Baby Be Mine (Spinsters & Casanovas Series Book 1) (34 page)

Hunter flicked his eyes and saw a few spare
seats a few tables away so he seated himself there. Suddenly, he
felt someone sitting next to him. Turning around, he found Fern
smiling at him.

“Well, Hunter?” she asked, blocking the
image of Clarice and Anton together. “Does Fern look beautiful
tonight? Will she be able to attract someone’s eyes tonight?”

“Yeah,” Hunter said absentmindedly, not
looking at his friend at all, just trying to move his head so he
could see Clarice again, but Fern moved in front of his face again,
wanting to show off her beautiful green gown.

Hunter became irritated. “Could you just
move over there?”

“What’s wrong, Hunter?” Fern asked. “Why do
you sound so mad?”

“It’s nothing,” Hunter said, ignoring his
friend’s question. God, he wanted to just march over there and
shred his cousin to pieces. How dare he smile at Clarice like that?
For once, he disliked his cousin for having such a calm demeanor,
unlike himself, who was always so irrational and fiery, a trait
Clarice disliked. She’d always said he was an immature kid.

Fern directed her gaze to where Hunter was
staring, and she too felt something. Although she wasn’t raving mad
like Hunter, who wanted to strangle and shred his own cousin to
pieces, she felt sad.

Should she give up? Here she had taken a
total of six hours to accomplish this look she sported. With her
red hair in ringlets and her dress a nice emerald green shade, she
was sure Anton would stop to admire her, but he was already looking
at Clarice, the goddess.

Gosh, Clarice was so beautiful with her long
jet-black hair bundled to the side like that. Who would look at a
fiery red-haired girl who always speaks in third person?

At the same time both Hunter and Fern were
tormented by their own internal feelings towards their respected
interests, both Clarice and Anton were busy conversing with each
other about the conference tomorrow.

“Your presentation starts at two p.m.,”
Anton said, smiling at Clarice. “Is that all right?”

“Yes. I’ve prepared everything,” Clarice
said.

Clarice continued to converse with Anton
about her health and that yes, she was fine now after going to the
hospital, just low blood pressure. She had to resort to lying to
him since she didn’t want to bring up the subject of her pregnancy
yet. There were too many people around; she couldn’t shake the
feeling that someone’s stare was boring into her back. It was a
very unsettling feeling. So she pretended to drop her napkin. While
picking it up, she diverted her gaze in the direction that feeling
was emitting from and sure enough, her eyes smack landed on a pair
of azure eyes.

That Casanova Hunter. He was staring at her
strangely, like a fire had ignited in his eyes, a glowing ember
within them. His mouth still held an angry snarl, just like when
he’d attacked her with his devious words when she’d first exited
the car.

Why was he acting like that? She was pretty
upset too when she first arrived. She could remember feeling so
nervous about her confession tonight and had prepared herself
mentally for that moment, even meditating in the car, but Winton
had to talk to her, constantly interrupting her like a dog yapping
for attention. She was on the verge of snapping at him. And then
when Hunter dragged her out like that, she literally cracked,
lashing out at him, accusing him of being the devil incarnate.

Tonight she was determined to tell Anton.
She wouldn’t let any distraction waylay her like the last time when
they were in the Cambodian restaurant together. That old blind man
falling on her lap shook her resolve. Well, tonight, she wasn’t
going to let it go. Tonight, even Hunter wouldn’t distract her from
her goal. She would talk to Anton and tell him about their baby. If
Anton didn’t want a part of it, then she would be fine with that
too. But she just needed to get this off her chest.

When the song “Sway” by Michael Bublé came
on, Anton asked her permission to dance. Finding that sitting in
her chair was only making her more uncomfortable with that
Casanova’s eyes boring into her back, she agreed and took his hand,
letting him glide her to the dance floor.

Hunter gritted his teeth in anger. How dare
she choose Anton over him, despite knowing full well now that he
was the actual heir of Silverton Enterprises, not Anton? And there
was also the fact that he was the father of her child. But
obviously, he couldn’t tell her that, well, not yet anyway.
Otherwise, she would freak out.

Watching the pair dance only made his blood
boil even more. Hunter grabbed a champagne off one of the trays and
downed it in one go, feeling the sting of the liquid burn his
throat, but man, he didn’t give a damn about his throat at the
moment.

“Don’t you think dancing is a very intimate
art, Hunter?” Fern asked sadly as she watched the one man she’d
been thinking about constantly since she arrived in New Zealand,
that brown-haired man she realized always made her heart jump
whenever he was around, now dancing so intimately with Clarice.

Hunter gripped the empty glass so tight his
knuckles turned white. If he applied a little more pressure surely
the glass would shatter into millions of tiny crystals. And hearing
Fern say this only made his nostrils flare even more. If he were a
dragon, he would have breathed fire and burned down the whole damn
hotel by now.

“What do you mean intimate, Fern?” Hunter
asked bitterly, his eyes glued to the dancing couple as they swayed
and laughed like lovers.

“Fern means one can easily talk to one
another without letting other people know what they’re
discussing.”

Hunter jerked his eyes to his friend then,
his breathing rough.

“You mean to say they could say anything in
the throng of people and no one would know?” Hunter asked for
confirmation.

“Yes,” Fern said, still eyeing Anton
laughing with Clarice.

“Even a confession?” Hunter asked in fright,
as he could feel his goal crumpling down on him.

“Even a confession,” Fern said
absentmindedly.

Hunter snapped. “Come on, Fern. Let’s
dance.”

“Wh-what?” Fern was so startled when Hunter
dragged her onto the dance floor, standing so close to the other
couple, it made her heart jump again.

“Hunter, what are you planning?” Fern
whispered close to his ear.

“I need your help.”

“Hunter needs Fern’s help?” Fern asked, her
interest piqued now.

“Mmm.” Hunter nodded. Then he whispered
something into Fern’s ear, which made her eyes light up. Fern
looked at Clarice, gave her a smile, and nodded to Hunter.

Fern was only too willing to oblige as she
laid her hands on top of Hunter’s shoulders and they both proceeded
with their dance, swaying to the sound of Michael Bublé’s song.

So Hunter was trying to make Clarice
jealous, was he? Fern knew Hunter liked Clarice, but she didn’t
know it went to this extent. Oh, she was glad to be of help. In
fact, Fern also wanted to make Anton jealous. So she hoped by
dancing with Hunter, Anton would take notice.

Hunter’s plan was to make Clarice jealous,
but he also wanted to hear and survey the dancing couple at a
closer quarter too. If Clarice planned to confess to Anton, he
would make it his mission to annoy the heck out of them, hence
preventing Clarice’s admission.

When he saw Clarice drawing her face towards
Anton, Hunter took action. Once or twice, he would intentionally
bump into them just to disrupt the dancing pair and to annoy the
living hell out of Clarice, as if to inform her,
Look, you’re
not the only one with a dancing partner
. But Hunter’s mission
only backfired threefold and Hunter gritted his teeth harder,
almost breaking his enamel, when he saw Clarice laughing at what
his goddamn cousin was saying, his action having no effect
whatsoever on them.

Hunter couldn’t take it. She was already
pregnant, so how dare she treat other men like that, especially his
cousin? He was furious, literally pissed off with the whole
situation, and he was about to storm away, throwing his usual
tantrum like most rich heirs would, but then another idea emerged
inside his mind and he took action.

CHAPTER 30

What was he doing? Clarice couldn’t breathe
with Hunter and Fern this close to her. She tried to concentrate on
Anton’s steps as he swayed her around the dance floor to the voice
of Michael Bublé, but Hunter was too distracting. When she tried to
motion Anton away from him, he came swaying their way as well. Then
she saw Hunter whispering something into Fern’s ear, which made
Fern turn to look at her and then smile before turning back to nod
at Hunter. A stab of jealousy robbed her heart, and before she knew
it she was mad.

You want to play this game, Hunter?
Clarice thought angrily.
Well, so be it.
So she held Anton
even closer, hugging him even tighter to her body, and even
pretended to laugh at something Anton said, which she hadn’t a clue
as to what it was.

She was enjoying her charade, especially
when she saw Hunter eyeing her like he wanted to eat her alive with
those molten sky-blue eyes. No, she didn’t want to see Hunter.
Seeing Hunter only made her condition worse, so she turned back to
Anton, but he was no longer looking at her. Who was Anton looking
at? Surely not his own cousin dancing with Fern… Unless… Wait…
Fern? Could Anton like Fern?

As she couldn’t contain her curiosity, she
asked him. “Anton, are you—”

“I’m taking over!” Hunter declared darkly,
then went ahead without letting Anton or Clarice voice their
permission, by wedging Anton to the side and taking hold of
Clarice, slamming her body toward his.

What? Clarice asked herself after her sudden
change of dance partner.

When she realized Hunter had literally
kicked his cousin to the curbside, Clarice wanted to utter her
disapproval and terminate the dance, but those words didn’t come
out of her lips because Hunter just glared at her like he wanted to
gobble her alive and then said, “Dance.”

Anton was quite surprised by this so he just
smiled at his cousin and left to go back to his seat, when Fern
stood in his way. His heart did another jump. God, the Emerald
Queen. She was so beautiful he couldn’t stop blinking. But he must
stop this foolish act. Anton’s cool demeanor was in charge tonight,
not the man who melted into a puddle whenever Fern was around. So
with that thought, he pasted on his usual cool, unaffected bearing
and tried bypassing her, but Fern kept blocking his path.

“Anton. Would you do me the honor of dancing
with me?” Fern spoke in first person.

And before his brain could tell his body
what to do, he’d already took action and pulled Fern into his arms
and glided her around the dance floor, passing Clarice and Hunter,
who still held on to each other like lovers embracing for the first
time, standing in the middle of the dance floor while everyone else
danced around them.

Oh dear,
Clarice thought. And oh dear
it was when Hunter grabbed hold of her. Hunter literally mashed his
whole body to hers, embracing her so tightly she almost couldn’t
breathe.

“Could you at least move back a bit? I can’t
breathe.” Clarice voiced her discomfort.

“This dance is supposed to be like that,”
Hunter said, happily squeezing her even tighter within his
hold.

God, it was perfect. Gone was the furious
fiery dragon who breathed fire, only to be replaced with a kid that
had received his prize candy, Clarice in his arms. He couldn’t
believe having his avocado like this could make his heart swell up
with this much happiness.

“Anton didn’t dance like that, though.”
Clarice struggled to speak as she tried pushing him back a bit.

“Anton doesn’t know how to dance,” Hunter
remarked.

Clarice was about to retort when Hunter
swayed her so fast it knocked her breath away. Her head was getting
dizzy and her heart rate was now at full speed.

Clarice glanced up at Hunter and into his
glittering pupils, smiling at her. Clarice didn’t feel happy, nor
did she feel like smiling back. In fact, she felt moody. She wanted
to get out of this situation. What with being held captive like
this on the dance floor while tossing and turning to the sound of
the music; it just wasn’t right for her body or her peace of
mind.

“What are you doing?” Clarice whispered in
panic when she felt Hunter’s fingers exploring her back. One tap,
two taps, drumming on her backside like a horse galloping on a
sunny day along the prairie, then those fingers making small
circular motions, which caused tingling sensations to run up her
spine. This wasn’t good. Not good at all. Her breath hitched and
butterflies swarmed in her stomach. “Stop Hunter! Stop!” she
whispered.

“What was that? I can’t hear you,” Hunter
replied. His voice wasn’t helping her either, so husky and
seductive.

“I said stop what you’re doing right now.”
She spoke under her breath.

“You want me to stop dancing? But Bublé is
still singing. It would look bad to walk off the dance floor like
this.”

“Arrggh, that’s not what I meant,” she said,
frustrated. She could hear him just fine. How come he couldn’t hear
her? So in resolution, she went to capture his neck and pulled him
closer until his ear was just an inch from her mouth, and then she
whispered, “Please stop making those shapes on my back. It’s
uncomfortable.”

“Oh,” Hunter whispered, happy they were so
close they could almost be melded as one.

While they were whispering back and forth to
each other, Clinton Silverton was eyeing his son and taking note of
the little beauty who had caught his attention. He turned to
Winton. “Who’s that young lass?”

“Oh, that’s Miss Clarice Mason, the
periodontist Master Anton asked to present her case on implants to
our elderly clients here tomorrow.”