The Tycoon's Marriage Bid

by ALLISON LEIGH,

  Even the amethyst promise ring that Cody had given her.

  ‘He’s gone,’ she said. And she refused to get any more detailed. ‘I do appreciate the fact that you came up here from Cheyenne, Alex. I know how busy you are. But I’m fine.’

  He just watched her.

  Well, okay, she was lying in a hospital bed, so obviously things weren’t all tulips and daisies. ‘I’ll be fine,’ she amended.

  ‘You don’t even know what happened.’

  As long as she felt the baby kicking away inside her, she figured she could deal with whatever had happened. What she couldn’t deal with was facing Alex for any length of time. ‘Do you know?’

  He wasn’t a family member. He wasn’t even her employer anymore. The hospital shouldn’t have divulged any of her personal information to him.

  But she knew Alex had a way of getting what he wanted.

  ‘I know enough,’ he said.

  A statement that did not alleviate any of the nerves jostling inside her. ‘Meaning what?’

  ‘You were far more agreeable when you worked for me.’

  ‘You paid me to be agreeable.’ Again, her voice was shaking.

  ‘Right. Well, nobody knows more than I do just how capable you are, Nikki.’ He scooped up a black coat she recognized from the seat of a rolling metal stool stuck in the corner. ‘You’ll undoubtedly improve efficiency around here by thirty percent before you’re released. The staff will be completely whipped into shape.’ Now his tone wasn’t kind at all.

  It was tight.

  Angry.

  And it stunned the life out of her.

  What did he have to be angry about?

  ‘Alex. Wait.’ The words burst from her lips even as caution screamed inside her.

  She wanted him to leave.

  Didn’t she?

  ‘Please,’ she whispered. ‘Wait.’

  No matter how desperate she was to regain some composure, she couldn’t abide the idea of having angered him. Regardless of his motives, he’d come here.

  She’d never known him to take any time away from his business.

  Not for anyone. So why had he done it for her?

  Chapter Two

  Before Alex could respond, a doctor came into the room and took in both of them with a glance.

  ‘Good. You’re finally awake. Since you’re both here, we need to go over Mom’s options after I examine her.’

  Which told Nikki ever so much.

  And she had no idea if Alex would have stayed because of her request, or not.

  The gangly doctor he briskly introduced himself as Dr. Carmichael set the thick chart he was holding on the rolling table at the base of Nikki’s bed, and stepped up beside her, whipping out his stethoscope with one hand and nudging up his round eyeglasses with the other.

  Before Nikki could utter a word, he’d plucked the string holding her hospital gown together at her neck, and nudged her forward a little. The stethoscope was cold against her back and she hurriedly grabbed the front of the gown before it fell completely off her shoulders.

  She couldn’t look at Alex now.

  Just as quickly, Dr. Carmichael nudged her back against the pillows again, murmuring periodic

  ‘mmmhmms’ as he delved beneath the neck of the gown to listen to her heartbeat.

  Her face was on fire.

  She knew her pulse was racing, and it had nothing whatsoever to do with the doctor, who’d already withdrawn his cold stethoscope and transferred his attention to feeling along her jaw and neck, for heaven only knew what.

  His mmm-hmming kept on until he stepped back to the foot of the bed, flipped open the chart and made a few notations. The same nurse came into the room then and gently shooed Alex out long enough for the doctor to do a pelvic exam.

  When he was finished, the doctor scooted back on his rolling stool, disposing of his sterile gloves.

  ‘Looking good. Spotting has stopped.’

  The nurse finished deftly adjusting the bedding and retied the back of the deplorable gown, since Nikki was too busy staring at the doctor to deal with it herself. ‘I was spotting? How long have I been here?’ She would remember if she’d been spotting!

  ‘Four days now,’ the nurse said calmly. ‘You were brought in on Sunday. It’s Thursday. Your Mr.

  Reed has stayed by your side since he arrived Tuesday. Half the nurses in the hospital are pea green with envy, I can tell you.’

  Four days?

  She’d been thinking maybe four hours.

  Distress gnawed at her.

  The doctor was still sitting, and the overhead light glinted off his glasses as he waved Alex in when the nurse opened the door once more. ‘As I was telling Nikki, the spotting has stopped. There’s been no evidence of any more contractions.’

  ‘More?’ Her voice rose at that.

  Just what had been going on while she was unconscious?

  The nurse patted her arm. ‘Try not to get excited, hon. Your blood pressure was through the roof when the ambulance brought you in. It’s only begun to stabilize in the last twelve hours.’

  News that was not helping Nikki become any calmer. ‘The baby’s been moving,’ she said nervously.

  Alex had told her she and the baby were fine. ‘So what’s wrong?’

  ‘Nothing that bed rest won’t cure, I believe,’ the doctor assured her. He adjusted his glasses, making them glint again. ‘Frankly, at this point, the baby is healthier than you are.’

  ‘Then I can go home?’

  ‘I’d prefer to keep you here in the hospital. I want you off your feet for the next three weeks.’ He glanced at her chart again. ‘You’ll be in your third trimester then.’

  Nikki’s stomach dived down to her toes. Her new job came equipped with medical insurance coverage which she would desperately need by the time her delivery date arrived but not until she’d actually been working there for sixty days. Working being the operative word.

  If she was here in this Montana hospital for weeks, she couldn’t very well report for her first day at Belvedere Salvage & Wrecking on Monday, now could she?

  ‘But that won’t do,’ she said faintly.

  ‘I’m afraid it’s going to have to do,’ Dr. Carmichael said, unperturbed. He patted her foot through the blanket. ‘Don’t worry. The food here will grow on you.’

  The knot in her throat had become a vise, and it seemed to be forcing every bit of liquid inside her up behind her eyes.

  The doctor wasn’t entirely oblivious to her upset. ‘It won’t be so bad. After the first week, we’ll reevaluate. And Dad can stay with you as long as he wants, same as he’s been doing.’

  Nikki eyed Alex. His long form wavered. The doctor figured he was telling her things that would make her feel better.

  But Alex wasn’t the expectant father. How could he be when there had never been anything remotely personal between them?

  But he wasn’t disputing the doctor’s assumption, either. ‘I can’t afford to stay three weeks in the hospital.’ She pushed out the words, trying to pretend that he wasn’t standing there listening. ‘I have to get home. I have to work.’

  The doctor looked at her over the rims of his glasses. ‘I can’t force you to stay, of course. But I promise you that you’ll be endangering your pregnancy if you do not have complete bed rest.’

  Endangering.

  The word rocketed around inside her like some bizarre pinball machine running amok, setting off small explosions wherever the ball hit.

  ‘She could get the bed rest elsewhere, though.’ Alex finally spoke up. ‘Correct?’

  The doctor didn’t look particularly happy about it, but he nodded. ‘If she can promise me that she’ll remain in bed. And I mean lying in bed. Knees elevated. She can sit up for a few minutes at a time, but that’s it.’

  ‘I’ll go to my mother’s,’ Nikki said thickly. Her family would welcome her with open arms, without question. And she’d feel like she was failing them by not being able to stand on
her own two feet the way she always had.

  ‘Your mother lives here in Lucius?’

  ‘No. Wyoming.’

  Before she’d finished speaking, the doctor was shaking his head. ‘No travel. Not even an hour.’

  ‘But’

  ‘Don’t argue, Nikki.’ Alex’s voice was smooth. ‘We’ll do whatever is necessary to protect the baby.’

  ‘We?’ Her hands clutched the blanket, bunching it frantically. The monitor beside her began bleating like an angry lamb, and spewed out a stream of narrow paper.

  ‘Ms. Day.’ The nurse gently nudged her back against the pillows. ‘Please. Don’t excite yourself.’

  Nikki waved her hand at the doctor. ‘You just sentence me to bed rest for the better part of a month and I’m not supposed to get excited?’ A sharp pain tore through her midsection and she exhaled loudly, drawing up her knees, doubling over.

  The nurse and Dr. Carmichael were suddenly all business. Blood pressure cuffs. Syringes.

  Nikki didn’t much notice what they did, since panic was rocketing through her, keeping company with the grappling hook that was twisting her insides into a knot.

  The baby had been a complete accident.

  But that didn’t mean she didn’t want it.

  Oh God oh God oh God.

  Alex slid his hand into hers.

  She stared blindly at him. The pain was excruciating. ‘Nikki ’ His voice was soft. Insistent.

  She blinked. Focused. The panic retreated a hair. She was hardly aware of the death grip her fingers had on his. ‘It hurts,’ she gasped.

  His intense gaze was steady. Calm.

  Familiar.

  ‘I know. Relax.’ His voice was almost hypnotic. ‘Everything is going to be fine.’

  She was twenty-seven years old. A modern, competent, independent woman. She didn’t need anyone to tell her that everything would be fine.

  She was the one who usually made certain that things were fine.

  Only none of that amounted to a hill of beans right now. She was glad he was there. Glad.

  Pathetically glad.

  THE TYCOON’S MARRIAGE BID

  Her tears slipped out, streaming down her cheeks. She’d never once cried in front of her boss.

  No. He wasn’t her boss any longer.

  He was just Alex.

  A man she still couldn’t manage to get out of her head.

  ‘Breathe,’ he told her. She was vaguely aware that the nurse had been repeating the same thing.

  She drew in a slow breath.

  ‘That’s it,’ he said encouragingly. ‘Slow and easy.’ The grappling hook was slowly, infinitesimally, loosening.

  ‘I don’t want to lose the baby.’ Her voice was thick.

  His brown gaze didn’t flicker. His hand never let go of hers. ‘I won’t let that happen,’ he promised.

  It made no sense. But she believed him.

  ‘Try and lie back, Ms. Day.’

  She felt woozy. Incapable of making herself uncurl. Focusing on Alex’s face was getting harder. But when he leaned over her, gently settling her back against the pillows, she could still make out the subtle variations of brown in his eyes.

  Dark, clear coffee rimmed by a narrow circle of chocolate Kisses.

  ‘Melted,’ she corrected. Melted chocolate. Rich. Thick.

  Addictive.

  He was still so close. ‘Melted what?’

  She frowned a little. Had she said it out loud? ‘My head feels funny.’

  ‘It’s the sedative,’ the nurse stated. She unwrapped the blood pressure cuff from Nikki’s arm and tucked the contraption back in its holder beside the bed. ‘Don’t worry. It won’t harm the baby. You’re just both going to have a little nap.’

  ‘I don’t want a nap. I have to go back to Cheyenne.’

  ‘Not today you don’t. You’ve been out of it for four days, remember?’ Alex let go of her and straightened, moving away from the bed.

  She wanted to call him back. But the idea took too much effort.

  Later. She’d call him later.

  No, she wouldn’t call him back later.

  Later she’d have to call human resources at Belvedere and see if she could salvage the job she was supposed to start.

  Salvage.

  She felt an amused giggle rise in her, but it never seemed to make it out.

  She’d have to do lots of things.

  She just couldn’t put her finger on what they were at the moment .

  Alex watched Nikki’s eyes close. The stress wrinkling her forehead smoothed out. Her lips softened.

  ‘She’ll sleep for a few hours,’ the nurse told him quietly.

  Alex nodded. He followed the doctor outside the room. ‘You’ve been running tests on her since I got here. I want details.’ He wasn’t a physician himself, but he came from a long line of them, and he employed a fair number himself. If he wasn’t satisfied with the doctor’s answers, he’d have Nikki under someone else’s care in a heartbeat.

  ‘We can talk in my office,’ the doctor said easily. ‘I wouldn’t mind getting some medical history on you, as well.’

  Alex smiled noncommittally. It suited him to let the doctor believe he was the baby’s father. If the other man knew just how nonpersonal his relationship with Nikki Day was, Alex would have a harder time getting the information he wanted.

  He’d still get it.

  He just preferred to get it as expediently as possible.

  He should have done it all when he’d arrived at the hospital. Instead, he’d sat by Nikki’s bedside.

  It was unfathomable even to him.

  Two hours later, he’d obtained all the details of Nikki’s and her baby’s health that he wanted. He’d even called his uncle, who was head of obstetrics for RHS Memorial, the Philadelphia flagship hospital of Reed Health Systems, who concurred with Dr. Carmichael’s plan of treatment.

  Alex had plenty of disagreements with his family. But when it came to basic medical care, there were few minds finer.

  So he sat now in the recliner in Nikki’s room, watching her sleep. There was a little more color in her face than there had been when he’d first arrived.

  His first sight of her had hit him in a way he was still trying to figure out. When she’d worked for him, he’d never seen her with a hair on her auburn head out of place, and he’d never seen her lose her composure. Not with temper or tears. She’d been efficient as hell. The best assistant he could ever have wanted. She’d kept his hectic life in order, and he was still reeling all these months after she’d left him flat.

  It wasn’t a fact he particularly liked admitting, either. He didn’t like depending on anyone. Not when they invariably failed you.

  But he’d depended on Nikki.

  Right now, she seemed miles away from that fearsomely competent young woman who’d often beat him to the office in the mornings, and generally outlasted him at the end of the day. Aside from the swollen soccer-ball-size mound her slender arm was curled protectively over, she seemed too thin, and ridiculously young.

  Vulnerable.

  Her hair waved across the white pillow in a fiery river, looking more red than brown. There were no cosmetics to make her ivory complexion perfect, and it was smooth as velvet anyway. Her lips were softly parted and her oval chin was relaxed, missing its typical no-nonsense tilt.

  Nikki Day was beautiful.

  He supposed that wasn’t really a news flash to him. The vulnerability, though. That was as unexpected as finding her pregnant.

  Which didn’t explain, even to him, what he was doing here.

  Nikki was right to be surprised. Suspicious, even.

  He had a dozen things give or take a hundred to deal with regarding Huffington. He hadn’t been exaggerating about the competence of the assistants that HR had been sending his way. And having a barely tolerable assistant just now was worse than having no assistant.

  Nikki shifted, turning on her side, and tucked her hand against her cheek. Beneath t
he thin blanket, her leg moved, and the bare tips of her toes sneaked out from beneath the covers. Her toenails were painted a soft peach color.

  His favorite fruit had always been peaches.

  Annoyed with the thought, he looked back at her face.

  Her eyes were open. Dark blue. Slightly unfocused. But they cleared almost instantly.

  ‘It’s not some bad dream?’ Her voice was little more than a soft sigh.

  He shook his head and hoped to hell those blue eyes didn’t fill with tears again. Seeing Nikki Day in tears unnerved him. It wasn’t a sensation he welcomed. ‘No. How’re you feeling?’

  ‘Woozy.’ One slender arm was still crossed protectively over her abdomen.

  ‘The baby’s okay. And Carmichael has been in contact with your OB in Cheyenne.’

  She looked distinctly discomfited at the news. ‘I probably don’t want to know how you know that, nor how Dr. Carmichael even knows who my doctor there is, do I?’

  Since that was true, he kept silent.

  She turned on her back. Started to fold her arm over her eyes but didn’t, giving the IV taped to it a baleful look. ‘Belle and Cage got married before Christmas. They put off their honeymoon until after the holidays. If I call them now, they won’t have a chance to get away again until summer, and then ’

  Calling her sister was the logical answer. Yet she sounded miserable over it.

  ‘Where’d they go for their honeymoon?’ he asked.

  ‘The Caribbean.’

  Her eyes were wet. Damn.

  ‘Belle was so excited. Not just because it’s her honeymoon, but because she’s always dreamed of traveling to places like that. But at least they’re probably reachable.’ Nikki’s voice went a little hoarse.

  ‘My mother and Squire are floating somewhere on the Mediterranean. I know they can be reached in an emergency, but’

  He lifted his hand. He really didn’t like seeing tears in her eyes. ‘You don’t have to reach anyone.’

  She shook her head. The tears glinted. ‘I can’t afford one week in the hospital, much less three.’