Chapter 1

CC Babcock woke up slowly and stretched out her arm, automatically reaching for Niles, who had spent nearly every night at her penthouse for the past several weeks. She grasped at the silky sheets, finding herself alone in bed.

Oh yes, she remembered with a groan. Nanny Fine had run off to London, and Niles thought it best to stay at the mansion round the clock, lest Yetta should prove to be an untrustworthy babysitter for the Sheffield children.

CC snorted at the thought. He had a point, even if she didn't like waking up without him. He'd asked her to sleep over with him, but she'd be damned if she'd stay there longer than necessary, not with Nanny Fine's relatives lurking on the couches and in the kitchen and the children running rampant. CC valued her privacy, needed to be away from the mayhem that dominated any time spent at the Sheffield home.

But she certainly looked forward to being there more these days than she had in the past. Perhaps she and Niles would find time today to sneak upstairs. Surely the children and Yetta could fend for themselves for an hour. Or three.

Suddenly CC felt a wave of nausea and bolted for the bathroom. She wanted this baby—oh, how she wanted it—but at times like this, she couldn't help wondering what she'd been thinking.

CC made her way into the kitchen as soon as she arrived at the Sheffield house, rubbing her abdomen in a vain attempt to alleviate the morning sickness. She'd been out of saltines at home—see what happened when Niles wasn't around to stock the kitchen. Over the past few weeks she'd gotten used to him taking care of her, and she was feeling not a little cranky as she shoved open the swinging door. She frowned when she didn't see him, but reached for the crackers he'd left out on the counter for her. She took a handful and nibbled on them, helping herself to a bottle of water from the subzero and then sitting down at the table.

She'd just started feeling better when Sylvia Fine came into the kitchen. "Where's Niles?" Fran's mother demanded.

CC arched an eyebrow. "How should I know?"

Sylvia looked at her as if CC had turned down cheesecake. "You're schtupping him, aren't you?"

CC narrowed her eyes. "Not at the moment, no." What a nerve that woman had.

CC stood and breezed out of the kitchen, leaving Sylvia shaking her head. Now how was she supposed to get her waffles?

CC had only seen Niles briefly, earlier in the day. What had possessed him to dye his hair black she didn't know, but she was going to find out. She'd long since grown bored of working in the office alone, but she wasn't sure she had the energy to face the gauntlet of Fines and children scattered throughout the house, either.

With a smirk she went to the intercom and pressed the button. "Niles, could you come in here?"

"Yes, ma'am," he said lightly. "May I bring you anything?"

"I think you know what I want."

Niles shivered and headed for the office, leaving lunch in various stages of incompletion.

He strode into the office, closing and locking the door behind him. CC looked up at him from the green leather couch, a smile lighting her face.

He joined her, turning sideways and pulling her into his arms. He rested his chin on her shoulder as she relaxed against his chest, kicking her legs up over the end of the sofa and crossing her ankles.

"Feeling better?" he murmured in her ear, clasping his hands over her belly.

"Your child is set on torturing me, it seems. Why am I not surprised?"

Niles laughed. "She comes by it naturally, I admit." He sobered. "Are you very uncomfortable?"

"She? Do you know something I don't? And I feel all right now. Thanks for leaving out the crackers for me. They always help."

"I live to serve," he replied, trailing open-mouthed kisses from her chin to her collarbone. "And while you know I'll be equally thrilled with a girl or a boy, I have to admit that the mere thought of a tiny version of you makes me fear for my life, in the best possible way."

CC lifted her hand to run it through Niles's hair, and stopped when she felt the slight brittleness the dye had wrought. "What the hell did you do to your hair?"

"What, no good?" He self-consciously raised his hand to his head.

"Definitely no good. It's awful," she said matter-of-factly. CC wasn't the sort of woman who went out of her way to gloss over her opinions to spare others' feelings.

"Don't hold back," Niles commented wryly.

"Why did you do it? You're not having a mid-life crisis on me, are you?

"Just how old do you think I'm going to live to be?"

She turned in his arms so she could glare at him. "You'd better live a long damned time," she threatened, suddenly serious. "And I'm the only one who gets to insult your agedness."

"I can handle that," he said, leaning in and caressing her lips with his.

CC kissed him softly and then pulled back. "You're not getting off that easy. Tell me why you dyed your hair."

"I've just—I've been feeling… old, lately. I don't have as much energy as I used to, and with the baby coming, I have to admit, I'm beginning to be afraid I won't be able to keep up. I was a much younger man when last I took care of an infant. The hair was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I was tidying Miss Fine's bathroom and found the dye."

"Oh, Niles. You'll be a wonderful father. Do you think I'd have chosen you if I didn't think so?" She said it tenderly, in a tone she used rarely and only ever with him.

He smiled at her. "Well, when you put it that way…" he leaned in and kissed her again, this time quickly deepening their contact, his tongue playing against hers. He worked his hands under the hem of her long skirt, slowly pushing it up.

Suddenly Niles went still and pulled back, and she whimpered at the loss of his touch. "I just had the oddest sensation, a tingling in both my arms," he said, clenching and unclenching his fists.

CC looked at him, concerned. "Do you still feel it?"

"No, it's gone now. Must be either love or smallpox, baby," he said with a grin, pushing her gently back onto the couch. He settled between her thighs.

She quirked an eyebrow at him, loosening his tie and pulling it roughly from his collar. "I love a man who can misquote Woody Allen."

Niles ran his hand from CC's knee to her upper thigh and, encountering nothing but her soft skin, he said, "Oh, you are feeling naughty today," his voice a low rumble.

"You love it," she responded, her voice deepening as he touched her.

"I bloody well do," he said fervently, unzipping his slacks with one hand while he continued to stroke her with his other.

"Show me how much," CC said, and captured his lips in a searing kiss.