Leopard 03 - Burning Wild

“Me.” She met his golden gaze.
    “They’re speculating about me and who I am and why I’m here.”

    “The accident was in California four months ago. Everyone thought Shaina broke my heart. And now I’ve got the mystery woman living with me, but no one sees her. The rumor is she’s pregnant as well.”
    “And the nurse—Miss Hacker thinks the baby is yours?”
    “I haven’t said any different,” he admitted.
    “Why?”
    He looked away from her briefly, then reached over and took her hand, his thumb sliding up and down the back of her hand. “I can’t. We can’t. We have to think about protecting the baby. We need to let everyone think it’s mine.”
    “No!” Emma pulled her hand away. “It’s Andrew’s baby, the last part of him.”
    “Emma, honey, you aren’t thinking. We both know the baby is Andrew’s, but what happens if something goes wrong? I think like that, plan ahead. It’s what I do. I take apart companies and sell them piece by piece, but in order to take over in the first place, I have to look ahead and determine the things that might happen and plan for them. I’m not leaving your baby homeless or to the authorities.
    Be angry with me for it, but I know what’s it’s like to be raised—”
    Abruptly he snapped his mouth closed, leapt to his feet and stalked out.
    Emma sat in the dark for a long time, her heart pounding, as she faced the very real possibility that her baby might live and she might not. The doctors had discussed the possibility with her, but she’d dismissed it. Evidently Jake hadn’t, and he was already preparing to save her child, when she hadn’t even thought about what might happen. She got up, pulled on her robe and padded barefoot down the hall to the nursery. He was there, just as she knew he would be, standing guard over his son.
    “Jake.” He didn’t turn and she knew he had been aware of her coming in. “I’m sorry. You’re right about this, but I don’t want you to think I expect . . .”
    He flicked her a warning glance over his shoulder. “Go to bed, Emma. I’m not myself tonight and you’re the last person I want to fight with.”
    “I just wanted to say I was sorry.”
    He swung around in that fluid, predatory way of his and swept her up into his arms, as if she were a child, cradling her close the way she’d taught him to hold Kyle. “What part of ‘bed’ don’t you understand?”
    He sounded rough and exasperated, but his hands were gentle as he carried her to her bed and pulled the sheet up to her chin. He even dropped a kiss on top of her head, just as she’d seen him do with Kyle. “Go to sleep. We have all the time in the world to figure it out.”
    God help him, he hoped it was true.
    ONE MONTH LATER
    JAKE tossed his pen onto his desk and heaved an exaggerated sigh. If there’d been someone to yell at, he would have done so, but instead there was only him, locked in the silence of his office. He’d created this wing of the house to be attached but separate. Soundproof. He found his acute hearing could be a distraction when he was trying to study the various companies he was interested in acquiring—
    especially lately. There were small alarms scattered through the various rooms to alert him to intruders because his office was doubly soundproofed. He always had liked silence. He’d needed silence, the peace of it. Silence was one of the few things that calmed his mind, like running free late at night in his other form.
    He sighed again and laced his fingers behind his head. Silence wasn’t working so well with him at the moment and he didn’t understand why. His home was so different now. Emma and Kyle had been here five months and already the place was transformed. There was a warmth now, and he felt peace when he sat in the nursery or when he entered Emma’s room. Now his office seemed cold and distant. The silence distracted him. He found himself listening for the low murmur of Emma’s voice and the soft little sounds his son made.
    Jake sat up straight, alarm shooting through him. His son. He never thought in those terms. Emma often referred to Kyle that way, but Jake thought of him as the infant, the baby, even the kid— not his son.
    What the hell was happening to him? What was she doing? Turning his life upside down. This wasn’t how it was supposed to work. His life was supposed to be unaffected, maybe easier, but certainly not more difficult.
    Emma never listened to him. Well, she listened, she