Page 120 of Forbidden Desire

“How was yourmeeting?” he asks, emphasizing the final word.

“Fine.” I nod a few times, trying to avoid his gaze as he looks at me from upside down on the floor.

“Mama!” cries out Josie. She rolls onto her tummy and crawls toward me. I kneel to the floor and pull her into my lap.

“Hey, Josie girl!”

She looks troubled as she looks past me toward the door. “Mah-coooo?” she asks.

I clear my throat nervously. Of course, she’s wondering where he is.

“What book are you two reading?” I ask, trying to get her mind off the fact that Marco isn’t here.

Troy pulls himself to a sitting position and looks at me knowingly. I can tell by the look on his face that he’s already worked out what’s going on.

“Oh, it’s the penguin book!” I say enthusiastically, ignoring him.

“Erica…” says Troy somewhat sharply.

I look up at him warily and see his arms are crossed and his eyebrow is arched in an accusatory position.

“What?” I ask innocently.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Does your boss usually come over at night for meetings?”

“He’s a busy man. You know how it is.”

“I didn’t realize you were his assistant again…”

“I’m not. But I’m head of the paper now. Remember? That’s why you came over with champagne. We’re celebrating! Should I go get it?” I realize how nervous I sound by how high my voice gets with each sentence.

“No, how about we don’t bring a bottle of champagne into my niece’s nursery, and you tell me what’s really going on.”

I sigh and rest my chin on Josie’s head. “I think you know…”

“It wasn’t hard to put it together. Josie looks just like him. I was totally freaked out when I opened the door to see the male version of her staring back at me.”

I can’t help but laugh, even though this is serious. The one secret I’ve been keeping from my brother this whole time is now exposed.

“So yourbossis the father…” he says skeptically, like he doesn’t quite understand how this happened.

“Yeah,” I say sheepishly.

“How the hell did that happen?”

I go on to tell him about the night we met atThe NY Daily Newsparty, when I thought I was going to get my big promotion. I told him how there was a rumor The Shark was there, but I didn’t put two and two together when I ran right into him. I cringe thinking about how I made him spill his drink all over his nice suit. It’s a wonder we ended up together that night with how nervous I felt upon first meeting him.

I tell him about the jazz club and how we spent the whole night talking and getting to know each other, just not enough to figure out who each other really was. It sounds stupid, even as I say it. I skip over the part where I practically tell him to take me home, to spare my brother the uncomfortable details of my one-night stand. His face looks contorted as he tries not to imagine what happened next.

“And then I found out I was pregnant.”

“Thanks for sparing me the details on how that happened.” He sticks out his tongue.

I pick up a nearby pillow and throw it at him playfully.

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