Maureen Child - Baby Bonanza

“I’ll stay here, but I’m not sleeping with you,” she announced suddenly.

Nick shook his head and smiled. “Don’t flatter yourself. I said you’re staying in my suite, not my bed. As it happens, there are three bedrooms here besides my own. Your things have been unpacked in one of them.”

She frowned a little and the flush of color in her cheeks faded a bit. “Oh.”

“Disappointed?” Nick asked, feeling a quick jolt of something hot and reckless punch through him.

“Please,” she countered quickly. “You’re not exactly irresistible, Nick.”

He frowned at that, but since he didn’t actually believe her, he let it go.

“I’m actually grateful to be out of that hole at the bottom of the ship,” she added, glancing around at the suite before shifting her gaze back to his. “And if staying here is the price I have to pay for your attention, then I’ll pay.”

One dark eyebrow lifted. “How very brave of you to put up with such appalling conditions as these.”

“Look,” Jenna told him, “if you don’t mind, it’s been a long day. So how about you just tell me which room is mine so I can take a shower. Then we’ll talk.”

“Fine. This way.” He turned, pointed and said, “Down that hall. First door on the left.”

“Thanks.”

“My bedroom’s at the end of the hall on the right.”

She stopped, looked back at him over her shoulder and said, “I’ll make a note.”

“You do that,” he whispered as she left the room, shoulders squared, chin lifted, steps long and slow, as if she were being marched to her death.

His gaze dropped to the curve of her behind and something inside him stirred into life. Something he hadn’t felt since the last time he’d seen Jenna. Something he’d thought he was long past.

He still wanted her.

Spinning around, Nick stalked across the room to the wide bank of windows that displayed an awe-inspiring view of the sea. His gaze locked on the horizon as he fought to control the raging tide of lust rising inside him.

Jenna Baker.

She’d turned him inside out more than a year ago. Ever since, he’d been haunted by memories of their time together until he wasn’t sure if what he was remembering was real or just fevered imaginings offered by a mind that couldn’t seem to let go of the woman who’d lied to him. And Nick wasn’t a man to forget something like that. Now she was back again. Here, trapped on his ship in the middle of the ocean with nowhere to go to escape him.

Yes, they had plenty to talk about-and if her children were indeed his sons, then there were a lot of decisions to be made. But, he told himself as he shoved both hands into his slacks pockets and smiled faintly at the sunlight glinting on the vast expanse of the sea, there would be enough time for him to have her again.

To feel her under him. To lay claim to her body once more. To drive her past the edge of reason. Then, when he was satisfied that he’d gotten her out from under his skin, he’d kick her loose and she’d be out of his life once and for all. He wouldn’t even allow her to be a memory this time.

In Neptune’s Garden, the elegant restaurant on the Splendor Deck, Jenna watched as Nick worked the room.

As the owner of the ship, he wasn’t exactly expected to mingle with the passengers, but Nick was an executive like no other. He not only mingled, he seemed to enjoy himself. And with her arm tucked through his, Jenna felt like a queen moving through an adoring crowd.

Again and again, as they walked to their table, Nick stopped to chat with people sitting at the white linen-covered tables. Making sure they were enjoying the ship, asking if there was anything they needed and didn’t have, if there was anything that the crew could do to make their stay more pleasurable.

Of course the single women on board were more than anxious to meet the gorgeous, wealthy, eligible Nick Falco. And the fact that Jenna was on his arm didn’t dissuade them from flirting desperately.

“It’s a beautiful ship, Mr. Falco,” one woman said with a sigh as she shook his hand. She tossed her thick black hair back over her shoulder and licked her lips.

“Thank you,” he said, smiling at her and the two other women seated with her. “I’m happy you’re enjoying yourselves. If there’s anything you need, please be sure to speak to a steward.”

“Oh,” the brunette cooed, “we will. I promise.”

Jenna just managed to keep from rolling her eyes. All three women were looking at Nick as if he were the first steak they’d stumbled on after leaving a spa dinner of spinach leaves and lemon slices. And he was eating it up, of course.

When he turned to go, he led her on through the crowd and Jenna swore she could feel the death stare from those women boring into her back.

“Well, that was tacky,” she murmured.

“Tacky?”

“The way she practically drooled on you.”

“Ah,” Nick said, flashing a quick grin at her as he opened his right hand-the hand the brunette had shaken and clung to. A cabin key card rested in the center of his palm and the number P230 was scrawled across the top in ink. “So I’m guessing this makes it even tackier.”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Jenna snapped, wanting to spin around and shoot a few daggers at the brunette with no class. “I was with you. For all she knew I was your girlfriend.”

His pale blue eyes sparkled and his grin widened enough that the dimple in his left cheek was a deep cleft. “Jealous?”

She tried to pull her hand free of the crook of his arm, but he held her tight. Frowning, she said, “No. Not jealous. Just irritated.”

“By her? Or by me?”

“A little of both.” She tipped her head back to look up at him. “Why didn’t you give the key back to her?”

He looked genuinely surprised at the suggestion. “Why would I embarrass her in front of her friends?”

Jenna snorted indelicately. “I’m guessing it’s next to impossible to embarrass a woman like that. ”

“This really bothers you.”

It always had, she thought. When she first went to work for Falcon Cruise Lines, she’d heard all the stories. About how on every cruise there were women lining up to take their place in Nick’s bed. He was a player, no doubt. But for some reason, Jenna had allowed herself to be swept up in the magic of the moment. She’d somehow convinced herself that what they’d had together was different from what he found with countless other women.

Apparently, she’d been wrong about a few things.

“One question,” she said, keeping her voice low enough that no one they passed could possibly overhear.

“Okay.”

“Are you planning on using that key?”

He only looked at her for a long moment or two, then sighing, he stopped a waiter, handed over the key card and whispered something Jenna didn’t quite catch. Then he turned to her. “That answer your question?”

“Depends,” she said. “What did you tell him?”

“To return the card to the brunette with my thanks and my regrets.”

A small puddle of warmth settled in Jenna’s chest and even though she knew it was foolish, she couldn’t quite seem to quash it. “Thank you.”

He dipped his head in a faint mockery of a bow. “I find there’s only one woman I’m interested in talking to at the moment.”

“Nick…”

“Here we are,” he said, interrupting whatever she would have said as he seated her in the navy blue leather booth that was kept reserved for him. “Jenna, let’s have some dinner and get started on that talk you wanted.”

Jenna slid behind the linen-draped table and watched him as he moved around to take a seat beside her. “All right, Nick. First let me ask you something, though.”