She's Having the Boss's Baby

She knew Aidan’s question was coming from a decent place inside him, and she had already decided to be completely honest with him if he forced the issue, so she repeated, “I said, I’m going to have a baby.”

“Next week?”

“Next week is when the process starts.”

“You can’t put it off an extra week?”

“No,” she said, fighting to maintain her calm. “I’m usually as regular as clockwork so once I get to Atlanta, I’ve allowed myself a three-day window during which I should start ovula—”

“Stop.” He held up his hand. “We’re venturing back into the dark realm of too much female information.”

“But you keep asking.”

“I just want to know why you have to do all this starting next week.”

“Because I want to have a baby and I’m not getting any younger.” She had no intention of telling him anything more than that.

“But—” He scratched his head, clearly confused. “You’re going to a sperm bank.”

“I prefer the term fertility clinic. But yes, that’s where I’m going.”

“But why?”

“Why?” she said, her voice rising as her serenity tottered on the edge of annoyance. “Seriously, Aidan? You want to know why I’m going to a sperm bank—I mean, fertility clinic? I’ll go out on a limb here and take a guess that you are aware of what happens in those places.”

He huffed impatiently. “Of course. But what I mean is, why don’t you just do it the old-fashioned way?”

“Oh,” she said slowly. “That.”

“Yeah.” He folded his arms across his chest. “That.”

“Well, it’s because…Hmm.” What was she supposed to tell him? The truth? Because the truth was that she would have preferred to get pregnant the old-fashioned way. With a man she loved, someone wonderful who wanted to live the rest of his life with her.

Recently there had been one man who’d expressed some interest in her. She had dated him for a few weeks, but as soon as Ellie brought up the subject of children and family, he’d made himself scarce. That was before they’d even had sex so she’d missed out on that, too. She just couldn’t get a break.

Even though there were plenty of opportunities to meet eligible men on the island, none of them ever seemed to want to take the next step. One problem was that most men came to Alleria to party-party-party. They weren’t interested in a relationship if it looked like it might last more than a week.

The other problem was that while Ellie knew men thought she was pretty enough, she also knew they found her a little intimidating. And even though she recognized the problem, she didn’t know what to do about it. It wasn’t that she had an overpowering personality. That would’ve been an easy fix. No, Ellie’s problem was that she was just too smart. She couldn’t help it. She seemed to have a photographic memory and she loved learning new things. She retained information and was cheerfully willing to share it with others any time a subject came up. Some people didn’t take that well.

And sadly, Ellie didn’t have a clue when to keep her mouth shut and let a guy live with the illusion that he was smarter than she was. Men were so odd.

These days, though, Ellie refused to allow that to bother her. Happily, Aidan and his brother appreciated how smart she was and she loved her job because of it. They accepted her and needed her, and that meant a lot more to Ellie than having a man in her life who might cause her to lose too much of herself.

But meanwhile, without a man in her life, there was no one who was willing to make a baby with her.

So after a lot of studying the pros and cons and debating it with herself, she had decided to use artificial insemination to achieve her goal of motherhood.

She was secure in her job and very well compensated. She also had an excellent benefits package, so the idea of raising her child on her own was a reasonable one. She was also lucky to have developed strong friendships with several women on the island, too, and knew they would always be around when she needed them. So she wasn’t worried. She and her baby would comprise the perfect little family she had always wanted. Now she just needed some time off to get the job done.

“Ellie, are you going to tell me why you can’t just do it the—”

“Yes, yes, the old-fashioned way.” She sniffed, straightened her shoulders and held her head high. “I don’t think it’s any of your business.”

“You’re probably right.” His lips twisted in a sardonic grin. “But you’ve already given me your ovulation schedule. I mean, why hold back the rest?”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Ellie said. “Look, we both know that what I do in my free time is nobody’s business but my own.”

“Of course it is,” he said reasonably. “But you have to realize how concerned I am. As I’ve already said, I’m your friend as well as your employer, and this isn’t exactly a vacation you’re taking. You’re planning to go off to get pregnant. And then what happens? Then you’ll come back and work? For how long?”

“Until the baby’s born,” she said immediately. “At that point I’ll take maternity leave for three months and then I’ll be back at work.”

The resort had an excellent childcare facility so Ellie wasn’t worried about finding someone to care for her baby while she worked. That was another benefit of working for the Sutherland brothers.

“Three months.” Aidan pushed away from the desk and stood to pace the floor for a full minute. Finally he looked at her. “Okay, I’m not going to think about your being gone for three months. We’ll just deal with these upcoming three weeks.”

“That might be best,” she murmured.

“I can’t stand in the way of you going, but what will we do without you for three weeks? It might not sound like a lot of time to you, but we’ve never gone that long without you before. And right now we’re swamped with work and no one else is qualified to fill your shoes.”

She smiled because she’d already made a point of finding solutions to those particular problems, thanks to her best friend, Serena, the catering manager.

“Serena and her secretary have agreed to assist the sales force with the convention work. And my secretary will take care of making sure the day-to-day office work gets done. I’ll be available by phone if there are any questions.”

“Damn, Ellie.”

She stood and met him face-to-face. “Look, Aidan. I wouldn’t leave if there was a doctor on the island who specialized in fertilization. But there isn’t, so I’m going to Atlanta.”

“But what if you go through all this and it doesn’t…” He seemed to weigh his words and decided not to finish that sentence. Probably smart of him.

She finished the thought for him. “What if the procedure doesn’t work?” She’d considered that possibility, too. “I’ll try again in a few months.”

He gritted his teeth. “Okay, I understand what you want to do and it’s not like I have a say in your decision, but I still think you’re jumping the gun here. You’re so young. What are you? Twenty-eight? Twenty-nine?”

“Thirty.”

“That’s young,” he insisted. “You still have plenty of time to do it the—”

“Yes, yes, the old-fashioned way. You’ve mentioned it several times already.”

“It bears repeating,” he said amiably.

She quickly looked down at her tablet to avoid his knowing gaze. Was it getting hot in here? All this conversation about babies and “doing it the old-fashioned way” was stirring up feelings for Aidan that she’d long ago squelched. And not just emotional feelings, but an actual physical attraction to him. And that had to stop right now. “You realize this is absolutely none of your business, right?”

He had the nerve to grin. “Yeah.”

She sighed again. “Look, even if I do have plenty of time, I don’t have a partner. You know, someone who’s interested in providing the necessary equipment to get the job done.”

Could she make it any clearer than that?

“Oh. Right.” Aidan seemed to ponder that for a moment. “But what about that guy you were dating? Aren’t you still seeing him? What’s his name?”

“You know very well what his name is,” she said drily. “You introduced us, remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said snidely. “Brad.”

“Blake,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Blake Farrell.”

“Right. What about Blake?”

Self-conscious now, Ellie avoided eye contact. “What about Blake for what?”

Aidan raised one eyebrow, but said nothing.

“Oh, fine,” she said, exasperated. She knew exactly what he was referring to. Sex. “If you must know, I’m not seeing Blake anymore.”

His mouth opened, then closed. After a pause, he said, “Ah. Sorry it didn’t work out.”

“You don’t sound sorry at all.”

“You’re right.” He grinned wolfishly. “I’m not. He wasn’t the guy for you.”

“But you introduced me to him.”

“You were both standing there,” he said with a shrug. “I was just being polite. I never expected you to start dating him. I’m glad you broke up. You can do a lot better than him.”

“Now you tell me,” she muttered. “After I already asked him to…” She stopped talking, but it was too late.

Aidan’s eyes narrowed in on her. “You asked him to be the father of your child?”

“I think this conversation has gone far enough.” She grabbed her tablet off the chair and turned to leave.

“Funny, I think it’s just getting started.” He circled around to meet her face-to-face, effectively preventing her from dashing out of his office. “Ellie, I introduced you to Blake three weeks ago. Are you saying that after three weeks of dating, you asked him to—”

“Yes. Yes, I did.” She began pacing again, but couldn’t get far with him standing right in front her. “I don’t know what I was thinking. But in my defense, we were going out every weekend, having a great time, getting to know each other. So one night at dinner he asked me where I saw myself in five years and I told him.”

“You told him what, exactly?”

She wanted to bury herself somewhere. Instead, she drew in a breath and said, “I told him that in five years I saw myself living on Alleria, working for Sutherland Corporation, and taking care of my adorable four-year-old child.”

She watched Aidan’s eyes widen. His lips quivered. He tried to bite back a grin, but it was useless. He finally began to laugh. “Let me get this straight. You basically told a guy you’ve been dating for three weeks that you’re looking for him to be your baby daddy?”

“Not exactly,” she said. But it was no use. His laughter was justified. “Okay, he might’ve interpreted it that way.”

“You think?”

“Stop laughing. What do I know? Blake was the first date I’ve had in three years.”

“Three years?” He looked her up and down. “What’s wrong with the guys you know?”

“It’s not them, it’s me.” Oh, dear lord. Could she sound like a bigger loser? She had to get out of there.

But Aidan grabbed her shoulders to keep her there and tilted his head to meet her gaze. “Honey, trust me. It’s not you. You’re smart, funny, beautiful. Any man would…well…” He faltered, frowning as he let go of her.

She blinked up at him, then frowned, too. “Well, what?”

He scowled as he walked back to his desk. “Just trust me. You’re not the problem.”

Ellie appreciated his words, but they didn’t really help right now. It wasn’t much fun admitting that she was a total loser when it came to men. Especially to admit it to Aidan Sutherland, who was not only her boss but also the man she had been crushing on for almost four years.

Not that it meant anything. A crush on a man was healthy, right? Of course it was! Sure, she had a personal hang-up or two, but other than wanting to sleep with her boss, she was fine and dandy. Very put-together, highly organized, successful. She had friends. She wasn’t a loser.

She smiled with determination. “I’ll say again that I’m sorry I couldn’t give you more notice, but I’ve got everything covered job-wise. I am absolutely certain that things will run smoothly. I just need your blessing to take the time off.”

“I won’t let you quit your job,” he said fiercely. “We need you too much.”

She was surprised and delighted by his admission. He had no idea how much his words pleased her, but she was still going through with her plan.

“Aidan, you know me. I love my job. I love Alleria. You and Logan are the best people I’ve ever worked with. Believe me, I’ve never been happier and I have no intention of ever leaving voluntarily.”

“Good, because I won’t let you. You’re a vital member of our organization.”

“Thank you.” She wouldn’t say it aloud, but she would be a fool to give up this job. After all this time, with all the raises and bonuses they’d given her, she would never find anything comparable, especially in such a beautiful setting as Alleria.

“I’ll never leave,” she reiterated.

“But you’re going to have a baby,” he argued, not quite ready to concede. “That’s not a good sign.”

“I have every intention of raising my baby here on the island and continuing to work for you and Logan for as long as you’ll have me. Okay?”

He scowled, but she knew he was smart enough to know when to give up the fight. Finally he nodded. “Okay.”

“Thank you,” she said. In a spontaneous gesture, she gave him a tight hug. “I really appreciate your understanding.”

“I don’t understand anything,” he said, but managed a half smile as he walked her to the door. “Call me conventional, but I still believe in the man-woman routine.”

Her laugh was lighthearted even if her mind was set. But she decided to humor him anyway. “Fine. You have one week to convince me it’s the best way to go.”

Not that she had any intention of doing things his way, Ellie thought as she walked back to her office. She’d thought this through down to the last detail, and she wasn’t about to change her mind just to satisfy her boss. She’d seen how a messy relationship with a man could turn a woman’s life inside out and she wasn’t about to let that happen to her. Not ever. Not even for Aidan Sutherland.

Two

Later that evening, Aidan sat in one of the resort’s plush beach chairs and stared out at the placid surface of Alleria Bay. He nursed the glass of single malt scotch he’d picked up in the bar earlier before wandering out to the beach to relax and enjoy the quiet evening.

But how could he relax? He’d already been thinking about Ellie in all sorts of inappropriate ways, and then she had come along and added to the problem. True, she’d only been talking about babies. It was Aidan’s fault for bringing up sex by suggesting that she do it the traditional way. Now he couldn’t get the idea of sex with Ellie out of his head.

But that didn’t mean he would act on it. No way. He had to get his mind off his associate and he hoped his upcoming trip to California would help.

Realistically, Ellie wanting a baby was none of his business. But as she’d left his office earlier, she had issued the challenge—joking or not—and Aidan was willing to meet it. He was determined to find her a willing man in a week. The Sutherland twins never backed away from a challenge. But how was he supposed to find a decent guy who would make Ellie happy enough to stay on the island where Aidan needed her? It’s not like he could approach one of the guys he knew and ask if they would be willing to impregnate his senior vice president.

That would be weird.

Skimming his feet over the cool sand of the beach, Aidan tried to figure out where he’d lost the argument with Ellie. Not that he’d been given much chance to argue, he thought. Ellie had presented her plan as a fait accompli. She had no intention of backing down, and Aidan had to admit he appreciated that quality in her. She’d made the decision and she was sticking to it.

So why in the world was Aidan making such a big deal over it? The choice to have a baby was Ellie’s alone to make. It was her life. If she wanted to have a baby, she should go get pregnant and have a baby.

But then she’d be leaving the island. True, it was only for three weeks, but she’d confessed out loud that if the first time didn’t work, she’d be going back again. And again.

Aidan hated to admit it, but things never ran as smoothly when Ellie went away. He would even go so far as to say that things tended to go straight to hell when Ellie was gone. Two years ago, she took five days off and Hurricane Willie struck the island. Last year she was gone for a week and the hotel kitchen staff went on strike.

She was like a barometer for all things Alleria. If Ellie was on the island, life rolled along. When she wasn’t, it was more of a crash-and-burn scenario.

Aidan was tempted to fly in a fertility specialist if it meant Ellie would stay on the island. He considered that for a second or two. It was the perfect solution. One that would make everybody happy, right?

So why was he still brooding about it?

Because, Aidan thought as he sipped his scotch, it still meant that Ellie would be using artificial means to have a baby. And that was the one thing Aidan refused to accept. He wasn’t ready to examine his feelings too closely, but suffice to say it wasn’t fair that his beautiful senior vice president was choosing to get pregnant by means of a turkey baster.

“Fair?” he muttered aloud. Fair to whom? To Ellie? Or to the male population at large? After all, she was a beautiful woman. Plenty of men would be thrilled to help her out. Had she given any of them a chance? Hell, no.

Even Blake Farrell. She hadn’t given him a chance, not really. After all, they’d only been dating for less than a month. What man in his right mind would agree to accept her obvious baby-daddy ploy so quickly after they’d met?

Aidan scowled. The right man would. But Blake Farrell wasn’t that guy. Aidan had known Blake Farrell for years. The guy was a player. He ran an air-shipping operation over on Nassau and had recently opened an office in the port of Alleria. He’d bought a small house in town so he was part of the island community now.

But if Aidan had thought for one moment that Ellie would start dating Farrell, Aidan never would’ve introduced the two. It still rankled him that she’d accepted even one date from him.

Blake wasn’t right for Ellie and he definitely was not the appropriate choice to be the father of her child. But who was? Not that Aidan had any say in the matter, but if Ellie needed someone to do the job, there had to be a lot of guys better suited for the job than Blake Farrell.

Frankly, although he didn’t want to examine his feelings on the subject too closely, he had been relieved to hear that there was no current man in Ellie’s life.

But now that meant that she was going to have a complete stranger father her child. She would be picking some guy’s description out of a book—and who was to say the guy was telling the truth about his attributes? Anybody could donate sperm and claim to be a six-foot-five Adonis when in reality he was three feet tall and a troglodyte.

Hadn’t she considered that? Scowling to himself, Aidan imagined all kinds of weird possibilities stemming from that damn turkey baster.

“Hell, I should offer to do it myself,” he muttered as he sipped his scotch. Abruptly he jerked himself upright in his chair. Whoa. He did not just say that. He tossed down a serious amount of scotch to drown out the words.

There was no way he would ever knowingly father a child. He’d made that decision years ago after watching his own father struggle as a single parent. Aidan and Logan’s mother had left them when the boys were only seven years old. It had been a defining moment in Aidan’s life and while he thoroughly enjoyed the pleasure that women provided, he wasn’t about to trust one enough to marry her, let alone have a child with her.

He would never risk a child of his experiencing the abandonment he’d gone through himself. And now he realized that this was a big reason why he wasn’t happy that Ellie was planning to go through with the pregnancy on her own. She was walking right into a single parent situation with no idea how difficult her life would become. And she wasn’t the only one to consider. Her child would go through life without a dad. That wasn’t right.

Had Ellie tried hard enough to find a man to father her child?

But then he remembered the look on her face earlier when she’d said, It’s not them, it’s me.

Hell, of course she’d tried to find a partner, but no one had been smart enough to step forward. She’d been so vulnerable while talking about it, Aidan had almost taken her in his arms and kissed away the pain he’d seen in her eyes. But he hadn’t done it, thank God. That would have been a huge mistake.

Not that he wouldn’t have enjoyed it, he thought as he stood and walked to the water’s edge. That wasn’t the point. The point was, it was never going to happen.

Too bad. Because now that he was thinking about topics like trust and women and Ellie, in particular, it occurred to him that there was one woman in the world he did actually trust. Ellie. When it came to business, she was scrupulously honest. She always spoke her mind. And she always had his back in any negotiation they entered. She was almost as good a partner in wheeling and dealing as his brother, Logan, was.

Logan had agreed with Aidan that Ellie would make a good junior partner. Before Logan left on his honeymoon, the brothers had decided to offer Ellie the position. The plan was to wait until Logan got back to the island. They’d never brought in another partner before, but they both agreed that there was nobody better for their organization than Ellie. And if they wanted the company to grow even larger, they needed someone else in the top ranks who had her intelligence, business insight and unwavering principles.

And all that had nothing to do with the fact that she was downright sexy and beautiful. He thought again of those amazing legs of hers, pictured them wrapped around his waist with him buried so far inside her, he could feel it.

The carnal image was so vivid, he almost lost his footing. Damn, his mind was wandering down a perilous path and if he wasn’t careful, he’d find himself facedown in the sand.

He recovered quickly and drank down a good slug of scotch. The smooth, liquid heat soothed his throat and snapped him out of his wayward thoughts. His wildly active imagination meant nothing in reality. He liked Ellie, would love to take her to bed, but it wouldn’t happen. It couldn’t.

How the hell could he risk losing Ellie as a business partner if a romantic thing between them didn’t work out? Or worse yet, what if he initiated something and she was so offended she quit?

“She wouldn’t just quit,” he muttered darkly. “She’d punch you in the nose first and then quit. Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”

Still, he wanted her to be happy.

But apparently, it was going to take having a baby to accomplish that.

“Hell.” He rubbed his face, annoyed with himself. If he was being honest, he would have to admit that if Ellie had approached him and asked him to be the father of her child, he would have had a hard time pushing her away. But he absolutely would’ve turned her down in the end. Wouldn’t he? Of course he would’ve. There was no way he would say yes to something like that. Even if it was Ellie doing the asking.

“Not that she asked you,” he groused, then scowled at his own idiotic statement. It was official: he had lost his mind. Exasperated, he swallowed the rest of the scotch and headed back to his suite before he found himself howling at the moon like the rest of the lunatics in the world.

Ellie yawned, then finished the last of her tea and shut down her computer. She should’ve gone to bed an hour ago, but since she knew she wouldn’t sleep anyway, she had spent more time sifting through the family photos her sister, Brenna, had sent from Atlanta. A picture of Brenna with her darling husband, Brian. One of Brenna and Brian with their two adorable children. Various shots of the kids on their new backyard jungle gym. And the latest one, a blurry ultrasound photo of Brenna’s unborn baby.