of exercise. You wouldn’t think it to look at her, but she recognized it as an outlet for her body’s impulses. The all-girls private school she attended for high school had encouraged them to be as active as possible. The nuns insisted that sweat was purifying and there was no desire that couldn’t be suppressed with a good workout.
She had reason to be a believer in its powers and fell back on it instead of eating when stress took over her life. She lost ten pounds after her breakup with David in February. Between him leaving and the fallout of her twenty-four-hour rebellion, she’d clocked in serious overtime at the gym. She’d finally regained those ten pounds due to her blossoming pregnancy, but she continued to work out, nonetheless. She didn’t want to get too large and spend valuable time postpartum worrying about extra pounds instead of enjoying precious moments with her newborn.
When her body was about to give out from the strain, Emma slowed her pace to cool down and opened her eyes. She smiled, pleased with her workout stats on the console. She may well have earned herself a treat after dinner. Maybe some nice dark chocolate would provide a pseudosexual chemical release to back her down from the edge.
Emma silenced her music and stepped onto the padded floor with gelatinous kneecaps. Her plan had worked. She was exhausted, sticky and thirsty. Sex with Jonah was the last thing she wanted at the moment. She reached for her water, taking a healthy swig, then began wiping her face with her towel.
The sound of a man’s laughter startled her. She yanked the towel from her face, pulled out her earbuds and looked around the gym, but found it to be just as empty as it had been before. Her only guess was that it must’ve been someone in the hallway walking past the gym. Or maybe her imagination was getting the best of her.
With another quick glance around, she gathered up her things and headed to the locker room just to be safe. Originally, she’d planned to shower and change here, but the unknown man’s laughter left her unnerved. What if Jonah had seen her? She had taken a huge risk tonight and she couldn’t repeat it. She needed to bring some gym clothes to work that wouldn’t leave her so exposed next time. Jonah might be out tonight, but that wouldn’t be the case every time she came down here.
Instead, she grabbed her tote bag, slipped a hoodie over her clothes just in case and headed to the exit.
She could bathe in private at home where she didn’t have to worry about who might be watching.
Jonah ducked into a corridor and watched Emma as she headed toward the back exit of the building. When his dinner meeting was canceled earlier tonight, he was already at the restaurant waiting. He opted to get a to-go order and take it back to the office. There, he planned to get in some weight training—it was legs day—and eat his dinner as he went over some emails.
The gym was usually empty in the evenings and he enjoyed the solitude. He spent all day in meetings and on phone calls. His time at the gym was an hour out of the day where he could lose himself in some music and let his sore muscles distract him from his worries. He never expected to find Emma there. She seemed like the kind of woman who didn’t like to get dirty, much less sweat. Yet there she had been, going to town on one of the machines, music pumping into her ears, her eyes closed.
If he didn’t know better, he’d say she was trying to work something out of her system. Perhaps he’d done a better job of sexually frustrating her than he thought. Maybe she only resisted him on the surface.
He’d almost opened his mouth to say as much to her when she suddenly came to a stop and climbed down from the machine. He watched her from the doorway, unnoticed, as she sipped her water and wiped the sweat from her flushed face. It was then that he spied a flash of red peeking out from her black top. He took a few steps farther into the gym and could clearly see half a red heart tattooed on her left breast. Jonah had stopped, looked at the tattoo on his hand, then at her tiny, rounded stomach in disbelief before choking on a nervous laugh and darting out of the gym before she saw him.
Could it be?
Never. Never in a million years would he have pegged Emma as his butterfly. His butterfly had been free, uninhibited, wild. On the surface, Emma appeared to be anything but. She’d told him she was acting out of character that night, but he didn’t really believe her. Everyone said something like that when they found themselves in an awkward situation.
She must’ve been telling the truth. His butterfly had also told him that he wouldn’t want her in the morning, like she’d turn into a pumpkin at sunrise. Instead, she turned into an uptight accountant. A beautiful, graceful, aggravating, uptight accountant who looked as though she might be carrying his child.
He was no expert in that department. What he did know was that three months ago, her belly had been flat as a board, trembling as he planted kisses across it. Emma wouldn’t show much at three months, but it was hard to hide a belly in workout clothes. Could she really be having his child?
That was something Jonah had never really considered. He wasn’t opposed to children as a whole, but he’d not envisioned his life as one where he would settle down and have a family. Maybe one day, but one day always seemed a long way off. It certainly wasn’t six months from now.
Jonah let his head roll back against the wall with a dull thud that did little to help the situation. A baby. Was it really possible that Emma was having his child? They’d used protection. He always used protection. He wasn’t stupid. There were plenty of women who would be happy to carry his heir to inherit his money along with his blue eyes. Emma didn’t seem at all like that kind of woman.
Of course, if you’d asked him an hour ago, he would’ve told you she was the kind of woman who would tell a man when she was having his baby. And yet she hadn’t.
Jonah shook his head and started back down the hallway to his office. He couldn’t work out now. His head wasn’t in it. Besides, this revelation changed everything.
His pursuit of Emma had been purely business at first. Yes, distracting her would be a pleasurable chore to cover his ass and Noah’s until the finances were cleaned up, but still business. When she rebuffed him, it had become a challenge. He always enjoyed conquering impossible tasks.
But now it was a matter of pride. Emma knew who he was. Had known almost from the moment they’d met. She’d seen his hand, seen his tattoo and yet had said nothing despite the fact that she was carrying his child.
Why? The tattoos were supposed to help bring them together. The only link from the night of fantasy to their reality. Seeing his tattoo should’ve been a sign to her, a pleasant surprise, especially since she had no other way to contact her baby’s father. If he’d found her first, he would’ve instantly told her who he was. Unless she thought their night together was a mistake. Or that she didn’t want him in her or their baby’s life now that she knew who he really was.
Impossible! What woman wouldn’t be thrilled to find the father of her child was secretly a rich, successful and attractive businessman? There were plenty of outcomes to that scenario that weren’t nearly as positive.
Jonah reached his office and spied a copy of a recent entertainment magazine on Pam’s desk. It was flipped open to a page that featured a picture of him with a woman he’d only gone out with once or twice. The byline read “Software playboy romances lingerie model.” He frowned.
Okay, so maybe his celebrity status wasn’t helping his cause. He had a reputation for being a badass and he liked it. Women were just part of the package. Most
