Sweet Surrender, Baby Surprise / The Secretary's Bossman Bargain. Kate Carlisle
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Julia had decided to bring Jake along, too.
It figured that Cameron would cause all her plans to go awry. It wasn’t as if she never wanted him to see the baby, but there was no getting around the fact that this was going to get very awkward, very quickly.
“Mmm, that feels so good,” Julia murmured as she turned in Cameron’s arms and kissed him with all the ardor she could muster. It wasn’t a hardship. The man was incredibly sexy and handsome as sin. He seemed taller than she remembered, and definitely stronger. More confident, too, if that were possible. His dark green eyes watched her with a predator’s gleam. She shouldn’t have found it so absolutely thrilling, but she did.
But damn him for showing up like this! It was just her bad luck, which was the only kind of luck she’d ever had when it came to Cameron Duke.
She’d met him eighteen months ago and willingly succumbed to his charms. They’d had an incredible, torrid four-day affair. Weeks later, she realized she was pregnant.
She’d tried to do the right thing and contact him, but Cameron had all these damn rules about women. Sure enough, true to his word, he never looked back, never contacted her again.
She’d tried emailing him a few times, but it was sadly obvious now, he’d never read any of her messages. And maybe it was just as well. With his so-called rules regarding relationships—or rather, the obsessive need to avoid them—she’d come to the realization that Cameron Duke wouldn’t want to have anything to do with raising a child.
She could just imagine what he would think of her for bringing the baby here, especially when he found out Jake was his. Cameron was a decent man so it wasn’t as if he would toss her and Jake out of his suite. But he might accuse her of setting this whole thing up and there was little doubt that he would deny the baby was his.
“Oh,” she whispered as he pressed himself closer to her. It was getting impossible to think straight with the delicious onslaught of his mouth and hands, but Julia was starting to wonder if she might possibly distract him long enough to get Jake settled. Then she could deal with everything tomorrow morning. Perhaps it was cowardly, but she could live with that.
Whatever she did would have to happen fast, before her baby decided to take matters into his own chubby baby hands.
“Look, Cameron,” she said, finally catching her breath. She needed to get him out of the hallway, now. “Why don’t you go get a fresh beer and I’ll just slip into something more—”
“I don’t need a beer, Julia,” Cameron said, running his hands down her sensitive thighs. “I just need this.”
“Mmm, me, too,” she said as she moved her fingers along his tight, muscled shoulders. “But first, I need a minute to freshen up.”
“You took a shower ten minutes ago,” he reminded her as he nuzzled her neck. “You’re fresh as a daisy.”
She moaned, then reluctantly wriggled out of his grasp. “But I really need to dry my hair.”
“Yeah?” He brushed a few curling strands away from her face. “It looks fine to me.”
“Thanks, but I don’t want to catch a cold.”
He looked at her skeptically. “Right.”
She smiled brightly. “So how’s that fresh beer sounding?”
“What?”
“Beer,” she repeated. “In the kitchen. And didn’t you say you wanted to watch the football game?” “Yeah, sure. But—”
“Go ahead, then. I’ll be right there.” She tried to push him toward the living room but the guy was like a brick wall. Unmovable.
“What’s going on here, Julia?”
Just then, Jake cried out, “Mama, Mama!”
Cameron’s eyes widened.
So much for distractions. She could tell from the tone of Jake’s cry that he wasn’t hurt or hungry, but that didn’t make this moment any easier. “Fine. Look, I didn’t want to have to—”
“Okay, I definitely heard that,” Cameron said, ignoring her words as he stepped around her handily. “I think it came from the other bedroom.”
“No, no, no.” Julia jogged just as quickly around to stop him. “It’s probably just a cat. I’ll take care of it.”
“A cat?” Cameron frowned as he glanced down the hall again. “I don’t think so.”
The baby cried out again and Julia sagged against the hallway wall.
“Aha!” Cameron said and walked toward the second bedroom.
She dashed in front of him and blocked the door. “This is none of your concern, Cameron. Why don’t you go turn on the game?”
Cameron was staring at her as if she’d gone insane. Maybe she had. Seeing him again was causing her to behave completely contrary to her usual sensible self. She could blame him for that, too.
“Move it, Julia.”
She held up her hand to stop him. “No way. This may be your suite, but you’re not going in there without me.”
“Then open the door.” His look said he wasn’t going anywhere until he’d investigated what he’d heard.
“Fine,” Julia said. He’d been bound to find out sometime. The most important thing now was to make sure Cameron didn’t upset Jake. She huffed out a breath as she pushed the door open slowly. “But it’s not what you think. I mean, it is, but—”
“Oh, really?” he said, stepping into the room and spying the portable crib. Julia followed and saw Jake wearing a great big grin on his face, gripping the railing with both hands as he bounced on the mattress.
“Because I think it’s a baby.” Cameron turned and glared at her. “What do you think?”
She walked over to the crib, smiled down at her son and whispered, “Looks like a baby to me, too.”
Jake’s little cheeks were red with exertion and Julia felt a sharp ache in her heart. He held out his arms and his knees began to wobble. “Mama, Mama.”
“Hello, my darling.” She bent to pick him up and perched him against her shoulder, rubbing his back. “That’s better. Don’t worry, sweetie, I’m here. That’s my good boy.”
“What in the—?” Cameron’s tone held a dangerous edge. “Julia, is this your kid? “
She smiled and kissed Jake’s soft cheek, inhaled his warm, powdery baby smell, then turned to face Cameron. “Yes, he’s mine. And yours. Cameron Duke, I’d like you to meet Jacob Cameron Parrish, your son.”
Two
Cameron immediately stepped back two feet and smacked his elbow into the doorjamb.
“What the hell kind of a joke is this?” he demanded, rubbing his elbow. Damn, that hurt. “Trust me, it’s not funny.”
Apparently, someone disagreed as the baby let out a gut-deep laugh and clapped his hands together. “Ba-da-ba!”
Cameron frowned at the little guy, then glared at Julia, who seemed to be holding back a smile. That set him off even more. He wasn’t about to be played for a fool.
He knew the game. This wasn’t the first time a woman had tried to pin a paternity suit on him. That was the downside of having a lot of money. The upside was, he wasn’t an idiot, despite what he’d told her earlier in jest. He had plenty of lawyers and he knew how to deal with this nonsense. “Not that I believe one word of your story, but the kid’s not exactly a newborn. So why’d you wait so long? If he’s really mine, why didn’t you tell me before now? “
“You’re kidding, right?”