The Billionaire's Illicit Twins - Holly Rayner Page 0,17

that she was some sort of weekend temp person—and therefore possibly not as up to date with the legal aspects of her industry as someone more permanent might be. Hell, she could be brand new, first day on the job, for all I cared.

As long as she put my call through without asking any questions.

“Right away, Ms. Mayfair,” she said smoothly.

A click, and the phone was ringing again.

I gulped at how quickly that had happened. I’d wanted it to work, but that didn’t mean I’d thought it actually would. But now a phone was ringing somewhere in New York, and on the other end, it would be—

“Ethan Parker,” his voice snapped, sounding like this was the fiftieth call he’d had in the last hour, and further, that each of them had made him more upset than the last.

Yikes. Well, here went nothing.

“Ethan,” I said.

There was a long pause at that, and I shut my eyes, suddenly rethinking this whole thing. Maybe calling him hadn’t been the right thing to do. Maybe I should have just left it, raised the baby by myself, kept Ethan in the dark. Stayed away from him like I’d meant to do. Like we’d agreed to do.

Then he breathed one word, and my mind went blank.

“Bella?”

Okay. Okay. First of all, how on earth had he known that this was me, just from me having said his name? And second, why did he sound like someone had a hold of his heart and was twisting very, very slowly?

“Correct,” I said, putting on the mask that I generally only wore for court days. “I’m sorry to call you in what must be the middle of your busy workday but—”

“It’s fine,” he said, cutting me off. “Actually, I’ve been wondering if you’d call. You ready to take me up on that job offer?”

I laughed, relief flooding through my body at the joke. “If I was, do you think it would have taken me this long to call?”

“I don’t know, maybe you were using it against your firm, trying to get a raise or a promotion. Doing a little bit of negotiation. It’s what I would have done. Maybe they just got back to you with the thumbs-down on that, though, and you’ve decided to move on to greener pastures.”

“Is that what you’re calling yourself now? Greener pastures? Not exactly a sexy nickname.”

A snort was his first response. “Believe me, if you want sexy, it’s not going to be because of my nickname.”

And that one stopped me right in my tracks—and almost made my mask slip. But it was also the perfect lead-in to what I needed to say to him.

“I’m not calling you for a job,” I said. “But, uh, speaking of sex, you don’t happen to remember that night we spent together, do you? The night of the court decision?”

“Of course I remember,” he answered, his voice suddenly a whole lot lower… and a whole lot huskier. “As a matter of fact, I remember it very clearly. That night, the way your eyes laughed at everything I said, the feel of your hair running through my fingers…”

“Well, we weren’t careful enough about the whole thing, evidently,” I said, stopping his narration in its tracks.

Because if there was one thing I couldn’t have right now, it was him going all full sex-god on me. My body was already buzzing just hearing his voice again. I didn’t need him reminding me what his body had felt like rubbing against mine.

And it evidently worked, because his recitation dried up almost as quickly as it had started, and he cleared his throat.

“What?” he asked, sounding strangled again.

“The next day, I couldn’t find any evidence that we’d even tried to use a condom,” I said, realizing now that I maybe should have told him that part earlier. Prepared him a little bit, at least. “I’m guessing we were both… well, in too much of a hurry to really think about it. And the thing is…”

“Oh, God, what’s the thing?” Now, his voice was colored with pure dread.

I gulped. Here came the hard part.

“The thing is,” I said. “I’m pregnant.” I paused for a beat, giving him a chance to respond, and when he didn’t, I carried right on. “It’s not a big deal. Or, well, I mean, it is, but it doesn’t have to be. I’ve already decided that I’m going to have the baby, but you don’t have to be involved if you don’t want to be. Don’t worry, I’m not going