Baby Be Mine (Spinsters & Casanovas Series Book One)

by Wanitta Praks

  “But they’re still in there together,” Hunter argued, wanting to go in there again, but Max kept pulling him back.

  “No, look, Clarice is leaving,” Fern said. And then all three hurriedly scrambled to hide in the large bush again.

  Through the parted foliage, Hunter watched Clarice walked out of the restaurant first. She got into a red car and then drove off. He was so relieved his mission today was accomplished. As he was about to exit the bushes, he jumped back in again because he saw Anton coming out of the restaurant.

  Anton scanned the bushes for a full minute, as if he were a botanist. After another few seconds passed and no more sound or movement came, he turned in the direction of his car and walked briskly away, leaving Hunter, Fern, and Max to sweat in nervousness over almost getting caught red-handed.

  CHAPTER 28

  “So did you tell the guy he’s the father yet?” Hunter pretended to act innocent and asked Clarice if she’d made her confession to Anton.

  Clarice couldn’t look Hunter straight in the face. Not again. Why had she agreed to meet up with him for lunch when she was supposed to be talking to Anton about her future? And why did she have to make all kinds of excuses just to postpone that moment of confession?

  The truth was she didn’t really want Anton to interfere with her life. She just wanted to raise her baby alone. But now, even Hunter had urged her to tell Anton. How was she supposed to tell the man sitting in front of her that the man who had impregnated her was his very own cousin? Would he be happy? Would he jump for joy? Or would he look sulky like Max did when she told him her news?

  She was a little saddened when Max didn’t show his usual happy behavior. Maybe he was really scared she might not show him her usual love. She had to ring him to tell him that so he wouldn’t misunderstand.

  “Not yet?” Clarice said, scanning the array of fruit on her platter. Not again. Why was everyone forcing her to eat fruits? First Max and now Hunter. Did everyone want to turn her into an herbivore or something?

  “Good,” Hunter said, smiling. Then he watched Clarice with concern as she just forked around her fruits.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Don’t you want to eat the fruit I ordered for you?”

  “Of course not,” Clarice said sharply. “Why did you order me a fruit platter? I don’t like fruit all that much, not enough to eat it all the time.”

  “Well, at least eat that apple there,” Hunter suggested. “I’ll cut it up for you.”

  “I don’t like apples,” Clarice said, annoyed. “I’ve eaten enough apples to last me until the next life.” Clarice pushed the plate away from her as her gag reflex acted up. She closed her eyes and covered her mouth.

  Hunter jerked out of his chair so fast it made a loud screeching sound. He ran to Clarice, and in the next second, he had her in his arms.

  “Hey, are you okay? You should rest. You should have rejected my offer to come out to lunch today.”

  “It’s only morning sickness.” She laughed, the jingle of her voice doing crazy things to his heartbeat again.

  “Stop laughing, Avocado. You’re sick, for Christ sake. Here, sit down.” Hunter led her to the seat beside him.

  “Why did you ask me out anyway, Hunter?” Clarice asked, feeling a sense of empowerment all of a sudden.

  Well, after that episode of pretending to be Max’s blind grandpa, Hunter was so agitated he had to call Clarice to meet up for lunch, just to ask whether she’d confessed to his cousin yet. Thank God she hadn’t.

  When Clarice didn’t hear Hunter reply, she leaned in closer to him and asked again. “I said why did you ask me out? Shouldn’t you be somewhere else, trying to chase up some woman or something?” Dear heavens, this had to be her fluctuating hormones again. Otherwise, she wouldn’t behave like this. “Just because you’re the first one to know I’m pregnant, you’re not under any obligation to look after me, you know.”

  As if her behavior wasn’t strange and embarrassing enough, Clarice turned to Hunter then and leaned forward until her nose almost touched his. Then she spoke softly, which to Hunter’s ears sounded so seductive it made his heart drum so wildly it almost leapt out of his chest. “I am pregnant with another man’s child, you know. You shouldn’t be staying too close to me. People might suspect you’re my… you know, tick-tock, tick-tock.” Then she laughed like a silly schoolgirl and moved back to her seat. Heavens, she really was crazy today.

  Hunter could only blink randomly at Clarice’s strange behavior. He knew exactly what she meant, but damn his past life. Right now, Clarice was more important.

  Shit, did he just admit the avocado was the most important thing in his life right now? Yes, he guessed he did. And it felt like a heavy weight had just been lifted off his shoulders. As to the reason he thought of Clarice as his most important, he knew it was a responsibility a father of a child has when looking after its mother, but he was sure that wasn’t the only reason. For now, though, he was willing to stay by her side.

  Hunter turned his gaze to look at the woman sitting beside him again. Why did she agree so suddenly to see him again? She looked tired, really, really tired, like a little kid fighting a nap.

  He released a deep sigh and went to pay for their meals, knowing full well that Clarice would not be eating any more of the fruit he ordered for her. Maybe he should do some more research on what kinds of food were best suited for pregnant women. Clarice needed to eat healthy for their baby to grow up strong.

  After Hunter paid for their meals, he helped Clarice into the car.

  Once inside, Clarice held a faraway look on her face. She stared into the far distance, her eyes not seeing anything.

  “Maybe I should tell him,” she said to Hunter quietly when he got into the driver’s seat.

  Hunter shook when he heard this. God, please no, not yet. He hadn’t decided yet what was wrong with him. He wanted to spend a little more time with her first. In fact, he needed to confess to her that he was the father to their baby, not his cousin, before she she told Anton.

  “When?” was all Hunter could say. “When would you tell him?”

  “At the pre-conference ball next week.”

  No! No! It was only a few days away. That wasn’t enough time to compose himself. He needed to confess to her now. Right now. Otherwise, he would never be with Clarice. He could feel his heart pounding and his ears ringing.

  “Clarice, I have a confession too,” Hunter croaked, his throat dry, and then he turned to face her. “I am the man—”

  But he couldn’t finish his sentence as he saw Clarice’s sleeping form. She was so beautiful, this avocado. She looked so peaceful.

  Hunter couldn’t help himself as his body leaned itself forward of its own accord and his lips brushed themselves gently across her supple cheek.

  “Clarice,” he whispered softly into her ear, his heart swelling with an emotion he didn’t know existed. “It’s me. I’m the father of your baby. Not my cousin.”

  But she didn’t hear him. She was too exhausted to register what he’d said.

  Once again, Hunter had to wait. And this time, he would make sure she would stay awake and hear him say those words, loud and clear.

  CHAPTER 29

  Hunter almost forgot to breathe. Clarice was really his goddess. He had to pinch himself in the arm just to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

  His goddess was so beautiful in that one-shoulder white silk dress, draped to the left, like a Grecian goddess. He found it hard to breathe. All his anger, the previous feeling of madness that was there before she arrived, had completely vanished as soon as he laid his eyes on her.

  Then he remembered why he was feeling so angry with her in the first place. It was because he’d been standing outside for a damn half hour, shivering in the cold, almost freezing to death.

  That’s right. Winton had decided to pick her up per Anton’s instruction. Hunter himself had ventured all the way to Clarice’s dental practice just to wait on her, only to find ou
t later that she’d taken off half the day to prepare herself for the pre-conference ball. And Winton was the one who took her for her full body makeover. That damn shit.

  That was over four hours ago. And he’d been waiting for almost half an hour now. The ball had already started, but still Clarice hadn’t shown up.

  He was standing at the entrance of their hotel, waiting impatiently for her arrival, swearing once or twice as he watched the time tick by. He’d even sworn he was going to strangle Winton when he did show up.

  And finally, Winton did show, driving through the throng of people milling around near the entrance of Silverton Hotel. At that time, Hunter couldn’t suppress his anger and annoyance so he stalked to Winton’s car, opened the passenger door, and dragged Clarice to the side, planning to give her a good scolding before unleashing his wrath towards Winton. Except… when he did see her, he was struck speechless and almost forgot to breathe.

  “What took you so long?” he yelled at Clarice, gripping her hand so tight, forcing himself to break out of his stupid reverie.

  “Excuse me?” Clarice asked in astonishment. “Has the devil decided to possess you today? I just got here. I want a drink. Now let my hand go.” Then she flung away his hand and walked elegantly, like a swan, into the reception area. Hunter saw red as he stared at her retreating back.

  “Ah, Master Hunter.” Winton came trotting to him.

  “Don’t Master Hunter me!” Hunter shouted, turning his wrath towards Winton now. “Where the hell did you take her?”

  “Ah, to the petrol station,” Winton replied, aghast at Hunter’s devilish behavior.

  “Why did you take her there?” Hunter shouted to the poor man. “You were supposed to come straight here after her makeover, which should have been over half an hour ago.”

  “My car was about to run out of petrol,” Winton replied. “I needed to fill it up.”

  “Why didn’t you fill up yesterday if you knew it was running low?”

  “Because the petrol was on sale today so I thought I’d take advantage—”

  “You’re fired,” Hunter said, halting Winton midsentence, turning swiftly to follow Clarice’s footsteps.

  “Whaaaaat?” Winton shrieked, running after Hunter. “Master Hunter,” he pleaded. “You can’t do this to your number one employee.”

  Hunter didn’t listen to Winton’s moaning as he raced after Clarice. He needed to find her. His mission tonight was to stop her confessing to Anton. Come hell or high water, he would.

  Once he got inside, though, his eyes searched frantically for that white silk Grecian goddess. Except when he did find her, she was already in conversation with Anton.

  He let out an angry growl.

  Bloody hell. He fisted his hands tightly. No way, there was no way he would let her confess tonight.

  So Hunter made his way to her, but with every single step, someone was always standing in his way, an obstacle he had to somehow bypass to get to Clarice. And it wasn’t just any normal people; it had to be the old crows from Queenstown. God, he just hoped she hadn’t said anything yet about their baby.

  “Ah, young Hunter?” one old man said. “How’s life here?”

  “When’re you going to go back down south?” another asked. “I have lots of sheep. You can come have a look at them. My wooly one is named Molly; she’s always in need of a handsome young man like you to look after her. She can make you a good investment.”

  South Island! Sheep! Investment! What’s so important about sheep anyway? He’d seen so many sheep since he was born it made his head spin, and he was definitely not a farmer. What was more important right now was to get to Clarice so she wouldn’t make a fool of herself. But obviously, Hunter couldn’t say any of those things. Instead, he just smiled and gave his greetings to the old crows who intercepted his path.

  “Ah, no,” Hunter replied just out of politeness, though his eyes weren’t on them.

  “What’s that?” one of the old crows asked. “Did you say go? When, when would you go?”

  Obviously, this old bat was also hard of hearing.

  “Look, I’m sorry, but I see one of my friends over there.” He feigned an excuse, no longer wanting to talk to them. “I should go say hello.” And then before the old croons could get in another word, he made his escape, hastening his steps to Clarice. He’d almost reached her side when the host suddenly announced for everyone to take their seats at the dining table, which in turn made everyone stand and block his way yet again.

  Damn! He tried to fight his way through the congestion around the many dining tables so he could sit next to Clarice, but she somehow got swallowed in the crowd, disappearing from his sight. When he finally saw her again, she was already sitting next to Anton, smiling. And there were no spare seats left at their table. Could this be the worst day of his life?

  Hunter flicked his eyes and saw a few spare seats a few tables away so he seated himself there. Suddenly, he felt someone sitting next to him. Turning around, he found Fern smiling at him.

  “Well, Hunter?” she asked, blocking the image of Clarice and Anton together. “Does Fern look beautiful tonight? Will she be able to attract someone’s eyes tonight?”

  “Yeah,” Hunter said absentmindedly, not looking at his friend at all, just trying to move his head so he could see Clarice again, but Fern moved in front of his face again, wanting to show off her beautiful green gown.

  Hunter became irritated. “Could you just move over there?”

  “What’s wrong, Hunter?” Fern asked. “Why do you sound so mad?”

  “It’s nothing,” Hunter said, ignoring his friend’s question. God, he wanted to just march over there and shred his cousin to pieces. How dare he smile at Clarice like that? For once, he disliked his cousin for having such a calm demeanor, unlike himself, who was always so irrational and fiery, a trait Clarice disliked. She’d always said he was an immature kid.

  Fern directed her gaze to where Hunter was staring, and she too felt something. Although she wasn’t raving mad like Hunter, who wanted to strangle and shred his own cousin to pieces, she felt sad.

  Should she give up? Here she had taken a total of six hours to accomplish this look she sported. With her red hair in ringlets and her dress a nice emerald green shade, she was sure Anton would stop to admire her, but he was already looking at Clarice, the goddess.

  Gosh, Clarice was so beautiful with her long jet-black hair bundled to the side like that. Who would look at a fiery red-haired girl who always speaks in third person?

  At the same time both Hunter and Fern were tormented by their own internal feelings towards their respected interests, both Clarice and Anton were busy conversing with each other about the conference tomorrow.

  “Your presentation starts at two p.m.,” Anton said, smiling at Clarice. “Is that all right?”

  “Yes. I’ve prepared everything,” Clarice said.

  Clarice continued to converse with Anton about her health and that yes, she was fine now after going to the hospital, just low blood pressure. She had to resort to lying to him since she didn’t want to bring up the subject of her pregnancy yet. There were too many people around; she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone’s stare was boring into her back. It was a very unsettling feeling. So she pretended to drop her napkin. While picking it up, she diverted her gaze in the direction that feeling was emitting from and sure enough, her eyes smack landed on a pair of azure eyes.

  That Casanova Hunter. He was staring at her strangely, like a fire had ignited in his eyes, a glowing ember within them. His mouth still held an angry snarl, just like when he’d attacked her with his devious words when she’d first exited the car.

  Why was he acting like that? She was pretty upset too when she first arrived. She could remember feeling so nervous about her confession tonight and had prepared herself mentally for that moment, even meditating in the car, but Winton had to talk to her, constantly interrupting her like a dog yapping for attention. She was on the verge
of snapping at him. And then when Hunter dragged her out like that, she literally cracked, lashing out at him, accusing him of being the devil incarnate.

  Tonight she was determined to tell Anton. She wouldn’t let any distraction waylay her like the last time when they were in the Cambodian restaurant together. That old blind man falling on her lap shook her resolve. Well, tonight, she wasn’t going to let it go. Tonight, even Hunter wouldn’t distract her from her goal. She would talk to Anton and tell him about their baby. If Anton didn’t want a part of it, then she would be fine with that too. But she just needed to get this off her chest.

  When the song “Sway” by Michael Bublé came on, Anton asked her permission to dance. Finding that sitting in her chair was only making her more uncomfortable with that Casanova’s eyes boring into her back, she agreed and took his hand, letting him glide her to the dance floor.

  Hunter gritted his teeth in anger. How dare she choose Anton over him, despite knowing full well now that he was the actual heir of Silverton Enterprises, not Anton? And there was also the fact that he was the father of her child. But obviously, he couldn’t tell her that, well, not yet anyway. Otherwise, she would freak out.

  Watching the pair dance only made his blood boil even more. Hunter grabbed a champagne off one of the trays and downed it in one go, feeling the sting of the liquid burn his throat, but man, he didn’t give a damn about his throat at the moment.

  “Don’t you think dancing is a very intimate art, Hunter?” Fern asked sadly as she watched the one man she’d been thinking about constantly since she arrived in New Zealand, that brown-haired man she realized always made her heart jump whenever he was around, now dancing so intimately with Clarice.

  Hunter gripped the empty glass so tight his knuckles turned white. If he applied a little more pressure surely the glass would shatter into millions of tiny crystals. And hearing Fern say this only made his nostrils flare even more. If he were a dragon, he would have breathed fire and burned down the whole damn hotel by now.