Red Carpet Arrangement. Vicki Essex

Tears burned in her throat. Doughnuts, pregnancy hormones were the worst. She didn’t need him. She’d always taken care of herself. It wasn’t something to cry about.

      “I don’t exactly get told I’m a father at the premiere of my biggest film every day. You came out of left field. I haven’t seen you since...”

      “Twenty-six weeks ago,” she supplied helpfully, then gave a bitter laugh. “Did you even think about me? About whether there might have been consequences?” It wasn’t a word she liked to use—she’d come to accept the new life growing within her, even if she was in no way prepared to raise a child on her own. True, her mother had done it on less, but Kat wasn’t her mom. And she wanted more for her child than a nomadic life flitting from one coast to the other.

      “Excuse me?” Riley’s eyes narrowed. “You were the one who walked out on me.”

      Kat bit her lip. The morning after, she’d wanted to stay ensconced in that big hotel room bed. She would’ve loved to share a big breakfast with Riley and seen where things could go. But she’d sneaked out before dawn while Riley slept. There never could’ve been anything but that one night between them, anyhow—she knew it and he knew it.

      Seemed they’d both been wrong.

      Silence stretched between them as the limo glided through the streets. Riley regarded her with the look of a man calculating the costs of his secrets. “I looked for you,” he said finally. He rubbed his palm over his thigh. “When I got back to LA, I called the bar to check on you.” His brow furrowed. “They said you’d gone. No one knew where.”

      She didn’t tell him about being fired. She didn’t want him to know that she’d been so attracted to him that she’d abandoned her post in the middle of her shift. But knowing he’d called trying to find her softened her defensiveness.

      He went on, “I figured you’d moved on. Found someone else.”

      She buried her clenched hands between her knees. “There was no one else.”

      “Right.” He glanced out the window again, infuriating in his skeptical silence.

      The limo pulled up outside a fancy hotel. Riley got out and scowled at her before resentfully offering to help her out.

      She grabbed his outstretched hand and hauled herself up. She could have managed on her own, but she hadn’t been able to resist the impulse to touch him. He tightened his thick, strong fingers around hers and told the limo driver to stay close, then he guided Kat through the lobby and straight to the brass-and-marble elevator. Riley used a pass card to access the upper VIP floors.

      “Where are you living these days?” he asked tersely.

      “I’m staying with a friend.”

      “But where do you live?”

      Her stomach dipped as the elevator shot up at high speed. “I told you. I’m staying with a friend. I’m trying to find a place for the longer term after the baby arrives but—”

      “Are you telling me you’re homeless?”

      Why’d he have to make it sound so dirty? People always acted as if she’d done something awful to not have a permanent address. “I don’t have enough money at the moment for first and last month’s rent. Doctors are expensive. So are vitamins and food.”

      “You don’t have...anything?”

      She stiffened. “I’ve got a lot of friends with couches.”

      “Do you have a job?”

      “I was waitressing—”

      “So you’re homeless and unemployed. Right, I get it now.” The elevator reached what she assumed was his floor, and he stalked out ahead of her into the corridor.

      She’d had enough. “Listen, you,” she snapped. “I know you’re not happy. I know you’re in shock. But this is the reality I have to deal with. If you’d rather I leave right now, say the word and I will. But I don’t need you judging me or using that holier-than-thou tone with me or bullying me. I’ve got way more at stake here, and this is much harder on me than it is on you, you got that?”

      She would walk away if she had to. Her own father, a sailor her mother had met during Fleet Week in New York twenty-six years ago, hadn’t wanted the responsibility of a child. And so Dotty Schwinn had raised Kat on her own. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be better than being subjected to Riley’s criticism.

      His face blanched. He sighed and rubbed his brow. “I—I’m sorry. You’re right. This isn’t me. I apologize.”

      Her anger leveled out some. “Do you want me to leave?” Please say no, please say no...

      He stared at her for an agonizing second. “Come in and we’ll talk.” The forcefulness of his command was dulled with a follow-up. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. You caught me off guard. Tonight was supposed to be a big night for me.”

      And she’d ruined it. Not only this night, but maybe the rest of his life. Her conscience tweaked as some of the starch left his back.

      “All right,” she said. “We need to work this out. But we can’t do it in a couple of hours.”

      He glanced at his watch. “Right. The movie.”

      Clearly, he would rather be anywhere else. She couldn’t blame him. She needed some space, too, to gather her thoughts. “Why don’t we meet tomorrow for lunch or something?”

      “No.” The sound of someone leaving their room farther down the hall had him ushering her toward a set of doors. He opened them with his key card, and they slipped in.

      They didn’t go past the entryway, but Kat could already tell that the suite was spacious and well-appointed. Riley flicked on the light and picked up the phone by the door. “Call your friend. Tell them you’re staying here.”

      Her whole body flared hot. “I can’t stay here with you.”

      “I’ll put you up in a room in the hotel for the week,” he plowed on. Had he even heard her? “I have to do promos and stuff in LA and New York over the next few days. You can go back to Modesto with me after I’m done.”

      “I may be having your baby, but it doesn’t mean you get to push me around.” She jammed her fists on her hips. “Remember that thing I said about bullying me?”

      “I’m not bullying, I’m being practical.”

      “And I’m trying to tell you I don’t want to be a...a kept woman. I’m doing all right on my own, thank you very much.”

      He gave her a flat look. “Homeless, unemployed and pregnant is doing all right for you?” he scoffed. “And you still insist you’re not here for money?”

      She bit her tongue. He had her there. She’d half expected him to write her a check and wave goodbye. Whether it would’ve been a kind gesture or one to simply sweep her under a rug hadn’t mattered to her at the time.

      Bottom line, she needed cash if she was even going to bring a child into the world, never mind what came after...

      “I wanted you to know about the baby,” she reiterated staunchly.

      “I’m not giving you a red cent,” he said sharply. “If you want my help, you have to stick around so I can verify your story. Once that happens, we work things out.”

      “And in the meantime, I’m, what, your prisoner? Are you going to tie me to the bed, too?”

      “Only if you ask me to,” he replied with dark intimacy.

      She gave her best indignant gasp as heat flared low in her belly. It came out forced.

      “Would you prefer to return to wherever it is you’re staying?” he asked irately.

      She didn’t relish the thought of spending