Just like Grey (Series ONE Complete Set): Billionaire Romance

by Jessie Cooke

  Reece.

  “Welcome home,” the message read. “Can’t wait for you to meet my little bundle of joy.”

  She gulped.

  She had actually been too busy to even think about Reece, and had it not been for the fact that she worked with Luke, she most likely wouldn’t have thought about him either, and she definitely hadn’t spent much time thinking about the baby or Nicky. She’d texted Nicky when she was back in the States telling her congratulations and that she missed seeing her, but she hadn’t heard anything back from her. Checking Facebook one night, she had seen that Nicky hadn’t wasted any time in posting album after album of pictures of little Hayley, and Bella couldn’t help but smile and admit that the kid was pretty damn beautiful. Of course, with Reece Hamilton as your father, it’s likely you would turn out to be beautiful, she had thought.

  Sighing more heavily than she had known she would, Bella texted Reece back quickly.

  “Thanks. I’m still trying to get back into the groove. Hayley is gorgeous. Would love to meet her, but I don’t think Nicky wants much to do with me.”

  She didn’t blame Nicky. Once she had finally called her back and informed her friend that she and Christo were out of the country, it seemed that Nicky had taken it personally.

  “So, you weren’t even going tell me?” she had asked.

  Bella defended herself and Christo. “It’s not like you’ve been very communicative with either of us,” she had countered. “You didn’t even show up for his wedding, Nick. Nor was there any explanation, card, gift. He’s supposed to be your best friend.”

  She had heard Nicky sigh in exasperation on the other end of the line. “I’ve just had all this weird stuff going on with my body, and I didn’t have anything to wear or the money to buy something. Plus, I don’t know, it has felt weird going out and people asking me about when I’m due and where the father is and if they can rub my belly. I don’t know what it is, but it’s like a woman gets pregnant and suddenly her entire life and body is on display for the public. It’s invasive.”

  Bella had known that she couldn’t empathize at all, but she was finding it hard to even sympathize. Nicky simply wasn’t acting herself; she loved attention of all sorts, and now she seemed a recluse, but Bella assumed it was all thanks to the hormones.

  “I knew I’d be a basket-case, too,” Nicky had continued. “Hell, I can’t even watch a commercial about a phone company and not go to pieces thinking about all the people I don’t talk to and won’t talk to and can’t talk to and—oh, don’t get me started.” She had sniffed and subsequently blown her nose quite loudly. “I didn’t want to make a spectacle of myself.”

  But the excuses had seemed thin and empty to Bella. It had never been like Nicky to ever allow anything or anyone to keep her from doing what she wanted to do, and—up until recently—she’d been a loyal friend who’d do anything for any one of those she deemed closest to her.

  After that conversation, though, Bella hadn’t pursued any contact with Nicky, so she couldn’t exactly blame her for not seeking Bella out either.

  Her phone vibrated in response. “I’ll take care of Nicky,” the text message promised. “Head over to her house Sunday afternoon.”

  There was a weird feeling in the pit of Bella’s stomach, and it seemed to move in a slow circle like it was swimming in the well of her gut, but she texted back “okay” before she chickened out.

  A knock on the door to her office rescued her from more misery, and she smiled into the hazel eyes of Luke.

  “Hey, there,” he greeted before crossing the room, leaning over her desk, and planting a kiss onto her upturned mouth.

  “Hi. How’s your day?”

  “Better now. Feeling back to normal?”

  She gestured at the mound of papers, files, and binders on her desk. “If this is normal,” she answered.

  “Well, I was hoping we’d get some time together,” he smiled. “You know, like normal people who date here in America?”

  She cast her eyes down and began her apologies feeling the guilt for keeping him at bay, but feeling even guiltier for not experiencing as much guilt as she felt proper. “We should totally have a nice romantic dinner,” she agreed. “Somewhere where they’ll have candles on the table and a good wine list.”

  “That sounds perfect,” Luke responded. He had come around her desk to stand beside her and was massaging her shoulders. Bella closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment, a pleasured moan escaping her lips as she leaned into his hands.

  “Hey, I have a favor to ask,” she said slowly.

  “Is this like the last favor you asked that ended up with us in bed and you in some weird contortionist pose because if it is, count me in.” Luke bent down and nibbled her earlobe.

  “No, not that kind of favor,” she confessed, though the thought of the time to which he referred did give her a slight tingle where she sat. “I need to go see Nicky’s baby Sunday, and . . . well, we haven’t exactly been on the best of terms. Would you go with me?” She swiveled her chair around so that she could look up into his eyes with her own Perisan-blue pouty eyes, hoping that would give her an edge.

  “Nicky? The same Nicky that slept with your ex?”

  Bella had given him a brief version of the story with as few intimate details as possible, especially the part where Bella had enjoyed sex twice with Reece-the-Mystery-Masked-Man before ever knowing it was him.

  “I told you, it’s way more complicated than it sounds, and I don’t really want to go into all of it, but yes, that Nicky, and she still to my knowledge has no idea that Reece and I ever were together. It was just weird timing.” She looked up at him, feeling like a two-bit whore but desperate for him to rescue her. “Can you see why I would like for you to go with me? Please?”

  She stood and pressed her body up against his, tracing her manicured fingernail around his face and neck down to his shoulders. “It’s something I know I should do, but I really don’t want to do it alone. I need you.” She had become one of those women; the type that had no qualms about using her wiles to get what she needed . . . with limitations, of course.

  “Sure, I’ll go with you,” Luke said, a bit more eagerly than Bella had anticipated. “It’ll be good for her to see us together, and it will give you some peace about the situation too. Perhaps you’ll be able to salvage some part of your friendship.”

  Bella hugged herself up against him. “Maybe you’re right,” she said, though deep down, she knew that was most likely impossible.

  42

  Bella took a shot of tequila from her bar at home before she answered the door to Luke. It was Sunday afternoon, and they were heading over to Nicky’s house to meet Hayley Jo. Bella’s nerves were frazzled and raw, and she knew that the afternoon would demand some fortitude from her that she couldn’t find anywhere except within the bottle of Patrón that was staring her in the face.

  “You ready?” Luke greeted her with a kiss. “Somehow, I didn’t know that tequila was a typical Sunday brunch drink,” he said as he licked his lips.

  “Don’t judge me,” she asserted. “I’m nervous and needed something to calm my nerves.”

  “Well, not too much,” Luke warned. “You know what the song says: ‘Tequila makes her clothes fall off.’ Wouldn’t want that happening in front of the baby. When we get home, however, knock yourself out.” He hugged her close to him, and she could feel his solid length.

  “Do men get turned on by everything?” she asked. “Jesus!”

  “Sorry. It was the thought of your clothes falling off that did it. Don’t look so hot, and don’t drink tequila, and we’ll have no problems.”

  Bella knew she was irritable; it was her nerves getting the better of her. She had dressed in four different outfits before settling on the linen pants and white sleeveless top she was wearing now, and she knew that it wasn’t Nicky, Luke, or the baby she was trying to impress.

  She grabbed a gift bag decorated in teddy bears and plush giraffes off the ki
tchen table and nodded towards Luke. “Let’s get this over with,” she said.

  He offered his arm and she took it as they left the apartment.

  “I’ve gotta say, I think you’re being really awesome about this,” she said as she climbed into his Lexus.

  “Don’t mistake it,” Luke responded. “I’m just excited to spend a Sunday afternoon with you. Obviously I’ll do just about anything to spend time with you lately.”

  “Hey, that’s not fair!” she said as she buckled herself in and turned to face him in the car. “You make it sound like I’m avoiding you or something.”

  “Are you?”

  “What?”

  “Avoiding me?”

  “No, I knew what you meant, I just can’t believe you asked me that. No, I’m not avoiding you. Why would I?”

  “I don’t know. You’ve been weird for a while now. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the sex in Haiti was hotter than ever, but . . . I don’t know . . . you’ve seemed distant even then, like you’re over me or something. Did you meet someone?”

  She laughed. “Who would I meet?”

  “I don’t know. I just feel like—am I being paranoid?”

  She looked at him. Could he read her that well? Could he really pick up on her hesitation? “You’re being paranoid,” she told him. “And I guess I’m just still trying to get back into the groove here. I’m sorry. I’ll be more attentive. I know what happens when I throw myself into my work, and I won’t like myself if I keep doing it.” She wrapped her hands around his neck and brought his forehead to hers. “And you won’t like me much either,” she said.

  He shook his head, rolling his forehead against hers, causing her own head to move back and forth with his.

  “I’ll make it up to you,” she promised.

  “That’d be nice,” he said in a low voice. He leaned forward and kissed her, igniting a spark within that she hadn’t felt in a while. She slid her tongue between his lips slowly, and he uttered a small moan of pleasure and longing the instant he tasted her. His hands tightened in her long tendrils of curls, and his kiss widened as he tilted his head to a new angle.

  “We’ll never make it back if we don’t go,” she said.

  “Then let’s get this party on the road,” he responded, and after one more kiss, he started the car and headed towards Dallas.

  Nicky threw her arms around Bella as if there were no wedge between them. Bella wasn’t sure how to react, but for everyone else’s sake, especially Hayley’s, she decided to go with the flow. Reece was settled into the sofa and cradling a bundle of blankets when they arrived, and Bella felt for a second like the wind was knocked out of her when she saw how natural he looked in the role of father.

  “Bella! Come see the most beautiful girl in the world!” he called her.

  “I’ve got someone for you to meet too,” she said, and she made the introductions, labeling Luke her ‘boyfriend’, much to the chagrin of Reece—at least she hoped.

  Reece placed the baby into Bella’s arms and then took Luke into the kitchen for a beer and congratulatory cigar while Nicky rattled off the story of her delivery. Bella felt overheated and overstimulated, but she was able to find solace in the calm sleeping face of little Hayley. She looked at the bundle in her arms feeling both the airy lightness and the heavy weight of the baby she held.

  “So, I know things have been weird lately,” Nicky began, “but I did want to ask you a favor.” She clasped her hands together and looked at Bella with an anxious smile. “We always said we wanted each other to be our kids’ godmothers, and . . . well, I didn’t think I’d be the first, but. . . I’d still like for you to think about it.”

  Bella was shocked. A lump rose in her throat, and she tried hard to swallow around it, but it wouldn’t go down. She didn’t feel the tears stinging her eyes like she thought she would, but then again, she didn’t feel like she and Nicky had been very close lately. It felt stilted and odd that Nicky was following through on a promise they’d made ages ago, back when they thought nothing could come between them. Bella’s mind also flashed to the first party where she’d been a painted waitress and where she’d met Reece who later took her on a stranger’s desk. How easily this entire situation could be different, and how she’d kept this information from Nicky all this time; how the longer she waited to confront Nicky with the truth, the more likely it seemed the truth would never be told.

  “Nicky, I---“

  “Don’t answer now,” Nicky interrupted. “Like I said, it’s been weird for us, I know, and I’m mostly to blame. I want us to be friends like we used to be, Bells. If anything, Hayley is teaching me that people are so much more precious than things in life. And that the relationships we build are what really matter. I want to be a good mom, Bella, and part of that is putting plans in to place for her. And if anything happened to me, God knows my mother would ruin another child if she got the chance, so . . . well, I know you’ll be a great mom someday, so I think if I can’t be with her, who’s the next best mom? That’s you. As many times as you’ve taken care of me?” Nicky placed her hand on the baby in Bella’s arms. “Just say you’ll think about it,” she whispered. “We’ve got plenty of time.”

  Bella nodded as she looked into the baby in her arms, her hair downy and soft, almost transparent in the light of the sun, lining the top of her head where Bella could see the heart beating through the soft skull of the newborn. Bella wondered at how white the hair seemed given her father’s dark waves, then she chided herself for forgetting Hayley’s newness and youth. Chances were she’d lose the light wisps of hair before her “real” hair grew in. Bella bent down and inhaled the warm sweetness that wafted up from Hayley’s tender head.

  “I’ll think about it,” she said. “It’s not a decision I would ever make lightly.”

  Nicky put her arm around Bella’s shoulders. “That’s why I love you, Bells,” she said.

  But Bella was wondering if Nicky would really still love her if she knew everything that Reece and Bella had avoided telling her.

  “Let’s get that tequila!” Luke said when they finally walked back through the door of Bella’s apartment, and though she felt spent and emotionally exhausted from the visit and the front she felt she had to put on, she was definitely ready for another drink and knew she had to make good on a promise she’d made.

  She pulled the lid off the Patrón and poured them each a jigger. Luke lifted his shot glass in a toast.

  “To clothes falling off,” he said.

  Bella responded by putting her shot glass down on the table and promptly unbuttoning her blouse. “We don’t have to wait on tequila to make clothes fall off,” she said wickedly.

  Luke threw back his tequila, slammed his shot glass on the table, and then approached Bella just as she was unbuttoning the last button. He caught the sides of her blouse, now open revealing her beige lace bra, and he used the shirt tails to pull her towards him.

  “Not wasting any time, are you?” he asked.

  She picked up the shot glass, downed the clear liquid, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “No time to waste when we could be back there on my plush pink bed banging that headboard against the wall.”

  She loved babies, and she had every intention of being a mom one day, but the reality of her narrow escape from Nicky’s predicament had lent her audacity, and she liked the freedom she felt when they escaped Dallas that afternoon. Of course, seeing Reece had added to her confusion as well as added to her fervor, and now she felt the power she possessed as it coursed through her veins.

  She unzipped her linen pants and stepped out of them, her beige lace thong winking at Luke when she turned to gently hang her pants on the back of the sofa. “No point in getting wrinkles either if I don’t have to.”

  Luke giggled. “I love it when you mix fashion and lovemaking. My perfect woman.” He dipped her backwards as he nibbled on Bella’s long neck and worked his way to her earlobe, tickling her with the trim beard that matched his
cinnamon hair. She felt the tequila warming in her belly and began feeling the extra boldness that came from Patrón, so she grabbed the bulge within his pants with one hand and his butt with the other and brought him up against her.

  “It’s time to free willy,” she said laughing at her inane joke. “At least for a little bit before he’s trapped somewhere nice and soft and warm.”

  “Soft and warm is good,” Luke said as he led Bella back towards the bedroom. Together they climbed onto the bed, and Luke removed his clothing quickly as Bella watched, licking her lips in the wake of the snappy striptease.

  “I like watching you do that,” she said.

  “Next time I’ll have to give you a real show,” Luke said. “But right now, I’ve got some business to attend to.”

  He pulled her lace panties down and over her ankles, his hands on her as quickly as magnets. He slid them along her nerve center and felt the pulse of the blood rushing to the spot. He wet his fingers making slow circles at her opening, and Bella gasped at the pleasure she felt suddenly. His lips washed her breasts as he leaned in to her chest and inhaled her scent.

  “God, you always smell so good,” he said. She subconsciously inhaled him and felt a spark of electricity from the memories and sensations that had come to be associated with his scent.

  Luke’s hand pumped against her as his fingers slid deeper into her. His lips moved back over to her ear.

  “Speaking of soft and warm,” he began, a slight note off balance in his voice. “I’ve been wanting to try something with you.”

  Bella’s hands encircled him, and the thought of a new adventure zinged within her, and she knew her nipples were erect with the thought of untapped pleasure. “Really?” she purred. “Do tell . . . or better yet, show.”

  Luke took the opportunity and challenge, licked his way past her neck and onto her breast, then wrapped his strong hands around her and flipped her over onto her stomach. Then he dismounted the bed and pulled her by the legs towards the edge.