Baby Benefits by Emily McKay Read Free Book Online Page A

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    Why, for goodness sake, had she ever allowed herself to get so emotionally involved with a man who saw her as little more than a fancy PDA?
    If she’d said it once, she’d said it a thousand times. Enough was enough.
    This was proof it was time to put her hands in the air and step slowly away from the job.
    “Well, then,” she said grimly. “If this Kitty Biedermann is such a catch, I can’t see why you need me. She should be the one here helping you with Isabella.”
    A long pregnant silence stretched between them while she waited for him to respond.
    “You haven’t told her yet, have you?” she finally asked as a sense of dull resignation settled over her.
    This time, at least, he had the good sense to look sheepish. Or as close to sheepish as a man as arrogant as he was could look. His lack of response was answer enough.
    “I should have known.”
    “I will tell her,” he stated with enough conviction she had to wonder exactly who he was trying to convince.
    “Oh, I’m sure you will. Otherwise she’ll wonder who the kid growing up in her house is.”
    Derek stared blankly at her. That’s what she got for trying sarcasm on someone who took everything so seriously.
    Despite her frustration with him at the moment, years of working with him, of being his first line of defense took over and she found herself saying, “You have to tell her. Soon. When I spoke with her yesterday evening, she said you hadn’t been answering your cell phone. Which means you’re dodging her calls.”
    “I’m not dodging her calls. I’m waiting for the opportune moment to tell her the truth.”
    Raina fisted her hands. “She’s your fiancée. The woman you’re presumably planning on spending the rest of your life with. The opportune moment to tell her you have a child would have been about five seconds after you found out.”
    Raina looked as if she were barely controlling the urge to hit him with something and the expression on her face screamed, You’re an idiot!
    Yeah, tell me something I don’t know, he considered saying. And he certainly wasn’t used to needing anyone else’s help to sort out his problems.
    Perhaps he should just be thankful this new, out-spoken Raina had shown up in his life just in time to sort through the mess he seemed to have found himself in.
    “Let me ask you this. Why haven’t you told her yet?”
    “It may take a little while for Kitty to get used to the idea of being a stepmother.”
    “All the more reason to tell her now,” she pointed out gently. “Waiting isn’t going to make this any easier.”
    For the first time in days, Raina seemed like the Raina he was used to. Calm, levelheaded. Looking out for his best interests.
    If he told Raina everything, she could help. This wouldn’t be the first seemingly insurmountable problem she’d helped him solve.
    But the last thing he wanted to do was admit the truth. It had taken years to coax a yes out of Kitty. Marrying her would seal the success of Messina Diamonds for decades to come. After all the years of work he’d put into it, he couldn’t blow this deal.
    “You have to tell her, Derek. And you have to do it the next time she calls. Or better yet, call her. You can explain not returning her phone calls before now, but if you wait even another day, she’s going to just get more and more suspicious. She already thinks something is up. If you don’t tell her soon, she’ll dump you just for ignoring her.”
    “I know what I’m doing,” he insisted.
    “Not about this, you don’t. Look, I’m sure you have a certain prowess with women…”
    The tone of her voice, which implied she didn’t believe that for a minute, set his teeth on edge.
    “But this is different. Telling your fiancée you have an infant would tax the skills of Don Juan. Take the advice of a woman on this. She would rather know now.”
    Every instinct he had screamed that telling Kitty the truth would only make things worse. But what if he was