, wanted to forget the reason she’d asked for this private audience with Jared. For one brief instant, she allowed herself to enjoy the kiss. She even responded. But as quickly as she’d succumbed to the temptation, she fought it, pulling back and shoving forcefully against his chest.

  “We cannot solve all our problems this way,” she said breathlessly. “I know what you’re trying to do, and it won’t work. I will not allow you to cloud my mind with passion.”

  His killer smile aimed directly at her, Jared shrugged, walked around his desk and sat down in the big, oxblood leather swivel chair.

  Paige slid the six-carat diamond off her finger and laid it directly in front of him on his desk. “I’m not going to marry you. I can’t keep the ring. And you’re not going to change my mind.”

  “I’ve made reservations for us for lunch today,” he said, speaking as if he hadn’t heard a word of her adamant declaration. “I plan to make sure you have a proper meal at noon every day.”

  “Fine. No problem. I’ll have lunch with you today and every day until the baby is born, but I am not going to marry you.”

  “I’ve arranged for Menderson’s Office Supply to deliver a new chair for your desk. Something larger, more plush, with a good back support.”

  “Thank you,” she said through clenched teeth. “I appreciate your concern for my comfort, but—”

  “Of course, I’d prefer that you didn’t work, but since you’ve made it abundantly clear that you want to continue working until after Angela is born, I intend to do everything I can to make things as easy as possible for you.”

  “Jared, you don’t really want to marry me.”

  “I don’t?”

  She wished he’d stop smiling, stop acting as if they were playing some sort of game. She was deadly serious and he was treating the whole situation as if he found it highly amusing.

  “No, you don’t,” she told him. “You’ve gotten so wrapped up in getting your own way—in making me marry you—that you haven’t thought things through. You want and need a chic, sophisticated woman who’s been bred to be a millionaire businessman’s wife. I’m just an ordinary working girl, with a middle-class mentality. All I want is to buy my own small doll shop, marry an accountant or a teacher, have a little house with a white picket fence and live happily ever after. Can’t you see that I’m the wrong girl for you?”

  “Maybe you’re right,” he said, still smiling.

  “What?” He was agreeing with her? Was it going to be this simple to change his mind?

  “I’m willing to try to see things your way, to admit that you might be right about us.” Leaning back in his swivel chair, he crossed his arms behind his head. “But I’ll expect the same from you.”

  “What do you mean?” She had a sinking feeling in her stomach.

  “I mean that I think we should both keep an open mind about marriage. Right now, I still think it’s the best solution to our problem. Obviously, you don’t. So, let’s say for the next month we agree not to make a decision. You’ll allow me to try to bring you around to my way of thinking and I’ll allow you to try to convince me that you’re right about what a disaster it would be for us to marry.”

  “I—I think that’s a very reasonable suggestion.” A cautious little voice in the back of her mind warned her not to trust him. She disregarded the warning.

  * * *

  By the time a week had passed, she regretted not listening to that foreboding little voice. Greg Addison had warned her. Her own instincts had warned her. But she’d been too stupid to listen!

  “For a solid week, he’s been driving me stark, raving mad with endless attention,” Paige complained to Kay.

  “I think it’s kind of sweet the way he checks on you constantly during the day to make sure you aren’t overdoing it, and the way he’s always asking if you need anything.”

  “You think it’s kind of sweet, do you? Well, you try being the object of his constant attention and see how you like it.” Paige groaned. “Lunch has become a daily ordeal. Jared has all the chefs at the local restaurants busy preparing nourishing meals for me.”

  “He’s just concerned about you and the baby.”

  “He’s trying to run my life. That’s what he’s doing. He treats me as if I don’t have enough sense to make even the simplest decision without his input. And even though I’m barely showing, I’m pretty sure that everyone in Grand Springs and perhaps even as far away as Denver knows that I’m pregnant with L. J. Montgomery’s baby.”

  “So you’re sick and tired of the daily delivery of red roses and all the gifts he’s sent to your apartment for you and the baby, huh?”

  “I like white roses!”

  “So tell him.”

  “The point isn’t the color of the roses. Not really. And it’s not even the fact that my apartment is beginning to look like Babyland at the department store.”

  “Then what is the point?” Kay asked.

  “The point is that I’ve had just about all the smothering attention I can stand. I’m tired of Jared trying to control me, of trying to change my life and—”

  “So tell him.”

  “I’m going to. Today.” Paige squared her shoulders. “I’m going to tell him that he’s taken advantage of
the terms of our truce agreement and I want him to stop his overbearing actions immediately!”

  “If necessary, you can even tell him about your dinner date for tonight.” Kay grinned wickedly.

  When Kay had introduced her to Martin Smith, the most mysterious man in Grand Springs, and Martin had asked her out, Paige had declined his offer at first. But after Kay pointed out to her that by dating someone else, she might convince Jared that she was serious about her refusal to marry him, Paige had agreed to have dinner with Martin. Also, she felt a bit sorry for him. The night of the massive June rainstorm, he’d entered Vanderbilt Memorial with no idea who he was. His amnesia continued to this day.

  Kay had also pointed out that it certainly wouldn’t be a hardship to spend an evening with a handsome and incredibly fascinating guy. Someone even L. J. Montgomery would consider a worthy opponent.

  “If Jared won’t listen to what I have to say, then maybe I will tell him about Martin.” Paige admitted to herself that, if the circumstances of her personal life were different, she might find Martin Smith irresistible. Big, blond and sexy as all get out, he was more than a match for Jared.

  “There’s no time like the present, is there?” Kay’s mischievous smile broadened.

  “You’re right. I’ve put this off long enough.” Despite the queasy unease in her stomach, Paige stood, smiled halfheartedly at Kay and walked toward Jared’s office.

  She swung open the door, marched into his office and stood in front of his desk. She planted her hands on her hips. “We have to talk.”

  “Is something wrong? Are you sick? Are you in pain?” Jared rounded his desk in two seconds flat and grabbed Paige by the shoulders. “Is Angela all right?” He placed one hand on Paige’s tummy.

  “I’m fine. Angela— The baby’s fine.”

  He guided Paige to the leather sofa in his office. “Sit down, honey, and tell me what’s wrong. Whatever it is, I’ll fix it for you.”

  She allowed him to assist her, and when he was seated beside her, she turned to him and laid her hand on his arm. “Thank you, Jared. You’re the only one who can fix things, because you are my problem.”

  Lifting her hand in his, he gazed into her eyes, his face etched with amusement. “I know that I caused your problems, Paige, but I’ve been doing everything I can to convince you that I have the solution to those problems.”

  “Your campaign to convince me has become the problem.” She pulled her hand out of his grasp. “You’re smothering me. You’ve tried to take over my life. You even set up an appointment with Dr. Petrocelli to discuss my pregnancy.”

  “He refused to tell me anything, except that mother and baby are fine,” Jared said. “He sympathized with my predicament, but ethics prevented him from revealing more specific data on you and Angela.”

  “That’s another thing. Stop calling my baby Angela. I haven’t decided what to name her yet.” Glancing down at her tummy, Paige laid a protective hand over her unborn child. “Besides, if we give her a name now…and start calling her by that name…and something happens…It would be easier if she wasn’t already a real person, with a real name and—”

  Jared placed his index finger over Paige’s lips, silencing her. “Our little girl is already very real to me, and I suspect she’s just as real to you.”

  Sitting up straight and squaring her shoulders, Paige looked directly at him. “We’ve gotten sidetracked from what we need to discuss.”

  “Which is?”

  “I want you to cease and desist. Immediately. Today.”

  “Too many roses? Too many little gifts?”

  “Too many and too much. Of everything,” she said. “I’ve accepted the fact that as my child’s father, you have certain rights, but—”

  “That’s good of you.”

  Jared grinned. Paige groaned.

  “I promise to keep you posted on my physical condition, and if I need anything, I’ll let you know. But no more lunches. No more red roses. And no more gifts! And most important…” She paused for effect. “I want you to live your life the way you did before we met, and I’ll live mine.”

  “Exactly what do you mean by that?”

  “I mean, stop hovering over me all the time. Stop sending Greg on business trips you should make. Start dating again.”

  “Start dating again?” Narrowing his eyes, he glowered at her. “Are you planning on dating someone else?”

  “As a matter of fact, I am.”

  “You can’t date someone else. You’re four-and-a-half months pregnant with my baby.”

  “So? I’m not showing. Much. Other men still find me attractive.”

  “I’ll just bet they do. I’ll bet they find you very attractive.” Jared’s nostrils flared, and his jaw tightened. “You are not going to date anyone else. I forbid you.”

  He reached for her as she shot up off the sofa. “You forbid me? You forbid me?”

  When Jared rose to his feet, Paige punched him in the center of his chest with her index finger.

  “You’re mine,” he told her. “And that’s mine.” He pointed toward her tummy.

  “Wrong,” she said. “I do not belong to you. And you may be the father of my baby, but she doesn’t belong to you, either. And for your information, Martin Smith is taking me to dinner at Josephina’s tonight, whether you like it or not.”

  “Martin Smith? Who the hell is Martin Smith? And how did you meet him?”

  “Kay introduced us. He’s—”

  “Hell, he’s not that guy Greg told me about, is he? The mystery man nobody knows anything about?”

  “I know that he’s good-looking, charming and—”

  “The man could be a criminal or an escapee from a mental institution or a bigamist or—”

  “Well, whatever he is, tonight he’s my dinner date.”

  Paige turned to leave, but before she could take a step, Jared grabbed her shoulder and whirled her around to face him.

  “Don’t do this, Paige.”

  “From now on, I’m going to do whatever I want to do. Date whomever I want to date. Live my life on my own terms. I suggest you do the same.”

  * * *

  He wasn’t jealous. He couldn’t be! Jealousy implied a certain lack of self-confidence. The very thought that Lawrence Jared Montgomery lacked self-confidence was ludicrous. And in order to be jealous, he’d have to be afraid of losing something he cared for deeply, even loved. And that wasn’t the case at all. Yes, he liked Paige. And hell yes, he desired her greatly. But love wasn’t a word in his vocabulary. He didn’t know what love was—that all-consuming, romantic passion Paige claimed she prized above everything else. Even if love existed, he doubted he was capable of the emotion, of truly loving a woman, or completely trusting one, for that matter.

  He’d been fond of his parents, as they had been fond of him, but he’d never felt that they loved him. He had been their son, their possession, the heir to the family millions. The only person Jared had ever cared for deeply had been Grandpa Monty. He supposed some people might call what he’d felt for the old man love. But the word hadn’t been one either of them had used.

  No, it wasn’t jealousy that had driven him to take such drastic actions. There was a simpler explanation for why Jared had commandeered a rather reluctant Kay Thompson into accompanying him to dinner tonight at Josephina’s. He was concerned about Paige. That was all there was to it. Plain and simple concern for the well-being of his child’s mother. After all, no one seemed to know anything about Paige’s date, this Martin Smith. The man could be dangerous. It was Jared’s duty to keep an eye on her and make sure she was safe.

  And he had to admit that in a dark corner of his mind, he suspected Paige was using this Martin Smith to manipulate him in some way. He didn’t want to distrust Paige, didn’t want to question her motives. He wanted her to be just what she seemed—an independent, stubborn, honest, young working girl. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shake the notion that maybe Paige had deliberately t
rapped him. That she’d known who he was that night in the elevator.

  Kay sipped her chardonnay, then set the flute down on the table. “I think you’re making a big mistake coming here like this. When Paige sees you, she’s going to be furious.”

  Jared swirled the wine around in his glass. “I didn’t ask for your opinion, did I, Ms. Thompson?”

  “No, sir, you didn’t,” Kay said. “All you did was order me to come to dinner with you tonight.”

  Ignoring Kay’s comment, Jared glanced across the room where Paige and Martin Smith were enjoying their meal and obviously enjoying each other’s company even more. Jared didn’t like the way Paige kept smiling at her dinner companion, and he hated the way she occasionally laughed at something the guy said. But more than anything, he despised the way the big blond man was looking at Paige, as if she were tonight’s dessert.

  “How naive can Paige be?” Jared slammed his glass down on the table. Wine sloshed over the side of the flute. “Smith is practically drooling all over her. Doesn’t she know what that guy’s after? Or doesn’t she care?” Despite what Paige had told him, Jared really didn’t know how many men there had been in her life before he met her.

  “I assume you think he’s after the same thing you were after the first time you met Paige.” Kay picked up her fork and speared a piece of lettuce from her salad plate. “A woman who looks like Paige has that effect on men, doesn’t she. Well, at least Martin’s buying her dinner first.”

  “What the hell do you mean by that?” Jared glared at Kay. “You don’t actually think Paige would…I mean she wouldn’t… Dammit, she can’t. She’s pregnant.”

  “I didn’t say that Paige is going to do anything. You’re the one who assumes that Martin is out to seduce her…or vice versa.” Kay crunched on the lettuce, then speared a tomato slice. “But if you think being pregnant prevents a woman from having sex, then it’s obvious you don’t know the first thing about pregnancy. There usually aren’t any restrictions on sexual activity until the last few weeks. Besides, I understand that some women get very horny while they’re pregnant.”