painfully snug. Annoyed with himself and with her for being the source of his discomfort, he scowled. “So, which one of the guys do you think is the father?”
Katie flicked her tongue across her bottom lip, a nervous habit he’d seen her employ a zillion times. Only this time the innocent gesture had him squirming in his seat. “I haven’t made up my mind yet. That’s why I’m here. I need your help so I can decide which one will make the best father.”
Sean’s jaw dropped. He snapped his mouth shut and gave himself a mental shake. “Back up a minute. Are you, or are you not pregnant?”
Katie blinked. “Well, of course I’m not pregnant. At least not yet. That’s why I’m here. I need your help.”
“What?”
“You thought—Oh!” Suddenly she started laughing.
“This isn’t funny, Malloy,” he told her. He loved women, Katie included, but no way was he going to get himself tied down with one. At least, not yet. Maybe never, he amended.
“Sorry,” she said, not looking the least bit repentant. “It’s just that your face.” Another set of giggles sneaked out.
“Katie,” he warned.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Fitzpatrick, relax. I didn’t mean you literally. I meant that once you’ve checked out my daddy candidates, I’ll be able to make an intelligent decision about which one to ask to father my baby.”
Sean swore. “Of all the dumb, idiotic-” Biting off the rest, he stomped over to her, gripped the arms of her chair instead of her throat. He shoved himself in her face. Through gritted teeth he asked, “And just what am I supposed to do? Act as your clearing house for sperm donors?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said, meeting his angry glare. “If all I wanted was a sperm donor, I would have gone to a sperm bank-not a detective agency. I intend to choose the man who’s going to father my baby, not leave the decision up to chance.”
Sean swore again, then whirled away so he wouldn’t shake her as he wanted to do. Frustrated he prowled through his desk in search of his emergency stash of M&M’s. He scooped up a fistful, and automatically held out his palm for Katie to fish out the yellow ones. After she had done so, he popped the rest of them into his mouth. “Not that I’m agreeing to anything, but just what is it you expect me to do?”
“Check out the candidates on my list.” She waved the ivory sheet of paper in her hand. “You know, do a background check, sort of like the ones a company does when they’re considering a potential employee.”
Sean snorted. “Sweetheart, you’ve been sniffing way too many fingerpaints at that nursery school where you work.”
Practically vibrating with indignity, she planted her hands on her hips and met his mocking gaze. “I’m serious, Sean. I want to hire you to investigate my daddy candidates.”
“I’ve got a better idea. Save your money, and just have the poor saps fill out an application.”
“I can do without your sarcasm.”
“Better yet, try getting married first. You remember what marriage is, don’t you? It’s that old-fashioned thing that most people do before they decide to have a baby?”
Katie’s cheeks flushed. Temper flashed in her eyes, making them glow like amber. “This is the nineties, Fitzpatrick. A woman doesn’t have to get married anymore just to have a baby.”
“Yeah? Well, maybe they should.”
“It’s not your decision. It’s mine. And I’ve decided I want to have a baby.” She held up her hand before he could object. “This is important to me, Sean. Really important. The most important thing I’ve ever done or probably will ever do in my life. I don’t want to mess up and choose the wrong man. That means I need to learn as much as I can before I make a decision.”
“Fine,” he told her, his own temper fraying. “Then have a D&B report run on the guys on your list. You’ll get all the financial history you need.”
Katie’s lips thinned. “Who gives a flying fig about bank balances? I’m interested in finding out what’s inside here.” She poked her thumb at her heart. “We both know I don’t have the best track record when it comes to men,” she said, referring to her two broken engagements.
“So you had a couple of narrow escapes. You were too good for those clowns, anyway.”
“Maybe. But I need to be sure the man I choose is someone who’s going to stick around and be a loving and supportive parent.”
Sean heard the echo of the lonely little girl she had been, the one who had been so hungry for a father’s love and affection. It tore at him as nothing else she said could. It also made him want to spend ten minutes alone in a back alley with her father, her stepfather and every man who had ever let Katie down. Still, this idea of hers was crazy. He couldn’t let her do it. “Honey, the guys on that list could all be saints, and I’d still think you were making a mistake. Are you really willing to undergo artificial insemination and have some guy’s baby based on a PI report?”
“No, not exactly,” she said sheepishly.
“Well, I’m relieved to hear that. You had me worried for—”
“My insurance won’t cover artificial insemination. I’ll have to get pregnant the, um, normal way.”
“The normal way? You mean—” Sean swiped a hand down his face, tried to wipe out the sudden image of Katie in bed, her naked body tangled in satin sheets. Grateful for the shield the desk provided his lower body, he jerked his X-rated thoughts back to the problem. Clawing a hand through his hair, he muttered. “Of all the dumb, lamebrained—”
The intercom on his desk buzzed. “Heather Harrison is on line two for you,” his secretary told him. “She said it’s about dinner tonight.”
“Speaking of dumb—” Katie said.
“Tell her I’ll call her back.” He shot Katie a quelling glance and, using his most intimidating voice, he said, “I want you to forget about this crazy scheme of yours, Katie.”
“I will not.”
“I mean it,” he insisted.
“So do I. And given your narrow-minded attitude,” she said, her voice as stiff as her spine. “I can see I was right to scratch your name off my list.”
“My—You had my name on that list!” He wasn’t sure if he was angry or glad that she’d considered him.
“Obviously, I was desperate.”
The crack scraped at him, fueled his temper. “What were you going to do? Knock on my door, and ask me if I’d mind sleeping with you so you could get pregnant?”
She hiked up her chin. “As a matter of fact, yes.”
Don’t go there, man.
But it was too late. An image jumped to life in his mind’s eye—Katie lying beneath him, their
