Having the Billionaire's Baby(18)

Callie crossed to the small sink and poured herself a glass of water.   She spoke to the tap. "I've hardly been able to think about anything   else. Anytime I have a moment to myself, that's where my thoughts go.   But once there, they circle around and around." The words tumbled from   her. "I haven't got any answers. I don't know how to make this work. How   you and I can be the parents we each want to be? How to run a business   and be a mother at the same time?" It felt so good to let the words  and  her confusion out. No one else knew she was pregnant. She wasn't  ready  to share the news, but that also meant she had no one to talk to.  She  turned to find Nick standing inches in front of her, looking down  at  her, his brow furrowed.



Any further words died on her lips. She had no idea what he was   thinking, wasn't sure she wanted to know, because whatever it was, it   looked ominous. Perhaps talking about it wasn't such a great idea.   Callie lifted her glass. "Do you want a drink?" He shook his head and   she took a sip herself. The water did nothing to ease the sudden dryness   in her throat.

He studied her face, his own a mask of grim determination. "Marry me."





Seven



C allie almost choked as she swallowed. She took a deep, gasping breath   and put down her glass. "I think you misheard me. I said, 'do you want a   drink,' not, 'I love you and want to spend my life with you.'"

One side of his mouth twitched upward. "I heard you." The half smile   disappeared. He shoved his fists into the pockets of his black pants.

"Then maybe I misheard you."

He shook his head. "I didn't mention love or wanting to spend a lifetime   together, either. I presented the obvious solution to your dilemma,   which is for us to get married. Surely you expected no less."

Her words from their first meeting came back to her as she met Nick's   gaze: "If you're choosing between bad company and loneliness, choose the   latter." His eyes widened and she pushed on. "So, flattering as your   heartfelt proposal is, I don't think the best solution for my dilemma is   to create an entirely new set of problems. I compromised once before. I   won't do it again. My expectations don't include having any more to do   with you than I have to. And given that we're business partners as  well  as parents-to-be, I'm confident I'll have more than my fill."

Some of the tension eased from his stance, but the lines across his forehead deepened. "You're saying no?"

She almost smiled. Had he really thought she might say yes? "Absolutely,   I'm saying no. When-if-I get married, I have certain requirements."

His eyebrows lifted. "I don't meet them?"                       
       
           



       

"For starters, men who bulldoze their way to getting what they want have never really done it for me."

"Bulldoze?" He looked as though he might argue with that.

She held his gaze. "Bulldoze, steamroll, take your pick. Like you did with my business."

"I try to find the most efficient way of tackling my problems," he said quietly.

"Regardless of who's in your way?"

Something shifted in the green depths of his eyes. "I always take into account who's in my way."

Right now they were very much in each other's way, standing inches   apart. Callie's pulse leapt traitorously. There were some things that   she didn't doubt would be good between them, at least in the short term.

She took a step back. "I really need to get ready for this dinner."

"Go ahead," he said easily.

"But-"



"I'll wait for you." He picked up the hotel's complimentary newspaper from the table.

She looked into his eyes, saw the implacability, and for a moment   thought she saw something else too, something like-not vulnerability-but   perhaps need, as though this really was important to him.

Sighing, Callie found her clothes for the evening and took them into the   bathroom. She showered, keeping her cut hand outside the curtain, and   did her very best to shut out thoughts of Nick; but that was easier  said  than done when she was standing naked under a stream of hot water  and  far too aware that he was on the other side of the door. Even if he  was  engrossed in the paper.

She had just finished drying herself when his deep voice carried through   the door. "You don't think marriage and a stable family life is the   best way to raise a child?"

So much for reading the paper. "I definitely think that." She reached   for her underwear and stepped quickly into it. "If the marriage is   happy."

"It puts in place the best structure for raising a child." His voice through the door was calm and measured.

Callie was anything but. "Best in the right circumstances." She slipped   her dress over her head, smoothed it over her hips. "These aren't  them."

"A child needs two parents."

Callie turned and rested her forehead on the door. "Who love each   other." This was hurting. As if he could read her thoughts he was   raising all the arguments and insecurities that circled as she tried to   sleep at night. She straightened and opened the door. He was close, his   forearm raised above his head as he leaned against the door frame. His   jacket hung open and her gaze caught on the small V of masculine skin   revealed by the undone top button of his shirt.

She dragged her gaze upward. "Supposedly, it takes a whole village to   raise a child. That doesn't mean it's a good idea to marry the baker,   and the blacksmith and the woman who takes in laundry."

"People can grow to love each other." He said thoughtfully, as though considering the concept.

Callie couldn't fathom anything in those deep green eyes, and yet they   held her, slowed the beating of her heart. "What are you saying?"

He shook his head, breaking the contact of his gaze. "I'm saying marry me. I want the child to have my name."

The hollowness swelled within her and she took a step back, turned to   the counter and busied herself looking in her makeup bag. "No."

"Think about it."

"I just did."

Nick sighed. "Then think some more. But regardless of when or … if you   marry me, I'll provide whatever you need." He spoke to her back. "But in   return I want to know that you're not going to try to shut me out.  That  you'll let me be the best father to our child that I can."

She set her mascara and lipstick on the counter and turned back to him.   She wasn't going to be drawn in on the marriage issue, but she could   assure him on some points at least.

"Three things. First-" she held up one finger "-I wouldn't try to shut   you out. I wouldn't do that to our child. He'll need and want contact   with his father. I know that."

"He? What did the doctor tell you?" The question was sharp and very interested.



"Not that. I'm only ten weeks, and they won't be able to tell the sex   till I have a scan around twenty. But I can't keep calling it, 'it.'"   She smoothed a hand over her still-almost-flat stomach. "Sometimes I   think she."

"She," he said abruptly. "She's a girl." He looked as though he   regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth. His gaze slid   away from her.                       
       
           



       

"Why do you say that?"

He lifted one shoulder. "Devil's advocate," he said lightly, then nodded, the movement abrupt. "Go on."

"Second," she said as she cleared a circle on the steam-dampened mirror   with a hand towel. "I play fair." Even in the mirror she could read the   skepticism in his eyes. "Ask Jason." She leaned toward the glass and   brushed smoky eye shadow over her eyelids.

"I'd rather not ask Jason about you."

It was small consolation that, if this was messy for her, it was at least as messy for him. "Do he and Melody know?"

"No."

She swept on her mascara. "Why not?"

"I haven't seen much of them lately. Besides, I didn't think they needed to know. Not yet anyway."

Callie put the mascara back in her bag. "How will Melody take the news?"   This was the woman who thought she'd been trying to cling to Jason.  And  now Callie was having her brother's baby.

"Mel's swept up with her own pregnancy. Her first thought will probably be, great, a cousin for my child."