One-Amazing-Night Baby!: A Wild Night & A Marriage Ultimatum / Pregnant by the Playboy Tycoon / Pleasure, Pregnancy and a Proposition

Unconvinced, Paige shook her head. ‘I’m not any older in his mind. He’s great as far as big brothers are concerned, but he doesn’t understand the first thing about how a girl thinks. His biggest motto is: I make the rules; you just have to follow them.’

Cooper reappeared, raking a hand through his clean, dark hair.

Each time she laid eyes on him Sophie felt her heartbeat set off at a gallop, and a profound craving which had nothing to do with food gripped her stomach. She’d signed up for three whole months of this sweet torture, while making a vow never to succumb to his transparent plans for seduction. Refusing any and all invitations to his bed was the only way to arrive at a responsible decision regarding the possibility of matrimony. Unfortunately, as much as she couldn’t see herself married to Cooper with his dominating nature, she could clearly see them making love. In fact, since their last meeting, that and their baby had been pretty much all she’d thought about.

Cooper spoke to Paige. ‘They’re ready to go through.’

Paige bounced up on tiptoe, kissed Sophie’s cheek and whispered in her ear. ‘Thanks for coming today—and for listening.’

While Sophie acknowledged a heart-warming rush of affection, Paige threw her arms around Cooper’s waist. Kissing her blonde crown, Cooper hugged his sister back. ‘Remember to eat a decent breakfast. And watch out for those French boys.’

Paige broke away. Eyes glistening like stars, she waved as she joined the other girls moving through the gate which led to the waiting lounge. ‘I’ll send you a postcard from the Louvre.’

Cooper waved back. ‘Bon voyage! Phone when you get there.’

Paige curved a hand around her mouth as she disappeared from view. ‘I think you two look really cool together.’

With Paige gone, Sophie and Cooper each exhaled, then shared a look. Her gaze was drawn to the sexy curve of his lips as he grinned and said, ‘Guess it’s just you and me.’

As they set off down the wide, now less crowded thoroughfare, Sophie trembled inside. Tonight would be the first they would spend together. In Cooper’s house. Alone. Like Paige, she was excited and yet scared to death.

She stepped onto a stretch of motorised walkway. Strolling alongside, Cooper took a few seconds to realise he’d lost his companion. As he stopped in his tracks, Sophie put on a sad face, waved goodbye, and let the walkway carry her further away.

Cooper’s eyes flashed, before he pushed up his sleeves, took a running leap and scissor-jumped over the rail, landing just behind her.

Outrageously surprised, she laughed as he steadied himself, then squealed when he pulled her close and growled, ‘Can’t get rid of me that easily. I was regional high-jump champion three years running.’

His smiling mouth inches from hers, his hot, masculine scent wound out to envelop her, and for one crazy moment she almost succumbed to an overwhelming urge to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him hard. Not a good start to her pledge to reject his charms.

Locking that impulse soundly away, she smoothed back her curls and asked, in a remarkably steady voice, ‘Have you done much travelling?’

He stepped back, but remained close, his broad chest almost brushing her shoulder. ‘Some. What about you?’

‘Not yet. But I’ve decided I really want to see the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben … I want to see it all.’

‘Though you won’t be jumping on a plane any time soon.’ He laid a light hand on her tummy. ‘Risk of premature labour.’

Sophie mulled it over. ‘Isn’t that only from the thirty-sixth week?’ Molly Saunders, a teacher from Unity, had been pregnant last year, and had done the research.

Cooper’s jaw jutted. His tone was low and adamant. ‘Can’t be too careful in your condition.’

When they stepped off the walkway, Cooper linked her arm through his. Given this kind of connection was a long way from kissing or, heaven forbid, making love, Sophie saved her energy and complaints, and instead quietly enjoyed the comforting sense of protection his strength offered.

Ten minutes later they were seated in his black soft-top. Cooper checked over his shoulder, slotted the gearstick into reverse, and backed out of the park. ‘When do I meet your family? They’ll want an introduction to the father of their grandchild.’

A cold wash of dread swept over Sophie’s body. She clutched the tote bag on her lap and stared blindly out of the window. ‘No rush. They’re a couple of hours’ drive from here.’

He stole a curious glance at her as he steered out into the traffic. ‘We have to do it sometime.’ Then he read between her tight-lipped lines. ‘I’d be happy to be there when you break the news about the baby.’

Sophie predicted the scene—her mother unsure whether to be happy or devastated, her father torn between being proud and concerned.

She blew out a resigned breath. ‘They’ll probably jump on what they’ll see as the obvious remedy and want a date set for the wedding.’

His left hand reached to claim hers. ‘Soon we’ll be able to give them one.’

For a heartbeat she thought about disengaging his hand and lopping it back on the steering wheel; she didn’t like feeling crowded by his assumptions. Not one bit. Fortunately for him, she did like the way her toes curled in her boots and her blood sizzled at his touch.

But it wasn’t enough.

She shivered beneath a shower of tingles when his thumb grazed back and forth over her fingers and he settled back into his seat as if they’d been driving together like this for years.

As if he’d won.

She grinned. She really had to admire such incredible confidence. Still … ‘Don’t get excited. I’m not even remotely close to agreeing to marry you. Just because you want this to happen, it doesn’t mean it will.’

Wishing wasn’t getting. Not even when a person was so obviously used to pursuing and attaining exactly what he wanted.

He flicked an unconcerned look into the rearview mirror. ‘I disagree.’

She summed him up, so cool and invincible. ‘Are all lawyers so arrogant?’

‘Are all teachers this hard-headed?’

A rush of ridiculous disappointment fell through her. Alone barely fifteen minutes and the barbs were already out.

She slipped her hand from his. ‘You sure know how to flatter a girl.’

His glance ran the entire length of her body. She gripped the seat. How did he do that? Set her alight with just a look.

‘I meant want I said to Penny the other day,’ he said. ‘I believe in fate. We will marry because it’s obviously meant to be. No use fighting it, either of us.’

She adjusted her seatbelt to turn slightly towards him. ‘That’s a line. You’re not superstitious. You said you don’t believe in luck.’

‘Fate isn’t superstition, and it has nothing to do with luck. It’s science. What happens in our lives was always meant to be.’

She wanted to disagree, but she wasn’t certain that she could.

He expanded. ‘The relativity of time plus a sequenced order of events equals destiny. It’s where planning and possibility collide. Admittedly this isn’t how I envisaged finding my wife and starting my family, but here we are. I won’t run from it. You shouldn’t fight it.’

Sophie took in his summation and her heartbeat tripped. A delicate question that needed an honest answer knocked at her brain. That night when they’d stayed together Cooper had decided he was done wasting time, that he was ready to make a commitment.

She formed a string of words in her mind, then pushed out the first before she could swallow the whole lot back down. ‘I have to ask … you didn’t doctor any of the condoms, did you?’

He slid her a fractious look. ‘You know the answer—but, no, of course not. In fact, I had absolutely no expectation of conceiving.’ He switched on the radio, turned down the volume. ‘It was fate.’

Hmm …

‘Boy and girl having a good time. It happens. Sometimes even with contraception. We’re living proof.’