The Lion's Surprise Baby

by Jade White

It took more willpower than he wanted to admit walking away from Melissa when he walked her to her car. Tilly was ordering his crew around like a drill sergeant. Thomas was confident the office would be in pristine condition soon enough. He couldn’t resist pulling Melissa into one more long hug before letting her get in her car and back away. He could have asked her if he could come along on her trip to Bruce. It wouldn’t have been a crazy request; she was doing this for their baby. The question was on the tip of his tongue, but he was able to hold it back long enough to get her away from him.

  Thomas climbed in his car and backed up while dialing Blair. Melissa may have been convinced that her ex wasn’t behind the threats, but he wasn’t going to be positive until he had some proof. And God help the person that was doing this to them. He would make them regret it.

  “What’s up? Did you fall in love yet? I need to get to the sheet to find out who picked today.” Blair answered the phone with the background noise that sounded as if he was in a construction zone.

  “Where are you?”

  “Spying on a pretty lady I met last night. I want make sure she wasn’t lying about some of the things she told me.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to put it on hold. I need you to track down Nathaniel and make sure he doesn’t have any connections that he could pull to destroy Melissa’s office.” He didn’t mention the men threatening him the other night. Right now, protecting Melissa and getting some answers was all he was worried about.

  “What happened?” Blair asked, the squeak on the phone letting Thomas know he was sitting up from whatever hunched position he was currently in.

  Thomas laid out the details of Melissa’s office and explained what Melissa had told him about Nathaniel being in jail.

  Blair whistled loudly. “That’s pretty crazy stuff. You guys are going to be head over heels in love with each other sooner than I thought.”

  “Shut up, Blair. Just call me when you find out anything about her ex.” Thomas hung up the phone before Blair had a chance to stop cackling like a hen and answer him.

  He pulled into his parking garage determined to get some work done for the day somehow. He was surprised to see Bruce waiting for him outside his building.

  “Listen, Thomas, can I have a minute to talk to you about Melissa?”

  He wasn’t sure what exactly Bruce could want to tell him, but something in Bruce’s eyes told him this was something he was going to want to hear.

  “Yeah, man, come on up to the office.” Thomas led the way through the building and up to his office. “Can I get you a drink or something?”

  “No, this will only take a minute. I want you to know about the risks associated with what you’re doing.”

  “Melissa told me the baby might not make it, and he or she might not have the gene.” Thomas wasn’t sure how much Bruce knew about the paranormal world.

  “This isn’t about the bear baby—yes, I know what you are. I know about all of it and sometimes I think it would be easier if I didn’t know. I’m talking about the effect it’s having on Melissa.”

  Thomas straightened. “What kind of effect?”

  “Every time she takes the full treatment, she’s violently ill for hours, having to go to bed and cancel all her patients for the day. The treatments change her body in ways we haven’t even started to study, and I’m worried about how bad the after-effects will be. I care about Melissa, but I’m not telling you this because I’m jealous. I’m telling you this because I want you to understand what you’re asking her to do. I don’t think I would be a good friend if I didn’t.”

  “Why hasn’t Melissa told me this?” Thomas was angry; he didn’t know how sick she’d been. He was angry with her for not telling him.

  “Because she wants to do it. She wants her research to work and she values that more than her own health. It’s hard to talk her out of something once she decides it’s what she wants to do.” He smiled.

  Thomas could tell Bruce did genuinely care for Melissa. He decided he wouldn’t mind terribly if they got together and Bruce was around his kid. The fact that he was looking out for her was enough to stifle the jealously Thomas felt toward him.

  “Thank you for telling me, Bruce. I’m definitely going to talk to her and take into consideration everything you’ve told me.”

  “Okay, then I’ve done what I can.” Bruce reached out and shook his hand. “I have to get back to my office before Melissa gets there. I’ll see my way out.”

  Thomas sat for a long time trying to figure out the best approach for the situation. He was really upset she hadn’t been honest about what the shots were doing to her body. Maybe he’d been too quick to okay an experimental process because he wanted a child so badly. He really needed to talk her and figure out what the best choice for her would be, he’d never be able to live with himself if she was permanently hurt because of him.

  ***

  Melissa pulled into a random parking lot and screamed into the interior of her car. Too many people were around her at her office for her to be able to have the mandatory melt down you are allowed to have when your life was violated. Tears tracked down her eyes as she punched the wheel, making the horn sound off, scaring the hell out of her.

  The moment she noticed her building had been vandalized, she had been holding off a major panic attack. It was pulling on her full force, trying to get her to break. Melissa focused on her breathing, willing her body to calm down. Thomas’ large arms surrounding her filtered into her head and her lungs started to expand. She focused on picturing Thomas. His strong warm body protecting her. The clean scent that seemed to always surround him. After a moment, the panic started to ebb and she was no longer shaking.

  Why did he have to be so amazing? He swooped in and saved the day without her having to prompt him. Melissa would have to remind Nathaniel multiple times just to take out the trash, and in the end most of the time she would end up doing it. Thomas just took charge, knowing exactly what she needed and helping her get it.

  He acted as a band-aid the entire morning. Soothing her and making everything seem like it would be all right. That was until he mentioned his date with Hilary.

  “I’m so stupid,” Melissa moaned into the empty car.

  She hadn’t been lying to him about wanting to get started on making the baby immediately. These people, whoever they were, meant business. Melissa was afraid to push it any further. Besides, when Thomas held her, she stupidly thought they were a united front. Making a baby with him while he was being attentive seemed like the right choice. But right after she mentioned them making a baby, the old fashioned way, no less, he mentioned one of the people she would never be able compare to.

  Melissa’s head dropped to the headrest as tears streamed down her eyes. “Please let this be because of the hormones,” she said out loud. This connection she felt toward Thomas needed to stop immediately. He was going to be with Hilary and she was going to be with herself. Melissa knew she needed to stop herself from forming any more of an attachment to Thomas. If she didn’t, she would be miserable the rest of her life. Anything she had to share with him in the parental way would be awful if she didn’t get a handle on her emotions.

  With her resolve in place, she started her car and drove to Bruce’s office. The one good thing about the injections was she would be sleeping it off all day and wouldn’t have to deal with any Thomas turmoil for the moment.

  Bruce’s secretary, Glenna, a pudgy, middle-aged woman with no sense of humor, greeted Melissa when she walked in. Melissa felt a pang of resentment that his office was intact while hers was in ruin. She adored Bruce, but she preferred the home-like feel of her office to the modern feel of his.

  “He is with a patient. He wants you to wait in his office,” Glenna told her, going back to her computer before the words left her mouth. It had taken Melissa a while to calm down in the parking lot so she’d missed an opportunity where he had a lull.

  “Thank you, Glenna.” Melissa plastered on her bigges
t fake smile and walked toward Bruce’s office.

  Inside his office was exactly like his waiting room. Everything was chrome with sharp angles and odd splashes of color. Melissa longed for her office when she sat on what had to be the world’s most uncomfortable couch. Bruce entered a couple of minutes later, and really it wasn’t a minute too soon. Her legs were starting to cramp from the uncomfortable position she was sitting in.

  “Was that him?” he asked nonchalantly. He would have pulled it off too if his hand wasn’t pressing a little too hard when he was swabbing her skin for the injections.

  “Yes. He will be the father of my child. And honestly Bruce, I don’t want to hear it. My morning has been awful. My office is in shambles. If you could cut me some slack and inject me so I can go home and go to sleep, I would really appreciate it.”

  “Melissa, we need to talk about this. You can still pull out of this. You aren’t pregnant yet.” He abandoned his pretense of getting her skin ready for injection.

  “Well, that won’t be true on Wednesday. I need to get these injections, Bruce. I’m already running late on when I should’ve taken them. This needs to be put in the data as soon as possible.”

  “Wednesday! As in this Wednesday?” he asked shooting off of the couch.

  Melissa envied the fact that he was no longer on the torture device he called a couch.

  “Yes, this Wednesday. As in two days from now. Can you please just get on with it?”

  “Melissa, I’m going to ask you one more time. You aren’t going to need me after this because these treatments won’t be needed once you’re pregnant. Are you really sure about this?” His eyes searched her face.

  Melissa placed her hand on his. “Yes, I want this. I already love this baby. Bruce, I appreciate your concern but this is what I want.”

  Bruce exhaled and continued getting her ready for the injections. His jaw clenched as he inserted the first shot. Liquid fire coursed through her. As many times as she had done this, she was still surprised how painful it was. She gritted her teeth as he continued to inject her.

  Once the injections were over, she ran to his bathroom and heaved until there was nothing left. Because of her office being destroyed, she had forgotten to take the nausea medicine she had been taking, not that it was really helping. It was more reassuring herself that she was trying not to get sick by taking them. Once she was spent, Bruce helped her up.

  “I’ll drive you home,” he told her leading her out of his office.

  “But what about my car?” she asked leaning heavily on him.

  “I'll take you home in your car, and Uber back to my office.”

  “Thank you. I need to enter all my data before I go to sleep,” Melissa said as she tried hard not to fall asleep in her car.

  “I'll enter everything for you. I brought my medical bag. I’ll take your vitals and have it ready for you when you feel better.”

  “Thank you so much, Bruce.”

  True to his word, he helped her get situated on her couch before taking her vitals and entering everything in. Melissa tried to thank him again, but fell asleep before the words left her mouth.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Thomas paced in his office the day after Melissa’s break-in, waiting for Blair to call him. He picked up his phone four times, putting it down with more force each time. While he was waiting, there was something he had to do he’d been putting off.

  He dialed the office and then cursed himself for being a coward. He was only calling the office hoping she wouldn’t answer. Letting it ring three times, he was about to hang up when Tilly answered.

  He put on a braver voice than he actually felt like projecting. “I need to speak with Melissa immediately.”

  “She’s not here yet, sugar,” Tilly said. “Why do you sound so serious?”

  “I have been informed the shots she’s taking are making her really sick. I don’t want her putting herself in danger because of me. If the shots are hurting her, I’m going to ask her to stop doing them immediately.” He was proud of himself for getting all of the words out, but knew he wouldn’t have been as easy going with them if he was talking to Melissa.

  “Okay, Thomas, look, I’m sure you have the best intentions for Melissa in telling her to stop, but I’m not going to let you talk to her.”

  “Why wouldn’t you let me talk to her? Is she there?”

  “For a couple of reasons. One, Melissa wouldn’t be doing this if she didn’t want to. She knew what she would be putting her body through from the beginning. She knew even better after she took the first shot. You telling her to quit now is just really harsh. She’s already dealt with it this long and you’re close to trying to conceive. I don’t know why you think that would be helpful.”

  Tilly sounded mad at him. He’d thought it would be the best thing for Melissa to stop something that was hurting her, but now he really wasn’t sure. “I just don’t want her to suffer for this and then have something go wrong. I couldn’t stand it if I was the reason she was caused grief.”

  “You know what, Thomas, you’re a good guy. Melissa is lucky you’re going to be the father of her child, but that stubborn little thing isn’t going to quit. If you tell her she should, she’s just going to get mad at you and you don’t really want that, do you?”

  “No, I don’t want her to be mad at me. I’m still going to be worried.”

  “I’m taking care of her, and if there’s something you need to know, I promise I will tell you. So just trust me, okay?”

  “All right Tilly, you take care of her for me.” Thomas felt better after he hung up the phone. Tilly was probably right about Melissa getting angry if he tried to stop her from taking the treatments. He went back to trying to work on some things that had piled up on his desk.

  Janet buzzed his intercom. “Ms. Dalton is here to see you.” Janet’s voice was professional and she knew how hard Thomas worked to get her account. With all that known, he still detected some annoyance in his secretary’s voice.

  “Send her in,” Thomas said, trying to dispel his nervous energy.

  As much as he enjoyed talking to Hilary, and by talking he meant flirting with her while he stared at her magnificent body and thought of all the things he wanted to do with her, he was on Janet’s side of not being overly excited at Hilary’s arrival.

  She strutted in in a short red dress.

  “Hello, I wasn’t expecting to see you until our date.”

  Her lip pushed out and her eyes squinted for a split second before she went back to the wide-eyed Hilary he was used to. “Are you not happy to see me?” she asked, coming around his desk and leaning against it inches from him.

  “Of course I’m happy to see you,” he said, letting his eyes travel up her revealed legs. “I just wasn't expecting you that’s all.”

  “I wanted to see you. I missed you,” she said, trailing her fingernail down his chest. “Did you miss me?”

  “Of course I missed you.” Thomas leaned back in his chair. Hilary had always been forward with how she felt about him, but the way she was acting was different. She had a hint of desperation on her, and it made Thomas uncomfortable.

  Some time ago he formed a habit that he really wished he wouldn’t have done. Since talking to Melissa daily and wondering about her throughout his day, he'd picked up the habit of comparing every other woman he met to her. If that wasn’t bad enough, none of them were even close to meeting the standards he had witnessed in Melissa.

  Because of this new habit, he wasn’t sure if Hilary had always been desperate or if he was just seeing it now because of Melissa. Or maybe this was a new habit that she discovered.

  “I was thinking why don’t we go out for lunch. I can give you a preview of what will happen on Thursday.”

  Thomas opened his mouth to take her up on her offer when his phone rang. Blair’s name popped up on his screen, and he lunged for it, dislodging Hilary’s hand in the process.

  “Hey!” she yelled at him. She stood up
straight, looking down her perfectly pointy nose at him.

  “I’m so sorry, Hilary. I have to take this.” Thomas answered the phone, his hand on her thigh keeping her from storming out of his office. “Blair, give me a second,” he said into his phone before placing it on his leg.

  “I really need to take this call. It’s very important. I’m really looking forward to Thursday, and I want to take you up on your offer for lunch, but I have to play boss man right now.” Thomas didn’t feel as bad as he thought he would when he lied. And a small portion of him felt he was lying about Thursday, also.

  “Your loss. I’ll see you on Thursday.” Hilary leaned over, giving him an unobstructed view of her cleavage before brushing her lips over his. She turned and sauntered out, her ass moving like a swing in a wind storm.

  As soon as she was out of sight, he pulled the phone up to his ear. “Talk to me, Blair.”

  “Who were you talking to? If that was Melissa and you are keeping your love from me, I’m never going to help you again,” Blair huffed into the phone.

  Thomas rolled his eyes. If Blair kept this up, he was going to ask Janet if she knew some other P.I. he could use.

  “You have no claim on anything Melissa and I do. And we are not falling in love. I told you, this is a business transaction. We will both treat our child with the love he or she deserves, but nothing will come of us. I will respect her and appreciate what she has given me and nothing more,” Thomas said, hearing the exasperation in his voice. How was it he was so annoyed and it wasn’t even lunch time yet?

  “I heard a woman’s voice. I wish you wouldn’t have muffled what you two were saying.”

  Thomas cut him off before he could keep badgering him. He wanted to know what Blair had learned in his shoddy detective work, but he also knew he wouldn’t get anything out of him until he gave Blair what he wanted.

  “Yes, o great detective. You did hear a woman’s voice. It wasn’t Melissa’s voice though, it was Hilary Dalton. We were confirming our date for Thursday. Now, will you please let me know what you found out?”