Pregnant by the CEO

by HelenKay Dimon

  His words pounded her but she kept her shoulders up and her back straight. “That sounds like a legal term.”

  “Because it is.”

  That meant more fighting. More lawyer fees on top of the ones for her employment attorney. “I thought you were worried about the lost money.”

  “There are bigger issues here.”

  She couldn’t imagine money being a side concern. “Noah is a kid.”

  “Noah is twenty and a genius.” When she opened her mouth to respond, Derrick talked right over her. “You are twenty-nine, which means you’re old enough to know he’s looking at criminal charges and civil repercussions for the money, which I’m willing to overlook right now.”

  “I’m going to pretend I know what that means and jump ahead. What is your part of the quid pro quo? Because you don’t strike me as a guy who does things to be nice.” That wasn’t quite true. He’d hired Noah and ignored his lack of a degree and questionable people skills. But he’d also had security escort Noah out of the building months later. Now that she knew how that felt, she had even more sympathy for her brother. “What do you want?”

  “You.”

  A weird, high-pitched ringing filled her ears. She shook her head but it refused to die down. “What?”

  “The carefully placed stories about us have been aimed at diffusing some of your brother’s damage.”

  “In other words, you’re using me to somehow make yourself look better.”

  He shrugged. “That’s not the way I’d put it.”

  “Of course not, since you’re clearly clueless about women.”

  That had him sitting straighter. “Excuse me?”

  Bull’s-eye. The idea that she’d found the one thing sure to grab his attention—questioning his success with women—filled her with relief. “You’re letting people believe we’re together and—”

  “Dating. People are starting to believe we’re dating and that your brother doesn’t like it and is trying to break us up by launching false charges against me.” Derrick looked far too pleased with himself. “Which was exactly my plan.”

  “That’s ridiculous.” She could think of a lot of other words to describe it but kept the conversation G-rated.

  “I thought so, too, when the PR team suggested it, but I guess the public does like a good love story.”

  A scream rattled around inside her. “Did you ever think to ask me first?”

  “No.”

  The quick response had her sputtering. “That’s really your answer?”

  “I called you lovely in my interview with the Insider, which I think we can agree was a bit of a stretch since you looked ready to punch me the first time we met in person.”

  “Oh, you picked up on that?” Good to know.

  “Let’s get down to it.” He leaned in again. Didn’t break eye contact. “We’re talking about a business arrangement.”

  “Who is?”

  “You will pose as my girlfriend for an appropriate length of time, short though because the timing is important here. Long enough for us to sell that we’ve been dating. Then you’ll act as my fiancée and—”

  “Wait.” That ringing in her ears turned into a loud clanging sound.

  He stared at her. “I haven’t finished explaining the plan.”

  When his PR team said he’d needed to create a diversion, it made sense in an abstract sort of way. But they could not have meant her. He—they—didn’t even know her. And no way did they mean an engagement.

  She suspected they’d talked about him finding a life outside the office. She tried to direct him there. “I’m sure there are women in town who would want to date you. It’s tough out there and my brother isn’t exactly highlighting your good side. But you have money and you’re...you know...”

  He studied her now, like how he might study something on the bottom of his shoe. “I have no idea what you’re trying to say.”

  “Well, your face is...fine.” As in perfect and compelling. Way too kissable.

  His eyes widened. “Fine?”

  Because space seemed like a good idea she stepped away from the desk. Tried to draw enough air into her lungs and head to be able to breathe again. “Don’t rich people travel in packs? I’m sure you can hang out at your country club or polo club, or wherever it is you go for fun, and find a nice woman who—”

  “I am not hard up for a date.” He sounded stunned at the idea.

  “Well, there.” She almost clapped but decided that was too much. “Good for you.”

  “I am, however, on the wrong side of your brother’s ill-advised rant.” He made a face that suggested he thought she should be picking up on his point a bit faster. “I explained this to you at the hotel.”

  “You said you needed good news to balance out the bad.” That made sense, which only made her wariness tick up even higher. “So, hire someone to pretend date you if you don’t want an actual girlfriend.”

  “It needs to be you. You provide a reason for your brother’s specific attack.” When she tried to stop him, he kept right on talking. Rolled right over her. “We put on a very public show. We get people to see us as a couple, get engaged—not for real, of course—and we neutralize some of the damage your brother has done.”

  “A fake fiancée.” She said the words nice and slow, thinking he’d stop her because he had to be kidding.

  Never mind that she could barely stand him. Sure, she’d spun wild daydreams about him. Even imagined what he might look like without that serious suit and the fancy office, but come on.

  “Exactly.” The phone on his desk rang. He hit a button and the sound cut off. “You’ve spent a significant part of your life protecting your baby brother and I suspect you will continue to do so now, even though it’s misguided.”

  That hit a bit too close to the comments Vanessa had made last night. “Misguided? I’m confused. Are you arguing for this fake engagement thing or not?”

  “People will see us together, which will telegraph the message that I am not the man your brother says I am. You wouldn’t date me otherwise. It will be a business arrangement that will benefit you greatly, and it will keep me from going after him for the money.” He shrugged. “And, since time is a factor, I went ahead and started the rumors. As you know.”

  “Because that made sense to you?”

  “Because your brother is in serious legal trouble and I can help him. I can also provide some guidance for the future and take the pressure off you. In many ways.”

  For the first time she noticed his hands. Those long fingers. The strength. The way he rubbed his palms together as if that in-control voice didn’t quite match whatever was happening inside him.

  But none of that calmed her wariness. Not when every word he uttered carried a note of a threat. “What does that mean?”

  “You were recently fired.”

  Her stomach dropped, and not in a good way. Forget his deep, soothing voice and the sexy confidence that thrummed off him. If he made one wrong comment about her losing her job she would lunge across the desk and strangle him with that blue tie. “Laid off.”

  “We both know that’s not true.” Derrick didn’t stop talking long enough to let her break in. “It would appear I’m not the only one who has an image to salvage. While you’re doing that, I will pay your bills.”

  That sounded like...well, not good. “No.”

  “Consider this an acting role of sorts. One for which you should be paid.” He picked up the folder in front of him and slid it toward her. “Here.”

  “What’s that?”

  “A contract.”

  The guy was prepared. She had to give him that. “You think I’m going to say yes then sign something?”

  “Why wouldn’t you?”

  “Love, honor, decency.” She probably should have thrown in a few more word
s but her brain refused to reboot. It had been misfiring ever since he’d smiled that first time.

  “I’m not sure what any of those have to do with this arrangement.” He nodded at the folder. “Take a look. Everyone benefits.”

  “Mostly you.”

  “I don’t deny I get something out of this, but so do you. More important, so does Noah.”

  That sounded good but she doubted Derrick would deal fairly with Noah at this point. She couldn’t believe the charges against her brother. But the idea that Derrick would waste time going after Noah if he was innocent didn’t make much sense, either.

  As soon as the doubts crept into her head about her brother, she tried to push them out again. Be loyal. “Noah denies the charges.”

  “He’s lying.” Derrick didn’t even flinch as he talked. Never broke eye contact. Didn’t give away any sign that he doubted what he said.

  Something about his coolness made her insides shake. “Why should I believe you over my brother?”

  “Deep down, you know I’m right.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “Yes, it would be better if you didn’t, but I’m betting you will study this proposal from every angle.” Derrick put his hand on the folder. “You can have until tomorrow morning.”

  She had to grab on to the chair next to her for balance. The room had started spinning and with each word he said rocked her harder. “For what?”

  “To give me your response. As I said, time is of the essence. I am currently holding off the prosecutor but he needs an answer about your brother.”

  “And he’ll do what you say?”

  “We went to college together.”

  “Of course you did.” From her experience with the job search she knew powerful people stuck together. But the caress of Derrick’s voice, the concern in his tone—it all had her taking another step back. “This bargain or offer or whatever it is...it’s ridiculous. You know that, right? I need to know you know that.”

  But even as she said the words her mind starting working. He could help Noah. She could get her life in order. Derrick offered breathing room and support, and that tempted her even though she knew she couldn’t trust him one inch.

  “Your brother’s actions leave me with little option, and he shows no signs of stopping even if he is arrested. Shareholder discontent is an issue. I also have a reputation in the community.”

  “One that would suffer if people found out you made an offer for a fake fiancée.”

  He hadn’t been moving but still his body froze. “Is that a threat, Ellie?”

  “I’m trying to understand why a man with your money and power would make this offer.”

  “That’s my problem, not yours.”

  “If I’m going to be your fiancée then—”

  He held up a hand. “In name only.”

  “No sex then?” Where had that come from?

  His eyebrow lifted. “I am willing to negotiate that point. Very willing.”

  She could almost feel his fingertips brush over her. “Forget it.”

  “You have until tomorrow at ten to give me an answer.” He broke eye contact and hit a button on his phone. “Not ten after, Ellie. Ten exactly.”

  It was a dismissal. She heard it, felt it and ignored it. “I wouldn’t clear your calendar if I were you.”

  He didn’t look up. “Ten.”

  Three

  Derrick leaned back in his oversize desk chair and blew out a long, haggard breath as the door closed behind Ellie and she left his office. He’d expected anger and a hint of distrust. He would have worried if she’d said yes to his fake engagement offer and jumped in. Eagerness was not a bonus in this type of situation.

  No, he’d been prepared for all that. The sucker punch of need that slammed in to his gut the second he saw her again? That one had been a surprise.

  She’d walked in with her long brown hair tied up behind her head with those strands hanging down, all sexy and loose. She’d worn a thin black skirt and white shirt and all he could think about was stripping both off her. The tight body. Those legs. The way fire lit her hazel eyes as she argued.

  It all worked for him.

  His attraction to her had sparked the minute she’d opened her mouth. She was tough and smart, and not easy to throw off or to scare. She met every one of his verbal shots with one of her own.

  The woman was hot, no question.

  She didn’t fit his usual type.

  He thought about the women he’d dated over the past few years. All cool, reserved business types. He preferred competent over sparks and heat. Maybe that’s why the last three were now some of this favorite business associates. Friends, even.

  He didn’t believe in the idea of grand love. That struck him as nonsense. He’d grown up in a family that yelled. His father pitted him and his two brothers against each other. At his urging, they’d been racing and competing since the cradle. Every mistake had been dissected and fed back to them in an endless loop by their unforgiving father and then by the press that followed the Jameson boys’ every move.

  Never mind that Derrick’s grandfather was a disgraced congressman or that their father, Eldrick Jameson, a self-made man with three former wives and a new much-younger one, had made his initial millions, before he lost them, by not always playing fair. Derrick and his brothers were magazine and news favorites, and few in the press gave them favorable coverage no matter what they did.

  No, Derrick didn’t believe much in emotions. But he did believe in this company. He’d rebuilt it from the dust left over from his father’s fires and while the old man ran through woman after woman. Derrick labored over every contract and every deal. Gave his life to it. And now he was getting screwed by the old man—again.

  His father handed down his requirements for turning the business over, the main one being that Derrick clean up his reputation and resolve “the Noah problem” within ninety days. That meant dealing with Ellie since his PR team thought trying to deal with Noah directly could result in another video.

  From the photos he’d seen of her before they met at the party, he’d expected pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way. Quiet. Not someone likely to light his fire. From what he knew about her job situation, he’d expected desperation and a willingness to deal.

  He got none of that.

  Jackson Richards opened the door and slid inside the office. He wore a stupid grin as he walked across the office and stopped in front of Derrick. “She’s not what I expected.”

  Now there was an understatement. “Me, either. And did you call me sir earlier?” That was new and Derrick didn’t like it.

  Jackson shrugged. “I thought it fit with the mood you were trying to create.”

  “You can skip the overly deferential act. I have enough people around here who do that.”

  “Are you engaged yet?” Jackson sounded amused at the idea.

  Derrick was happy someone thought the nightmare situation was funny. “She’s difficult.”

  “She sounds perfect for you.”

  Jackson was one of the few people who could get away with the comment. They’d known each other for years and were about the same age, both in their midthirties. Eldrick had brought Jackson into the company, but Derrick liked him despite that. They’d been friends from the start. With Jackson, Derrick let the firm line between boss and employee blur.

  But right now his mind was on the hot brunette with the impressive ass who’d just left his office. “She seems to think I should be able to find a real date.”

  “Did you tell her about your father’s conditions for signing the business over to you and how you have something of an impossible deadline in which to meet them?”

  The damn agreement. Leave it to Eldrick to make everything difficult. “You mean selling it to me? For a lot of money he can then spend on my ne
w stepmother? Of course not.”

  Jackson winced. “It might help your case.”

  “I doubt Ellie would be sympathetic.”

  “Not if you keep placing false rumors with the Insider.” Jackson shook his head. “I warned you that could backfire. Women hate stuff like that, and with good reason.”

  “Speaking of which, is the photographer waiting outside?” That’s why her tardiness mattered. Much later and she would have blown his plans.

  “When Ellie figures out you staged this meeting to get a photo of her coming out of your office she’s—”

  “Going to yell.” Derrick knew it. He even felt a twinge of guilt over it—one he could easily ignore. “But we know this is about more than a PR job. This is about saving the company and there’s no way I’m letting her know I need her help for something that big. I’m not giving her that power over me.”

  “Very romantic.”

  “This is business. According to my father’s stipulations, I have to get my brothers in line and in this office, clean up my image and stop Noah Gold’s public hit job, all while single-handedly running a commercial real estate company.”

  After a lifetime of aiming his sons at each other, Derrick’s father wanted them to be one big happy family, all working in the office and getting along. And if they didn’t, Derrick would lose the business that meant everything to him. His father already had a buyer outside the family interested. A rich old friend with liquidity and the ability to move fast on the sale.

  Just thinking about the requirements of his father’s stupid business proposal touched off a new wave of fury in Derrick’s gut. He literally could forfeit everything because of his father’s stupid whims.

  Derrick was about to launch into an angry rant about Eldrick when his office door pushed open. Ellie stepped inside again, looking a little flushed and not a bit worried or afraid of him.

  He liked her attitude but the security lapse was a concern. Then he thought about the photographer and wondered if the guy had moved too soon. “How did you get in here?”

  “I walked.”