Vengeful in Love (10 page)

“Okay.” He took a deep breath. “You know…uh…the timing could be totally off. And there’s no reason to think it’s going to lead to…unintended consequences.”

“Probably not.” That polished mask he’d seen on Louise’s face descended over Natalie’s. Maybe they weren’t so different after all. “You’re probably right. It’s just not the right time.”

It’d better not be. Fathering a child wasn’t part of the plan. Not any plan he’d made.

Still… He had to make sure she wasn’t going to do something rash. He had a feeling she cared a lot about her reputation. Maybe more than she should. The last thing she would want was a pregnancy when her father was trying for reelection in traditionally conservative Virginia. So if she were pregnant, she would run and hide. It wasn’t difficult for someone like her—moneyed, highly educated, and well-connected.

“Yes… Not the right time. But if there are any…problems, we’ll get through them together,” he said, making his promise as vague as possible but with just enough to let her know that he would be her ally. To make any concrete commitment would be foolish. Unlike the Rodales, he kept his word and didn’t give it lightly. But that empty look on her face was driving him crazy. He wanted her to know everything was going to be okay…that he wasn’t a complete bastard.

She blinked once, then shook her head as if to clear it of clutter. “Um… I think you should take me home. There’s no point in discussing this until we know for sure.” She started getting dressed.

Something about her voice—despite its smoothness—warned him to stay away, but his instinct told him to stay with her. The wall around her now was stronger and higher than the one he’d had to breach to get to her, and it made his guts twist. Suddenly, it wasn’t just his revenge at stake. This was more.

“Please,” she added.

Somehow that one word made all the arguments he was marshalling disappear. He stood indecisively for a moment, then put on his clothes and went outside. She followed him silently, her bag in her hand, and they started back.

“Natalie, what’s wrong?”

She shook her head. He found he couldn’t read her expression. His knuckles whitened as he gripped the steering wheel. What was wrong with him? He knew how to deal with women. He shouldn’t be fumbling for words.

He’d overcome her defenses before, and there was no reason he shouldn’t be able to do it again. He was nothing if not persistent.

She unbuckled when they reached her condo. He jotted down a number on a piece of paper and handed it to her.

“This is my personal cell phone. Only about five people have the number. Use it anytime you want,” he said.

She nodded and folded the note in half.

“Natalie…”

“Thank you for a lovely day,” she said, the smooth mask still intact. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She climbed out of the car before he could say anything else.

* * *

Natalie walked into her condo, shut the door, and leaned against it. This wasn’t happening. She didn’t want to even think about the possibility of getting pregnant.

Matto came to her and mewled. She sank down and scratched his head absently.

How did everything go so quickly from scorching intimacy to a desperate need to be alone?

It wasn’t Alex’s fault that the condom broke, and she didn’t blame him.

Blood will out.

God, she didn’t want to have a baby. Not because she would be an unwed mother, which would already pose more problems than she knew what to do with, but because she didn’t know if she could handle being a mother at all. If she was going to bring a child into the world, it would be for love and after careful deliberation, not because of a defective piece of latex.

What kind of baby would she have?

But if there are any…problems, we’ll get through them together.

Of course it would be a problem if she got pregnant. A big one. She rose to her feet and paced back and forth in the living room. She hadn’t been lying when she told him the timing was wrong. Her period wasn’t regular, but she really dou—

Her cell phone went off, and she picked it up. It was Kerri.

“How come you never log onto Skype?”

Natalie took a deep breath. She didn’t want to start weeping all over her friend. Most likely Kerri was calling from her office. “I’m not at work right now.”

“Neither am I, but I’m logged in.”

Natalie began to tremble. It was almost like an invitation to pour all her problems to Kerri. “You home?”

“Yeah. But I can’t fall asleep.”

“Oh God,” Natalie said and sat back on the floor.

“You all right?”

That did it. Natalie told her everything, including the defective condom.

“Wow,” Kerri said when Natalie was done. “You should sue the company even if you don’t get pregnant,” she added, her tone deliberately light. “For pain and suffering. I mean, you have to go through the mental anguish of wondering.”

Natalie let out a tremulous laugh. “You know I can’t do that.” She smoothed her hair. “Just imagine what it would do to Brian. This is a
condom
company.”

“Well, maybe if he loses the election.”

“Right.”

Kerri sighed. “You could just come to Hong Kong and avoid the situation altogether.”

“How does that solve anything?”

“One, Alex will have to leave you alone. I can’t imagine him following you all the way to Hong Kong. He’s got a company to run.”

Natalie nodded although Kerri couldn’t see her. That made sense.

“Unless you want him to not leave you alone.” Kerri hummed a little tune, a sign that she was thinking. “Do you?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know.”

That wasn’t entirely true. Since their first dinner, she’d been fascinated by his confidence and intensity and that bit of devil-may-care attitude he had. And now…

“Huh. Not like you to waver. Anyway, moving on while you think about that—two, you can discreetly either get rid of the baby or give it up for adoption or something here. Since it’s halfway around the world, I doubt the media would follow you. Unless your dad decides to run for president, that is.

“Three, we can hang out all the time. Think of all the fun things we can do.

“Four, you’ll be away from your god-awful family.”

Natalie opened and closed her mouth. “How…why would you think that I’d want to be away from my family?”

Kerri snorted. “Come on. How many years have we known each other? You told me enough for me to know what’s really going on. Most likely you’ll let your family walk all over you out of some weird sense of duty. Like I always say, you gotta take care of yourself first. Besides, you can start fresh here. Annnnnnnnd…” Kerri paused dramatically. “You-know-who’s going to get canned.”

“What? Seriously? No way!”

“Oh yeah. Some ethics violation or other. Seems good ol’ Jack touched something he shouldn’t have.”

“I can’t believe that. I mean, he seemed okay when we were dating.”

“What can I tell you? I guess getting promoted to VP gave him just a liiiittle too much power. His new nickname around here is Jack-in-the-Box.”

Natalie shook her head, laughing despite herself. “Thank God I had the good sense to get away from him when I did.”

“Oh, the touching isn’t all of it. Come on out and I’ll tell you the rest.”

“Tease.”

“Always. Hey, look, I know it’s a big decision. Just think about it, okay?”

Natalie said she would. But more urgent than mulling over a possible move was figuring out how she was going to face Alex tomorrow. She couldn’t believe she’d been so rash. This was one of the biggest reasons why she shouldn’t have gotten involved with the CEO of her company in the first place.

The wrong timing. The stupid condom. And everything else. She breathed in deeply.

It
won’t happen to me.

Yeah… Famous last words.

THE NEXT MORNING at DDE, Natalie glanced at Alex’s office on her way back from the bathroom and paused. The door was closed, and it didn’t look like he was in yet. She glanced at her watch. Nine forty-five. Shouldn’t he be there by now? It was the third time she’d gone past his office since nine. A few of her coworkers were giving her looks.

Ethan walked by with a couple of manila folders stuffed full of documents. “Looking for Alex?”

She nodded. What was the point of denying it? She bet the entire office knew.

“He’s not coming in today. He’s probably on his flight to Hong Kong right now.”

“Hong Kong?” Natalie had a moment of disorientation. Hadn’t Kerri been talking about Hong Kong just last night?

“Uh-huh. He left early this morning.”

Don’t freak out. At least not in front of Ethan.

“Do you know when he’s coming back?” Natalie was pleased at how casual and even she sounded.

Ethan shrugged. “He said he’d get back when he could.”

“I see.” Actually, she didn’t. She didn’t know what to think. She’d asked him to leave her alone for a while, not disappear off the continent!

Had he known about this trip before he came to her condo yesterday? “I hope it’s not an emergency.”

“Oh no. It’s been on his calendar for weeks.” Ethan handed her one of the folders. “By the way, I want you to work on the new National Security Agency bid,” he said. “I’ll need the final figures by Wednesday morning.”

Alex knew. And he’d never mentioned he was leaving the country.

“…Natalie?”

“Uh…yeah. Got it.” She took the folder from him. “By Wednesday.”

Several coworkers craned their necks as she returned to her desk. It was the same look they’d given her last week when she’d been called into Alex’s office for the first time. Their nosiness irritated her, but she ignored it. It wasn’t the first time she’d been at the center of speculation. Part and parcel of being an influential politician’s daughter, albeit an adopted one.

She shut her office door and checked her email. Nothing from Alex, although she had fifty-six new messages, bringing the unread total up to one hundred and nine. She drummed her fingers on her desk.

Next, she checked her voicemails. There was a new message. Her heart thudded at Alex’s familiar voice.

“Natalie, it’s me. It’s about seven. I should’ve gotten your number, but I forgot and…damn. I need to go to Hong Kong.”

And to think Kerri had suggested she move to Hong Kong to get away from him.

Alex continued. “From what I can tell, the whole thing’s going to take about a week or so. Maybe longer. We need to talk. Call or email me with your cell number, okay?

“And Natalie, let me know if there’s any…ah…well, you know. If there’s anything you want to tell me.”

The voicemail prompt asked her to either save or delete. She put the receiver back in its cradle with the utmost care, not giving in to the temptation to slam it down.

Great. Now that he’d had his fun, he was running off to Asia. For a week for so, maybe longer.

Given her history with men, she’d bet on
longer
.

And he seemed most worried about a possible pregnancy. Was he afraid she would demand child support?

Her rational side kicked in. Instead of getting angry, she should be grateful he had left before she could become too attached to him. Alex had been honest about what he wanted. He’d never promised her anything except hot sex, and she’d certainly gotten that. Imagine if he’d stuck around and their relationship—did one day of mind-blowing lovemaking qualify as a relationship?—had dragged on for months…even years.

Maybe Louise was right after all:
Blood will out.

Natalie’s relationship with Jack at Goldreich had been a total mess. Thank God she’d been able to get out gracefully. Leaving Hong Kong to get an MBA would’ve sounded like the lamest of excuses if it weren’t for the fact that she’d been accepted to Wharton, and she would’ve died before asking Brian to pull strings for her. While her next involvement with Marcus had been less than perfect, at least she’d been smart enough to keep her work and personal lives separate. Now she felt like she’d regressed. She’d mixed business with pleasure again, and the result could get really sticky. Far worse than dating an associate at Goldreich.

Natalie sighed. Alex should’ve told her he was going to Hong Kong face-to-face. Okay, so she’d made it clear that she wanted to be alone, but it wasn’t every day when a man she’d just become intimate with had prior plans to fly halfway around the planet. Even Marcus had stuck around for three years. She didn’t want to admit it, but since Brian’s party she’d been beginning to like Alex. There was something very sweet about him coming to her rescue… No one had done that before. Certainly Marcus never had. He was too caught up in his own political ambitions and fled at the barest hint of scandal.

Everything that had happened between her and Alex had probably just been a ruse to sleep with her. What a fool she’d been!

Determined to forget him, Natalie opened the folder from Ethan and looked at the figures. They didn’t seem all that complicated. Maybe Danielle could work on them instead. She was smart and would be an asset to the company with proper on-the-job training. A few more opportunities and projects would be just the thing to bring her along.

She went to Danielle’s cubicle with the NSA bid folder. It was right across from her office. Ethan was there, leaning over the partition. Danielle was blushing at something he’d said and turned to Natalie with a slightly guilty look.

“Hi, Natalie. What can I do for you?” Danielle adjusted her glasses and rested her hands on her laptop keyboard.

“I have a bid for you to work on,” Natalie said, extending the folder.

Ethan’s gaze dropped to the papers, a frown appearing. “Is that the one I gave you this morning?”

“Yes.”

“I prefer that you work on it alone.”

“Danielle’s very thorough. I think—”

“Yes, I know. But this is important, and I want
your
full attention on it.”

Danielle visibly shrank, trying to make herself invisible. Natalie controlled her anger. Did he realize the implication of what he was saying and how it made Danielle feel?

“But—”

“In my office.” He gave her an unreadable look. “Please.”