Page 39 of His Captor

“So, what you’re saying is get back to work,” Hayden said.

I nodded. “I think, given the circumstances, that’s the best we can do.”

I stood at last. The urge to pull Hayden into my arms was almost irresistible.

“It would probably be a good idea not to let the entire office know that I’m, uh….” I nodded to his belly.

“Oh, hell no,” Hayden said, eyes wide again. “I’m not letting anyone know. I just hope no one heard me snort it out earlier.”

“I don’t think they did.”

I hoped they hadn’t. I really wanted to keep this between me and Hayden until we figured all of the larger implications out.

“Okay, then,” Hayden said, stepping to the door and reaching for the handle. He pulled the door open, and with a smile said, “It was nice to meet you, Mr. Canton.”

He stepped out of the office, leaving the door open behind him.

I leaned heavily against my desk and rubbed my face with both hands. As if I didn’t have enough to deal with already. Despite everything Hayden had said about being independent, I had the intrinsic feeling that the biggest challenge and responsibility, and hopefully the biggest joy, of my life had just come thumping down on my shoulders.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Hayden

One of the reasons I’d chosen the building where my new, lonely apartment was to move into was because it had an amazing ice cream parlor on the ground floor. Well, that and it was a block away from the building that housed Canton Enterprises. But really, I was in it for the ice cream.

“And then he just, bam, offered to pay for Junior and more or less keep me as his baby-papa pet,” I explained to Simon on Saturday morning, a few days after my initial, shock meeting with Ace.

I mean, Mr. Mason Canton, my boss.

Simon blinked at me from across the cozy table where we sat outside, in the cordoned-off area along the sidewalk that belonged to the ice cream parlor. He only had coffee in front of him, which probably made sense, since it was just past nine-thirty, while I licked away at the double scoop cone of chocolate and cherry.

Hey. Baby needed ice cream. He didn’t care what time of day it was.

“So let me get this straight,” Simon said with a flat look, spreading one hand on the intricate ironwork of the tiny table. “The alpha you—” he cleared his throat, “—played with on your business trip, the one who got you pregnant, is the owner of the company you now work for.”

“Correct,” I said, swirling my tongue around my ice cream.

A passing alpha nearly tripped over himself as he gave me a long second look. I took the hand that was resting on my enormous, pregnant belly and flipped him off, then gave my cone another, particularly obscene lick.

Simon’s expression went flatter. “And neither of you knew who you were or about this company before you went to work for him,” he went on.

“Also correct,” I said.

“And when you met each other the other day in the office, this Mason Canton person immediately offered to take responsibility for you and the baby and to help you out in whatever way he could.”

I could see where Simon was going with this.

“I don’t want to be anyone’s charity project,” I said, squirming uncomfortably in my chair. The damned chair definitely hadn’t been designed for pregnant omegas.

“It’s not charity if it’s his son,” Simon argued, though he had a way of arguing that was stony-faced and way too logical for me. “Does he even know it’s a boy yet?”

“No,” I said, then avoided answering more by sucking on the small bit of ice cream left on my cone.

Simon watched me, and when it became clear to him I wasn’t going to say more, he went on with, “I think you at least need to consider allowing this man to be a part of the baby’s life.”

I finished swallowing the ice cream I’d sucked, then said, “Why? Why does he have a right to be part of this? His part was done eight months ago.”

“Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you’ve been pining for him for the last eight months, like the two of you were in a committed relationship and he was lost at sea,” Simon said, picking up his coffee cup.

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