Billionaire Boss's Unexpected Child

by Jessica Brooke

  “Something’s wrong though.” She leaped up and started to the door. I followed after her and backed her against the wall. “You don’t want to do that.” My hips were practically pinning hers, and my breath was hot on her cheeks. “Tiger, please, you’re upset, and I want to know what’s happening. How I can fix it?”

  Tears brimmed in her eyes and it felt like a hot poker in my heart. I’d never seen her like this.

  “Trust me,” Selena said, her voice ragged, “you can’t help me.”

  “I think I can and—”

  The door opened, and we both jumped back from each other as if we’d been scalded. Well, in Selena’s case, she pushed herself into the wall and then, once she realized it was just Jonathan, brushed past both of us and disappeared down the hall.

  “Fuck, man, what’s the big idea?” I demanded.

  Jonathan shook his head. “Do you really think I’m the only person who noticed you and then Selena follow you up the stairs? Come on, Brandon. You’re usually smarter about these things. The merger is still going through the final approvals. You want a page six disaster at your own daughter’s big bash?”

  “I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “You didn’t even bother to lock the door. If I had been anyone else, you’d have been fucked. I mean, think about this. What if it had been Mel? Do you really want to have to explain to your ex what you’re doing or whatever the fuck you think you’re doing?”

  I balled my hands up into fists at my side and tried not to let my temper rise further. It was a struggle. Part of me just wanted to beat Jonathan down for all his meddling, even if, rationally, I knew he was right. If it had been anyone else, both Selena and I would have been royally screwed.

  Not in the fun way.

  “I know, but we weren’t actually doing anything this time. I was trying to get her to open up to me.”

  “I’ll say.”

  I clenched my jaw and then spoke. “I’m serious. Something’s bugging her, and I almost had her ready to explain what it was. Then you burst in.”

  Jonathan sighed. “I didn’t know that.”

  “Well, no shit.”

  “I’m sorry, but you had to let her go. Here, you’re just the CEO of the company she’s interning for and the best friend’s dad she’s only officially met once. You can’t let that façade fall. It’ll ruin you both if you do.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Selena

  I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking. I’d scurried around the top floor of the mansion until I’d found a free bathroom, someplace I could lock the door behind me, slide in without anyone noticing, and pull out the pregnancy test. Peeing on the stick proved harder than I anticipated. It was a sloshing mess, and I’d been happy to wash my hands afterward. I mean, you’d think I could have control, but the truth was that I was a ball of anxiety. Seeing Brandon today had made me even more nervous. If that were even possible. I’d been tired, scared, and exhausted. Now, I realized that as much as I wanted to break things off with Brandon, do the right thing, even if I weren’t pregnant, then I wasn’t sure if I could.

  It was like his very presence called to me, made my blood pound in my brain, and left me overheated and overeager. Being in that bedroom with him, I’d felt my heart thudding all over again. Even when I felt the deepest depression and fear of my life, I was still quivering underneath it all, still wet with need for him.

  But it was all insane.

  I glanced at my cell phone as I sat on the lip of the giant Jacuzzi tub. It was the longest five minutes of my life, waiting for whatever the test would tell me. I wasn’t even sure what I wanted. Obviously, if I had a child with Brandon, it would be a disaster. I could never think about getting rid of a child, but, at the same time, I couldn’t be public about it. Frankly, I couldn’t even finish college with a baby. I guess I’d run back home, tail between my legs, and be every bit the failure my mother was. Just another cautionary tale about not being careful while having sex.

  What I couldn’t do was drag him down with me, ruin his reputation and make Tammy hate him. If I were pregnant, I didn’t think that Brandon could ever know.

  I knew him now. He’d step up, do the right thing, but it could cost him his company, and Tammy’s love and adulation. I wasn’t about to ruin a family.

  Then, as crazy as this was, a small part of me wanted to be pregnant, wanted to have that spark of life inside of me. A child with Brandon was an impossible clash of our worlds, but I knew it now, after over two months with him. I loved him. It was more than just the way he made my body feel. It was how he cared about my history; the life I’d had and struggled through before coming to New York. It was about how he seemed to know what I was thinking and feeling even before I did. The expert eye he offered on reviewing my pieces. If circumstances were different, we could be a happy family.

  But they weren’t.

  And everything standing between us was impossible.

  My posture went rigid when the timer on my phone rang. God, the moment of truth. I inched over to the sink and stared down at the blue plus sign that was mocking me, that really only confirmed the changes I’d felt in my own body.

  “Oh God.”

  I was pregnant.

  Jesus, God, what the hell would I do?

  Tears stung my eyes, and I grabbed my purse. I could Uber home… Do anything to get out of here. I couldn’t hide the happy party façade when my very life and future was crumbling around me. As I reached for the positive test, the lock tumbled loose and the door open. I froze there, like a deer in the damn headlights, and gaped at the person before me.

  Mrs. Stewart stood there with a triumphant smile plastered across her face. “I knew I’d find you here.” She eyed the test I hadn’t managed to grab yet. “I didn’t anticipate that but, knowing Brandon, I can’t say I’m surprised.”

  My heart went cold as ice. “What?” I croaked out.

  “He had mistresses during our marriage, but you knew that. I’m sure Tammy told you. I just never saw a little tramp like you working your way so close to our family to try and get Brandon’s money.”

  “It’s not about the money.”

  Mrs. Stewart nodded. “It won’t be. Like I said, Brandon’s got a way of avoiding pregnancy scares. I assume at some point he’s paid women to go away.”

  I reached for the key from Tiffany’s around my neck. That wasn’t possible. I couldn’t just be a stupid girl he’d tricked, could I? “He’d never do that to me.”

  “Do you want to stick around? Work for some sugar daddy money, you tramp?” Mrs. Stewart’s voice was glacially cold. “How is this going to work? Are you going to be the new stepmom for Tammy? Are you going to raise her baby brother or sister like everything you’ve done isn’t a slap in all of our faces?”

  “I don’t know.”

  She shook her head. “I think you do. Tammy means everything to me, and if you’re even a fraction of the friend you’ve pretended to be all this time, you’ll get lost. I’ll write you a check. A nice amount that my current husband will never miss, not with my shopping record. You take it, you disappear, and you never bother Brandon or Tammy again.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  “I don’t care what you want,” Melanie said as she leaned in closer to me. “Do you not get it? What you want doesn’t matter anymore, you child. I don’t care about Brandon. I’ve been used to his stunts for years, and that’s why I left him. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself, but I do care about Tammy, and I hope you do too. You’re going to take the money, and you’re going to disappear like you never darkened NYU’s doorstep or lived with her. I don’t give a shit what excuse you have to make, but you are not going to break her heart.”

  “I…”

  Icy blue eyes met mine, something reptilian and devoid of emotion simmering in them. “I’m not the one who was fucking around, Selena. You’re the one who made this choice, who was so damn irresponsible. I’m just presenting you with a way out so that yo
u can avoid destroying an innocent girl, someone caught up in all of this bullshit. Do you understand me? Unless you have a couple million stashed around, which is what it can cost to get a child from infancy to eighteen.”

  I swallowed, hard. “I don’t want your blood money.”

  She laughed; a cold, barking sound. “You only want Brandon’s. Trust me, you aren’t the first person to do this, to drag yourself to him. And you won’t be the last. Your mistake, Selena, is thinking you’re special, but you’re not. All I’m asking you is to be a decent friend—a friend at all—and get the hell out of here. Seriously, child, do you think he’ll still want you when you’re dragging him down with a family?”

  “I don’t want to ruin anyone’s life. I’d never want to be that person.”

  “You’re a homewrecker. You’ve betrayed my daughter’s trust. The best you can do, Selena, is run far away and hope you’re never discovered. After all, even the other bimbos who seduced Brandon over the years were smart enough to do that. Honey, you think you’re special, but you don’t get it.”

  “I don’t?” I asked, my voice hoarse and barely recognizable as my own.

  “No one’s special to Brandon. Now, are you taking the deal or not?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Brandon

  Two months later…

  I didn’t understand any of it. The Monday after Tammy’s party everything changed. Selena quit her internship a couple weeks shy of it ending naturally because of the school year starting back. She informed Tammy that she was moving and changing schools from NYU, and by early September was just gone. I’d gone to the apartment on the guise of offering to help her move her few belongings. I’d tried to get her to listen to me to stay, to just talk out what had happened. She’d refused. Every day, I still emailed and called her, but I was screened every damn time. Even Tammy hadn’t heard from her. That both confused and scared me. They’d gone from being so close that they were almost sisters to now Selena not being able to be in the same city as her best friend.

  None of it made one goddamn ounce of sense, and I couldn’t even get her to so much as shoot me back an email. It angered and frustrated me, but mostly it scared me. This wasn’t like the tiger I knew, and something was happening.

  I just couldn’t stand being shut out of her life. I knew where she was; she’d moved back home to a tiny shit town in West Virginia. She wasn’t living at her home, seemed to be renting an apartment and going to a local state school, but I had no idea what had caused the drastic flight from New York and from me. I was planning to go down there soon. I’d only held off this long because I didn’t want to seem like some kind of in-person creepy stalker. But I couldn’t live without her.

  I’d suspected that since the day I’d taken her to Tiffany’s, and I’d first defended our relationship to my CFO, Jonathan. I needed Selena, and whatever was wrong with her, we’d figure it out together. Fuck, if she was sick, I had all the money she’d ever need for treatment. I could convince Tammy to come around. Now that the Orbit merger was over, even Jonathan didn’t have leverage over me. There were no rules for me to follow. Whatever was going on, I was going to get to the fucking bottom of it.

  I was sick of the empty side of the bed, the cool sheets under my hand. I missed the hint of strawberry shampoo in my nostrils. I missed the softness of Selena’s ample curves. Hell, I missed ramming into her wet pussy and feeling more complete than I ever had in my life.

  I needed her.

  But first I had one fundraiser I was obligated to go to. It was a charity that continued to fund those who, even five years later, were struggling with rebuilding from Superstorm Sandy. Most of the currently collected money went to helping children with whatever school needs or college funding the needed. It was a group near and dear to my heart. I’d promised to be the emcee, so I couldn’t get out of it. Tomorrow though I’d be flying out to whatever passed for an airport in West Virginia, and then I’d be tracking Selena down.

  I schmoozed the room like normal, then eased my way onto the balcony. The view of New York City rose before me, and I had to admire her beauty. I had a killer view from my penthouse, but I often took the vantage point for granted. Somehow, thinking of Selena brought the wonder out in me too, made me see the city I’d lived most of my life in with the same eyes I had decades ago when I’d gotten off a bus from Ohio.

  I wanted her beside me on the veranda so that she could enjoy what I was seeing. Damn it, I wanted—no needed—her in my life permanently.

  “You look contemplative tonight.” Mel’s voice was playful.

  I groaned inwardly. We’d learned to be polite to each other at big family events and the occasional holiday, but I knew every mood of my ex-wife. She was happy because she was like a cat with a mouse. There was something she wanted to hold over my head.

  What joy.

  I rounded on her and drained my glass of champagne. “I don’t have time for this.”

  “I don’t think I ever had time for your bullshit,” she said. Then she arched her head over her shoulder and made sure the door shut behind her. It left us alone on the silent balcony. “What did you think you were trying to pull?”

  “What?”

  Mel strode over and glared into my eyes. In her heels, she was almost eye to eye with me; a reminder of having fallen once for a model with a love for stilettos. “Do you really think I’d never find out? You’re fucking lucky that I took care of things before that tramp you were with could ruin everything between you and Tammy.”

  “You found out about Selena?”

  “You were hardly discreet. For fuck’s sake, sneaking off to a bedroom during Tammy’s birthday party? Really? It’s a wonder half the party didn’t figure out right then and there what you were doing. Or, you know, who you were doing.”

  “What the hell did you tell her, Mel?”

  She laughed and sipped her drink as if we were making casual party conversation. “The truth: that you’ve had dozens of girls in your life, to put it mildly. That you’ve broken hearts before.”

  “I’m sorry about what happened… That I worked so hard. That I cheated.”

  “I don’t care about that. I’m actually happy now, but how do you think I was going to put Tammy back together, yet again, you selfish bastard?”

  “We were waiting for the right time to tell her,” I hedged.

  “The right time to tell her she was going to be a big sister because you knocked up her whore of a best friend?”

  I dropped the glass in my hand and cursed when it shattered. “What? She’s what?”

  “Pregnant. You can’t even bother to use a condom. You used to be less risky.”

  “She was on the pill.”

  She finished her drink. “Then apparently the little strumpet is more of a conniver than you thought. I saw the test myself; she was using it in a spare bathroom of my house during the party.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Exactly,” she said. “You must be so proud of yourself. Don’t worry, to save Tammy’s sense of self, I sent her away.”

  “What does that even mean?” I asked, grabbing her shoulders.

  She pulled away from me as she sent a death glare my way. “Don’t pretend this isn’t easier for you. I paid her off, Brandon, and now your whore can go and be far away from all of us. Who knows if she even kept the child. For a cool million plus, I’d do a lot of things.”

  I couldn’t swallow. The thought that I had a child and that something might have happened to it already was too much to bear. “You’re a monster.”

  “I’m protecting our family… What’s left of it.”

  “Fuck you, Mel. You’re a selfish bitch, and you had no right to do this.”

  “Just like you had no right to have the most clichéd midlife crisis ever and drag our daughter into it. Just give it up, Brandon. Selena wanted the money, not you. So just ignore her. You know I am.”

  I shook my head and stomped toward the sliding glass door and the gallery.
“I know you’ve messed with my family for the last time, Mel.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “To West Virginia. Right now.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Selena

  “You’re getting big,” my mom said.

  I sighed and set the bag of groceries on the counter in her trailer. I lived on the nice side of town in a condo I’d bought with the money I’d gotten from Melanie Stewart. The last place I’d wanted to come back to was West Virginia, but I could commute to Marshall where I was, and I had a few cousins in town who could help me with the pending need for an affordable babysitter.

  God knew I was never going to let my mother near my child.

  Still, being this close to her, I felt obligated again, like I had to check in on her to make sure she’d eaten and was still alive. I’d let her have my current cell number so that she could dial me on Saturday nights when she needed to be bailed out. I didn’t technically owe her anything, but being this close to her, it was hard not to keep an eye on her.

  I sighed and put a hand on my belly. Since I’d gotten pregnant clearly sometime around late June, I was now close to four months pregnant and had gained over twenty-five pounds. On my short frame, it almost looked like I’d swallowed a beach ball, and I had five more months to go. Around school, I had a part-time job doing editing for the local paper, and it was a stretch to get everything done. I was past the morning sickness, but my back was stiff, and my ankles were always swollen.

  Whoever said that being pregnant was some miracle of life, must have been a guy who’d never been pregnant because the last thing I felt was blessed.

  Or like some magical Madonna partaking in the miracle of life.

  And all that happy Circle of Life/Disney horseshit.

  “I know.”

  Mom was so skinny. I brought her food at least three times a week—groceries to make sure she was eating—but the meth kept her from wanting to eat. I’d begged her so many times before I’d left for New York, and now since I’d gotten back, to quit, but she’d made her choices. Still, seeing the bones of her shoulder and spine popping out so badly under her tank top made me want to cry.