Winning His Wife: Baby Daddy University Book 1

by Hamel, B. B.

  “Of course not. Holy crap. So you must’ve been drafted from the start if you have a sponsor already.”

  “What does that mean, drafted?”

  She looks at her watch. “And you’re having dinner with freaking Reed Wright in… an hour and a half. You’d better start getting ready.”

  I let out a huff and stand up suddenly. “Iris! What the hell is the big deal?”

  She stares at me for a second then blinks and laughs, shaking her head. “Honestly, Kayla, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you,”

  I want to argue but I’m interrupted by some yelling from out in the hall. I glance at Iris before heading to our door. I pull it open and find two girls facing each other. One of them is the small redhead from yesterday, and the other is a skinny girl with braces and a short pixie cut.

  “Pick up your trash!” the pixie cut girl yells. “Oh my god, it’s been a day and the room is a mess!”

  “You’re not my mom,” the redhead shrieks. “I’m serious, back the hell off.”

  “Oh my god!” Pixie steps closer.

  Suddenly Olive comes strolling down the hall. “Girls,” she says sweetly. “Oh, girls. What did I say in the meeting?”

  Both girls start yelling at once. Olive winks at me as she comes past and I head back into the room.

  I find Iris rifling through my clothes, frowning at everything.

  “What are you doing?”

  “You need to look good tonight.”

  I throw up my hands. “For what?” I ask, completely exasperated.

  “Just trust me.”

  I’m so overwhelmed and so thrown off guard by that fight in the hall that I just give in. I stomp over to my bed, sit down, and let Iris spend the next twenty minutes fussing over my clothes. When she’s finished, I shower and let her do my makeup, which she’s surprisingly good at.

  When we’re through, I have about two minutes to get downstairs. I’m wearing a short dress with sunflowers on it, a cute thrift store find that I never feel confident enough to wear because it shows off my back. But Iris insisted, and here I am wearing it.

  “Better go,” she says, smiling at me. “Oh, man, he’s gonna love you.”

  “You’re talking about this like it’s a date,” I grumble.

  “Uh huh.”

  “He’s, like, thirty. It’s not a date.”

  “So what if he’s thirty?”

  “That’s way too old for me. I need someone my age…” I hesitate a second. “Right?”

  She gives me a knowing smile. “With age comes experience,” she says. “Better go.”

  I want to argue but instead I grab my phone, my bag, and hurry out into the hall. I’m worried I’ll run into Nora or her two harpies, so I sneak through the hall as fast as I can. I make it downstairs and I push through the front door, feeling relieved.

  Right up until something smacks me in the chest and breaks all over my skin, drenching me with water.

  “Shit,” I gasp, mouth open.

  I hear a cackle of delight as Nora, Morgan, and Elise step out from behind some bushes. The other two girls launch their balloons, both of them missing. They fall into each other, cracking off, as I stand there dripping wet in a backless white dress that’s now pretty much see-through.

  “You fucking…” I trail off, too shocked to be mad. “Were you waiting for me?”

  “Yes!” Nora screams with delight. “Oh my god, bitch, did you get that on camera?”

  “Got it,” Morgan says, laughing through tears.

  I’m going to kill them. Seriously, I’m going to kill them right here. I’ll murder them and that’s it. I’ll go to jail. That’s just my life now.

  Except someone appears just ahead of me. He clears his throat and cocks his head.

  “You girls having fun?” he asks the three cackling witches.

  “Oh my god,” Nora says, wiping her eyes. “Just a little prank.”

  “Funny.”

  I stare at Reed and I feel my cheeks turn red as he looks back at me. A little smile crosses his lips.

  “You’re wet,” he says to me.

  “I know.”

  “Just having fun,” Nora says, coming up next to me. She puts her arm around me and has this big, fake smile on her lips, her head cocked just right.

  I shrug her off. “Fuck you, Nora. That wasn’t funny.”

  “Oh, come on,” she says, laughing nervously and smiling at Reed. It takes me a second to realize she’s nervous… and I think trying to flirt with him.

  “Seriously. We’re not friends. You were awful to Iris and you’ve been a huge bitch to me because I stood up to you. Don’t try to play this off in front of him now.”

  She gapes at me then glares. “Oh, stop. You’re just mad because we got you so good.”

  I clench my jaw and Reed steps over to my side. He suddenly puts his hand through my arm.

  “Come on,” he says. “We’d better get going.”

  “Uh, so,” Nora says quickly. “Are you Reed Wright?”

  He pauses. “Yeah,” he says.

  “You’re a sponsor this year?” She says it so sweetly I want to punch her in the throat.

  He sighs. “Yes,” he says, and looks at me. “Come on.”

  I don’t have time to argue. He starts tugging me away and so I have to follow. Even though I’m dripping wet and wearing a see-through white dress at this point.

  “We should hang out sometime!” Nora calls after him but he just ignores her.

  “Fucking hell,” he mutters to himself, pulling me along. He’s walking fast and with purpose, clearly annoyed.

  “Hey, hold on,” I say.

  We round a corner and he comes to a stop. I stumble up against him, running right into his body. He puts his hands on my arms to steady me, his fingers surprisingly rough against my skin. I’m standing there, dripping wet, and he’s looking at me like.

  Like he’s hungry. His eyes blaze as he takes in my body.

  “I’m sorry about that,” he says softly.

  “Why would you be sorry?” I ask, totally bewildered. “Those girls are just… I mean, they’re just…”

  “I know,” he says. “It’s not your fault.”

  “Oh. Yeah.”

  He continues to look at me until he finally tears his gaze away. “Come on,” he says. “We can go to your room.”

  “It’s back in the dorm,” I say, half turning to walk back. “I can get changed and then we can—”

  “No,” he says. “Your other room. There are clothes for you there.”

  I hesitate, not sure if he’s serious. But he takes my hand suddenly and starts walking… and I follow him.

  This is crazy. I should go back to my room and get changed. I’m wet and starting to get a little chilly but I’m following him anyway. We walk down some back paths, across the quad where some girls throw me dirty looks, and cut through a hedge. We come through onto the other side where there’s a building I’ve never seen before.

  It looks newer than the other ones. He leads me inside, flashing a strange card to a man sitting next to the front door. The man nods and I swear he has a gun at his hip, but I don’t have time to examine him much.

  Reed tugs me along through the quiet halls. We ride the elevator up two floors where we walks down another short hallway. It’s like an apartment building, but an extremely expensive and fancy one. We stop outside of a door, one of four doors on this floor. He unlocks it with his key and we step inside.

  “Your rooms,” he says and I walk into the little apartment.

  For a second, I think this has to be some kind of joke. But Reed doesn’t look like he’s joking and there’s no smile on his face. I step tentatively forward, into the spacious living room, and gape around me.

  The space is large with big, spacious windows against one wall that overlook the campus. There’s a fine, expensive rug on the floor and clean, modern-looking couches facing a fireplace with a flat screen TV mounted above it. There’s a wet bar to
the right, which confuses me since I’m underage, and a kitchen further along. There’s a back hallway with more doors but I’m too busy staring around me to get moving.

  “This… was going to be mine?” I ask him.

  He gives me a look. “It’s still yours,” he says.

  “Excuse me?”

  He lets out a soft little laugh as he goes over to the bar. He pulls a bottle of wine from a rack, opens it, pours a glass of red, and offers me one. I accept it with a nod, too stunned to really consider the gesture.

  “They wouldn’t put someone else in here,” he says. “It’s set aside for you and you alone, so long as I’m your sponsor, anyway.”

  I sip the wine and blink at it. I’ve never casually taken a glass of alcohol like this before. I mean, I’ve drank at parties or something, but this is… adult, grown up.

  I’m drinking a glass of wine with a handsome man in a beautiful, modern apartment and apparently it’s all mine.

  I let out a nervous laugh. “Why would they put some freshman girl in a place like this?”

  He cocks his head. “You’re sponsored,” he says, like that answers everything.

  I want to ask him more but he walks across the room and over toward the kitchen. I follow him, staring at the art on the walls, the decorative statues on the shelves, even the trim along the floor. It’s all perfect, pristine, beautiful. It’s the sort of apartment I’d see in a magazine and covet, not the sort of place I could actually… live in.

  He leads me over to a table with two place settings. He puts his glass down in front of one and pulls a chair out from in front of the other. “Sit,” he says.

  “Wait.” I blink rapidly and put my glass down. “I’m still wet.”

  He laughs and his eyes flick over my body. “Right. Sorry. Come on.”

  I follow him back down the hall. We pass three doors, one on the left and one on the right. There’s an office, another bedroom, and a bathroom, all before we finally go into the last door at the end.

  It’s another huge room, this one a master bedroom. The bed dominates the space, this absurdly large four-poster thing with hanging curtains laced with beads that shimmer ever so slightly in the dim light. Carpets, another fireplace, chairs and a couch, a big wooden desk, and what looks like an expensive computer fill out the cavernous expanse.

  “This is… mine?”

  He grins at me. “Yep. There are clothes in the closet. Go ahead and get changed.”

  “Why are there clothes?”

  “I was required to buy you gifts,” he says, sounding a little annoyed and maybe a little embarrassed. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Why would you have to buy me gifts?” I stare at him. “This is totally nuts, you know.”

  “I know.” He sighs. “Just get changed. We can talk more over dinner.”

  Without another word, he leaves the room, shutting the door behind him.

  I stand there, stunned, looking around for a few seconds. I don’t understand what’s happening here, but this is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

  I don’t get why they’d put me in a room like this or why the guy paying for my education would be so hands-on. Something about this situation makes me think he wants something from me, like he’s giving me something and he’ll expect something in return. Nothing is free in this world, especially when the person doing the giving is around to remind you about it.

  But sure enough, there are clothes in the closet. Expensive, name-brand clothes. Designer stuff I’d never, ever buy. I rifle through it, losing my freaking mind. There must be thousands of dollars of clothes in this freaking closet alone, not to mention the shoes lined up on the floor below.

  I manage to snag a dress that looks like it’ll fit me, something similar in cut and length to what I’m wearing. I find underwear in a drawer, all in my size oddly enough, and I quickly get changed. When I’m done, I look at myself in an ornate full-length mirror that I find in the fully modern and gorgeous bathroom.

  I look amazing. The dress fits me like a glove, hugging my curves just right, accentuating my breasts ever so slightly. I mean, holy crap, if I were into girls I’d totally want to do me.

  I giggle a little, drunk with the weirdness of all this.

  I want to stand there and stare at myself longer, but something smells good in the other room. It draws me back out into the hall and down toward the kitchen.

  I find two men wearing white chef outfits setting the table. Reed stands off to the side, a grin on his face when he spots me. He gives me a wink as the men finish up. He shakes their hands and they head out before Reed sits down and gestures for me to join him.

  “Who were they?” I ask him.

  “Your private chefs.”

  “Private—”

  He laughs and holds up a hand. “Just accept it and enjoy it, okay?”

  I stare at him before crossing my arms. “Look, this is too much. I know you’re paying for my education and I really, really appreciate that, but this is too much. I’m not going to… pay you back, you know. I have nothing to offer.”

  His eyes sparkle as his smile gets bigger. “That’s good to hear.”

  “Good… to hear?” I cock my head.

  “I don’t want anything from you,” he says softly, and strangely I believe him. “In fact, I chose you exactly because you wouldn’t want to get involved.”

  “Get involved?” I shake my head. “Seriously, what is going on here?”

  “Sit and eat. We’ll talk, okay?”

  I hesitate before giving in. The food just smells too good to ignore and I happen to be pretty hungry.

  He smiles, sips his wine, and we start eating. As we eat, he asks me questions about my life, about my family, about what I used to do.

  “Any jobs?” he asks.

  “Dairy Queen,” I say.

  “How was that?”

  “Not bad, actually. I worked with my friend Jamie and we always ended up stealing ice cream. Manager hated us but we never got fired for some reason.”

  “Sounds like a good job.”

  “Yeah, I mean, it was some pocket money at least.”

  He nods and I go back to eating. I get the sense that he’s judging me, but I have no clue what he’s judging or why.

  This whole thing seems absolutely crazy. This handsome man is giving me all these things, this apartment, these clothes, and I don’t understand why. He says he doesn’t want anything from me but I don’t know if I can believe it.

  And there’s the fact that I can’t stop glancing at him. Reed’s handsome, probably the most handsome man I’ve ever seen. I hate to admit that I’m attracted to him, but I really, really am. It’s not just that he’s clearly wealthy and stylish and gorgeous, but he also holds himself with the easy confidence of someone that knows he can dominate a room at any given moment, but doesn’t feel like it.

  The meal passes quickly and I realize that it’s been over an hour already. We haven’t talked about anything important, just easy chatter about our lives, though he hasn’t said much about his own family. Still, conversation is easy and simple. I avoid more wine after my first glass but I’m feeling… happy.

  I can almost forget about the girls back at the dorm.

  We finish eating and he leans back in his chair. “Not so bad, huh?” he asks.

  “Better than the dining hall,” I admit.

  “You can come here any time you want. The chefs are here for you.” He nods over toward the door where a phone hangs on the wall. “Just use that to call down to the front and tell them what you want.”

  “How…” I trail off.

  He slides a card to me. “Use this to get in.”

  I take it. My name and picture are on the front. I slide the card into my bag, nestled against my phone.

  “Okay,” I say, taking a deep breath. “Now it’s time to explain.”

  He shrugs a little. “Honestly, it’s not that crazy. Gradus’s scholarship program is a little… nontraditional.
They want the sponsors to be actively involved in the lives of the girls they’re sponsoring. We’re meant to be…” He hesitates a second. “Mentors,” he says finally.

  “You’re supposed to mentor me.” I say it flatly, eyebrow arched. I highly doubt this guy mentors much of anything.

  He grins at me. “So crazy to think?”

  “Yep.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re…” I trail off. “I don’t know. You just don’t seem like the type.”

  He barks a little laugh and leans toward me. “What type do I seem like?”

  “Rich,” I say immediately and feel like a moron just as fast. He laughs again. “I mean, you just seem like you’ve always had money.”

  “You’re right about that.”

  “So, I don’t know. What can you teach me?”

  “Lots of things,” he says softly, a twinkle in his eye. “I’ve been around, Kayla. You could learn a lot from me.”

  I sigh and shake my head. “No thanks. I mean, I appreciate the offer, but all this is just too much.”

  He nods, glancing around. “I figured you’d hate it.”

  “Really?”

  “The second you requested a normal room, I knew you’d never really want to stay here. I mean, the privacy, the comfort, it’s just…”

  “Not what I’m used to,” I finish for him and sigh. “I get it. I’m the poor girl from the poor family.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  I look away from him. I’ve been feeling like this ever since I came to Gradus and I guess it’s not surprising to hear him say it out loud.

  “Kayla,” he says gently. “What I mean is, you don’t need all of this to experience life. You don’t need the material bullshit. You’d rather have the real thing.”

  I look back at him. “Maybe,” I say.

  “Come on. You wanted a real college experience, and this place isn’t it.”

  “So why is it even here then?”

  “For the sponsored girls,” he says. “The other nine girls are all staying here. Actually, as far as I know, you’re the first sponsored girl to skip this place entirely.”

  “Really?” I pause. “And only nine others?”

  He grins. “It’s a very exclusive program.” He glances down at his watch then and pushes back from the table. “Anyway, it’s getting late. I should walk you back.”