Last Chance For Baby

Her family plans were getting ready to fly apart, and there was nothing she could do to fix them.

The phone on Julia’s desk buzzed, and she gratefully pushed her lunch aside—milk and a package of crackers—and picked up the receiver. “Yes?”

“This is Trudy, in reception. I was told to notify you when Mr. Oman arrived.”

Swell.

“Thank you. I’ll be right down.”

“I’ll tell him, Ms. Parker.” Trudy sounded star-struck, which wasn’t surprising. One look at Sheik Raoul Oman and she must have melted in her chair. The man had sex appeal that could bring the dead back to life.

Julia glanced in a mirror and smoothed her fingers over a stray lock of hair. She didn’t care if she looked attractive, just neat and professional. Then, squaring her shoulders, she went to the elevator and punched the Down button. A minute later she stepped out and saw the back of Raoul’s dark head.

Flutters hit her midsection even harder, and she gulped down another wave of nausea.

“Sheik Oman,” she said, congratulating herself on the cool, even tone of her voice. “Welcome to Kane Haley, Inc.”

Raoul turned with catlike grace, one eyebrow lifting. “As you know, Ms. Parker, I do not use my title in America.”

She knew. She also knew that nothing could make Raoul anything other than what he was—a member of the royal family in his own country of Hasan…and the father of her baby.

It was the father-of-her-baby part driving hordes of butterflies through her system. Or was it the memory of the way he’d made her feel? She hadn’t wanted to lose control during their brief, explosive affair, but he hadn’t allowed anything but her complete surrender in the bedroom.

Julia’s mouth tightened.

The pleasure had been extraordinary, but you couldn’t live on pleasure. If anything, he’d proved that a man, particularly from his exalted family background, had trouble letting a woman be equal. Even in the most private of circumstances.

“Mr. Haley is tied up in a meeting this afternoon. He asked me to show you around,” she said.

Raoul inclined his head and smiled. “Kane has already explained this matter. I requested that you might take his place.”

“Oh.”

Any hope that he’d forgotten some of the more intimate aspects of their relationship vanished at the dark heat in his eyes. He remembered everything. And he seemed to be reminding her that she was the one who’d chosen to say goodbye. That it was her decision not to prolong the time and passion they’d shared.

But didn’t men prefer temporary relationships?

Even men from other countries?

She wasn’t the most experienced woman in the world, but from what she’d seen, commitment was the last thing the male animal usually thought about.

“Kane was not aware that we were…acquainted,” Raoul murmured. “I thought you might have mentioned me.”

From behind his back Julia saw Trudy mouth the words ohmigod, you know him? The receptionist looked more excited and dreamy than ever. But then, Trudy was the queen of high drama and romance. She lived for office gossip, though in a kind way. She never repeated anything cruel.

“Kane is the president of the company. We talk about business-related matters,” Julia explained, more uncomfortable than ever. “Not about people I’ve met…at a business conference.”

“Ah.” The subtle humor lingering in the depths of his brown eyes made her wince, but there wasn’t anything she could say in protest. Raoul could communicate more with his eyes than most people did verbally, and right now he was laughing at her attempts to pretend nothing had happened between them.

“Well,” she said briskly. “Shall we start?”

“That would be excellent.”

She turned on her heel and launched into a description of the three floors of the building leased by the company. She knew Raoul well enough to know he wouldn’t need any description of Kane Haley, Inc. He was the sort of man who would have investigated the accounting company from top to bottom before he ever considered taking the position as its Chief Financial Officer.

It almost made her smile. Kane Haley had probably felt as if he was being interviewed for the job, rather than the other way around. Of course, the whole thing would have just amused Kane, and it certainly hadn’t blinded him to Raoul’s exceptional qualifications for the position.

Darn it.

When they were finished touring the fourteenth floor, they stopped in front of the elevators. Raoul had suggested they simply take the stairs, but Julia couldn’t reveal that her doctor had recommended no climbing until after the baby was born, so she’d said they were mostly for emergencies.

Normally she didn’t babble, but the continuing amused glint in Raoul’s expression and the memory of their past relationship was turning her logical brain into mush.

They stepped inside the empty elevator car, and no sooner had the doors closed than Raoul pressed the Hold button.

“Bien-aimée,” he said softly. “It has been a long while.”

Julia’s heart skipped a few beats. “Not so long. Just two or three months,” she tossed off, as if she didn’t have a clear idea how much time had passed. Fat chance. She had a biological reminder growing in her womb, telling her exactly how long it had been since they’d last seen one another.

“Over six months,” he corrected. “June was a beautiful time in your nation’s capital.”

She kept her gaze glued to the Hold button he was depressing. “We’d better get going, or someone will think the elevator is broken.”

“They will simply think the machine is slow.”

“Raoul—”

“Julia,” he mocked, using her same exasperated tone. “It is good to hear that you remember my first name.”

Unaccustomed heat bloomed in her face. “I remember.”

“As do I.” He lifted his free hand and stroked the curve of her cheek. “I remember many things.”

“Please, Raoul. It was nice, but it was just one of those temporary things.” Guilt nearly made Julia choke on the words, because, while she had intended things to be temporary between them, she’d deliberately done everything possible to ensure he’d give her a child.

It was my last chance to be a mother.

Julia bit on the inside of her mouth, knowing she deserved that small stab of pain. Raoul hadn’t been her last chance for motherhood, but the longer she’d waited, the smaller her chances would have gotten. Endometriosis didn’t always result in infertility, but it was a common result of the condition. She’d gone to the conference still in shock after hearing the bad medical news, and when she’d met Raoul it had seemed like the answer.

“I did not choose for it to be so very temporary. You are the one who made this decision.”

Raoul didn’t look amused now, but angry, and she could well imagine him as an imperious desert ruler of old. She should have known it would irritate him, not getting to be the one who broke things off. Men liked to be in control, which was why she didn’t want her child’s father involved in their lives.

She’d had enough experience with overbearing, dominating men who thought they ruled the universe just because fate had given them a particular set of chromosomes. Her military father was a case in point. Sure, not all men were like that, but she hadn’t had any luck telling who was a control freak and who wasn’t.

“We really have to be going,” she said. She tried pulling his hand from the button, but he held fast. “Raoul, let go.”

“We must talk.” Raoul watched the changing expressions in Julia’s face and wondered why she had been so adamant about ending their affair at the conclusion of the conference. Even now she fascinated him, stirring his body in a way that made it imperative that he wait before leaving the privacy of the elevator car. It would not be prudent to allow anyone at Kane Haley, Inc., to see his undisguised response to another employee.