Covert Conception

by Delores Fossen

  But he was seeing it now.

  "This is a nightmare," she whispered.

  Rick walked closer to her, just in case Natalie needed him. He was more than a little concerned about her present well-being. She was facing a totally unexpected pregnancy and her life had recently been endangered. That was too much stress for one person to deal with. Oh, yeah. And there was the whole dilemma of what to do about a mother who'd been lying her entire life.

  Of course, his own parents had doled out the same lies.

  Too bad they weren't alive so he could confront them. Because heaven knew he needed to hold someone accountable for this.

  "What kind of papers could possibly cause this to make sense?" Natalie asked.

  Rick shook his head. "I don't know about making sense, but Macy might have some evidence against Dr. Benjamin."

  "Yes. Maybe he put his plans in writing and gave Macy a copy." She paused, obviously considering that and nodded. "I can't believe Dr. Benjamin would do something like this. I can't believe I trusted him."

  Natalie didn't start to tremble, and she no longer seemed on the verge of falling apart because of the stress. She did exactly what Rick figured she would do. She hiked up her chin and took a deep breath as if preparing herself for the huge task ahead of her.

  That act would have fooled most people.

  Not him though.

  She was still fighting hard to maintain control. However, this was a losing battle. It was a lost battle for him as well. The emotion, the adrenaline, the confusion and the anger all whipped together until it just felt overwhelming.

  "Maybe this is some cosmic form of punishment," she whispered.

  Yeah. Because of David. Rick had already played around with the idea, and he'd dismissed it. "The cosmos has better things to do than come after us. I'm betting that whatever happened is of a human origin with a means, motive and opportunity."

  "Dr. Benjamin," she supplied. And with that, he noticed her bottom lip trembling. She was slowly losing that tentative chokehold she had on her emotions.

  That tremble was more than Rick could handle. Knowing it was a mistake and not caring, he reached out and pulled her into his arms. She went willingly, fitting against him as if she belonged there.

  He quickly shoved that last thought aside.

  "If Benjamin is behind this, we'll press charges," he promised. Though Rick didn't have a clue what crimes the man had actually committed.

  "If we can prove he did it," Natalie challenged.

  "Oh, we'll prove it all right. We'll have my lab-test results and your surveillance video. That, along with what your mother told us will be more than enough for the police to launch an investigation into Dr. Benjamin's baby project."

  She lowered her head until it almost touched his shoulder. "But even if he's arrested, he's still succeeded. He's created a phase-two baby, and I'm carrying it."

  True. And there was no getting around that. They were well on their way to becoming parents—a truly humbling and frightening thought.

  There were times, like now, when he wondered if he could ever come to terms with it.

  "We'll work everything out," he assured her. Rick pulled her deeper into his embrace. Not just because she needed it. But because he needed her to be in his arms.

  Natalie froze. Looked up at him. And she went completely stiff.

  There was a moment, hardly more than a few seconds, when their gazes met. Their breaths met.

  Rick didn't have a name or label for it, but they connected on a level where they shouldn't be connected.

  It was still there. The energy. The flicker of attraction. Except it didn't feel as small as a flicker right now. It felt more like a blazing flame that radiated from the center of his body.

  Not good.

  Because he knew for a fact that particular part of him rarely made wise decisions.

  "We can't," Natalie said, pulling away. Gone was the tremble, the vulnerability. Natalie was back. "I can't."

  "It was just a hug. It didn't mean anything."

  But they both knew what'd happened the last time they'd gotten this close. Well, knowingly this close. Obviously, since Natalie was pregnant, they'd gotten a lot closer and a lot more intimate.

  Before Rick could stop them, a few erotic images went through his head. Images of Natalie and him naked, having sex. Good images.

  And bad ones.

  Since those bad ones were giving him equally bad thoughts, Rick stepped back both mentally and physically.

  Natalie was right. They couldn't do this. Hugs for comfort, or any other kinds of hugs, would just be playing with fire. They couldn't afford this dangerous game.

  She picked up her water and drank some. "I'm scared. And I hate having to admit I'm scared—especially to you. I'm also furious. And upset. And, God, I'm dizzy."

  The outburst seemed to drain her, and she leaned against the bar.

  "The dizziness is probably part of the pregnancy," Rick assured her in the calmest voice he could muster. "I remember hearing it takes a while for a woman's body to adjust to the hormone surges."

  "Surges, huh?" she mumbled, sounding a little relieved. And annoyed. She frowned at him. "Don't go all understanding on me. It'd only confuse me at a time when I don't need any more confusion. And it'd hurt your bad-boy image."

  He smiled. He couldn't help it. "To heck with the image. I'm in this with you."

  "And that's supposed to make me feel better?" But Natalie waved him off. "Sorry. I didn't mean that as witchy as it sounded."

  That put a quick end to any smiling. "I know what you meant." He deserved it. He deserved worse. "But we have to put aside what happened with David. We need to work through this together."

  She hesitated. Then nodded. "Because we don't know what we're dealing with." Natalie put her water aside and folded her arms over her chest. "I heard my parents argue about the Cyrene Project. I had no idea it had anything to do with me, Kitt and my brother."

  At least he was an only child and was therefore the only one in his family affected. But Rick had to wonder—was this Cyrene Project limited just to the four of them? Or had other students and doctors been involved? And if so, had any of them experienced this premeditated paternity?

  Just how far did this grand scheme go?

  He played around with that question for a moment, until it brought him back full circle to what'd happened on their way to Macy's.

  "The SUV doesn't fit into any of this," Rick said, thinking aloud. "If Dr. Benjamin went through all of this to make sure we produced a baby, then he wouldn't have sent someone to try to hurt us."

  "You're right." She sat up straighter in the chair. "So, maybe we can dismiss that as a coincidence."

  Rick hoped that was true. They already had enough to deal with.

  "But I can't dismiss my mother's symptoms." Natalie got up, walked across the room and picked up the phone. "She's having headaches and hearing voices."

  "What are you doing?" Rick asked.

  "I want to call a friend who's a psychiatrist. I'll make an appointment for my mother."

  It was a good idea, and it would give Macy some psychological support to get through this.

  "When we're done here, I'll pay Dr. Benjamin a visit," Rick told her.

  Natalie angled her eyes in his direction. "Not without me you won't. He has some explaining to do, and I want to hear what he has to say."

  Yes, and once the doctor was done explaining, Rick was calling the cops. He only hoped Dr. Benjamin wouldn't become violent when they confronted him. Of course, as Natalie had pointed out, the doctor wouldn't want to hurt them now that he'd successfully ensured the conception of the baby.

  At least he wouldn't want to hurt Natalie.

  As the baby's father, he was now expendable.

  Rick decided it would be a good idea to take a weapon with him. Just in case. While he was at it, he'd also try to talk Natalie into staying as far away from Dr. Benjamin as she could stay. Of course, Rick knew he had
little or no chance of convincing Natalie to do that. She wanted to confront the man who'd turned her life upside down, and Rick couldn't blame her. He planned to do some confronting as well.

  While Natalie was on the phone with her doctor friend, Rick used his cell to call his own doctor, Eric Macomb. The police would no doubt need his lab results to prove that he'd been drugged.

  And that brought on a troubling thought.

  Natalie had been drugged, too, and he didn't know how something like that would affect the baby. Of course, there had been no baby while the drug had been at a high level in her body. Plus, if all of this went back to Dr. Benjamin—if he was indeed the culprit behind everything—he wouldn't have used a harmful drug and risk any damage to the baby.

  Dr. Macomb's nurse answered, and she put Rick on hold so she could check on the lab results. Less than a minute later, she came back on the line with news that Rick didn't want to hear.

  The results weren't ready yet.

  Frustrated, Rick emphasized to her how important that particular lab work was, and he left a message for Dr. Macomb to call him ASAP.

  Because Natalie was speaking practically in a whisper to the doctor, Rick had no trouble hearing Macy's shoes click their way across the foyer and toward them. She appeared in the entryway.

  With no visible papers in her hands.

  And she was smiling.

  "Natalie. Rick," Macy greeted, waltzing back into the room. "You two look frazzled. As I probably do. I wasn't expecting guests tonight."

  Rick couldn't have been more surprised if she'd slapped him. "Are you all right?" he asked Macy.

  Natalie was obviously concerned as well because she quickly ended her call and stood. "Mom?"

  Macy smiled again and shook her head. "Why wouldn't I be all right?"

  Rick and Natalie exchanged a disquieting glance.

  "Macy, you were supposed to be getting some papers," Rick reminded her.

  "Papers?" Macy shrugged. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

  Chapter Six

  "I don't need to rest," Natalie insisted, but she might as well have been talking to the air. Because Rick was parking in front of her house anyway despite her protest. "What I need is to find Dr. Benjamin."

  "We've already tried. We called all over the city, and we can't find him. It's getting late, and there's nothing else we can do tonight."

  Rick used that tone. The one that set her teeth on edge. The me-Tarzan, you-Jane tone that let her know that he believed he was in charge here.

  If Natalie hadn't been so exhausted, she would have put up more of a fight. But she was exhausted. And Rick was correct in this case. It would be a waste of time to drive all over the city looking for the doctor, especially since his answering service had informed them that he'd be at his office the following day.

  "We'll get a good night's sleep and talk to the SOB first thing in the morning," Rick added.

  Natalie cleared her throat to indicate she wasn't buying that good night's sleep part.

  He shrugged. "Okay, so you'll try to sleep. For the sake of the baby."

  Until Rick had tacked on that last part, Natalie had been ready to argue with him again. But he was right about that as well.

  Damn him.

  He followed her inside, and as she pressed in the numbers on the keypad to stop the whine of her security system, Rick immediately began to look around. And that sent her heartbeat racing again.

  "You don't think someone broke in?" she asked.

  "No. I'm just checking." He did, too. Rick made his way through the house, opening doors and looking inside the rooms. "Is Kitt coming back tonight?" he called out to her from the top of the stairs.

  "No. When I phoned her about an hour ago, she said she was going to spend the night with Macy." Considering how Macy was acting, that was a necessity. "She also wanted to look around for those mysterious papers."

  If they existed.

  Natalie was afraid the papers might be a figment of her mother's odd behavior. That was yet something else for her to worry about. She'd be on pins and needles until they had the results back from the medical exam, and that wouldn't happen until morning.

  "Where are all your servants?" Rick asked.

  That riled her a bit, too, mainly because his question made it seem as if she had employees who waited on her hand and foot. Of course, Natalie had to concede that he might simply want information as to who might be around, so she tried to sound civil when she responded.

  "The housekeeper and the cook aren't live-ins. They left hours ago. Since tomorrow is Sunday and they have the day off, neither of them will be back in until day after tomorrow."

  He mumbled something under his breath and resumed his search. The mumble had probably been because he'd just realized they were alone.

  Natalie did some mumbling of her own.

  "Remember, I do have a security system," she pointed out, making her way up the stairs. "And Kitt installed some kind of device that'll make it harder to jam."

  She only hoped it would work better than it had last time.

  "The system covers all the windows and doors?" Rick asked.

  "Yes." She went down the hall toward the sound of his voice so she could explain that according to Kitt, it was the best security system money could buy, but Rick came out of one of the guest rooms and ran right into her.

  Literally.

  Body against body.

  He was solid. All muscle and strength. He reached out, temporarily scooping her into his arms, probably to make sure she wasn't off-balance. The embrace lasted mere seconds before he stepped away.

  Natalie immediately felt the loss of his arms, the warmth and strength of his body. And she hated that it felt like a loss. She shouldn't be thinking about Rick's arms.

  Or any other part of him.

  Especially the parts that involved kissing and sex.

  What was wrong with her anyway? She had more than enough problems without having sex dreams about Rick Gravari.

  "Everything seems clear," he informed her. He glanced around the hall, looking at everything but her. An indication that the embrace had had some kind of effect on him, too.

  Mercy.

  Something was wrong with both of them.

  "I'll get you something to eat." He stepped around her. "Then you should get some rest."

  Natalie shook her head and latched onto his arm so he couldn't leave. It was time to get something straight. "Rick, you don't have to play nursemaid, chef or bodyguard. I'm more than capable of taking care of myself. Last I heard, pregnancy doesn't equal helplessness."

  He shifted, and that slight shift put him closer to her. He stared at her. "Let's get something straight. You hate me. I know that. But you're just going to have to set that hatred aside and let me help you, understand? Because we don't know what we're dealing with. You could be in danger. The baby could be in danger."

  Oh. So, the baby was his bottom-line motivation. Especially, keeping the baby safe. She didn't approve of his ultimatum. No surprise there. But Natalie couldn't fault his reasoning or his concern.

  She finally nodded.

  Why?

  Because the man was batting a thousand in the being-right department.

  Still, Natalie had to make sure he knew that this pregnancy would not make her a wimp. Nothing could do that. "I won't let you take over my life."

  Which, of course, sounded petty in the grand scheme of things. Still, she wanted some boundaries. Some barriers. Especially since the ones they'd spent years erecting were tumbling down around them.

  "I don't want to take over your life," Rick assured her. "But I will protect you. I might be the last person on earth you want as the father of your child, but I do have a few attributes that might come in handy in this situation. I can kick some serious ass if necessary."

  Rick definitely fell into the alpha male, butt-kicking category. Ironic. She'd never really considered that an asset. Appealing, yes. Arousing, too.

&nb
sp; But never an asset.

  Until now.

  If it came down to it, Rick would protect her. Because she was carrying his child. And that made him a very good person to have on her side right now.

  Even if it complicated the heck out of her already complicated life.

  Rick walked to the end of the hall and stopped just outside her bedroom door. He propped his hands on his hips, looked around, and his attention finally landed on the tiny cherub sconce mounted on the corner wall. That small decorative piece hid the equally small security camera. The one that'd captured the beginning of their drugged sexual encounter.

  Natalie tipped her head to the camera. "Kitt hid it that way because she thought we had a problem with a former maid stealing things."

  Thank goodness, too. Without the camera, Natalie wouldn't have known who the father of her baby was. Of course, she also wouldn't have had such vivid images of being in Rick's arms. It was a double-edged sword.

  "I want to remember what happened that night," she heard him say.

  "Excuse me?" Natalie walked closer, certain she'd misunderstood him.

  Rick turned, looked at her. "I want to remember who drugged us," he clarified.

  "Oh." And she felt the blush warm her cheeks. Despite her earlier self-admonishment, her mind still wasn't where it should be because she'd immediately thought that he wanted to recall what had happened in the bedroom.

  Unfortunately, Natalie had been thinking a lot about that particular bedroom activity, and her imagination was working overtime. It didn't help that she'd often fantasized about Rick. A lot.

  Before David's death, anyway.

  However, since then Natalie had managed to bury those fantasies. And she would continue to do just that. The only way she could deal with the guilt of David's death was to keep the one promise he'd asked of Rick and her—to stay away from each other.

  And they would.

  Bolstered by her mental lecture, Natalie opened her bedroom door. "I'll get some rest. You do the same."

  But Rick didn't nod or agree; he just stood there. "I'm not leaving this house."