Reckless Seduction, page 17
“Thank God for that. Do you know how far along she is?”
“Three months.”
“Three months? And she hasn’t said a word to me about it?”
“She didn’t know until yesterday.”
“It’s past four o’clock in the afternoon here, so I can’t get a plane out of Europe today. But I’ll be there tomorrow. I’d prefer that she didn’t know my plans?”
“I wouldn’t breathe it in my prayers. Good luck, Jon.” Sky hung up.
For the next hour, Jon sat slumped in his desk chair, warring with his emotions, vacillating between anger and joy, anguish and happiness. Slowly, he accommodated himself to the fact that he was going to be a father and that he was going to have one hell of a fight on his hands.
“Come crowing hens or barking cats,” he said to himself, “that baby will carry the Ecklund name.”
Chapter 9
Haley sat up in bed hugging her knees and slowly sipping club soda in the hope that she could keep it down when her bedroom door burst open and Jon walked in.
“Where did you come from?” A shocked Haley wanted to know.
“Oslo. And don’t tell me that you’re happy to see me. I wouldn’t believe that or anything else you tell me.” He handed her some papers. “Fill in these. As soon as the doctor lets you out of bed, we’ll be married. If you’re not well enough to get out of bed by the end of the week, we’ll get married right here in this room.”
In spite of his hurt and anger, the sight of her half lying, half sitting there looking frail moved him to gather her in his arms, to love her and to protect her. But he didn’t give in to the almost overwhelming need to hold her or to the temptation to forgive her for what she was trying to do to him. He stared at her with blazing eyes, eyes that held no softness, eyes that were harshly accusing and judgmental.
She couldn’t control the flush of her body at the sight of him, but her pride and her temper joined forces, and she lashed out. “Where do you get off storming in here and telling me what to do? Go back to wherever you were and whoever you were with for the past three weeks.”
“I assume that you’re referring to my nonresponse to that impersonal, cold and pathetic note you wrote me after I bared my soul to you. We can get married and live together beginning now or we can spar off and make a public wreck of our lives and that of our child. You decide how it will be. I will have my child.”
“Even if I agreed to marry you—and I don’t—I couldn’t go live with you. I’ve got the institute to think about and the people there and elsewhere who are depending on me.”
“Ah, so now we come to the real reason why you would deny me my parental rights, even the right to know that I have fathered a child. It’s your precious institute, again—your own personal prized possession. You would swap your prize for your child’s well-being and for the rights and happiness of the man that you swore you loved. Love! Woman, you don’t know the meaning of the word.”
“You have no right to speak to me this way. I can’t walk away from it. It’s gone further than I ever dreamed that it would.”
“Right! You speak of right? You speak of dreams?” He threw back his head and laughed a hollow, mirthless laugh. “I’ll tell you about dreams. To know completeness with the woman you love and who loves you. To see your babies growing in the womb of that woman, for whom you would give your life. To watch their birth and hold them the first time they cry. To walk in the woods with them, teaching them about nature and life. Dreams? Caring for your children and your woman. Loving and protecting them. Dreams? Teaching your children how to ride a horse, how to love and care for their pets. Dreams? A house in the country where it’s quiet and peaceful, where your children can play without fear. Dreams? To grow old with that one wonderful woman. Tell me, Haley, how do you stack up an institute against a man’s life? Since you can hold audiences spellbound with your knowledge and wisdom, let’s have some of it now.”
“Which one of them told you about this?”
“That’s irrelevant, and you know it. Are we getting married now or not?”
“I told you—”
“Did you, now? Well, just let me tell you. I will not father a bastard. And I will love and care for my child before it is born as well as after its birth. You’ve got one week—do you hear me—one week to decide. I’ll be at my place near Saugerties, in upstate New York. We get married. Otherwise, I’ll let the viewers of EIS evening news international edition decide about a woman who implements programs for young, out of wedlock mothers, while she deliberately deprives her own unborn child and its father of their rights. Oh, yes, and I fully intend to name names. Then let’s see what happens to that prize of yours.”
She gasped. “You miserable bully! You would resort to blackmail?”
“Sure as my name is Jon Stig Ecklund. I can be as underhanded as you. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll go to court. I won’t lose there, especially not after I testify how hard I tried to protect you and how you thwarted my efforts. Get this, Haley, and get it straight. You do the honorable thing, or I will take my baby from you. And then I will find a mother for it, one who will understand and appreciate the meaning of a father’s love. I give you my word on this, and make no mistake, I keep my word.”
He turned as if to leave, but having second thoughts, he reversed himself and moved to the side of her bed. With a single stroke, he threw the cover completely off her.
“How dare you? What right do you have to invade my privacy this way?”
“I have every right,” he said softly, as he gazed down at her. She watched as he stood there transfixed. Slowly, he knelt beside the bed, placed his hand upon her belly and gently caressed it. Then, as if oblivious even to her presence there, he softly kissed the place where his child lay, murmuring, “I love you. Oh, I love you.” Then turning his head away, as if guarding it from her, he headed for the door. Had he looked at her he would have seen her tears.
As he reached the door, he did not wonder or care how long Gale had been standing there. Her face awash with tears, she reached up and put her arms around him, guiding him to the stairs. With understanding for the weight of his sadness and the realization that he needed a friend, she led him to the kitchen and gave him a chair. Quietly, she made coffee and served them both. Finally, after the second cup, he spoke. “I can’t understand this, Gale. She loves me. I know it, and she knows that I love her.”
“Haley is as stubborn as a mule. When Haley takes a stand, she finds it hard to relent. But there’s more here. It appears that she has lingering doubt about her attractiveness and value to a man. I think, in fact, I know that she’ll come to you.”
“You’re not serious?”
“Yes, she will. And of her own volition. I watched her while you caressed her belly. You’ll see.”
“Well, I hope you’re right. I don’t want to hurt her in any way. I don’t even know if I can go through with something that would hurt her. She’s precious to me. But I meant it when I said that my child will have my name before it leaves her body.”
“And you are right. When did Sky call you? We’ve only known this for two days.”
“Ten o’clock yesterday morning, your time. I got here as fast as I could.” He gave her the address and telephone number at his estate at the foot of the Catskill Mountains on the Hudson River. “I’ll be there for two weeks. If she isn’t there at the end of a week, I’m coming back here.”
“You’re not going to your New York office?”
“No. Haley is my only reason for being in the States, and she should have no doubt of that. I’m going to my place as soon as I reach Sky.”
“You can call him from here.” She dialed the number, gave the phone to Jon and left the kitchen. After speaking with Sky and giving him his estate address and phone number, Jon bade Gale goodbye and went to the Reagan National Airport, where a pilot waited with the company plane.
Ambling through the forest near the northwestern border of his land, Jon thought back to his childhood. Growing up with Svend had been wonderful. As small boys and best friends, they had shared everything. As close as brothers could be, he had beat up any tough boy who so much as threatened Svend and hadn’t realized until he was in his late teens that Svend was a hell of a scrapper and could beat boys almost twice his size. Even now he was amused at Svend’s explanation, which was that Jon enjoyed protecting him so much that he didn’t want to deprive him of such pleasure.
Reflecting on the wonder of the ties that bind siblings, he became anguished. He wanted children, and he wanted them with Haley. What if she didn’t come to him? Suppose she decided that she really could go on without him? What if he lost his child? To acknowledge such possibilities was like a solid blow to his solar plexus.
Leaning against an old maple, he looked around him and took a calming breath. These woods were perfect for children. They could fish in the brook that slowly meandered over the length of the estate and climb the trees. He could string up hammocks and build tree houses for them. He thought of the plans he’d had for the place before his father retired—a farm, an orchard and horses. He’d intended to make it a haven for the family he longed to have. He heard a stick crack and looked back to see a brown bear going in the opposite direction. “Well, I’m sure not up to wrestling with those guys,” he said to himself, and accelerated his pace homeward.
The quiet spell just before sunrise had always been Jon’s favorite time of day. He had solved many a company problem leaning against a tree and whittling on a stick as the sun began to work its magic on the early morning sky. It had always been a time that gave him strength and solace. Lately, his early morning meditation in communion with nature had also offered respite from his parents’ gentle solicitude. But on this morning, he found no comfort from the beauty around him.
How would he bear the days while she made up her mind? The days? What nonsense, he thought. How would he endure the rest of his life? He went back into the house, got his swim trunks and raced down to his indoor pool.
After an hour of swimming and exercise, his mind was clearer. He put in a call to his mother and told her what he wanted.
“I’ll have it on FedEx tomorrow morning,” she promised. He got in the Volvo that he kept in his garage and drove into town.
Six days—six—and still she hadn’t come. Jon began to pack his bags. As soon as he secured the house, he’d phone DuPree for the plane. He looked up at the domed ceiling of his home, and thinking that she would never see it, never share it with him, he ran his fingers through his hair in a gesture of frustration. It would be painful for both of them, but he would have his child.
“She has cast the die,” he grumbled aloud. “Let the chips fall where they may. I am going to have my child one way or another.” He was halfway down the stairs when the doorbell rang.
“Now what?” he asked himself, disgruntled at the prospect of being detained by a lost hiker. He yanked the door open and stared in shock. Quickly, he brought his emotions and his comportment under rigid control.
“Hi.”
“Hi.” They regarded each other warily and in silence until Haley breached the uneasy silence. “May I come in?”
He responded with a question of his own. “Did you pay the taxi driver?”
“Yes. It’s cold out here. Aren’t you going to invite me to come in?”
“If you paid him, what is he waiting for?”
“I told him to wait in case no one was home.”
“Well, I’m home, so he can damn well leave now.” He wanted that potential escape route closed to her. She was there now, and he intended to keep her there until they settled things, once and for all.
Apparently, his behavior disconcerted Haley. She shivered as she looked up at him, her vulnerability exposed. Recovering presence of mind, he pulled her into the house and slammed the door behind her, and in a symbolic gesture that he didn’t bother to examine, he locked it.
She glimpsed his suitcase lying where he had dropped it when he opened the door. Then she noticed that he was dressed for travel. “You were leaving? I thought you said that you would be here for two weeks.”
“That’s what I said. I also said that if you weren’t here within a week, I would be back in Washington to get you, and that’s where I was headed.”
“This is just the seventh day.”
“That’s a week in my book, and I said within a week.”
She slumped against the door, her arms folded across her breasts as if to secure warmth.
Her gesture knocked the wind out of him. “You’re cold,” he said, his voice laden with concern. “What was I thinking about leaving you standing out there? How did you get here? Didn’t you take the company plane?”
“No. I came by train.”
“But I left word with Sky about that. He was to call the company plane for you.”
“My meddlesome brother doesn’t know that I’m here.” He almost smiled. He looked closely at her and felt a clutching at his heart as he noted her delicate skin and her frailness.
“That’s an awfully long ride. You must be exhausted. When did the doctor release you?”
“This morning, just before I left.”
He could have kicked himself.
“Are you hungry? When did you last have something to eat?” He longed to take her in his arms, comfort her and love her, but he’d sworn to himself that he wouldn’t touch her again until their future was settled one way or the other.
“I had something this morning before leaving, but it didn’t stay down.”
“It’s four o’clock. You must be starving.” He noticed that she shivered again. “I had turned off all of the heat, because I was leaving. Come on. I’ll take you upstairs and get you warm.” He placed one arm under her knees and the other around her shoulder.
“I can walk, Jon. I’ve got two good feet.”
“I know that, but right now, you’re going to use mine. It’s my place to take care of you, and I’m going to do precisely that. So you make up your mind to accept it. Got that?” When she offered no further resistance, he realized how very tired she must be.
“Where are you taking me?”
“To my bedroom. I’m going to put you to bed while I get the house warm.” Unable to resist, he held her a little closer as he mounted the steep stairs. Jon knew that his accelerated heartbeat didn’t come from the climb to the second floor but from the knowledge that he was holding what he loved most on earth, his woman and his unborn child, in his arms. He sat her on the edge of his king-size bed, knelt and removed her boots and thick stockings. Seeing how pale her hands were, he rubbed them gently between his.
“I’ll soon have it warm in here.” Looking everywhere but her face in an effort to hide from her the emotions that were all but overpowering him, he carefully unbuttoned first her bulky sweater and then her silk shirt. All the while, she watched him placidly. He had not considered that she might not be wearing a bra, only that he wanted to get her comfortable as quickly as possible. When her breasts fell into his hands, he had to stifle his sudden desire. Lust wasn’t what she needed. Trying not to remember how he felt while he kissed and sucked them, he betrayed himself, staring like a teenager.
“They, they’re…I mean, aren’t they bigger? They look like they’re going to pop. Is it because of the baby?” he asked softly in awe, finally looking directly into her face.
“Yes. The doctor said they’re supposed to get larger.”
“Has the baby grown any?” he asked, barely above a whisper. “I mean, are you getting bigger already? Do you think I could…?” His voice drifted off in uncertainty.
Her eyes caressed the face that was so dear to her and she saw his eager joy and the brilliant sparkles that threatened to drop from his eyes to his cheeks. “How could I have even considered depriving him of this experience?” she asked herself. Slowly, so as not to disturb her balance, she stood. He looked at her inquiringly, standing as she had done. He was unprepared for her action as she took his right hand and carefully laid it upon her belly.
“Haley, oh Haley.” He gently stroked the firm little mound, marveling at the change in just one week. “It’s hard. Is it supposed to be hard like this? Shouldn’t we get a specialist to see if everything’s all right?”
She laughed a gay, happy, carefree laugh. “That’s protection for the fetus. I’m fine.”
He threw the covers back, picked her up and laid her in bed. Then he got one of his pajama tops, and after removing her blouse, he put it on her. He knelt beside the bed.
“Thank you for sharing this with me.”
He covered her carefully and then placed a goose down comforter over her.
“What can you eat?” he asked, his eyes loving her face.
“Toast, soda crackers, stuff like that. Maybe I could drink some club soda. I like mint tea, but I can’t have caffeine. Oh! Jon, if you’re going out, could I please have some peach ice cream and some anchovies?”
He grimaced. “Anchovies? You planning on making pizza?” Then understanding slowly dawned upon him, and he laughed. “Good grief, honey, don’t tell me that my kid’s got a yearning for anchovies? My mother said that I drove her crazy with my craving for anchovies when she was carrying me. Can you believe this?”
Jon was grinning and beaming with pride. He patted her gently on the shoulder and set about lighting a fire in the fireplace.
