Nine Months

by Beverly Barton

  “Yes, I suppose it is.”

  “All right, then.” He nibbled on her earlobe. “Honey, you’re going to have to get used to the fact that your baby’s father is a very wealthy man and I intend to spend a great deal of money giving my daughter the best life has to offer.”

  “And you’re going to have to accept the fact that I’m not accustomed to having everything I want just handed to me.” Paige tilted her head back so that she could see his face. “I might feel differently if we were…if we were married, but we aren’t. And…well, just chalk it up to my middle-class morality, but I’m beginning to feel like a kept woman.”

  Laughter rumbled from Jared’s chest. Turning her in his arms, he smiled at her, then lowered his head and kissed her. By the time he ended the kiss, she was breathless and her lips were pink and puffy.

  “Being a kept woman is your choice, not mine,” he said teasingly. “You can make an honest man of me, just like that.” He snapped his fingers. “Ask me the right question and we can plan a Christmas wedding.”

  His lighthearted comments caught her off guard. He hadn’t mentioned marriage in quite some time. Not since he’d promised not to propose again. “If you can say the right words, I’ll ask you the right question.”

  Tightening his hold around her body, his muscles tensed. “We’re still at an impasse, aren’t we, Paige. Deadlocked by our own inabilities to compromise.”

  She wanted to cry. But she wouldn’t. What good would it do? All the tears in the world wouldn’t change their situation. Only Jared’s change of heart could do that, or should she say only his discovery of a heart. A heart capable of loving and of willingly proclaiming that love.

  “But we have compromised,” she told him. “We’ve agreed to be friends. And lovers. And we plan to rear our child together, to give her a mother and father who both love her and will always be there for her, making sure she has the best.”

  He wanted to say that married parents were what would be best for Angela, but he didn’t say it. What good would it do? Nothing he said or did was going to change Paige’s mind. “Yeah, you’re right. We have compromised, haven’t we. We even have the legal documentation to prove it.”

  He had gotten just what he’d wanted, hadn’t he? Paige had accepted the terms his lawyer had stipulated. She had taken what they’d offered and hadn’t asked for anything more. Not for herself or for Angela. And heaven help him, if she’d asked for the moon, he would have given it to her.

  The odd thing was that he wasn’t so sure anymore exactly what he wanted. It sure as hell wasn’t marriage to a sophisticated socialite who would willingly marry L. J. Montgomery for his millions. It wasn’t the sterile, loveless relationship his parents had had. It wasn’t some well-bred, cool, regal lady to play queen to his king.

  “Someday you’ll find a suitable wife,” Paige said. “And I’ll find someone who’ll love me just as I am.”

  The only problem with that scenario, she decided, was that she would never love another man. She’d go to her grave loving Jared. And if she couldn’t find a way to teach him how to love her, she’d never get what she wanted most out of life.

  Why couldn’t she have fallen in love with a less complicated man? Why had fate given her such a difficult task? What she had wanted was a sweet, easy-going guy who was ready for love and marriage. Instead, what she’d gotten was a magnetic, powerful dynamo who didn’t believe in love.

  “I’ve decided to go ahead and furnish one of our new condos on Ponderosa Avenue for you,” Jared said. “We’ll be putting them up for sale right after the first of the year.” With his arms wrapped tightly around Paige, he reached for her hands that lay folded in her lap. “As a matter of fact, I think we should move in there for the last month or so of your pregnancy. It’s closer to the hospital. And we won’t have the twenty-minute drive up the mountain every day.”

  “I think that’s a good idea, but there really was no reason for you to give me this house and a condo in town.”

  “With a condo in Grand Springs and a cabin on the mountain, you and Angela will have the best of both worlds.”

  “When I start working at The Dollhouse on a regular basis, I’ll probably stay in town most of the time.”

  “Are you still planning on taking Angela to work with you every day?” Jared asked.

  “Yes, I am,” she told him.

  “You know it would be easier if we hired a nanny for Angela.”

  “We’ve had this discussion before and the answer is still no! You might have been raised by a nanny, but I intend to raise my child myself.”

  “Why do you have to be so stubborn?” he asked. “Everyone I know has a nanny for their children.”

  “Everyone at your socioeconomic level, Mr. L. J. Montgomery, but not ordinary working people like my family.” Pulling her hands out of his, she straightened her spine and eased away from him, just enough so that her back didn’t touch his chest.

  “Dammit, Paige, as my wif— As my child’s mother, you’ll be in that socioeconomic bracket. And if you choose to run a business, you’ll be a working mother. If you want to stay home and raise Angela, then stay home. There’s no need for you to work.”

  “Let’s get this straight right now—” Turning around to face him, Paige pointed her finger in Jared’s face “I’ll agree to a housekeeper and I’ll even agree to a baby-sitter, but I do not want a full-time nanny. And I will not live off your generosity for the rest of my life. I’m going to work and support myself and Angela and—”

  “You’re going to drive me insane, Paige Summers! That’s what you’re going to do.”

  “I wouldn’t drive you insane if you didn’t keep trying to change me—if you didn’t keep trying to cram your lifestyle down my throat.” She glared at him, her dark eyes misting with emotion. “For heaven’s sake, Jared, just let me be myself!”

  “Be yourself! I don’t want to change you. I just want to make things easier for you.”

  “Do you really mean that?” she asked.

  Did he, he wondered? Since the first time he’d asked Paige to marry him, he’d been trying to figure out a way to mold her into his idea of a suitable mate, someone appropriate for a man in his position. But would he really want Paige to change, to be different, to be like those cool, aloof, status-oriented women he’d dated for years?

  No. Hell, no! He adored Paige just the way she was. Emotional. Passionate. Loving. Independent.

  “Yes, honey. I really mean it. I don’t want to change you.”

  Paige smiled. A shiver raced along her nerve endings. “I believe you.” She sighed deeply. He hadn’t said he loved her, but accepting her for the person she was certainly was a step in the right direction. If Jared could learn to like and respect her for herself, if he could stop trying to convert her into a multimillionaire’s wife, then there was hope that he could learn to love her. Wasn’t there?

  “I thought we were going to discuss plans for the holidays,” Jared reminded her.

  “We were, before…well, that’s all settled, isn’t it? And you’re right, we do have a lot of plans to make for this month. Christmas is only two and a half weeks away, and then New Year’s is a week after that. And Mama’s already been asking me if we’re going to spend Christmas Day with them.”

  “Of course we’ll spend Christmas Day with your folks.” He’d actually been looking forward to sharing another warm, loving holiday with the Summers family. He could almost taste Dora’s sweet potato pie. “I haven’t spent a holiday with my mother since I was a teenager. For the past few years, she’s gone to Europe with friends right after Thanksgiving and stayed until January.”

  Paige couldn’t imagine what Jared’s life had been like. Terribly lonely and sad. And sorely lacking in motherly love, in parental love, in love of any kind.

  “Well, I’ll call Mama tomorrow and tell her that we’ll both be there for all her Christmas Day festivities.” Jared laid his hand on Paige’s stomach and she relaxed against him. “Bu
t I’d like for us to spend Christmas Eve here, if that’s all right with you.”

  “Why wouldn’t it be all right with me?” He hugged her with fierce tenderness. “I like having you all to myself, just the two of us alone.” As if in protest at not having been included in her father’s census, Jared’s daughter stirred within Paige’s womb. Chuckling, he patted Paige’s tummy. “Excuse me, Miss Montgomery, I apologize. I should have said that I like being alone with my two girls.”

  “Miss Montgomery?” Paige had never given a thought to her baby’s last name. If she and Jared didn’t marry before Angela’s birth, she assumed her child would be a Summers.

  “Yes, of course, Miss Montgomery,” Jared said. “Honey, didn’t you read the agreement we signed? Didn’t your lawyer go over everything with you? I plan to legally recognize Angela as my daughter and give her my name, even if we aren’t married when she’s born.”

  “Yes, I read the agreement.” I read it through my tears. “And I’m sure Mr. Bowes explained that stipulation. I’d just forgotten.”

  “Well, getting back to our holiday plans,” he said. “Just what do you have in mind for us on Christmas Eve?”

  “I thought we’d have a nice dinner first, and then exchange our gifts—” she glanced under the towering blue spruce where Jared had already placed several packages “—and you are not to buy me anything else. I noticed three of those five gifts have my name on them.”

  Propping his chin on top of her head, he nuzzled her hair into disarray. “After we exchange our gifts, what then?”

  “We’ll cuddle on the sofa and watch my favorite Christmas movie.”

  “You’re kidding?”

  Swirling around so that she faced him, Paige tilted her chin defiantly. “No, I am not kidding. Just what’s wrong with watching It’s a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve?”

  “What is It’s a Wonderful Life?” he asked.

  “Now, you’ve got to be kidding. Are you telling me that you have never heard of the Jimmy Stewart classic about an angel sent down from heaven to save George Bailey and show him what a wonderful life he has? If so, you have lived a deprived life and it’s high time you were exposed to some holiday magic.”

  “No wonder you’re such a romantic. Dora spoon-fed you on the silver screen’s sentimental hogwash.”

  “We are watching It’s a Wonderful Life.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s a tradition in the Summers household. Every year since I was a little girl, we watched it on television at Christmastime. And a few years ago, I bought the DVD. One for me and one for Mama.”

  “All right, we’ll spend Christmas Eve doing whatever you want to do. And we’ll share Christmas Day with your family. But I want to make our New Year’s plans.”

  “You do?” she asked. “What do you have in mind?”

  Jared lifted Paige onto his lap, then raised her arm and placed it around his neck. He looked at her surprised face and grinned. “Sit here like a good girl and I’ll tell you.”

  “I’m always good,” she said flippantly.

  “Ah, honey, don’t I know it.” Jared sighed.

  “Oh, you!” She punched him on the chest. “You know I didn’t mean it like that.” She cuddled up against him and batted her eyelashes. “So, are you going to tell about your plans for New Year’s?”

  “I’d like to fly you down to Texas and show you my ranch.” He’d never taken a woman to the ranch. Few if any of his lady friends would have enjoyed a visit to the old homestead he had inherited from his grandfather. “The Circle M is a legacy from Grandpa Monty. I think you would have liked him, and I know he would have liked you.”

  “I’d love to see your ranch. I know how much a part of you it is. And if your grandfather was anything like the way you’ve described him to me, I know I would have liked him, too.” Hugging Jared, she dotted little kisses all over his face. “I can’t think of a better way to start off the New Year than visiting your ranch.”

  He took her face in his hands, stilling her busy lips. She stared at him, her eyes questioning.

  “What?” she asked, knowing he wanted to tell her something.

  “You’re the first woman I’ve ever asked to come with me to the Circle M.”

  “Oh.”

  They gazed at each other. The mantel clock tick-tocked rhythmically. The logs crackled in the fireplace. The December wind howled through the trees.

  The subtle touch of his breath across her lips urged them to open. Tunneling his fingers through her hair, he brought her face to his and took her mouth in a tongue-thrusting kiss of pure possession. Responding passionately, Paige tightened her hold around his neck, then slid her other arm around his waist.

  Without breaking the kiss, Jared lifted her in his arms and stood. She clung to him, her body tingling with anticipation.

  He carried her out of the living room, into the foyer and up the stairs, his gait unhampered now that his ankle had healed. Kicking open the half-closed door to their dark bedroom, he kissed Paige again, then carried her over to the bed. Placing her on top of the coverlet, he leaned over and began undressing her slowly.

  They made love with tender passion, their need for each other overriding all else. When they made love, nothing and no one else existed. Only the two of them, and the earth-shattering pleasure they found in each other’s arms.

  Two hours later, Jared awoke, left the bed, slipped into his jeans and headed out the door.

  “Where are you going?” Paige lifted her head off her pillow.

  “I’m going to turn off the lights downstairs and close up, then catch the ten o’clock news. I want to check on that winter storm the weatherman said was headed our way.”

  Stretching languidly, Paige smiled. “I’m glad tomorrow is Saturday. We can sleep late and stay in bed all day if we want to.”

  Jared grinned wickedly, then winked at her. “Don’t wait up for me, honey. Get your rest.”

  “I think I’ll take a shower before I go back to sleep.”

  Jared watched her get out of bed, her ripe body gloriously naked, her long red hair hanging provocatively down her back. He felt a twinge of renewed arousal. Hell! Was it always going to be like this? Every time he touched her? Every time he looked at her?

  She turned halfway around in the bathroom door, the silhouette of her body outlined by the dim glow from the recessed hall lighting. He sucked in his breath. Six months pregnant, her breasts enlarged, her tummy protruding, and she was still the most beautiful woman on earth.

  “Don’t stay downstairs too long.” The tone of her voice issued an invitation. “You know that after my shower I enjoy you rubbing scented lotion all over me.”

  “I could just skip the news and take a shower with you,” he said.

  She turned her back to him, but paused just inside the bathroom, glanced over her shoulder and smiled. He followed her without hesitation, as much a slave to his desire as she was to hers.

  An hour later, Jared went downstairs, made sure the doors were locked, turned off the lights and checked the weather channel on the television. A severe winter storm had moved across the western part of the state and would soon sweep into Grand Springs.

  When he returned to his bed, he found Paige asleep, holding his pillow to her body. He eased the pillow out of her grasp, placed it back at the top of the bed and crawled in under the covers. Fitting his body, in spoon fashion, to hers, he nuzzled the back of her head, breathing in the sweet floral scent of her freshly washed and dried hair.

  He went to sleep, holding her securely in his arms, his hand laid protectively over their unborn child.

  Chapter Twelve

  Paige woke with a start. Pain sliced through her back and spread out across her lower abdomen. Sitting up, knocking the covers to her knees, she clutched her stomach with trembling hands. Oh, God, what was wrong? What was happening? She gulped in huge swallows of air. The pain intensified, eliciting a loud cry from deep within her. Doubling over, her arms crisscrossing her belly,
Paige screamed.

  Jared shot straight up. “Paige! My God, honey, what’s wrong?”

  “Jared…ooh.” Clenching her teeth tightly, she tried to resist the spasm that racked her body. Sweat broke out on her forehead and beaded her upper lip. Holding her stomach with one hand, she reached out to Jared with the other. “I’m cramping,” she told him. “And it’s bad.”

  “Oh, God!” Fear spread through him quickly, like a fast-acting poison. “Try to stay calm.” His voice vibrated with emotion. “I’ll call Tony Petrocelli and tell him to meet us at the hospital.”

  Paige panted, trying to lessen the residue of pain left from the last spasm.

  Jared hopped out of bed and switched on the bedside lamp. He headed toward the closet, then stopped dead still when Paige moaned loudly. Pivoting around, he ran to her just as she tried to stand.

  “Wait, honey.” He eased her back down onto the edge of the bed. “Stay right here until I get dressed and call the doctor, then I’ll help you put on a gown.”

  She grabbed Jared’s arm. “Tell Dr. Petrocelli that I think I’ve gone into labor.”

  “You think you’re in labor?” he asked. “But you can’t be. You’re barely six months pregnant.”

  “I know.” Tears welled in her eyes. “If—if I have the baby now, she can’t survive.” Tears cascaded down her cheeks. “Please, Jared, do something! Don’t let me lose our little girl.” Tears clung to the corners of her mouth and dripped down her chin.

  “You’re not going to lose our baby,” he told her, damned and determined to make his pronouncement true. “Whatever is wrong, Petrocelli will take care of it once we get you to the hospital.”

  “The pain has stopped now. Help me up. I don’t think I’m bleeding, but I need to check and make sure.”

  Jared’s stomach knotted painfully, and a weak, sick feeling spiraled through his body. He eased his arms beneath her, lifted her and carried her to the bathroom. He sat her down on the commode.

  “Don’t move,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”