Page 40 of After-Party Consequences

‘I just... I don’t want to make a mistake,’ she managed, because Cade was still watching her, waiting for a coherent answer...not that she had one to give him. ‘I don’t want to have this baby only to screw up its life, because I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing.’

He nodded, but the intense emotion which crossed his features had her heart bounding into her throat again.

‘Does anyone know what the hell they’re doing?’ he said. ‘Before they have kids?’

‘I suppose not,’ she said.

‘Then I guess we’ll just have to figure it out,’ he said.

She nodded, feeling the emotion sting the backs of her eyes.

She blinked furiously, determined not to get sentimental about thewein that sentence.

But she couldn’t help wondering about the tiny insight he’d given her into his relationship with his own mother. Was that why he was so driven? And why he refused to shy away from this responsibility? While she was glad he seemed willing to do this with her, she was fairly sure their mostly terrible—or non-existent—relationships with their own parents were not going to make parenthood easy for either of them.

‘If we’rebothgonna prepare for this new reality, though...’ he interrupted her chaotic thoughts with typical pragmatism, his gaze dropping to her belly ‘...we have a lot of stuff to discuss.’

The massive understatement made her smile. ‘Ya think?’

He let out a rough chuckle. And the anxiety in her stomach finally began to ease. A little. But as the car took the exit to the airport, she felt the exhaustion she’d been trying to suppress all morning envelop her again.

‘Would it be okay if we put that conversation on hold? I’m shattered,’ she managed. It made her feel like a wimp, but she needed some downtime before she agreed to anything.

Cade Landry was a forceful and demanding guy who she knew wouldn’t think twice about making decisions for her and their baby if she gave him too much leeway.

He frowned, not too pleased with her request. ‘Of course,’ he said at last. ‘By the way, I’ve arranged a thorough check-up first thing tomorrow morning with the West Coast’s top ob-gyn, who happens to be based in Pacific Heights.’

Oh, did you, now?

She clamped down on her annoyance at his high-handedness. He was being conscientious. Not controlling.Much.

‘Do you know if the West Coast’s top ob-gyn is a woman?’ she asked.

His frown deepened, as if he didn’t have a clue why that would be relevant. Because...men!

‘Yeah, I think so.’

‘Great, well, I’ll see her then. Thanks.’

They arrived at the hangar, where the Landry jet was waiting for them. She could hear him making the final arrangements with an assistant, but tuned out the conversation as she headed to the bedroom at the back of the plane.

He didn’t join her.

She was glad he’d taken the hint. Because as she strapped herself into the bedroom’s seat for take-off, the exhaustion seeped into her soul, the emotionally charged conversation in the car—as well as the demands of her pregnancy—taking their toll.

As the jet lifted into the early afternoon sunlight, and the plane banked over Manhattan, her heart rose into her throat. But as the jet levelled off, her heart remained jammed under her larynx.

It was less than five hours since she had woken up in Cade’s arms. She could still feel the pulse of awareness in her core, where he had taken her last night with such urgency, such passion...and she had enjoyed every second of it.

But since then, her whole life—boththeir lives—had been turned on their heads. She pressed her palms to her stomach. And while she already felt a connection with the new life inside her, she also felt completely and utterly overwhelmed.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

‘ISHOULDGOdownstairs and start unpacking,’ Charley managed as she stared at San Francisco’s bustling waterfront—the historic splendour of the old Ferry Building and the majesty of the Bay Bridge stretching towards Oakland.

Cade’s penthouse apartment towered over the city’s financial district and the Embarcadero and was even more magnificent in the daylight. But it also looked just how she remembered it—luxurious, expertly designed, more than a little impersonal and almost as intimidating as the man himself.

Funny to think she’d run out of here about a month ago now, sure she would never see Cade again, and here she was looking at the same spectacular view with the baby they’d made together that night growing inside her.

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