She's Having the Boss's Baby - By Kate Carlisle Page 0,35
a twin. He couldn’t get a damn thing past his brother.
Annoyed with the direction their conversation was heading, Aidan paced back and forth across the office floor. Finally he turned to his brother and explained things in a reasonable tone of voice. “Ellie was making plans to leave the island for a few weeks. I had to do something to stop her.”
“So you slept with her?” Logan shook his head. “That was your plan?”
“No. I mean, yes. But that’s not why.” He scraped his fingers across his scalp in frustration. “It’s a long story.”
Logan sat in one of the comfortable visitor’s chairs and stretched out his long legs. “I’ve got all day.”
Aidan huffed out a breath. “It’s complicated.”
“Dude, it wasn’t complicated until you slept with her.”
Irritation spiked. Yeah, he and Logan had always talked together about the women in their lives. But he didn’t like Logan talking about Ellie. “Just shut up about that, will you?”
“She’s an employee,” Logan pointed out. “You’re putting the company in a bad position. What if she sues you? Did you consider the possible consequences? You know she could—”
“Stop.” Aidan held up his hand. “I’ll ignore the fact that you slept with Grace when she was working here as a cocktail waitress.”
He was happy to see his brother frown as that realization sunk into his thick skull.
“She was a fake waitress,” Logan mumbled.
“Right. Look, Ellie’s a partner now, not an employee. But just in case you’re still worried, don’t be. She and I signed a contract before we did anything.”
Logan jumped up from his chair and gaped at his brother. “What did you say? You signed a contract for sex? What the hell is going on around here?”
“What the hell do you have to be mad about?” Aidan shouted. “This isn’t about you.”
“If it’s about Sutherland, then it’s about me, too, you idiot.”
“Fine.” Aidan scrubbed one hand across his face, took a swig of water and muttered, “The contract wasn’t about sex, all right? It’s for a baby.”
Logan opened his mouth to retort, but no words came out. He took a breath, blew it out and then blinked a few times as if his twin was just a hallucination he was trying to bring into focus. Funny. Aidan had never actually seen Logan speechless. He kind of liked it.
“Well, that shut you up anyway.” Aidan handed him the bag of potato chips and continued his pacing.
A full minute later, Logan found his voice again. “I think you’d better sit down and tell me the whole story.”
*
“That went well,” Aidan muttered at the end of the day. What with all the interruptions and conference calls and business meetings, his conversation with Logan had stretched out over the entire day, and Logan had just left the office to take Grace to dinner. He’d invited Aidan to join them, but Aidan had declined. He had too much to think about. So instead, he went and grabbed a cheeseburger and fries from the bar, then headed back to his place to watch a football game.
He took a bite of the perfectly prepared burger and savored the flavors, marveling that he still had an appetite after hashing it out with his brother. Aidan had patiently explained everything to Logan. He had defended himself valiantly, making it clear that desperate times called for heroic efforts and that’s why Aidan had finally decided to help Ellie get pregnant.
His brother hadn’t seen it quite the same way. Far from it, in fact. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Logan had basically laughed his fool ass off.
“Heroic efforts?” he’d said derisively. “Man, you’re killing me.”
“I mean it,” Aidan had insisted. “How else could I guarantee that she’d stay here and work for us? I fell on my sword, man. I made the ultimate sacrifice for the corporation.”
He frowned at that, because as swords went, Ellie was a pretty damn good one. And it wasn’t as if he’d had to suffer to keep their most valued employee at the resort.
Logan snorted, not an attractive sound. “You sacrificed yourself by having sex with Ellie? How the hell is that a sacrifice? She’s gorgeous! You like her.”
“Wha— Of course I like her,” he sputtered. “A lot. She’s a good friend. She wants to have a baby and I want that baby to know its father. I wasn’t going to let her go off to some sperm bank and then raise a kid all on her own.”
Logan chuckled. “Oh man, you’ve got it bad.