Natalie. That was his ex-wife’s name.
‘Don’t worry, darling,’ the woman said in a droll tone. ‘It’s not yours. I’m only a month gone and it’s at least a couple of months since we were together. Besides, if I recall rightly, you used a condom.’
Jessie’s heart squeezed tight. A couple of months ago Kane had still been sleeping with his ex. Yet he’d made her think he’d been celibate since they split up over a year ago. She’d thought at the time that was unlikely. What other women had he lied to her about?
‘Who’s the father?’ she heard Kane ask.
‘Some guy I met at a party. A lawyer. I didn’t even find out his last name, would you believe? But I could find it out if I want to.’
‘What are you going to do about the baby?’
‘I know you’ll think I’m mad, but I’m going to have it.’
‘You’re joking!’
‘No. No, Kane, I’m not.’
Jessie couldn’t bear to stand there, listening to any more of this conversation. She turned and fled back down the corridor as quietly as her pounding heart would permit. Tears threatened, but she made it back to the toilet cubicle, dry-eyed. Even then, strangely, she didn’t cry. She wanted to, but something inside her was damming back the tears, a big, cold, angry lump.
One part of her wanted to go back and confront him, throw his lies in his face. But another part of her argued that to do that was to finish it between them.
Could she bear that? To walk away without going to bed with him, at least once?
Jessie supposed she could. She could do just about anything once she put her mind to it.
But it would be hard, especially with his being here at work every day. She would keep running into him. And wanting him.
So, no, she wouldn’t be confronting him, Jessie decided as she made her way back to her desk. Or accusing him. She would use him as he was using her. For sex.
At least this added knowledge of his character would stop her from falling in love with him. The man was a lying scumbag, like most men. An empty charmer. Just because he’d made a raging success of his professional life didn’t make him a good guy, as he claimed to be.
When she thought about his choice of career it suited him very well. What was he, really, but a glorified salesman? A con artist. A seller of dreams. Such seminars as he conducted preyed on people’s weaknesses, making them think they could be winners too, if only they listened to him. He’d spin her a whole world of dreams too, if she let him.
But she wasn’t going to let him. Or listen to him. He could talk all the bulldust he liked. None of it was going to get to her any more.
‘What are you muttering to yourself about?’
His voice behind her came out of the blue, startling her.
Jessie swallowed, then spun slowly round on her office chair, a cool smile at the ready.
‘Just thinking of all the things I have to do before Christmas,’ she said, her eyes running over the man himself for the first time that day.
Yes, he was gorgeous. Utterly. With that air of masculine confidence which she found almost irresistible.
But she was ready for him now, ready and armed with the knowledge of his true self.
‘I did offer to take you shopping,’ he said with one of his winning smiles.
‘So you did. And I might have to take you up on that by this time next week.’
‘What about this Saturday? Emily could come with us. I promise I’ll have a proper car seat by then.’
Jessie found her own smile. A slow smile. A saucy smile. ‘Do you think you’ll be capable of getting out of bed after Friday night?’
His blue eyes registered shock. But then he smiled back. ‘Is that a challenge of some sort?’
‘Let’s just say it’s been a while for me. I might take some satisfying.’
A flicker of a frown skittered across his face. ‘Boy, when you decide to do something you do it full throttle, don’t you?’
‘I have a take-no-prisoners attitude to life sometimes.’
‘That’s what I like about you. You’re so damned honest and upfront. Except when you’re cruising bars looking for straying hubbies, that is,’ he added ruefully.
Jessie shrugged. ‘That’s all in the past now that I have a decent job. And it’s not as though most of those guys didn’t deserve to get caught. So tell me, Kane, were you ever unfaithful to your wife?’
‘What a question!’
‘One you don’t want to answer, I see.’
‘No, I don’t mind answering it. I was never unfaithful. I sowed my wild oats plenty in my younger years. Once I got married, however, I put all that behind me.’
‘One of the good guys,’ she said just a fraction tartly.
He frowned. ‘I take it you’re still not convinced.’
‘Does it matter?’
‘It matters to me.’
Jessie decided this conversation was running off the rails. ‘By the way, thank you for your book. I was suitably impressed. And a little surprised. I didn’t realise you were famous.’
‘I’m not so famous,’ he said modestly.
‘But you will be. Your book is fabulous.’ Jessie knew you could never flatter a man enough. Flattery, she could handle. And flirting. Just no falling in love.
He looked so ridiculously pleased, she felt guilty. ‘But you can’t possibly have read it yet.’
‘Well, not properly. But I will. Before Friday night.’
‘Stop talking about Friday night!’ he suddenly bit out in an agitated fashion. ‘I know it’s only three days away, but after last night it seems like an eternity. I don’t think I slept a wink.’
He did look tired, now that she came to think of it. There were dark circles under his eyes.
‘I didn’t sleep very well myself,’ she confessed.
‘Jessie, this is ridiculous. Why should we torture ourselves? Be with me tonight. Get Dora to mind Emily. She told me last night that she’d be quite happy to mind Emily any night we wanted to go out. I asked her. I even offered to pay her but she refused. She said she’d be happy to do it any time.’
Jessie felt both flustered and furious. ‘You had no right to go behind my back like that.’
‘No right to do what?’ he countered. ‘Try to organise things so that I can spend
