Michelle Celmer - The Tycoon's Charm - The Tycoon's Paternity Agenda / Honor-Bound Groom

Katy sat on the edge of the bed. “How long have you worked for Adam?”

“Ever since his father passed. But I’ve known him most of his life. I practically raised him. When he wasn’t off at boarding school, that is.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize you’d been with the family that long.”

“Going on thirty-two years now. Since Mrs. Blair, Adam’s mother, took ill. I lost my own boy in the Gulf War, so Adam has been like a son to me.”

“I’m so sorry,” Katy said. Losing a child was a sorrow her parents knew all too well.

“I still consider myself blessed. I have two beautiful daughters and five grandchildren between them.”

“What do you think of Adam having a child? If you don’t mind my asking.”

Celia sat down beside her. “I think Adam will be a wonderful father. He lets my grandchildren come over and use the pool, and he’s so good with them. He’s wanted this for a very long time.”

Celia was probably biased, but Katy wanted desperately to believe her. Although, wanting a child, and being good with someone else’s grandchildren, didn’t necessarily make someone a good parent.

“When you get to know him better, you’ll see,” Celia assured her.

“But how am I supposed to get to know him when he’s so closed off. So uptight.”

“That’s just a smoke screen. Though he doesn’t let it show, he feels very deeply. He’s been hurt, Katy. It takes him time to trust. But he’s a good man.” She laid a hand on Katy’s knee. “I know it’s been hard for you and your parents. And probably nothing I can say will totally reassure you. But I promise you, Adam would never do anything to deliberately hurt anyone. Especially family.”

“I want to believe that.” But she didn’t. Not for a second. Because that would mean everything her sister had told her was a lie. And believing that wasn’t an option.

On a normal day, Adam was an active participant at the informal weekly management team briefing they held in his office, but today he couldn’t stop looking at the clock.

Nathaniel Everett, their Chief Brand Officer was explaining the new campaign his team had been developing to promote their latest, ecologically friendly practices. Groundbreaking upgrades that would not only keep them in line with future federal guidelines, but no doubt result in record profits.

On a normal day that would have filled Adam with a thrilling sense of accomplishment, but today his heart just wasn’t in it. In fact, for a while now, six months at least, work didn’t hold the same appeal as it had in the past. And that fact hadn’t escaped his team.

At first he’d written it off as a temporary slump, but when he didn’t go back to feeling like his old self, he began to suspect it was something deeper. Clearly something was missing. There was a void in his life, in his very soul that work would no longer fill. It was when he knew it was time to have a child.

“So, what do you think?” he heard Nathan ask, and realized he had completely zoned out.

“Good,” he said, hoping he could fake his way through.

Nathan smiled wryly. “You haven’t heard a damn thing I’ve said, have you?”

He could lie, but what was the point? “Sorry. I’m off my game today.”

“Rough night?” Nathan’s brother, Jordan, their Chief Operations Officer, asked, his tone suggestive. He’d been asserting for months that Adam’s major problem was he needed to get laid. And while Adam wouldn’t deny he’d been…tense lately, random sex with a woman he barely knew was Jordan’s thing, not his. In fact, common knowledge of Jordan’s sexual prowess was what had endeared him to the roughnecks on the rig. Despite his Ivy League education, they related to him somehow. Looked up to him even. He managed to fit in, yet still hold his own in the boardroom without batting an eye. He was like a chameleon, changing color to suit his environment.

Adam envied him that sometimes.

“Only because I didn’t sleep well,” he told Jordan. “Maybe we can reschedule for tomorrow.”

Jordan shrugged. “Fine by me.”

“I have a meeting with Cassandra anyway,” Nathan told him, rising from his chair. “Should we say 10:00 a.m.?”

Everyone agreed, then gathered their things and left. Emilio, who had been quiet through most of the meeting, hung back.

“Everything all right?” he asked. He obviously didn’t buy that a simple lack of sleep could leave Adam so distracted.

“Katy and I have an appointment today. In fact, I have to leave soon or I’m going to be late.”

“The fertility doctor?” he asked.

Adam nodded. “She’s having the embryos transferred today.”

“I didn’t realize it would be so soon. Congratulations.”

“That doesn’t mean it will work, but Katy is young and healthy and the doctor seems hopeful.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. I guess I don’t have to ask if you’re nervous.”

It took a lot to set him on edge, but today the pressure was getting to him. “It shows, huh?”

“Hey, who wouldn’t be? This is a big step you’re taking.”

Adam looked at his watch. “And I have to meet Katy.”

Emilio turned to leave, but stopped in the doorway. “I meant to ask the other day. This is probably none of my business.…"

“What?”

“Well, since Becca had cancer, and that can be genetic…I just wondered if that would put your child at risk. It runs in my family, too. On my father’s side.”

“I’ve spoken to a geneticist and the fact that cervical cancer doesn’t run in either of our families reduces the risk of predisposing the baby.”

Emilio grinned. “So you’ve done your research. That’s what I figured. Well, good luck.”

When he was gone Adam grabbed what he needed and headed down to the parking garage. Since Reece had gone to get Katy, he took the company limo to the doctor’s office. When he got inside, she was already there in the lobby waiting for him. And this time he had no trouble spotting her. She stood by the elevator bank, her face flush with excitement, dressed in her “girl” clothes again. This time it was a yellow sundress with a fitted bodice and A-line skirt, and instead of boots she’d worn strappy, flat-soled sandals.

Though he would never admit it to anyone, she looked sexy as hell. And if she were anyone but his sister-in-law, or his surrogate, he just might put an end to his three-year dating freeze and ask her out to dinner.

But no matter how attractive he found her, she was who she was, which kept her strictly off-limits. Not that she would agree to go out with him if he did ask. Knowing her, she would refuse on principle alone, just to irritate him.

“Early again, I see,” he said as he approached her.

“You can thank Reece for that. He was worried about traffic.”

He stabbed the button for the second floor. “Did you get settled in at the house?”

“I did, and Celia seems wonderful.”

“She is.”

“She really adores you, you know. You’re lucky to have someone like that in your life.”

She didn’t have to tell him that. After his mother died, and his father took a permanent emotional vacation, Celia was the only “parent” he’d had. She wasn’t just his housekeeper. She was family. He couldn’t imagine what his life would be like now if it hadn’t been for her.

“How can you look so calm?” she asked as the doors slid open and they stepped in. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous in my life.”

“I don’t do nervous.” Katy must have put on perfume, too, because she smelled really nice. Flowery and feminine, but not overpoweringly so. In fact, the scent was so faint, yet so intoxicating, he had the urge to lean in closer and breathe her in. Bury his nose in the silky curls tumbling like silk ribbons across her shoulders.