Daddy's Virgin

by Claire Adams

  A tall, beautiful woman approached. She had dreadlocks that fell to her middle back and light hazel eyes that danced when she smiled.

  “Lovely to meet you, Kristen.”

  “The pleasure’s mine,” I replied. “I must say, we were both so curious to meet the woman who finally managed to convince Luis to settle down.”

  “It wasn’t easy,” she laughed. “But I convinced him that I was more than willing to be an army wife.”

  “My next deployment will be my last, though,” Luis said. “Then it’s time for me to start a new chapter.”

  “Good for you, man…and if you ever need some help getting a job when you’re back here for good, just give me a call,” Jake said, clapping him on the back.

  As the group kept talking, I glanced up and noticed my mother standing in one corner looking straight at me. I excused myself and headed over to her.

  “Hi, Mom,” I said, leaning in for a hug.

  “My God,” she replied, patting my stomach. “You’re so big.”

  “I definitely feel big,” I nodded.

  “You look lovely,” she said, and I could see that she was a little emotional.

  “You have a lovely apartment,” she continued, looking around.

  “We moved in right after we got married,” I said. “Jake wanted a place in a good school district, and we needed a bigger space because we knew we were going to start a family soon.”

  “I wanted to thank you for inviting me,” she said. “I wasn’t at your wedding, so it makes me feel good to know I was included in the baby shower.”

  “No one was invited to the wedding, Mom,” I reminded her. “There was no wedding to begin with. Jake and I eloped, and the only person with us was Noah.”

  “You didn’t want a wedding?” she asked, and I knew she still didn’t understand why we had eloped.

  “No,” I said. “We just wanted to be married; we felt the wedding was unnecessary. I did wear a white dress, though.”

  “I saw the pictures,” she nodded. “But I’m glad you decided to have a baby shower.”

  “And a gender reveal party,” I added.

  “That’s exciting,” she nodded. “So when is the reveal going to take place?”

  “I think the cake was just delivered a few minutes ago…so, soon,” I replied. “I think they’re just taking it out of the box and setting it up.”

  Just as I finished speaking, one of the caterers we’d hired for the evening wheeled in a food trolley with the cake in its center. It was a beautiful cake in a blushed fondant with tons of different kinds of chocolate decorating its head.

  “Mom,” Noah said, rushing to my side.

  I placed my hand on his shoulder. He had transitioned into calling me ‘mom’ right before Jake and I had decided to elope, and ever since then, I always got a little tingle of happiness every time he addressed me.

  “Ready to see if you’re going to have a brother or sister?” I asked.

  “Yup!” Noah nodded, bouncing up and down.

  He had grown up into a little man now. He was seven and more or less independent, which was what had initially prompted me to want to get pregnant. I missed Noah at four, and I was hoping to get as lucky the second time around.

  As we walked up to the cake, Jake appeared on the other side of the cart, and all our guests fell silent as he tapped his glass to signal a toast.

  “I just wanted to say to everyone here, thank you for coming,” Jake started. “And, I also wanted to thank my beautiful, kind, and selfless wife for transforming my life and for being a wonderful mother to our son. Ever since I married you, our life has been an adventure, and I can’t wait to start this next adventure with you.”

  “And me!” Noah piped up.

  The whole room exploded in laughter, and I felt so happy that suddenly I felt light as a feather, as though I could float away.

  “A few years ago, things were really difficult for me,” Jake continued. “I was going through a hard transition, and I needed some hope, I needed a reason to persevere, and Kristen gave me that reason. So I’d like to invite everyone here to raise their glasses to my brilliant and beautiful wife—Kristen Middleton.”

  There was a clink of glasses as everyone toasted to me and then the crowd started cheering and clapping. The moment the noise quieted down a little, Noah grabbed my hand.

  “Can we find out now?” he asked impatiently. “I want to know what we’re having.”

  I smiled and nodded. “Of course,” I said, as Jake stepped in beside me and handed me a knife.

  “Ready?” Jake asked.

  I nodded. “I am,” I said. “But I think Noah should do the honors.”

  “Really?” Noah asked, sounding thrilled.

  “Go for it, buddy,” Jake said, passing the knife to Noah.

  Looking a little nervous suddenly, he cut into the cake and pushed aside the split piece so that we could see the color on the inside.

  “It’s pink!” Noah yelled.

  The room burst into another round of applause, and I felt Jake’s arms wrap around me from the back. He kissed my cheek and neck, and I could tell that this was what he had hoped for.

  “We’re having a girl,” he said joyously.

  “She’s going to have the best father in the world,” I said.

  Jake gave me a wink, and then he was kissing me passionately, for the entire world to see.

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  BILLIONAIRES HOOK UP

  By Claire Adams

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2017 Claire Adams

  Chapter One

  Tasha

  My heart bounced up into my throat when the phone rang. The product launch had started slow, but the last I heard, the server had crashed. It was supposed to be good news—so many people bought the application that we'd been overwhelmed—but it was my responsibility to smooth everything out. I wasn't sure I could take one more wrinkle.

  I pressed down the creases on my pencil skirt and answered the phone. "Tasha Nichols."

  "Ms. Nichols, I'm Amy. I'm the assistant the temp agency sent over?" Her nervous voice ended everything on a high, shaky note.

  I ground my teeth. Another junior executive had poached my assistant. Over the last two years, a pattern had emerged: I trained my assistants, made them capable and efficient, and then one of my male counterparts would entice them away. Now it seemed I had a new, temporary assistant every few weeks.

  "Yes, Amy, is there something you need? I'm not due into the office for another thirty minutes," I said.

  "Um, yeah, I mean, yes. Yes, Ms. Nichols. A Mr. Berger stopped by and dropped off two tickets to an exclusive wine tasting event up in Sonoma. It's tonight, so I thought you would want to know right away," Amy said.

  So, Berger was the assistant-thief this time, I thought. He knew full well I didn't have the time for a wine tasting, but at least he'd made the effort to send a thank you.

  "Wait, did you say Mr. Berger stopped by? He's already in the office?" I asked.

  Amy paused, remembering my no-doubt dashing colleague. "I'm not sure he went home last night. He was wearing a tuxedo."

  Of course he was. While I was sweating over the server crash and helping the tech managers organize their teams, the other junior executives had been representing our company at a Bay Area charity ball. A whole night of free champagne. No wonder he was so free with his wine tasting tickets.

  "Sen
d the tickets to my tech manager," I told my temp assistant. "He deserves them for setting everything right at the eleventh hour."

  I choked on my last sip of coffee as I heard Amy rummaging through piles of paper. She made nervous little sniffs as she searched. "Your tech manager?"

  "There's a contacts roster inside your job description binder," I said.

  I dumped out the rest of my coffee in the kitchen sink and glanced out the window. The San Francisco Bay was glittering in the bright spring sunshine. The Golden Gate Bridge was just emerging from a light layer of fog, and from my vantage point, San Francisco was shining like the inside of an abalone shell. The light cardigan I wore was enough for my sunny spot in the East Bay, but the city would be chilly despite the spring weather. I turned my back on the view and grabbed my tweed coat as I rushed to the door.

  "Okay, I found the binder," Amy said, "but there's this big meeting this morning."

  "I know, Amy; it'll be all right. I'm on my way now," I said.

  I paused in the front door and took one more sweeping glance of my condominium. It was a small one-bedroom, but it was on the top floor. The view was amazing when I had time for it, but now all I could do was make sure I had my briefcase, reports, and work files. My sink was stacked high with dirty dishes, the dishwasher was full of forgotten clean ones, and I'd left two cupboards hanging open during my desperate search for breakfast. I took one step back inside to shut them, but stopped.

  "Ms. Nichols, this binder has three hundred pages. Am I supposed to read it all?" Amy asked. "Everyone's rushing around for this big meeting and I don't even know where the restrooms are."

  I shut the front door behind me and locked it. "Down the hall, take the first left. And after you get back, all you need to do is read the first section. I've outlined all your major responsibilities and created a suggested priority list. The rest of the binder is to be used as a reference."

  "Wow. This is great. I wish every exec had a binder like this. Your last assistant must have been very organized," Amy said.

  "I made that binder myself." I paused at my car door and looked at my watch. It was no use fighting bridge traffic at that time in the morning, so I would have to take the train into the city. "Who else have you seen this morning?"

  "Oh." Amy's breathy sigh made my stomach clench. "There was this very handsome man about five minutes ago. I think he came in with Mr. Berger. He was wearing a tux, but his tie was all undone and his shirt unbuttoned."

  My temp assistant melted on the other end of the line while I yanked open my car door and jumped in. "Let me guess: bright-blue eyes and a dimple when he smiles?"

  "Ooh, I didn't see the dimple, but he had the yummiest stubble." Amy giggled. "He said he'd see me at the meeting."

  "At the meeting?" I let my tires do the shrieking for me as I raced through my hilly neighborhood. "Why in the hell is Rainer Maxwell coming to my meeting?"

  "Is that his name?" Amy asked. "Oh, here he is on your contacts roster. Junior Executive, Public Relations. I bet he is really good at his job."

  "All he can do is wink and smile," I spat out. "He has no idea what it takes to manage a project from conception to launch. I bet he doesn't even know the server crashed and my team spent twelve hours straight fixing all the bugs. He probably thinks these apps appear out of nowhere, like plucking an apple off a tree."

  I knew I was ranting, so I told Amy goodbye and then I stepped on the gas.

  I strangled my steering wheel as traffic stopped again on the Bay Bridge. I really should have taken the train. I could see Hyperion Industries, the sleek skyscraper, standing out on the hilly streets of San Francisco. Everything about it was polished and new, always on the cutting edge of technology. The communications giant held the upper hand in everything from shared computer databases to bandwidth technology and internet applications. It dominated the buildings and companies around it, and was no less imposing from my vantage point on the bridge.

  Finally, an opening appeared and I drove on the shoulder to get to my exit. It was strange to drive up to my office building rather than walk from the rapid transit station, but I didn't have time to over think it.

  I did cringe as my old, economy sedan stood in line with Teslas and Porsches. The executive valet service was something I only ever used in an emergency. The astronomical numbers our product launch was showing explained my rush, but nothing erased the scraps and dents on my car. The valets raised their eyebrow as I pulled up.

  "Ms. Nichols?" a valet confirmed, looking at my badge. "I'm sorry, we didn't recognize you and your, um, car. We'll take it right away."

  I gathered up all my things and rushed into the lobby. Glossy was the only word that came to mind when I entered Hyperion Industries. The marble floor shone as did the tall columns that guided people to the first security checkpoint. The circular front desk looked like the dock out of a futuristic spaceship. The head security guard was surrounded by video monitors and computer directories. If he didn't recognize someone, his mountainous counterparts would detain them before they got to the elevator banks.

  "Good morning, Otto," I said.

  Otto folded his newspaper and stood up. "Good morning, Tasha. You took over the world yet?"

  I laughed. "Not yet, but that's still the plan."

  "Here, let me help you with that." Otto signaled for one of the large security guards to take his place. He shuffled around the front desk and took the stack of reports and files from my arms.

  "Hi, Larry. How's your wife doing with her broken arm?" I asked.

  Larry smiled, startling the two businessmen lined up behind me. "Cast comes off next week. Congratulations, Ms. Nichols, I hear your new app is—"

  "Stop." Otto silenced him. "She won't talk about it until all the numbers are in."

  "Am I really that bad?" I asked Otto as he walked me to the executive elevator bank.

  The older man smiled and nodded. "But now that it's done, you're going to start coming in with details of real life. Dinners, dates, day trips, fun. You remember fun?"

  "Nope," I said. "Must have slipped my mind."

  "How about you find someone to help you remember?" Otto held open the elevator door and handed me my reports and files.

  I pressed the number for my floor and shook my head. "Career first," I said.

  Otto gave me a helpless smile as the elevator doors closed. He knew that as one of the few female junior executives at Hyperion, I had to work harder than my male counterparts. I couldn't afford to lose my focus or my foothold in the company would slip, and I would see my colleagues promoted ahead of me.

  That thought still rankled me, no matter how many years I had strived to stay ahead of it. If I let go, even for sixty seconds, my career could stall. I couldn't let that happen.

  So, when the elevator doors opened on my floor, I immediately punched the button for the Vista Cafe. The elevator rose to the highest floor and opened onto a busy scene. Long ago, the top brass of Hyperion had decided a sky-level cafe would help motivate their employees, and they had been right. Grabbing a cup of coffee next to panoramic views of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the bay motivated everyone to work harder.

  I didn't pause near the din of the coffee bar and kept going past the velvet-roped entrance to the executive dining room. I needed a quiet place to help me focus before our big meeting, and there was only one spot in the whole skyscraper that I knew would inspire me.

  The exterior of Hyperion headquarters might have been shiny and new, but the building itself was erected right after the 1906 earthquake. It was that mix of history and evolution that made Hyperion an industry leader. When the newest incarnation of the offices had been installed, the tower had been left untouched. Only a few people knew that the original executive penthouse still existed, untouched. Otto had long ago told me the secret to finding it, and ever since then, it had been my haven.

  I slipped into the stairwell and went up. The stairwell ended abruptly, and there was nothing but a narr
ow door labeled Utilities. A heavy handle equipped with an alarm bar guarded what otherwise looked like a closet. I pushed it open, knowing full well the alarm was only for show, and gently closed the door behind me.

  Inside, the emergency lights were the only thing illuminating a narrow hallway. The faux walls deterred any other explorers, but I kept going. The particleboard walls gave way to a grand lobby dominated by a short but sweeping staircase. I put one hand on the banister carved from dark mahogany and walked up to the arched doorway of the penthouse. I could feel over one hundred years of hard-won leadership, relentless vision, and tireless dedication as I approached the coveted office. How many people before me had entered those doors and promised themselves they wouldn't give up until they reached the top?

  I pushed open the heavy wooden door on the right and stepped inside. Sunlight filtered through the dusty, forgotten windows, but even the smudges of time did not diminish the impressive view. I took a step towards the raised dais and around the massive carved wood and marble desk that still stood there.

  Then a side door creaked open, and I pressed both hands to my mouth to stifle my scream.

  #

  Rainer Maxwell let loose a stream of swearing that ended with a hearty laugh. I pried one of my hands off my mouth and smacked him hard on the shoulder before I could gather my composure.

  "I didn't mean to surprise you. How did you know about this place?" he asked.

  "How did you?"

  Rainer smiled. "I know my way around."

  I dragged my other hand down and frowned at him. I usually saw the handsome junior executive conducting business in the comfort of the dining hall. It seemed he did most of his business over drinks, whether it was coffee or something stronger. I pressed a hand to my heart and wondered if a shot would settle my nerves. There was a bottle of Glenlivet whiskey in the hidden drawer of the old desk. Otto said it kept the spirits of the old office happy.

  "Who told you this was still here?" I couldn't imagine Otto sharing with someone so slick. Rainer probably used the hidden penthouse for his infamous office liaisons. I cringed. "This isn't a playground."