Emma eased back to look him in the eye and see that he really meant what he said. “You’re okay with this?”
He nodded with a soft, reassuring smile. “I’m okay with this. In the end, it is what it is, right? You have to tell the truth and I have to be willing to stand in front of Carl and explain to him why he can still trust us to do a good job, despite it.”
A sense of relief washed over her. She didn’t like what she’d found, and she didn’t like that Jonah and his employees might be punished for someone else’s actions, but thankfully it would be out of her hands. “Thank you.”
“When you get done typing that report up, I insist you let me take you out to dinner tonight. Anyplace on the island you want.”
“I’m still not comfortable with us being seen together. It’s not over until my report is filed, I’m back at my old office and the deal is done, Jonah.”
“Okay, fine,” he relented. “How about some very privately consumed takeout at your place, then?”
“Perfect,” she agreed, letting him pull her tight against him again. Even now, when it felt like things were unraveling, she was okay as long as she was in his arms. Hopefully she’d be able to stay there and weather the upcoming storms.
Ten
Jonah wasn’t sure what to expect from Emma’s apartment, but it wasn’t what he got. Her work persona was so straitlaced and uptight, he anticipated her home would be boring, neat, with a place for everything and everything in its place. But the large and spacious apartment was flooded with daylight through large picture windows and the decor was relaxed, comfortable and filled with personality.
He followed her inside clutching a bag of Thai food from the restaurant up the block. Once he made it in far enough, he closed the door behind him and just stopped to take it all in. The fabrics on the curtains and the furniture were soft and romantic with florals and lace. The furniture itself looked comfortable like you would want to settle in and read for hours. It was soft, feminine with a touch of rustic country charm, telling him more about the real Emma than he expected to uncover.
“What’s the matter?” Emma asked.
“Your apartment. It just wasn’t what I was expecting.” He followed her into the kitchen with its white Shaker cabinetry and gray-washed wood floors. A vase of multicolored zinnias sat in the middle of the kitchen table, likely from the flower shop on the corner.
“Not enough chrome and glass for your taste?” she asked. “Industrial chic isn’t exactly my thing. I get enough concrete and steel walking around Manhattan every day. When I got my own place after college, I decided that I wanted something softer and more comforting to come home to.”
“It’s nice. Certainly more inviting than my place, but I’m more about function than anything. Here, I keep expecting a chicken to run across the hallway.”
“You quit it,” she chided, taking the bag away from him and unpacking cartons of Thai food onto the butcher-block countertop. “I don’t have any pets, and that includes chickens. I think that’s against the co-op restrictions,” Emma added with a chuckle. “This is still the Upper East Side, you know.”
They both made plates and bypassed the dining table to sit together in the living room on the couch. As they finished their food, Jonah found himself more curious about Emma’s personal hideaway. He wanted to see it all and gain more insight into her.
“May I have the rest of the tour?” he asked as she set her mostly empty plate on the coffee table.
Emma shrugged. “If you want. There isn’t much left to see. Two bedrooms, one bath.” She got up and he followed her down a little hallway where she pointed out the black-and-white retro bathroom. “This,” she said as she opened the opposite door, “used to be my office. I’ve cleared all that out to uh...for the nursery.”
That was right. This wasn’t just a cute bachelorette pad any longer. This was where she intended to raise their child. They stepped inside the room together. There wasn’t anything in it yet.
“I thought it was too early to buy much. I had the walls painted a soft gray. I thought that was neutral enough for whatever I...we end up having.”
“It’s a pretty small room, Emma. The baby is going to outgrow it fairly quickly.”
“I know,” she said with a sigh. “I didn’t buy this place expecting to raise a child in it. When the baby needs more space, I’ll look at something larger. I want to save money while I can. If my parents haven’t disowned me, perhaps they can help with a down payment.”
It baffled Jonah how she continued to talk about the baby as though she was having to do this entirely on her own. “Or I could.”
“Well...yes, maybe. I’m just not used to thinking about it that way. Up until a week ago, the baby’s father was not in the picture. I had no idea how to find you, so I was having to make plans to do this all on my own.”
“I may need a new place, too,” Jonah said, thinking aloud. His loft didn’t have any walls. How was a baby supposed to sleep without walls to block out noise? “Perhaps...perhaps we could look at getting something together.”
Emma froze on her way out of the nursery. She looked at Jonah with wide eyes. “You want to move in together?”
“Uh...” When she said it that way, it was a little terrifying, but still accurate. “Yes. If we both need a bigger place, we could look into something large enough to accommodate all of us. Then the baby doesn’t have to move back and forth between us. We could even look for something where you could have your own room, if that would make you more comfortable.”
She took a ragged breath before pushing past him into the hallway. “That’s something we could talk about,” she said in a noncommittal tone he’d gotten used to with her. It was better than a complete dismissal. “We have time.”
“Do you have a due date?”
“The doctor told me it would be November twenty-first.”
With every detail, the baby became more and more real in his mind. Now he knew when to expect his life to change forever—before the holidays rolled around again. “A Thanksgiving baby?”
Emma nodded. “Seems like a long time from now, but it will probably be here before we know it.” She continued down the hallway to the last door. “This is my bedroom.”
They stepped into a room that was much larger than the nursery. A queen-size bed sat along one wall with a white wooden headboard that was worn and gouged to reveal the darker color of the wood beneath the paint. The bed had an eyelet coverlet and easily a dozen pillows, all different. An antique oval mirror, a dresser and an old cedar chest at the foot of the bed finished it off.
The place was nice, but the addition of a baby, plus a stroller, high chair, bassinet, toys and all the other accessories a child came with, would eat up the space she had left. It was a lovely, spacious apartment for a single woman, but that wasn’t what she was anymore.
“We need to get a new place. This just seals the deal. Your apartment is too small and mine is too impractical. I’m going to call a Realtor next week to have him start looking for apartments. How do you feel about the Village?”
Emma turned around to face him and placed a cautionary hand on his chest. “Slow down. I’m not ready yet, Jonah.”
“Not ready to get an apartment or not ready for everyone to know we’re together?” He asked the question knowing the answer. Emma and her blasted reputation. “When?” he pressed.
“Once the FlynnSoft deal is done. And we tell our parents. Then, if they haven’t killed us, it should be okay to let others know about us and about the baby.”
“It can’t happen soon enough. I don’t like hiding. I’m used to living my life out in the open. I can’t wait until I can touch you whenever I want to. Kiss you whenever I want to.”
Emma turned to him with a sigh. “It won’t be too much longer. Until then, you’ll just have to take
advantage of your opportunities when they arise.”
Jonah sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at her. He had an opportunity right now he wasn’t going to pass up. “Come here.”
Emma took a few steps toward him, stopping when she was standing just between his knees. She placed her hands on his shoulders and looked down at him.
God, she was beautiful. The fact that she didn’t think so just made her that much more attractive. Even when the mask had hidden most of her face, there was a beauty that shone out of her from the inside. Perhaps that was what he’d been drawn to all this time. No mask, no boxy suit, no stuffy demeanor could suppress it.
Jonah ran his palms along the outside of her legs, down and back up to her hips. There, he pulled her dress shirt out from where she’d tucked it into her waistband. He immediately sought out the silk of her skin beneath it, stroking her elegantly arched back and sides that seemed to quiver at his touch. She was content to let him explore, closing her eyes and just feeling him.
He unfastened her dress pants, sliding them over her hips to the floor. Once she’d stepped out of them, Jonah hooked his hand behind her knee and pulled her toward him. With little resistance, she crawled into his lap, straddling him on the bed. He ran his hands over her smooth thighs and hips before turning his attention to her blouse. One by one, he slipped the pearl buttons through the holes until Emma was astride him in little more than a lacy peach-colored bra and panties.
Emma reached up and pulled a few pins from her hair. With a shake of her head, the dark brown waves broke free of their restraints and tumbled down around her shoulders. The scent of her shampoo swirled around him. Jonah could only wrap his arms around her waist to hold her securely in his lap as he leaned in and buried his face in her creamy, lace-clad breasts.
She gasped and wove her fingers into his hair, pulling him closer as he teased and tasted her sensitive skin. His tongue rubbed across the rough lace that kept her nipples confined, over and over until the fabric was damp. Frustrated by the impediment, he tugged the straps down her shoulders until her breasts were exposed. He kissed the inside of each one, then placed a kiss on the ridge of her sternum between them.
“Why are you wearing so much clothing while I’m wearing so little?” Emma asked. “I feel like I’m at a distinct disadvantage here.”
“You’re prettier naked than I am,” Jonah replied with a grin. He immediately followed his words with action, tugging his shirt up and over his head. He wanted as much of his skin to touch hers as possible. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his bare chest against hers before meeting her lips with a searing kiss.
He couldn’t get enough of her. Not then and not now. She was unlike any other woman he’d ever known. She was his and he was hers in more ways than he could even describe. His butterfly had changed everything. And even if the thing with Game Town ended badly, he knew that if he made it out of this situation with Emma still in his arms, everything would be okay. She was his anchor, holding him steady so he wouldn’t drift out to sea. He couldn’t lose her.
Emma pulled away from his kiss, shifting in his lap and grinding against his erection with a wicked grin lighting her face. “Now,” she pouted.
He wasn’t about to deny her. Emma rose up onto her knees while he scrambled out of his jeans and kicked them away. And then, she slowly lowered herself back down, taking in every inch of him at a deliciously slow pace.
“Oh Emma,” he groaned into her hair, pulling her close as her heat enveloped him. “I’m never letting you go. Never.”
* * *
She didn’t want him to let go. She was content to stay right where she was forever. Emma had never felt so close, so connected to a man before. As she raised her hips and lowered them, rocking back and forth in his lap, the delicious friction her movement generated hit in all the right places.
A heat that started in her belly seemed to spread through her whole self. As her temperature shot up, the close proximity of their bodies made her skin break out in a thin sheen of perspiration. Each time Emma moved, her moist skin glided across his. Jonah only clutched her tighter as the sensations they were each experiencing grew more and more intense.
Emma wanted to find her release like this. She wanted to come apart wrapped in his arms. She wanted him to feel every tremble, every aftershock, and then she wanted to experience the same thing for him. This closeness was what she truly craved with Jonah. Here, in this moment, she could truly believe that they were supposed to be together. She could open her heart enough to let him in, if just for a moment.
She was roused from her thoughts by Jonah’s encouraging whispers in her ear. “Ahh, yeah. That’s my beautiful butterfly. Come apart for me, baby.”
The low rumble of his voice against her ear and neck sent goose bumps through her body. She moved faster, rocking her hips hard until her muscles ached and her knees burned. It was when she almost had nothing more to give that she reached her goal. As suddenly as a snapping of fingers, her body gave in and the pleasurable sensations rushed through her.
Jonah held her tight, continuing to whisper to her as her body shuddered and spasmed in his arms. When the rush subsided and she barely had the energy to hold on to him, he thrust hard from beneath her until with a final groan, lost himself in her. Jonah collapsed back onto the bed, taking Emma with him. After a moment, she rolled off and flattened into her mattress, drawing in a lungful of cooler air. They shifted around until Jonah could pull the covers up over them both and they snuggled together in the plush softness of her bed.
Lying there, looking up at her ceiling and listening to Jonah’s heartbeat pound in his chest, she wondered if this could really be what her life would be like now. With the audit behind her, she would soon be free to be with Jonah. She wasn’t sure how things would turn out, but even if they didn’t marry, surely her parents would be happier about the pregnancy if they were together. If they loved each other.
Did she love him?
She had questioned her feelings for Jonah repeatedly over the last few days. Now, lying in his arms, making love to him again, it was easy to admit to herself that she did. She had loved him since that first night. She’d just been afraid to acknowledge the truth, even to herself. Love was a scary proposition, and love with a man like Jonah could be downright terrifying.
He was everything she thought she shouldn’t want. Exciting, spontaneous, rebellious, passionate... For some reason, she’d lumped all those qualities in with irresponsible and dangerous, when that was hardly the case. She didn’t need a man to be boring. She just needed him to be there for her. Jonah might very well be that man.
Emma was so content in his arms and so deep in thought that when her cell phone rang, she was tempted not to answer. And she wouldn’t have except for the fact that it was her work ringtone. It was awfully late to be fielding calls from the office. Then again, they wouldn’t call her if it wasn’t necessary.
She answered the phone, seeing her boss’s name on the screen. “Hello?”
“Emma. We have a problem,” Tim said.
Her stomach instantly felt as though it had twisted into a knot. How could they have a problem? She hadn’t even filed the report yet. And she’d disclosed everything. She sat up in bed and grabbed her robe off the hook. “What’s wrong?” she asked as she nervously walked out of the bedroom and tied her belt. She needed to focus and couldn’t with Jonah’s nude body sprawled on her bed.
“I spoke with Mark not too long ago. He told me about the conversation you had with him today. I really don’t appreciate being left out of the loop on something so important. You should’ve come to me with this issue first.”
Emma’s free hand curled into a fist at her side. She went to her coworker for support and he’d ratted her out before she’d had a chance to do what she needed to do. “He gave me some advice and I’m following it. I’ll have my r
eport to you first thing in the morning. I wanted to read over it again before I submitted it.”
“And what will the report say?”
“It will say that I discussed the issue with Jo—Mr. Flynn and he provided an explanation. Both the discrepancy and how FlynnSoft handled the issue will be included in the report for Mr. Bailey to handle as he pleases.”
There was a long pause on the phone that Emma didn’t like. When Tim was quiet, he was preparing his words, and they usually weren’t good. “So you’re on a first name basis with Jonah, are you, Emma?”
She swallowed hard, measuring her words carefully and trying to ignore the heat of Jonah’s naked body that still warmed her. “The environment at FlynnSoft is very casual, sir. You know that as well as anyone.”
“You know, Emma, I sent you because I thought you had some sense. More than Dee. I should’ve sent Mark, though. I underestimated Mr. Flynn’s allure. I see that now.”
Emma’s mouth dropped open. “Sir, are you accusing me of some kind of wrongdoing? I assure you that my report is as accurate and impartial as Mark’s would have been.”
“So you’re willing to sit there and deny any type of personal relationship with Mr. Flynn?”
Could she lie? No, she couldn’t. But could she convince him it wouldn’t matter? “No, I can’t do that, sir. But I can say with complete confidence that I did my job as well as anyone.”
Tim groaned loudly over the phone line. “Can’t you see that he just used you, Emma? I’m willing to bet that he turned on the charm the minute you walked in the door. Did he offer to give you a personal tour of the building? Did he take you out to dinner and welcome you to the company? Just to be friendly, of course? He dates models and actresses, Emma. You’re a pretty girl, but do you really think a man like him would be interested in a woman like you if he didn’t want something from you? I’m pretty sure his entire plan from the beginning was to distract you from your work so you wouldn’t find the problem in the books. Or if you did, to convince you not to disclose it. Now that it’s done, he’s going to drop you like a bad habit.”
Little Secrets--Secretly Pregnant Page 13
