by Krista Lakes
It wasn't the fairy-tale ending that I imagined, but it was a good future. A real future. It was better than anything I could hope for.
“Close your eyes, Allie,” James said, smoothing my hair. “You should rest.”
“You don't get to tell me what to do,” I murmured, sleep already claiming me. It had been a long day and now that I had cried, I was worn out. I struggled to keep my eyes open but it was futile. With a sigh, I relaxed, letting James lull me to sleep with his gentle caresses and the hum of the plane engine.
Chapter Forty-Three
“Wake up, Allie. We're landing,” James said, his voice cutting through my dreams. For a moment, I hoped it had all been a dream. I hoped I would wake up in James' comfy bed without a care in the world.
But the soreness in my neck said otherwise.
I slowly blinked as the plane landed with a thud and looked around the airplane. James was half in my seat as the man sitting next to him had taken over most of James' space. I didn't mind, though, since that meant I could be closer to James.
I yawned and my stomach rumbled. I hadn't eaten anything since those few bites of artichoke dip. That felt like months ago. I sat up and rolled my shoulders, wishing I didn't feel so damn tired. It was probably just the stress of everything, but all I wanted to do was go back to sleep on James' shoulder for at least another week.
The plane slowly came to a halt and as soon as it officially stopped, everyone stood up and began reaching for their bags. The man in the aisle seat was one of the first up, and James let out an audible sigh as soon as he regained his own space.
“Fucking coach,” James growled shaking his head. “I can't believe I just flew fucking coach.”
I put my hands on my stomach. “It's okay, baby. Don't listen to Daddy's bad language.”
James glared at me. “You can't say stuff like that.”
“Sorry.” I rolled my eyes. “Don't listen to Uncle James' bad language.”
“Allie, I'm not joking.” James turned in his seat, making sure he had my full attention. “You can't say that.”
I sighed. “I'm sorry. I'll be better. Promise.”
“You better be.” James fixed me with his gaze. He lowered his voice, even though the plane was almost empty. “I'm serious. We're talking about a lot of people's jobs here, Allie. Not just mine. If my business goes down because no one wants to deal with the guy fucking his little sister, a lot of babies just like yours are going to go hungry.”
I felt my stomach rumble with hunger. My baby needed to be fed. I imagined what I would do if I couldn't feed him because my boss decided to knock up his sister. The gravity of it hit home.
“I promise,” I said, serious this time. I wouldn't do that to someone.
James watched me for a moment and then decided that I was sincere. “Okay.”
We quickly exited the plane, avoiding eye contact with the flight attendant from earlier. Her gaze followed us off the airplane, but she didn't say anything.
Springfield wasn't exactly a happening tourist destination, so the bland gray hallways of the tiny airport were empty.
“I'm going to stop at the bathroom,” I said. James nodded and leaned against the wall. He pulled out his phone and immediately started typing at a breakneck speed. I shook my head. The man was always working.
He was waiting for me when I came out and as soon as he saw me, he started walking. Walking next to James on our way to the baggage carousel, our hands collided. It took every ounce of strength I had not to grab his hand and hold on.
But there were other people at stake here. Other families. So I kept my hands to myself.
“Why did you come back here?” James asked as we stood waiting for the baggage to arrive. “I thought you'd be going to New York, not home.”
“Right. Because Nicole is the person I want to see right now,” I replied.
“Fair enough,” James agreed. “Do Mom and Frank know you're coming?”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. “Nope. I totally forgot to call them.”
Right then, the baggage arrival light went off and a small alarm filled the room. Luckily, my bags were the first ones off the plane. I assumed James didn't have any bags, especially since he hadn't planned on taking the flight at all.”
“Good. Then we don't have to call and cancel with them,” James continued, scooping my bags from the carousel.
“I can carry those,” I offered, holding out my hand. James glared at me, glancing at my stomach. I dropped my hand and let him carry it. He started walking and I followed him out of the airport, unsure of what he meant by not having to cancel.
Outside, James navigated to a waiting town car. I figured it was one of the texts he had sent out while I was in the bathroom. I was glad he had it. I had been planning on just taking a taxi and asking Dad to cover it again. Like at Christmas.
“Royal Crown Hotel,” James told the driver. I raised my eyebrows at him. It was the nicest hotel in all of Springfield, which given that it was Springfield wasn't all that impressive.
“So, no parents?” I asked.
“No parents,” he confirmed. “Not with what I want to do to you.”
I licked my lips. “Yeah?”
He reached over and pushed a strand of hair out of my eyes and back behind my ear. His hand brushed my cheek with the motion. Electricity flowed through me at his touch.
“Yeah,” he repeated. He glanced up at the driver, then shook his head slowly. I knew what that meant. Not in front of him. I sighed.
James frowned and leaned forward. For a moment, I thought he was going to go against what he had just motioned to me and kiss me anyway. But instead, he just moved to the side so he could whisper in my ear.
“I don't have to worry about knocking you up,” he whispered. “There's things I want to do to you.”
I shivered with anticipation. My heartbeat thudded in my ears and warmth flooded the core of my being. I scooted closer to him in the backseat. Not enough that it would raise any eyebrows, but as close as I could get. The hair on my arms raised, as if electrified by his presence. I wasn't sure I was going to make it all the way to the hotel room with him whispering things like that.
***
Here, nobody knew who we were.
Here, we could be ourselves.
As soon as the elevator doors closed behind us, we were free to be ourselves. Before it even started moving up, James had his hands on my ass, lifting up. I followed his lead immediately, wrapping my legs around him and grinding against him.
We made out like that the whole way up. I didn't know why anyone would be going up from another floor, but when the doors opened, I jumped off of James quickly.
Luckily, we were at our floor. James swept me up in his arms, carrying me as he walked toward the room. We had a room on the penthouse floor, but there were four rooms up there. I ran my fingers up and down his pectoral muscles as he walked. He moved with purpose, determined to get in the door to take advantage of my body.
He scanned his keycard easily and carried me across the threshold to the room, and for a moment I imagined he was carrying me into our honeymoon room. I knew I shouldn't think that way, that we could never get married, but I couldn't help it.
Still, he looked down at me like I was his new bride. In a moment, we were in the bedroom. He set me down on the bed gently, as if I were fragile. I didn't want to correct him. I wanted him to pamper me.
He pulled my shirt up, exposing my stomach. I had been touching it every chance that I could get, and now he seemed to be touching it the same way I had. “He's in there?” he asked.
“Or she,” I added quickly.
“Or she.”
“Yes, they're in there,” I said, smiling.
James leaned down and kissed my belly button softly. It was almost too sweet, too tender for how turned on I was right now. I was glad to be getting these signs that he loved me, but I also wanted him to show me how sexually attractive he found me.
He
finally unbuttoned my pants, working them down. I laid there, completely paralyzed, wondering how he felt about me. Even though we had only had sex eight hours before, I knew that, now that I was pregnant, he would see me in a whole new light.
As he worked his way up to my flower, he kissed me over my panties. He seemed to breathe in my scent as he did so. I shivered with anticipation.
“Allie?”
“Mmm?” I responded. It wasn't really a coherent word.
“This,” he started. Then, he pulled my panties to the side. He touched my opening gently, pressing along the sides and beginning to loosen me up. “This is mine. Forever. No matter how secret we have to keep it.”
I whimpered.
He kept teasing me, not touching my clit and not fingering me. “Are we agreed?”
I whimpered again. At least this time it sounded like an “mmm hmm.”
I could hear him practically growl as I laid there, still unable to move. “Mine!” he cried out, sounding very possessive. With a quick motion, he put his fingers inside of my panties and tore harder than he ever had before, ripping them in half. I recognized him snapping, so fiercely caught up in his own lust that he lost control.
I began to pull my shirt the rest of the way off as he tore his shirt off, his buttons skittering across the floor. Just one more shirt to add to his pile of ruined shirts due to me, I thought with a smile. His pants were off in another moment, his cock at full attention. I started to pull the remnants of my panties off my body but he was on top of me, kissing me as he positioned himself over me. I wrapped my hands around his back instead.
“This is mine,” he said again, pushing himself within my body quickly. I gasped with the suddenness of it, but he must have known how wet I was. He slid right in, completing me, making me whole. I knew then that my life would be good as long as he was a part of me.
“I love you, Allie,” he said before kissing me. He continued to thrust.
I broke the kiss. “Oh, I love you so much, James. I've loved you for as long as I've known you.”
“Me too,” he agreed, though as usual I wasn't sure if he was talking about loving me or loving himself. I didn't care. I just needed to feel him inside of me.
He pushed deep inside of me, then pulled out. He pushed me over on my side, then got behind me, spooning me. I guided him inside of me as he wrapped his hands around my breasts, pulling me up closer to his body. We writhed together as I felt his penetrations going as deep as possible. He grabbed my chin and pulled it to the side, bringing me in for a kiss. We kissed deeply and tenderly as our bodies remained joined.
He moved his hands to my belly, and my own hands went on top of his. Just having his hands there, knowing that he knew about our baby, brought me closer and closer to orgasm. I parted my legs a little more, reaching down there and seeking my own pleasure center.
He reached all the way around me, wrapping me up even closer in his arms. I could feel him begin to swell as he continued to quest into my body. “Please,” I whispered. “Please come inside me.”
I could feel his whole body undulating, using every muscle to get as deep inside me as he could. My orgasm got closer and closer as he began to gasp and shake. I wanted him so badly I could scream.
“Please,” I moaned louder. “Please, make me yours.”
I felt him thrust deep one last time, pushing deep within me. My orgasm hit and I felt my body clench on his as wave after wave of pleasure coursed through me. As I felt the first splash within me, I began to shake.
I didn't deserve to feel this good. Nobody deserved to feel this good.
Yet it felt so right as I remained wrapped up in James' strong arms. He continued to thrust within me, making sure every last drop of his seed ended up inside my body, making sure that I was marked as his forever. I relished every moment of it.
As his movements slowed and then stopped, he didn't pull out of me. He stayed within me. It had been a long day, and now that I was here and wrapped in his arms, all I wanted to do was sleep.
“I love you, Allie.” They were the last words I heard before I drifted off in his arms.
Chapter Forty-Four
“Wake up, Allie!”
I tried to ignore the voice. I was having a wonderful dream. James was holding a perfect little baby in a blue blanket. Everyone from my parents to all our friends was there and everyone was happy and congratulating us. No strange glances or worried looks about our relationship. We were just two parents, thoroughly in love and celebrating the birth of our child.
“ALLIE!” James was more insistent this time.
I groaned, rolling over on the bed and looking at the clock. It couldn't be later than seven. It wasn't even hinting at being light out yet. I really hoped there was a good reason for James to be yelling at me to wake.
“What?” I yelled back. I rubbed my eyes, the edges of my dreams already wearing away. “Why are you waking me up?”
He tossed a newspaper at my feet. It looked like the entertainment section. I didn't move. I just sat there looking at the blurry words and wondering if I was carrying a crazy-man's child. It had better be the announcement of World War Three in that paper. Anything less and I would hit him with it before going back to bed.
“Did you tell anyone about us?” James asked. He stood at the foot of the bed, already dressed and looking mad as hell.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I didn't say a word to anyone.”
“Not even Tessa?” he pressed.
“No, not even Tessa.” I yawned and reached for the paper. “Not Anne, not Nicole, not Dad, not the clerk I bought the test from. I didn't say a word to anyone.”
“Well, someone figured it out,” James growled.
I looked down at the paper, squinting to make out the words in the dark. I had to read the headline four times and even then I hoped it was a trick.
BILLIONAIRE JAMES COLEMAN SLEEPING WITH SISTER
Right below the headline was a picture of the two of us at the club with Nicole. Except Nicole wasn't in the picture.
“Nicole's going to be pissed they used this picture and not the one with her in it,” I murmured, trying to wrap my head around what I was reading. How had anyone figured this out?
“That's what your reaction is?” James sounded ready to explode. “There's a headline saying I'm fucking my sister and you're worried about your roommate not being in the picture?”
“I just woke up, James,” I replied, staring at the picture and feeling my world crumble around me. “I really just want to go back to sleep and find out this was a dream.”
“It's not!” he yelled, obviously angry. He slammed the flat of his hand against the wall, making me jump. There was so much defeat resting on his shoulders that he looked small for the first time in his life. My heart went to my throat as I scrambled from the bed to wrap my arms around him.
“It'll be okay,” I lied, pulling him into me. “Nobody reads this paper anyway.”
“Right,” James chuckled, but there was no mirth to it. “No one reads the New York Times.”
I blanched a little and held him tighter. “What do we do? You tell me what we need to do, and I'll do it.”
James relaxed his grip on me, looking down with those green eyes that seemed to absorb everything around him. “I appreciate that.”
I tried to smile, but my lips wouldn't move. This was too awful to smile about. “If you want, I'll make a claim that it's all lies. That I think you're gross and smelly.”
“You didn't read the article, did you?”
“It says you aren't gross and smelly?”
“They have pictures. Compromising pictures.” His whole body stilled.
“How would they get those?” I asked. “Even if they figured us out, how did they get pictures?”
James sighed. “I don't know. The paper didn't run the photos, saying they were too risque for print. I have no idea what they are.”
“Maybe there are no pictures?” I didn't think we would
get that lucky, but I said it anyway. “What are we going to do?”
“Wouldn't matter now. The damage is done. It's out in the world now. Even if there aren't any pictures- the idea is in the public eye. It will never go away.” He trembled slightly and it scared me.
“What do we do then?” I asked, pressing into him.
James sighed. “Yesterday, I had a plan. I was halfway to hiring someone to pretend to be your boyfriend. To create some distance between us and make it believable that you got knocked up by someone other than me.”
“You were going to hire someone to be my boyfriend?” I repeated, stuck on that part of his statement. “Like, to take me out on dates and stuff when you aren't around?”
“Don't worry. The guy I was looking at is gay and has excellent taste in restaurants,” James assured me, as if that was the weird part of his hiring plan. He let me go and started pacing the room. “But now... now I don't know what to do.”
“Well, you can cross having to have a job interview with the pretend boyfriend off your list.” My voice faded as I finished, knowing that it wasn't funny. I just hated to see James look so defeated. It wasn't James to look like he'd just been kicked in the balls and left in the mud.
“Not funny, Allie.” He ran his fingers through his hair. He already had bed-head, so he only mussed it up further.
“Sorry,” I murmured, staring at the paper resting on the bed. This was bad. “At least there's no mention of the pregnancy.”
“Yeah, but for how long?” James sank into a chair. I'd never seen him look so depressed. “Once you start to show, it won't be rocket science. Even if we avoid the rumors now, they'll come back. There's no running from this.”
He paused, clearly at a loss for what to do. He needed some help. And I had an idea. “So we own it,” I said.
“What?”
“We own it.” I said with a shrug. “We're in love, right? People love a good love story. We make it about how we feel, how you're Romeo and I'm Juliet and we can never be together...”
“And you think people will go for it? That they'll look past the whole brother-sister thing?” He looked doubtful.
