Katrina dropped her gaze to the floor, her eyes flitting back and forth over the linoleum floor. Nothing she had just witnessed was making any sense to her. Not one thing the two women were gossiping about seemed rational. How could the man she was head over heels in love with be having a baby with someone and she not know it? And why would Matthew not have been honest about such a thing if there were any truth to it? She couldn’t begin to fathom what was going on or rationalize any of his behavior.
Glancing back up, she saw that Matthew was still in the parking lot, standing in conversation with another attorney. His pregnant friend had disappeared from view. The room suddenly felt claustrophobic. Katrina could feel tears beginning to well in her eyes, and all she wanted was to get as far from the clerk’s office, and from him, as she possibly could.
Just as she was willing her body to move, the door behind her swung open and Vanessa stepped into the room. Katrina took a swift inhale of air. She shrank behind the door, hovering against the wall, wanting to disappear from sight. Vanessa’s attention was focused on Mrs. Banks, the older woman chatting her up. Katrina was grateful for the diversion, praying that Vanessa didn’t turn around and that Matthew stayed out in the parking lot. She didn’t want to be seen, and she didn’t want a confrontation of any kind until she could gain a semblance of understanding about the situation. Like a fly on the wall, she stood perfectly still, eavesdropping on the chatter around her.
“You look like you’re ready to drop that baby!” Mrs. Bright chimed.
Vanessa grinned, her head bobbing up and down. “Way past ready! Junior here is making mush of my insides,” she said excitedly.
The two older women laughed.
“You done dropped down low since the last time you were here,” Mrs. Banks observed. “I imagine that it won’t be too much longer. You and Mr. Stallion must be very excited,” she said.
Vanessa nodded, grinning brightly. “We were just talking about baby names, actually.”
“Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?” one of the women asked.
“No, ma’am. Not yet. I’m hoping for a boy, though. I hate to think I’ve been calling this kid Junior for nine whole months and it turns out to be a girl,” Vanessa replied. “And Matthew was just joking that if it’s a girl, we should name her Matt-lena or Matthew-anna.” Vanessa’s head waved from side to side. “But that’s not happening!” she said with a soft chuckle.
Katrina glanced out the window. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Everything Vanessa was saying seemed to confirm what the two women had just shared with her, corroborating that Matthew Stallion was indeed the child’s father.
Matthew was still outside, in deep conversation. Katrina wanted to move, to ease her way out the door, but she knew that to do so would draw attention to her being there. She leaned farther back against the wall, willing herself to disappear into the eggshell-colored paint. She closed her eyes and fought back the tears that threatened to spill past her lashes.
“Well, boy or girl, no matter what you name it, I know it will be a beautiful baby, ’cause Mr. Stallion is one good-looking man and you two are a beautiful couple.”
Vanessa laughed. “Well, thank you, but my baby will have my good looks no matter what. Matthew’s good looks don’t count a lick!”
“I know that’s right!” Mrs. Banks exclaimed.
Vanessa waved a quick goodbye. “I’m sure I will see you two ladies next week. Take care now,” she said as she eased out the door, never turning in Katrina’s direction.
The two women waved after her, both moving to get a good look out the window. Katrina took a deep breath and then a second, fighting to maintain her composure as she stared where they stared.
Outside, Vanessa made her way back to Matthew’s side. As she approached, he extended his arm until his fingertips touched her stomach. Vanessa said something that was apparently very funny, because he tossed his head back in glee, laughing openly. His head was waving from side to side as he shook a finger in her direction, a wide smile still blessing his handsome face.
Vanessa shrugged her shoulders, her palms facing skyward, and it appeared that Matthew was playfully admonishing her for something he found quite humorous. Together the duo made their way back to his car, and he helped her inside, leaning to help her maneuver the seat belt comfortably around her bulbous frame.
Katrina had seen more than enough when she excused herself from the room. As she bolted out the door, Mrs. Bright and Mrs. Banks both stared curiously after her. Mrs. Banks shrugged her shoulders, cutting an eye at her friend, and then both women went back to the business they were being paid for.
Once she was out in the parking lot, Katrina’s lone focus was making it to her car and home. She suddenly felt numb, wanting nothing more than to crawl beneath her covers until the past few months were nothing more than a bad memory. As she fumbled with the keys to her car, she heard her name being called from across the parking lot.
“Katrina?”
Looking up, she met Matthew’s intense gaze. He was clearly surprised to see her standing there.
He looked from her to the pregnant woman and back to her again, confusion painting his expression. Tears suddenly streamed down Katrina’s face. She was unable to contain the hurt of the experience a moment longer.
She turned back to her car and the keys that rattled in the palm of her hand. For a quick second it looked as if Matthew intended to move toward her, but then he spun back around, his attention clearly diverted by the other woman calling out to him. Swiping at the rush of moisture that dampened her eyes, Katrina dropped down into her vehicle, turned on the ignition and made a quick exit, heading toward home.
Chapter 20
“I’ll be John Brown!” Vanessa exclaimed, her breathing coming in short gasps. “No one told me anything about this.” She grimaced as a wave of excruciating pain cut through her abdomen. She screamed out in pain.
“Just hold on,” Matthew barked as he floored the engine of his vehicle, the tires spinning in the direction of the local hospital. As he maneuvered through traffic, he engaged the voice-activation system for his cell phone and called the ranch. Marah picked up the telephone.
“Hello?”
“Marah, hey. It’s me, Matthew.”
“Hey there! What’s going on?”
“I am headed to the hospital with Vanessa. I think she’s having the baby.”
As if to reinforce his theory, Vanessa cried out again, her screams echoing in the background.
Marah laughed excitedly. “Sounds like you’ve got your hands full. I’ll rally the family and we will meet you two there!”
Matthew nodded into his earpiece. “Thanks, Marah, and please, hurry!” he said after a brief pause.
Minutes later Matthew was pacing the floors of the hospital, not having a clue about what was going on. He’d pulled up in front of the emergency-room doors, and two members of the medical staff had come running with a wheelchair. By the time he’d parked his car and found his way inside, they had rushed Vanessa up to labor and delivery. As he strode from one end of the lengthy corridor to the other, he was still waiting for someone to come give him an update.
He blew a gust of warm breath past his full lips. A rash of thoughts were racing through his head. He couldn’t begin to fathom how a simple trip to the courthouse could have blown up on him the way it had. He pulled his hands up and over his head, clasping them together behind the back of his neck.
There was no mistaking the look on Katrina’s face. Clearly, something or someone had given her the wrong impression. The moment he’d seen her, it had been obvious. Hurt had shimmered in her dark eyes, and he knew that he was somehow responsible for the pain that had lingered in her gaze.
It had been his intent to smooth things over quickly and finally
introduce the two women, but before he could get to Katrina’s side, to wrap his arms around her and turn the moment around, Vanessa had screamed out in pain, pleading with him to get her some help. Then Katrina was gone and he was headed here, not having a clue where it had all gone wrong.
He depressed the redial button on his cell phone. For the umpteenth time Katrina didn’t answer, his call going directly to her voice mail. He could only imagine what his good friend Vanessa had said when she’d gone inside the courthouse. He knew how she joked, and he knew that she enjoyed joking when it would not serve him well. He could only wonder if she’d said something directly to Katrina or if it was something Katrina had overheard and misconstrued. Vanessa always found her little pranks funny, but this was truly no laughing matter.
Matthew spun toward the sound of voices moving in his direction. The Stallion clan had come in full force, the whole family racing toward him excitedly.
“What’s happening?” Mark asked, his arm wrapped around Michelle’s waist. “Has she had the baby yet?”
Matthew shook his head. “I’m still waiting to hear something.”
As if on cue, Vanessa’s obstetrician, Dr. Robert Hayes, appeared from behind a closed door. His expression was serious as he extended his hand in greeting.
“Mr. Stallion, good to see you again,” he said, shaking hands with Matthew.
“How is she, Doc?” Matthew asked.
“Vanessa has a severe case of preeclampsia.”
“What’s preeclampsia?” John asked, still holding hands with his wife, Marah.
“It’s a condition where high blood pressure and excess protein in the mother’s urine develop late in the pregnancy. Right now Vanessa’s blood pressure is sky-high and I’m concerned about the baby’s oxygen levels.”
“So what does that mean?” Matthew nervously asked.
“It means that we’re about to deliver this baby. We’re preparing her for a C-section right now.”
“Isn’t it too early?” Michelle asked, her own palm pressed against her pregnant belly. “I mean, Vanessa is due after me and I still have a little while to go.”
“The baby’s lungs are fully developed. He’ll be a little small, and we may have to keep our eye on him for a while, but I don’t anticipate there will be any problems.”
“So Vanessa is going to be okay?” Matthew asked.
The doctor nodded. “She’s going to be just fine.”
* * *
“And he never said anything about this woman?”
Katrina shook her head. “No, Lacey, not one word. He never gave me any hint that there was someone else in his life, and definitely not someone having his baby.”
The two women sat in Katrina’s kitchen, on cushioned stools pulled up to the counter. A bottle of Jack Daniel’s and two shot glasses sat between them. Lacey filled both glasses and pushed one in her best friend’s direction.
“You need to talk with him.”
Katrina shook her head, screwing up her face. “I don’t have anything to say to that man. I should never have let myself become attached to him.”
“He loves you, Katrina. And you love him. That’s obvious.”
“What is obvious is that he made a fool out of me. He fathered another woman’s baby, and he didn’t have the decency to tell me. He and that woman will be committed to each other for the next eighteen years. I can’t take that lightly, Lacey. Maybe he can but if he loved me, he should have thought that was important enough to tell me about.”
Lacey heaved a deep sigh. “I still think you need to talk with him, though. Communication, remember?”
Katrina lifted her eyes to stare out into space. She suddenly felt burdened, when just hours earlier she didn’t have a care in the world. Now she had more questions than she did answers, but she was afraid to ask any of them. Fearful that everything she’d come to believe about her and Matthew had been a bald-faced lie. Fearful that Matthew had never loved or wanted her the way she loved and wanted him. Fearful that the man she thought she knew well enough to commit herself to was instead a complete stranger to her. Fear was fueling every ounce of doubt and confusion in her spirit.
He had looked happy with the woman. She could tell by the way he touched her belly that he was clearly comfortable with their pregnancy. If there was any truth to what his friend had said to the two older women, then they had been thinking about names for their baby. The man she was in love with and was about to marry shouldn’t have been thinking about names for a baby that was half his and wasn’t half hers.
Shaking the thoughts from her head, Katrina rolled her eyes skyward as she reached for the bottle of drink and poured herself another shot. “Damn communication,” she spat out. “I think we’re about one baby too late for that.”
* * *
Matthew wasn’t accustomed to being ignored. The fact that Katrina refused to answer his calls was truly starting to annoy him. What was bothering him most was her refusal to let him explain. He desperately wanted to explain, to make things well between them.
He navigated his car through downtown Dallas, headed for Katrina’s home. It was almost three o’clock in the morning, but he had no intentions of either one of them going to bed angry that night. In fact, he had no intentions of either one of them starting their day on bad terms with the other. She would hear him out, whether she wanted to or not.
He heaved a deep sigh. It had been an exceptionally long day and he was exhausted. He was past ready for a good night’s sleep, but he knew he couldn’t rest until he held Katrina in his arms and kissed her lips. Katrina kissing him back would mean that the two of them were on track again, and he needed that more than he had ever needed anything before. He needed Katrina to love him and to trust his love for her. He needed her more than she would ever know.
Matthew pulled his car to a stop at the intersection of Skillman Street and Royal Lane. He waited for the red light to turn green, strumming his fingers impatiently against the steering wheel.
A wry smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. Just a few short hours ago, after giving birth to a five-pound-four-and-one-half-ounce baby boy, Vanessa had scolded him for not rushing after Katrina sooner. He could only shake his head at the absurdity, since all of this was her fault as far as he was concerned. Vanessa hadn’t seen it his way, having no understanding of what he was being so sensitive about.
He and his brothers had been in awe of the little bundle of life that had slept so peacefully in their friend’s arms. And there had been no missing that young Master Vaughan Long had his donor father’s looks, the child blessed with green eyes, light brown curls and a more cream than café au lait complexion. Even Vanessa had eyed her baby boy with surprise, laughing heartily that baby Vaughan looked nothing at all like his mother and had not one single, solitary Stallion family feature.
Once Matthew had been assured that mother and child were both well, he had blasted their family friend once again for her cavalier attitude toward people thinking he had fathered her child. “The truth has surely revealed itself,” Vanessa had said with a deep chuckle, and it had, as they had all joked that Matthew didn’t even need a blood test to prove that Vanessa’s baby wasn’t his.
Pulling into Katrina’s driveway, Matthew parked his car and hurried to her front door. Ringing the bell, he waited anxiously for someone to answer. Not a single light illuminated the inside. Ten minutes later he was still standing outside the spacious home, no sign of Katrina to be found.
Chapter 21
At that very moment what Katrina was most thankful for was the anonymity. She’d found a comfortable corner in the lobby of the Brisas Del Mar Inn. The space was warm and inviting with its Mediterranean decor, and there was no one there who knew her or knew anything about her. In fact, with the exception of the hotel’s front desk clerk,
a woman with a dark mahogany complexion and black-suede eyes, there was no one else there. Katrina imagined that all the other guests were ensconced in the inn’s lavish and romantic suites, having settled down for the night.
Katrina hadn’t been able to sleep, and so she had tossed on a pair of cotton sweats and had walked the immaculate property, admiring the views of the Santa Ynez Mountains off in the distance as the last remnants of sunlight settled behind the foothills. Then she’d found a lush recliner in the corner of the lobby, poured a cup of English toffee-flavored coffee and rested herself there, trying to free her mind of Matthew Stallion.
She heaved a deep sigh. It had been four weeks and she’d managed to successfully avoid any and all contact with the man. After her encounter with his friend Vanessa in the county clerk’s office, she’d asked for an emergency leave of absence to tend to a personal matter. Then she’d packed her son off to his grandparents’ home in Arizona for an impromptu visit. Once she was assured that Collin was safe and content, she’d secreted herself away to one of her favorite spots in Santa Barbara.
Her personal cell phone had been left behind in Dallas, the device neither missed nor wanted. It was easier not to think about calling him when she didn’t have to look at her cell phone tempting her. And she didn’t want to know if he was trying to call her. And now she’d found herself a comfortable corner to dwell in, relieved not to have to sit another lonely night in her lavish suite, thinking about him and the woman having his baby.
The woman having his baby. Katrina shook her head from side to side. One month ago she’d felt betrayed. She couldn’t begin to comprehend why Matthew would have withheld that kind of information from her. She’d been manic, almost obsessed about it. Her reaction had thrown her for a loop. She didn’t understand why she was riding an emotional roller coaster over it all, when usually she was able to take everything in stride. Then a visit to her family physician for something to calm her nerves and help her sleep had given her a secret of her own to hide.
Seduced by a Stallion Page 16
