The Billionaire’s Baby Plan Read online

  Her hands frantically caught at his shoulders. “Rourke—”

  He stopped. Looked at her. A dark angel in devil’s disguise. “Yes?” The word whispered intimately against her.

  She could barely breathe. “Yes,” she sighed, and nearly bowed off the bed with splintering pleasure when his mouth settled on her.

  She was still quaking long moments later when just as deliberately, he kissed his way back up her belly. Over her breasts. Pressing his palms flat against hers, he slowly, inexorably pressed into her.

  Filled her.

  And even though she’d wanted this—wanted him—she hadn’t expected to feel as if he were filling every cell that formed her, every thought that made her. She couldn’t tell where she ended and he began. Couldn’t tell if it was her body tightening all over again or his thickening even more with indescribable pleasure. Didn’t know if it was the beat of her heart thundering against her breast, or if it was his. Didn’t care that his name was a crying chant on her lips and loved it that her name was like a prayer on his.

  Filling wasn’t the right word at all, she realized faintly when everything they were coalesced into one…glorious… perfect…climax.

  Joining was.

  “So tell me about the idiot from your college days.”

  Her world had finally stopped spinning, righted once more even if a part of her wondered if it could ever really be the same. She’d regained the ability to breathe, as well, but Rourke’s head resting against her breast was still a distraction.

  She lifted his hand from her belly and toyed with his fingers, watching the play of light that slanted through the French doors catch in the platinum of their wedding rings. “I’ve forgotten all about him.”

  He laughed softly.

  She found herself smiling, too. “He was in my economics class. His name was Skyler and I thought I was in love with him. He claimed he loved me, too, but after we slept together—mistake that it was—he dumped me. Said he needed a woman in his bed, not a stick who didn’t know how to enjoy herself.”

  “What’d you do?”

  “Besides believe him?” She shook her head. “I made such good grades that on the grading curve he ended up failing the class.”

  Rourke pushed up on his elbow. His hair was falling rakishly over his forehead. “Good girl.” He kissed her arm. “And no man worth his salt should blame a woman for her lack of pleasure.”

  “Did you learn that bit of wisdom from Griffin, too?”

  He shook his head, his grin quick and deeply wicked. “That came from a very smart cookie named Janelle who kindly introduced me to the ways of women.”

  She rolled her eyes. “And how old were you when this angel of mercy descended upon you?”

  “Good choice of words,” he drawled. “Sixteen. She was a much advanced twenty with an amazing arsenal of knowledge at her disposal.”

  She let out a huff and rolled onto her stomach. “Your mother would have been appalled.”

  “My mother never knew.” He gave her a playful slap on the rump. “Get your lazy rear up. I’m starving.”

  She wanted nothing more than to sleep. “Typical.”

  “I am a man.”

  She couldn’t help her smile, even if it did look goofy. “I noticed.” She rescued one of the pillows from the foot of the bed where it had somehow ended up and tucked it beneath her cheek with a satisfied sigh. “You won’t have to hunt or forage far, I’m sure. Not with Marta and Sylvie at your beck and call.”

  “Not quite. I told them we wouldn’t need them after all while we’re here.”

  Surprised, she opened her eyes and looked at him. “Since when?”

  “Since you were in the shower this morning.” With her hair streaming around her and her eyes looking slumberous and satisfied, it was all Rourke could do not to roll Lisa onto her back and make love to her all over again. Instead, he leaned over and satisfied himself by kissing the freckle on her neck and then the small of her back before sliding off the bed and moving away from temptation. “They made you feel self-conscious. So they had to go.”

  Not bothering with finding some clothes, he headed out of the room, carrying her bemused expression with him.

  “You did pay attention when I said I couldn’t cook,” her voice called after him, “didn’t you?”

  He stopped and stuck his head back in the doorway. “You also claimed you were no good in the sack,” he drawled. “Didn’t believe you then. Don’t believe you now.” He yanked his head back from the doorway just in time to miss the pillow that she threw at him.

  But he could hear her laughter as he headed away from the bedroom, and was smiling himself as he went.

  While he might have sent Marta away, she’d still managed to leave an assortment of food in the fridge and he pulled out an apple and a bottle of water before going into the office, where he found a half-dozen messages on his cell phone. He returned only one, though, to Ted Bonner.

  “Find the cure to cancer yet?” he asked when Ted picked up.

  His friend’s laugh sounded as if it were next door and not halfway around the world. “That’s not the cure you used to be interested in.”

  Rourke supposed it was proof of how far he’d come since the day he’d learned that his and Taylor’s failure to conceive a child hadn’t been because of her infertility, but his that he could now laugh about it. “Believe me, buddy, I’m still interested. And grateful to be the first subject in your trial. First kid we have is gonna be named after you and Chance.”

  “Pity the kid if she’s a girl, then. You’re taking the compound?”

  “As prescribed. And the vitamins. And eating right. Drinking plenty of water.” He toasted his friend with the bottled water even though Ted couldn’t see it. “Following all the protocols you’ve given me.”

  “We’re going to have to expand the study, you know,” Ted reminded him for about the millionth time.

  “Say the word when you’re ready,” Rourke said, also for about the millionth time. “You know where your funding is coming from.” And when a noninvasive, natural supplement hit the market to improve one of the causes of male infertility, they’d all be singing lullabies all the way to the bank. Nothing of which he and Ted and Chance hadn’t already discussed at length. “So what’d you really call about, anyway?”

  “Just wanted to share the good news. Sara Beth’s pregnant.”

  “No kidding. Congratulations, man!” Genuine pleasure filled his voice.

  “Yeah. I’m still wondering how it happened.” Ted laughed. “Well, you know what I mean. Don’t tell your wife yet, though. Sara Beth wants to tell Lisa herself.”

  “No prob.”

  “Who knows,” Ted went on. “If you and Lisa end up with that honeymoon baby you say you’re hoping for, our kids could be in Scouts together someday.”

  “Yeah.” Rourke slowly set the bottle down on the desk. A short while later, Ted hung up and Rourke left the office and the rest of his voice messages unreturned.

  He walked back to the bedroom. Lisa wasn’t lying in bed anymore, but he could hear the sound of the shower and he followed it into the bathroom, where he could clearly see her through the glass block of the shower wall.

  He went over to the opening and looked at her lithe body, silky suds slowly sliding down her limbs while steam shrouded around her.

  Her gaze warmed as she looked back at him.

  “Want company?”

  Her lashes dipped shyly, but only for a moment. Then she looked back at him and nodded.

  And when he stepped into the steam with her, he knew he wasn’t thinking about making a honeymoon baby any more than he’d been thinking about it earlier.

  The only thing he was thinking about was Lisa.

  And that most definitely hadn’t been part of the deal.

  Chapter Ten

  “Ohmigosh. Look how tanned you are.” Sara Beth stopped in the doorway of Lisa’s office at the institute and propped her hands on her hips. “Obvio
usly honeymooning in the south of France for the better part of a month agrees with you.”

  At the sight of her friend, Lisa jumped from behind her desk where she’d been studying health insurance bids and went over to hug her. “Not as much as marriage seems to be agreeing with you,” she countered, laughing. She stepped back to look over Sara Beth. “You’re positively glowing.”

  Sara Beth’s cheeks were almost as pink as the scrubs she was wearing. “Marriage is pretty good,” she said, clearly understating. She stepped into the office and closed the door. “So tell me how the trip was. Ooh la la romantic? Hot monkey sex every time you turned around?”

  Lisa headed back to her desk, ducking her head a little. “It was…pretty good,” she returned.

  Sara Beth let out a laughing groan. “Now that’s just not fair.” She leaned her hip on the corner of Lisa’s desk. “At least—” she lifted her eyebrows “—tell me you didn’t earn that tan sitting on the beach while you were poring over files from this place.”

  “I had fun,” Lisa admitted slowly. Which wasn’t at all what she’d expected.

  Sara Beth lifted the glossy business magazine that was sitting opened on the edge of Lisa’s desk, featuring a black and white shot of Rourke helping Lisa out of the limousine on the day of their wedding. The Ties that Bind…or Blind? was the article’s headline. “Not every analyst thinks investing in the institute is the best business bet for Rourke. They are saying he did it for you.”

  “And Rourke’s answer to that is in the article. The reporter tracked us down in France last week.” After that momentous day when Rourke had turned her world upside down, the reporter’s visit had been the sole intrusion of the life waiting for their return.

  The rest of the time, she and Rourke had done exactly what most honeymooning couples did. They’d explored the countryside and strolled in marketplaces. They’d had lunch with the Harpers more than once, and even Martine had stopped greeting Rourke with that plastering kiss. They’d lazed on the beach and they’d even slept under the stars on the terrace outside their bedroom.

  And they’d made love.

  Again. And again. And again.

  And if it weren’t for the fact that Lisa had known that idyllic time would have to end when he returned to New York and she to Boston, it would have been painfully easy to forget the reason they were there at all.

  Sara Beth held up the magazine and read. “‘Indulging my bride is my greatest pleasure, reports the newly wedded Devlin,’” she quoted. “‘But nothing gets in the way of business. And the future of the Armstrong Fertility Institute is good business.’” She looked up. “Sounds great for the institute. What does the blushing bride think?”

  Lisa lifted her shoulder. “Business is business. Just because we put these—” she lifted her hand, waggling her wedding rings “—on our fingers doesn’t mean that’s changed.” He’d put her on the plane back to Boston where she’d get back to business and he’d stayed in New York where he’d get back to his.

  They’d get together on weekends.

  Sara Beth’s expression had gone serious. “Then you did marry him for the money.” She hopped off the desk before Lisa could form a reply. “I was afraid something was off even before the I do’s. But everything happened in such a rush it was easy to buy into the whole sweeping-you-off-your-feet scenario. Tell me I’m wrong.”

  “It’s not like that,” Lisa protested. Not exactly. Not anymore. Not since she’d found the man beneath the money and he’d found the woman beneath the suit.

  Sara Beth propped her hands on her hips, staring her down. “Are you in love with him?”

  Lisa blinked, for some reason caught off guard. “Not every marriage is about love,” she hedged. “There’s mutual respect and common interests and—”

  “Sex?”

  Her cheeks suddenly blazed and Sara Beth, being Sara Beth, didn’t fail to notice. “You are sleeping with him!”

  “Good grief,” Lisa muttered, shaking her head. “Thank heavens you shut the door. Yes, I’m sleeping with him. He’s my husband. He wants a child and he doesn’t want to wait.”

  Sara Beth’s long ponytail slid over her shoulder as she cocked her head, pinning Lisa with a studying stare. “What do you want?”

  Keeping secrets from Sara Beth was nearly impossible. “I want what he wants,” she said, which was close enough to the truth, wasn’t it?

  Sara Beth’s eyes narrowed, but thankfully she didn’t challenge that. “So, was he worth the wait after Skyler-the-Dweeb?”

  Lisa’s mouth opened. Closed. She blinked. “Definitely.”

  Sara Beth let out her breath in a whoosh and collapsed into one of the chairs in front of Lisa’s desk. “Well, at least there’s hope, then.”

  Lisa jostled the pile of bids into a neat stack. “Hope for what?”

  “Your happily ever after.”

  She couldn’t help herself. She laughed. “You are such a romantic.”

  “Yup.” Sara Beth leaned back in the chair, her hands clasped over her tummy. “A pregnant romantic, as it happens.”

  Now it was Lisa’s turn to stare. “What?”

  “Dr. and Mrs. Bonner are pleased to announce the future arrival of baby Bonner.” Sara Beth’s smile positively dripped happiness. “It’s soon, of course. And we weren’t exactly trying, but then again, we weren’t exactly not trying, if you know what I mean. And this isn’t just another pregnancy scare,” Sara Beth added, obviously no longer troubled by the time she’d feared she was pregnant, before Ted had proposed. “All tests positive and systems are a go.” She grinned.

  Sara Beth and Ted had been married barely half a year. They hadn’t even been intentionally trying.

  Beneath the cover of the desk, Lisa pressed her hand against her abdomen. There was no question that Rourke was trying to make a baby.

  Yes, he was making certain that the process was mind-blowing, but she couldn’t afford to let herself forget the underlying purpose.

  For all she knew, she’d already conceived. She would probably know later that week, if her period arrived as usual.

  And if she were pregnant, what would become of hers and Rourke’s relationship? His real interest in her was her uterus, after all. And while she’d claimed to be just as anxious to get that accomplished as he was—because it meant getting closer to the end of their arrangement—a claim was all it was.

  Pregnancy in theory was one thing.

  Pregnancy in reality meant a child. Becoming a mother.

  “Helloooo. Earth to Lisa.”

  She realized that Sara Beth had been talking to her and felt herself flush all over again. “Sorry?”

  Sara Beth’s eyes danced. “Reliving a little French bliss?”

  Lisa ignored that. “So how are you feeling? You’re going to be a great mother. And I—” she smiled, truly happy for her friend “—am going to make a great honorary auntie.”

  Sara Beth’s smile trembled a little. “Yes, you are.” She cleared her throat. “And aside from an occasional desire to throw up on a patient’s shoes, I’m feeling marvelous. We haven’t told anyone around here, yet. I wanted you to be the first to know.”

  “Okay, you’ve gotta stop or we’re going to be blubbering idiots, here.” Lisa snatched a tissue from the box on her credenza and swiped her nose.

  “What about you and Rourke? Any possibility of a honeymoon baby?”

  Lisa managed a nod and Sara Beth’s eyes sparkled. “We could be pregnant together.” She looked thrilled by the very idea of it.

  “Rourke’s coming to town Friday night for the weekend,” Lisa offered, wanting to get off the subject of her becoming pregnant. “We should all get together then and celebrate your and Ted’s good news.”

  “Perfect. You know, you sounded very married, just then.” Sara Beth picked up the small clock sitting on the corner of Lisa’s desk, then put it back and pushed to her feet. “That’s the deal, then? You’re in your separate cities during the workweek and together o
n the weekends?”

  “We decided that before the wedding. I told you.”

  “Yeah, but…” Sara Beth wrinkled her nose. “I would sure miss Ted if we were apart every week like that. Although—” she lifted a finger “—all those special homecomings could have an appeal, too. Candlelight dinner. Sexy lingerie…” She grinned mischievously. “Of course, unless you’ve taken up shopping since you’ve been hobnobbing with the wealthy Côte d’Azur folks, I know for a fact that your drawers aren’t exactly filled with those sorts of drawers.”

  Lisa deliberately made a face. “Don’t you have a patient waiting?”

  Sara Beth laughed and, with a wave, headed out of the office. “I’m done for the day just before lunch. Call me. We’ll go shopping at my favorite lingerie store. You can get something totally out of character for you, and I can get something sexy to wear before I can’t fit in it anymore!” Her rubber-soled shoes squeaked a little as she hurried down the corridor.

  Lisa looked down at the papers on her desk, but her gaze fell on the magazine. She’d bought it at the newsstand on her way into work that morning and could have recited the article from memory by now.

  Business is business. Rourke’s words to the reporter might as well have been underlined and highlighted in neon for the way they seemed to jump out at her.

  She’d been on the terrace, sitting at the table with the reporter and Rourke when he’d given the interview. She knew exactly what he’d said. The expressions on his face when he’d said them. And nothing in the article was a misrepresentation.

  And she hadn’t lied to Sara Beth. Business was business.

  So why did Rourke’s comment nag at her?

  Annoyed with herself, she flipped the magazine closed and stuffed it into the bottom drawer of her desk. Her phone buzzed and she snatched it up. “Yes?”

  “Had a lot of work piled up on your desk waiting for you?”

  Something inside her chest seemed to squeeze at the unexpected sound of Rourke’s voice. “Hi. And no, the pile hasn’t been too bad.” She glossed over the stacks of correspondence and reports and messages that she’d been wading through for two solid hours. “What’s, um, what’s wrong?”