Allison Leigh - The Tycoon's Marriage Bid

“How…efficient.”

“Then it’s settled.”

Her eyebrows rose. She pushed herself up on her elbow, and there was nothing dazed in her eyes now. Incredulousness shone clear and sharp.

“No, it’s not! How am I supposed to afford—” she waved her hand, a brief motion conveying a wealth of frustration “—this place you’ve arranged? And I’m still going to need help, if I’m supposed to have bed rest. No matter what, I’m going to have to call my family.”

“Hold it.” He sat forward, resting his arms on his knees. “First of all, I said I rented you a place. Period. As for calling your family, you can if you want. I’m just telling you it’s not necessary, if you really want to go this alone.”

Her brows drew together at that. “Are you going to hire me a nursemaid, too?” She looked everywhere but at him. “I wasn’t that perfect of an assistant, Alex. You cannot possibly be so desperate for me to come back to work for you that you’d go to these lengths. I don’t want to owe anyone!”

“Anyone, or just me?”

Confusion and pride tangled in her eyes. “Does it matter?”

Did it?

He didn’t like owing favors, either. “I’m not hiring a nurse,” he said evenly, scrapping the plan to do just that. “I’ll stay with you myself.”

Nikki saw Alex’s lips move. She heard the words he spoke. But they still made no sense. “You’ll stay with me,” she repeated slowly.

He nodded once.

“Here. In Lucius.”

Again, the single nod.

“At this place you’ve rented for me.”

A third nod.

She pressed her fingertips to the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes, then opening them again. “That sedative they gave me is really messing with my head.”

“No, it’s not.”

No. It wasn’t. If it had been, she’d at least have an explanation. She dropped her hand to her lap, her palm upward. “I don’t want your pity.”

His jaw hardened. “You’re not getting it. You’re an intelligent woman, Nik. This is the easiest solution all the way around.”

On the surface, maybe. But spending time—personal time—with Alex? There wasn’t anything easy about that, at all.

“What about Huffington?” she asked, determined to keep her tears at bay. She cried far too easily these days. It was maddening.

“What about it?”

It seemed unfathomable, but she could tell by his bland tone that he wasn’t going to talk business.

Yet business was the only thing they’d ever had between them.

So what sort of business was he up to?

“No,” she said abruptly, stomping down on the panic that rose in her at the very thought of him staying with her. “Thank you for the offer, but I really can’t accept.”

“Why not?”

Her hands flopped. “Because it’s not…appropriate!”

His eyebrows rose a little. A muscle twitched at the corner of his lip. “Appropriate,” he mused. “Sounding a little virginal there, Nik.”

Her face went hot, but she managed to keep her chin up. “I don’t care what it sounds like. It’s true.”

“Definitely more agreeable when you worked for me,” he observed. He unfolded from the chair. At six foot four, he was the only man she knew who rivaled her stepbrothers in sheer physical presence. “I have a room at the Lucius Inn. Call me when you change your mind.”

“I won’t.”

His head tilted slightly in acknowledgment. Then he picked up his coat again and left the room. The hospital door swung shut behind him, leaving her alone with nothing but the lingering hint of his aftershave and the rhythmic ticking of the stark round clock hanging very high on the wall.

Maybe the hospital administrators were afraid their patients were likely to abscond with the ugly, utilitarian thing if they hung it at eye level.

She slowly smoothed her hands over the thin blanket, removing every bump and wrinkle. The baby moved. Only a few weeks ago, it had felt more like butterflies darting around inside her. Now, the motions were more distinct. More…real.

She folded her hands over her belly.

Eyed the closed door through the tears that wouldn’t be held back no matter how hard she tried, or how desperately she focused on everything around her except her situation.

She would not call Alex. She could get through this in the same way she’d gotten through every other painful episode in her life.

On her own. One aching hour…day…week at a time.

Twenty-four hours later, Nikki called Alex at the Lucius Inn.

Twenty-six hours later, she left the hospital—and very nearly the last chunk of savings she had in her bank account—behind, and was sitting beside him in the luxurious, spacious SUV he’d rented.

She stared out the window beside her as they drove through town. Lucius was a small community, like a dozen others. It had a main drag where most of the businesses seemed to be located. An older, clearly residential area at one end of town. Fortunate evidence of continued growth—a bustling discount department store, apartments, the Lucius Inn, a medical plaza—at the other end of town. She got a good look at all of them when Alex continued driving right on past, leaving the town behind.

She closed her fingers around the softly padded armrest. “Where is this place that you’ve rented?”

He flicked a glance her way. “Another few miles.”

She wanted to ask how few, but didn’t. Instead, she turned and stared blindly out the window again.

After a disappointing but unsurprising phone conversation with the salvage company that confirmed they would be unable to hold open the position for her, she’d actually started to call the Caribbean resort where Belle and Cage were staying, but hadn’t been able to bring herself to dial the number. What was worse? Calling back her twin from her honeymoon or accepting Alex’s inconceivable offer?

If Belle and Cage returned, the entire family would be bound to find out about it, and she hated worrying them. Hated it. It was bad enough that she knew they’d been worrying over her since she’d announced she was pregnant. They’d harped in the most loving of ways to get her to Weaver or the Double-C, where they could take care of her.

But she took care of herself.

She always had.

But to choose Alex now…that was a different kettle of fish entirely.

Instead of calling Belle, Nikki had left a voice mail message for Emily, one of her stepsisters-in-law, that she’d decided to stay in Montana for a few more weeks, and would call when she got back.

Then she’d hurriedly called Alex.

She still wasn’t sure she’d made the right choice, either.

The cadence of the tires on the highway deepened and she looked ahead as Alex slowed and turned off on a narrow road. It had recently been plowed, judging by the freshly turned snow neatly mounded at the sides. Not even a thin layer of white powder marred the single lane, which seemed barely wide enough to accommodate the SUV’s bulk.

After another ten minutes or so, the pavement ended, but the SUV took the graded gravel in stride. And before long, Alex pulled to a stop in front of a sprawling cabin.

Enormous logs. Stone foundation. A lone window that would let in only twelve square inches of sunlight at a time.

The place looked as if it had been built as a miniature fortress about a million years ago, and for a moment Nikki found herself longing for the confining hospital room.

Alex propped his wrist over the top of the steering wheel as he peered through the windshield at the structure before them. His long, blunt-tipped fingers slowly drummed on the dashboard.

“The sheriff recommended this place?” Nikki finally asked. It was the only glimmer of hope she held.