HIS BABY: A Bad Boy Hitman Romance

by April Lust

  Or was she rationalizing so she didn’t have to leave her comfort zone? She glanced around at the grey and white swirls in the marble tile that surrounded her. It had been imported from Italy when she’d wanted the bathroom redone after high school. The soothing gray blue on the walls complimented the tile perfectly, just as the interior designer her father had hired had told her it would.

  Amelia glanced out of the steamed-up glass shower door and looked at her Japanese orfeo. Made of hammered steel and deep enough for her to sit in up to her neck, it was the showpiece of the room. Candles and jars of expensive bath salts that she bought on whims and then somehow never actually used were balanced on the wide rim. She didn’t even actually know how much she’d spent and the realization made her feel even worse.

  There wouldn’t be any of this if she lived on her own. No more meals out. No more days at spas or boutiques. No more pampering in general.

  It wasn’t necessarily the stuff she’d miss, though. It was the fear of how she would be without it. Bitter ex-rich girl? She’d met a few in her time and she’d felt bad for all of them. It was the last thing she wanted to be. Being her father’s puppet wasn’t exactly at the top of her list either, however. All of her thinking had brought her right back to where she’d started.

  Amelia sighed and reached for the shampoo, tilting her head back and lathering up, letting the sweet scent do what it could to make her feel better. She needed to decide. If she was going to give in to her father – and she usually did – she wanted to give in on her own terms. So what did shereally want?

  There were a lot of things, but there were probably only a few that she could actually manage under the radar. Her mind raced over everyone she knew. Lauren’s freedom stood out. Lauren, who flitted from man to man with a smile and absolute confidence. Amelia had never been able to do that. Probably why she was still a virgin.

  Her hands went still as she thought of Anthony. Would he expect her to go to bed with him? That was a completely unappealing thought. There’d been no hint of a spark between the two of them. Maybe he didn’t want her either. Amelia was more relieved than insulted.

  She thought about losing her virginity to Anthony and it looked bleak. Passionless. Lauren always said rich boys were terrible lovers.

  When Amelia had asked her why, she’d smiled bitterly and said, “Darling, they never have to work for anything. Give me a working-class man in bed any day.”

  Amelia had always taken it with a grain of salt that every trust fund free man was good in bed, but Lauren had much more experience and knew a lot more about that sort of thing. Amelia had considered it a few times, but there’d never been anyone who’d been anything more than a moment of curiosity. She wanted more than that. She wanted a man who could make her need him, even if it was only for one night.

  Her thoughts ground to a halt. Was that what she wanted? A night free of the cage before she signed the majority of her freedom away? Free to do whatever...whomever...she wanted?

  Yes.

  Her father was going out of town on a business trip, too. Now was the perfect time. He wouldn’t know where she was. More to the point, he wouldn’t know she wasn’t at home. Her hands began to shake, but more with excitement than anything else.

  Having made up her mind, she began to take more care with the shower. She rubbed on a facemask, and smoothed a hair mask through her long hair. While she waited for those to do their magic, she made sure she was shaved and smooth, looking at herself more critically than usual.

  She’d never set out to seduce anyone before. Tonight would be different. She’d find the best-looking guy in the seediest bar and go home with him, come hell or high water.

  There was a knock on her bathroom door and she nearly dropped her razor.

  “Yes?” she called over the sound of the running water pounding down.

  “I’m leaving,” Gregory said, his voice heavy.

  “Fine,” she answered. “Oh. Dad...before you go...”

  “Yes?”

  “I just wanted to let you know that I’ve decided to do what you asked.” She waited, hoping her acquiescence would make him see how unreasonable he was being.

  “Good,” he said. “I’m glad you decided to see some sense. Anthony is planning to take you out this weekend. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

  Fresh anger flooded through her, but she kept her tone sweet. “See you soon. Have a good trip.”

  He didn’t respond, but she heard the floorboards creak slightly as he moved away. Good to know that she apparently had a date. Creepy to know her father had arranged it for her already.

  Chapter 4

  Amelia

  As evening drew in, Amelia stared blankly into her closet. She might know exactly what she wanted to do tonight, but that didn’t mean she had any idea how to dress for it. Jeans and a tee shirt? No, that didn’t make sense. She was going for seductive. Something a little more revealing? Somethingmuch more revealing? Her heart pounded even though she was still in her own home. She didn’t have to go through with the plan. Not if she didn’t want to.

  Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. Yes, she did. Her father’s words still rang through her mind. The more she thought about them, the angrier she became.

  She was still staring at the array of clothing when her computer chirped the Skype alert. There was only one person who ever Skype called her. She rushed over and hit accept.

  “Hey, Amelia!”

  Amelia smiled. The first real smile she’d felt in a long time. “Aubrey!” She tilted the screen, eyeing the women who filled the screen. Something was different. “You look great!”

  Aubrey grinned and pretended to fluff her new pink and blonde pixie cut. “This old, fabulous hair? Why thank you.”

  Amelia laughed, feeling most of the stress she’d accumulated since before the fundraiser vanishing. She was Amelia’s oldest friend. Aubrey had moved to Nevada in sixth grade and she and her military family had been gone before seventh grade started.

  Amelia had expected that to be the end of their friendship, but Aubrey had been determined to stay in touch. She had written Amelia letters on Lisa Frank stationery faithfully, week after week. Amelia had taken a while to respond, but it hadn’t mattered. Aubrey had seen Amelia’s need for friendship and had decided to fulfill it. In a very real way, Aubrey had kept Amelia sane through her formative years.

  The letters had become emails as the years passed, the emails became instant messages, and now they spoke on Skype several times a week. In addition to being her longest friendship, Amelia knew without a doubt that Aubrey was her only meaningful friendship. They might talk about clothes, money, and men from time to time, but normally they talked about Aubrey’s job, or the latest news in any number of subjects. Aubrey stayed informed on almost every issue somehow, and Amelia always felt better and smarter after one of their talks.

  “How’s the new job going?” Amelia asked. “You must be doing well if you’re celebrating with fancy hair.”

  Aubrey’s eyes lit up. “Amelia, it isso great. The director and I are really on the same page, and I finally feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, you know?”

  Not really. “I’m happy for you,” Amelia said instead of answering the question. “It sounds like the move really was the right choice.”

  “It was,” Aubrey agreed. “I swore I’d never move again after I got my own place and didn’t have to follow Dad around the country anymore.” She grinned and shrugged. “So, having inadvertently lied the first time, I hereby swear it again.” She held her clenched fist up to the ceiling of her living room and shook it dramatically. “As God is my witness, I will never leave Texas!”

  “I like having you a little closer,” Amelia said. “Ten hours is better than...what was it? Thirty-five when you were in Connecticut?”

  “Thirty-eight,” Aubrey corrected. “And I kind of like this dry heat thing Texas has going on. You know I hate the snow.”

  “Only becau
se you’re scared to drive in it.” Amelia stood. “Mind if I take you over to the dressing table? I’ve got to get my makeup on.”

  “Go nuts. You know the stuff fascinates me.”

  Aubrey never wore anything more than lip gloss and maybe a coat of mascara if she was feeling fancy. She wasn’t making a statement; she just didn’t have the interest.

  Amelia envied the confidence. She hadn’t walked out the door without makeup on since the age of twelve when she’d seen a picture of herself in the paper next to Lauren and was horrified at how much more polished the other girl was.

  She carried the laptop to her dressing table, set it down on the edge and flicked on the lights of her mirror.

  “My eyes!” Aubrey cried dramatically, clapping both of her hands over her face.

  “Oh, sorry!” Amelia angled the laptop so the bulbs on the mirror weren’t shining directly into the camera.

  Aubrey laughed. “I can’t believe you still have that mirror.”

  “Hey, it might be as old as I am, but it works,” Amelia replied, getting her brushes and palettes out, assembling what she hoped would end up being an irresistible makeup look.

  “You know I was dying for one the first time I saw it, right?”

  “Really?” Amelia looked at the white-framed mirror with its attached Hollywood-style bulbs and then at her no-frills friend. “It doesn’t exactly seem like...you.”

  “I know. So impractical. It would have gotten broken the first time we moved. That’s probably why I wanted it,” she admitted.

  “I know what your housewarming present should be, then,” Amelia said, patting concealer under her eyes and making a mental note to order the gaudiest, fanciest makeup mirror she could find the next day.

  “I’ll hold you to it,” Aubrey promised. “So, let’s talk about you. What are you getting ready for?”

  Blatant disobedience. “Nothing special.” She didn’t know how Aubrey would react to her plan and she didn’t want to test it. She’d already ruined one person’s opinion of her. Amelia began blending her foundation and then applied a few coats of mascara.

  “I don’t know how you do that without opening your mouth,” Aubrey commented. “I thought the weird face was an essential part of putting on mascara.”

  Amelia snapped the wand back into the tube and closed it with a practiced flick of the wrist. “That’s only because you’re a hippie.”

  “Hey!”

  A glance at the screen told her that Aubrey wasn’t offended. To be honest, Aubrey rarely was. She was the most easygoing person in Amelia’s life and talking to her was always as soothing as a visit to a spa.

  “Seriously, though, Amelia,” Aubrey went on. “This is the look of a woman with something up her sleeve.”

  “My father is forcing me into a life of respectability and dates with the governor’s son,” Amelia replied before sweeping bold red lipstick over her mouth carefully. “I plan to go out with a bang.”

  She checked her lips in the mirror, pleased with the way they had turned out. She might not be the sexiest woman in the world, but she felt happy with the bolder look. Her father hated it when she wore red lipstick. Or more than one coat of mascara. She felt almost like a pinup girl. She definitely felt confident and that was great, because she needed all the confidence she could get.

  “You do have kind of a sexy war paint look going on,” Aubrey admitted. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to be respectable,” Amelia said firmly, capping the lipstick and dropping it into the tray again with a small clatter. “Tomorrow. Tonight? I’m going to do whatever I damn well please.”

  Chapter 5

  Ethan

  Ethan glanced around The Hole. The bar was busy, the way it always was on Friday nights, and everyone was scattered around.

  This was the first time he and his whole MC had managed to get together in a long time. He wasn’t the only one with a lot on his plate these days. William was sitting at a table in the corner, scowling.

  “Cheer up.” His girlfriend, Maria dropped down into his lap and stroked one finger down his jawline. “You’ll get wrinkles if you keep making that face.”

  He swatted her hand away, but he couldn’t quite hide his grin. “You got a problem with that, then you shouldn’t have moved in with a guy ten years older than you,” he informed her.

  “If I had aproblem with it, I wouldn’t have stuck around for twenty years,” she shot back.

  Ethan hid a laugh with sipping his beer, but Maria gave him a wide smile. She was good looking for someone almost old enough to be his mother, and she was probably the only woman in the world calm enough to match William’s crazy.

  She and William also had the most stable relationship out of anyone in the MC, though Taylor’s girl, Penelope, was starting to look more like a permanent fixture than Ethan had thought when he’d first met her. The two of them were currently by the jukebox, flipping through the selections and arguing amiably.

  Ryan was leaning close to a dark-haired woman at the bar, clearly offering to buy her a drink and even more clearly hoping to impress her. Jimmy, the secretary, and Kenny, the Vice President of The Angel’s Keepers, had stopped by a table of her friends, chatting casually.

  “Thought we were supposed to be having a meeting,” William groused.

  Ethan took a long pull of his beer and then thumped the bottle down. “In the middle of a bar? When we’ve barely had time to sit down for weeks? Come on, you had to know it wasn’t gonna happen.”

  William shrugged.

  “He just wanted to drink,” Maria said.

  William pushed her up and out of his lap and smacked her ass. “Go find someone else to bug,” he suggested.

  Maria wriggled her eyebrows and walked over to the table where Jimmy and Kenny were still hanging around. William and Ethan watched as she draped an arm across each of their shoulders and then leaned down to the girls. Whatever she said made both women look at the men with much more interest.

  “She’s a helper,” Ethan said admiringly.

  “She’s a shit stirrer,” William said shaking his head even though his tone was affectionate. “What happened to...what was her name?”

  “Brittany?”

  “No.”

  “Rachel?”

  “No.”

  “Carey?”

  “No...”

  Ethan looked blank. William shook his head and sighed. “You’re gonna wear it out, kid.”

  “Kelly!” Ethan said suddenly.

  William snapped his fingers and then pointed at Ethan. “That’s the one. I liked her.”

  “She moved out to L.A. a few months back. Wanted to be an actress. Or a model.” Ethan shrugged. “I can’t remember which one. It might have been both.”

  William snorted. “Yeah, good luck with that. Maybe she’ll get up with you on her way back home.”

  “She might make it. She was kinda hot,” Ethan said.

  “You’d know better’n me,” William replied, taking several long sips of his beer. He’d barely put it down before Maria was back, dropping another one in front of him with a wink.

  William reached out and pulled her back down into his lap. “Perks of living with a waitress,” he said, wrapping his arms around her.

  She wriggled in his lap and gave him her bite-the-bottom-lip grin. “Not everyone gets these perks, big guy.”

  Ethan stood up. “Gonna get more beer.”

  He still had half a bottle, but William’s scowl had finally faded, so he figured he’d let the guy relax. The better William’s mood, the more inclined he would be to be helpful in wrangling the rest of the MC for an attempt at a meeting.

  He was halfway to the bar when he saw the door open. He stopped in the middle of the room, staring in pure surprise. It was a woman. That wasn’t really the shocking part; lots of women came to The Hole. Most of them were honest enough and just looking for a rough guy to take a ride with later. In both senses of the word. This woman, though
...God. He’d never seen anyone like her walk through these doors.

  She was small, a bit more than a foot shorter than his own six feet five inches. Her slender body was shown off to its best advantage in a clinging green dress. He thought maybe it was silk and lace. He knew for sure that it was sexy.

  Her red gold hair fell down over her shoulders in soft waves and framed a heart shaped face that made his mouth go dry. He’d had his share of pretty women. This one was gorgeous. Her bright red lips and dark eye makeup reminded him of the ’40s pinup girls that decorated one full sleeve of art on his arm.