Bearing My Boss's Baby (An MPreg Romance) Page 6

  Looking at the bill was still more than he could take, however, and Claude turned away from the till as Kevin paid the ridiculous amount of money without a murmur, and arranged for their enormous stack of purchases to be delivered.

  "What time would be best for you?" the clerk asked, and Kevin touched Claude lightly on the shoulder.

  "When will you be home?" he said.

  Claude tried to smile. "All day. They can come whenever."

  That was part of the problem.

  It was weirdly lonely in the condo sometimes. Claude hadn't realized until now how infrequently he saw his friends, and how much their lives had been shaped by the bizarre scheduling of the start-ups they all worked for. Now that he had all this time, it was obvious that no one else ever had a moment in the middle of the day, which was when Claude most needed someone to tell him to stop moping his life away amid the fanciest stuff he'd literally ever touched.

  They were all only a text away, of course. It wasn't like Claude had stopped talking to them. It was just that his life had gotten so weird lately, he didn't really know what to do with any of it.

  It was, if anything, even worse with his work friends. Catching a drink after work was a lot less convenient when he was twenty minutes’ drive away and, besides, he couldn't drink. They all knew that he was out on parental leave; it wasn't as though he'd simply disappeared from their lives. He just hadn't figured out a way to explain that he'd fucked their boss and was now living with him because he wanted to be an involved father. It seemed like the kind of thing that would make working with them again kind of weird. He didn't want them to think he'd report any office gossip to Kevin. It wasn't as if he had much chance to report office gossip to Kevin anyway.

  Kevin always seemed to be at work, and when he was home, his head was always buried in one device or another, as if something very important and work related might be happening at ten in the evening. They did talk. It wasn't like they lived in monastic silence. But there was still something, some kind of wall, between them.

  Even Claude's most ridiculous daydreams had a hard time fitting their conversations about news items into some kind of illusion of romantic bliss.

  Claude's parents were always around, but calling them was only going to lead to more problems. Claude shuddered at the thought of what they might do if they thought he was sad or lonely or something. Probably try to come give Kevin a piece of their minds, and that was a conversation that Claude wanted to avoid if at all possible, or at least be several hundred miles away from if he couldn't.

  He was just going to have to get used to his weird new life. It was going to happen sometime, right? That was what people said.

  Chapter 14

  Kevin

  "Anything new?" Kevin said idly, watching Claude scowl down at his phone over the remains of their lazy Saturday brunch. He poked at the orange slices that formed a fan at the edge of his plate, unwilling to let them go to waste, but already overstuffed by the size of the excellent meal they'd just enjoyed. He'd have a moment to digest anyway. One of the reasons that this was his favorite brunch place was that they never hurried him out if he wanted to sit there and relax for a minute.

  Claude groaned, bringing Kevin's attention back to the subject at hand. "I should have expected this," he grumbled. "My mother wants to throw me a baby shower." He sighed. "Actually, strike that. She’s throwing me one, whether I show up or not. First grandchild, you know. Have to get all her friends in there to congratulate her."

  "That sounds kind of her," Kevin said. He picked his own phone off the table, pulling up his calendar. "When was she thinking? I can clear some meetings, if I know in advance..."

  Claude cut him off. "You don't have to go."

  Kevin blinked at him, taken aback by the flatness of his tone.

  "It's not really a father thing," Claude said, his expression softening into apology. "They're going to get together and give me horrifying childbirth advice. They don't expect you to come."

  "Well, if you need moral support after their 'horrifying advice'," Kevin said, trying to play it off lightly, "I'm always here."

  The corner of Claude's mouth twitched upwards for a second, but the hint of a smile faded as he continued to stare down at his phone. "I guess I have a week to get over myself before I have to go be polite. It'll be fine."

  Kevin nodded, unsure of what to say. He hardly knew what Claude's parents had been told about him. That they knew about the baby was obvious. Claude must have said something about living at his place as well. But he'd have loved to be a fly on that wall when Claude had explained exactly what was going on between him and Kevin, because Kevin had no idea what Claude was thinking.

  They were going to be co-parents, of course. In a very real way, he could say they were already co-parents. But at times, it seemed like there was something more than that between them. A mutual fondness at the very least, even if it didn't come anywhere close to the pulse-pounding attraction that Kevin found himself stifling more and more often.

  "Should we be throwing a baby shower here?" he blurted suddenly. "I mean, at the apartment. Not for your mom, but if your friends wanted to come...?" He trailed off as Claude looked at him in confusion.

  "We don't have to," Kevin added quickly. "But you should know that you're always welcome to do anything like that. Just let me know." He smiled at Claude, but inwardly he was racking his brains. Baby showers just weren't his thing. He didn't know how they worked. If his mom had still been alive, maybe she would have told him how this stuff worked. Maybe she'd have thrown Claude a party, even. Apparently that was the sort of thing that mothers were supposed to do in this situation.

  "I'll probably be okay with one afternoon of baby stuff," Claude said, but he looked less confused and more like he was trying to hide a smile.

  "Offer's always open," Kevin said, and watched Claude's nod of acknowledgement with hungry eyes.

  Of course Kevin knew when the baby shower was, even if he wasn't going. Claude wasn't going to leave the house abruptly without saying anything, especially not overnight. The surprising thing was just how late Claude was getting home. Wasn't this a party with his mom's friends?

  Kevin wasn't exactly watching the front door when Claude staggered inside, swaying under the weight of shopping bags full of mysterious parcels. He just happened to be sitting in the living room, in a chair that happened to give him a decent view of the front hallway, if he turned his head just a little.

  Besides, the lock clicked behind Claude and his boots made distinct thumps against the mat as he kicked them off.

  "How'd it go?" Kevin called, rising from his chair to assist with Claude's bags.

  "The baby will not lack for stuffed toys," Claude said, thrusting the bags into Kevin's arms with a groan of relief. He made his way over to the couch, throwing himself down with a grunt of exhaustion. Kevin decided the bags were probably perfectly safe here in the hall, and abandoned them to follow Claude.

  "Was it...okay?" he asked, uncertain how to even start talking about all the ways in which being interrogated about their child—and probably their relationship—might not have been great for Claude.

  "I ate like a billion tiny cupcakes," Claude said, shrugging. "A million people told me that they hoped the baby would have my eyes."

  "They're very nice eyes," Kevin said helpfully, the words already out of his mouth before he could filter them properly.

  Claude snorted. "Thanks. Anyway. It was just a long day, that's all. My mom says hi."

  "That's nice of her," Kevin said. He realized he was hovering awkwardly over Claude's prone form and hastily retreated a few steps. "Do you want some water or something?"

  "What I really want is a big mug of coffee," Claude grumbled. He looked up into Kevin's frozen face and sighed. "But I'll settle for juice if we have some."

  "All the juice you could want," Kevin assured him, retreating further into the kitchen.

  When he returned, juice in hand, Claude was yawning and c
overing it very unconvincingly.

  "Tired?" Kevin said sympathetically, holding out his hand to help Claude sit up.

  "How'd you guess?" Claude shot Kevin a half-second of a smile as he took the glass from his hand.

  "Should I have come after all?" Kevin said, settling himself down on the arm of the couch as Claude drank half the glass in one gulp.

  "The father? At the shower?" Claude said. "Everyone would have been scandalized!" He put his hand to his chest as though he was overcome by the thought of it, and continued, drily. "If they'd been able to take a moment away from asking you nine hundred thousand questions, that is."

  "I could have answered them," Kevin said. He wondered what they'd asked and, more importantly, how Claude had answered. Internally he was kicking himself for letting Claude persuade him not to go. He hadn't wanted to disrupt whatever Claude's family had planned, but now he felt a guilty kinship with the people who had wanted to interrogate Claude about the baby and everything else. He knew so little now about what was going on in Claude's head. It would have been hard for any new information to make things worse.

  "Hah." Claude's laugh was little more than a dry burst of air. "That's what you think now." He waved a hand languidly in the air as Kevin opened his mouth to protest. "Don't worry about it. It was fine. They kicked my dad out of the house too, you know. No one expected you to come."

  "If you're sure," Kevin said. He looked away, over Claude's head, out to the window and the view of the darkened city. "Feel free to use me as a human shield anytime you feel like it." He slid a glance at Claude's face, still not looking him directly in the eye, seized with the worry that he'd said more than he intended to and had given too much away.

  Claude didn't seem to have noticed. He nodded vaguely, taking another slug of his juice.

  "You can take it easy for now, anyway," Kevin added. "Just get some rest and, uh, whatever."

  "I didn't get home that late," Claude said, amused. The yawn that spread over his face undercut the sarcasm a little bit. "I'll get to bed in a minute."

  "I meant overall," Kevin protested. "You don't have to exert yourself. Just relax." The look Claude gave him didn't seem to agree.

  Chapter 15

  Claude

  "We're going away," Kevin said casually as he entered the kitchen.

  Claude looked up from his phone, a spoonful of yogurt teetering halfway to his mouth. "What? Why? Where?"

  Kevin continued as though Claude hadn't spoken. "If you make a list of what you need, I can get someone to pack for you."

  "You haven't answered my questions," Claude said.

  "The nursery's going to be painted next week," Kevin said as though that explained everything. "Do you want to be here for that?"

  Somehow, despite weeks of Kevin's blithe reliance on hired workers to solve all of life's little difficulties, Claude kind of thought he would be. He'd kind of thought he'd be doing it.

  "Besides, who knows what the fumes would do to your health." Kevin took a seat at the breakfast bar, beaming at Claude as though his sudden announcement was the most wonderful idea in the world.

  "I'm pretty sure I'd have to drink the paint for it to make a difference," Claude pointed out. He ate his spoonful of yogurt, watching Kevin practically vibrate in his chair with anticipation.

  "So you don't want a week or two at a beach house in the Caribbean?" Kevin said, tossing a folder of tickets across the bar like it was nothing.

  "I didn't say that." Claude drew the packet closer, and looked up into Kevin's face. "Since when do you have a beach house in the Caribbean?" He wouldn't put it past Kevin to have some kind of lavish property in the sun, but he was pretty sure something like that would have come up before.

  "Oh, it's not mine," Kevin said airily. "It's a friend's, but he said we could use it as long as we needed. Totally understood why you needed to get out of the house while the renovations were happening."

  Claude raised an eyebrow. "They're just redoing the nursery, right? Nothing else?"

  "Exactly." Kevin nodded firmly. "All that mess! You need rest right now, after all. It's only been a little while since your morning sickness eased up."

  "It's been more than a month," Claude muttered, but the idea of getting out of the city, of being somewhere warm and sunny, somewhere he could relax, was starting to worm its way into his head. He flipped open the folder. "Where's this place again?"

  Kevin grinned at him, like he knew he'd hooked Claude good. As though Claude had said no to any one of his stupid ideas from the moment he'd decided to drag Claude into this apartment. "It's totally safe," he said earnestly. "We're minutes from doctors, but far enough away that it'll be nice and private. Just the two of us." His smile was open and sunny, as though all the filth that passed through Claude's head at his words was miles away from anything he was considering.

  "Sure, let's go," Claude said, feeling like once again he was bobbing along behind Kevin, trapped in his wake as he sped along to something new.

  It was definitely the easiest vacation he'd ever managed to go on. He'd stuffed a few things into a carry-on and then waved his hand vaguely at his closet and let Kevin's staff pack him a bag. He barely knew what was in it. Probably all the clothes that had mysteriously appeared in his room the day after he'd complained to Kevin about his clothes not fitting around the baby bump anymore. Which had been kind of Kevin, but was still something to get used to. It was weird letting someone else dress him, even if the things did seem to fit better than his old stuff.

  He'd been afraid that the plane ride would bring back all the nausea of his earlier months, but the plane slipped up into the clouds with surprising ease and Claude found himself nodding off in his seat almost at once. He woke to the sunlight streaming gently through the window and skimming over the surface of the clear, blue ocean below, his head cradled against Kevin's shoulder.

  "Sorry," he mumbled groggily, pushing himself away, his hands slipping on the smooth plastic of the armrests.

  Kevin's hand covered his, warm and stable. "It's fine," he murmured. "Go back to sleep, we're not there yet."

  Maybe it was how little he'd been sleeping this past week or maybe it was just the rumbling of the plane around them, but Claude's eyes started to slip shut again and he didn't wake until the plane jerked itself to a rumbling stop on the tarmac. Outside, the blazing sun beat down on the runway, the lines of trees that surrounded it and the sheer blueness of the sky making an odd contrast to the chill air of the plane.

  They whisked through the airport too fast for Claude to really feel the heat, Kevin seemed to have everything in order as Claude stumbled sleepily behind him, hardly having to do more than nod agreement at the various bored officials who waved them on their way. And then they were in a car, air-conditioning breezing cool on their faces as they whipped around corners, palms flashing by the windows with glimpses of pure blue water glinting behind them.

  Somehow, when Kevin had said beach house, the words had conjured up the image of his childhood holidays in Claude's mind, the occasional jaunts his family had made to the beach or to lakes out in the Midwest where his family lived. Small structures, pared back to basics with dubious plumbing. The building that the car finally halted in front of would not have looked out of place in the nicest neighborhoods back home, the ones that always made Claude feel vaguely twitchy, like someone might pop out and tell him that the sidewalks were actually private property.

  He managed to walk up to the front door anyway, trailing behind Kevin's pure unsullied confidence like a particularly sweaty hanger-on.

  "This is it!" Kevin said cheerfully, ushering Claude into the house.

  The big open room was understated and tasteful. The couches to their left were arranged cozily together in a palette of fashionable neutrals that looked like it had leaped off the pages of a home interior magazine. Across the room, a kitchen island separated the space and hid most of the appliances from view, though the glimpses visible did nothing to dispel the probab
ility that it was just as unnaturally perfect as the rest of the house. On the opposite wall, huge picture windows seemed to show nothing but blue, cloudless sky.

  "Come look at the view," Kevin said, heading towards the sliding doors at the back of the house.

  The sea and the sky seemed to draw Claude in like a magnet, a view of bright blue and lush green that he could hardly tear his eyes away from, even as Kevin tried to point out the private beach, the patio, and the various other amenities of the property. He had to stop staring when Kevin dragged him off for a tour of the house and made him choose a bedroom, but the pure swathe of color stayed stuck in his mind's eye as he laid himself down on his bed and listened to the soft pad of Kevin's footsteps growing fainter and fainter as he went away down the hall.

  It was too much, that was undeniable, but maybe he could get used to that anyway.

  Chapter 16

  Kevin

  The beach part of a beach vacation was not the bit that Kevin had thought would be difficult. There was nothing to it, right? Lie around in the sun—or the shade, if you preferred it that way. Swim—again, if you felt like it. He'd thought that he could probably even cope with beach volleyball or something if Claude turned out to have completely unexpected depths.

  He hadn't accounted for Claude stepping out into the sunshine and reacting like he'd had about six orgasms all at once. The first moment it had been possible, Claude had stripped down to swim trunks and was lying outside on a deck chair as though he hadn't spent the past three months draping himself in looser and looser clothing as though any of it could hide the changes to his body. Now he was half-naked all the time and Kevin was going slowly crazy.