She shrugged one shoulder. ‘I just thought you’d want one. I might have had numerous partners since you.’
‘Have you?’
‘No.’ Her shoulders went down on a little sigh and she traced a gentle finger across the baby’s tiny forehead.
Her confession surprised him and secretly delighted him. He had been celibate for the whole time too, but what were her reasons for not dating anyone since? ‘Why?’
Another shrug, her gaze shifting from his. ‘I’m not going to feed your already overblown ego by telling you I didn’t fancy sleeping with anyone else after that night of...of amazing sex.’ Her cheeks flushed a delicate shade of pink and she sank her teeth into her lower lip as if she wished she hadn’t revealed quite so much.
Jack gave a lazy smile. ‘Then I won’t feed your ego either and tell you the same.’
Harper’s gaze flicked back to his, her eyes as wide as dishes. Satellite dishes. ‘Are you serious? You haven’t slept with anyone since?’ Her incredulous tone made him wonder if his reputation as a playboy had been a tad over-exaggerated. Sure, he didn’t stay in a fling long, but he often had breaks between lovers. Long breaks. Not as long as nine months, but still. When he was working on a new hotel development he liked to focus. He put his private life on hold in the early stages of a project so he could concentrate his whole attention on the job at hand. And it paid off. He had brokered numerous deals and invested millions in spectacular hotel developments, which had built the Livingstone Hotel chain to a luxury brand that rivalled some of his biggest competitors. ‘I’ve been busy securing a deal in Yorkshire.’
Another glimmer of bitterness shone in her eyes. ‘Yes, I heard about that. You bought Rothwell Park.’ Her resentful tone seemed to suggest she thought he had bought it deliberately to spite her.
‘You know it?’
‘My business partner, Ruby Pennington, grew up there with her grandmother. I visited once when I was about twelve. We had a wedding there recently—I did the photos. You probably saw it in the press or heard about it from Lucas Rothwell. Delphine Rainbird, the American actress.’ She straightened her shoulders and added, ‘Was it a coincidence or did you know I had a connection to the place?’
It was Jack’s turn to shrug. ‘Mere coincidence.’
The baby gave a tiny yawn and turned her head in Jack’s direction, her dark eyes gazing at him like a baby owl.
‘I think she wants you to hold her,’ Harper said. ‘She’s starting to recognise your voice.’
Jack came closer and gently took the baby from Harper. He couldn’t stop staring at her tiny features—the button nose, the rosebud mouth, the squinty little eyes that opened again as soon as he touched her and stared up at him without blinking, as if she didn’t dare let him out of her sight. ‘Hey, little one...’ His voice caught on something rough at the back of his throat and he had to swallow to clear it. ‘You’ve created quite a stir, young lady, turning up unannounced. You’ll have to forgive us for being a little unprepared.’
Thing was, Jack wasneverunprepared. He was a planner, a box ticker, a details man who left nothing to chance. He never allowed himself to be surprised by anything. Meticulous planning removed the surprise element—mostly. But nothing was more surprising than to suddenly find himself the father of a baby girl.
She opened her little mouth and yawned again, and something in his chest flipped open like a faulty latch on a locked door. He was ambushed by unfamiliar feelings. Emotions he had never allowed free rein before. Emotions that had the potential to tilt his neat and controlled world on its axis. He fought those emotions, pushed and shoved them back where he could look at them from a safe distance, knowing they were there but still under his control. He could provide for his child and provide well. And he would provide for and support Harper too.
‘Jack?’ Harper’s voice was tentative. ‘I know you must think I’m an idiot for not knowing I was pregnant. If I had known, I would’ve told you straight away.’
‘Why didn’t you want to see me again?’
She chewed at one side of her mouth. ‘I was ashamed of how I let you distract me from my work at the Tenterbury wedding. It was so unprofessional of me to be sneaking off upstairs with the best man. I have never done anything like that before or since. I’d made a pact with myself to never mix business with pleasure and you made me break it.’
‘I seem to recall there was quite a lot of pleasure that night.’ Jack still got shivers thinking about it. The fiery heat of attraction, the flirty banter that went on for hours until they dashed upstairs and engaged in the most mind-blowing sex of his life. Truth be told, he had avoided hooking up with anyone since because he wanted to linger over the memory of that night. To relive the tingling sensations, to revisit the incredible kisses and caresses that had stirred him so deeply.
And that episode of passionate lovemaking had produced this tiny infant—his daughter.
Harper’s gaze avoided his and stared at the baby in his arms as if she too couldn’t quite get her head around the fact they had made a baby. A worried look came over her face and she glanced up at him again. ‘Parents usually have months and months to prepare for this. I didn’t address a single word to her while I was carrying her. What if that damages her in some way? I didn’t even eat properly most of the time.’ She blew out a whoosh of air and added, ‘But thankfully, I’m teetotal and a non-smoker.’
Jack looked down at the tiny bundle in his arms. ‘She looks perfect in every way, so don’t worry too much.’ The baby opened her tiny mouth and gave a yawn and then opened her dark blue eyes and stared at him again. The tugging sensation in his chest was stronger this time and he took a deep breath to settle it. He took one of the baby’s miniscule hands and marvelled at the tiny fingernails on the ends of fingers so small it didn’t seem possible there was room for bones and ligaments and tendons inside. ‘Hey, little one. What are we going to call you, hmm?’
‘I don’t want any way-out names,’ Harper said. ‘She’ll be an adult a lot longer than she’ll be a baby, so it should be a name that won’t embarrass her as she gets older. But I don’t want it to be too old-fashioned either.’
‘I agree,’ Jack said. ‘Do you want to name her after someone? Your mother? Your grandmother?’
The flash of horror that flicked across Harper’s face made him realise he hardly knew anything about her. But then, what did she know about him other than what she might have read in the gossip pages or online?
‘No, there aren’t any family names I’d want to inflict on my child.’
‘Okay. My mother’s name is Elizabeth, although she gets called Liz most of the time. Susannah is her middle name.’
Harper shifted her mouth from side to side. ‘I like both but more as middle names.’ She glanced at the baby thoughtfully and added, ‘We could give her two middle names, I guess.’
‘Why not? I have three.’