His Very Own Baby

The thickness in his tone sent delicious pains through her body.

“I could look at him all night. He has your eyes and eyebrows. It’s your mouth in miniature. Even I who am biased because I’m his father, can see he’s a living miracle because you’re his mother. For a woman who hates my guts, you’ve given me a priceless treasure.”

She winced at the sudden twist of the knife.

“Because of this noble gesture you’ve made,” he said with glaring sarcasm, “I’m prepared to offer you a deal. There’ll be no bargaining. You will either accept it, or I’ll take Nicky away from you forever.”

Here it comes, Blaire. Her fingernails dug into the quilted bedspread covering the mattress.

“For the next month you’ll live in my trailer with me. Separate beds of course. I need that amount of time to get used to my son’s routine, and for him to get used to me.

“At the end of the thirty days—if you’ve kept your side of the bargain by staying put to help me establish an unbreakable bond with our innocent child—then and only then will I be willing to talk about joint custody. Otherwise we go to court. I promise you it will be a fight you’ll wish you hadn’t started,” he vowed with a fierceness she’d never heard come out of him before.

“That’s it. That’s the bargain. If your fiancé doesn’t like the idea of being separated from you for a month, that’s tough! Compared to nine months deprivation from my unborn child, he damn well has nothing to complain about.”

CHAPTER THREE

BLAIRE didn’t close her eyes for the rest of the night. To live with Alik for a month in such close quarters was the last thing she’d expected him to demand.

He’d asked the impossible of her!

Unable to quell the frantic beat of her heart since he’d surprised her in his trailer yesterday, she feared being under one roof with him that long would wear out her vital organ before the thirty days were halfway up.

She needed to be made of stone to endure the torture of being around him day and night, sharing everything except a bed. If she’d thought she’d loved him prior to their breakup, those emotions were nothing compared to the feelings she had for him as she watched the care he was giving Nicky for his six in the morning feeding.

Perhaps there was no more beautiful sight than a strong, powerful man nurturing his little baby with so much love. With Alik this wasn’t a show of pretense. His delight in their son was a hundred percent genuine. If Blaire hadn’t known that deep in her soul, she might not have set out on this precarious mission.

Now that Alik had told her what he was prepared to do, she had a decision to make. But she needed to inform her parents before giving him his answer.

While father and son were otherwise occupied, she got off the bed, gathered a fresh change of clothes and headed for the bathroom with his cell phone.

After locking the door, she turned on the water full force, then phoned home. Her mom and dad adored Alik, and were horribly upset when they’d found out why she’d broken her engagement. Though they hadn’t approved of her lying to him about her reason for ending it with him, they’d understood her motives and had left it alone.

When she’d informed them she was expecting his baby, they’d insisted she live with them until after it was born. Without their love and support, she had no idea how she would have managed. Since they’d always maintained Alik had the right to know about his child, they’d backed her decision to fly to New York.

But like her, they were shocked by Alik’s ultimatum. When she reminded them that his family was worth millions and he could take Nicky away from her, the silence on the phone told its own story. Her parents worshiped their grandson. To lose him would be unthinkable.

No one knew better than Blaire that her parents lived on a fixed income and could never afford a court battle. Neither could she, especially not on the small amount of money she made doing word processing at home for college students who needed their term papers typed.

The best her parents could do was ask her to call them as often as she could, and remind her that she and Nicky still had a home when the month was up. With muffled tears, she thanked them, then hung up and stepped into the shower.

By the time she’d emerged from the bathroom in a clean blouse and jeans, Alik had put Nicky back in the crib and was lounging on the bed like a dangerous panther lying in wait for its prey.

She braced herself to face the inevitable withering comment from him. It wasn’t long in coming.

“That must have been some conversation you had with Rick. I hope you warned him that if he sets foot in my trailer at any time in the next thirty days, all bets are off.”

In order to carry out this charade to its necessary conclusion, she had to convince Alik she had a fiancé.

Pretending to be enflamed, she wheeled around. “Why do you assume I have decided to accept your bargain?”

He flashed her a sardonic glance. “Because you didn’t try to sneak out with Nicky while I was asleep between feedings.”

“I wouldn’t have gotten very far,” she admitted, reaching for the brush to do her hair.

“I’m glad you recognize that fact.”

If she’d really been engaged to another man, his smug remark would have made her furious.

“Enough, Alik. You’ve won. I’ll live with you for a month. But it will be easier for me if you leave my fiancé out of the conversation. He may not like this arrangement, but he urged me to accept your conditions because he knows I’ll never be happy if I lose Nicky. That’s the kind of man he is, so don’t say anything more about him.” Her voice trembled.

Judging by the way his expression closed up, she’d done a better job of acting than she’d supposed.

“I called for breakfast to be sent up. It should be here any minute. While we’re waiting, let’s make a list of the things we’ll need for our happy home.”

She bit her lip. “There isn’t much space to work with in your trailer.”

“We’ll make room. I prefer cozy to palatial.”

Alik had never been able to tolerate his parents’ ostentatious lifestyle. He found it obscene to flaunt money, and much preferred to do humanitarian kinds of gestures behind the scenes. In that way alone, he was a remarkable man. If she got started on all his wonderful traits, she wouldn’t be able to stop.

“Well, obviously we’ll need a crib. I can send for the rest of Nicky’s clothes.”

He made a sound of exasperation. “I doubt a six-week-old baby has an elaborate wardrobe. We’ll shop for the items he needs. After your sudden exit from my world, the experience of buying things for my own daughter or son was something I never expected to happen in my lifetime.