Katrina heaved another deep sigh, her palm falling to her abdomen. The doctor’s news had been a complete shock. She was still unraveled by the revelation, her mind entertaining the memory of the moment. Dr. Wallace Brandt’s warm smile had been a welcome sight as he’d come into the examination room, clipboard and ink pen in hand.
“Katrina, my friend! What brings you here this morning?”
Katrina had shrugged her shoulders skyward. “Hi, Dr. Brandt. I’ve been experiencing some minor anxiety and was hoping you’d be able to give me something to take the edge off.”
“Have you been sleeping?”
“No, sir, not well.”
“What’s going on in your life, Katrina?” he’d asked as he peered into her ears with a light scope. “How’s work?”
She’d shrugged again. “I was appointed to a new district. It’s been challenging.”
“And your personal life? What’s going on there?”
There was a moment of silence as she met the doctor’s inquisitive stare. The answer was painted all over her face, her emotions awhirl. Her doctor nodded his head as if she’d answered out loud, his all-knowing look moving her to roll her eyes.
Dr. Brandt chuckled. “I get the impression there’s a story there,” he said, pressing a stethoscope to her back.
“Nothing I’m interested in sharing,” she said softly, fighting back the emotion from her tone.
The doctor nodded as he leaned back against the room’s counter, eyeing her chart with interest. “I see my nurse took some blood and urine already.”
“Yes, she did.”
“When was your last period?” the doctor asked, lifting his eyes to meet hers.
Katrina’s expression was suddenly blank. “Well…it was…no…” she muttered, her eyes darting back and forth as she tried to remember the exact date of her last menstrual cycle. “I don’t…” She paused, her eyes suddenly widening.
The doctor held up his hand. “Give me a minute,” he said as he moved to the door and out into the hallway.
Katrina’s thoughts were on fast-forward as she tried to establish a time line that actually made some sense to her. When she failed, a wave of panic suddenly consumed her. When the doctor returned to the room, she was bent forward, her head between her legs as she gasped for air. The physician’s large hand against her shoulder moved her to sit back up.
“We just ran a urinalysis, and we’ll run a blood test to confirm the diagnosis, Katrina, but it would seem that you are pregnant. Congratulations!”
She was completely floored by the doctor’s news. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it just as quickly. Her heartbeat was pounding harshly in her chest. She took a deep breath, held it and blew the air past her lips.
“That’s not possible,” she said finally. “We used a condom. We always used a condom,” she said emphatically.
The doctor nodded. “I’m sure you did, but condoms do have a failure rate. Even with perfect condom usage, and that means using condoms consistently and correctly every single time, three out of every one hundred women may find themselves pregnant. I have no doubts that you and your partner acted in a very responsible manner, but you have just found yourself one of a very small minority of women who experience an unintended pregnancy while on some form of birth control.”
Katrina dropped her body back against the examining table. She pulled her hands to her face, covering her eyes with her fingers. She couldn’t begin to fathom how any of this could have happened.
Katrina shook the memory from her thoughts. Her stomach quivered ever so slightly, a light flutter of nervous energy wafting through her spirit. She took a sip of her hot drink and shifted her body around in her seat. For the past few weeks she’d been living with the knowledge that she was pregnant with Matthew Stallion’s baby, and she still didn’t have a clue what she planned to do about it.
What she did know was that she couldn’t hide out forever. When she’d spoken to Collin, her son had asked when they would both be heading back home to Dallas, the boy already weary of his grandparents and wanting to be back among his friends. He’d complained about everything from the dry Arizona heat to having to actually do chores around the family’s home. “I’m missing school!” he’d whined, both of them knowing that it was not his classes he was anxious to get back to. The teachers had sent his schoolwork with him, and she knew that his grandfather, a stern disciplinarian, had already ensured that every ounce of it was finished. But she didn’t have an answer for him, not knowing when she would be ready to face him, or Matthew, with the news that she was pregnant.
Pregnant and unmarried. This was hardly the example she wanted to set. This was so far removed from the example she should have been setting. She waved her head from side to side, drawing her knees to her chest as she dropped her forehead against them. She had always lectured her son to be responsible. She had continually told him that sex before marriage was a definite no-no, that such an intimate act should be reserved for the sanctity of a loving, committed relationship. Commitment being the key word. Even if she hadn’t practiced what she’d been preaching, she hoped her son would never find that out.
And what about the young women she frequently mentored? What lessons was she teaching them about responsibility and parenting? Although people barely batted an eyelash at pregnancy outside marriage anymore, Katrina had been raised differently and had always wanted her actions to reflect those teachings. She wanted the young women who looked up to her to know that saving themselves was nothing to be ashamed of, and that if a man truly loved them, then not only would he be willing to wait, but he would be willing to commit to marriage before starting a family. She often lectured that getting pregnant and having a baby were no guarantee for a successful, loving relationship with any man, and she often told young women not to think that such a thing was an option.
She heaved a deep sigh. There was much they would all have to deal with, and in that moment Katrina couldn’t begin to comprehend what life would be like once they returned to the real world. Everything felt beyond her control and it was not a feeling she liked. She was also still lost in her own pity party, enjoying her woes much too much. But as she took one last sip of her flavored drink, she committed to shifting back into a semblance of normalcy before the week was out.
She still had her child to care for and another on the way, and if nothing else, both of her babies needed her to be a strong example for them to emulate. Running from her problems wasn’t what she wanted Collin, or the new baby, to learn. It wasn’t who she was, and so she decided in that very moment that no matter what happened from that point forward, she would be the strong, dependable woman she knew herself to be. And she would be the woman having Matthew Stallion’s baby.
* * *
“I need your help,” Matthew stated the minute Vanessa had opened her front door.
She laughed heartily, her head waving from side to side. “Good morning to you, too!”
Baby Vaughan was cradled against her breast, suckling eagerly. His mother gestured with her index finger for Matthew to follow her inside.
“I mean it, Vanessa,” Matthew said emphatically as he closed the front door behind them. “I really need your help.”
“What’s wrong?” Vanessa said as she moved back to the rocking chair inside her living room. She adjusted the baby against her lap. “What’s got you so twisted?”
Matthew moved to her kitchen and the refrigerator, reaching inside for a container of orange juice. He focused his gaze on everything but Vanessa and her nursing infant. “Are you almost finished?” he asked, pouring juice into a glass.
“Does my feeding my son make you uncomfortable?” Vanessa’s smile was teasing.
Matthew waved a dismissive hand. “No. I just need your full attention. This is important.”
Matthew winced as he shook his head. “I swear, woman!”
“So, what do you need?” she asked as she drew the baby to her shoulder, patting him lightly on his back so that he burped the excess air from his tummy.
“I need you to help me find Katrina.”
“Where did she go?” Vanessa asked.
Matthew tossed her an annoyed look. “If I knew where she went, I wouldn’t be asking you to help me find her, now, would I?”
“How do you lose your woman?”
“I had you running interference in my life. Any woman would run.”
“I was just doing what I do best. Personally, I’ve never had a problem holding on to my women.”
Matthew rolled his eyes. “Good for you, Vanessa. But now you need to fix the mess you made by helping me find my girl. Please.”
“Are you sure you really want to find her? I mean…”
Matthew cleared his throat, moving to the couch and dropping down against the cushions. “Don’t go there, Vanessa. I am not in the mood this morning.”
His friend smirked, shaking her head. She lifted herself and her son from the rocking chair. She crossed the room and laid the infant in Matthew’s lap.
“Support his head,” she said as she buttoned her cotton blouse, adjusting it around her full chest. Moving to the desk on the far side of the room, she shuffled through a pile of papers, pulling one of the documents into her hands. She moved over to where Matthew sat and dropped down beside him, passing the paperwork to him. “I’m already a step ahead of you. John hired me a week ago.”
Matthew cut his eye in her direction as he cooed and made faces at his godchild. “John asked you to look for Katrina?”
“He figured that by the time you got around to asking, most of the legwork could already be finished,” she said, nodding. “And he was right.”
“Why would my brother ask you to find Katrina?”
“Because you’ve been moping around like a little lost puppy since she disappeared. You don’t want to admit it, but you’re pissed off that she won’t talk to you. Then you let your pride get in the way. If she won’t talk to you, then you’re not going to talk to her. Now you’re missing her so badly that you can’t focus on anything. Just getting all up in your own way. It didn’t take rocket science to figure out that you would need a little help.”
Matthew inhaled, taking a deep breath of oxygen. He wanted to protest but knew his friend was right. “So what did you find out?” he asked instead as he nuzzled the baby beneath his chin.
“I tracked her credit-card charges. She really wasn’t too difficult to find.”
“And you were able to do this how?”
Vanessa grinned. “Let’s just say I have friends in high places,” she answered with a wink of her eye.
Matthew stared at the document before him. “So this is where she is now?”
“It’s where she’s been for the last few weeks.”
Matthew reached for Vanessa’s hand and squeezed it. “Thank you.”
Vanessa smiled. “Don’t ever say I didn’t do right by you, big daddy!”
He smiled back. “Is there anything else I need to know?”
She nodded. “The Stallion jet is already fueled and ready to take off whenever you are. John said to call him as soon as you get everything straightened out.”
“And he knew I’d be going because…?”
“Because I called him right after you called me to say you were on your way over.”
Matthew laughed. “I love my family.”
Vanessa laughed with him as she reached for baby Vaughan. “I love our family, too! Now give me my baby and get out of here.”
* * *
As the pilot announced their descent toward the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport, Matthew’s stomach flipped and curdled with anxiety. Since takeoff he’d done nothing but recite over and over in his head what he planned to say to Katrina. Now that he was minutes away from being able to see her, the words were a jumbled mess in his head.
Since he last saw Katrina, he’d had much he wanted to say, starting with just how unhappy he was with her ignoring him. Matthew wasn’t accustomed to any woman ignoring him so blatantly. And Katrina’s disregard had been blatant. It had left him with hurt feelings, had made him mad and had him questioning whether or not he was cut out for a monogamous relationship.
Once he’d moved his ego out of the way, he’d been worried that something might have happened to her or Collin. When he’d discovered she had taken a brief leave of absence from court and had pulled her son out of school for an extended period of time, he’d gone looking for her friend and neighbor.
Lacey had been a fountain of information, spilling admonishments and accusations faster than a water pipe with a leak. She’d been protective of her best friend, and since Katrina had declared him to be lower than low, Lacey had considered him a doormat and nothing more. He was hardly surprised when Lacey told him that Katrina knew about Vanessa and the baby. He didn’t bother to tell her the truth. Katrina was the only one who mattered. But Lacey hadn’t given him anything to go on, refusing to tell him where he could find the woman he was in love with.
With that door slammed squarely in his face, Matthew had become even more frustrated. He’d also become even more adamant about finding Katrina and setting things straight between them. Toward that end he couldn’t deny Vanessa’s private-investigator skills, their family friend having proven herself to be very adept at finding a very small needle in a very large haystack. And just like he knew she would, Vanessa had come through for him.
Now here he was, landing in Santa Barbara, about to come face-to-face with Katrina, and his mind was a complete and total mush. Matthew blew a deep sigh, secured his seat belt and waited for the aircraft to touch down.
Chapter 22
Matthew had barely checked into the hotel before he was searching the property for her. After instructing the hotel’s staff to deposit his luggage in his room, he had finagled her room number from the front desk clerk and had gone knocking on her door. When he’d gotten no answer, he’d gone searching the inn’s lavish grounds.
He saw Katrina well before she saw him. She lay on a cushioned lounger in the hotel’s lush gardens, overlooking Santa Barbara’s West Beach. She wore a conservative black bathing suit that accentuated her curves and a floral print pareu wrapped around her hips. Her feet were bare, her manicured toes wiggling back and forth. She lay there deep in thought, oblivious to everything around her. He stood staring, able to exhale now that he could see that she was safe and well. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. There was a glow about her, and she looked well rested and very relaxed. Energy suddenly coursed through his bloodstream, firing every one of his nerve endings. He almost hated the thought of disturbing her peace, but he had no intentions of being so far from her for one second longer. He took a deep breath and then a second as he moved in her direction.
Katrina’s mind was racing as she lay out on the lounger, enjoying the sunshine and the midday warmth. For the first time that day she wasn’t nauseous, her morning meal not feeling as if it wanted to come back and haunt her. In fact, she felt amazingly calm and content. As content as she had felt before she and Matthew had fallen out with each other. It was as if a blanket of security had dropped down onto her shoulders. Every fiber in her being seemed to sense that all would be well.
A dark shadow suddenly blocked the sunlight that had been raining down on her. The intrusion disrupted her thoughts. Katrina was momentarily startled as she shaded her eyes with her hand to see who or wha
t had gotten in her way. And then she saw him, a bright smile blessing his dark face as he stared down at her.
Katrina sat upright in her seat, her eyes widened in disbelief. “Matthew?”
“Surprise,” he said, trying to keep his moderate tone void of the intense emotion that was washing like a tsunami over his spirit.
“How did you…? What are you doing here?”
Matthew inhaled swiftly, reaching the back of his hand out to stroke the side of her face. “I came to take you back home. I miss you,” he said softly.
“I…I…” Katrina stammered, not sure how to respond. The warmth from his hand took her breath away, his fingers gently stroking her skin. She had never expected to see him there, in that space, and his presence suddenly had her completely discombobulated.
Matthew dropped down to his knees beside her. Against the backdrop of the bright blue ocean and light sand, he looked out of place in his tailored Italian suit, the navy blue silk fitting him like a second skin. With his bright white dress shirt and paisley tie he struck quite a figure, not one eye having missed his arrival. Katrina was equally awestruck.
He pulled both of her hands into his, drawing the backs of her fingers to his lips. “So, how do I fix this?” Matthew asked, his eyes flitting over every line and curve of her exquisite face. “How do I make everything right between us? Because none of this feels right, Katrina. Nothing in my life is right without you there.”
Katrina met his intense gaze. “I don’t know that we can fix this, Matthew. I would think that under the circumstances your priorities are much different now. I don’t know that I fit into those priorities anymore.”
“You are my first priority, Katrina. And you always will be. Absolutely nothing has changed. When I told you I loved you, I meant it with every fiber of my soul. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I asked you to marry me, and I meant that, as well. I want you to be my wife. Baby, I love you!”
Seduced by a Stallion Page 17
