A Billionaire and a Baby

The instant her eyes were opened, the dream became a thing of the past.

The only thing she could remember was that it had created a warm haze of well-being within her. Something to do with a man loving her, caring for her, that was it. Instinctively she knew the man had been Drew during his better days, even though the face hadn’t belonged to him.

Was it morning already?

The phone. That horrid ringing noise was coming from the phone, not her alarm clock.

With a huge sigh, Sherry groped for the receiver. It took her two tries to locate it. Her eyes were shutting again, refusing to surrender to the intruding morning. She tucked the receiver against her ear and the pillow.

“This better be good,” she threatened.

By no stretch of the imagination was she now, or ever had been, a morning person. As far as she was concerned, God should have made sure that days began no earlier than eight o’clock, which was still pretty obscene in her book, but at least doable.

“Rise and shine, Cinderella. You told me to call when I had something.”

Rusty. Rusty was talking in her ear.

Her eyes flew open. She struggled to defog her brain. “What do you have?”

“Not overly much,” he warned her.

She knew better. Rusty wouldn’t be calling her at this hour, whatever it was, if it was nothing. He didn’t have a death wish.

“It’s too early to play games, Rusty.” Blinking, Sherry turned her head and tried to focus on her clock. It was barely five o’clock. No wonder she felt like death. “God isn’t even up yet. Talk to me. What did you find out?”

“There’s this mountain retreat. It belongs to someone else, somebody named Fletcher, but Adair likes to go to it just after he does a takeover—I won’t say a successful takeover because when he’s involved, they’re all successful,” he commented. “Going there is his way of celebrating.” The raspy sound that passed for his laugh undulated through the phone lines. “Personally, if I had his kind of money, I’d be out on the town. Hell, I’d be out buying the town.”

Still lying against her pillow, Sherry dragged her hand through her hair. “So he’s shy, okay, we already know that. Where’s this retreat located?”

“At the foot of the San Bernadino Mountains, just outside of Wrightwood.”

She’d been to Wrightwood a couple of times herself. It was a small town, predominantly known for its noncommercial skiing. All the dedicated skiers went to Big Bear, which was located on the other side of Wrightwood. The former offered snow and gridlock during the winter months. Wrightwood offered scenery, charm and relative isolation. She could see Adair going there.

Sherry waited, knowing, even in her semiconscious state, that there was more.

Rusty paused dramatically. “I managed to find out that Adair’s going there this weekend. As a matter of fact, he’s already on his way.”

Sherry took it for granted that what he was telling her was not common knowledge. If it was, Adair would be on his way to a media circus camped out on the front lawn. Given his personality, that would be the last thing he’d want.

She smiled to herself. Rusty never ceased to amaze her. The man was definitely a national treasure. She blessed the day she’d gone to bat with him with their former station manager when the man had wanted to terminate Rusty, saying he wasn’t a team player. It had gained her a lifelong ally.

“I know that I shouldn’t be asking this, Rusty, but how did you find this out?”

She could almost hear his smile as it spread over his generous mouth. He had a nice smile, she thought absently.

“Mrs. Farley keeps religious notes.”

The name was vaguely familiar, but at five in the morning, nothing was overly clear. “And she is?”

“His secretary. Has been for years. As a matter of fact, he brought her with him when he first came to SunCorp.” That was what the corporation had been called before he’d changed the name to Adair Industries. “From what I’ve gathered, Adair trusts her the way he doesn’t trust anyone else.”

That would have been the lioness at the gate, Sherry thought. The woman who hadn’t allowed her to see Adair. She’d asked the secretary for an audience with Adair before resorting to the elevator trick. There hadn’t seemed to be anything remarkable about Edna Farley. Obviously she hadn’t looked closely enough. “Interesting. And you got these notes how?”

“I know a lot of people, Sherry. Some of them don’t stray more than five feet from their computers at any given time.”

Hackers, he’d used hackers. Well, whatever made the world go around, she mused. “Got a location on this retreat?”

He chuckled. She knew better than to doubt him. “Is the Pope Catholic?”

“Last time anyone checked.” Awake now, she opened the drawer of the nightstand beside her bed and pulled out a pad and pencil. “Okay, shoot.”

Rusty hesitated. “Look, instead of my giving the directions to you over the phone, why don’t I just come over in a couple of hours and drive you over there myself?”

Rusty had his own job. She knew for a fact that he couldn’t afford to take time off. The station manager would be all over him if he did. “You’ve already done enough, Rusty.” There’d been concern in his voice. She found it sweet but shackling. “I can take care of myself.”

Rusty huffed. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re pregnant.”

She hated the fact that people viewed her differently because of her condition. Of all people Rusty should have known better. “Being pregnant doesn’t mean I can’t see over the steering wheel, Rusty, or that I’ve suddenly forgotten how to take corners.”

He laughed gruffly. “I’ve seen how you drive, Campbell. They should have taken away your keys the second anyone found out you were expecting.”

“Sweet of you to worry, Rusty, but I can take it from here. Just give me the directions.”

He knew better than to argue with her. When it came to being stubborn, he’d learned his first week on the job that Sherry had no equal. He rattled off the directions, including which freeway exits she was to take and for how long. He prided himself on being thorough.

“If you change your mind about going alone, you know where to find me. I’ll be the one on the arm of the sexiest cover model in the room.”

“That’s just how I’ll expect to find you.” Laughing, she hung up.

With a sigh, Sherry dug her fists in on either side of her and then pushed herself up into an upright position.

Adair.

The memory hit her like a thunderbolt. The face of the man in her dream, the one who was supposed to have been Drew, had belonged to Adair.

Her eyes widened before she dismissed the thought. Her brain had obviously taken recent events and combined two areas of her life. Either that, or she was hallucinating. The only thing that Adair had going for him was piles of money. Okay, that and looks, she amended. Neither of which meant anything to her. The next time she was going to trust a man, he was going to have to be strong, sensitive and caring.

A sense of humor wouldn’t hurt, either. As for looks, well, she already knew what that was worth. Pretty faces, like as not, usually were the domain of shallow, vacant people. Drew was living proof of that.

With yet another deep sigh, Sherry got off the bed and went to the bathroom. The first visit of many today, she thought wearily.

He liked it here.

Liked the massive wood-framed rooms, the sparse furnishings, the wide-open spaces, both inside and out. He’d driven most of the night to get here after his late meeting with his lawyers to finalize the deal he’d been working on. It was worth it.

Sin-Jin looked through the bay window that faced the mountain and the landing pad where his private helicopter stood, waiting his pleasure. He wouldn’t be using it today. He wanted nothing more than to stay here.

There was no doubt about it. There was something bracing about being alone in the wilderness.