Expecting the Boss's Baby by Leanne Banks Read Free Book Online

way.”
    “There are larger diamonds,” Michael assured her.
    “Yes, I saw the Hope Diamond at an exhibit once. I didn’t think it looked that much bigger than this one.”
    “Kate, I can afford this. It’s about the same as buying a forty-foot cabin cruiser. Let’s put it on your finger and see if it fits.”
    Kate pulled her hands to her chest. “No.”
    “Why?” he asked, impatience edging into his tone.
    “It’s too big,” she said. As if remembering her upbringing, she quickly added, “I mean I appreciate the thought and it’s lovely, but I can’t imagine wearing it.”
    He spun her stool around so she was nose to nose with him. “Why not?” he demanded.
    She bit her lip and appeared so nervous he almost felt sorry for her. “I’m sorry, Michael, but I just can’t imagine wearing a cabin cruiser on my finger.”
    He counted to ten. He couldn’t explain why it was so important for Kate to wear his ring. He just knew it was. “If you don’t like this, then what would you like?”
    She slid her gaze to the ring, then back at him and lifted her shoulders. “I don’t know. Something that doesn’t scream rich guy’s wife. Something more like me,” she said in an unsteady voice. Her eyes turned sad. “Something that doesn’t make me feel like a fraud.”
     
    That night Michael didn’t visit Kate. Instead he called and they shared a muted, brief conversation. After such an inauspicious beginning to his day, he buried himself in his work and fell asleep when his head hit the pillow. The phone awakened him.
    Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he reached blindly for the receiver. “Yes,” he murmured.
    “Michael?”
    The unsteady voice bore a vague resemblance to Kate’s. “Kate?”
    “I’m sorry to bother you so late,” she said. “I would have called Donna, but she just went out of town on a business trip.”
    Michael’s gut gave an uneasy twist. She sounded as if she were holding back tears. “Stop apologizing and tell me what’s wrong.”
    “Well, I need a ride,” she said. “I—uh—don’t have my car.”
    He sat upright in bed. “Where are you?”
    “The duplex beside me had a little gas problem.”
    Michael felt the cord of tension inside him knot. “Where are you?” he asked again, rising from bed and grabbing his jeans.
    “There was a fire and there was a lot of smoke—”
    “Kate, where are you?”
    “At St. Albans General Hospital.” Her voice cracked, and he felt something inside him crack too. “Could you come and get me?”

Four
    M ichael jerked on his clothes and defied the speed limit. He’d barely cut the engine before he stepped out of his car and raced into the emergency room. He approached the receptionist’s desk, and Kate walked straight into his arms.
    Unprepared for an action that demonstrated such pure trust, he stood still, stunned. It was a totally new sensation. She smelled of smoke. Instinct kicked in and he tightened his arms around her, wanting to make sure she was okay. “What happened?”
    “There was a fire,” she said, her face pressed into his shirt as if she wanted to absorb him. “Some of us suffered from smoke inhalation.”
    Alarm clanged through him like a discordant bell, and he urged her head from his chest. “Us?”
    “They gave me oxygen,” she said. She looked as if she were struggling to remain composed. “I was worried about the baby,” she whispered, her face crumpling, the expression grabbing at something deep inside him.
    Michael held his breath. “What did the doctor say?”
    “The baby and I are fine.”
    Michael breathed a sigh of relief at the same time as he battled frustration. “Why didn’t you call me?” he demanded.
    “Everything happened so fast when the ambulance arrived, and then I had to wait. I was so scared,” she said, her voice quivering. “I wasn’t that worried about me. I just didn’t want anything to happen to the baby. I tried to call Donna, but she was gone. I didn’t want to