Having Her Boss's Baby. Maureen Child

      

       Brady laughed, and the transformation was enough to take her breath away.

      A handsome man when frowning, he was staggering when he smiled. “You’re one of a kind, Aine. I’ve never met anyone quite like you.”

      “Thanks for that,” she said, then added, “and at the risk of inflating an ego too many women before me have stroked, I’ll say the same of you.” She tipped her head back to meet the shadowed eyes she felt watching her with tightly restrained hunger.

      He gave her a nod. “Then it’s good we’re not doing this.”

      “Absolutely. ‘Tis the sensible solution.”

      “This is business,” Brady said. “Sex would just confuse the situation.”

      “You’re right again.”

      He moved in closer. “It’s good we talked about it. Cleared the air. Got things settled.”

      “It is.” She leaned toward him. “I’m sure we’ll both be better off now and able to focus on our shared task.”

      Nodding, gaze locked with hers, he whispered, “We’re not going to be sensible, are we?”

      “Not at the moment, no,” she said.

      Then he kissed her.

      * * *

      Having Her Boss’s Baby is part of the Pregnant by the Boss trilogy: Three business partners find love—and fatherhood—where they least expect it

      Having Her

      Boss’s Baby

      Maureen Child

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      MAUREEN CHILD writes for the Mills & Boon^® Desire™ line and can’t imagine a better job. A seven-time finalist for the prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA^® Award, Maureen is the author of more than one hundred romance novels. Her books regularly appear on bestseller lists and have won several awards, including a Prism Award, a National Readers’ Choice Award, a Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence and a Golden Quill Award.

      One of her books, The Soul Collector, was made into a CBS TV movie starring Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Greenwood and Ossie Davis. If you look closely, in the last five minutes of the movie you’ll spot Maureen, who was an extra in the last scene.

      Maureen believes that laughter goes hand in hand with love, so her stories are always filled with humor. The many letters she receives assure her that her readers love to laugh as much as she does. Maureen Child is a native Californian but has recently moved to the mountains of Utah.

      For Bob Butler

      Because we remember

      And we miss you

      Contents

       Cover

       Introduction

       Title Page

       About the Author

       Dedication

One

Two

Three

       Four

       Five

       Six

       Seven

       Eight

       Nine

       Ten

       Eleven

       Epilogue

       Extract

       Copyright

       One

      Brady Finn liked his life just as it was.

      So there was a part of him that was less than enthusiastic about the latest venture his company, Celtic Knot Games, was investing in. But he’d been overruled. Which was what happened when your partners were brothers who sided with each other on the big decisions even as they argued over minutiae.

      Still, Brady wouldn’t change a thing because the life he loved had only happened because he and the Ryan brothers had formed their company while still in college. They’d strung together their first video game with little more than dreams and the arrogance of youth.

      That game, “Fate Castle,” based on an ancient Irish legend, had sold well enough to finance the next game, and now Celtic Knot was at the top of the video game mountain. The three of them had already expanded their business into graphic novels and role-playing board games. Now they were moving into seriously uncharted waters.

      What the hell the three of them knew about hotels could be written on the head of a pin with enough room left over for War and Peace. They’d drawn straws to see who would be the first of them to take over an old hotel and turn it into a fantasy. Brady had lost. He still thought the Ryans had rigged that draw to make sure he was up to bat first, but since there was nothing he could do to change the outcome he was determined to take this challenge and turn it into a win. Brady wouldn’t settle for less.

      The three of them had built this company from nothing. He looked around, silently approving of the workplace. Housed in a Victorian mansion on Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach, California, Celtic Knot’s offices were relaxed, fun and efficient. They could have taken over a few floors of some steel-and-glass building, but none of them had liked the idea of that. Instead, they’d purchased the old house and had it rehabbed into what they needed. There was plenty of room, with none of the cold stuffiness associated with many successful companies.

      There was a view of the beach from the front, and the backyard was a favorite spot for taking breaks. It was more than a place to work. It was home. The first real home he’d ever had. A home Brady shared with the only family he’d ever known.

      “The designs for the new game are brilliant,” Mike Ryan insisted, his voice rising as he tried to get through to his younger brother.

      “Yeah, for a fifth-grade art fair,” Sean countered and reached for one of the drawings scattered across the conference table to emphasize his point.