AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"They're lucky to have you, then," Eddie said. "They couldn't ask for a more cutting-edge designer. Hell, how many architects still build their own models by hand?" He reached between them to lace her lovely fingers in his under the pretense of giving a demonstration. Margot's mouth quirked even harder at this, but she didn't pull away...even if her eyes told him she knew what he was up to.
"Most people hire out these days," she replied. She let her fingers trace the dips in his knuckles a moment longer, but withdrew the moment the bartender returned. Eddie wasn't discouraged. The entire evening stretched ahead of them like an unspooling velvet ribbon, and he was confident he could guide its course.
"Hmmm. I hate to make a scene, but I think there's been a mistake. That looks like water," he mentioned as the bartender set a dubiously translucent glass down in front of Margot. No matter how he turned his head, he couldn't see any sort carbonation rising up from the bottom. He tapped the side of the glass with his finger to be sure, but kept a warm smile in place as he looked between them.
"The lady isn't drinking tonight," the bartender replied curtly. Eddie flexed an eyebrow, but didn't remark on the protective edge he picked up in the other man's voice. It wouldn't be the first time he interrupted another man's attempt to hit on Margot.
"No mistake," Margot volunteered. She plucked her glass up off the table and raised it to Eddie in toast. "I'm not drinking anymore. At least, not for the next nine months."
"Nine months?" Eddie repeated with a laugh. He folded his arms and leaned forward on the bar, already intent on wearing her down. He knew Margot, and she wasn't one to shy from a free round. She must be playing coy tonight because they had an audience. "What's the lack of occasion, if I may ask?" He took a long, appreciative sip of his own drink to demonstrate all the fun she was missing.
He ignored the bartender's astonished look. Less easy to ignore was the way Margot's own expressive eyebrows rose in disbelief.
"Are you serious, Eddie? I'm pregnant."
The appreciative sip came back up as a spit-take.
Chapter Two
Margot
Margot dodged out of the way as Eddie's drink exited his mouth in a spray. Had they been having any other conversation, she would have found it comical. The bartender's towel came down and mopped the counter as if he’d been expecting as much.
Leave it to Eddie Jameson to not realize the immediate implication of nine months. He’d been so busy flirting that he hadn't been able to wrap his head around anything other than what her legs might be wrapped around by the end of the evening. The memory of their night together sent an uncontrollable shiver racing through her, but she set it aside—as she often had these past two months—to try and focus on more pressing matters...like the unforeseen consequences of their explosive hookup.
"Yep. Great at biology, but not so good at math, are you?" Margot offered as she took a long pull of water. What she wouldn't give for the burn of that offered whiskey right about now, but she had cut out alcohol the second she found out she was pregnant.
Eddie stared at her like she had just grown a second head...which in a roundabout way, Margot guessed she sort of had. She thought she might find some bittersweet relish, or at least relief, upon breaking the news to Eddie, but neither came easily beneath the weight of his incredulous dark eyes. So she said simply, "I just complimented your prowess, Eddie. You should thank me."
"Thank you," he repeated stiltedly. Then the dreaded question came; no matter how much Margot had prepared herself to face it, she almost lost her nerve knowing what he was about to ask. "Is the baby…?" he began.
"It's yours," she confirmed before he could finish. "We can always test if it would make you feel better."
"I don't feel...I mean...I don't know...how I feel," Eddie concluded. He proceeded to drain his drink in a single gulp, looking as if he wanted to order another but couldn't remember how. Margot noticed the bartender watching them raptly; she hoped he was enjoying the unfolding soap opera. Time for the climax.
"I'm keeping it," she stated.
A shot landed in front of Eddie, and he threw it back without looking. He didn't even grimace at what Margot was sure was the astringent sting of a very strong spirit. He surprised her by nodding his head repeatedly in agreement. She sat back to consider the state her bombshell revelation had left him in.
Eddie was, and had probably always been, the single most attractive man that Margot had ever known. She couldn't remember a time when he hadn't been a bronze-skinned Adonis; even back when they were kids, Eddie's love of sailing had meant he rarely spent any time indoors. He’d grown into an outdoorsman boasting a rock-hard musculature to match beneath that expensively-tailored suit...a physique that Margot now had firsthand experience with, she reflected. She had always been content to look before, but never touch. Eddie's father and her own had been old friends, after all, and after Eddie's dramatic affair with the daughter of one of his clients, Margot had understood the need to keep things platonic between them.
Or at least, she thought she had.
Their passionate night together wasn't proving easy for her to forget, that was for sure. Baby aside, the memory of sex with Eddie still aroused tingles of anticipation all along her spine as if he was impressed into her bones. Just thinking about what he could do with his hands made the insides of her thighs uncomfortably slick with perspiration; she crossed her legs now to try and push it from her awareness. She could devote more thought to what Eddie could do later when she was alone, and the object of her reflection wasn't sitting directly beside her.
Eddie's gorgeous tan had taken a momentary backseat; now, he looked pale and seasick, a sensation Margot felt certain the accomplished sailor had never experienced before in his life. A stab of guilt hit her. She hadn't wanted to break the news to him this way. She hadn't wanted to break the news to him at all, but knew all along that keeping such a massive secret to herself was worse. "Are you all right? You look like you're going to pass out," she mentioned.
"I'm not gonna pass out." The remark was one he would have made when they were kids; an immediate, defensive rebuttal. He ran a hand through his dark brown hair. "You and I need to schedule a meeting. A real meeting. That will enable me to get on top of this whole baby thing."
"A meeting?" she repeated incredulously. She wished she didn't find the suggestion amusing—because Eddie clearly did not—but of all the possible reactions she had expected to her baby news, this had to be the last one. She hadn't anticipated his response to be so...analytical. She felt equal parts dismayed and impressed by him in that moment. Eddie had managed to turn his own ship around—but it was the Eddie who didn't navigate, who went with the ebb and flow of the tide and every mercurial change of the wind, that Margot had grown up adoring. True, his accepting mentality used to drive her crazy, but now that she was older it was something she sought to emulate. Now that she was unexpectedly pregnant, she was more determined than ever to go with the flow of things herself. In the past, she was the one who had always been the planner: the one who scheduled entire work years in one sitting, the one who inventoried, the one who never had any sort of unexpected fun. She would never admit it, but Eddie was her inspiration to make the change… and she was determined to see it through. She would enjoy life the way he did, damn it.
Clearly all that recent time spent shadowing his older brothers at the Jameson Agency had an effect. "Forget the meeting, Eddie. Why don't we set up a focus group to see how well the baby tests?" Her tone wasn't light enough to sound completely teasing, but she wanted to put him at ease. She hated seeing him like this. "But I agree we should...talk about it. Maybe not in a boardroom with a secretary taking minutes, but obviously somewhere that isn't a bar."
"No," Eddie agreed, "you shouldn't be inside any bars, Margot."
Her temper flared hot in her chest. "It's not like I was planning on drinking, Eddie. I just needed to be somewhere tonight where there were other people around."
