The Renegade (The Moorehouse Legacy #3)(62)

A baby. She was going to have a—

Cass thought of Alex.

Oh, God.

She closed her eyes, happy tears drying up instantly. What was Alex going to think?

*

When Cass let herself back into the apartment that afternoon, she said hello to Marie and went straight to her room. It didn’t take her long to pack an overnight bag.

She was six weeks along. Six weeks pregnant with Alex Moorehouse’s child.

Somehow that first time they’d been together, enough of him had gotten into her…and biology had taken care of the rest.

She was driving back to Saranac Lake because it was the only thing to do. News like this was not something you wanted to spring on a man over the phone, and explaining it all was going to be tough. She was pretty sure he was going to be horrified.

But she wasn’t. She was carrying the baby of the man she loved. So even if she couldn’t have Alex, she would always have a part of him.

Cass paused while stuffing a flannel nightgown into her Vuitton duffel. Funny, it had never occurred to her that Reese might be the reason she hadn’t gotten pregnant before. The fact that he’d been twenty years younger when his first children had been conceived just hadn’t seemed particularly significant.

She checked the clock. It was almost two. If she made good time, she’d be up at the lake by six-thirty. She’d stay overnight and come right back.

She’d been told if she wanted to keep the baby, she better get eating and get some rest. She had every intention of following that prescription to the letter. There was no way in hell she was doing anything to jeopardize the gift she’d been given.

She told Marie she would be back in the middle of the following day and hurried out of the penthouse. Punching the elevator button, she waited, tapping her foot. She was in a rush to go up to the lake, do the talking and return home.

The doors opened.

She staggered back against the wall in the hallway. “Alex…”





Chapter Twenty




Alex reached out, thinking Cass was about to faint again. “Are you okay? You’ve gone white as snow.”

“What—are you doing here?”

“I came to see you.” He eyed her bag. “Look, you’re obviously going somewhere, but can we talk? I won’t take long.”

“How did you get to Manhattan?”

“Spike. He’s waiting downstairs.”

“Oh, of course.”

Her eyes latched on to his face and she stared at him in the strangest way. As if he were…he didn’t know what. He couldn’t decide whether her eyes were glassy or reverent.

“Cassandra? Can we go inside?”

“Of course. Come in.”

Alex took a quick look around as he went through the door. He’d never been in their penthouse before and wasn’t surprised it was tricked out like a museum.

But the decor didn’t interest him because he was focused on Cassandra. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was wearing her parka. As if she were going to the country.

He knew better than to think she’d be coming to see him and wondered where she was off to. Not asking was killing him, but he reminded himself that it wasn’t his business, even though he wished liked hell it was.

“Marie,” she called out. A dark-haired woman came around a corner. “Perhaps you’d like to take the rest of the day off?”

Marie nodded and smiled. “Merci, Madame.”

Cassandra said something in French to the woman. Then she lifted her hand, indicating an ornate doorway.

“Let’s sit in here.”

The room they went into was a nice parlor kind of thing. Silk couches, big view, grand piano.

God, he hoped he could get through this in one piece.

Cassandra sat down on a chair, arranging herself as if she were in a ball gown, not slacks and a sweater. Her innate elegance astounded him, drew him, floored him. He was struck by the need to fall to his knees in front of her.

Instead he did his best to play real man even though he felt as if he was falling apart. He took the couch, stretching his leg out.

“Alex—”

“Cassandra—”

They both shut up.

He took the lead in ending the silence. “I need to tell you about…Reese. And that night. In the storm. I know you have an idea of what happened, but I want you to know everything.”

Cassandra went perfectly still.

“The storm came up on us hard and fast. We’d expected bad weather, but not on that kind of magnitude. No one did. The barometer kept falling and falling and we’d decided to head back to shore when we got caught in the hurricane. We weathered the first hour or so fairly well, but then our mast snapped in half from the wind. Reese went aft to try and cut the sail loose because the gusts were grabbing it and pulling us off keel. He was struck in the shoulder by a loose piece of rigging. I saw him hit the deck, and then a wave came crashing over the bow. He didn’t have his harness on and he couldn’t find anything to hold on to. I scrambled to get to him. I grabbed his safety jacket, but it slipped and then I caught his hand. I…”

He stammered. Fell silent.

“Alex?”

He rubbed his face, bearing the horrible memories with no strength whatsoever. He felt as if he couldn’t breathe.