by Cat Schield
“Don’t worry. I can handle them.” His lips covered hers, silencing any further protest she might make.
Relaxing into the familiar press and retreat of his kiss, Bella hummed in appreciation of the masterful way he could make her forget everything but what was happening at that moment. For too long she’d worried about the future. Blake kept her completely grounded in the present.
“I love the sounds you make,” he murmured, gliding his lips along her neck.
She shivered in delight as he lightly sucked on her sensitive skin. “What sounds?”
“Your moans have terrific range. They tell me how much you like something. And then there’s the way you purr. I know you’re really happy when that happens.”
“I do all that?” Despite the level of physical intimacy she’d experienced with him, hearing his praise sent heat spiraling into her cheeks.
“All that and more.” He kissed her forehead. “You make me happier than I’ve ever been.”
Was that possible? His marriage to Victoria had seemed perfect. They’d been an it couple. Attractive, talented, wealthy. Bella couldn’t remember a time when they were in the same room and didn’t touch in some way. She’d envied their obvious passion for each other.
“I’m glad.”
Blake’s intent blue eyes grew sharp. “You don’t sound convinced.”
“You forget, I saw you with Victoria.”
“She didn’t make me feel like you do. Living with her was often exhausting. She loved drama. When it didn’t present itself organically, she created it.”
“But you seemed so happy.”
“Our marriage worked as long as Victoria got what she wanted. And I was happy to give her whatever. All I wanted was for us to be parents. Things began to change as soon as she agreed to try for a baby.”
Bella kept silent. The best thing she could do was trust that Blake knew what he was getting into by marrying her. He was telling her that he was tired of beautiful and exciting. He wanted…what? Plain and dull? She sighed.
“With you, I feel as if we’re a partnership,” he continued. “So you can stop sighing. It’s great with you. I know we’re on the same page.”
“Are you sure you’re not going to be…”
“Bored?”
His knack for reading her mind never ceased to surprise her. “You might miss all the drama.”
A slow smile spread across his lips. “I’ll take your brand of passion over Vicky’s love of chaos any day.”
And the hot, sexy kiss he planted on her demonstrated just how true that was.
*
Bella expected a mob scene when she arrived at her parents’ farm and her family didn’t disappoint her. The last time she’d been home was for a week at Christmas. The crowded, noisy farmhouse had seemed claustrophobic after her quiet apartment in New York. Plus, she’d been unable to answer their questions about what she’d been doing during the year since she’d last visited.
More than anything she’d wanted to be able to share the truth with her mother. Giving up Drew had been an open wound and she longed for nothing more than to sob out her pain in her mother’s arms. But taking comfort was something she’d never learned how to do. It was always her supporting others. So she’d put on a brave face and bottled up her sadness.
“You’re home.” Jess was the first to reach her. As soon as Blake stopped the car, Bella’s sister yanked open the door and wrapped her arms around Bella, practically falling into her lap as she did so. “I missed you,” she said softly.
“Me, too,” Bella whispered back.
Blake stuck close to her side as they entered the house, his fingers entwined with hers. He was a solid buffer against her boisterous family as they pummeled her with dozens of questions she didn’t know how to answer.
“I’d like to see Drew,” she told him, angling toward the stairs.
“Your mother put him in your old room. When Drew and I arrived, she insisted we spend the night here rather than in town.”
Bella nodded. “There’s only two motels and neither one is up to your standards.” She entered her old room and saw immediately that Jess had taken over the space. As the oldest girl still living at home, it made sense that she would get it. “Oh, look. He’s awake.”
Drew was standing in the crib, his chubby fists gripping the railing. He bounced excitedly when he spotted her.
“He looks none the worse for wear,” Blake said. “Your family didn’t play too rough.”
It wasn’t until Bella had him in her arms that the tension of the past week melted away. How had she been stupid enough to walk away from Drew twice? “I’ll never leave you again,” she murmured into the baby’s soft neck.
“Blake, would it be all right if I had a moment alone with my daughter?”
“Certainly.”
Turning around, Bella saw her mother in the doorway. Remembering what Blake had told her as they boarded the plane, her stomach twisted into knots of dread. As soon as they were alone, Bella sat down on the bed, Drew cradled against her chest like a shield.
“I know what you’re going to say,” she began.
“Do you?” Her mother sat down on the bed beside her. “What exactly am I going to say?”
“You are going to tell me what I did was thoughtless and wrong.”
“Since I’m not exactly sure what you did, that’s not what I was going to say at all.” Her mother cupped Drew’s head with gentle fingers. “How did all this come to be?”
“When I went to New York, I went there to answer an ad placed by a firm that matched infertile couples with surrogates.” When her mother didn’t react, Bella continued. “That’s where I met Blake. He and his wife were having trouble conceiving and so they decided to use a surrogate.”
“But usually a surrogate doesn’t supply the egg, correct?”
“Victoria told me her eggs were no good.”
“She told you?” Bella’s mother echoed. “Was that the case?”
Bella shook her head. “At the time all I knew was that she was desperate to save her marriage by having a baby. I felt sorry for her so I…helped.”
“Bella.” Her mother sounded aghast. “That was your child you were giving up.”
“You didn’t see the expression on Blake’s face the day he took me for the ultrasound. He was thrilled I was carrying his son. I knew at that moment that I would do anything to make him happy, even sacrifice my own happiness by never seeing Drew ever again so that Blake and Victoria could be the happy family he wanted.” Bella kissed Drew’s head. “Besides, I’d never planned on having any children. It never occurred to me I would get so attached.”
“When did you realize something changed?”
“The first time I felt him kick. By then it was too late. And Blake was so excited about becoming a father.”
“Are you in love with him?”
“More than anything.”
“He asked your father permission to marry you.”
“Really?” Bella was utterly charmed that Blake would do something so old-fashioned. It wasn’t what she would have expected.
“Are you going to marry him?”
“I don’t know.” She grinned at her mother. “Did Dad say yes or no?”
“That’s between them.” Her mother was silent for a long time. “You probably don’t think I’ve realized just how much you’ve done for this family.”
Bella scrunched up her face. “I would do whatever I could to help you.”
“You’ve given more than your fair share of time and money to help us out. That stops now. Living in New York City isn’t the dream I had for you, but I can see Blake and Drew make you happy. I’m glad you found a man who loves you the way your father loves me.”
And love was what made her mother’s burden lighter, Bella realized. Love for her husband. His for her. The love she had for the farm and her children. The financial struggles, the vast amount of work that needed to be done on a daily basis, the petty spats be
tween her kids, all of that rolled off Stella’s back because she was happy with the life she’d chosen.
What a blessing that was.
“It’s time for you to get a little selfish,” her mother continued. “Promise me you’ll put yourself first at least once a week.”
Blake appeared in the doorway and grinned at both women. “I intend to take excellent care of her.”
Bella’s mother smiled. “It’s nice to see someone worrying about you for a change.” She stood and plucked Drew from his mother’s arms. “I’m going to take Drew downstairs and find him a snack.”
Once they were alone, Blake came to kneel beside Bella. He pulled out the diamond ring she’d returned to him earlier that week. “The last time I did this all wrong. I’d like to try again.”
Nodding, unable to speak past the lump in her throat, Bella stared at the ring Blake slipped on her finger.
“Bella McAndrews, I love you with all my heart. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
She slid her hands around his neck and leaned forward until their lips were inches apart. “Blake Ford, you are my heart and my life. I will marry you and spend the rest of my days making you happy.”
A reverent kiss sealed their commitment to each other. When Blake released her, Bella’s whole body was tingling with passion and joy.
“Shall we go tell your family the news?”
“I’m sure three of them are outside the door listening to us,” she retorted, kissing him hard and fast. “In this house there is no privacy.”
Blake stood. “Then perhaps we should go downstairs and accept their congratulations.”
“We should.” She let him pull her to her feet.
As they left her childhood bedroom, Bella thought back over all the nights she’d lain here and plotted how her life would go. Not once had she contemplated living in New York City, being married to a billionaire and raising a family.
With her fingers laced with Blake’s, she marveled at how despite her best efforts to avoid it, she’d gotten what her heart truly wanted all along.
*
And if you liked this BILLIONAIRES & BABIES novel, watch for the next book in this #1 bestselling series, coming next month: YULETIDE BABY SURPRISE by USA TODAY bestselling author Catherine Mann
Keep reading for an excerpt from Bringing Home the Bachelor by Sarah M. Anderson
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One
In the middle of the argument—the same argument Jenny had with her teenage son every morning—she found herself lost in a daydream. Just once, she wanted someone to take care of her. Just once, she wanted to feel pampered. Just once, she thought with a sigh, she wanted to know what it was like to have the world at her feet, instead of having everyone walk all over her.
“Why can’t I go with Tige after school?” her son, Seth, whined from the passenger seat. Not that a fourteen-year-old boy would cop to whining. “He got a new motorcycle, said I could ride it. Better than wasting time waiting on you to get done with your stupid meeting.”
“No motorcycles,” Jenny said in the tone she used for attempting to reason with her first and second graders when her patience was thin. Hopefully, she and Seth would make it to school before she lost her temper. Only a few miles to go. She drove faster.
“Why not? Josey rides hers all over the place, and you know she wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t safe.”
“Josey is a grown woman,” Jenny said through gritted teeth. This was the difference between fourteen-year-old Seth and eight-year-old Seth. The boy had always been able to tell when he shouldn’t press his luck. “Josey’s husband taught her how to ride, she’s never had an accident, and you know good and well that she hasn’t been on a bike since she got pregnant.” Seth shuddered in immature horror. “May I remind you that Tige is a seventeen-year-old boy who drives too fast, doesn’t own a helmet and has already crashed his bike twice? No. Motorcycles.”
“Aw, Mom. You’re not being fair.”
“Life isn’t fair. Get used to it.” Seth rolled his eyes so hard she heard it in the dark.
“If my dad were still here, he’d let me ride.”
Before she could come up with a coherent response to Seth’s newest favorite guilt trip, she rounded the last curve before the Pine Ridge Charter School, where she taught two grades in one classroom. Trucks and cars were parked everywhere, with massive, stadium-style lights ripping through the soft dawn light.
Shoot, Jenny thought as Seth leaned forward to stare at the three-ring circus. The battle with Seth had made her forget that today was the first day of filming at the school.
The Pine Ridge Charter School was the only school for grades one through eight within a two-hour drive. The school had been funded and built by her cousin Josey White Plume and her aunt, Sandra White Plume. They’d finished it before the first day of school last fall, mostly thanks to the donations of Crazy Horse Choppers, which was run by Ben Bolton and his brothers, Billy and Bobby. The Bolton boys made money hand over fist with their high-end, very expensive motorcycles. Josey had wound up marrying Ben Bolton—and was now pregnant with their first baby.
If that were all there was to it, it would be weird enough. But the crazy didn’t stop there. Oh, no. Bobby Bolton had been filming “webisodes”—which Jenny didn’t even think was a real word—of Billy Bolton building motorcycles at the Crazy Horse shop and posting the videos on the internet. Apparently, they were getting hundreds of thousands of hits, mostly because Billy cussed like a drunken sailor and occasionally threw tools at people. Jenny didn’t have an internet connection, so she hadn’t seen the show herself. She didn’t want to. It sounded like entertainment aimed at the lowest common denominator.
But now the whole production had moved to her school. Billy Bolton was supposed to build a bike on site, teach the students how to use the tools and then the Boltons were going to auction the bike off and give the proceeds to the school. Bobby was going to film the whole thing.
Jenny didn’t know which part of this plan she liked the least. Ben wasn’t so bad. He was focused, intense and looked good on a bike, but he was a little too elite for Jenny’s taste. He made Josey happy, though, so that made Jenny happy.
Bobby, the youngest of the Bolton brothers, talked to her only when he wanted something. He was handsome and charming and fabulously rich and she supposed that was more than enough for most women, but she didn’t trust him.
She trusted Billy, the oldest, even l
ess. He was—well, she didn’t know if he was an actual Hell’s Angel, but she wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised to know he was in some sort of semicriminal biker gang. He was a massive man who everyone seemed mildly-to-severely afraid of. When she’d been introduced to him at Josey’s wedding, he’d given off a vibe that had been something between quiet, dangerous and sexy. The combination had been thrilling—or would have been if she’d let herself be thrilled. He’d been a sight to behold, with his brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, a neatly trimmed beard and a tuxedo that fit him like a glove.
Like the other two Bolton brothers, Billy was gorgeous in his rough way and richer than sin—but of the three of them, he had waved his wealth around the least. Ben wasn’t showy, but everything he owned was the best. Bobby let everyone know how rich and popular he was. But Billy? It was almost as if the family money pissed him off. Jenny had been struck mute by the way he’d glared down at her. She’d barely been able to squeak out a “pleased to meet you.”
And now that man was going to have the run of her school and interact with her students.
It was one thing for that man to make her nervous while she was wearing a frilly dress at a wedding that cost more than her house and car put together. It was a whole different thing if that man looked at one of her students with that glare. She would not tolerate a whiff of improper, indecent or dangerous behavior from any Bolton, no matter how muscled he was. One step out of line, and Billy Bolton would find out exactly what kind of woman she was.
She pulled into her regular parking spot, and Seth was already out the door, gawking as a small group of people scurried around. Jenny was usually the first person at the school. She liked easing into the morning before a bunch of six-, seven-and eight-year-olds descended on her classroom. She made some tea, made sure she had all of her supplies ready and got herself mentally prepared for the day. And since Seth usually hung out in the multipurpose room practicing guitar, it was as close to Zen as Jenny got.
But today? No Zen for her. Instead, a woman yelled, “We have a problem—car in the shot,” into a walkie-talkie as she brushed past Jenny while a man adjusted the lights—and managed to blind her with the beam.
