Snowbound with the Boss (7 page)

His blue eyes lifted to meet hers, and she saw the banked fury sizzling there. “Were you ever going to tell me?” he ground out the minute the front door shut behind Molly.

“Probably not,” she admitted. “At least, not unless I absolutely had to.” Kate had considered this situation from every which way for the last five months. While her child grew inside her, Kate had remembered the horrified look on Sean's face when he'd thought she was trying to trap him into something permanent. Remembered him telling her he had nothing against kids, he just had no interest in having one himself.

“Sean, don't you remember? You made a point of saying you didn't want a family. You were appalled at the thought of it. Why would I tell you about my baby?”

He took a step toward her, then stopped dead as if he was too angry to get closer. “You want to use what I said about a hypothetical situation to explain you
lying
to me for five months? Not gonna work. You should have told me, Kate. Because it's
our
baby.”

Kate flushed and kept her protective hand against her belly. “Fine. Technically, you're right...”

“Technically?”
he repeated, eyes wide.

She ignored that. God, she'd imagined this conversation a million times over the last few months, whenever her guilt would get the best of her, and she pictured what might happen if Sean found out. And in none of those imaginings had he looked this...ferocious.

“Maybe I should have told you.”

He choked out a short laugh.

“But it wouldn't have changed the reality, Sean. The fact is, I want the baby, you don't.”

He managed to look even more shocked than he had at his first glance at her, and she couldn't blame him. He was so angry, his blue eyes glinted with icy shards. Deliberately, Kate lifted her chin, met his hard gaze and prepared to do battle.

This baby meant everything to Kate. It was a gift from a universe that had already taken too much from her. She wouldn't lose this child. Wouldn't share it with a man who, if he didn't already, would one day resent its very existence.

“I've talked to you dozens of times over the last five months,” he said, his voice quiet, glacial. “Emails. Faxes. Phone calls.
Video
calls. And not
once
did you find the time to say ‘By the way, I'm pregnant?'”

Truth was, Kate had been in a kind of fog for the first three months of her pregnancy. At first, she hadn't believed it. Then she'd realized what a miracle had happened. She was finally going to have the family she'd believed lost to her when Sam died. She didn't need a husband, but she needed this baby.

* * *

So did Sean.

His heart was pounding, and it felt like he'd taken a hard punch to the gut. He couldn't seem to catch his breath. His gaze was locked on Kate's softly rounded belly as his brain tried to process, think, figure. He hadn't expected this. Sure, he'd known something was up, which was why he'd come to Wyoming the minute Mike and Jenny got back from their honeymoon. But Sean had thought it was a problem with the hotel. Or the crew.
Anything
but this.

They'd used condoms. What was the point of using them if people got pregnant anyway?

Hell, now he knew how Brady Finn had felt when he'd traveled to Ireland to check on the hotel there, only to find that Aine was pregnant. At the time, Sean had taken Aine's side in all of that, telling Brady to get over it and do the right thing. Apparently the universe was getting a kick out of landing him in Brady's exact position.

Scrubbing one hand across his face, Sean fought past the fury choking him and tried to steady himself. The woman who had been haunting him for months was carrying his child. That was fact. That was what he had to focus on now.

But even as he thought it, his past rose up in his mind to remind him that it wasn't the first time he'd found himself in this position. As he fought them, images from ten years before swam to the surface of his mind as if finally released from behind a thick dam.

He'd done a year of college in Italy, and there he'd fallen in love with Adrianna. She was beautiful, smart, funny. And everything was perfect. Until the night she told him she was pregnant. He still felt shame over his reaction, though over the years he'd tried to explain it away by saying he was young. Stupid. Selfish.

But the bottom line was, she had been excited and saw a shiny, happy future for the two of them. All Sean had seen were chains. They had argued viciously and two weeks later, she miscarried the baby she had wanted so badly. Sean went to see her in the hospital, but she turned him away. He could still see her lying on that narrow bed, her beautiful face as white as the sheets beneath her. Her eyes were filled with shadows of pain and a single tear tracked along her cheek.

“Go away,” Adrianna had said, turning her face to the wall so she wouldn't have to look at him.

Sean clutched the huge bouquet of roses he'd brought with him and tried again to reach her. To make her see him. To make her realize just how badly he felt. “Adrianna, I'm sorry about the baby.”

She spared him a glance then, and in that brief motion he saw that her dark eyes were empty. “You are not sorry, Sean. You didn't want our child. Well, now he is gone so you can be happy. But be happy somewhere else. I don't want you here. I don't want you to come back.”

The smell of the hospital, the rumble of nurses and doctors being called over the communication system, the soft moan from an old woman in a bed across the room—none of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was Adrianna, and he was losing her.

His heart breaking, Sean stood his ground, fist tightening on the flowers he held, determined to make her understand why he'd reacted as he had. Make her forgive him. “Adrianna,” he whispered, “we can get past this.”

“No.” She stared at the wall, her fingers clenching on the thin blanket covering her. “No.” She took a shuddering breath. “I needed you and you were not there. Now,” she added, “I do not need you anymore.”

Helpless, Sean had dropped the roses on the chair by the door and left, knowing that he'd lost something precious. That he'd thrown away what some men only dreamed of having.

And he'd lived with the shame and guilt of that for ten years. Never shared it with his brother—with anyone—just carried it around like a lump of ice in a corner of his heart. But now, he had a chance to let go of that past by being the man he should have been when he was too young and self-involved to know better.

Sean looked into Kate's lake-blue eyes and read her determination to keep him out of this. To get him to leave. To walk away from her and his child. But it wasn't going to happen.

He wouldn't fail again.

“You should sit down,” he said.

“What?”

“You're pregnant. Sit down.” He steered her back to the couch and hovered there until she sat.

“Seriously?” She flipped her long, loose hair back over her shoulder to stare up at him. “I was on the job site today installing new windows and ripping old paneling off walls, and you think it's too strenuous for me to stand in my own living room?”

It sounded stupid when she put it like that. But he was off his game. Hell, knocked off his feet. “So cut me a break. I've known about this baby for like ten seconds. Might take a little longer to get used to it.”

“That's my point, Sean. You don't have to get used to it.”

“Right.” He shoved both hands into his pants pockets. “You really expect that I'll just say ‘take care' and walk away?”

The fact that he had done just that ten years ago had nothing to do with this.

“That's my child you're carrying,” he snapped, feeling anger and frustration nipping at his insides again, “and it's my responsibility to see to it that it's safe.”

“Her.”

“What?”

“You said
it
,” Kate said tightly. “The baby's a girl.”

“A girl.” Sean swayed in place as a rush of emotion filled his throat. Another hard hit in a series of them. He had a
daughter
. That knowledge alone made this all the more real. All the more vital. Sean took a breath to steady himself and looked at Kate. Stubborn fury was etched into her features. She was hostile and prepared to dig in her heels to fight him on this.

It fried him that she'd kept this secret. Kept his baby from him and clearly had had no intention of ever telling him about it...
her
. Maybe Kate had her reasons, but at the moment, he didn't give a good damn what they were. So yeah, he remembered telling her that he had no interest in children or a family. And maybe he hadn't really considered it since Italy. He might not have gone out and deliberately tried to be a father, but now that he was faced with the reality of it, he wanted his kid.

He was here and not going anywhere. Kate was going to have to find a way to deal with it. No doubt the two of them would butt heads over this situation, but in the end, Sean would have things his way. Kate had no idea what Sean could do when he was set on a certain path. Hadn't he, his brother and their friend built a billion-dollar business from
nothing
? He hadn't allowed anyone to get in his way then, and he wasn't about to start now. Sean made his living by convincing people that he was right so they would fall into line. Kate would eventually give way, just like everyone else.

First things first, though. “Is the baby all right?”

Her face softened in an instant as she stroked her palm over her belly. “She's fine.”

“Good.” He nodded and swallowed hard over the sudden knot of lust clogging his throat. Were
all
pregnant women this hot? “That's good.”

“Sean,” she said on a sigh, “I know what you're doing.”

“Is that right?” He tucked his hands into his pockets. “What am I doing, Kate?”

She stood up to face him, and he felt the same surge of desire he had felt the first time he'd met her. Kate Wells affected him as no one else ever had—and pregnancy hadn't changed that a bit. But staring at her now, he wasn't thinking of the baby, or the lies, or the arguments waiting for them in the coming days.

All he saw was the woman who had been in his mind for months. Her eyes were flashing, her mouth was set in a straight, grim line and that stubborn tilt to her chin only made her look more amazing. What the hell did it say about him, he wondered, that he found a woman who looked like she wanted to rip his lips off so damned irresistible?

“You're trying to make me feel badly about not telling you about the baby.”

“Don't you?”

She blew out a breath. “Yes, I do. But I did what I thought was best, just like I'm doing now. I want you to leave, Sean.”

“We don't always get what we want, Kate.”

“How are you even here? How did you find out where I live?” She threw her hands high, then caught herself and paused. “Never mind. Not important. What's important is that you leave. Now.”

He grabbed her upper arms and held on to her, when he felt her jerk back in an attempt to free herself. “You weren't that hard to find, Kate. And now that I have found you—and my daughter—I'm not going anywhere.”

She paled a little but recovered quickly and went on the defensive. “Sean, you don't have anything to prove. It's nice that you offered to be involved with the baby, but it's not necessary.”

“It's not
nice
,” he said, feeling that swell of irritation come thick and fast again. “That's my daughter as much as yours, so yeah, me being a part of this
is
necessary. You're not cutting me out, Kate. I'm in this.”

Outside, the sun was nearly gone, and Kate reached out to flick on a table lamp. Golden light streamed through the room, and he could see her even more clearly than he had before. She didn't look happy, he thought. Well, that made two of them.

“We've got things to talk about.”

“No, Sean, we don't. I'm the one who's pregnant, so I'm the one making decisions.” She picked up her teacup, stepped to one side and grabbed Molly's wineglass then headed out of the room, throwing words back over her shoulder. “And since I'm only five months along, I've got plenty of time.”

Sean followed right after her. It didn't take long. You could drop her entire living room, dining room and kitchen into the main room of his condo in Long Beach and still have room left over. In the tiny galley-style kitchen, he walked up behind her and, in effect, trapped her there. Backed up against the kitchen sink and hedged between the stove and the refrigerator, all she could do was stare up at him.

“We'll
both
be making any decisions necessary, Kate. I'm not walking away from my kid.” He dropped his hands onto the sink's edge on either side of her. “I'm here in Wyoming for the next three days. I'd stay longer, but we've got the release of our latest game next week and I have to be there to help.”

“Don't let me stop you,” she quipped and ducked beneath his arm to escape him.

But he grabbed her arm and held on. “Oh, you won't. You won't stop me from doing anything.” It was a warning and a declaration all at once. It was time she knew that he wasn't going to quietly disappear. She was carrying his baby, and that link bound them together.

She'd just have to get used to it.

Seven

K
ate felt like she was being stalked.

Everywhere she turned, there Sean was. He watched what she ate, what she drank. He hovered over her on the job site until even her crew stopped coming to her with questions and instead spoke to Sean first. She felt the threads of control slipping through her fingers, and there didn't seem to be a thing she could do about it.

When she complained to Sean, he only smiled and shrugged, brushing off her anger as if it didn't bother him a bit. And that only made her more furious.

Molly, of course, was fascinated. While Kate stood beneath a stand of pines at the edge of the lake, she turned her face into the wind and listened to her friend's voice bubbling over the phone.

“I mean, he's even more spectacular in person than he is in all those paparazzi photos.” She took a breath and heaved a dramatic sigh. “That's the kind of guy who makes women dissolve into puddles at his feet.”

Kate scowled and watched two magpies swoop over the lake to disappear into the trees. “That must be why he keeps expecting me to fall in line.”

“Well, why wouldn't you?” Molly asked. “He's gorgeous, rich, you're carrying his baby
and
he wants to be involved.” Before Kate could say anything, Molly rushed on. “And let's not forget, you already confessed that the sex was the best you've ever had.”

Now Kate winced. She had said that, in spite of feeling disloyal to Sam's memory. Her late husband hadn't been the best lover, but he'd had other, more important qualities that Sean lacked.

Sean was pushy, dictatorial, arrogant—and those were his good points. Okay, yes, he had beautiful eyes and talented hands and a wicked sense of humor that often made Kate laugh even when she didn't want to. But none of that—even including the amazing sex—was enough to build a life on. And he might not have mentioned marriage yet, but he wanted their baby so she was pretty sure he would mention it, sooner or later.

And she would never get married again. Too much opportunity for pain.

“Sex isn't everything,” Kate muttered.

A deep voice behind her said, “People who say that aren't doing it right.”

Kate inhaled sharply as her heart gave a hard thump. Just hearing his voice set her nerves jangling and her pulse racing—in spite of how hard she tried to rein them in. Blast it, she thought, she'd come out here to get away from Sean for a while. She'd thought she had escaped the hotel cleanly. Hadn't she waited until Sean was in the kitchen with the crew before she slipped out for a little privacy? But no, he'd managed to track her down anyway.

“I heard that,” Molly said, laughing. “I'm really starting to like him.”

“That makes one of us,” Kate muttered. “I've gotta go.”

“Fine, but I'll need a full report later. Spare no details.”

Kate shook her head and hung up, then turned to face Sean. “Why are you following me?”

He shrugged and the movement stretched his black T-shirt across a chest she had reason to know was a broad expanse of muscle. “Don't think of it as following you. Think of it more like I'm walking my property. Get an idea what the land looks like when it's
not
buried under a hundred feet of snow.”

She didn't believe him, even though what he said made sense. Because instead of checking out the scenery, his gaze was fixed on her. Heat blossomed in the center of her chest and sent tendrils of warmth rippling through her. His eyes were as blue as the lake behind her and the wind ruffled his black hair across his forehead. It looked like he hadn't bothered to shave that morning, so a beard shadow covered his jaw and only made him look even sexier—and she wouldn't have thought that possible.

Having him here again, on her turf, was unsettling. When Sean was several hundred miles away, she could focus on her life, her baby, and almost convince herself that Sean wasn't a part of it at all. And that, she told herself, was how she wanted it. What she felt for Sean was a tangle of emotions. The desire was still there, of course, but mixed in was annoyance and an affection she couldn't completely deny.

“Well, take a look around,” she said, waving one arm to encompass the wide spill of lake behind them and the forest that ringed the lake and stretched out for miles on either side of the hotel. When his gaze shifted to the view, Kate watched him and softened at his reaction to the beauty around him.

He looked back at her and smiled. “It's a great spot. Beautiful, really. It's amazing how big the sky looks out here. Seems a lot smaller somehow in California. You know, up until now, I've always been a beach guy. Love surfing, taking a boat out.” His gaze shifted back to the calm surface of the sapphire-blue lake that mirrored the white clouds overhead and the pines that stood as guardians at the edge.

She had to smile. “Boats have been known to go on lakes, too.”

He grinned, and she felt the jolt of it clutch at her heart.

“Good point,” he said. “Maybe we could look into getting some boats here for guests. And paddleboards would probably go over well.”

She imagined they would, but said, “Not exactly in line with the theme of ancient warriors and evil creatures.”

He laughed easily and tucked his hands into his pockets. “Even gamers take time out for a little reality now and then. And we could paint scenes from the game on them.”

Kate sighed. It was so hard to resist when he poured on that charm. Even knowing she should be hardening her heart, keeping her distance, she was drawn to him like she'd never been drawn to anyone else. And when he smiled at her, as he did now, everything inside her softened, yielded.

He turned to scan the forest area then looked back at Kate. “Why don't you show me where you're going to position the cabins?”

“Okay.” Good. This was good. Keep the conversation away from the personal. They were being calm, reasonable and talking about the job. She swallowed down the knot of emotion in her throat and pretended it hadn't been there at all. Reminding herself that he was her boss might be enough to keep her thoughts on the here and now rather than on a distant future that seemed too nebulous to negotiate at the moment.

Pointing to the closest stand of trees, she said, “You can see where we've already laid out the foundation slabs for the first two cabins.” She took a few steps and stopped again. “The others complete a half circle around the hotel. While they're tucked into the forest enough to be private, they'll still be close enough to the hotel that guests can easily walk up for the restaurant or gift shops. The septics are in, so that job's done and we'll get started on putting up the cabin frames in the next week or so. Just waiting on the final plans from the architect.”

He was walking right beside her, and she swore she could feel heat pumping from his body into hers.

“Sounds good. But why didn't you put a couple of them closer to the lake?”

“Risky,” she said. “In a hard winter, the spring runoff could raise the water level, so you don't want to be too close to the edge or you've got flooding worries.”

“Good point,” he said, shifting his gaze to study the proposed layout of the cabins. “When we get a hard storm surf in Long Beach, people are out sandbagging the sea wall to keep the shore houses from flooding.”

Sometimes, it felt as if they were completely in synch. For some reason it seemed that as their personal issues got more complicated, their working relationship improved. Talking about the job, answering questions, making plans, they felt like a team. But that was an illusion. She worked for him, and it was best that she remember that. This was her biggest construction project ever and no matter what else happened between her and Sean, Kate was determined to make the most of this huge opportunity.

“Most of the cabins will have lake views,” she said, walking again. The toe of her boot caught on a thick tree root, and she stumbled but caught herself. An instant later, Sean took her elbow to steady her on the uneven forest floor. Heat, raw and undiluted, roared into her body from the simple touch of his hand on her arm. Now she was more unsteady than ever but didn't want to let him know it. “I'm perfectly fine, Sean. I don't need help. I didn't fall.”

He shrugged. “Shoot me. My mother raised a gentleman.”

“I appreciate it, but I can walk by myself.” She tried to pull free, but his grip shifted from velvet to iron in a heartbeat. And being reminded of his strength set up a flutter of nerves in the pit of her stomach.

Sean pulled her around to face him. “Look, I get that you're not used to anyone taking care of you. But you're pregnant with
my
baby now. And I'm going to take care of you—and
her
—whether you like it or not.”

And there went the closeness, the sensation of teamwork. He couldn't seem to help himself from that arrogant, I-know-best attitude.

“You can't just show up out of nowhere and start throwing your weight around,” Kate told him. “
You
are not in charge.”

“Wrong.” The word snapped from him and the heat in his eyes flashed dangerously. “From here on out, Kate, I'm giving the orders.”

“Are you serious?” She matched his fury with that of her own. “I've been on my own for a long time now. I don't need you, Sean.”

Something dark and pain-filled flashed briefly in his eyes but was gone again in seconds. “Need me or not, I'm here, and you're not shaking me loose so get used to it.”

They glared at each other, neither of them willing to back down. All around them, the wind whispered in the trees, birds shrieked and in the lake, a fish shot from the water to dive back in with a soft splash.

Then Sean muttered, “Damn it, what is it about you anyway?”

He dragged her in tight and kissed her hard. She thought about resisting on principle, but she couldn't hold out against him. Her mouth softened against his as her blood pumped fast and thick in her veins. God, she'd missed this. The rising need, the tingles of anticipation and excitement that were bubbling through her. She held on to him, loving the feel of his strong arms wrapping around her, holding her close.

It was crazy, and all too quickly it was over.

When she opened her eyes, Kate saw Sean staring down at her and smug satisfaction shining in his eyes. “Don't need me, huh?”

Like ice water had been dumped on her head, coldness swamped her, putting out the fire she'd felt only seconds before.

“You kiss me then throw my reaction in my face?” Kate was practically vibrating with frustration and a simmering anger that burned so brightly she was surprised her skin wasn't glowing with it.

“Just reminding you of what's between us,” he said tightly, and she had some satisfaction knowing that the kiss had affected him just as it had her.

“I know exactly what's between us,” Kate said and slapped one hand to her belly.

He covered her hand with his. “Now I do, too. And I promise you, I'm not going anywhere.”

“Am I interrupting something?”

At the sound of the deep voice, both of them turned to face the older man approaching.

“Dad?” Kate looked at her father in surprise. She'd been so caught up in Sean, she hadn't heard anything beyond the thundering beat of her own heart. “What're you doing here?”

Harry Baker was a tall man, with steel-gray hair, piercing blue eyes, a barrel chest and heavily muscled arms from years of working construction. Normally easygoing and friendly, at the moment Harry's features were tight and grim.

“Raul called,” he said, answering Kate while keeping his gaze on Sean. “Asked me to come help him install the new windows on the third floor.”

Kate nearly groaned. She'd forgotten that her father would be on the job site today. Frankly, with Sean around, it was hard to concentrate on anything else. If she'd remembered, she could have prepared Sean. Heck, prepared
herself
for a confrontation that had been building for months.

She took a breath to steady herself. Her father had been after her for months to tell Sean the truth and to stop working. Ever since her mother had died, when Kate was twelve, Harry had been everything to Kate. He'd raised her, taught her, loved her and worried about her. Having her pregnant and unmarried chipped at something inside him, and Kate knew it had taken every ounce of his self-control not to call Sean himself and tell him what was going on.

“That's right. I forgot.” There was too much going on, she told herself. But with most of the crew busy finishing off the main kitchen and digging out the basement to make room for the large utility ramp they'd be installing, Raul did need the help.

Her father was glaring at Sean, and she knew he'd come looking for them deliberately so he could have a talk with the man who'd impregnated his daughter. God, she felt as though she was living in a nineteenth century romance. The men in her life were suddenly becoming cavemen, and there were definite signs of testosterone poisoning.

“Well, Dad,” she said, keeping her voice light and a smile on her face, “this is Sean Ryan.”

“I guessed as much.” He didn't smile in return.

Sean offered his hand. “Good to meet you.”

Kate watched as the two men took each other's measure during the space of a handshake that looked more like a contest of wills than a polite greeting. This was so not a female moment.

As if agreeing with her, Sean said tightly, “Kate, why don't you go on back to the hotel while your dad and I have a talk?”

Exactly what she'd been planning to do until Sean suggested it. “Stop telling me what to do.”

“Kate, go away.”

She looked at her father. “You, too, Dad?”

Neither of the men was looking at her, and that only infuriated her well beyond what little patience she had left. She might as well be at the hotel. These two had already dismissed her. “Fine. I'm going back to work.”