Boss Meets Baby(136)

The earnestly felt thought brought her anxiously back to her own astonishing news.

‘Keir?’

‘Hmm?’

‘I was—’

‘What?’

‘I was wondering if you had an enjoyable evening last night, at your friend’s club?’

Georgia grimaced at her own unhelpful diversion. Just where was her courage this morning?

Nonplussed, Keir glanced distractedly towards her. ‘It was fine. Nothing remarkable.’ But his expression— had suddenly became more animated, as if recalling something of far more interest than whether or not he’d enjoyed the evening at his friend’s club. ‘I was going to show you some paintings—remember?’ — He was on his feet and opening the study door before Georgia could gather her wits and waylay him.

‘Paintings?’ She frowned.

‘The illustrious Glenteign family legacy,’ he mocked with an enigmatic smile. ‘Let’s get out of here before that bloody phone rings again!’

That day he showed her around rooms she’d never looked into before. There were so many of them— anterooms and apartments full to the brim with paintings and priceless artefacts, all lovingly kept dusted and cleaned by Glenteign’s devoted housekeeper and her staff. To Georgia, following Keir around like some enthusiastic and interested tourist, it was really like having access to your own personal museum.

‘Look at this.’

He touched her elbow and diverted her attention from a regal-looking portrait of one of his many ancestors— to the stunning gold harp leaning, against the door to yet another undiscovered room.

‘Oh, how lovely!’ Georgia declared, moving swiftly towards it. ‘Did someone in your family play it?’

‘No.’

He was smiling inscrutably, and she glanced up at him in confusion.

‘Touch it,’ he suggested.

As Georgia bent low to obey him, she realised it wasn’t a real golden harp at all and she reached out to confirm it in amazement.

‘It’s what they call a “trompe-l’oeil.” It’s a painting…an illusion…of a three-dimensional object that looks completely real. As children, me and Robbie were fascinated by it.’

‘It’s amazing!’

As she straightened up to her full height again, Georgia saw the delight in Keir’s face at her obvious pleasure in the illusion, and her heart swelled anew with love for him. Her feelings must have revealed themselves for a moment, because the next thing she knew he was pulling her into his arms and kissing her with a slow-burning hunger that made her toes curl.

When he finally withdrew his lips, she knew that her cheeks were surely glowing as pink as any chrysanthemum.

‘What was that for?’ she asked, her voice soft.

‘Because I missed not being in bed with you last night. Would you have minded me coming in and waking you up?’

‘I wish you had.’ Her face troubled for a moment, Georgia let herself revel in the feelings of safety and protection that Keir’s strong arms so tantalisingly engendered. ‘I had a couple of really disturbing nightmares,— and I couldn’t go back to sleep after the second one.’

‘Oh?’ Now it was Keir’s turn to look troubled. He brushed back some soft chestnut hair from her smooth forehead, his gentle touch eliciting a small explosion of delicious tingles up and down her spine. ‘What were they about? Want to tell me?’

‘No. I think it would upset me too much.’

And there was still the small matter of her pregnancy— to discuss…Georgia sighed and started to free herself from his embrace. She walked across the elegantly varnished wooden floor to the other side of the room, pulling the opened sides of her soft grey cardigan together across her pink T-shirt and black skirt as if suddenly feeling the cold.

‘I need to tell you something…’

‘Sounds very serious!’

There was the ghost of a smile on his compelling mouth, and he shrugged his shoulders as if she might possibly be exaggerating just how serious the matter was. For an instant, Georgia wanted to delay telling him the news, and instead encourage this unusually happy mood he seemed to be in. But, as great as the temptation was, she knew she couldn’t put her confession— off any longer.

‘It is serious, Keir. I think I’m pregnant.’

‘What?’

The previously teasing light in his eyes seemed ominously to go out.

Georgia’s hand subconsciously went to her stomach, as though to protect herself. ‘I haven’t done a test yet, but the signs are all there.’

‘I’m sorry, but you’ll have to give me a few moments here…’ His hand absently touching the side of his temple, Keir appeared genuinely stunned. ‘I always used protection,’ he said, shaking his head slightly. ‘How can that be?’

He doesn’t believe me, Georgia thought, and for a long, interminable second she was sucked into a vortex of pure blind panic. Her own inexperience suddenly made her very afraid.

‘I don’t know.’ Her hands curled into the material of her skirt and her mouth went dry as chalk. ‘Perhaps we weren’t always as careful as we might have been? Sometimes that can happen…’ Her voice trailed off, and she hardly knew how she confronted the shock that clearly marked his handsome face.