SAFEHOUSE (A BWWM BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE)

by Mia Caldwell

  I put my hand on my hip for good emphasis. I was not having any of this. He was going to be straight with me if he wanted me to stick around. And judging by the horrified looks both Desmond and Marie were getting me, I was making my point clear enough.

  Julien finally put his hand around my waist, as if to pull me from my spot. I stood stock- still, not letting him.

  "Why don't we have this conversation elsewhere? We should talk about this in private, don't you think?" he mumbled to me. I looked at him like he had lost his mind.

  "Oh no you don't. We’re having this conversation right here, right now. I don't care who is watching. Does not matter to me one bit. I want the answer."

  He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb. Must have been a thing that I had picked up from him, I guess.

  "If you insist, Bree,” he emphasized my newly-given name, as if to make a point himself. He turned to Desmond and Marie.

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you both to leave us for a few moments.”

  He waited for the two of them to leave earshot before continuing.

  “I was worried about your stress level. I was only thinking of you and the baby, truly. After I received that phone call from Agent Wilson I knew that if you found out it would only worry you more... And that's really the last thing you need, right? We have so much going on right now, so much to prepare for. And believe me when I say I'm worrying enough for the both of us. I’ve taken extra precautions."

  "I don't need any more stress on me, but you still need to talk to me. There are no secrets between us, and I know you feel the same way. You wouldn’t want me to keep something like this from you…"

  His teeth gritted together and he was clearly agitated with me and my stubbornness. "No, I wouldn't want you keeping something for me. But this isn't just something, this is something dangerous. And while I can see why you are angry with me for not having said something about it to begin with, let me assure you that I had planned on bringing it up with you once I had a clear plan of action. For now, the best I can do is try to keep you out of the public eye, and you’re doing a poor job of that by shouting about any of this in front of my staff."

  The attitude in his voice astounded me but I knew he was right… Maybe I wanted a scene, but I didn't want all of our business out there. All I knew was that Julien and I had a lot to talk about. Even more than just things regarding the baby. And that was plenty enough on our plate, as it was.

  "There is much to discuss, I'm afraid. And some of it you're probably not going to agree with, or enjoy. But it's not about that anymore, it's about keeping you and the baby safe. Can we agree to have this talk another time? Very soon, but not right this minute? I'd rather just spend some time with you without having all these things rotating through my mind constantly," Julien asked.

  The look in his eyes told me he was downright exhausted, and I could feel the heat of my rage simmering down. He had a good point. We had plenty of time to talk about this while we were not standing in the middle the hallway for all to hear. And I was feeling a little tired as it was, myself.

  I sighed, nodding in agreement. "Fine. But you're not allowed to keep anything from me like that, ever again. Period. Bien?" I added, using his favorite turn of phrase on him. He was always ending his questions or statements with it. With all the French-speaking that was going on around me constantly, it made sense that I was finally starting to pick some of it up. About time, too.

  He laughed at this, cupping my face with his warm hand. "Oui, bien note. I will not make the same mistake again."

  I had been pouting at him but in the end, smiled anyway. "And don't you forget it."

  I was willing to put on the happy housewife attitude for now. But I wouldn't forget him keeping things for me, for a long, long time. I trusted him with all my heart but I needed to know when I was in danger… For the sake of our child.

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  Chapter 30

  It was hard not to pace as I waited in Julien’s carefully remodeled obstetrics room. Dr. Thibodeau and Julien were due any minute now. I was nineteen weeks along now, and so much had changed. I made sure no one was coming down the hallway, before shoving another piece of Gervaise's cherry tart in my face. He had been getting me into all things pastry-related and I loved him for it.

  I wanted to keep checking my phone to see if Julien had pulled up yet. I knew he wasn't going to miss this.

  After treading the same floor space for the millionth time, I finally heard his nice shoes clacking down the hallway coming towards me. It sounded like Dr. Thibodeau was along with him. Good, we can hurry up and get this over with. And maybe I could get back to eating…okay, sneaking the rest of this tart.

  He burst into the room with the widest grin on his face. Julien had seemed to let go of all reservations when it came to the baby ever since we had a big fight a few weeks back. There was nothing false about his excitement—he was truly overjoyed…

  And somehow, that made him even sexier than before.

  I gave Dr. Thibodeau a smile as she strolled in, her medical back in tote.

  "Are we ready for the big day, everyone?" she asked, a knowing smile on her face.

  I glanced over at Julien, quickly nodding along with him. “I think so.”

  It seemed silly to be so nervous, considering what we were finding out. But that didn’t stop me from being that way. Too much had been on my mind lately, and it was hard to toss that aside, even when I was this anxious and excited.

  Ever since our last argument about the information Julien was keeping from me, my attempts at bringing up possible safety measures had all been met with resistance from him. He clearly did not want to talk about it, even though he had promised that we would do so at some point. I was beginning to think that ‘some point’ was just a joke.

  “All right then. Let me just go ahead and set everything up, and then we can get started,” Dr. Thibodeau said.

  Julien helped me over to the antique waiting screen, being patient with me as I tried to shimmy out of my clothes and put on the dressing gown for Dr. Thibodeau to examine me in. I hated wearing the thing, but if it made her job easier, then so be it.

  Besides, I couldn't help but giggle as Julien kept sneaking glances around the screen.

  Once I was finished I hopped up on the table, carefully positioning myself just so. The table was a little narrower than I would've liked, especially with my wide hips practically barreling over the sides. I didn't want seem like a complete diva, so I never made a comment about it one way or the other.

  Dr. Thibodeau rolled over the sonogram machine, prepping the sonogram Doppler with the freezing cold goop I hated. She flipped on the screen, keying in a few things here and there before she set to work, smearing the cold substance on my belly. I always had to have a shower afterward. Something about that stuff made me feel rather gross.

  "It looks like I might need to do something real quick on machine, to get it in full function for what we need today. If you will just excuse me for a moment here…" Her voice trailed off, as she narrowed her eyes at the blinking screen in front of her.

  I looked up at Julien, trying to read his expression. Yep, he was totally over the moon. I wondered if now was a good time to bring it up, finally.

  "So, sweetheart… I was thinking maybe we should discuss what exactly is gonna happen once the baby’s born."

  He raised his brow. "Haven't we already done that?"

  I snorted. "Not exactly. You always seem to find some way to get out of it. But not this time. I just want to go ahead and get it out of the way, that way I will feel better, you'll feel better, and everything will be all straight. Right?"

  He eyed me warily, knowing that nothing was ever quite that easy when talking with me about something. I shrugged my shoulders innocently at him.

  "I suppose. I rather figured that we could have the baby sleep in our room for the first few months, possibly in a bassinet. A
t least that's what I've heard would be a good idea. Of course it's up to you –"

  "That's not exactly what I mean, Julien. Although that's actually a good idea, so I'll remember that. What are we gonna do as far as safety goes? You know I've been thinking about it lately, and I'm not really sure how you working will go. At least once the baby’s born. You have a job that's very prevalent in the business industry, you're a very well-known face. You’re really a celebrity of sorts. How do the baby and I work into that? At some point someone is going to end up finding out that you have a baby, and then from there people are only going to connect the dots. Someone will find me, some way or another. It's only a matter of time, especially if they're looking for me. What do you propose we do about that?"

  Julien's eyes widened. If I didn't know any better I would've guessed he hadn't thought of this yet. And now the thought was settling deep within him, looking as though it was causing him terrible anxiety. Well, that wasn't exactly what I was setting out to do, but at least he was thinking about it now.

  "Looks like I've got my work cut out for me," he replied, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper.

  "Julien, I don't want to worry you. But I'm of the firm belief that we shouldn't keep each other's thoughts from one another, right? Isn’t that what we agreed upon?" I reminded him, squeezing his hand gently.

  He slowly nodded, but didn't say anything.

  I hated that he was all of the sudden stressing out. And maybe this had not been the best moment to bring up, but if not now, when? There really were a lot of things that needed to be put in place after our baby was born, and I didn't want to wait until the very last minute before we set a plan in action.

  "Okay! I think we're ready to go, now that I've got everything fixed on the screen. Let's go ahead and see what we can find, shall we?" Dr. Thibodeau interrupted my thoughts, holding up her doppler in her hand.

  "Sounds good, doctor. I'm ready when you are."

  I nudged Julien to pay attention, hoping he wasn't too far lost in his thoughts. His eyes darted around wildly as he tried to catch up with the conversation, before they landed on mine. He was distressed—even more than I thought he’d be. With everything he had to think about, I shouldn’t have been surprised that he was having a hard time keeping everything straight.

  The idea of not thinking into the future of our baby’s life was a concept I just couldn’t understand, but Julien may barely have had much time to think about it. He was more concerned with the here and now. I squeezed his hand again, trying to get him to focus. This was a big moment for us.

  "Okay, so there's the baby’s spine, and there's the baby’s head," she began, pointing out the parts of our child on the screen. This hadn't been the first time we’d seen the baby in pretty good detail on the sonogram, but this was the first time that Dr. Thibodeau had specifically pointed out everything for us.

  The smile on my face grew larger and larger with every part she pointed out.

  Julien's hand slowly stroked at the screen, tracing the outline of the baby’s head and abdomen. "It's so hard to believe that this is our baby," he said in awe. I studied his face, but the traces of hesitation and distress were now gone, having been replaced by curiosity and wonder. I loved it when he got this way.

  "What's the baby's heartbeat?" I asked.

  "It's 149 bpm," the doctor answered.

  I sucked in a breath, trying to see if I could point out any other certain parts of our baby, before she gave us a definite answer.

  “Do you see that?” She asked me and Julien, pointing to a spot on the screen.

  I strained my eyes, trying to make out something clear from the picture. Julien gasped, obviously getting it before I did.

  "Is that… is that what I think it is?" he asked her. His hand went up to graze the side of my belly.

  She beamed at him. “It’s a boy.”

  "We're having a boy? Is he really a boy?" With each word my voice got higher-pitched.

  I had been right! This whole time I was referring to the baby as a he in my head, but I didn't think to actually trust myself with that. The tears were already falling down my cheeks, and Julien leaned over to squeeze me as hard as he could.

  "He's our son, sweetheart. We have a son now!" I held onto him for as long as I could, sobbing into his shoulder like the biggest baby ever. Even though we had seen the baby on the sonogram before, this was different. Dr. Thibodeau gave me a big smile and started to pack up her gear.

  One of the things people don't tell you about pregnancy is that every day your sense of responsibility grows. My son’s fate was tied to mine, and I would do anything to protect him.

  I couldn't have been more excited.

  (Back to Table of Contents)

  Chapter 31

  "Is all this really necessary, Julien?"

  It was hard not to frown and pout about all of this, considering the reason why I had asked for this nice little outing for the two of us was to get away from all the other people in the château. Not ask a whole bunch to tag along with us.

  He sighed, obviously fed up with me and my sulking. Maybe he was right. "You know we have to be extra careful. I'm not taking any chances, okay? End of story."

  I huffed, but got over it. Maybe he was right, but come on… three bodyguards? I felt like I was the President's daughter or something. Of course I was grateful, but still.

  Ever since I had confirmation my baby was a boy I had been dying to go shopping for him. I didn't really like spending Julien's money, even though he always called it our money now, but this was for our child. So that made it a little bit easier.

  And with all the money that we had to work with… I was like a kid in a candy store. There were so many online websites dedicated solely to children's clothing alone, I had a neck cramp from huddling over Julien's tablet.

  He asked me to please formally hand in my resignation from my duties around the estate, and I had to laugh at him. Was all that really necessary? I hadn't technically worked in weeks, and as lazy as that may sound, it was the truth. Whatever the case, I wrote up the shortest letter in history, and handed it to him over dinner.

  When he read it out loud couldn’t help laughing. "Dear Monsieur Malveaux- I'm having your baby. You don’t have to pay me to clean your house anymore, I’ll do it for free... Love, Amira.”

  Out of the maid uniform, into the Mercedes Benz… It wouldn’t have been so bad if we didn’t have so damn much company. One was driving, one was sitting in the passenger seat, and one was sitting next to the window. I ended up in the middle squeezed next to Julien.

  I wasn’t going to let it get me down. I had too much to look forward to today to let anything else get in my way.

  When we got out at our destination, I realized I had fallen asleep for most of the ride, my head lolling against Julien’s broad shoulder. He had pulled me against him, wrapping his arm around mine to let me snuggle against him. If it weren’t for the drool that was escaping the corner of my mouth, it probably would’ve been cute.

  “Sweetheart? Ma chérie? We’ve arrived,” he whispered in my ear softly.

  It was only late in the morning and I was already waking up from my first nap of the day. This baby was kicking my butt!

  When I caught sight of my surroundings, my breath stuttered along in my chest. Julien hadn’t told me where exactly he planned on taking us—‘just somewhere in town,’ was all he’d said. I thought it had been taking a little longer than normal… But this?

  This I had not been expecting.

  I stood right outside of the car door, pulling my purse over my shoulder and looking up at the not too far off distance. There stood the incredible Eiffel Tower. Which only meant one thing.

  PARIS!

  I spun around on my heel, looking Julien in the eye and wondering how he could’ve gotten this past me. He gave me that sexy grin of his and I felt myself melting.

  I walked up to the sidewalk we were currently parked next to, taking a look at the sto
res on either side of the road. Closest to us was a small boutique that looked longer than it was wider, called 'Jacadi.'

  "Are we shopping for the baby here?" I asked him as he laced our fingers together.

  "I thought we could start here, yes. What do you think? Will this be okay?"

  “God yes!”

  Of course the main bodyguard Christian went first. He walked through the doors confidently in front of us, and we were followed by the others.

  Even as we made our way into the clothing store I could still smell to most delicious baked goods coming from somewhere down the row of businesses. Wherever it was I was definitely gonna make a pit-stop after this.