Page 19 of The Boss's Baby Affair

“No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“I agreed to be a surrogate mom.”

It wasn’t possible. Candace had to be lying!

Nick’s initial amusement had been replaced by impatience. He knew she was going to lose this battle. The sooner he got this crazy woman out of Jennie’s life the better. “Look, I don’t have time for this—”

“You don’t have time for your daughter’s mother?”

He’d had enough. Nick rolled his eyes and rose to his feet. Taking his wallet, he drew out a fifty-dollar bill and a business card. He held them out to her. “For a cab—when you leave. But first go to my office, it’s in the block at the entrance. My assistant will have a check ready by the time you get there, together with severance pay. I’ll call her now to arrange it.”

Candace made no move to take the card or the money. He shrugged and dropped them on the table. A downward glance revealed that Jennie was still asleep in the stroller. If luck was on his side she’d remain that way until he’d gotten her home and called an employment agency to hire a new nanny—one he’d vet himself this time. If worse came to worst, he’d call his sister.

He wheeled the stroller to the cashier inside the café, greeted her by name and asked her to call a cab. Without question she reached for the phone. Nick smiled and waved to the manager on the opposite side of the coffee shop, and pushed Jennie back out into the sunshine.

“Wait.”

A hand came down on his arm. Nick brushed her off and kept walking, stroller trundling in front of him. About twenty yards down the path, Candace rushed in front of him, blocking his way, and this time she grabbed his arm with enough force to ensure he wouldn’t easily shake her off.

Her eyes were intense and angry, spitting smoke. “You’re firing me? For being Jennie’s mother?”

Nick glared back at her. “I might not have been there at Jennie’s birth, but I sure as hell saw that Jilly was pregnant! I’m firing you for being a charlatan…a liar…a fraud. Take your pick. Just count yourself lucky you hadn’t raised the issue of money yet or we could’ve added blackmailer to the list.”

He glanced pointedly down at feminine fingers spread on his arm, but what she said brought his eyes back to her face in shock.

“DNA tests don’t lie.”

Five

“You have a DNA test proving you are Jennie’s mother?”

“Not anymore,” Candace said, and felt Nick’s forearm tense beneath her fingertips.

“So you are lying!”

“I don’t have them—they’ll be in the doctor’s file. One thing I’m not is a liar.” Then she tacked on, “Or a fraud.”

Candace could feel the heat in her cheeks as she belatedly snatched her hand off the fine wool of Nick’s suit jacket. Even through the fabric she’d been uncomfortably conscious of the warmth of his body.

She drew a second deep breath, desperately trying to calm herself down. She couldn’t let him keep Jennie. He wasn’t worthy of being Jennie’s—any baby’s—father. But it wouldn’t help to get his back up.

“Okay, maybe I handled this badly,” she said slowly. “You made me mad.”

“I made you mad?” He was frowning down at her. “Lady, I’m not the crazy one around here.”

Crazy? Candace squinted up at him. “I’m not crazy.”

Nick didn’t bother to answer. Instead, he wheeled the stroller—with her baby—away. Candace rushed after him. “Where are you taking Jennie?”

“Home!”

“Home? That glossy mansion that’s as cold as an icicle isn’t a home.” Nick kept walking away from her. In desperation she said, “You’re not fit to be Jennie’s father!”

At that his shoulders stiffened and he slowed.

Oh, no! So much for trying not to antagonize him. Well, she had no choice now but to soldier on. “Nick, you’ve been away for the past month, you didn’t even return home when Jennie was desperately ill and you know nothing about caring for her. What else could I think?”

He turned. There was a white line around his mouth, and his face was leached of all color. “I’ve had enough of this. You will never get the chance to take her away—and even if I accepted a word of your insane claim, my first question would be where the hell were you when Jennie needed a mother?”

He’d homed in on the heart of her pain—her guilt. “That’s not fair—I had no choice.”

Nick glared. “I still don’t believe a word of this.”

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