by Hamel, B. B.
Winning His Wife
Baby Daddy University Book 1
BB Hamel
Contents
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Prologue: Reed
1. Kayla
2. Reed
3. Kayla
4. Reed
5. Kayla
6. Reed
7. Kayla
8. Reed
9. Kayla
10. Reed
11. Kayla
12. Reed
13. Kayla
14. Reed
15. Kayla
16. Reed
17. Kayla
Also by BB Hamel
About the Author
Copyright © 2019 by B. B. Hamel
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Prologue: Reed
GRADUS UNIVERSITY
DIVITIARUM,
MATRIMONIUM,
INFANS
The words are carved into stone.
Literally. The archway entrance into Gradus University’s library has those words emblazoned in it, the school motto. I always found it a little too on-the-nose, but who am I to judge hundreds of years of tradition?
Nobody, apparently. I don’t want to be here but I’m also powerless to stop it. As a son of a powerful family, I’m expected to show up for The Draft.
I’m expect to choose my future wife from a list of girls without ever meeting them. Like they’re cattle and I’m just looking to buy.
Of course, that’s more or less what I’m doing. My father’s very, very sizable donation to Gradus University will ensure my position in this year’s Draft, along with nine other rich and powerful men of means.
I sigh and head into the library. I’m late but it doesn’t matter. They won’t go on without me.
I head through the library, down along the wooden floors that echo with every step. The walls are either bare stone or plaster and the bookshelves are richly carved wood. Everything’s polished to an absurd gleam and it’s more like a rich man’s study than an actual school library.
I shouldn’t let appearances knock me off my game. Gradus is a real school, there’s no doubt about that. Not every girl that attends Gradus University knows about the Draft, although many girls attend exactly because of it. Those are the ones I’ll have to be careful of.
But Gradus is a real school. It’s a liberal arts college, in fact, a tiny little all-girls school nested in the hills of Vermont, hidden away from the real world by miles and miles of beautiful trees and winding roads. Gradus was a finishing school for the elite and wealthy for many years, but they converted into a college during the twenties in order to keep up with the times. They admit real students, girls that are just here to learn and to get a degree.
But every year, ten girls are chosen. Those girls are drafted to a man and given special privileges on campus. Free room, free board, free tuition. Private spaces, private tutors, better food, better everything. They’re pampered, taken care of, and eventually…
Well, shit. Eventually they’re married off to the man that chose them.
I round the corner and find the very back of the library is an open half-circle. In the middle of the space is a long table with men sitting around it, some of them I recognize, and some of them are new faces. Half of them turn to look at me, mostly looking bored, although one or two are outright hostile.
The man at the head of the table is a short person with a half-bald head and thick, wire-rimmed spectacles. “Ah, there he is,” Mortimer Trim says, the dean of Gradus University. “We were beginning to get impatient.”
I arch an eyebrow at him. “My turn already?”
“Three men have chosen,” he notes. “And now you’re up, number four.” He gestures at the table in front of him. “Time to throw the dice, so to speak.”
Trim giggles with delight as I approach. The man closest to me glares up into my eyes, a thick man with dark hair and a thick beard. I glance at him and wonder what he’s so mad about, but I’m guessing he hasn’t chosen yet.
I stand at the table and look at the photographs covering it. Each picture is a headshot of a girl, some of them beautiful, some of them plain, but each and every one of them is an incoming freshman. Beneath the picture is a short rundown of their information: family name, height, weight, GPA, net worth. As if those attributes are all that matter.
I clench my fists. I hate this, I hate it so fucking much I could puke.
These men are paying for the privilege to choose and court a woman from this pile of pictures. From what I understand, it’s incredibly rare for a man to choose a girl and not end up married to her. There are rules to this game, of course, and nobody can force a chosen girl to do anything she doesn’t want to do…
But why wouldn’t she want to marry some rich and powerful man that just wants to take care of her?
That’s where Gradus got its nickname. The Baby Daddy University. Come to the Baby Daddy University and leave with a rich older man to spoil you for the rest of your life.
That’s the dream they sell these girls. At least the ones that know about the Draft.
I despise it. I hate everything about this system. It assumes these girls want to be involved. It treats them like…
Like nothing. Like they don’t matter.
I sift through the pile, although I don’t need to. Trim sent the pictures and bios ahead of time already to speed this process up. I do it for show though, lingering on a few girls. Pretty girls with good family names and very high net worth. I see a few guys flinch as my fingers touch the girl they probably hope to pick.
I don’t want any of them. The girls with names and money, they know about this game. If I choose one then I’m sure I’ll be fucked. That girl will make sure I marry her. She’ll use the rules against me.
But if I pick an outsider, a girl that doesn’t know anything about the game…
Well, maybe I can just be nice to her. Make sure she has a good experience in college. Hell, maybe I can be her friend. Four years from now, she can go on with her life and I’ll be one of a handful of men that didn’t marry the girl he drafted.
I finally find the girl I’m looking for. My fingers graze her picture. I hear someone take a sharp breath and someone else chuckle as I hold my pick up.
Trim looks like he wants to laugh out loud.
“Kayla Cox,” I say. “I pick Kayla Cox.”
There’s a murmur around the table. The man that glared at me lets out an exasperated sigh.
“Who the hell is that?” he growls. “You know something we don’t, Wright?”
I glance at him. “Who are you again?”
He bristles at that. “My name is Felix von Freusch, Baron of—”
“Enough, Felix.” Trim cuts him off and the baron looks like he wants to break the dean’s skull, but he shuts his mouth. “Are you sure, Reed? The girl is a nobody. She was only admitted to make it look like we accept students of all backgrounds. Surely we never expected her to actually… afford tuition.” He grins at me.
“If I pick her, she gets a full ride, correct?”
Trim nods. “Of course. Among other perks.”
“Good.” I throw the picture down in front of me. “I choose her, then.”
Trim’s quiet for a second. “Very well. Reed
Wright chooses Kayla Cox.” He walks over, takes the picture from the table, shoots me a sly little smile, then carries it over to a cork board hanging on the wall. He pins her photograph under my name. Three other girls are hanging under three other names, with six more names still to go.
“Are we done here?” I growl.
“You’re free to go, if you wish.” Trim gives me a dismissive wave. “Now, gentlemen, who’s next?”
I turn away, not able to stomach any more.
Kayla Cox. Born in a working-class family, which practically makes her scum around here. Smart though, with very, very good grades.
And she’s fucking beautiful.
Maybe that’s not the best choice. Choosing a girl I’m actually attracted to is probably stupid. I might be tempted to do something dumb, like actually try to court this girl and make her mine.
But no, this is a good pick, and it’s over with now. I can’t second-guess myself. She’s going to piss off my father and confuse the hell out of everyone else, and there’s no way she knows what any of this means.
I’ll just be her benefactor, keep my distance as much as I can, and that’ll be it. Four years and she’ll be on her way. Smart, beautiful Kayla. Free college tuition, among other perks.
Not so much. I can do this. Fuck what’s expected of me.
The Baby Daddy University is going to claim another victim.
1
Kayla
I toss a duffel bag of clothes down on the bare twin mattress and look around the shared dorm room. It’s not bad, a little on the small side, but the window overlooks the campus’s central courtyard with its pathways breaking out in all directions like spokes on a wheel.
My roommate isn’t here, but she’s clearly all set up already. Pink sheets, pink pillowcase, pink laptop skin… I’m imagining some girly girl with blonde hair and a perfectly white smile. Heck, that’s more or less what I think everyone’s. going to look like here.
I never thought I could afford a school like Gradus. I applied on a whim, more of a joke really. When they accepted me and I looked up the tuition, I nearly choked. I mean, there was just no way I could ever go to a private school like Gradus, just no way.
Until a couple weeks later, I got the letter in the mail. Special program, academic achievement, blah blah blah, full scholarship. Those words jumped out at me.
Full scholarship.
I wouldn’t have to worry about a thing. Room, board, tuition, everything would be included. I wouldn’t need to bring a single dollar with me if I didn’t want to. Gradus was promising a special funding program just for me.
I couldn’t turn it down. I mean, Gradus is known for being an elite private school for rich girls and wasn’t really a top choice, but I can’t turn down free. My family isn’t exactly swimming in cash.
My dad comes into the room lugging two boxes. He puts them down on the bed with a grunt. “You should let me get that,” I say to him.
He waves me off, grinning despite sweating and breathing hard. He’s tall and broad and has been working in a car factory his entire life, so he’s used to doing hard labor, but still. He’s not young anymore.
“I’m fine, sweetie.” He looks around. “Man, this is nice. Just like something in the movies.”
“I know, right?” I grin right along with him, feeling so stupid and out of place. I mean, a poor girl like me doesn’t belong at a school like Gradus.
And yet here I am.
“Is there anything else?” I ask.
“Nope. You’re all unpacked.”
“How’s Mom holding up?”
“Not crying.” He grins bigger. “Yet.”
“I’m sure I can change that.”
He laughs and hugs me. “You’ll be good, right?”
“I promise.”
He kisses my cheek and steps back. My mother comes into the room a second later and throws her arms around me.
“My baby!” she says. “All grown up.”
“Mom,” I grumble. “Enough.”
“Okay, okay.”
“We did this already, right? We said goodbye down at the car.”
“Don’t embarrass the girl,” Dad rumbles.
Mom nods and lets me go with a sigh. “I know, I know. You’re too grown up to care about your parents.”
I sigh and force a smile on my lips. She has no clue how I feel right now. I’m close with my parents, always have been. I’m terrified to go to this school all alone, hours away from where I grew up in the Midwest. This is like an alien planet for me and I want nothing more than for my parents to stay with me right now.
But I can’t do that. If I’m going to go through with this, I need to do it on my own.
We hug one more time and I walk back down with them to the car. Other girls are moving in, bustling around, chatting, laughing, parents making jokes, siblings looking bored, all that stuff. Moving day is a flurry of activity and I have to say, it’s really exciting, even if it is totally terrifying.
“You’re sure you don’t want us to stay in town?” Mom asks. “I mean, just for tonight.”
“Cindy,” Dad growls, probably eager to get on the road.
“I’m sure,” I say softly. “Honestly. Better rip of that Band-Aid.”
She smiles sadly, hugs me, and turns away. She gets into the car and I see her wiping a tear away.
Dad grins at me. “See you, kid. Call, okay?”
“I will.”
“And be safe. No sex. Don’t drink too much. Don’t do drugs.”
I glare at him. “Dad.”
“Seriously. Don’t get pregnant.”
“It’s an all-girls school.”
“Fair point, but still.”
“How would I get pregnant here?”
He gives me a silly shrug. “Just don’t.”
“Fine. I won’t get pregnant.”
“That’s my girl.” He gives me a side hug and steps to the car. “Good luck, honey.”
“Bye.”
He waves, gets in, and I watch them pull out.
I stand there for a bit, tempted to run after them. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself here. I’ve never been on my own before and this place…
Gradus’s campus is beautiful. We did a visit before I fully committed, even though I knew I’d come. It’s all green lawns, manicured trees, and buildings that look like they were built hundreds of years ago. Everything is perfect. There’s even this gorgeous lake on the far side of campus.
It’s heaven on earth. An ideal place to get an education. And I feel like such an imposter.
I turn away and head back inside. I smile at a few girls that are moving in and probably feel the same way I do. A few of them smile back. I find my room and hesitate a second.
I was offered my own single room originally, but I turned it down. Apparently, girls in my special program get their own lodging apart from the other girls, but that just felt wrong. I mean, I want to experience college the right way, and part of being in college is having a roommate. I had to email and call but after a little bit, apparently my “sponsor” gave them the green light to put me in a normal room.
I don’t know what they meant by “sponsor” and I didn’t ask. Part of me figures it’s some rich donor that pays for poor girls like me to go to school. Some big tax write-off or something. I doubt I’ll ever meet the guy and don’t really care if I do or don’t. Although maybe I’d like to thank him.
Doesn’t matter. I take a breath and step into the room I’ll be living in for the next year.
A girl looks up from her laptop. She’s sitting on the opposite bed, her blonde hair in a messy ponytail. She’s wearing a loose gray sweatshirt and jeans without any shoes. She’s got big blue eyes and a wide, easy smile. She’s bigger than me, a little bit heavier, maybe on the round side, but still feminine and cute.
“Are you Kayla?” she asks, putting her laptop aside.
“Hey,” I say. “You’re Iris.”
“That’s righ
t, nice to meet you.”
We awkwardly shake hands and I laugh. “So, uh, what do you think so far?”
“It’s great,” she says, blinking quickly. She walks over to her desk and picks up the thickest pair of glasses I’ve ever seen. “Sorry, I’m kind of blind without these.”
“Weren’t you reading on your laptop a second ago?”
“Honestly?” she asks sheepishly. “I was just staring blankly at it. I’m kind of… overwhelmed.”
I don’t think I’ve ever warmed to someone so quickly before in my life. I don’t know what her deal is, but Iris seems impossibly sweet already.
“I know what you mean.” I take my boxes off my bed and start to unpack. “My parents just left. Is it weird I feel bad about that?”
“Not at all. I almost begged mine to stay, and I don’t even like them that much.”
I laugh at that. “Same, although I’m close with my parents. It’s just…” I trail off.
“What?”
“This college is crazy. You know?”
She grins at me. “Gradus University for Girls. You know it used to be an academy back in the day?”
“No way.”
“Sure, it was originally a prep school for rich girls. I guess it still is.”
I grin at her. “Doesn’t shock me one bit.”
“Lots of snooty stuff around here,” she says matter-of-factly. “But we’ll get used to it.”
“I don’t know. I like the history.”
She grins at me. “Same. I didn’t want to sound like a dork, but…”
She goes off about the history of the school, how and when it was founded, why it changed over to a college during the Depression. I half listen as I set up my side of the room.
