Expecting the Boss’s Baby Read Free Page B

band.
    â€œA husband.”
    Lin beamed. “Roger.” She sighed in a dreamy way. “He’s an aerospace engineer.” She pulled her wallet from her giant black tote and took out a picture. Roger had blond hair, an angular face and thick-rimmed black glasses. “Hot, huh?”
    â€œVery handsome.”
    â€œHe’s the only man for me.” Lin pressed the picture to her heart before tucking it away in her wallet again. “So I’m immune.”
    â€œBut what about every other woman in the office? I haven’t heard any predictions that they’re doomed to fall for Dax. What makes me so special?”
    Lin shrugged. “It’s the constant proximity, I think.The daily close exposure to him when you work directly for him. I don’t know what it is about him. He must have some genetic anomaly. An excess of sex pheromones maybe.”
    â€œOh, come on. You’re not serious.”
    â€œOh, but I am.” Lin tipped her head, studying Zoe. “And you’re exactly his type.” The blue streak in her hair caught the light, gleaming. “It’s sad, really. I tend to think of it as Dax’s fatal flaw. He hires the pretty ones with personality. And then they fall head-over-heels for him.”
    â€œNot me. Can we be done talking about this?”
    Lin picked up her fork and stuck it in her Cobb salad. “Too bad you’re not already in love with someone else.”
    â€¦in love with someone else….
    The words bounced around in Zoe’s brain.
    Lin was right. Zoe needed a man. Her man. A man she adored, who adored her in return. Such a man would be the perfect way to get everyone at Great Escapes to stop predicting her inevitable, job-destroying, hopeless passion for the boss.
    Too bad her man didn’t exist—or if he did, Zoe had failed, so far, to meet him.
    She pushed her coleslaw around on her plate, considering. Not that she was in any way ready for her own personal hero, not yet. She had things to prove, a success to make in the business world, before she found the man for her and settled down.
    Besides, right now she didn’t need an actual guy. No way. She didn’t have the time for a flesh-and-blood Mr. Wonderful who would drag along love and commitment and a shared mortgage. Uh-uh. It was the idea of theguy that mattered. It was that everyone believed she had a guy who was the only guy for her.
    She slanted Lin a glance. “Maybe I am in love already.”
    Sharp black eyes widening, Lin looked up from her plate. “There is someone special, then?”
    â€œI…don’t want to say anything right now. It’s, um, well, it’s complicated.”
    â€œComplicated is fine. Whatever. As long as there’s someone and you’re in love with him.”
    â€œYou really think so?”
    â€œI know so. If you’re serious about getting a start at Great Escapes, a special guy would be the best thing for you. And for Dax. And for the poor, overworked ladies down in HR.”

Chapter Two
    Z oe took that whole week to make up her mind.
    Really, it was a wild idea. Not to mention a total lie. She didn’t want to get involved in an elaborate fiction if she could avoid it. It could be dangerous. There was always the possibility she would get caught, and not only by tripping herself up. What if Dax ran into her mother or father or someone in the family and happened to mention that Zoe had a fiancé?
    That could be embarrassing.
    But, then, as far as tripping up, she could make notes, create her own personal hero from the ground up, so that he became the next thing to real for her. Then she would be unlikely to contradict herself when she spoke of him.
    And as far as her family, well, how much chance was there that they would blow the whistle on her? It wasn’t as though Dax knew her family well, or hung aroundwith them or anything. Even if he ran into her mother somewhere, it would only be Hello,