Precious Surprises

Seven

Emma anxiously stepped out of her cab outside the Wall Street Heliport. Before she headed inside, she made certain to adjust her jumpsuit and ensure everything was in place. It was all fine. She looked amazing in the jumpsuit, something she never would’ve believed until she looked in the mirror at the store and noticed her jaw had dropped along with Harper’s.

She took a deep breath, swung her uncharacteristically loose brunette waves over her shoulder and headed inside. Looking around the small waiting room, she didn’t see Jonah anywhere at first. Only a few of the seats were taken, mostly with families awaiting helicopter tours around Manhattan. Then she noticed a tall, slim man in a dark gray suit at the window with his back to her. Could it be?

As though he sensed her arrival, the man turned around to look at her, and she was surprised to see it was Jonah standing there. He was wearing a royal blue dress shirt, almost the same shade as her jumpsuit, but it was unbuttoned at the collar, with no tie in sight. Even then, the effect was amazing. The suit coat highlighted his broad shoulders and the narrow hips she remembered cradling between her thighs. The blue of the shirt made his eyes an even deeper shade, like the darkest waters of the ocean.

Standing there with his hands casually stuffed into his pants pockets, he looked every inch the powerful CEO of a software empire. And yet, he had been right about it being an unnecessary accessory. He didn’t need an expensive suit to command the attention of every person in the room. The crisp lines and exquisite tailoring on his body were just the delicious icing on the man cake that made her heart race in her chest and her resolve weaken.

Emma had to remind herself that although this felt like a date, it wasn’t really. He didn’t know who she was and she couldn’t be certain of his motives for asking her out. Besides, being blackmailed into dinner was not a date. And yet she couldn’t help preening as he took his turn looking her over from head to toe. She went with it, ignoring everyone else in the waiting area and giving him a little spin to showcase the bare back and the fit that clung to her curves. If he was a little uncomfortable all night, all the better.

His pleased smirk convinced her it was the right choice of outfit for the evening. When he was finished admiring her, she approached the window and closed the gap between them. “Good evening, Mr. Flynn.”

“Tonight, of all nights,” he insisted, “it’s Jonah. You can call me Mr. Flynn at work tomorrow if you insist.”

“I suppose that depends on how tonight goes,” she added with a smile, and then turned to look at the helicopters waiting just outside. “So when will our ride be ready?”

“It’s ready now.” Jonah turned to the desk and gestured to the man at the counter. The attendant buzzed them out and Jonah pushed open the door that led to the helipad. “Just waiting on you.”

Stepping outside, she was glad it was a calm day, not too windy. Emma had been in a helicopter twice with her parents. Sometimes her father needed to be able to get back from the Hamptons for a work emergency faster than a car or train would allow. It had never been her favorite mode of travel, but the unsteady movement didn’t bother her, thankfully. Even so, she was sucking on a ginger candy to soothe her stomach just in case. She would not be remembered by Jonah as the woman who puked in the helicopter.

As they approached the sleek black helicopter, the pilot waved to them. He and Jonah helped her up inside and once she was buckled in, Jonah climbed in beside her and shut the door.

“Where are we going to dinner?” she asked as the blades started to spin overhead.

“It’s a surprise.”

“Of course it is,” Emma muttered, but her voice was drowned out by the sound of the helicopter.

Jonah offered her a headset to wear and she accepted it. It muffled the engine sounds and allowed her to speak to the others without shouting. She didn’t have much to say at first. It was a clear day and she was too busy admiring her city. New York by helicopter was a truly amazing sight. You could get up close to the architectural wonders, unlike taking a plane, and without getting bogged down by the traffic and the noise of being on the ground.

She thought they might be heading toward Long Island, but then the helicopter turned and headed farther north. They could be heading to Boston, perhaps. Or Martha’s Vineyard. It was high season there.

“Stop trying to guess,” Jonah said to her through the headsets. “I can see it all over your face. You’re not going to be right and it will make you crazy trying to figure it out. Just relax and enjoy the flight.”

Emma smirked and flopped back against her seat. She supposed he was right. Instead of looking for clues, she glanced out the window to take in the view. When she turned back to Jonah a few minutes later, she noticed he was intently watching her instead of the landscape speeding by.

“I suppose the view bores you when you’ve seen it repeatedly.”

“Not at all,” he said. “I’ve just got something more intriguing to look at this time.”

Emma gasped softly, but didn’t know what to say. Instinctively, she held her breath as he leaned close to her and put his arm around her shoulder. She started to worry that he would be able to see down her top from this angle, but it was hard to focus on that when she could smell his cologne and feel the warm press of his leg against hers.

“Thank you for agreeing to have dinner with me.”

“You didn’t really give me a choice,” she replied, mostly in jest.

Jonah only shrugged. “I know. And I apologize for that. I guess I just wasn’t sure what to do when you kept turning me down.”

“Taking the hint was always an option.”

“Yes.” He laughed. “And I would have if your eyes were sending the same message as your mouth. But I could see you were conflicted, so I thought I’d give you a little push in the right direction.”

“Threatening to get me fired is not a little push. That’s blackmail.”

Jonah winced. “Agreed. It was a drastic step on my part. But I wouldn’t have called your boss, for the record. I was bluffing.”

Emma crossed her arms over her chest, realizing too late that it gave him a tantalizing view of her cleavage. His blue eyes flickered down for only a moment before returning to hers. She was surprised by his restraint.

“Even if you’re mad at me, by the end of the night, we will have kissed and made up,” he said confidently.

Emma couldn’t help but arch an eyebrow at him. “You’re just used to getting your way, aren’t you?”

“Usually.”

She eyed the full swell of his bottom lip as he spoke, remembering those lips as they sucked salt and lime juice from her body at the Mardi Gras party. The memory sent a flush of heat to her cheeks that she was certain he could see. She turned away from him, looking out as the sun started to set and lights began twinkling in the distance.

“Perhaps not this time,” she said, both hoping she was right and knowing she was wrong. Every minute she spent with Jonah, the more convinced she was that she wouldn’t be able to resist him much longer.

“Mr. Flynn, we’re about five minutes from landing.”

Jonah smiled and pulled away from her. “Excellent. See, now it didn’t take very long to get here, did it?”

Emma glanced at her phone in her purse. It had been a little over forty minutes. Not far enough for Boston. Too far for the Hamptons. She didn’t recognize the skyline, but it was a smaller town on the water. She could see the shore. Within minutes, they came to a gentle, bouncing landing on top of a bank building.

“We’re going to a bank?”

“Very funny. I’m actually friends with the president of this bank. He’s the only one that uses the helipad and said we were welcome to make use of it tonight. It’s that or fly all the way to the outskirts of town to the airport and charter a car to drive us right back here. This way we’re only a block from the restaurant.”

They slipped off their headsets and unfastened their seat belts. The pilot opened the door of the cabin and they stepped out onto the tarmac. “I’ll be waiting on you, sir,” he said.

“Thank you,” Jonah replied before taking Emma’s hand and leading her to the rooftop door. They took the elevator down to the lobby and exited onto a quiet street in a quaint-looking seaside village she didn’t recognize.

They walked about a block before she saw a taxi go by advertising a place that claimed to have the finest seafood in Newport. Newport, Rhode Island? She’d never been there before, although she knew it had once been a very popular summer retreat for the wealthy of New England. It was famous for its huge mansions only blocks from the sea.

Emma kept her suspicions to herself until they reached a building just off the harbor that looked like an old Georgian-style inn with white siding, dormer windows and the charm of an old-fashioned seaport village. The sign hanging overhead read Restaurant Bouchard & Inn.

“Here we are,” Jonah announced as they climbed the short staircase that led inside. “The best French restaurant I’ve found on this side of the Atlantic.”

The maître d’ greeted them, noted their arrival in his book and escorted them to a table beside one of the large bay windows. Once they were alone with their menus of the day, Jonah leaned across the table. “Anything you order here will be amazingly delicious and beautiful. Their chef makes food into art. Tasty art at that.”

Emma scanned the menu, desperately hoping her three years of high school French would assist her in not sounding foolish tonight when she ordered. Madame Colette would be so disappointed in her for mangling such a beautiful language. She had finally decided on a ratatouille ravioli starter and the rosemary lamb chops when the sommelier arrived at the table.

“Wine?” Jonah asked with a pointed look.

Emma was about to request a dry red to go with the lamb when she realized she wasn’t allowed to drink. The last week of her life had been so different it was easy to forget about her situation. “None for me, please. I’d just like some seltzer with a twist of lime.”

Jonah ordered a single glass of cabernet for himself. When the waiter came to take their order a few minutes later, she made her selections and he opted for the stuffed lobster starter and the sautéed duck breast with brandied balsamic glaze.

Emma was surprised by his flawless French accent as he ordered. As the waiter stepped away, Jonah turned to her with a mildly amused expression on his face. “What? Do you think that just because I wear jeans every day and play video games for a living that I wasn’t properly educated in expensive British preparatory schools like most ridiculously rich kids?”

Emma frowned and looked down at the glass of seltzer in front of her. She was bad at making presumptions where he was concerned. He was just so different from what she was used to. It made her wish she did have wine to drown her embarrassment. “No, I’m just a little surprised—and jealous—of how flawless your accent is.”

“You should hear my Japanese.”

She looked back up, truly stunned this time. “You speak Japanese?”

“If you want to be successful in the Japanese video game market, you have to. I also speak Spanish and I’m learning Mandarin as we expand further into the Asian markets. I’m an accomplished pianist and was the captain of my rowing team at Harvard, although that was just to appease my parents. I would’ve much rather been indoors playing games or romancing the ladies. As you can see, there’s a lot more to me than meets the eye, Emma. The same could be said of you.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, feeling suddenly anxious at the turn of their discussion. “I’m just boring, uptight Emma the accountant.”

“You’re selling yourself short. For starters, you’re great at keeping secrets.”

Emma stiffened in her seat and swallowed hard. “Secrets? I don’t—”

Jonah raised his hand to silence her protests. “Now that we’re away from New York and the prying eyes of anyone that might care besides the two of us, I can say as much. And you can finally be truthful with me. Because you’ve known. All this time, you’ve known who I was and you didn’t say anything to me about it.”

The steely edge in Jonah’s voice sent her spine straight in a defensive posture. When she looked into his eyes, however, she didn’t see the anger she expected. Just hurt. The jovial, carefree CEO had a tender spot and she’d managed to find it without trying.

“We had something special and you don’t seem to care about it at all. Why didn’t you tell me the moment you realized who I was?” He slipped his hand, palm down, across the white linen tablecloth to expose his half of the tattoo, then wrapped his fingers around her hand.

It was happening. The moment she’d been dreading since he walked into his office and turned her world upside down. “I couldn’t,” she said in a hushed whisper.

“You absolutely could! You’ve had dozens of opportunities to speak up.”

“No.” Emma pulled her hand away into her lap and sat back to regain some of her personal space. “Up until this moment, we weren’t just Emma and Jonah, we were the Game Town auditor and the CEO of FlynnSoft. Yes, I knew the moment I shook your hand, but I wasn’t sure what to do. I know it’s hard for you to understand, but I wanted to do my job first. I’ve been doing my damnedest to finish this audit, despite your constant distractions, so I could put it behind me and finally come to you and tell you the truth about everything.”

Jonah nodded, acknowledging her struggle. “You mean about the baby.”

* * *

Emma’s green eyes widened in panic and Jonah felt his own pulse speed up in his throat. She wasn’t expecting him to say that at all. He’d uncovered all her secrets, it seemed.

“How did you...?” She shook her head in denial.

“I saw you in the gym the other night after work.”

She continued to shake her head, letting her gaze drop to her lap. “I knew I heard someone as I was leaving. It was stupid of me to wear that outfit, but I didn’t even think about it as I packed it. No one was around and I’ve really just started to show recently, so I didn’t think anyone would notice. Especially you. You were supposed to be out at dinner.” She glanced up with an accusing look in her eye.

Jonah felt his chest tighten more and more the longer she spoke. Not because of her pointed look, but because up until this moment, the baby had been a suspicion, not a fact. Yes, she skipped the wine, but she could just not like it. Yes, she had a little tummy, but she could’ve overindulged. He was no expert where pregnant women were concerned.

Now it was confirmed.

He was going to be a father. A father. He’d taken every precaution, and yet fate had laughed in his face and put him in this position anyway. He reached out to brace his hand on the edge of the table and squeezed his eyes shut. “My dinner meeting got canceled, so I came back to lift some weights. I’m usually alone in there. And yes, I sure as hell noticed. I noticed the tattoo and I noticed the...stomach. I wasn’t sure until now, but I noticed.”

Emma slumped back against her seat and dropped her face into her hand. “This wasn’t how I wanted you to find out, Jonah. I’m sorry. I wasn’t keeping it from you forever. I was going to tell you.”

Jonah’s head snapped up and his gaze pinned hers. “Were you?” He wasn’t so sure. Sometimes she looked at him as though he were something stuck to her shoe, not the father of her child.

“I swear I was. Like I said, I wanted to finish the audit, do my job without any whispers of impropriety, but then yes, I was going to tell you who I am and that I’m pregnant. If I’d known how to contact you two months ago, I would’ve done it then, but by the time I figured it out, I was already involved in the audit. That said, I’ve been scared to death to tell you the truth.”

Jonah swallowed hard and furrowed his brow. He was far from a hulking, intimidating person that people were scared of. He picked up his glass of wine and took a large sip to slow his spinning brain. “Why?”

Emma pulled her gaze from his and crossed her arms protectively over her chest. “It’s like I told you that night—I’m not the woman you think I am. I knew that you wanted her, the wild and passionate anonymous stranger, not me. I couldn’t bear to see the look on your face when you realized that I was that girl and the fantasy was shattered forever. I’m just boring old, stick-in-the-mud Emma. And to make matters worse, then I’d have to tell you that we were stuck together for the sake of our baby.”

“Stuck together?” Jonah flinched at her choice of words. Is that how she saw her situation? She was stuck with him because they screwed up and she got pregnant?

The waiter returned with imperfect timing, placing each of their appetizers in front of them and disappearing silently when he sensed the tension between them.

“You know what I mean!” Emma leaned in and whispered harshly across the table at him. “Even if you were disappointed beyond belief to find out it was me, even if you never wanted to lay another hand on me again, I’m having your child, Jonah. I would hope that you would want to be a part of his or her life, even if I’m just on the periphery.”

Jonah didn’t know what to say. He honestly didn’t know how he wanted to move forward where Emma and the baby were concerned. His thoughts were spinning too quickly to light on one in particular. His strict upbringing nagged at him to marry her on the spot. Mother would insist when she found out. Noah could embezzle three million dollars, but it would be Jonah’s scandal of an out-of-wedlock child that would be the biggest family disgrace in her eyes. Emma wasn’t the only one constantly worried about gossip.

At the same time, his rebellious nature insisted that people didn’t get married in this day and age just because they were having a baby. He and Emma hardly knew each other, much less loved each other. Coparenting was a more popular thing for people who didn’t want to make the previous generations’ mistakes and stick out a miserable marriage for the sake of the children.

What did he want? Jonah had no idea. He’d barely become accustomed to the concept of fatherhood, but he certainly never imagined that Emma would just be on the periphery, no matter the scenario.

“Emma...to start off, you’re not a disappointment. Look at me,” he demanded, and then reached across the table and took her hand, gripping tightly so she couldn’t pull away from him again. Once she reluctantly met his gaze with her own, he continued. “I mean it. While this is all a surprise, I can assure you that disappointment has never crossed my mind.”

She studied his face with disbelief lining her weary eyes. How had he not noticed how tired she looked? He’d been blinded tonight by flawless makeup and the silky jumpsuit he wanted to run his hands over. Now that he was really looking, he could see the sense of overwhelming stress and exhaustion in her eyes. She was working too much, and too hard, in her condition. They’d discuss that before long.

“But I’m not the woman you wanted, Jonah. I’m not wild and sexually adventurous. I’d never done body shots or had a one-night stand before. I’d certainly never have a tattoo if it weren’t for that night. Everything you saw and liked about me was out of character. I mean, I... I don’t even know what I’m doing here. Coming with you tonight was a mistake.”

Emma moved fast, slipping out of the booth and taking the nearest door out to the back patio that overlooked the water.

“Emma?” Jonah rushed after her, catching her wrist as she leaned over the railing seemingly looking for an escape. What was she going to do? Swim away from him? All the way back to New York?

“Emma! Would you just stop and listen to me?” he demanded as she tugged at his grip. She finally turned around to face him, leaning her back against the railing. He instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist. He knew immediately that pressing against each other like this wasn’t the best idea to keep his focus, but at the very least, he could convince her that he was attracted to her.

“Jonah, I want to go home.”

“If that’s what you want, I will, but not until you hear me out. I sat there and listened to all your excuses for lying to me. You owe me the opportunity to tell you how I feel, whether you believe me or not.”

Emma finally stilled in his arms, although her gaze was fixed on the buttons of his shirt. He breathed a sigh of relief that he could finally focus his thoughts on telling her how he felt. This was important.

“I want you to know that you’re totally and completely wrong.” Jonah pulled aside the blue silk strap of her jumpsuit to expose her shoulder and upper chest. He placed his hand over the curve of her breast as he’d done that first night. Their tattoos aligned, creating one heart again at last. Emma looked down at the heart with tears shimmering in her eyes, but she didn’t say anything.

“These tattoos weren’t just something I suggested on a whim, Emma. They were supposed to be instruments of fate. This heart becoming whole again would only happen if it was meant to. Yes, we don’t know much about each other, but now is our second chance to make that happen. Not just because of the baby, but because we’ve been brought together again to do just that.”

“Jonah...” she started to argue.

“No,” he silenced her. “From the moment I saw you sitting in my office, I’ve had this pull towards you that I couldn’t explain. It was the same feeling that led me to rescue a pretty stranger from a creep at a party. I didn’t know why then and I don’t know why now, but I know I’m not letting this second chance slip between our fingers. I don’t know how it’s going to end. No one ever does. This might not be forever. It might not turn into the love affair of the century. But we owe it to ourselves, and to our child, to at least try and see where it can take us.”

She sighed and relaxed into his touch. “And what if my company finds out? I’ll lose my job. They’ll never believe that I can be impartial. I have a vested interest in the successful business dealings of my baby’s father.”

Her mention of the audit was enough to remind Jonah of why he started romancing his auditor to begin with. Yes, he’d been drawn to her, but he’d stuck it out to cover Noah’s ass and keep from botching the Game Town deal. He hadn’t heard from his accountant in days, and that wasn’t good. Sooner or later, she was going to find the discrepancy. If he couldn’t keep it from her, there was a part of him that hoped maybe she wouldn’t mention it in her report as a favor to him. That he could explain it away somehow.

“Can you be impartial, Emma?” he asked.

Her green eyes met his with a hard glint shining in them. Her spine straightened and her pointed chin thrust forward in the defiant response he seemed to coax out of her so easily. “Yes. Despite what Tim thinks, I’m first and foremost a professional and I will do my job.”

Jonah didn’t doubt that at all. That’s exactly what he was afraid of. But for now, he needed to salvage tonight and worry about Noah’s mess tomorrow. “Then there’s nothing your boss could say or do to prove otherwise. Now come back inside and eat that amazing-looking dinner with me.”

Emma sighed and nodded. She slipped the strap of her jumpsuit back over her shoulder, hiding away the tattoo and removing the temptation of her bare skin.

They went back inside, crisis averted, and yet Jonah couldn’t help but feel a new sense of worry. The audit for Game Town was at risk and it had nothing to do with Emma and everything to do with Jonah.