by J. S. Cooper
Lila
“Say You Won’t Let Go”
“Hey you?”
“Hey!”
“What you doing?”
“Watching TV? Are you still with Harley?”
“Yes, we’re going to grab a drink.”
“Coming over after?”
“Don’t think so tonight as I have an early morning.”
“Oh.”
“:(”
“:(”
“I’ll miss you.”
“Then you should come over.”
“I would if I could, babe.”
“Okay.”
I put the phone down and flipped the channels. Today had been an emotional one for me. The morning had started out perfectly with brunch and then going to buy the baby books. Carter had been so caring and thoughtful, but then I’d found out he actually already had the opportunity to go to Canada. I didn’t care that he’d lied. In fact, it had been kinda sweet that he’d thought about staying for me and the baby, but I didn’t need that sort of pressure. He would always resent me if he gave up this opportunity to expand his music career. I didn’t want him to go. In fact, it made me nervous and weepy to think about him traveling across North America with a rock band and no real commitment to me. I didn’t even know if he would be faithful to me. I didn’t know if we were meant to be monogamous or not. We’d never really spoken about it, and I didn’t want to ask him now. I must have fallen asleep because I woke up about two hours later to my phone beeping.
“Check this out.” Carter had attached a photo of a cute puppy cuddling a kitten and my heart melted.
“Softy.”
“That’s not what you said last night.”
“We didn’t have sex last night.”
“Oh yeah, that wasn’t you. :P”
“That’s not funny.” I glared at the phone.
“Miss you.”
“Come over.”
“Early morning.”
“Fine.”
“Send me a selfie. I want to see your pretty face.”
“You send me one.”
“Fine here.” He sent me a photo of himself sitting in bed with his shirt off. He looked so hot, and I wished more than anything he was there with me.
“Nice. :)”
“My turn now.”
“Fine.” I took a photo of my feet and sent it to him giggling.
“Are you trying to tell me something, Lila?”
“Like what?”
“Like you want me to suck on your toes.”
“Ew, no.”
“Uh-huh, freaky Lila.”
“Whatever, Carter.”
“Send me a proper pic. I want to see your face.”
“Magic word.”
“Please.”
“Okay, here we go. :)” And then I snapped a quick photo and sent it to him.
“So beautiful.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Sweet dreams, princess.”
“Night, Carter.” I wanted to ask him when I would see him next, but I didn’t want to be one of those pushy women. He could ask me to hang out when he wanted to see me again. He already knew I wanted to see him. I put the phone down again and then jumped up off of the couch to walk to my bedroom. I was tired and needed to go back to sleep. It had been a long weekend and I’d only just gotten back from Iowa. I had work tomorrow and needed to be up bright and early.
“Hey, Lila.” Dante popped his head into my office. “Wanna grab lunch today?”
“I shouldn’t.” I looked at the stack of files on my desk. “I’m swamped today. Just going to get a sandwich. Maybe later this week?”
“Can we do today?” He gave me a warm smile. “I’ll be out of the office the rest of the week.”
“Really?” I frowned. “Don’t you have partner meetings?”
“They got moved.” He walked into the office and sat in the chair in front of my desk, leaned forward and grabbed my hands. “I want you to have lunch with me today, Lila. My treat.”
“Your treat?” I raised an eyebrow. Lunches with partners were normally expensed to the firm. What was this about?
“I just think that we deserve some alone time, you know?” He stood up and walked to the door. “I won’t take no for an answer. I’ll meet you in the lobby at noon.”
“Hmm, okay?” I watched as he walked away, a perplexed expression on my brow. What was going on with Dante? And was he flirting with me? Had Carter been right? Had Dante just been waiting for his chance with me? I groaned under my breath. I really didn’t need this right now. Not at all.
“Well, this has been absolutely yummy.” I smiled at Dante weakly over the table. He’d gone all out for our lunch and we were dining at a very expensive French restaurant. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I certainly hoped he wasn’t going to make an advance toward me.
“Hasn’t it been great?” He reached over and grabbed my hands. “I’ve been meaning to tell you something, Lila.”
“Yes?” Oh no, oh no, oh no.
“So, I’ve been thinking about you a lot and how you’ve been . . .” His voice trailed off as he looked to the front of the restaurant. “Oh boy,” he said, and he looked at me with a worried expression.
“What?” I blinked at him and then I saw Carter had entered the restaurant and was headed toward us. Fuck! How had he known I was going to be here? Or had he conveniently chosen the same restaurant for lunch? I wanted to cry as I saw Carter approach with a furious face.
“Really, Lila?” Carter stopped in front of the table. “You’re having lunch with this scumbag?”
“Carter, I . . .” I paused as I looked toward Dante’s face and he was laughing. “This isn’t funny,” I said as I frowned. And then I noticed that Carter was laughing as well, a huge grin on his face.
“Too much?” he said as he high-fived Dante.
“Maybe.” Dante grinned.
“What the hell is going on here?” I looked back and forth between the two men. Carter then dropped to his knees and my breath caught. What was going on here?”
“Lila Delilah, my darling, my one and only, I love you. I have loved you from the first moment I saw you with your sparkling brown eyes and infectious smile. You light up my life in a way I never knew was missing. I never believed in love at first sight before, but when you know, you know. I want to marry you. I want to love you forever. I want you to be the mother of my kids, and I want to adore you with every fiber of my being. I know that we don’t know each other well. I know that you might not feel the same way, but I want you to give me a chance. Marry me, Lila. Let me prove to you how much I love you.”
“I just don’t understand.” My jaw dropped as my heart raced. “What are you doing here? How did this happen?” I was rambling, but I couldn’t quite believe what was happening.
“I saw Danielle’s pics on Instagram from the other night. You said you’d been alone with Danielle, but then I saw good old Dante there in the photos. I knew there had to be a reason why you hadn’t told me and I wanted to find out what was going on between you guys. I didn’t want to get mad. I didn’t want to make you have to choose between us. I didn’t want you to feel like you had to be with me because you were having my baby if you were in love with him, so I met up with Dante, and I realized that you were always telling the truth, and the two of you are just friends. My jealousy got the better of me, I admit it. And I’m sorry. I understand why you lied.”
“Oh Carter, I’m sorry.”
“Will you marry me, Lila?” His eyes were sky blue as they gazed at me hopefully. “Do you love me?” His voice was soft and nervous.
“Oh, Carter. I love you so much.” I jumped up and threw my arms around him. “Of course, I love you, you big doofus. I love you more than anything.”
“Told you, dude,” Dante said with a grin. “It was obvious to me from the start.”
“And you’ll marry me?” He held his breath as he gazed at me and I leaned forward and gave him a huge kiss.
/> “I love you, and I will marry you,” I said, and he picked me up and twirled me around like a little kid. “I’m feeling a bit dizzy now though,” I said as he finally stopped twirling and put me down.
“I have some other news.” He bit down on his lower lip and looked nervous. “I spoke to Harley and Carlos last night after I met with Dante.”
“Oh, you guys met up last night?”
“Yeah.” He grinned. “Anyways, Harley and Carlos spoke to the execs and they are willing to pay you to come along with us on the trip to Canada as our band attorney and Dante said he would give you three months paid vacation since you’d still be practicing law for us and the firm. That’s if you decided that was something you wanted to do. I know you might not want to come and you might find it boring, but I would love to have you be a part of this experience with me.”
“Are you frigging joking me?” My jaw dropped. “Is this for real?” I looked at Dante, and he just grinned at me. I threw my arms around him and hugged him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“I take it that’s a yes then?” Carter said with a gigantic grin.
“It’s a million times yes. Yes to loving you, yes to marrying you, and yes to touring with you.” I walked back over to him and took a hold of his hand. “This is going to be so amazing. I’m in shock right now. We need to celebrate.”
“Yes! Want to come with us, Dante?” Carter said. “Maybe I can get Danielle to come as well. We can go to Tavern on the Green.”
“I wish I could.” Dante looked at his watch. “I actually have a blind date to get ready for.”
“Oh? A blind date? Really?” I laughed. “No way.”
“My nana set it up.” He rolled his eyes. “I’ve never even seen her.”
“Wow, so it’s really, really blind.”
“Yes, it is.” He made a face. “Wish me luck.”
“It’ll be great,” I said. “She’ll be lucky to have met you.”
“Yeah, she will be.” He winked and laughed. “Okay love birds, enjoy your afternoon,” he said as he made his way to the exit. “Do not come back to work this afternoon, Lila. You hear me?”
“Yes, boss.” I grinned and watched as he walked away. And then I turned back to Carter and kissed him again. “I love you, Carter Stevens. You’re a goof, but I love you.”
“I love you too, Lila James. You’re my whole world and I can’t wait to make many, many babies with you.”
“Of course you would say that.” I wanted to roll my eyes at him, but all I felt was incredibly happy.
“I learned a new song.” He looked suddenly shy. I was at the bar last night with Harley and there was a singer who started singing this song and as I listened to the words I knew that this was the song that should be our song.”
“Ooh another Ed Sheeran?” I grinned at him like a dope. “You lurve Ed Sheeran now. Almost as much as you love me.”
“I could never love anyone as much as I love you. And no, it’s not Ed Sheeran. It’s some guy called, James Arthur. Do you know him?”
“I love James Arthur.” I looked into his eyes and I knew that he was talking about Say You Won’t Let Go, one of my absolute favorite songs. I cradled his face and started singing. “Then you smiled over your shoulder, for a minute I was stone cold sober.”
“I knew I loved you then, but you’d never know, ‘Cause I played it cool when I was scared of letting go.” He sang to me, his voice so raw that I couldn’t stop a few tears from springing to my eyes. “I’ve loved you so deeply that it almost doesn’t seem real.” He whispered in my ear. “I never knew a feeling like this existed.”
“That’s not part of the song.” I grinned at him.
“Sometimes you don’t need a song to express whats in your heart. Sometimes the words just come naturally. Sometimes the music inside of us is even better than what we hear externally.”
“Are you becoming a romantic, Carter Stevens?” I stroked the side of his face. “I have dreamed of this moment. I have waited for this moment. When I’m apart from you, I miss you so much. You’re a part of me.”
“In more than ways than way.” He rubbed my belly and he suddenly grew very still. “We’re going to have a baby, Lila. We’re actually bringing another life into this world.”
I just grinned at him as he leaned forward to kiss me. It seemed like everything was finally going my way. I had the man; we were getting married, and we were going to have a baby. I should have known that this was only the beginning of what was going to be a whirlwind of a ride.
The End
Thank you for reading Along Came Baby, there will be a sequel to this book continuing with Lila and Carter’s story called, Along Came Marriage and it is available for preorder now. There will also be a book for Dante, Lila’s sexy coworker called Dante that is also available for preorder. Turn the page to read a teaser from Dante.
Dante Teaser
Read a from Dante on the next pages.
Preorder Dante now!
About Dante
A blind date set up by her grandmothers best friend.
A mistaken identity.
A crying baby left at her apartment
.
What could possibly go wrong for Sadie Johnson? Just about everything. She thought her week couldn’t get any worse and then she went on her date and met Dante.
Dante Vanderbilt. Hot, charming, sexy, rich, and arrogant. He was the sort of man that every woman wanted to tame. Every woman except Sadie. She disliked him on sight and she let him know that right away. However that only seemed to amuse him and want her even more. Even though he assumed she was a flighty, careless single mother. Even though she let him believe that was true and that she would never want him as a stepdad to her pretend kid. He seemed to find her distaste appealing which only irritated her even more. Sadie couldn’t wait to leave the date and Dante behind, only he seemed to keep popping up wherever she went.
Sadie wasn’t sure what Dante wanted from her, but one thing she knew for sure was that she was in way over her head.
Prologue
I tried to keep my cool as I stared at the man in front of me. He was perfection in every way. Tall, handsome, sexy, eyes that seemed to pierce into my soul when he gazed at me, a smile that said I want to eat you up, and his touch made promises to my body that I didn’t know if he could deliver. To sum it up, when you looked at him, Dante Vanderbilt was like some sort of sex god. It almost wasn’t fair. When I looked at him, I thought of rolling around in bed, sheets and legs entwined together. I imagined him gazing at me, like he was now, like I was the sexiest woman he’d ever seen in his life. But I knew for Dante, this was all a game and I knew that I had to take him down a couple of notches.
Don’t get me wrong, I am just like you. I’m the girl that wants love. The girl that enjoys sex. The girl that wants hot sex with a man she loves. That loves her back. I don’t like games. I don’t like drama. I’ve never had a one-night stand. I’ve never done anything like this before. That might be hard to believe. I don’t even really know how I got into this situation. Well, I know, but I don’t know how I let it go this far. This was the roller-coaster ride that was never-ending and the ride was really only just beginning.
“Tonight is the night.” Dante’s voice was husky as he slowly unbuttoned his crisp white shirt. Holy damn, he was hot! “I’m going to do things to you that you’ve only dreamed of.”
“How do you know I’ve dreamed of them?” I asked as I stared at his long slim tan fingers. “And how do you know I haven’t done them all already?” I winked at him and smiled to myself as he paused with his buttons and gave me a sultry look. I couldn’t help but stare at his tongue as he licked his lips like some hungry wolf that wanted to devour me. I swallowed hard and blushed as I thought about the things his tongue had done to me just a couple of nights before. It was if he knew just where every sensitive spot in my body was. It had been torture stopping him from actual intercourse, but I’d still orgasmed. I couldn’t im
agine what he could do with other parts of his body if he could take me on the roller-coaster ride of all roller-coaster rides with just his tongue.
“Well, I’ll just have to make sure I find something that is new to you.” He growled and I watched as he threw his shirt on the ground, like some sort of expensive hot male stripper in Vegas. Not some Channing Tatum look alike either (though I wasn’t sure if he had been an expensive stripper or not in the movie; I could just remember him swinging his hips). Dante was way hotter than Channing Tatum; though I would never tell him that.
“No strings attached, right?” His voice was smooth as he stood there and I watched as he took his jeans off. I couldn’t stop myself from gawking at his body. He was now naked from the waist up. He had a smattering of dark chest hair that covered his muscular pecs and ran down to his perfect abs. His skin was a golden olive tan and his hazel eyes shone like emeralds in the candlelight. I still couldn’t get over how sometimes his eyes looked so green and at other times looked so brown. He was wearing a pair of white boxer briefs that left nothing to the imagination. He had a huge grin on his face and his teeth looked unnaturally white in the darkness of his room.
I stared at him wondering if I had the guts to go ahead with my plan. It was tricky because while I wanted to bring him down, I was also attracted to him. Very, very attracted to him. And I was worried that I would be the one that would pay if everything went wrong. They always say that the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. And I had a feeling that I could definitely be the one that would get burned in this situation. Even though I had planned everything out to go as smoothly as possible. Only I wasn’t quite sure I really had the perfect plan. But right now it didn’t matter. This was a risk I was willing to take.
