One Wild Night: Magnate's Mistress...Accidentally Pregnant! / Hot Boss, Boardroom Mistress / The Good, the Bad and the Wild

Ally closed the door and leaned against it. She could hear the powerful motor of his car roar to life, then fade into the distance as he drove away.

Like she didn’t have enough to process. He owned a freaking helicopter, as well. And he’d be flying down tomorrow just to have lunch with her family. Suddenly, the hundred miles between Savannah and Charleston didn’t seem like such a stumbling block.

Just when she’d begun to think she had her feet under her and a plan in place, Chris had pulled the rug out. Bit by bit, he was slowly chipping away at her entire wall of defense.

How this vapid family produced someone like Ally baffled him.

She’d picked him up at the helipad, then spent the entire drive to her mother’s house “preparing” him, saying her family was a bit crazy but generally harmless. He hadn’t said anything in response to her anecdotes, because everyone thought their families were a bit insane or embarrassing.

Instead, he’d been introduced to the most selfish, narcissistic, self-centered people on earth. They were quick to put two and two together and realize he was the father of Ally’s child, but that hadn’t stopped the snide remarks made to Ally about her unwed, pregnant state.Yet no one seemed to make the same comments to Steven or his obviously pregnant girlfriend, Diane.

Ally favored her mother, Hannah, who didn’t look old enough to have three adult children, but the similarities ended there.

Hannah vapidly bounced from topic to topic, complaining about everything from wedding plans to the way Ally wore her hair. Erin, whom he mentally dubbed “princess,” treated Ally to condescension while simultaneously expecting Ally to manage everything. Ally’s brother was a real piece of work, a man-child who was obviously used to the women of his family waiting on him hand and foot. It extended to his girlfriend, as well, who even in an advanced state of pregnancy perched on the edge of her chair waiting to care for his next need. Through it all, Ally’s father wore the look of a man who’d learned it was easier not to interfere while his family swirled around him.

The entire lot disgusted him. Was Ally sure she wasn’t adopted?

After half an hour, he’d been hard-pressed not to drag Ally out of that toxic atmosphere, but she’d given him a pleading look and a whispered “It’s okay. They’ll get it out of their system soon.”

No wonder Ally approached the world with such caution. Her entire family had the emotional maturity of fifteen-year-olds, and no matter what happened, it was Ally’s job to fix it or else take the blame and to soothe ruffled feathers. When her brother handed Ally a checkbook for her to balance, it was almost the last straw. Couldn’t these people handle anything without Ally?

An hour later it hadn’t gotten any better, and Chris’s appetite and patience were long gone. When his phone rang, he went onto the porch to take the call and stayed out there to cool off before facing her family again.

“They’re usually much better behaved in front of company.” Ally spoke from behind him. “I’m sorry.”

Her heart-shaped face was earnest and concerned, and all the light had gone out of her eyes.

He bit back the disparaging remarks. This was Ally’s family, after all, and she obviously cared for them. He wouldn’t score any points with Ally by insulting her family—however well-deserved and correct the observations were. “They’re certainly…” He searched for an adjective.

“Crazy?” Ally provided. “I told you that,” she added with a sigh.

It wasn’t the word he would have chosen, but it would do. “They’re nothing like you, that’s for sure.” He touched a finger to her chin.

“Somebody has to be the grown-up. Can you imagine how they’d function if I weren’t around?” The corner of her mouth tipped up like she thought it was amusing.

“They’re adults,” he said, although it was a loose interpretation of the word. “They can take care of themselves.”

“You’d think.” Ally seemed to ponder that statement as she leaned against the porch railing. “It’s just easier to humor them than it is to deal with the fallout.”

“Let me guess. The reason you left Tortola so unexpectedly wasn’t simply because Steven had been in an accident, but because someone had to come deal with the grown-up stuff.”

Ally inclined her head slightly. “Of course I was worried about Steven, but, yeah, they needed me to deal with the hospital and the insurance companies and such. They don’t deal well with actual emergencies.”

He tried to keep his voice light. “What are they going to do when you’re busy with the baby and not able to drop everything when they call?”

She paused, seeming to think about something, so he let the silence stretch out. “Molly asked me the same thing.”

“Maybe it’s worth thinking about.”

Ally kicked off the railing and started to pace. “Sometimes I get really fed up with them. They’re flighty, they can’t hold down jobs or be responsible about anything. Theylovedmy ex, and looking back, I can totally see why. He was just like them. Happy to just sit back and let me take care of everything.”

Bitterness tinged her voice, and she seemed to be talking to herself now. “Calling me home from my vacation was par for the course. And at the time, I actually thought they’d done me a favor.”

“A favor?”

“After I got over the anger at having my vacation interrupted, I realized that given a few more days, I probably would have latched onto you. Tried to bring you home with me.”

Understanding dawned. “And I’d be just someone else for you to take care of. A beach bum with no job.”

She nodded. “No offense intended. I still toyed with the idea of trying to find you for a little while, but then I turned up pregnant.”

“And you figured the baby would be enough responsibility.”

“God, yes. I just didn’t have any more to give.”

“So doing it alone was your solution?”

“It was easier than trying to figure out how you’d fit into the picture.” She snorted. “Of course, that’s before you showed up and proved you didn’t need me to take care of you, too.”

“That’s because I’m an actual adult—not like them.” He jerked his head in the direction of the house. She winced, then nodded in agreement. “I don’t need a keeper.”

“I know that now. I misjudged you, and I’m sorry.”

He stepped forward and smoothed his hands over her crossed arms. She’d provided him with an opening. “I’d like to help take care of you, you know. You and the baby.”

Ally’s eyes met his, and he could see the confusion there. She really had been flying blind through this. And while the front porch of her parents’ house wasn’t exactly a good place to be having this conversation, he forged ahead.

“We kind of went about this all backward and out of order, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make it work.”

Ally inhaled sharply. “You’re talking about getting married, aren’t you?”

He took a deep breath and asked for patience. “Yes, Ally, I’m talking about getting married. But not immediately.”

Her shoulders dropped and she sighed audibly in relief. That irked him a little. “But this game we’re playing—dancing around like there’s a better solution—is crazier than your family.” His voice turned husky. “There’s a lot to build on.” This time when she inhaled, he watched her eyes darken and knew she was also thinking about the night before last. His body hardened in response.

“Chris, I—”

“Shh.” He pressed a finger over her lips. “You brought me home to meet your family. You’re carrying my baby. We get along fine—when we’re not antagonizing each other, that is.” Her mouth twisted into a small smile. “I think that’s a good start.”

From inside he heard the noise level increase, then the sound of Erin’s voice. “Ally! We need you in here!”

Ally’s eyes flicked in the direction of the door. He moved closer, until he could feel the warmth that always radiated off her body.

“Forget them for a minute. Hell, forget them altogether. Think about yourself. About the baby.” He pressed a kiss against her lips. “About us.”

“Al-ly!” Erin’s voice took on an impatient whine.

Ally seemed lost in thought for a moment. When her eyes met his again, the spark was back. Her lips curved into a conspiratorial smile. “Can you get me out of here?”

Relief—followed quickly by desire—flowed through him. “My pleasure.”

“Get the car. I’ll grab my purse.” Ally raised up on tiptoe to kiss him—a lighthearted, happy kiss like he hadn’t felt since Tortola. She was out of his arms and in the house in a flash.

Whatever she told her family, they weren’t happy to hear it, and she burst back through the screen door to a litany of loud complaints. She grabbed his hand and pulled him down the steps and to the car.

He opened the door and she slid in, giving the open-mouthed assembled crowd on the porch a wave as he started the engine.

As the wind picked up speed through her open window, Ally’s hair came loose, flowing around her face as she leaned against the seat back with a happy smile and closed her eyes.

“Where to?”

“My place.”

He floored the pedal.

CHAPTER NINE

LIFE WAS JUST TOO GOOD to be true. Ally wanted to pinch herself, but she’d be black-and-blue by now if she acted on the impulse every time she thought about it.

After their escape from her mom’s house on Sunday afternoon, she’d spent an unbelievable afternoon in Chris’s arms, taking him back to catch his ride long after sundown. Victor, Chris’s crewmate and pilot, had worn a knowing grin as Chris had given her a goodbye kiss that thrilled her to her toenails, reigniting a spark that should have been sated by then. If Victor hadn’t been waiting, she’d have dragged Chris back to the car for a quickie in the backseat.

The look on Chris’s face said he wouldn’t have objected.

Molly had taken one look at the dopey grin on her face Monday morning, and not a lot of work had been accomplished as she’d insisted on a play-by-play recount of the weekend. When Ally got to the part about Chris and her family, Molly had merely snorted and said, “I like him more and more.”

Her family, on the other hand, wasn’t speaking to her—other than one message from her mother on the answering machine, chiding her for her behavior. The four days of silence had been…well, not quite bliss, but a least a welcome break from the norm.

The scent of stargazer lilies filled the air in her and Molly’s office, and Ally knew she still wore the same dopey smile for the fifth day in a row. It was hard not to; Chris had only managed one quick trip down to see her on Wednesday night for pizza, but he called and sent e-mails—not so many or so often that she felt smothered, but enough to make her feel, well, special. The flowers arriving this morning just intensified that feeling.

She still worried a bit that she wasn’t making the smartest of decisions right now—that the hormones shaking up her normal equilibrium and the heady rush of Chris’s attentions were affecting her judgment—but she wanted to believe she was. Even Molly encouraged it and joked about expanding the business to an office in Charleston.

That was a little further ahead than Ally liked to plan at the moment. Being caught between a dreamlike possibility and a contingency plan wasn’t good for her higher brain functions, but she was hopeful—even if she didn’t say it out loud too often.

“Why don’t you just go ahead and call it quits for the day. Head on up to Charleston and get the weekend started early.” Molly grinned. “You’re not doing me much good here, you know. All that smiling and sighing is getting on my nerves.”

“Can’t. Chris has meetings tonight with sponsors and he has to be at the yacht club early in the morning to prep for the race. I’d just be in the way.”

“I doubt that.”

“Anyway, there’s work to be done here.” She scooted her chair up to the desk, determined to actually work now. “I’ll try to keep the mooning to a minimum.”

“Yes, please do try.” Molly shot her a mocking smile before turning her attention back to her own keyboard.

The concentration lasted for only a few minutes before her cell phone rang. Chris’s ringtone—he’d downloaded it himself on Wednesday night while they’d eaten pizza on the floor of her living room. She glanced up at Molly as she answered and saw her eyes roll.

“Hey.”

“Hey, yourself. Any chance you can sneak out early today and come on up?”

“Molly just asked me the same thing. I thought you were busy tonight.”

“Technically, I am. But I’ll make time for you.”

A warm glow settled in her stomach, followed quickly by that need to pinch herself again. Molly waved for her attention from her desk, and when Ally made eye contact, Molly mouthed the word, “Go.”

“I guess I can get away.”

“I’ll send Victor down to get you. What time?”

The thought of flying in that tiny helicopter made her feel queasy—as if the morning sickness was coming back. “I’ll just drive, if that’s okay.”

Chris made an exasperated sound.

“One step at a time. We’re not all daredevils like you.”

“It’d be easier my way, though. Faster, too. Plus, you don’t know where you’re going.”

“I’ll get a map.”

Thankfully, Chris didn’t push and instead agreed to e-mail directions to her. She told him she’d call when she was on the road, hung up and started shutting down her computer.

“I’ll make this up to you, Molls,” she promised as she headed toward the door, mentally reviewing her packing list as she walked.

“Like you’ll ever have the time.” Molly waved goodbye. “Drive carefully and I’ll see you Monday.”

Molly’s parting words bothered her as she threw her clothes and toiletries in a bag, but she couldn’t put her finger on why.

She finally shrugged it off as yet another side effect of pregnancy brain—right up there with her new case of forgetful-ness—and simply enjoyed the drive up to Charleston, singing along with the radio.

It wasn’t until late that night, as Chris curled around her in bed, his hand absently stroking across her stomach as he dozed, that she realized what Molly’s words meant.

No matter what happened with Chris, things would never go back to “normal.”

The man was an absolute god. Neptune, Poseidon and Chris Wells. Mercy.

Ally’s eye hurt from peering through the telescope for so long, but she couldn’t pull away from the sight of Chris, two miles out at sea and rounding the second buoy.

She’d known the water was his element, but a simple day sail on a borrowed catamaran hadn’t prepared her for this. Watching Chris skipper his seven-man crew…damn.

Although the water was choppy, sending up spray as the boats moved through the waves, Chris stood sure-footed at the helm, moving in perfect harmony with the boat—as though it was an extension of his body instead of an inanimate object. The wind whipped through his hair and fluttered the sails. When he shouted an order across the decks, men scrambled. Then Chris was working the winch, drawing her attention to the movement of back and arm muscles outlined under the shirt the wind nicely plastered to his skin. Her mouth went dry.

“Taylor’s hoisted a flag.” The words came from beside her, and Ally snapped her attention to the man who’d been her tutor for the day. Carl Michman held the impressive title of vice-commodore of the racing association, but as far as Ally could tell, his main job today seemed to be to keep an eye on her and explain what was going on.

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