Pretend For Me

by Laurent, River

  "You stalked her?" I gasped. The thought of my dear, precious Lorraine being dragged in on all of this made me want to scream.

  "I found her at a bar and chatted her up," he replied coolly. "And she was very happy to give me everything I needed to know. She told me about this crazy stroke of good fortune that one of her family had recently received, how she still couldn’t believe it, how she couldn’t tell anyone about it though, because it was a big, big secret. "He trailed off, smiling at me.

  "So, you know now," I snapped. "What do you want from me?"

  "I want you to break the contract," he replied.

  I pretended to snort and shook my head. "I’m not going to do that. Do you know how much money I’m making from it? Well, that might not seem like a lot to someone like you, but for me—"

  "And that’s why I want to offer you double the money he did to put an end to this stupid charade," he countered.

  I fell silent and pretended to consider this. I knew I shouldn’t accept his offer straight away. I needed to drag it out and pretend to be greedy, pretend to be what he thought I was. "No," I stated in a hard, cold voice. "The company is worth far more than that."

  He raised his eyebrows at me. He thought he had my number. “How much?” he spat.

  “Five million.”

  “That’s a lot of money for a waitress to demand.”

  “If that’s too rich for you, then there’s no deal to be had.”

  He did a strange thing then. He smiled slyly as if he’d been hiding his ace up his sleeve. "I don’t think that’s an option you want to take.”

  I shifted on the hard chair nervously. "What do you mean?”

  "I meant, if you don’t sign my contract, there could be an accident.” His voice dripped with menace. "And something real bad could happen to you and the baby."

  My heart stopped. How in the name of holy hell did he know about the baby? Now I was truly scared. Before, it had just been me on the line here, but now my baby was in play too. I realized it wasn’t me playing with him—it was him playing with me all along. "How did you find out...?” I mumbled, staring at a spot on the ground. My head hurt, my vision was starting to blur around the edges.

  "I figured it out when you didn’t drink at that party, and from the way you kept touching your belly all night long," he sneered. "Let me guess. Gabe added on a little extra cash for you to leave without the baby after the divorce.”

  "You don’t know what you’re talking about!” I yelled. My voice was shaking. I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t stay calm and collected. I was too frightened. "We—it's real, we feel something for one another, it’s not just the contract—"

  "Then I guess you’ll want to take care of that baby and sign my contract. The sooner you do it the sooner we can all go back to our little lives," he said silkily.

  I stared at him in horror. I knew that even if I signed his contract, the chances of the baby and I getting out alive were nil. There was no way he would allow Gabe’s heir to leave this basement alive. I felt a superhuman surge of protectiveness and fury inside my body, one that practically drove me to try and tear the bindings off my wrists, and punch him in the face right then and there.

  My entire body felt like it was going to burst. I wanted to hurt him before he could kill my child. I wasn’t sure if it was anger or terror pulsing through my veins, but whatever it was, it burned. I opened my mouth and with a scream of fury, I tried to rise up and rush at him, but all I did was launch the chair with me into the air and land on the side of the chair on the hard floor with a loud clattering sound. I didn’t feel any pain and I took pleasure from the expression of shock and fear I had seen in Austin’s face when he saw me fly into the air.

  Before either of us could do anything, a commotion sounded at the top of the stairs that led down to the basement. I glanced up to see what was happening and my heart twisted in my chest when I saw someone I recognized.

  Gabe.

  He barreled down the stairs straight towards Austin.

  "How the hell did you get here?” Austin demanded backing away in fear.

  Gabe shoved him, hard and he staggered back a few steps, but managed to regain his balance. "You cheap piece of shit! How dare you?" he snarled. With that, he landed a blow on Austin’s chin. It was so hard the sound seemed to echo and reverberate through the room, making me jump.

  Austin crumpled to the ground before me and Gabe came hurtling towards me.

  "Are you okay?” he demanded as he pulled the chair upright, then quickly started to undo the bindings on my wrist.

  "I’m—I’m fine, I think," I replied. I’d never seen him so fervent in all the time I had known him and even though it wasn’t aimed at me, I still found it a little scary.

  "And the baby?” he asked, as he set me free.

  I thought of the fall when I’d launched myself at Austin, but I felt no pain or wetness trickling down my thighs. “I think everything is okay.”

  "Thank God," he whispered as he pressed his head into my stomach, clutching and pulling me in tight.

  I buried my face against his hair, inhaling the scent of him. My heart was pounding so fast it felt like it might burst out of my chest.

  "The police are on their way," he explained as he guided me to my feet. "We don’t need to stick around. My guys will explain everything to them."

  "I’m so sorry," I blurted out.

  Gabe shook his head and touched my cheek. "You don’t have anything to be sorry for," he said and there was so much pain in his voice, I knew he meant it.

  Chapter 27

  Gabe

  I gathered her gently into my arms and she wound her hands around my neck. She nuzzled in close as I carried her out of the car. I didn’t want to be apart from her, not for a moment, not for a second. We didn’t speak much in the car. I just kept glancing at her white face, asking her again and again, if she was all right, and thanking God I’d been able to find her before anything terrible had happened.

  At last, I had her back where she belonged.

  "Are you all right?” I asked for the hundredth time as I laid her down on the couch.

  "I think so." She nodded. "At least, there’s no visible injuries.”

  Her voice was light, but I could tell she was seriously hurting. She looked exhausted. I couldn’t even imagine how she must be feeling. Sure, I had managed to get in there before my bastard cousin had managed to do too much damage to her, but still.

  She had been kidnapped, fucking kidnapped, right out from under my nose!

  I called the doctor and he said he would be at the apartment in an hour. Later that evening, I had arranged for the police to come and get her statement while my lawyer was present, but for now she was all mine.

  She yawned, pushed herself upright, and managed a smile.

  I sank down onto the couch beside her and wrapped my arms tight around her, holding her close. I couldn’t believe how close I’d come to losing her, and the baby. When she’d recounted the part of the encounter where Austin had threatened our kid...I wished I had kicked his head in. The fury I felt was incredible. My gut still burned with it.

  "Can I ask you something?" she whispered.

  I stroked a strand of hair back from her face and nodded. "Of course, you can. You can ask me anything."

  "I was just wondering..." She eyed me curiously. "How did you find me so quickly? How did you know where I was?”

  I sighed. I supposed now was as good a time to come out and tell her the truth about it as any.

  I pointed to the ring that glistened on her finger like a teardrop. "Hidden between the diamond and the gold back is the smallest GPS tracker in the world. It is connected to a powerful system that can track you anywhere in the country. I put it there to make sure I would never lose track of you," I confessed.

  Her eyebrows shot up. “You’ve been spying on me?”

  I lifted my hands in defense. "No, not at all. My lawyer suggested I should get an app on your phone in case you t
ried to renege on the contract or something, but I went to the ring," I admitted.

  Willow shook her head, laughing in disbelief. "You really thought there was a chance I might do that?”

  "Honestly? I didn’t know you at that time, so yes," I replied. "But I felt shitty about it, especially once we started living together and I was going to turn it off, but then I saw the way Austin looked at you that day he came to the apartment and something told me not to. As it happened, my instinct was right.”

  "It sure came in handy today,” she said slowly.

  "Hey, now that Austin’s out of the picture, we don’t have to worry about him ever again," I promised her.

  "But how did you figure out that I was gone?" she asked, furrowing her brow. "I was meant to be out with Lorraine anyway, didn’t you think I was just staying late with her?”

  "That’s the weird thing about me,” I confessed. “I think I’ve become obsessed with you. Every time you leave the apartment, I start to worry about you. I can’t stop calling you. When you didn’t answer your phone, I got in touch with the surveillance company immediately to check your location. When you weren’t where you said you were going to be and instead was in a seedy neighborhood, I knew something was wrong. I called Austin and when he didn’t reply, I figured he must have been involved somehow..."

  "You suspected him right away?”

  "Every crime is easy to solve when you follow the money," I growled. “He’s always been jealous of me. He couldn’t bear it to see me happy with you.”

  "He didn’t seem to think we were close," she murmured, lowering her voice and her gaze. "He thought that you’d just—that you’d just paid me to carry the baby."

  I grasped her chin and turned her face towards me. "Hey, you don’t believe that, do you?”

  She gazed at me for a moment, then shrugged. "I don’t know what I believe. You did, after all, pay me for all this—"

  "In that case, now that Austin’s out of the picture, there’s no good reason for me to keep up with the charade, is there?" I pointed out.

  "You still need the baby," she continued, obviously still terrified that I would agree with what was coming out of her mouth.

  I shrugged. “I told you before how I planned to get my heir. I don’t need you for that.”

  Willow gazed at me, her eyes huge. “Well, why am I still here then?” Her teeth sank into her lower lip.

  I didn’t respond right away as my gut clenched at the hurt in her eyes.

  “Why don’t you just tell me?” she whispered.

  "Because I love you.”

  Her beautiful gray eyes became enormous. “You do?”

  “I do. You’ve changed everything. I didn’t think that I could ever want to be a father, until I met you. But the moment you told me you were pregnant, I knew that was what I wanted. Oh, my God, even the thought of him hurting you or our baby..." I reached out and laid my hand on her stomach. It felt strange to think that a tiny version of us that we had made together was growing inside her.

  She laced her fingers through mine and smiled.

  I managed to smile back at her. "I’ll love you until the day you fall in love with me too. I’ll warn you now, I don’t ever give up.”

  “What if I’m already in love with you?” she asked softly.

  Her words were like a sunburst in my heart. I wanted to pick her up and throw her into the air, but I knew she was delicate right now. When I had set her down on the couch before, she’d winced, which meant she had bruises on her body.

  She leaned up to kiss me and I kissed her back, my woman, my wife, the mother of my child. I tucked my hand behind her head and pulled her in close, teasing her with my tongue. When I pulled back, her eyes were soft and heavy lidded.

  "I think we need to go get you cleaned up," I murmured as I lifted her gently from the couch.

  She was so light, I felt as though I could carry her for miles. I liked that. Made me feel like I could protect her, which was my only duty now that Austin had been taken care of. I thought of my child growing inside her and couldn’t wait for the day it would make its appearance.

  I took her to the bathroom, the first place I’d seen her naked. How my life changed that day. I gently put her down on the edge of the bathtub and opened the taps. While the water cascaded down into the tub, I slowly undressed her, coaxing her clothes off until she was completely naked. Just the way I liked her. But I was right. There were bruises on her left side, on her arms, her hips and thighs. I would ask her about it later, not now. This time was for us. Scooping her into my arms, I gently lowered her into the warm water.

  This was how I’d found her that day. I’ll never forget it as long as I live.

  She let out a groan of satisfaction and I pulled off my own clothes to join her. I wanted to feel her soft, warm skin against mine, remind myself that this was real… as real as it comes.

  "Here," she murmured as she handed me some of the fancy shower gel the housekeeper always set on the edge of the bath.

  I squirted some into my hands and rubbed it into a soft lather. Slipping behind her, I massaged it on her skin, moving my hands all over her soft, supple flesh.

  "That feels so good," she murmured, turning to face me.

  My cock was already hard and this time there was no holding back, no reason to doubt what we had. I adored her, every inch of her and I wanted to prove it. I leaned forward and pressed my lips against hers. Then wrapping my arms around her, I pulled her onto my lap.

  There were no bruises around her waist or ribcage so I curled my hands around that area and lifted her onto my erection. She reached down and fisted me as I impaled her down on my shaft. It wasn’t the first time I was inside her without a condom. We’d been going bare ever since I found out she was pregnant.

  But the feeling of our bodies coming together today felt different.

  It was almost more than I could take. I loved the way her body moved against mine as she parted her legs and pushed herself down until I was balls deep. The soft, sweet scent of the shower gel floating off her skin tantalized me. It was nearly magical. I ran my hands down her shoulders and kissed the spots my fingers traced.

  I thanked God this woman had come into my life.

  Willow moved up and down my shaft then after a while, I stopped noticing where her body started and mine ended. I just felt us joining, completely and utterly, in a union that I had never felt before in my life. I’d fucked plenty of women before, but it had never been like this, never. This was something different, something special. When she turned and looked into my eyes, I felt that jolt of recognition. I’d always loved her. In another life, another timeline, another dimension. Who knew?

  This wasn’t the first time.

  I kissed her deeply, flexing my hips and moving deep inside of her. I felt her ring pressing against the back of my neck as she held me close. Her body was so perfect to me, the home to everything I held dear, her soul, our baby, my heart. She moved faster and time seemed to fall away, replaced by something far greater, far sweeter, something that existed only between the two of us.

  When she came, she pressed her face into my neck and bit me.

  I felt as though I was absorbing her pleasure. The thought drove me over the edge and I found my own release deep inside of her. My seed shot into her belly. When she pulled back from me, her eyes were wide, and I knew what she was going to say a second before it came out of her mouth.

  "I love you," I murmured at the same time she whispered into my ear.

  "I love you, Gabe Grayson."

  My heart felt as if it was overflowing. I knew I would have to deal with Austin, eventually, but I didn’t mind. Not when this woman, this perfect woman, was mine. "And I’m going to love our baby just as much," I promised her. "Nothing can change that.”

  Willow leaned down to kiss me once again.

  I let myself get lost to the impossible sweetness of her lips and her love.

  Epilogue

  Willow

&nb
sp; (Two years later)

  "I can’t believe it’s been two whole years since the two of you got married," Ella, one of the guests sighed, gazing between the two of us like we were a fairytale prince and princess.

  "Trust me, I’ve counted every day," Gabe replied, leaning over to drop a kiss on my cheek.

  I smiled and nestled against him… my man, my sweet man. "You mean counting down the seconds till you can get away from me, right?" I teased.

  He laughed. "How about I grab us another drink?”

  I smiled and nodded. "Just a juice for me," I reminded him. "I want to be sober when I see Jilly tonight."

  "Of course," he replied.

  I watched fondly as he headed across the room to grab another drink. Ella had been swept away by someone else, and I was glad for a moment of peace amongst all this madness.

  The party had been thrown to celebrate a big contract Grayson Inc. had managed to land a couple of weeks before, the first that would turn his business into an international competitor in the timber distribution world.

  It was odd to think that this place hadn’t even belonged to him when we got married, given the way he moved through it with such confidence and popularity. Even just walking across the room, he was being stopped by many people, keen to chat him up. Ever since Austin had been arrested and put away, his dominance in this place had been unquestioned.

  I dropped my gaze to my phone. I couldn’t get my mind off little Jilly. We’d left her at home to come out here. I knew I shouldn’t be feeling guilty, given that she was with the loveliest nanny in the city, who’d worked for us ever since my baby was born, but I couldn’t stop missing Jilly like crazy whenever she wasn’t with me. However, I had to leave her because tonight was the night I wanted to break the news to Gabe. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could wait either.