His Baby Deal (The Diamond Club Book 6)

by Elizabeth Lennox

  “Why do you think something is wrong?”

  Oz fisted his hands on his hips. “Because that’s the third security review you’ve done this week. Don’t get me wrong. I love the fast revenue and the clients love it too. But…Carly is concerned.”

  Jayce laughed at his older brother. “What’s there to be concerned about?” he asked, taking another file folder from the stack. He managed to hide his cringe as the file revealed yet another security review. Why couldn’t these companies figure out how to keep their data and facilities safe? Of course, The Solutions Group charged a large amount to do these reviews. And in every case, Jayce could find some pretty significant weaknesses. But still…he’d love a good crisis or another Thwacker sighting.

  When he thought about what that would mean, he shook his head. No. No Thwacker sightings. Not for a while. He didn’t want to leave the country right now to hunt down a maniacal bastard who deserved to be put in prison for the rest of his miserable life. Still, that would be more interesting.

  “You’re doing it again,” Oz growled.

  Jayce looked up. “Doing what?”

  Ryker stepped into the office, taking up the same pose as Oz. Both of the men glared at him as if he were on trial for some heinous crime.

  “What?” he snapped again. “What am I doing wrong?”

  “Smiling. Stop it,” Ryker ordered.

  Jayce leaned back in his leather chair, chuckling at his friend and brother. “I didn’t know that smiling was wrong. I always thought I was a pretty laid back guy.”

  Ryker’s eyes narrowed. “This is different.”

  Oz nodded. “What’s going on? Why are you smiling like that?”

  Jayce laughed, shaking his head. No way would he mention that Jessa was pregnant. It was too early in the pregnancy and, despite all of his scientific knowledge about computers and explosives and chemistry and all of the other things that the military taught him, he was still superstitious. He still held his breath when releasing the final trigger on a bomb, he still trusted his instincts, even when evidence told him something to the contrary. In every situation, his instincts had proven him right.

  Now, with Jessa in the early stages of her pregnancy, he didn’t want to say anything until after the first trimester, worried that saying anything to anyone might jinx the safety of his baby. He read, “What to Expect When You are Expecting” every night with Jessa, after making love to her, that is. Apparently, there were a lot of things that could go wrong during the first trimester. So nope. He wasn’t saying a damn thing, no matter what these two dreamed up to torture him.

  “Go away,” he told both of them. “You’re annoying me.”

  Ryker and Oz both sighed, but Jayce chuckled when they turned to walk out of his office.

  “We should get him out on the course,” Ryker muttered. “When he’s weak from the stress of my latest improvements, he’ll talk.”

  Oz glanced back at Jayce, shaking his head. “Jayce won’t bend under the exercise torture. It only makes him stronger.”

  “Good point,” Ryker replied.

  Jayce ignored them as they continued to come up with various ways to get him to talk as they both walked down the hallway.

  But since they’d broken his concentration, he took a moment to text Jessa. “You feeling okay?” he asked, knowing that she was struggling with morning sickness lately. It was only during the morning hours. He’d brewed a lemon-ginger drink for her a few days ago and she’d said that the ginger really helped. Maybe he should make her some gingersnap cookies too. She was throwing up so much that she might be losing weight. Not healthy for either her or the baby, he thought. His fingers moved to the keyboard and did a search for recipes. When he found one for gingersnaps, he printed it out. Only when he heard the whizzing of his printer did he turned back to the file folder, ready to tackle the review.

  “Hey Jayce, could you…” Carly stopped and picked up the paper from his printer, her eyes skimming over the words moments before she turned her eyes over to him. “Why in the world do you need a cookie recipe?” she demanded, standing next to his desk.

  Jayce snapped the paper out of her hands. “I like cooking.”

  She stared at him for a long moment, then shook her head. “You like cooking. This is baking. You hate baking.”

  He leaned back in his chair. “Did you need something?” he asked, changing the subject.

  Another long stare and Jayce lifted his eyebrows at her, silently prompting her to get down to business.

  “Right. Well, I need…” she stopped, her head tilting. “No, I don’t think I’m going to ask you for this.”

  “What is it?” he demanded, curious now.

  “Nope! You won’t share why you’re in such a good mood. So I’m keeping this to myself. You’ll just have to wonder.” And she walked out of his office.

  Jayce knew her game. She knew that he was naturally curious. A few months ago, Jayce would have chased her down and tackled her, grabbing whatever was in her hands to find out what it was. But now he had Jessa in his life. She had captured his attention and he was…at peace. He realized that he didn’t have to know everything that was going on. He just had to know that Jessa was safe and happy.

  Chapter 17

  Five months pregnant! Jessa rolled over and…ran into Jayce. He was always close. So protective and wonderful. In her second trimester now, she could feel the baby move and, just about every night, they would sit together with his hand on her stomach. Reading a book or watching a movie…it didn’t matter what was going on, he loved touching her stomach. And touching her!

  That was a good thing because right now, she was horny! Good grief, she’d read that this trimester would have this kind of impact on her sexual desires, but wow! She literally could not get enough of him! Thankfully, Jayce was more than up to the challenge of keeping her satisfied and he was crazy creative in finding new and comfortable ways to have sex. Her favorite was still with her on top so she could look down at him. Her stomach wasn’t large enough yet that it was a problem, but Jessa knew that the time was coming.

  Unfortunately, neither of them were talking about that time. The future had become a forbidden subject. Jessa wouldn’t bring it up because…well, because she didn’t want him to think she would be asking for too much from him. She knew that he was only in this to help her out…and for the incredible sex now! Oh, they were still friends. Really good friends.

  But she also knew that her feelings had crossed over from friendship to love a long time ago. Maybe she’d always been in love with him. The sweet texts he sent to her during the day had only pushed her over the edge into full blown, absolute crazy love for this man who touched her heart in so many ways. Jayce was…beyond anything she ever could have imagined. He was amazing and wonderful and…elusive. The man might be interested in playing daddy right now, but what about when the baby arrived? What would he do when a diaper needed changing or a late night feeding? She planned to breast-feed, but what if she couldn’t? Jayce wouldn’t want to deal with the day to day drudgery of caring for an infant.

  She had to keep reminding herself of that fact. She had to be prepared when he stepped out of the picture. He’d more than fulfilled his promise of helping her conceive.

  There was a sort of poignant sadness to her writing lately. It was so true that a writer’s life seeped into one’s storyline. If she was happy, the characters were happy. If she was confused or sad or angry, her characters were as well. Sometimes it was funny, the way her characters reflected her emotions. Other times, she had to change scenes during the editing process because the emotions didn’t fit the scene.

  Hopefully, this wasn’t one of those times, she thought as she focused on a chase scene between the villain and the victim.

  Jayce said that he was cooking tonight, so she could work right up until he got home. Which was…she glanced at her clock….two hours. Really? Two full hours? Even so, her heart skipped a beat as excitement started to build inside of her.
She loved the moment when Jayce walked in the door. He always looked tired, but the moment he saw her, his face lit up and he’d kiss her. Now that she was showing, he’d then get down on one knee, put a hand on either side of her slightly swelling belly and kiss their baby, maybe say a few words of encouragement, then stand up and kiss her again.

  Every time he did that, she had to fight the urge to ask him if he wanted to be a permanent part of their child’s life.

  When she’d originally conceived of getting pregnant and stopping the stupid dating process, she’d loved the idea of having an anonymous sperm donor. That would mean that her child was all hers. She could make all of the decisions and give all of her love to her child.

  But having Jayce in her life over the past several months, seeing how excited he was about their baby, she kept wondering if maybe he wanted to be a part of their baby’s life forever.

  Unfortunately, he’d make a comment like, “You’re going to have a handful with that one when he gets older.” Or, “You might want to move to a larger city so that your child has more opportunities.”

  Those comments broke her heart. They were stark reminders that he wasn’t going to be a part of this child’s life.

  Jessa put a protective hand over her stomach, sniffing back the tears that snuck up her. Why was she crying? She looked out at the lake, trying to figure out what was going on. “This isn’t a surprise!” she told herself firmly. “You’ve known that he would separate from you. This was only supposed to be a friends, then friends with benefits thing and then back to being friends!”

  Still, she desperately wanted him to reply to one of her statements. Anything at all. Something like, “How about if we choose our baby’s name together?” Oh, she’d love to hear him say, “Just think, soon we’ll be taking this little boy or girl to their first day of kindergarten. Will I have to hold your hand as well as theirs?”

  Another sniff and she wiped the tear away with the back of her hand. “You’re going to be fine!” she told her baby, stroking her small bump. Looking down, she wondered what she’d look like when she got to be huge. “I need maternity clothes,” she groaned. “I can’t wear sweatpants forever!” Her skinny jeans were a fond memory and her leggings weren’t stretchy enough. The material wasn’t able to stretch over her belly. “I think we need a treat, little guy, don’t you?” she asked her tummy.

  With a firm nod, she turned around and grabbed her purse and keys. “Shopping spree time!” she announced.

  The drive from LowPoint to Louisville was only thirty minutes, but was necessary in order to find the bigger stores. The shops in LowPoint were beautiful, but the whole town seemed to have developed around artists and artisans. Oh, and foodies! Goodness, the small restaurants that had sprung up around town to try and compete with Tony Itola’s famous restaurant made the town a mecca for foodies!

  Thankfully, there were only a few stores that sold maternity clothes, even in Louisville, so it wasn’t as if she needed to stroll through lots of shops to find something. The limited supply of clothing meant that it was this or nothing. There was always internet shopping, but Jessa loved feeling the clothes and trying them on. And since this whole maternity clothes thing was new, she wasn’t sure how the clothes would fit her.

  She picked out several maternity pants and tops and two dresses, thinking that it would be nice to dress up just a bit for Jayce. He always looked so incredibly handsome, even at the end of the work day with that dark scruff along his jawline. Oh, she loved that dark scruff. She loved the way it felt when he kissed her. And he smelled so good, no matter what time of the day. Not many men could pull that off! Even after he’d gone through the obstacle course that his company had built through the woods beside his office building, he smelled sweaty and nice. Odd, she thought, because normally, Jessa didn’t like how a man smelled after a workout. There was just something about Jayce that…he got to her. On so many levels!

  When she pulled up to her house later that afternoon, it was to find Jayce pacing back and forth, his cell phone against his ear. As soon as she drove up, he clicked off his phone and stomped down the wood steps towards her.

  “Jayce? Is everything okay?”

  He practically yanked the driver’s door off as he opened her car door. “No! Everything is not okay!” he growled, pulling her into his arms and hugging her. Jessa wrapped her arms around his waist, panic bubbling up inside of her. “Jayce, what’s wrong? What happened?” she whispered, afraid of speaking too loudly for fear that the bad news could somehow be made worse by loud noises.

  “You weren’t here,” he replied, pulling back and resting his forehead against hers. With his hands on either side of her head, he took a deep breath. “You weren’t here, Jessa. You’re always here. You’re always writing your stories and you weren’t here.”

  He’d panicked because she hadn’t been home? “I just went shopping, Jayce,” she explained softly, sliding her hands up his chest. “I can’t fit into my clothes anymore. I went to get maternity clothes.”

  He closed his eyes and she felt a shudder go through his body. “Damn it, Jessa! Just text me when you leave the house. Please?” he asked. “I…” he didn’t finish the statement.

  “I will,” she promised, touched by his concern. “I will text you even if I’m out in the backyard, okay?”

  “Thank you.” He clenched his teeth for a moment, then shook his head, as if he were trying to shake off the feelings that were overwhelming him. “I have enemies, Jessa. I need to know where you are. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be possessive or clingy. I just…I came here to take you out for dinner and you weren’t here.”

  She lifted up onto her toes and kissed him. “I’m fine, Jayce. And I’m sorry you worried about me. I just went to get new clothes.”

  He looked into her car, saw all of the bags and sighed, pulling her close. “As long as you’re safe, that’s all that matters.”

  Once again, Jessa thought it would be great if he’d said, “you and the baby” are safe. But again, he wasn’t thinking along those lines.

  Remember the deal, she reminded herself. He never wanted to actually be a daddy.

  Chapter 18

  Jayce stared up at the house, his gut telling him that tonight was the night that Jessa was going to tell him to hit the road, so to speak. She’d been pulling back over the past few weeks and he had no idea why. She was eight months pregnant and looking like a goddess! He loved sitting next to her, holding her, feeling their child kick. Every moment was a miracle. Watching her belly grow, seeing her so happy and glowing, he wanted to get down on his knees and propose, tell her that they could make it work.

  But he’d known that Jessa didn’t want a man in her life. She hadn’t wanted or needed a baby daddy and, from all of the men she’d dated over the time that he’d known her, she’d given up on men. Why the hell had he thought he’d be different? Jessa just wasn’t the kind of woman who needed a man in her life! He’d known that, had tried to give her the space she needed during this pregnancy, while at the same time, enjoying every moment with her that she’d give him.

  It sounded a bit pathetic, now that he thought about it. He wanted her in his life forever. He wanted to care for and protect her, love her, and raise this baby together with her.

  And she wanted to live her life unencumbered by a man.

  Damn it! He wanted her so much. He loved her with every fiber of his being. Why the hell hadn’t he remembered that Jessa was different?! Jessa wasn’t like the women from his past, the women who’d wanted him for his money or his connections. Hell, he knew that many of them had only wanted him for his body and he wasn’t being vain by saying that. They’d told him straight out that they’d just wanted a quick roll in bed. At the time, he’d appreciated their honesty and had taken them up on what they’d had to offer.

  When the front door to her house opened and Jessa stood there with her huge belly and her glowing cheeks, he wanted to tell her to stop, to not speak. From the express
ion in her eyes, Jayce knew that this was the end. She was kicking him to the curb.

  He walked wearily up the stairs, stopping several feet away from her. “You have no idea how beautiful you are, do you?” he asked.

  Jessa bit her lip, trying to stop herself from crying. Again.

  He was so handsome. So strong and powerful and all she wanted to do was beg him to love her back even just a little. He was going to break up with her. She could see it in his eyes and in the reluctant way he came up the stairs. He didn’t want to be here. He was bored with her and Jessa didn’t blame him. She was big and huge and lumbered about the house. She couldn’t cook any longer and felt guilty that Jayce was doing all of the cooking. She’d offered to just eat cereal some nights so that he didn’t have to cook. But each time she’d offered that, tried to give him an out, he’d stop whatever he was doing and look at her with those intense, green eyes.

  He wouldn’t make love to her any longer either! Oh, she missed the way he used to make her scream and laugh, usually within moments of each other. But she didn’t blame him for that either. She was so huge, she couldn’t even see her toes. Why would he want to make love to a giant blimp of a woman?

  “Let’s talk,” she said and turned, leading the way into the small parlor that was at the front of her house. It was probably supposed to be an office, but Jessa preferred to work in one of the upstairs bedrooms that looked out onto the lake.

  She could feel him behind her and ached to have him just pull her into his arms and tell her that they could work this out. But he didn’t do that. Instead, he sat down on the opposite side of her coffee table.

  Folding her hands together, she stared down at the table, unable to look him in the eye. “Jayce, when I started this, I told you that I could do this on my own. I know that you have things that you need to do with your life. You weren’t expecting to be tied down with a baby.”