naked, his powerful masculinity all hers for the night...if she postponed telling him about her pregnancy.
The temptation to keep that vital piece of news to herself was suddenly very strong. Leo might value freedom above everything else but he was a great lover. Why deprive herself of one more sensational experience with him? She could look upon it as a birthday gift to herself.
“Teri?” Leo quizzed her silence.
Her mouth twitched. “Just thinking how good you look, Leo.”
He grinned. “You, too, babe.”
Babe!
She should be thinking of what was between his ears, not his legs. Even more pertinently what was in his heart! Would being a father mean anything to him?
“Here you go, Leo!” Dylan announced, sliding the plate with its steaming appetiser straight onto the weighing machine beside the cash register.
Leo sniffed appreciatively. “Love that sauce, Dylan.”
“Combination of honey, sesame oil and soy sauce,” Dylan confided proudly.
Teri took the printout of the weight, stapled on a customer number, gave the matching number to Leo, then spiked the bill for later payment. “Enjoy,” she said with an encouraging smile.
“Back soon,” he warned both of them and headed for his usual table against the wall from where he could watch all the action.
Dylan set to work grilling the lamb kebabs and Teri did the rounds of the tables, removing used plates while having a bit of chitchat with regulars. She was acutely conscious of Leo’s eyes following her. It was almost like the caressing touch of his hands, shaping her body to his, or that was how it felt to her fevered imagination. His close presence made her so sexually aware, she escaped to the kitchen to sort herself out on some kind of sensible level.
“I’ll do those.” Mel Hudson, her kitchenhand, who was working his way through university, whipped the tray of dirty plates out of her hands. “You go and enjoy yourself with Leo.” And the nineteen-year-old lanky boy winked at her!
Teri huffed and muttered, “He’ll keep.”
Mel proceeded to load the dishwasher, a knowing grin on his face. “The guy’s on toast for you, Ten. You ought to put him out of his misery.”
“When I want your advice, Mel,”—cheeky boy—“I’ll ask for it.”
“It’s your birthday. Give yourself a break.”
She frowned at him. “Who told you it was my birthday?”
“Dylan figured it had to be. The post came when you were out this afternoon and he said there was a whole stack of cards for you.”
Which she’d taken upstairs to the apartment, out of sight, out of mind. Of course, her family meant well, but what woman wanted to be reminded of her thirtieth birthday? “Some people ought to mind their own business,” she remarked darkly.
Mel shrugged. “So what’s the big deal? Take the rest of the night off. Have fun. Dylan and I will finish up and shut up shop.”
“I’m not ready,” she muttered truculently.
“Ready for what?”
“Never you mind.”
She banged some pots and pans around to indicate the conversation was over. Her mind chewed over her state of readiness. Was she ready to go to bed with Leo with him still in ignorance of his fatherhood? Ready to tell him she was pregnant? Ready to suffer his shock, dismay, rejection? This was extremely difficult to sort out.
She liked the man. She liked having him in her life, even if it was on a casual basis. In fact, if she was still a starry-eyed teenager she’d probably say she was in love with Leo Kingston, though from a more mature outlook, that was probably only chemistry. After all, she didn’t know him through and through. Only that he was nice to people, nice to her, fun to be with, and great in bed.
Both Dylan and Mel liked him but that was a manto-man thing. Leo, in their opinion, was a good guy. However, not one of them had any claim on him. Leo breezed in and out and he was much more out than in. Even so, was she really ready to say goodbye to him?
She’d been able to think much more clearly this afternoon. Somehow, Leo’s being here, hitting her with so much vital attraction again, completely muddled her.
“Teri...customer leaving,” Dylan called out.
She hastily pasted a smile on her face and went to handle the departing customer’s payment for dinner. Leo was at the serving counter and Dylan was transferring the lamb kebabs from the grill to a plate that was already piled up with various salads chosen from the buffet table. Teri managed the money transaction smoothly, bade good-night to the family of four who appeared well satisfied, then went through the routine of weighing Leo’s main meal.
“Join me now?” he pressed hopefully.
“Sure she can,” Dylan popped in. “The grill’s off for the night so I can handle the cash takings and Mel will do the rest.”
A birthday conspiracy, Teri concluded, which was really nice, but not exactly timely when she wasn’t ready for the outcome. “Something I’ve got to do upstairs first,” she quickly excused. “Sure you don’t mind filling in for me, Dylan?”
He grinned. “Piece of cake.”
“You look perfect as you are,” Leo remarked warmly, his eyes more than warm. The fire of desire was well and truly kindled.
She gave him a droll look. “If you think I’m going to titivate for you...”
He laughed. “That’s what I love about you, Teri. Always au naturel.”
“Hmmph,” she said, and feeling a blush coming on, made a swift exit.
Love...she ruminated frenziedly over that as she headed upstairs. It was most probably a throwaway word, she argued, like Leo saying he loved Dylan’s sauce. He couldn’t mean he actually loved her.
Was real love ever held at the kind of distance Leo kept? Not in Teri’s understanding of it. However, tagged on to the au naturel remark, it made sense. Oh yes! No doubt about how much he loved tangling with her naked.
And she loved tangling with him naked!
Which was what was making everything so difficult.
She reached her small and rather cluttered living room and raced over to the mantelpiece where she’d lined up her birthday cards. If...if she invited Leo upstairs tonight, she didn’t want him to see them, didn’t want him asking how old she was or bringing out the telling fact that neither of them knew each other’s birthdays.
She bundled them up and was about to shove them into the drawer of her writing desk, when the one on top caused her to pause. It was the big pink flowery one from her parents with the gold inscription—To Our Darling Daughter.
A daughter...
She hadn’t thought past...baby. Even a baby wasn’t quite real to her yet, not enough to put either sex to it. A daughter...or a son...her heart turned over.
Slowly, she laid the cards in the drawer and slid it shut. Then she turned around and leaned back against the desk, her hands creeping up to spread across her flat stomach. As flat as it was, a baby was somewhere in there growing...a little girl or boy...her child...Leo’s child.
She had to tell him.
And it had to be done tonight.
Impossible to make love with this huge secret swimming around in her mind, Leo touching her where their child was actually forming, not knowing about it.
The decision was very clear.
She was ready now...ready to tell Leo she was having his child.
CHAPTER