Page 27 of An Heir Made In Hawaii (Hot Winter Escapes)

“If you think any harder, smoke’s going to come out of your ears.”

She sighed. “Always one with a quick compliment.”

His lips quirked. She shoved away the sudden, deep desire to see him smile, truly smile like he had those months ago.

“I was just thinking of how different we are, that’s all.”

“Ah. Still going with how I’m nothing more than a spoiled man-child playing at the hotel game while you actually work for a living?”

She flushed under his scrutiny as he flung her words from the Hanalei Bay pier back in her face.

“Contrary to this image you have of me of some rich playboy who just swims in money in his bathtub every night, I do care about my company and the people I work with,” he said, an edge to his voice.

Ashamed, she looked down and stared at her feet.

“I said some horrible things before.” She swallowed her pride as she forced out her apology. “I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“Why?”

He stood and circled the desk, trailing his fingers along the surface. She watched, unnerved and fascinated by her body’s immediate response.

“Why do you say things like that? Why did you run away in Kauai?”

“I already told you,” she said, her voice breathless.

He advanced toward her, each step hiking the tension in her body.

“So why are you here now? What is it you want?”

Tell him! Tell him now and just get it over with!her brain screamed.

He stopped, staring down at her with his hands tucked in his pockets much the way he had been when the elevator doors had slid open and she’d fallen into his arms.

“Well,” he finally said, “are you going to spit it out? Or are we just going to—”

“I’m pregnant.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

BLOODROAREDINNicholas’s ears. He couldn’t have heard her right.

“Come again?”

“I’m pregnant,” she repeated, “and it’s yours. I haven’t been with anybody since our...encounter.”

His heart pounded so hard it was a wonder it didn’t beat right out of his chest. Disbelief was paramount, but beneath it churned shock and a heavy dose of fear.

When he’d come back in from the balcony to find Anika gone, he’d thought that perhaps she had gone back to her room to change. But as the seconds ticking by turned to minutes, he’d been faced with the fact that she had left. Snuck out the door and deserted him without so much as a goodbye.

It had grated, yes. It had been the first time a woman had ever left him like that.

But there had been more to it than simple ego. The hurt that had pumped beneath his damaged pride had been the driving factor in not reaching out to her. He didn’t want another relationship anytime soon, not after the disaster with Susan. And if he ever did contemplate dating seriously again, it would be with a woman he could keep at arm’s length. Not someone like Anika who stirred him up inside. A woman who made him feel possessive, jealous, borderline obsessed.

As the days had turned into weeks and then nearly two months without a word from her, he’d focused on work. Or at least tried to. How many times had he picked up his phone, wanting to text, to call, to hear her voice? Each time he’d set the phone back down. That he wanted to talk to her, not just enjoy her company over dinner or her body in his bed, was enough to convince him that she had done them both a favor. Continuing any association with her would have been inviting inevitable drama into his life when they would have to part ways.

As she’d told him, Anika was the kind of woman who wanted things he couldn’t give.

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