Australia: In Bed with the Boss: The Marriage Decider / Their Wedding Day / His Boardroom Mistress. Emma Darcy
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СКАЧАТЬ spent Sunday on the beach, determined to relax and enjoy what she had within easy reach. It passed the time pleasantly. She succeeded in pushing Jake to the edge of her mind for most of the day. On Monday morning, however, her hand automatically reached for the scarlet linen shift. She told herself it was stupid to want to look “stunning” for him, but she wore it anyway.

      “Ah!” he said when she walked into his office to greet him. It was a very appreciative “Ah!” and the wolfish gleam in his eyes as he looked her up and down put a zing in her soul.

      “Image,” she said pertly. “We’re meeting with Erikson today.”

      “Of course,” he said and grinned at her.

      She felt ridiculously happy all day.

      The buoyant mood continued for most of the week.

      The first niggle of worry came on Friday.

      She’d finished the monthly course of contraceptive pills she’d been taking for years and her cycle always worked with clocklike regularity. Her period should have started today. So why hadn’t it?

      Her mind kept zinging to the night she’d forgotten to take a pill, but she’d taken two the next day to make up for it. Though it was actually the next night—not the morning or the day—when she’d discovered the error and taken double the dose. One missed night. It wouldn’t matter normally. She had doubled up before, when she’d accidentally missed one over the years, and nothing had gone wrong.

      But this time…this time…

      Impossible to forget which night it was…she and Jake losing themselves in spontaneous combustion…and the deep, inner sense of mingling…melding inextricably.

      Had their mating…such a terribly evocative word—borne fruit?

      It was a nerve-shattering thought. Amy kept pushing it away. It would be the worst irony in the world if she’d fallen pregnant, just when she was trying to get her life in reasonable order after her long-term partner had taken off because he’d got another woman pregnant. Not that she wanted Steve back. That was finished. But Jake…as the father…it didn’t bear thinking about.

      Her cycle was messed up a day. That was all it was. Any minute it could correct itself. Tomorrow she’d be laughing about this silly worrying. One missed pill…it was nothing in the big picture. Her body wouldn’t play such a dirty trick on her when she’d been protecting it against such a consequence for years.

      Saturday brought her no relief. By Sunday afternoon Amy was in full panic. She bought a pregnancy test kit from a twenty-four-hour pharmacy. She couldn’t bear the uncertainty.

      The uncertainty ended on Monday morning.

      It didn’t matter how much she wanted to disbelieve the results of the test, two deadly pink lines were looking her in the face, not changing to anything else, and according to the instructions with the test kit, this meant she was pregnant. She checked the instructions again and again. No mistake. Pink was positive.

      Just maybe, she thought frantically, the kit was faulty. Best see a doctor. Get a blood test. She looked through the telephone directory, found a medical centre at Mosman along the route she drove to work, then considered what lie she could tell to cover her late arrival at the office.

      Impossible to say she needed to see a doctor. Jake would ask why. Jake wouldn’t leave it alone until he found out. A flat tyre on her car, she decided. It could happen to anyone.

      The visit to the doctor was a nightmare. Yes, missing a pill at a critical time could result in pregnancy. Test kits were usually reliable but a blood test would give absolute confirmation. Amy watched the needle going in and almost fainted as the blood started filling up the tube, blood that was going to tell her the awful truth. A baby! She closed her eyes. No, no, no, she begged. Having a baby—Jake’s baby—made life too impossible.

      She’d have the results in twenty-four hours, the doctor said. All she had to do was telephone the surgery and ask for them. She checked her watch. Nine-thirty. Twenty-four more hours of hell to get through, a third of those hours with the man who’d done this to her.

      Not intentionally.

      Though he should have used protection…should at least have asked her if she was protected. In which case she would have said yes, so there was no point in blaming him. Nevertheless, she might have remembered to take the wretched pill if he’d asked. Spontaneous combustion might be a very special experience but the “good memory” was swiftly gathering a mountain of savage regrets.

      Jake, the rake…How would he react to being told he’d sown one too many oats? With his P.A., no less.

      But she didn’t have to face that yet.

      Not yet.

      Twenty-four hours.

      Amy didn’t know how she got through the day with Jake. He asked about the flat tyre and she blathered on about it, excusing the time away from the office. She was aware of him frowning at her several times. It was almost time for her to leave when he asked, “Is something wrong, Amy?” and her glazed eyes cleared enough to see he was observing her very keenly.

      Would their child have those wolf eyes?

      Her stomach cramped.

      “No,” she forced out. “Everything’s fine.” Except I’m probably pregnant.

      “You haven’t been with me, today,” he remarked testingly.

      “Sorry. I have been a bit scatter-brained. Christmas coming on…”

      “Planning anything special?”

      The excuse had popped into her mind but she was totally blank about it and had to grope for a reply. “No. Not really. Just…well, I guess I was thinking about the family I don’t have. Kate Bradley was saying she’d shopped till she dropped and…” Amy shrugged, having run out of ideas to explain herself. “At least I’m saved that hassle.”

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