The Marriage Decider

She was printing it out for Jake’s perusal when she heard the telltale whoosh of the elevator doors opening to the corridor which ran adjacent to their offices. Her nerves tightened. Her mind raced through defensive tactics.

Jake would probably drop into her office to explain his lateness, then use the connecting door to enter his own. After a perfunctory greeting she could plunge straight into discussing the mail with him. It contained a number of queries to be answered. The sooner they got down to business, the better.

Jake had a habit of throwing personal inquiries at her on Monday mornings and she desperately wanted to avoid them today. This past weekend didn’t bear thinking about let alone commenting upon. Not to Jake Carter.

If there was one thing more difficult to deflect than his sizzling sex appeal, it was his curiosity. Give him even a hint of an opening and he’d capitilise on it, probing for more information every which way. The man had a mind as sharp as a razor.

The door to her office rattled as it was thrust open. Amy’s heart kicked in trepidation. She kept her gaze fastened on the printer as she steeled herself not to reveal even the tiniest crack of vulnerability to the dangerous impact of her boss’s strong charisma.

In her mind’s eye she ticked off what she had to meet with perfect equanimity; the tall, muscle-packed physique exuding male power, skin so uniformly tanned it seemed to gleam with the warm kiss of sunshine, a face full of charm, a slight smile accentuating the sensuality of a mouth that somehow combined strength and teasing whimsy, an inviting twinkle in eyes all the more fascinating for their drooping lids, causing them to look triangular in shape, accentuating the intensity of the intelligence burning through the intriguing amber irises. Last, but not least, was an enticing wealth of dark, wavy hair, threaded with silver, giving him an air of maturity that encouraged trust in his judgement, though Amy knew him to be only thirty-four.

She suspected he’d look no different in ten or even twenty years’ time. He’d still be making every woman’s heart flutter. It was a power she resented, given his fickleness, and she clung to that resentment as she looked up from the print-out to give the necessary acknowledgement of his presence.

Her gaze caught on the capsule he was carrying.

Shock wiped out her own concerns.

Jake the rake with a baby?

A baby?

Steve’s pleas for understanding pounded through her mind...responsibility, commitment, the rights of the child, being a full-time father...

Jake the rake in that role?

Amy lost all her moorings. She was hopelessly adrift.

“You don’t think fatherhood becomes me?”

The amused lilt of his sexy, purring voice jerked her gaze up. He chuckled at her confounded expression as he strolled forward and plonked the capsule on her desk.

“Cute little tyke, isn’t he?”

Amy rolled back her chair and stood up, staring down at what looked like a very small baby who was blessedly fast asleep. Only its head and a tiny clenched hand were visible above the bunny rug tucked snugly around the mound of its body. How old it was Amy couldn’t guess, but she didn’t think it was newborn.

“This...is yours?” Her voice came out like a strangled squawk, disbelief choking more than her mind.

He grinned, enjoying having provoked her obvious loss of composure. “More or less,” he answered, his eyes agleam with wicked mischief.

She belatedly registered the teasing. Resentment flared out of her control, fuelled by the pain of having to accept Steve’s full-on commitment to fatherhood with a woman other than herself.

“Congratulations!” She arched her eyebrows higher. “I take it the mother is happy with this more or less arrangement?”

“Uh-oh!” He wagged a finger at her, his sparkling amusement scraping her nerves raw. “Your bad opinion of me is showing, Amy. And it’s absolutely undeserved.”

Like hell it was! She hastily constructed a deadpan look to frustrate him. “I do apologise. Your personal affairs are, of course, none of my business.”

“Joshua’s mother trusts me implicitly,” he declared loftily.

“How nice!”

“She knows I can be counted upon in an emergency.”

“Yes. You always do rise to an occasion.”

He laughed at the dry irony in her voice. “I see you’ve recovered. But I did have you lost for a word earlier on,” he said triumphantly.

“Would you like me to be speechless more often?”

“What fun would the game be then?” Sheer devilment in his eyes.

Amy deliberately remained silent.

He heaved a sigh. “Determined to frustrate me.” He shook his head at her. “Challenge is the spice of life to me, Amy.”

She ignored the comment, giving him nothing to feed off.

“Okay,” he conceded. “Joshua’s mum is my sister, Ruth. Everything fell in on her this morning. My brother-in-law dislocated his shoulder, playing squash. She had to take him to hospital. I was elected as emergency baby-sitter so I got landed with my nephew for the duration. Ruth will come by here to pick him up when she can.”

Light dawned. “You’re the baby’s uncle.”

“And his godfather.” The teasing grin came back. “You see before you a staunch family man.”

From the safe distance of being once removed, Amy thought cynically.

“I’ll just pop him down here.” He lifted the capsule off her desk and placed it on the floor beside the filing cabinets. “Great little sleeper. Went off in the car and hasn’t budged since.”

He was leaving the baby with her!

Amy stared at the tiny bundle of humanity—the result of intimacy between a man and a woman—a bond of life that went on and on, no matter what the parents chose to do—a link that couldn’t be broken—a baby.

Her whole body clenched against the anguish flooding through her. For this Steve had left her. For this Steve was marrying another woman. Their years together meant nothing...compared to this. He’d covered up his infidelity. Amy hadn’t even suspected it. It was the baby who had ended their five-year-long relationship...the baby the man-trap blonde was having...part of Steve he couldn’t let go.

And Amy couldn’t blame him for that, however deeply it pained her.

A baby deserved to have its father.

But the betrayal of all they’d shared together hurt so much, so terribly much...

“This today’s mail?”

She hadn’t been aware of Jake backtracking to her desk. The question swung her head towards him. He’d picked up the sheets from the printer. “Yes,” she answered numbly.

“I’ll take it into my office.” He made a beeline for the connecting door, waving at the capsule as he went. “There’s a bottle of formula and a couple of disposable nappies in that bag at Joshua’s feet. Shouldn’t be a problem.”

So arrogantly casual, dumping his responsibility for the baby onto her!

Resentment started to burn again.