Expecting the Playboy's Baby Read Free Page B

father,” Robert Thompson said.
    “I told you I wasn’t the father. She was just another woman trying to get a piece of the pie. I handled it.”
    His father slammed his fist on the table. “This is not some game you can play, Patrick. I’ve put up with your crap for long enough.”
    “What crap? I work hard and play hard. Didn’t you do the same when you were my age? I’m not a child anymore. I’m a full-grown man.” He was thirty-two years old and a millionaire in his own right. He’d made his first million before he turned eighteen through a website, and now he did whatever the hell he wanted to do. His father ran his own international business, and Patrick did what he wanted. Patrick had proven himself on more than one occasion. He wasn’t some dumbass looking for a free ride. He worked when he needed to.
    “Don’t you see that your playing hard affects our good name?” Robert threw the morning papers in front of him. There was a picture of him at a party several nights ago. “Another kiss and tell story about the infamous Patrick Thompson.”
    Patrick rubbed the back of his neck as he looked at the photos. The woman in the picture was fabricating the story. He’d not slept with a woman in months. Apart from the little brown-haired woman at a party his father set up. Patrick thought of the other woman. Jennifer her name was. He didn’t know if it was her real name or one she’d fabricated one. No one knew anything about her, and he’d figured she was part of the waiting staff who’d been trying to catch a free break.
    “This is all lies. I’ve never slept with that woman.” He put the paper on the table. The newspaper underneath caught his attention.
    “It doesn’t matter. People believe what they read because you’ve slept with numerous women before her. People who hope to invest in my company. The very people who will be looking at my son who’ll inherit my company one day. Are you listening to me?”
    “Who’s this?” he asked, picking out a newspaper and pointing at the woman on the front page.
    Robert snatched the paper off him and stared at the front page. “That’s the Dixons’ youngest daughter. They’ve been trying to get her married off I think. They were at that party I organised at your house. They’re hoping to invest in one of our plans. What’s the matter, Patrick?”
    Patrick took the paper from his father and stared down at the woman he’d connected with.
    “A vomiting incident at a seafood place is not going to be good press,” Robert said.
    He wasn’t listening to his father. Rubbing his thumb over the page, Patrick recalled the feel of her in his arms. She’d been so damn responsive to his touch. Her cries and screams of passion would stick with him always.
    “Do you know her?” he asked.
    Robert sat back in his seat. “Yes, her parents are constantly trying to get her married off. She’s a shy little thing. Nothing memorable about her.”
    He’d dispute that last part of the statement. Since that night he hadn’t been able to get her out of his head.
    “I’ve got to go.” Patrick stood taking the paper with him.
    The headline caught his attention far more than anything else. She’d vomited over a plate of seafood, and that night when they’d slept together, he hadn’t used protection.
    It didn’t take a genius to work out what was wrong with her. Jennifer Dixon was expecting his child. What he wanted to know was why she still hadn’t approached him about it.
     
     

Chapter Two
     
    “It’s all over the papers, Jennifer Dixon. What were you thinking? Now we’re going to be the talk of the city.”
    Jennifer listened as her mother screamed down the phone line. She stared at the most unflattering picture she’d seen of herself and cringed. Several days had passed since the incident at the seafood restaurant.
    Shaking her head she stared over at Linda who was lifting her arm to show her the time. “I’m sorry it happened. I’ve got to go.