Morgan's Child (11 page)

* * *

Morgan showed up at the keeper's quarters in the bright hot light of early morning and insisted on accompanying Kate on her trip up the creek to take water samples.

"Why you?" Kate demanded in a tone laced with sarcasm. "Why don't you send that detective friend of yours?"

"Look, Kate, you have no reason to be angry about that," Morgan said, although he felt guilty about Tony Saldone's ongoing investigation. Tony's online search had turned up a lot of info about Kate's dismissal from the place where she'd formerly worked, and he'd promised a full report eventually. Morgan had told him to lay off for the time being. As far as he was concerned, Kate's employment or lack of it had nothing to do with the immediate question of the baby's paternity.

"How would you like it if I'd put a private detective on your tail?" Kate was saying, jamming her hat on her head and barging ahead of him down the path to the water.

"I wouldn't," Morgan said. He hurried after her, hoping to keep the conversation going.

"After all," she said, "I'd like to know what kind of person you are. This baby shouldn't go to just anybody."

"You should have thought of that before you informed me that I was the father," Morgan said.

"Well, I didn't think of it, and I still believe you're the one to raise the baby, but I know nothing about your personal life."

They'd reached the boat. Morgan shoved it off the creek bank and Kate removed her shoes and socks, wading through the shallows until she was able to climb in.

"Careful!" Morgan warned, but she ignored him.

"My personal life is irrelevant," he said calmly, since he'd decided that hers was too. He rowed; Kate busied herself with the water-sample kit.

"Anyway," he continued, when he'd determined that the only response he was going to get from Kate was a long, withering glance, "I'm through with post-divorce craziness. I admit that I lived on the wild side for a while, taking out all kinds of women, staying up late, going to loud parties. But it's over. I'm thirty-eight and ready to settle down again."

"I'm glad to hear that," Kate said, but the remark sounded more caustic than she meant it to be.

"I won't be entertaining women in the house I share with the baby. I don't think it would provide a good atmosphere, and Joanna would read me the riot act if the environment for this child were anything but wholesome."

Kate's look was skeptical.

"Well, you were the one who brought up the subject of my personal life," he reminded her. "I am, after all, a very eligible bachelor."

Was she mistaken, or did she detect a hint of amusement in his voice? Kate stared out over the marsh, able to bear the glare of sun upon water better than the twinkle in Morgan's eyes.

"This baby may end your eligibility," she said.

"Don't be silly," Morgan said. "It will make me even more desirable. Women will fall over themselves for the chance to come over and coo at it."

"This
woman couldn't care less about you and other women as long as you're a good father," Kate said.

"A good father," Morgan mused. He rowed the boat up to the shore and helped Kate out. He slid an arm around her nonexistent waist, but Kate pulled away and splashed through the reeds to shore, where she sat down to put on her shoes and socks.

"What is a good father?" Morgan said when he had beached the boat.

Kate thought for a moment. "My dad was wonderful," she said. "He's a shining example of what a father should be, in my opinion." She took the hand that Morgan offered her and pulled herself to a standing position.

He was right behind her on the path.

"What was your father like? I only met him once," Morgan said.

"Dad was the one who set me on the road to my career. It was his dream to become a marine biologist, but it ended when he was seriously injured while on active duty in the military. He came back to the lighthouse to recuperate and never left."

"How did he make a living out here on the island?"

"We lived in the lighthouse rent free, and he had a small inheritance. Anyway, it was Dad who joined in my island adventures, who patiently answered my questions about marl washed in from the offshore reefs, and who helped me return an octopus in distress to the sea after it washed up on shore during a storm," she said.

"He sounds wonderful," Morgan said.

Kate stopped to catch her breath in the shade of a palmetto tree. "Dad was an admirer of Jacques Cousteau and of Marc Theroux, the famous marine biologist who did such interesting work in the South Pacific. I admired them, too, of course, but I chose my line of work because of my father's early interest," she said.

"He must have been proud of you."

"He was, I think. I wish—" but here she hesitated.

"Wish what?"

"Wish that he hadn't been disappointed," she said curtly. And then, before he could ask her further questions, she resumed the climb up the path.

Morgan followed her, wishing she'd be more forthcoming with information. What motivated her? What brought her happiness? And what, besides his presence, got under her skin?

"Would you mind taking the samples to Gump so he can get them out in this morning's mail?" she said over her shoulder as they approached the lighthouse.

"No problem. I have to go to the Merry Lulu for cell phone coverage anyway," said Morgan.

Kate held the door of the quarters open for Morgan to follow her inside.

"Are you going to be doing anything this afternoon?" Morgan asked.

"It's no business of yours," Kate said, turning away to print the label. She had noticed a sprig of dark curly hair rising above the placket of his polo shirt, distracting her when she'd rather ignore him.
A man doesn't have the right to be so handsome,
she thought.

"If you had an accident, who would save you?"

Kate sighed. "You would, because you're going to be at my heels every minute, aren't you?"

"Yes," he said soberly. "I am."

"I want this baby to be healthy as much as you do," she pointed out.

"I intend to make sure it is."

"Now I know exactly how an oyster feels when accosted by a starfish," Kate said through tight lips as she pasted the label on the bottle.

He looked blank, so she explained.

"Sea stars prey on oysters by wrapping their arms around the oysters. The arms fasten to the oysters' shells with suckers."

"And then what happens?"

Kate shrugged. "The starfish pulls and pulls until the shell opens. The oyster can't hold out forever."

"Is that the way you feel?" he probed, his eyes bright.

"Yes," she said abruptly, but Morgan only smiled his slow smile, and for a moment Kate felt as if the blue of his eyes were blinding her. She was painfully aware of her body, its ovoid shape, its clumsiness.

For a moment she longed to be thin again as she recalled the dream she'd had the previous night. It was one of the oddly erotic dreams she'd started having early in her pregnancy. In the dream she had felt strangely buoyant and light, and her breasts had tingled with the touch of someone's hands, and she'd tossed and turned restlessly until she was fully awake. Afterward she'd reasoned that she woke up only because she had to go to the bathroom.

But that wasn't the only reason, and she knew it. The reason was standing patiently in front of her, emitting vast quantities of pheromones.

Morgan held out his hand for the bottle, and Kate couldn't help noticing that it was the same strong, sinewy hand that she had imagined stroking her body last night, softly urgent and knowledgeable.

What was wrong with her? She had to stop thinking about him! She was in no position to be acting like a moonstruck teenager over Morgan Rhett.

"Kate, it may come as news to you, but I'm not your enemy," Morgan said as he went out the door. She raised cool hands to her hot face, embarrassed that Morgan, knowledgeable bachelor that he was, might have sensed more about her feelings for him than she wanted him to know.

* * *

Thinking about Kate and recalling the way her hands had trembled as she wrote out the label, Morgan decided that he'd have to be a fool not to know what was going on.

She was attracted to him. Not that this was peculiar, since women often were. But she was pregnant. He hadn't thought that pregnant women had sexual feelings.

Of course, they were still
women,
he told himself. It's not as though they lacked the proper equipment to do something about normal sexual urges, although previously he'd supposed that such impulses more or less shut down for the duration of pregnancy.

Now that he thought about it, that was ridiculous. Of course husbands and wives must share erotic moments during the nine months before a baby was born. Married couples would still want to express their love for each other in a physical way.

But Kate was a single woman, and he'd never known a single pregnant woman before. She was new territory, and from the looks of things, she was eager to be explored.

Of course, there was the matter of the detective, which she seemed unwilling to forgive, and she didn't like his following her around the island, which he felt was necessary. Where did that leave them? Morgan wasn't sure, but he knew one thing: he was probably as fascinated by Kate Sinclair as she was by him.

As soon as Morgan arrived on the mainland, he telephoned his assistant. Lavinia told him that no urgent business had presented itself, and the thought occurred to Morgan that he might like not having to attend power lunches. He might even get a chance to find out what blank spaces looked like on his calendar.

"Say, Lavinia," he said in afterthought. "How about sending me a book about pregnancy and childbirth?"

"Preg—?" Clearly Lavinia had a hard time bringing herself to say the word. "You'll have it tomorrow," she finished briskly.

Morgan hung up, bemused. He didn't have to wonder what Lavinia would think if she knew that he was going to be a father. Come to think of it, he'd enjoy breaking the news at the office, and as for what they'd think about it, he didn't care. One of the advantages of being a Rhett was that you never had to explain anything.

But fatherhood seemed far in the future today. Back on Yaupon Island, Morgan sauntered along one of the twisting, moss-hung paths to the lodge end of the island. A red-winged blackbird fluttered across his path, and he brushed aside a gossamer cobweb still beaded with dew-drops.
A guy could get accustomed to peace and quiet,
he thought, understanding all at once why Kate dreaded leaving here.

Not that he liked living at the lodge, which was a big barnlike building with a long uncarpeted hallway that echoed every little sound. It had noisy plumbing, hard water, ugly overstuffed furniture and a line of ants perpetually running from the kitchen window to the nether regions of the pantry.

As he had since his arrival, Morgan ignored the company of marchers and went to the refrigerator to pour a glass of milk. As he stood drinking it, he could look into the lodge's main room with its mounted boar heads and pheasants. There was a fireplace wide enough to put a bed in—funny that he should think of beds. Or was it?

If he thought about beds, what sprang instantly to mind was pillows and golden blond hair spread out upon them. If he thought about blond hair, he fantasized about running his fingers through Kate's hair and ultimately guiding her head toward his until their lips met and blended in surprise and pleasure. Her skin would be smooth and soft, her neck warm, her eyelids heavy with passion, and she would cling to him, incapable of moving and her heart beating triple time.

Oh, he thought about it. He thought about it a lot, more than he wanted to, more than he thought was proper.

He'd had a lot of experience with women, but nothing in his life had ever prepared him for coming to terms with the fact that he, Morgan Rhett, had the hots for a woman who was humongously pregnant and was going to bear his child.

Chapter 6

Morgan forced himself to stay at his end of the island until he thought he'd go crazy wondering what Kate was doing.

Was she tipped over in some boat, snorkeling, falling off the ferry dock, or tripping over a root and sprawled on one of the treacherous island paths? Telling himself that she'd lived on this island all her life and knew how to deal with its dangers didn't help, and reminding himself that she didn't want him anywhere around only made him irritable.