to sleep with her boss, she was fine and dandy. Very put-together, highly organized, successful. She had friends. She wasn’t a loser.
She smiled with determination. “I’ll say again that I’m sorry I couldn’t give you more notice, but I’ve got everything covered job-wise. I am absolutely certain that things will run smoothly. I just need your blessing to take the time off.”
“I won’t let you quit your job,” he said fiercely. “We need you too much.”
She was surprised and delighted by his admission. He had no idea how much his words pleased her, but she was still going through with her plan.
“Aidan, you know me. I love my job. I love Alleria. You and Logan are the best people I’ve ever worked with. Believe me, I’ve never been happier and I have no intention of ever leaving voluntarily.”
“Good, because I won’t let you. You’re a vital member of our organization.”
“Thank you.” She wouldn’t say it aloud, but she would be a fool to give up this job. After all this time, with all the raises and bonuses they’d given her, she would never find anything comparable, especially in such a beautiful setting as Alleria.
“I’ll never leave,” she reiterated.
“But you’re going to have a baby,” he argued, not quite ready to concede. “That’s not a good sign.”
“I have every intention of raising my baby here on the island and continuing to work for you and Logan for as long as you’ll have me. Okay?”
He scowled, but she knew he was smart enough to know when to give up the fight. Finally he nodded. “Okay.”
“Thank you,” she said. In a spontaneous gesture, she gave him a tight hug. “I really appreciate your understanding.”
“I don’t understand anything,” he said, but managed a half smile as he walked her to the door. “Call me conventional, but I still believe in the man-woman routine.”
Her laugh was lighthearted even if her mind was set. But she decided to humor him anyway. “Fine. You have one week to convince me it’s the best way to go.”
Not that she had any intention of doing things his way, Ellie thought as she walked back to her office. She’d thought this through down to the last detail, and she wasn’t about to change her mind just to satisfy her boss. She’d seen how a messy relationship with a man could turn a woman’s life inside out and she wasn’t about to let that happen to her. Not ever. Not even for Aidan Sutherland.
Two
Later that evening, Aidan sat in one of the resort’s plush beach chairs and stared out at the placid surface of Alleria Bay. He nursed the glass of single malt scotch he’d picked up in the bar earlier before wandering out to the beach to relax and enjoy the quiet evening.
But how could he relax? He’d already been thinking about Ellie in all sorts of inappropriate ways, and then she had come along and added to the problem. True, she’d only been talking about babies. It was Aidan’s fault for bringing up sex by suggesting that she do it the traditional way. Now he couldn’t get the idea of sex with Ellie out of his head.
But that didn’t mean he would act on it. No way. He had to get his mind off his associate and he hoped his upcoming trip to California would help.
Realistically, Ellie wanting a baby was none of his business. But as she’d left his office earlier, she had issued the challenge—joking or not—and Aidan was willing to meet it. He was determined to find her a willing man in a week. The Sutherland twins never backed away from a challenge. But how was he supposed to find a decent guy who would make Ellie happy enough to stay on the island where Aidan needed her? It’s not like he could approach one of the guys he knew and ask if they would be willing to impregnate his senior vice president.
That would be weird.
Skimming his feet over the cool sand of the beach, Aidan tried to figure out where he’d lost the argument with Ellie. Not that he’d been given much chance to argue, he thought. Ellie had presented her plan as a fait accompli. She had no intention of backing down, and Aidan had to admit he appreciated that quality in her. She’d made the decision and she was sticking to it.
So why in the world was Aidan making such a big deal over it? The choice to have a baby was Ellie’s alone to make. It was her life. If she wanted to have a baby, she should go get pregnant and have a baby.
But then she’d be leaving the island. True, it was only for three weeks, but she’d confessed out loud that if the first time didn’t work, she’d be going back again. And again.
Aidan hated to admit it, but things never ran as smoothly when Ellie went away. He would even go so far as to say that things tended to go straight to hell when Ellie was gone. Two years ago, she took five days off and Hurricane Willie struck the island. Last year she was gone for a week and the hotel kitchen staff went on strike.
She was like a barometer for all things Alleria. If Ellie was on the island, life rolled along. When she wasn’t, it was more of a crash-and-burn scenario.
Aidan was tempted to fly in a fertility specialist if it meant Ellie would stay on the island. He considered that for a second or two. It was the perfect solution. One that would make everybody happy, right?
So why was he still brooding about it?
Because, Aidan thought as he sipped his scotch, it still meant that Ellie would be using artificial means to have a baby. And that was the one thing Aidan refused to accept. He wasn’t ready to examine his feelings too closely, but suffice to say it wasn’t fair that his beautiful senior vice president was choosing to get pregnant by means of a turkey baster.
“Fair?” he muttered aloud. Fair to whom? To Ellie? Or to the male population at large? After all, she was a beautiful woman. Plenty of men would be thrilled to help her out. Had she given any of them a chance? Hell, no.
Even Blake Farrell. She hadn’t given him a chance, not really. After all, they’d only been dating for less than a month. What man in his right mind would agree to accept her obvious baby-daddy ploy so quickly after they’d met?
Aidan scowled. The right man would. But Blake Farrell wasn’t that guy. Aidan had known Blake Farrell for years. The guy was a player. He ran an air-shipping operation over on Nassau and had recently opened an office in the port of Alleria. He’d bought a small house in town so he was part of the island community now.
But if Aidan had thought for one moment that Ellie would start dating Farrell, Aidan never would’ve introduced the two. It still rankled him that she’d accepted even one date from him.
Blake wasn’t right for Ellie and he definitely was not the appropriate choice to be the father of her child. But who was? Not that Aidan had any say in the matter, but if Ellie needed someone to do the job, there had to be a lot of guys better suited for the job than Blake Farrell.
Frankly, although he didn’t want to examine his feelings on the subject too closely, he had been relieved to hear that there was no current man in Ellie’s life.
But now that meant that she was going to have a complete stranger father her child. She would be picking some guy’s description out of a book—and who was to say the
