Kitabı oku: «She's Having My Baby!»
“The fact is, someone in this building is pregnant with my baby. And I need your help to find her.”
“Pregnant?” Maggie whispered, stunned. Had she heard Kane right? “How? I mean, wouldn’t you know who she is?”
Kane shook his head. “Artificial insemination,” he explained curtly. “It was a big mix-up. That was why I wanted you to get in touch with the fertility clinic I asked you to call. It happened there.”
“Oh.” A funny little tune was playing in her head. “No, no, no,” seemed to be the words.
“Maggie, I’ve tried to do this on my own, but I’ve struck out every time. I really need your help. You know a lot of the women here. I’m sure you could get a line on who she might be. She should be about five months pregnant….”
She shook her head. This couldn’t be happening. “No, no, no,” she said softly.
“Maggie,” he said, surprise in his voice. He reached for her. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m five months pregnant.”
Dear Reader,
Brr… February’s below-freezing temperatures call for a mug of hot chocolate, a fuzzy afghan and a heartwarming book from Silhouette Romance. Our books will heat you to the tips of your toes with the sizzling sexual tension that courses between our stubborn heroes and the determined heroines who ultimately melt their hardened hearts.
In Judy Christenberry’s Least Likely To Wed, her sinfully sexy cowboy hero has his plans for lifelong bachelorhood foiled by the searing kisses of a spirited single mom. While in Sue Swift’s The Ranger & the Rescue, an amnesiac cowboy stakes a claim on the heart of a flame-haired heroine—but will the fires of passion still burn when he regains his memory?
Tensions reach the boiling point in Raye Morgan’s She’s Having My Baby!—the final installment of the miniseries HAVING THE BOSS’S BABY—when our heroine discovers just who fathered her baby-to-be…. And tempers flare in Rebecca Russell’s Right Where He Belongs, in which our handsome hero must choose between his cold plan for revenge and a woman’s warm and tender love.
Then simmer down with the incredibly romantic heroes in Teresa Southwick’s What If We Fall In Love? and Colleen Faulkner’s A Shocking Request. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll fall in love all over again with these deeply touching stories about widowers who get a second chance at love.
So this February, come in from the cold and warm your heart and spirit with one of these temperature-raising books from Silhouette Romance. Don’t forget the marshmallows!
Happy reading!
Mary-Theresa Hussey
Senior Editor
She’s Having My Baby!
Raye Morgan
MILLS & BOON
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RAYE MORGAN
has spent almost two decades, while writing over fifty novels, searching for the answer to that elusive question: Just what is that special magic that happens when a man and a woman fall in love? Every time she thinks she has the answer, a new wrinkle pops up, necessitating another book! Meanwhile, after living in Holland, Guam, Japan and Washington, D.C., she currently makes her home in Southern California with her husband and two of her four boys.
KANE HALEY
Note to self: Who’s having my baby?
Trudy—hopeless romantic, office gossip, can’t keep a secret. If it’s not her, she might know who it is!
Lauren Connor—dates a lot, trying out new looks to impress her boss, was out sick with stomach flu. Hmm…
Sharon Davies—recently trapped in an elevator with a major client, blushes whenever he’s around, looking a little green lately. Could she be carrying my baby?
Leila—makes eyes at me. Is it more than a crush?
Maggie Steward—my personal assistant, wants children, clock is ticking. She would never go to a sperm bank!
Julia Parker—worries that her endometriosis could make her infertile. No man in her life. Definite sperm bank material!
Jennifer Martin—eight months pregnant. Is it her late fiancé’s baby? Is it mine?
WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT…
A PREGNANT PROPOSAL
THE MAKEOVER TAKEOVER
LAST CHANCE FOR BABY
SHE’S HAVING MY BABY!
KANE HALEY, INC.
CHICAGO, IL
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter One
Kane Haley was staring at her with that weird look again. Maggie Steward bit her lip and leaned forward toward her computer monitor so that her crisp navy blue linen jacket would fall out and hide her stomach. Her heart was thumping. Had her boss guessed she was pregnant?
She went back to typing up the letter he’d asked her to write and wished he would close the door to his wood-paneled office so she couldn’t see him sitting in there, staring out at her. And even more important, so he couldn’t see her.
She should have told him by now. She’d meant to. But she just hadn’t found the right words. Once he knew she was going to have a baby, she had a feeling things would change drastically—not only professionally, but personally.
Nervously, she pushed a stray strand of golden-blond hair back into the twist at the nape of her neck and tried to concentrate on what she was doing, but thoughts and regrets were straying as well. Once he found out, she had no idea what he might say or do. What if he decided he needed someone he could depend on over the next few months? What if he asked her to transfer to another department so he could begin training someone new?
She valued her job as his administrative assistant, but more than that, she really needed it. The money was much better than for any other position she could qualify for in the company. And finances were turning out to be much tighter than she’d expected. She had no one to depend on but herself. Having a baby cost so much money!
The letter was finished and sliding slowly out of the printer. Ordinarily, she would go right in and have him sign it, but she was hesitating, worrying about what he might be thinking. Was he framing the question right now? Was he wondering why she hadn’t told him?
Maggie! Get a grip!
She scolded herself and rose from her ergonomically correct chair, being very careful not to move in any way that might emphasize her pregnancy, grabbed the letter and marched right into his office.
“Mr. Haley, if you’ll sign this, I’ll get it out right away.”
“Hmm?” He gazed at her blankly.
As always when her eyes met his, there was a little frisson of excitement that scattered along her nerve endings. Just one of the hazards of working for a man who looked like a cross between a young U.S. senator and a cowboy—smoothly handsome grace leavened by a core toughness that defined masculinity at its best, as far as she was concerned.
“Oh,” he said as he realized what she was there for. Picking up a pen, he held out his other hand for the page. “Sure.”
She waited apprehensively for his gaze to make a quick trip down toward her slightly protruding stomach, for his eyes to narrow and his brows to furl, but it didn’t happen. He signed the paper, tossed the pen down and stared into space again, ignoring her completely, his mind obviously captivated by some puzzle that wouldn’t let him be.
She frowned, turning her head to see what he was looking at, then turned back again, muffling a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. He hadn’t been staring at her at all. He was staring into space, and the space he was staring into just happened to be in her direction. He hadn’t noticed a thing. Her heart lightened.
Still, something about all this staring did bother her. She cleared her throat, and when that didn’t conjure up a response, she added crisply, “Do you have those notes on the new estimates ready for me to incorporate into the contract for the Bellingham people?”
“Contract?” His dark eyes flashed her way, and then he seemed to shake himself back to the present. “Oh, the notes for the contract. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of them.” He glanced at the cluttered surface of his desk and made a vague gesture. “They’re around here somewhere.”
“It’s got to be in the mail by five,” she reminded him.
He gave her a long-suffering look. “I know that. And I’ll have them ready for you.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Sure you will,” she said, lightly mocking him in a way that she’d become accustomed to and he usually enjoyed. “By four fifty-seven, no doubt.”
But he’d already forgotten she was standing alongside his desk. His dark-eyed gaze had glazed over and taken on a faraway look again.
She watched him, frowning, her gaze sliding from his handsome face to his wide shoulders to his strong but idle hands. This was not good, and it wasn’t like him. His mind wasn’t on his work. She’d been noticing that more and more often lately. What was going on?
Walking back toward her desk, she carefully closed the door to his office, then went over possibilities of disaster as she slid into her seat. What if he was thinking about changing his life in some way? What if he was bored and wanted to start a new business in some other place? What if he was about to quit his position and sail around the world on a catamaran? He’d talked about doing that once—gone on and on about the romance of the high seas.
“Just man against the ocean,” he’d told her, striking a pose, as though he had the mast at his back and a headwind before him. “What could be more thrilling?”
A steady paycheck, that was what. She didn’t want him to go anywhere. Not only would she lose her job, she would lose…him. Her cheeks reddened even though there was no one there to see them. She had to stop thinking about him like that.
Of course, there was no use pretending she hadn’t had a low-level crush on him from the beginning. What red-blooded woman wouldn’t find a man like Kane Haley attractive? But she’d never for a moment held out any hope that he might look at her in a romantic way. She was a person of common sense, and her instincts told her she wasn’t the sort of woman a man like Kane fell for.
And that was okay. She had her own life to live—a life that had become a little more lonely since her husband Tom had died in a car accident coming home from a deer-hunting trip two years ago. Glancing down at her left hand, she was startled to realize it had been almost six months since she’d taken off her wedding and engagement rings. It still surprised her whenever she noticed they weren’t there. She’d been a new widow when she’d been promoted to cover for Kane’s assistant who’d been out on maternity leave, and she’d thrown her heart into her work. When the woman had decided to stay home with her baby, Maggie had already fit in so well, Kane had asked her to stay on permanently. It was a dream of a job and he was a dream of a boss. She adored him.
What he thought of her was a little more ambiguous. Did he think about her at all? Sadly, evidence suggested he didn’t pay much attention to her in any way except as an efficient manager of his time and business affairs.
Even more annoying, sometimes she actually had a feeling that Kane Haley thought she was still married. He’d said something in passing about her husband a couple of times, and she’d let it go, thinking it really didn’t matter. After all, their relationship was totally work-related. But a little part of her had wondered if she should make it clear to him that she was free, just in case….
But that was going nowhere. He was a terrific boss. Their relationship was very special to her. She wouldn’t do anything to ruin it if she could help it. She only hoped he wasn’t planning anything that would do exactly that.
Of course, her decision to go ahead and have a baby might be enough to put a damper on things. It had all seemed so easy back when she’d begun. Lately, she’d had second thoughts. Not about the baby—but about her timing. Things just weren’t falling into place the way she’d hoped.
With a sigh, she went back to work at her computer, resolving to think of a way to tell him she was pregnant.
“Gotta do it today,” she promised the empty air. “No more excuses.”
Kane watched Maggie walk away and close the door behind her and he groaned with envy. There went a woman without a worry in the world. She was the most efficient assistant he’d ever had, always on top of every situation, always ready with a calm smile and a quick retort when he needed snapping into shape. He couldn’t remember how he’d managed before she’d appeared like Mary Poppins to organize his life. He really didn’t know what he’d do without her. Sometimes he thought she knew more about what made his company run than he did. She was terrific. Her husband was a lucky man. He couldn’t help but wonder if she ran as tight a ship at home as she ran here. Did she keep her husband in line, too?
Odd that in almost two years of working together, he’d never met her husband. But that seemed to fit with the coolly detached way she handled things between the two of them. She never got personal, and neither did he. She was all business and she ran this place, to all intents and purposes.
And that was a good thing, too, especially right now, because his work was going to hell lately, and he knew it. He had his mind on only one thing and it was driving him nuts. If he didn’t find out soon just who in this company was carrying his baby, he was going to go crazy.
Closing his eyes, he swore softly. Crazy. That was a good word for this situation. It had started out in a relatively sane and sober way. When his good friend, Bill Jeffers, had had a cancer scare and had come to him about it, he’d been ready to do anything he could to help out. He’d taken Bill to see his cousin, a world-class oncologist, and then had gone with him to the various testing labs, including the clinic where Bill was encouraged to deposit sperm to be used in case his radiation treatments destroyed his chances of ever having children. Kane himself had been surprised when the technician suggested he deposit some as well, to put Bill, who was quite nervous, at ease. Of course, he’d been glad to do anything to help his friend at this tense time.
The radiation treatments were, thank God, successful, and Bill was fine today. Just a few months ago, Bill had called to let him know he and his new wife Tracy were going to have a baby.
“You didn’t have to make use of that little deposit you made at the clinic that day, did you?” Kane had asked him, jokingly.
Bill had assured him it hadn’t been necessary, but once Kane had hung up, he’d begun thinking about his own deposit. He hadn’t ever done anything about it. It really wasn’t one of those things you should leave hanging around. The next morning, he’d called the clinic to tell them to have it destroyed. And that was when this nightmare had begun.
When he’d found out that his sample had been mistakenly used just weeks before—and by someone who worked in his company—he’d been stunned. The clinic had adamantly refused to tell him the name of the woman, even though he’d threatened legal action. And he’d been trying ever since to figure out which of the many women who worked at Kane Haley, Inc., was walking around incubating his baby!
“Let it go,” his brother Mark had said just that morning when they were playing their usual Friday racquetball game at their health club. “Forget about it. It’s out of your hands. You really aren’t involved in any meaningful way. Get over it!”
“I can’t,” he replied glumly, giving the ball a vicious slash. “You don’t understand.”
Mark, with his bouncy redheaded wife and his two bright kids in his beautiful house in one of the nicest suburban villages in the Chicago area, really didn’t understand. How could he? His life had been smooth sailing from day one. Kane didn’t resent his happiness, but he was sharply aware of the differences in their experiences, despite having grown up more or less in the same family. Mark believed in happy marriages, for one thing. He had one. Kane knew from his own past—including a very miserable marriage—that they were few and far between.
“There’s just no way of finding this woman,” Mark went on. “And even if you found her, what could you do about it?” He dodged a ball that came ricocheting off the wall at him, batting it down to where he could handle it and toss it back to his brother. “Give it up.”
“I’ve got to find her.” Kane served an ace and felt a glow of triumph as Mark flailed at it and missed. “I can’t rest until I do.”
Mark winced, shaking his head as he looked back at his brother. “Why?” he asked simply.
In answer, Kane hit the ball just right again and practically laid Mark out against the wall. The sound the hard ball made against the wood echoed through the little enclosed court and he grinned and flexed his biceps. Served Mark right. It was high time he learned to treat his older brother with a little respect.
Unfortunately, respect didn’t seem to last the way it once had, and in minutes, Mark was in charge of the service, putting across his own winning aces. Kane’s attention evaporated along with his game. His mind was back on his problem, and his brother could tell.
Hitting another hard one, Mark asked again, insisting, “Why?”
“Because,” Kane said in exasperation, letting the ball go by and not even reacting to it. “Just because. I can’t help it.” He knew his voice was sounding choked, but he had to try to make his brother understand. “I’ve got to find my baby. Mark, it’s like a fire smoldering inside of me. The need to find him haunts me all the time.”
Mark stopped and turned toward him, frowning. He hesitated, then went ahead and spoke softly. “Kane, it isn’t your baby. You gave it away.”
Anger flared in his heart, but he managed to keep his voice low and steady as he dropped down to sit on the lowest step of the stairway out of the court. “That wasn’t my doing.” He was forcing himself to breathe evenly, to keep this under control.
“Maybe not, but it was done.” Mark slumped down beside him. “Hell, Kane, go out and find some woman and marry her and make your own baby. Forget about the sperm thing. It’s over.”
He looked at his brother and laughed softly. “Come on, man, do you think the old lord of the manor cared about the kids he fathered when he went out rolling in the haystack with the milkmaids? This is like a modern-day version. After all, you’re president of the company. Your employees are like the old-fashioned tenants on the land.” He frowned comically. “Same deal, except with these twenty-first-century methods, I think you’re getting rooked out of the fun part.”
Kane avoided his gaze, shaking his head. “This isn’t funny, Mark. I’m quite serious about it. I’m going to find my baby.”
Mark put a hand on his arm. “And do what once you do? Ruin things for some nice young couple who managed to get pregnant with your help? Don’t you think they would be much happier not knowing you’re involved?” He hesitated and his voice softened with sympathy. “Come on, Kane. Whoever she is isn’t going to want you in her life. Face facts. You’d be nothing but an intrusion.”
Kane looked Mark in the eye. “You may be right, but I have to know.” He tried to smile at his brother, but his emotions were running too close to the surface to risk it. “Anyway, I could be a help to them. I could be like an uncle. I could come at Christmas with gifts for everyone. I could make sure he had a college education….”
Mark groaned and rose, heading for the showers. “You’re hopeless,” he tossed back over his shoulder. “I give up.”
But Kane wouldn’t give up. He couldn’t give up. His baby was out there somewhere. It was just a matter of time before he would know where.
He had a thing about kids and their fathers, a special need that had a lot of history attached to it. Back in his office, pacing the beige carpet until a path was being worn in it, he knew one thing for sure. Somehow, he was going to find out where his child was.
But what could he do next? He’d already harassed four women who worked at Kane Haley, Inc., thinking each might be the one because of one thing or another. False leads each time, but he’d tried, damn it. And now, as far as he knew, there weren’t any pregnant women left.
Running a hand through his thick hair, he frowned. He was going to have to go back to the clinic. He just couldn’t see any other way. He was going to have to threaten legal action again, and force them to tell him who she was.
Either that, or sign himself up for full-time therapy.
Flopping down in his office chair, he reached forward and clicked on the interoffice communicator. “Maggie,” he said crisply.
“Yes, sir?”
“Look up the number of the Lakeside Reproductive Clinic…”
The gasp on the other end of the line interrupted him.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.” She sounded breathless, but her voice was strong. “Yes. Did you say the Lakeside…?”
“Lakeside Reproductive Clinic. That’s the one. I want you to put in a call to the chief of operations for me, will you? Put him right through when you get him. Thanks.”
Kane leaned back in his chair, drumming his fingers on the desk pad and marshaling his arguments. It was time to get tough.
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