Her Millionaire Boss

by Jennie Adams

  Forget ignoring the phone until Nate got back, too. She almost wished she had left the phone alone, though, when the fool on the other end of the line kept insisting that she had sent him an email asking that he provide her with a copy of a cargo manifest.

  ‘That’s simply not true,’ she told him for the third time. ‘I would surely remember if I had done such a thing, and I haven’t.’

  The man ended the call with a terse grunt. Seconds later a copy email appeared in her inbox. It showed every sign of having originated from her! Five minutes of searching revealed nothing. On an off chance, she started a search through the computer’s trash storage.

  ‘Bingo. My God. Somebody did send that email, but it certainly wasn’t me.’

  ‘What are you doing working? I told you to rest.’ Nate strode into the room, slapped the door shut and locked it again. ‘At least you’ve got some colour in your face now.’

  ‘There’s something fishy going on with my email.’ Keeping her gaze determinedly averted from the items in his hands, she started to tell him. ‘It could even have to do with what’s happening at the—’

  ‘Later.’ He cut her off. ‘Frankly, I don’t care if your computer just crashed and burned and you lost every file we’ve ever had. This is way more important.’

  He handed her the paper chemist’s bag. ‘Here’s the kit. You can have the juice when you come back with that test strip. Straight back, understand? We’re going to watch for those little lines together.’

  And that terse instruction pretty much wiped every other thought from her mind. Except one completely inane one. ‘How do you know so much about the test?’

  ‘I read the instructions on the way back.’

  Oh, great. Visions of him wandering through the building studying that very obvious little box crashed through her head.

  He took her elbow and tugged her from her chair. ‘Discreetly. I read it discreetly.’ Almost as an afterthought he went to the water dispenser in the corner of the room and pulled a plastic cup from it. ‘You’ll—ah—you might need this. The container in the kit seems kind of small for a—ah—for a lady to use.’

  ‘Right.’ So in she went to the bathroom again, only this time with a face that you could have fried a steak on. She avoided her gaze in the mirror as she opened the paper bag with trembling fingers. It took three reads of the instructions before she could get them to make sense. Her problem, not the manufacturer’s.

  Finally she knew what she had to do, and what to watch for, and she took care of business, disposed of the plastic cup, laid the strip over the mouth of the smaller container as suggested in the kit instructions and carried strip, container, empty kit and paper bag out into the office.

  There. Done. Now all they had to do was wait. Possibly for five long, agonising minutes.

  Nate was pacing the room. He stopped and turned toward her, a look of almost predatory interest on his face. ‘You took long enough. I was about to come in there.’

  ‘It took a while to read the instructions. I didn’t want to mess it up.’

  He reached her side quickly. Relieved her of the paper bag and remaining kit bits and pieces.

  Peripherally she was aware that he set them down on her desk, but her gaze was locked on the strip resting over the cup. Her hand began to shake.

  Instantly he clasped his over it, stabilising her, holding the cup and strip steady with her. He stood so close she could feel his breath stirring her hair, could feel his body warmth reaching out to her.

  Oh, dear lord. What if she was pregnant? Well, she would just deal with it. A baby of Nate’s would be a wonderful thing. Someone to love that was part of him.

  ‘I can raise a baby.’ She wasn’t aware that she had muttered it aloud until Nate spoke.

  ‘Let’s get the test done first of all.’

  Cautious. But what had she expected?

  Stop panicking. There’ll probably only be one line on the strip and the whole thing will have been a false alarm. Hit carriage return, scare over.

  So why didn’t she believe that? Why did she have a sudden deep and very strong conviction about what was going to turn up on that little strip?

  Nate’s hand tightened almost painfully on her wrist. A sharp inhalation of breath sounded above her bent head. ‘Two lines. We’ve got two lines.’

  Her vision wavered, and she blinked to bring it back into focus. On two strong, sturdy lines that were darkening by the second. Pregnant. I’m pregnant. ‘Looks like the little sucker has given me a strong hCG level already.’

  Darn, had she really said that? In her horrified silence, Nate’s bark of laughter reverberated around the room.

  Again, colour stole into her face. Yes, she had said that. Swift remorse filled her. All the blood seemed to rush just as quickly from her face to her toes, and tears filled her eyes.

  She was having a baby and the first thing she’d done was call it a name and blame it for upsetting her hormone levels. ‘I wasn’t ready. The words just came out.’ As these ones did, choked and husky.

  Nate’s laughter faded, the test stick and cup were taken from her and then his hands held her arms.

  Would their baby have Nate’s long-fingered hands? Would Nate ever want to see the child they had created? ‘I’m sor—’

  ‘Don’t.’ He laid a finger over her lips. ‘This possibility has been in my mind since the night at the cottage. If you want to blame someone, then I’m the one for it because I should have protected you. Truthfully, I’d rather focus on what happens next.’

  Awe filled his voice and he swallowed hard. ‘We’re having a baby.’

  She couldn’t absorb his jubilation. Could only focus on the fact that she was indeed going to have a baby, but Nate didn’t want to be around, let alone become a father, and how would she tell Henry about this? And her sisters?

  Yet a corner of her heart hugged the knowledge tightly. Nate’s baby. A child made from that one night when, for just a little while, all barriers had been down.

  That surge of love swelled and she finally looked at him with a clear gaze. ‘I know you don’t want family life, but I guess I do, because I want this baby. I’ll care for it. If you want to see it sometimes, we’ll arrange it somehow—’

  ‘Is that how you think this will go?’

  If she didn’t know him so well, she would believe it was pain she saw in his gaze. ‘I guess, that is, I suppose I assumed…What do you think will happen, then?’

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  ‘WE GET married. Raise the child together. It’s the only responsible thing to do.’

  Nate spoke almost harshly, but inside him a well of something that felt startlingly like jubilation had begun. That shout of laughter earlier hadn’t been simple amusement at Chrissy’s sarcastic comment.

  He was going to be a father. He and Chrissy had made a child. They would have to stay together now. He wouldn’t have to lose her. He would care for her and the baby, always. ‘This child deserves two parents, don’t you think? Since two of us created him or her?’

  The future kaleidoscoped through his mind, image after image. Watching Chrissy grow large with their child. Being with her for the birth. Making that home together that he had forbidden himself. ‘There’s no choice now. It’s too late to try to do things differently.’

  Henry would be a great-grandfather. Nate’s grin widened. The old man would love that. If anything could give him the lift he needed, then surely a great-grandchild would do it.

  And what about you, Nate? You promised yourself you wouldn’t hurt Chrissy, and now you’re trying to tie her to yourself for life.

  His jubilation faded. OK, so maybe their future wouldn’t remain rosy forever, but he wanted a chance. Maybe he could find some way…

  ‘There are a thousand choices aside from a forced marriage with no love involved and that’s only been offered because a baby happened into the picture!’

  Chrissy crammed the test stick and cup into the paper bag, then hauled out h
er shoulder bag and shoved the lot inside. ‘Yes, there are plenty of choices, Nate Barrett, and I choose not to marry you. I refuse to be trapped in a marriage that you felt forced to offer!’

  ‘But you can’t…’ Belatedly, he realised that his announcement that they should marry could have been put in more digestible terms. Could have been a little more encouraging, and a little less as though he had accepted his life sentence.

  ‘As far as I’m concerned, Nate, we have talked. You’ve tossed out your little decree, and I’ve turned it down.’ She skirted the desk and him, giving him the widest berth possible, and headed for the locked outer door of the office.

  He followed her to the door. Reached for her hand. ‘Chrissy, wait. You’ve misunderstood.’

  ‘I can’t.’ The glitter of tears in her eyes cut all the way through him. Sliced his heart into pieces because she looked so hurt, so unhappy. ‘I need—I need to go home. I need to talk to my sisters. I need to be with people I love and who love me. Please…just let me go.’

  I need to be with people I love and who love me.

  After she had left, he stayed numb for who knew how long, those words reverberating in his head. Was there no chance for him, then? Did she not love him even the tiniest little bit?

  What is it you really want, Barrett? If you want to be a husband and a father and do it right, that means staying. Forever. You always said you wouldn’t do that.

  But this was Chrissy, and the child they had made together. This was different.

  Nate sat at his desk. He even did some work, but his heart wasn’t in it. Because, he realised, his heart was with her. The knowledge filled him. He loved Chrissy Gable. Loved her in a way he had never expected to love anyone.

  Loved her and had used her pregnancy as an excuse to demand that she stay with him. To force her into commitment even though he had no idea how to make a relationship between them work.

  He had fallen in love with the mother of his child.

  The pencil in his hand snapped in two. He stared at it without a shred of comprehension. He needed to go after her. To talk to her. Tell her how he felt and ask her to help him not to hurt her. There had to be a way.

  On his desk, the phone shrilled. He glanced at the clock. Realised very little time had passed, even though it seemed he had been sitting there forever. He almost ignored the call, but at the last minute snatched it up. It could be a problem with Henry. ‘Barrett.’

  ‘Nate, it’s Bella.’ A sharp intake of breath. Then words tumbling over each other in almost hysterical haste.

  ‘Chrissy’s been in a car accident.’ Bella named a busy junction a few minutes from the office.

  Her voice cracked as she went on. ‘There’s a pile-up and I could hear sirens over the phone when she called me. I’m on the other side of the city and I’m going to have to get public transport. Soph’s out of town again. Chrissy says she’s fine. She was babbling about pot-plant shopping—I don’t know why. But she’s trapped in the car, Nate. Maybe she feels fine because she’s lost her legs, or she’s about to die of blood loss, or—’

  ‘Bella!’ His sharp tone stopped the outpouring of fear. It didn’t stop him from imagining each of the things she had named, and more. ‘Dear God.’ His body clenched and all the blood rushed from his head.

  For a second he thought he was actually going to pass out. He forced breath into his lungs. ‘I’ll go to her. I’ll get through somehow.’

  He was running for the car park before he realised he had banged the phone down in Bella’s ear without waiting for a response. She would just have to understand. The woman he loved, the mother of his unborn baby, needed him.

  ‘Chrissy. Dear God.’ He ran faster.

  Nate probably broke every traffic law in the state during the drive from the company building to the scene of the accident.

  Traffic was being directed around the problem area, and police and a single ambulance vehicle were on the scene.

  With no thought for anything but Chrissy, he drew the convertible as much to the side as he could manage and jumped out.

  ‘Hey, man, are you crazy?’ someone shouted after him. ‘You can’t leave your car in the middle of the street like that.’

  ‘Park it for me.’ He tossed the keys over his shoulder. ‘I’ll get it later.’

  Putting it from his mind, he forced his way between the cars until he reached a crumpled yellow bug with a P-plate sitting forlornly in its rear window. His eyes filled with tears and he rushed to the car, arms spreading on the roof as he peered inside, terrified of what he might find.

  ‘Off the road, please, sir. This isn’t a spectator event.’ A police officer gave him the white-glove treatment. Arm stretched, he indicated the pavement with stoic command.

  Nate frowned at the officer. Stared again at the car and finally comprehended that Chrissy wasn’t in it. ‘Where have they taken the—the injured? Have most of the ambulances already left?’

  The officer gave him an odd look, then pointed again to the pavement to the left. Nate gave up and strode toward the ambulance.

  All the other ambulances must have left with their patients already. He would ask, quickly, find out where Chrissy had been taken, and go to her.

  His gaze searched the street briefly and he spotted his car parked way down on the left. He nodded, relieved that his urgency hadn’t robbed him of transport.

  ‘I shouldn’t have let her drive with so little experience.’ What if she wasn’t OK? He could lose her and their baby. How would he survive that? He wasn’t sure he could. ‘She’s never driving again. When I find her, I’m going to tell her—’

  ‘Nate. What are you doing here?’

  Chrissy’s voice. Clear. Familiar. Near.

  He turned his head. Found her a few feet away from the ambulance. She had been giving details to a police officer, and now tucked her wallet back inside her shoulder bag and walked toward him. On her own legs, which appeared to be in working order.

  ‘You’re…Are you all right? The baby? Your car’s a write-off. It’s a wonder you didn’t die. Bella said you were trapped.’ He stopped, cursed himself for voicing the fears. Stared as tears formed in her eyes and fell. There. See? He’d upset her.

  ‘Oh, God, Chrissy, I’m sorry.’ He wrapped his arms around her, hugged her to him. ‘Only, why aren’t you in one of the ambulances and on your way to a hospital by now? Why have they left you to fend for yourself like this?’

  She leaned into the hug for a moment, then drew back a little to look up at him. ‘I’m not hurt, Nate. It was just a knock-on. Didn’t you see? We made a fair sort of commotion between all of us, but nobody was hurt beyond maybe a bit of shock or something.’

  Again, he struggled to understand. He turned, not easing his grip, and stared once more at the mess on the road. Cars had been, and were, in the process of being towed away.

  Now that he looked at the bug again, he could see that it had weathered the excitement with little more than a smashed windscreen and a bit of minor front and rear damage. With Chrissy held in his arms, he could comprehend that the damage hadn’t been as bad as he had at first believed.

  ‘A problem at the front of the line of traffic, and you were one of the cars behind that had nowhere to go.’ A simple intersection smash-up. ‘The cars were probably moving at a crawl at the time.’

  ‘Yes, thankfully.’ She nodded, and he forced his arms to ease their grip on her, although he didn’t let go completely.

  A touch of pride entered her tone. ‘I didn’t wrench the wheel or panic. I just tried to control Gertie as best I could, like Joe said to do if I ever got whacked from behind in traffic like this. The police officer said I kept my head and did what any really experienced driver would have done.’

  ‘Right. That’s good. You did good.’ She had survived. That was the best achievement in his book. He searched her face. Restrained himself just barely from frisking her from head to foot to make sure for himself that she really wasn’t damaged.

/>   ‘You’re really OK?’ His voice roughened with the knowledge of how precious she was to him. ‘You and the baby?’

  ‘Chrissy. Oh, thank God.’ Bella materialised beside them. Breathless and dishevelled, she snatched Chrissy into her arms and all but strangled her. Tears poured down her face as she did what Nate had wanted to—patted her sister down, checking with shaking hands to make sure everything was OK.

  After a moment, Chrissy’s hands wrapped around Bella’s arms and tightened. ‘Bella. Stop. I’m all right.’ When that had no effect, Nate’s beloved gave her sister a good shake. ‘Bella! If your hands go any further south, I swear I’ll…’

  Bella stopped. Took a deep breath, and seemed to become aware of her surroundings again. Gave Chrissy one last pat for good measure, then drew back. Drew herself together in a display of strength that revealed just how tough these sisters were. Her love for Chrissy was somehow only underlined by that action.

  Nate would have given anything for a family like the one formed by Chrissy and her sisters. Had thought he had found it, for a time, with his grandfather. Until Margaret had come along and it all went belly-up.

  Chrissy turned to her sister. Bit her lip. ‘I’m afraid Gertie took a bit of a beating. They wanted to tow her, but I reckon she’ll still be drivable, and if there’s work to be done Joe should be the one to do it. I called him. He should be here soon. My new plants are OK, although I worry about trauma to them.’

  Bella cast her a confused look, but Nate understood. She had gone shopping for therapy after the shock of realising she was pregnant. Naturally, it would be plants that she bought.

  Joe arrived. Soph phoned, returning an earlier distraught call from Bella, and insisted on speaking with both sisters, twice over, before she would even begin to accept that everything might be all right.

  After a swift examination of the car while Nate glared repressively at him from the pavement, Joe drove off in it. Nate glanced toward his own vehicle.

  ‘Here you go, mate. She’s over there, safe and sound.’ A bear of a man separated himself from a group who, from their leather gear and the well-known symbol on their jackets, appeared to be gang bikers.