Free A Baby of Convenience by Lena Skye Page B

living room.
     
    Neal knew he wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep at this point. His mind was wide awake and his body felt strangely alive, but his thoughts were troubled. He was starting to doubt the success of his plan. So many things could go wrong. Elena could take a long time to get pregnant. She might not get pregnant at all. The doctor he had found to alter the paternity test might back out at the last minute. So many factors counted and so many little strings, all pulling in different directions.
     
    Neal had looked at the situation from every angle, but Harry had explained everything to him. The codicil was airtight. The only way the family fortune could stay in the family was if George had a child. Neal tried not to feel too hurt by the fact that he wasn’t the next logical inheritor after his brother’s children, but he forced the hurt from his mind; he knew he had no right to it. He had never been interested in the company and he had said so on many different occasions.
     
    A small part of Neal was forced to admit that perhaps refusing interest in the company was his way of punishing his father for being so absent in his life. After all, all that time spent away from him, was time spent nurturing the business. Again, Neal felt a wave of shame. His pettiness surprised him and he suddenly remembered what Elena had told him that evening.
     
    Neal wondered if she was right. If embracing a shallow life had been an attempt to turn himself into a shallow person, and if that were the case, he wondered if it had succeeded. He looked back on his life the past year, and he had to admit that perhaps he was. Neal went to the little side table where he kept his keys. He opened the left drawer and stared at George’s house key innocently sitting there.
     
    He hadn’t been able to summon the courage to visit his brother’s house since news of the plane crash had been announced. He felt nauseous every time he thought of going. Neal sat outside on his modest terrace, and watched the sun come up. Then he closed his eyes and thought of his brother.
     
    “Neal?”
     
    Neal turned around to see Elena by the open sliding door. She had put her clothes back on, and her hair was disheveled. She looked very young, standing there in his doorway, looking at him through squinting eyes.
    “You’re up early,” he commented, getting up and walking back inside.
     
    She went in and sat on one of the bar stools.
     
    “I didn’t sleep very well,” she admitted, trying to rub the exhaustion from her eyes, “but your bed was amazing. So comfortable.”
     
    “You should go back to it, try and get some more sleep then,” Neal suggested.
     
    “I can do that in my own apartment.” Elena reminded him.
     
    “Is your bed better than mine?”
     
    She smiled. “It isn’t.”
     
    “Then you should stay.”
     
    “But –"
     
    “Listen,” Neal said, cutting her off as he walked to his drawer and picked out his spare key, “take this. You can come back later in the day.”
     
    “You’re giving me your spare key?”
     
    “I trust you.”
     
    Elena smiled. “What are your plans for the day?”
     
    “I have to head into Hargrove Brothers for a little while this morning, but I’ll be back by one.”
     
    “So,” Elena said uncertainly, “should I come back around that time?”
     
    “Yes. Maybe it would be best if you moved in for a little while.”
     
    Elena raised her eyebrows.
     
    “Just until you’re pregnant,” Neal clarified quickly, “it’ll make things easier. We’ll need to have sex as much as possible in the next few days.”
     
    Neal might have laughed if the situation had not been so very desperate. Elena considered his offer for a moment and then nodded in agreement.
     
    “I’ll bring a bag over when I come back this evening.”
     
       ***
     
    Cliff was already in the board room when Neal walked in. His expression was sanguine and calm and that made Neal’s blood boil. He couldn’t