Six
Aidan and Ellie had been sleeping together for a week when Logan and his new bride returned from their honeymoon.
The following day was Logan’s first day back at work. He was sitting at Aidan’s desk checking the computer while Aidan riffled through the file cabinet on the far wall, when Ellie walked in.
“Welcome back, Logan,” Ellie said cheerfully, and rounded the desk to give him a hug before dropping a document on the desk. “I hope you and Grace had a wonderful honeymoon.”
“It was fantastic.”
“I’m so happy for you,” she said, then turned to Aidan. “I’m making that New York phone call in thirty minutes.”
“Thank you.”
Both men watched her walk out of the office; then Aidan said, “I know we talked about offering Ellie the partnership when you got back, but something came up while you were gone. I made her the offer last week and she accepted.”
Logan frowned at Aidan. “Did you notice that Ellie knew it was me sitting here?”
“So?” Aidan said absently as he picked up the document Ellie had delivered.
Logan glanced down at his dark navy business suit, burgundy silk tie and white shirt, then stared across at his brother, who wore the same basic outfit. “I’m sitting at your desk, dressed exactly like you. Anyone in the company would think I was you. But Ellie knew it was me.”
Aidan gave him a sideways glance. “Ellie’s smart. She’s been able to tell us apart from day one. No big deal.”
Logan stared long and hard at Aidan. “Oh, hell. You’re having sex with her! Are you out of your mind?”
Aidan scowled and told himself he never should have let his brother walk into his office. “Where the hell did you get that idea?”
“We’re twins, remember?” Logan said. “I can read you like a book. A really stupid book with a lousy plotline.”
“Get serious.” Aidan’s gaze slid from his twin’s. He never had been able to hide a damn thing from Logan. But damned if he was going to stand here and be lectured. “There’s nothing going on. How in the hell did you come up with sex?”
“Easy,” Logan said as he pulled two small bottles of sparkling water from the small refrigerator in the credenza along the wall. He popped the tops, handed one to Aidan and walked back to the desk. “And I’m right, too, so stop pretending it’s not true.”
Aidan took a long gulp of water and tried to figure out why he’d been so anxious for Logan to get home.
His brother wasn’t finished ranting. “And what was that about offering Ellie the partnership? Don’t you remember we talked about doing it together when I got back from my trip? You couldn’t wait?”
“I told you, something came up,” Aidan muttered.
“Yeah, I know exactly what came up,” Logan said with an evil smirk.
“That’s not what I mean,” he said, and grabbed a bag of chips from the supplies cupboard to munch on.
A few minutes ago, Aidan had been pleased to see Logan at his office door. He and Grace had been back on the island since the day before, but Aidan hadn’t had a chance to talk to Logan until this morning. But right now, Aidan was kind of wishing his brother would take off for another week or two.
This was the problem with being a twin. He couldn’t get a damn thing past his brother.
Annoyed with the direction their conversation was heading, Aidan paced back and forth across the office floor. Finally he turned to his brother and explained things in a reasonable tone of voice. “Ellie was making plans to leave the island for a few weeks. I had to do something to stop her.”
“So you slept with her?” Logan shook his head. “That was your plan?”
“No. I mean, yes. But that’s not why.” He scraped his fingers across his scalp in frustration. “It’s a long story.”
Logan sat in one of the comfortable visitor’s chairs and stretched out his long legs. “I’ve got all day.”
Aidan huffed out a breath. “It’s complicated.”
“Dude, it wasn’t complicated until you slept with her.”
Irritation spiked. Yeah, he and Logan had always talked together about the women in their lives. But he didn’t like Logan talking about Ellie. “Just shut up about that, will you?”
“She’s an employee,” Logan pointed out. “You’re putting the company in a bad position. What if she sues you? Did you consider the possible consequences? You know she could—”
“Stop.” Aidan held up his hand. “I’ll ignore the fact that you slept with Grace when she was working here as a cocktail waitress.”
He was happy to see his brother frown as that realization sunk into his thick skull.
“She was a fake waitress,” Logan mumbled.
“Right. Look, Ellie’s a partner now, not an employee. But just in case you’re still worried, don’t be. She and I signed a contract before we did anything.”
Logan jumped up from his chair and gaped at his brother. “What did you say? You signed a contract for sex? What the hell is going on around here?”
“What the hell do you have to be mad about?” Aidan shouted. “This isn’t about you.”
“If it’s about Sutherland, then it’s about me, too, you idiot.”
“Fine.” Aidan scrubbed one hand across his face, took a swig of water and muttered, “The contract wasn’t about sex, all right? It’s for a baby.”
Logan opened his mouth to retort, but no words came out. He took a breath, blew it out and then blinked a few times as if his twin was just a hallucination he was trying to bring into focus. Funny. Aidan had never actually seen Logan speechless. He kind of liked it.
“Well, that shut you up anyway.” Aidan handed him the bag of potato chips and continued his pacing.
A full minute later, Logan found his voice again. “I think you’d better sit down and tell me the whole story.”
*
“That went well,” Aidan muttered at the end of the day. What with all the interruptions and conference calls and business meetings, his conversation with Logan had stretched out over the entire day, and Logan had just left the office to take Grace to dinner. He’d invited Aidan to join them, but Aidan had declined. He had too much to think about. So instead, he went and grabbed a cheeseburger and fries from the bar, then headed back to his place to watch a football game.
He took a bite of the perfectly prepared burger and savored the flavors, marveling that he still had an appetite after hashing it out with his brother. Aidan had patiently explained everything to Logan. He had defended himself valiantly, making it clear that desperate times called for heroic efforts and that’s why Aidan had finally decided to help Ellie get pregnant.
His brother hadn’t seen it quite the same way. Far from it, in fact. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Logan had basically laughed his fool ass off.
“Heroic efforts?” he’d said derisively. “Man, you’re killing me.”
“I mean it,” Aidan had insisted. “How else could I guarantee that she’d stay here and work for us? I fell on my sword, man. I made the ultimate sacrifice for the corporation.”
He frowned at that, because as swords went, Ellie was a pretty damn good one. And it wasn’t as if he’d had to suffer to keep their most valued employee at the resort.
Logan snorted, not an attractive sound. “You sacrificed yourself by having sex with Ellie? How the hell is that a sacrifice? She’s gorgeous! You like her.”
“Wha— Of course I like her,” he sputtered. “A lot. She’s a good friend. She wants to have a baby and I want that baby to know its father. I wasn’t going to let her go off to some sperm bank and then raise a kid all on her own.”
Logan chuckled. “Oh man, you’ve got it bad. Hell, you’ve been half in love with her ever since she started working here.”
Aidan’s eyes narrowed on his brother. “What did you just say?”
“Oh, just admit it,” Logan said, ignoring Aidan’s threatening glare. “Remember when you introduced her to that idiot Blake, then got completely pissed off when they started dating? You’re so transparent, it’s ridiculous. So now you’re finally sleeping with her. It’s not such a stretch to predict that you’ll fall in love with her. Especially if you have a child together.”
Aidan had to shake his head a few times to make sure his ears were really hearing those words. “Okay, you just went off the deep end, bro.”
“Say whatever you want in your own defense,” Logan drawled. “But I’m telling you, you did all this because you love her.”
Ridiculous.
Seriously, it was sad to see how fast Logan’s brain had turned to sludge after his wedding.
“Oh, man. Oh, no. Dude, you’re pathetic,” Aidan had said, hanging his head in sorrow. “Barely one day back from your honeymoon and you’re already deluded into thinking the whole world’s in love. Birdies singing in the trees, rainbows dancing in the sky, unicorns frolicking in the jungle. Snap out of it, man. You’re embarrassing both of us.”
Logan held up both hands. “I’m just telling it like I see it.”
“I’d get my vision checked if I were you.”
Logan had laughed uproariously and shortly after that, he’d taken off to meet Grace.
It was a new low in brotherly accusations, Aidan thought as he took another bite of his fully loaded cheeseburger. He still couldn’t believe his own brother had charged him with being in love with Ellie. It was worse than pitiable. It was a sad, sad cliché. Now that Logan had gone and gotten married, he wanted everyone else to be in love. Well, good luck with that.
Aidan shook his head again, feeling nothing but sorry for Logan. He felt sorry for Grace, too, because his brother was clearly in need of psychiatric care.
On the other hand, he mused, Logan was right about one thing. Ellie was gorgeous. Of course, Logan had no idea just how gorgeous since he wasn’t the one who’d seen her in that bikini. A good thing, too, because Aidan would have to kill him if he had.
That had nothing to do with love, by the way, he assured himself. That was just pure male defensive action. No man wanted other guys checking out the woman he was… Aidan frowned. The woman he was currently having sex with. Right. That’s all it was.
The image of Ellie in her dripping wet bikini halted his thought process for a few minutes before he managed to get his mind back to the subject at hand. Logan and his wacko thinking.
Yes, his brother was right when he said that Aidan liked Ellie. Why wouldn’t he? They had worked together closely for four years now, and Ellie traveled with Aidan any time they went to meet with investors. The two of them agreed on almost everything and had a great time together whenever they traveled together. Negotiations were always more fun when Ellie was there with him. Aidan loved watching her come up with all sorts of obscure facts and figures in an instant to impress the investors and their accountants.
Okay, Aidan didn’t actually mean that he loved watching her do those tricks with numbers. He just meant that he liked it. He was impressed and entertained by her. That’s all. He didn’t mean love, as in I love you. He just meant…
“Oh hell, enough already,” he muttered, and stuffed a French fry into his mouth. “Chill out. Jeez.”
This was all Logan’s fault. His brother had wigged out over the whole love issue and now Aidan was second-guessing every last word in his head.
Funny how Logan was the big “love expert” these days, considering that both of them had once felt the same way about that useless emotion. Part of their cynicism had come from the complete lack of love their mother had shown them and their father. But their scorn had grown with their life on the surfing circuit, where every woman they’d met had seemed more than willing to pledge her eternal love just to get close to the celebrated twin brothers. Love was a joke.
Hell, his brother had been even more scornful about love than Aidan, considering that the one time Logan had actually convinced himself he was in love, he’d gone and married a woman who had cheated on him to her dying day. She’d put on a good show, but she hadn’t known the meaning of love, never mind commitment and faithfulness.
Of course, once Grace had come into Logan’s life, he’d changed his mind about all of it. Grace was the real thing, and Aidan couldn’t blame his brother for falling in love with her. But did that mean that Aidan had to follow in lockstep? Why would he bother to fall in love with one woman when he could have his choice of so many? It was a no-brainer.
Lately, of course, the only woman he was interested in was Ellie. They were having a good time together and would continue to do so as long as it lasted. Didn’t mean he was in love, despite his brother’s deranged insistence.
He never should’ve said anything to Logan. He had a feeling he was going to regret that lapse in judgment for a long time.
“Hell, I love this burger,” Aidan exclaimed scornfully. Then he popped the last juicy bite into his mouth. “There. See? That’s true love for you.”
*
It was early in the morning two days later when Ellie walked to the office and came upon Grace digging in the hard sand around the base of a coco palm tree. The research scientist was dressed for gardening and wore a straw hat with a wide brim to protect her from the strong rays of the sun.
Ellie had become friends with Grace through Serena and Dee, a waitress who worked in the bar. Ellie called out a greeting and Grace waved, then jumped up to give her a hug.
“I haven’t seen you in ages,” Grace said. “Not since we got back from our honeymoon.”
“I don’t have to ask if you had a good time,” Ellie said. “I can tell just by looking at you.”
“It was heavenly,” Grace admitted. “But I’ll tell you all about it when we girls get together this weekend.”
“Can’t wait to hear all the details,” Ellie said, then glanced around at the trees. “Are you out here hunting for more spores?”
Everyone knew that Grace had come to the island originally to collect the rare Allerian spores for her research. That’s when she’d met Logan and they’d fallen in love.
“Yes, this area of the grove is riddled with the little darlings,” Grace said, and glanced up at the sky. “Morning’s the best time to find them, before the sun gets too hot. I’ve done all I can do today.”
Ellie knew Grace loved her spores, and who could blame her? The Allerian spores had provided the means by which she had discovered several new methods for treating some of the worst diseases known to mankind.
“I’m so glad,” Ellie said. “And I heard that your laboratory is almost finished.”
“It is.” Grace grinned. “Logan added a generous bonus to the deal if the men could get it finished ahead of schedule, so it’ll be ready to move in next week. I’m thrilled, as you can imagine, and Logan went out and bought every piece of lab equipment ever created, so I can’t wait to get to work.”
“That’s wonderful,” Ellie said. “Your research is so important and it’s such an honor to have you here with us.”
“Oh, aren’t you sweet?” Grace said. She glanced down at the ground where she’d left a basket filled with gloves and lab supplies. “Will you wait while I gather up my stuff? I’ll walk with you to the office.”
“I’d like that.”
A minute later, the two women were headed toward the executive offices at the resort. Grace frowned thoughtfully at her friend. “You look different, Ellie.”
“I do?” Ellie said, and laughed. “I’m not sure how to take that. Good different or bad different?”
“Definitely good,” Grace assured her. “You look really happy.”
“Do I?” Ellie said softly. “I guess that’s because I am.”
“It must be because of Aidan. Oh!” Grace slapped her hand over her mouth. “That’s none of my business.”
“I don’t mind,” Ellie said. “The island is like a small town, isn’t it? Everyone knows everyone else’s business. But I love it. And I like that I have friends who care about me enough to gossip behind my back.”
Grace’s eyes widened. “Oh, Ellie, we didn’t… I mean, we wouldn’t… Oh, dear. I’m embarrassed.”
Ellie burst out laughing. “Are you kidding? Don’t be. I love it. I didn’t have many friends growing up, so now that I do, I love everything that goes along with having friends. Including gossip.”
“Oh, but that’s just wrong.”
“Maybe,” Ellie said, “but do you honestly believe we didn’t talk about you while you were gone?”
Grace laughed. “I certainly hope you did. And you know, I don’t mind at all. As long as nothing too vicious was said.”
Ellie patted Grace’s arm. “No one could ever say a vicious word about you.”
“Same goes for you. I got your back, girlfriend.”
They smiled in complete harmony.
“So that’s cleared up,” Grace said. “Now let’s hear all about Aidan. What happened when. And how and why and where. Start at the beginning and don’t stop until I’ve heard all the pertinent details.”
Ellie laughed. She was so lucky to have girlfriends after so many years of hiding from people, that now she had no qualms at all about telling Grace everything. She told her about her spur-of-the-moment decision to start a family and the sperm bank and Aidan’s offer and how she’d decided to take him up on it.
“I must say I agree with you on that point,” Grace said. “A big, handsome man in the flesh beats the heck out of an anonymous turkey baster any day of the week.”
“And Aidan is so wonderful,” Ellie confided. “I’m seeing a side of him I never knew existed. He’s funny and caring and kind and…well, I guess I knew he was all that, but it just seems that the more time I spend with him, the more I care about him.”
She didn’t add that it worried her, but it did. Her feelings seemed to grow stronger every day and if she wasn’t careful, the little crush she’d always had on him could develop into a full-on love that she would never recover from. Just like her mother. It was the stupidest thing Ellie could possibly allow to happen.
And in case she’d forgotten, as soon as she became pregnant, their temporary situation would be over. Aidan wouldn’t need to be with her anymore. There would be no reason to see him except during regular business hours. And though she knew it was for the best, that brought a little ache to Ellie’s heart.
She’d known going into the deal that Aidan had no intention of going beyond what they’d agreed to do. Once she was pregnant, he would go back to dating the bikini babes who came to the island looking for some short-term action. Aidan didn’t believe in long-term relationships. He’d made that clear from the very beginning.
So right then and there, she renewed her vow to stay strong in the face of those feelings that could destroy her. Still, a tiny wishful part of her was just as determined to keep the dream going for as long as possible and pretend that she and Aidan were more than just temporary lovers.
She suddenly remembered it was Grace she was talking to and quickly added, “Oh, but Logan is wonderful, too, Grace. I just never had as much of a connection with him as I do with Aidan.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Grace said with a light laugh. “Otherwise, I would’ve had to kill you.”
*
At noon a few days later, Ellie walked down the hall to Logan’s office, where she would join the brothers for their first private partners’ lunch. Ellie was relieved that ever since Logan had returned from his honeymoon, he had welcomed her into the partnership with open arms.
Once they were seated and the catering crew had served their crab salads, Logan held up his glass of sparkling water and toasted her. “Welcome to the penthouse suite, Ellie.”
“Yes, welcome,” Aidan said. “Of course, since we’re on the first floor you can’t take that too literally.”
It didn’t really matter, Ellie thought, glancing around. Logan’s office was the mirror image of Aidan’s and was essentially a large hotel suite. It was furnished in a casually elegant style with modern furniture arranged to form a comfortable conversation area at one end of the room with a fully functioning office at the other. In between was a conference table and chairs where they were seated for their lunch.
The best part of the room was the view. One entire wall of sliding glass doors opened onto a private terrace. The view beyond the terrace was of the white sand beach and blue water of the bay. Graceful coco palm trees swayed in the breeze.
As the three of them began to eat, Logan led the conversation. “I don’t know if Aidan told you, but we’ve been thinking of making you a partner for months now. Right before I left for my honeymoon, we decided to take care of it as soon as I got back.”
“I told her,” Aidan admitted to Logan, then flashed Ellie a half smile. “Before he left on his honeymoon, we talked about the fact that he would be gone for three weeks. That can be a long time in this business. It got us thinking that it was time to bring someone in who knows the business as well as we do and who we respect and have complete confidence in.”
“That’s you, Ellie,” Logan said.
“Thank you, Logan,” she said. She hadn’t thought about it until that moment, but it was no wonder she’d received the partnership agreement so quickly. The lawyers had probably had it written up and waiting for the past few weeks.
“No, thank you,” Logan insisted. “We consider you an essential part of the team.”
“I consider myself that, too. Thank you both for placing your trust in me. I won’t let you down.”
“You never have,” Aidan said, watching her closely.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well, I can only take these compliments for another hour or so, then I think we should get to work.”
The men laughingly agreed and soon they were dealing with Logan’s agenda for the next six months. First new business was a time-share project they planned to discuss with their investors next month. It would mean a trip to New York and Ellie’s mind wandered to an image of her and Aidan spending a romantic weekend in New York City. Walks in Central Park, a romantic dinner at—
“Ellie can handle that right away,” Aidan said.
“Good.” Logan nodded as he read over his agenda and made notes. “Cross that off the list. What’s next?”
“What?” Ellie said, suddenly aware that she’d missed an entire agenda item. “Handle…sure, I can do that. Um, what?” Good grief! Ellie wanted to crawl out of the room. This was so not a good time to turn into a flake. She cleared her throat, tapped her pen on the table surface and tried to sound businesslike. “I apologize. I was trying to calculate what size advance team we’ll need to line up for the New York trip.” She turned to Aidan. “Exactly what would you like me to handle?”
The look he gave her was provocative enough to make her squirm in her chair. Had she really asked that question out loud? Double entendre, anyone?
“I’d like you to handle the Bryson project,” Aidan said softly, his subtext unashamedly obvious. To Ellie, at least. She only hoped Logan was too busy taking notes to notice.
Was this tingling, yearning feeling going to crop up every time she was in the same office with Aidan? How would she ever get her work done? Would Logan regret offering her the partnership if he caught her making moon eyes at his brother whenever they sat at the same conference table together? Good grief. She had to straighten up and get back to business. Otherwise, she was doomed.
Twenty minutes later, the lunch meeting ended and Ellie couldn’t run out of there fast enough.
*
Two weeks later on a Saturday morning, Ellie paced barefoot on the cool tile floor of her sunny kitchen, waiting, watching, wondering how five minutes could seem like six hours when one was anticipating that a little pink cross might appear in the window of the pregnancy test stick.
But five minutes passed and there was no cross. Ten minutes later, she checked again. No cross. No nothing.
So she wasn’t pregnant.
“Okay,” she whispered, tossing the stick into the trash can under the sink. “Just means we’ll have to keep trying.”
Naturally, a big part of her was disappointed to know there was no tiny person starting to grow inside her. But she tried to be philosophical about it. She would get pregnant when it was meant to happen.
It wasn’t like she hadn’t been trying hard enough. That wasn’t the issue. In fact, the opposite was true. She and Aidan had been almost fanatical in their effort to accomplish their mission by having sex as often as possible over the past few weeks. By now Ellie should’ve been exhausted and ready to call it quits, but she wasn’t crazy. There was no way she was about to stop having sex with Aidan.
At the very thought of Aidan with his broad shoulders, dark blue eyes, windswept hair and long legs stalking across the office to yank her into his strong arms and ravish her, Ellie felt a tingle of excitement zing across her shoulders and down her spine. Another flashing image had him sliding his talented hands along her sensitive skin as his tongue brushed over her breasts, and that tingle burst into a thousand tiny jolts of electricity that zigzagged everywhere throughout her body and caused her knees to turn weak.
“Oh, my,” she murmured as she stumbled to sit down at her kitchen table. This would probably be a good time to call Aidan to request that he drop by her house as soon as possible. To work. On their mission. Immediately.
Call her insatiable, but Ellie was having the time of her life. And while the lines might have started to blur between her serious mission to become pregnant and her giddiness over Aidan’s stated desire to find new and inventive ways to have sex with her, she certainly appreciated his devotion to her cause. More than that, she appreciated all the thrilling new experiences he’d introduced her to.
She’d never had sex up against a wall before, for instance. Or on a conference room table. Or on the deck of a catamaran in the middle of Alleria Bay. Or on a chaise longue by the pool at midnight.
That tingle was back and her heart was starting to beat a little faster. And in case she started to worry, she reminded herself that she wasn’t obsessed with Aidan. She was just having great sex with a gorgeous man. Nothing wrong with that. She wasn’t turning into her mother; she was simply enjoying this wonderful time with Aidan.
So she refused to feel sorry for herself for not having accomplished her objective to be pregnant just yet. In fact, she was excited to be able to continue with their sexual encounters. She would just have to remember to ask Aidan to try a little harder the next time.