Boardroom Kings. Catherine Mann
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mingled with his body warmth clinging to the fabric. Too tempting. She passed his coat back because she couldn’t handle even one more obstacle in her life. Not now. “I guess not, as long as you do know.”
He stepped closer, his dark eyes intense in a way that sent shivers up her spine and had even led her to ditch her panties four months ago.
She forced herself to look away, reminded too thoroughly of the feelings that had propelled her into his arms the first time. “Thank you for believing me.”
“I would say thanks for telling me, but you didn’t.” The first hint of anger tinted his tones.
“I would have, eventually.” Before the kid graduated from college, at this rate. “The baby isn’t due for five more months.”
“I want to be a part of my child’s life, every moment. Starting now, we’ll work together.”
“You’re moving back to New York?”
“No.” He flipped the collar on his trench coat up over his ears, his suntanned face declaring how much he’d already acclimated to the more temperate California weather. “Let’s take this conversation to your apartment where there’s heat.”
Then a sneaking suspicion seeped in deeper than the damp cold. “You’re not moving back to NewYork, but you want us to work together bringing up the baby. You can’t actually expect me to move to San Francisco, can you?”
His silence confirmed her suspicion.
Her anger rose. “I’m not going anywhere with you. Not to my apartment and not to California. You really expect me to uproot my life? To abandon the company I’ve put my heart and soul into?” If there was even a company left to look after.
“Fine—” the word burst from his mouth in a gust of cloudy cold white “—yes, I want you to come to San Francisco. I want us to be together for our baby. What’s more important—your company or your child?”
She wanted to shout that she had put her child’s welfare first at the cost of her business. And she knew she would do the same all over again. She only wished she’d shelled out extra dollars for someone more reliable to watch over the shop, instead of worrying about her tight budget and blindly trusting the people she’d hired to do their damn jobs.
“Jason, why are you being so pushy so fast?” Some—okay, a lot—of her anger and fear from work directed itself at Jason. “There’s time for us to talk through this, months, in fact. What’s really going on here?”
His face closed up, all frustration hidden until he looked as cold as the frozen lion fountain. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“There must be a reason for the sudden hard sell to put me in the same state as you.” Wind whistled louder, almost drowning out the sounds of street traffic below. “Was your mother abandoned by some scum bucket of a man? Did a woman do you wrong in the past?”
His laughter burst out in a fresh gust of puffy clouds until he shook his head. “You have an active imagination. I can assure you that I have none of those tortured scenarios in my past.”
His laughter was infectious—and distracting. “That’s not a complete answer.”
“I’m not here to fight with you.” He stepped closer, the ocean-fresh scent of him teasing her pregnancy-heightened senses.
Warmth radiated off him in a welcome wave and contrast to the bitter cold. She ached to burrow against his chest and feel the lean coil of his muscles rippling against her. Tension gathered low and hot and fast as it always had around him, but even more so now that she knew how explosive they could be together.
She raised her hands between them, stopping just shy of actually touching his chest. Wary of even touching him to nudge him away. “You’re moving too fast for me. I need time to think.”
“Well, while you’re thinking, keep this in mind.” He slid a hand into his pocket and pulled out a black velvet ring box. He creaked open the lid to reveal…
A platinum-set solitaire diamond engagement ring.
Jason held the velvet box in his hand and waited for Lauren’s answer. Getting a jeweler to open up after hours had been a challenge, but he’d managed in time to catch the red-eye flight.
The shock on Lauren’s face wasn’t a great sign, but he was used to overcoming difficult odds. Wind stirred dry leaves around their feet, so frigidly different from the summer evening they’d spent working after hours in her office.
He extended his hand with the engagement ring, knowing he was being impatient, but time was short. “So? What’s the verdict?”
“Whoa, hold on.” She gathered her long straight hair back from her face and exhaled—hard. “I’m still stuck back on your idea that I would uproot myself to come to California and now you’re tossing an engagement into the mix?”
“Does this look like I’m joking?” He lifted the diamond. The morning sun refracted off all three carats.
The gardening bag slid from her shoulder and thudded to the ground. “You really expect us to get married just because I’m pregnant? That’s archaic.”
He hadn’t meant marriage. He’d been thinking more along the lines of an engagement to shut up any gossips, something she might appreciate, too. But telling her as much probably wouldn’t go over well. “If agreeing to marriage moves too fast for you, I’ll settle for a trial engagement.”
“Trial engagement? You’re out of your freaking mind and I’m freezing.” She turned toward the door. “You’re right about one thing. We should move this conversation to my apartment.”
He picked up the canvas bag she’d left on the ground—the only sign she might be nervous—and followed her down two flights of stairs to the third floor. Her place was safe by New York standards, but somehow that didn’t seem like enough now. And where would an active toddler play?
He’d had a lot of time to think on that flight, and one thing he’d settled on for certain—he didn’t want to be a bicoastal dad. He wanted to be a larger part of his child’s life. Sure, he worked hard, but he wasn’t going to be like his father, who’d expected Jason to be a carbon copy of him, while never spending any time with his son to actually get to know him.
He needed to lure Lauren to California for more reasons than the Prentice account. He tucked the ring back in his pocket—for now. His goal set, he waited while she unlocked the double bolts and swept the door wide.
Her one-bedroom apartment reflected her personality. Vibrant. Alive. Packed with flowers, plants and colorful framed fabrics, an oasis in the middle of winter. Each area was painted a different color—the living room yellow, the kitchen green.
A hint of pink showed past her partly open bedroom door. He’d joined others from work for drinks at her apartment before, out here in the living area, but he’d never seen the bedroom up close. Something he intended to change down the road.
He set her bag on the hall table and followed her inside, wiping his feet on a rag rug. “We were friends for months, and we’re obviously attracted to each other.” He gestured toward her stomach. “Can you honestly say you never considered a future between us?”
“Never.” She hung her coat on one of the vintage doorknobs mounted on a strip of wood, glancing back over her shoulder at him. “Now could you wrap this up, please? We can talk later about logistics for after the baby is born, but right now, I need to get ready for work.”
“Wow, no worries of a guy getting an inflated ego around you.” This didn’t seem to be a wise time to bring up how fast she’d kicked him out of her office four months ago. Besides, she looked tired. Fine lines of exhaustion furrowed her forehead.