Melody Anne's Billionaire Universe: Her Billionaire's Bargain (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by Yvette Hines

Like a zombie he followed behind her into the living room. The place was quaint, homey. She had knickknacks, throw blankets and pictures decorating the place. Most of them of Zendaya at different ages. He dropped the envelope on an end table.

  Kourtney stood in the center of the room with her back to him. He kept his distance, allowing her time. For what he wasn’t sure.

  "I'm sure you have questions about Zendaya." Her back was still to him as she shook her head. "I didn't know.”

  "We've met before."

  "When? If I'd met you before, Kourtney, I'd sure as hell remember." He crossed his arms over his chest and waited.

  She shrugged. Facing him, she began, "I looked different then. My hair was short and straight. I was dressed different." She waved a hand down her body, he supposed she was signifying that she hadn't been strolling around in booty shorts and a tank top that dared a man to lift it to see what was beneath. Her long hair was in a ponytail.

  "I'm usually pretty good with faces."

  "Well, it was dark and we'd both had a couple drinks by then I'm sure."

  She had his full attention now. "Where was this drunken meeting?" He wasn't one to get hammered. Not since his sophomore year in college. But, just like love, he steered cleared of imbibing too much.

  “At some corporate party at the Westoria in Durham. I believe one of the big internet companies or search engines were putting it on.”

  Seven years ago he had just landed his first two major contracts. Google bringing fiber lines into Charlotte. That construction had just gotten underway last year, but it had opened other doors, like him negotiating the contract of the Bobcat Arena with Time Warner.

  Maybe it was because the discussion was opening up a mental door in his mind that things about that night were coming back to him. He'd had three glasses of champagne celebrating the acquisition. He recalled that he hadn't been drunk, but he'd felt good. His company was finally moving into the big league. There were so many people there that night, hired women. The alcohol and warmth had got to him and he needed some air. There had been a woman out there at the far end of the balcony of the president's suite, which consisted of the entire top floor of the luxury hotel.

  "What were you wearing?"

  "A cinnamon halter dress in satin."

  Everything flooded back to him. He stared at the woman before him but saw her as she'd been that night. She'd been stylish, carefree and captivating. The soft spring wind outside had lifted her dress and teased him with glimpses of her thighs. He'd wanted to possess her right then. Frankly it was exactly what he'd done. After approaching her, they'd spoken briefly of inconsequential things. However, he had a single goal in mind. When he saw the interest in her gaze, picked up on every flirting overture she made, no matter how subtle.

  When he leaned in for a kiss, her lips had met his. “Why were you there that night? Were you working with a company?”

  Her pink tongue came out and slid across the fullness of her bottom lip, moistening it. “In a way. I worked for an escort service back then. I was having a hard time in college finding the money to stay in. Scholarships weren’t cutting it and I’d maxed out my loans. One of my friends was doing it and brought me in. The company paid for designer gowns and all the trimmings I needed for my date nights. On top of it the pay was good.”

  His hands fisted and tension sent ice along his spine. “Were you someone else's date?"

  Her teeth sank into the side of her tempting bottom lip as she held his gaze. “No. What happened between us wouldn’t have happened if I were.”

  “Were you being paid to have sex with the businessmen there?”

  “It wasn’t a prostitution service.” She stabbed a finger into her chest and snarled. “I’m not a whore.”

  “I never said you were,” he barked back.

  Her hands swung up at her side and down as she let out a harsh laugh. “Your implication was pretty clear that I was taking money for sex with rich men.”

  He couldn’t deny her words. Years from that night he could feel the burn of jealousy in his gut. “I’m sorry.” Shoving a hand into his hair he tried to wrap his mind around the whole situation. That night, he’d found himself yearning for her in a way he’d never desired another. He’d been insane with lust.

  They backed into a vacant room off the balcony and he’d taken her against the wall. There had been no preamble, passionate kisses were the only foreplay. She’d come twice before a blinding orgasm finished him off inside of her. It had been the only time in his life he’d had sex without a condom. He could almost feel her slick, hot, tight walls, sheathing and pulsing around him at the moment.

  She’d walked out on him that night too. When their fever had tempered, she’d excused herself to use the restroom. He’d stepped back out onto the balcony to give her privacy. Twenty minutes had gone by and she hadn’t come out of the room. Going in to check on her, he’d been shocked to discover she was gone. He went back to the main part of the suite where over sixty people partied, and shook hands on deals. He hadn’t wanted to show his hand by asking around for her.

  “It shames me to say that I didn’t even think about the fact I hadn’t used protection until the morning.” He glanced at her. She was now seated on the sofa staring down at her fingers as they plucked at each other. “I’ve carried a condom in my wallet since that night.”

  “Didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.” Sarcasm filled her words as she looked up at him then away.

  “Yes and no. It was a foolish act on my part, but I never regretted that moment.” He crossed the room to sit on the corner of the solid oak coffee table before her, not touching her. “I thought about you a few times over the next few months. But, it never dawned on me that you could have conceived.”

  Sharp greenish-brown eyes stared at him. “Why not?”

  “Mature women in my circle protect themselves from pregnancy like the Great Wall around China.”

  She was silent for a moment. “I’d been on a few dates before that. But, I wasn’t used to your world. My last boyfriend and man I was with before that was well over a year. I didn’t see a need for birth control.”

  The question he had to ask weighed deep in the pit of his stomach, in the place that was the very root of who he was. “Did we create a child that night?” Like a pot set to boil, tension began to roil inside him.

  “Yes, Zendaya is your daughter.” She never broke eye contact as her soft words crossed the space between them and changed his life.

  He bowed his head. A million and one questions tumbled into his mind, thoughts of every moment he had missed with the beautiful little girl. He’d just gotten off the phone with his cousin Alex who had been through a similar situation. It made Zac feel as if he’d been ignorantly living in a vacuum with someone precious and pure kept from him. Just like Alex, Zac was pissed, but the hurt in his heart seemed insurmountable. Instantly his throat constricted and his eyes burned, all while the disquiet in his stomach erupted.

  “Why?” he bit out through the strain around his vocal cords.

  The silence in the room was deafening.

  Unable to take it anymore he shot his gaze in her direction. Her face was buried in her hands and her shoulders shook even though no sound came out. Reaching out, he took hold of her wrist and pulled her hand away. As angry as he was at her for all that she had stripped from him, it broke his heart to see the tears streaming down her face. The urge to pull her into his arms assailed him, but he held it at bay. There were too many questions he wanted answers to and even with all that was between them, she was a distraction to him.

  “I didn’t know I was pregnant for a couple months. I was under a lot of stress with school. When I realized it, I was scared. I had to tell the owner of the escort service and without that money I couldn’t stay in school.” The tears were flowing freely now, dripping on to their hands resting on her knee. “My aunt took me in. She taught me her baking craft and we raised Zendaya together until she passed a few years
ago.”

  The flood gates seemed to open up, she broke down. Unable to refrain from offering her comfort, he moved beside her and pulled her into his arms. He held her against his chest and stroked her trembling back.

  When she regained a modicum of composure, he continued their conversation as he handed her a handkerchief from his pocket. Things had to be settled. “If you would have come to me, I would have taken care of you, Kourtney. You and Zendaya would have wanted for nothing.”

  “By the time I figured out who you were, the son of Jake Powers of Powers and Powers Corporation in Durham, I couldn’t bring myself to seek you out.” She moved away and rested back against the seat.

  At that time, his company was just getting off the ground and most people associated him with his father’s business.

  “Why not? I had a right to know I was a father.”

  “I know.” She swiped at a stray tear, clearing it from her cheek and sniffed. “How would it have looked to have me show up and proclaim to be your baby’s momma? You would’ve seen me as some gold digger.”

  “Maybe.” He couldn’t deny it. There was too many of his colleagues that had been trapped in a similar situation, some of them by mistresses and it ruined their families. “Honestly, I don’t know how I would have reacted, but you still should’ve never kept her from me.”

  “If I could do it over.”

  “I’ve missed so much of her life.” He stood and went around the room going from one picture after the other, taking in the changes in his daughters face and size.

  “I’m truly sorry.” She rose too.

  I’m a father. “I don’t know how to forgive you for this, Kourtney.” He faced her.

  “It wouldn’t be right of me to ask you to.” She moved toward him, stopping directly before him. “I want to make this up to you somehow, Zachary. Make it up to Zendaya too.”

  “I’m going to make sure you do.”

  A small smile started at her lips. “I’m sure you—”

  “You’re going to marry me.”

  “What?” The small smile dropped and her eyes widened almost comically, making her appear as an ebony version of Betty Boop.

  He wasn’t even sure where the suggestion had come from. Maybe because he’d recently spoken to his cousin Alex Anderson in Seattle and found out that he’d gotten married and had a child, so the thought had possibly been resting in the back of his mind. The Anderson and Powers boys had all achieved success, in their own right, but what was it without someone to share it with. Settling down seemed like the reasonable, expected thing to do. Right now, all he knew was that he couldn’t stop agonizing over every second and minute of Zendaya’s life he had missed and how he refused to miss another moment. His mind settled on what his mouth offered, he steamrolled ahead.

  “I want my daughter in my life, permanently. End of story.”

  “We can’t even agree on a business contract and you expect us to pledge our lives to each other.”

  “Oh, no. Not expect. We will.” He folded his arms over his chest. “I believe in the report on your shop, it read you were closed on Sundays.”

  She took a step back from him then another. “What are you doing, Zachary? You need to be rational about this.”

  “Trust me, babe, my mind is clear as a bell.” He walked toward her. “The day after tomorrow we will fly by private jet to Vegas.”

  Kourtney took another step back and shook her head. “You’re insane. Does this gene run in your family like the birthmark? Should I have my daughter tested?”

  “Our daughter.” He enjoyed the sound of that. He continued advancing on her. Soon she would have nowhere to go in the small townhouse, a wall was a couple more steps behind her.

  “I’m not going to Vegas with you. Or marrying you.”

  He stopped. “You will or you’ll lose Zendaya.”

  She bumped into the wall. “You wouldn’t dare.” Fire streaked through her eyes. “She’s my life. I’ll fight you. I’ll never allow you or anyone to take custody of my child from me.”

  “You can try. We both know I have the capital to win, regardless.” He exhaled. “Look, Kourtney, this doesn’t have to be a battle. I just want to raise my daughter.”

  “We can co-parent. Alternate weekends.” She leaned against the wall looking wilted and tired. The stress of her secret seemed to finally be taking its toll on her.

  His protective feelings towards her kicked in. Seeing how worn emotionally she appeared, it just made him want to take care of her too. “No. I want her in a real family. It was how I was raised. The way I’ve always envisioned I would raise my children. With a wife and their mother alongside me.”

  “This can’t work,” she sighed.

  He closed the gap between them then placed his hands on the wall beside her shoulders. The heat of her body met his. “We’ll make it work.”

  “Are you doing this to gain control over my business?”

  Her words sliced him deep.

  “No. That we will work out somehow.” He gazed into her eyes. “I’m doing this because besides the fact I have a right to be father to Zendaya, there’s something magnetic between you and me. We knew it seven years ago and we know it now.” He lowered his lips to hers and felt the shudders move through her body.

  “Zac—” The trembling was increasing in her even as she tried to fight her response. She inhaled deep, her breasts brushed his chest and she shivered.

  “Baby, we can do this. Trust me.” He captured her mouth in a passionate kiss.

  She returned it in earnest, her tongue swirling around his.

  He made sure to keep his hands pressed firmly to the wall. As much as every ounce of him wanted to take hold of her curves and hold her against his body until they were both writhing in pleasure, a part of his brain cognizant that their child was in the townhouse.

  “Mommy!” On cue, a little voice called out from down the hall. Fast feet accompanied it.

  They parted just in time.

  “Are we going to play games?” His daughter burst into the room full of exuberance and impatience.

  “Yes.” He lowered himself to her level. “I really like games, do you mind if I stay and play.”

  Zendaya glanced from him to her mother. He looked back over his shoulder at Kourtney, still against the wall as if she needed the support.

  She nodded approval at their daughter.

  Exhaling a low breath, he knew it was hard for her to give in and he appreciated her support.

  His little girl smiled. “Yup, you can play.” She held her hand out to him. “Come on, you need to pick your pieces.”

  Slipping his hand into her, soft, tiny one, he felt the swell of emotion again. They strolled hand in hand toward the kitchen. “What do you think about wearing a pretty dress and being a flower girl?”

  “Can the dress be purple? I like purple. Flowers are pretty.” She paused swinging his hand between them she frowned up at him. “What’s a flower girl?”

  ~YH~

  “Mom, Dad, I’d like you all to meet my wife, Kourtney.”

  She entered the Powers’ family home in Durham beside Zac with her daughter’s hand snug in her own. Kourtney’s heart was racing, her mouth felt dry and she was so petrified at the moment she thought she’d burst out crying. The last thing she wanted to do was face Zac’s family. Even though when she voiced her fears to her new husband, he’d told her not to be concerned about it. He’d let her know that he had spoken to his parent’s and explained the situation. However, she repeated the same question to herself that she’d asked mentally a million times, ‘How did someone explain a situation where a woman kept a child away from their father for almost seven years?’ She’d given herself no answer then or now.

  She felt like she was before a firing squad with his parents, Hannah, Rand, and his brother’s wife Monica.

  “Well, she is absolutely beautiful, Zachary, I can see how you found yourself smitten with her a first glance.” Katherine, her new mothe
r in-law, spoke first as she broke from the pack and crossed the high gloss would flooring of the living room to her with hands stretched forward.

  Smitten? That would not have been how she described her initial interaction with Zac. But, he’d probably given his parents the respectful version.

  “Hi, Mrs. Powers, it’s nice to meet you.” Kourtney allowed the older woman to take her hands.

  Katherine quickly pulled her into a hug. “Oh, please, call me mom or mama Katherine, which ever makes you comfortable.”

  The older woman’s embrace was firm, and wonderful. It had been so long since anyone in a motherly figure had hugged Kourtney, it made the impulse to cry even greater. No one since her Aunt Joy who she missed a lot. Zac’s mom smelled like peaches, brown sugar and other spices. A clue to Kourtney that this woman had cooked the meal that night.

  “Mama Katherine, thank you for inviting us to your home.” Kourtney expressed her gratitude as they parted. She had to blink more than a few times to get the water to clear from her eyes.

  Jake Powers came next, hugging her and welcoming her. “This home is your home, Kourtney.”

  She sniffed more than once trying not to embarrass herself. It had been so long since she felt a sense of family. In the last few years it was just her and Zendaya.

  “Mommy, are you crying?” Her daughter tugged on her sleeve.

  After a deep breath, she gazed down. She smiled at her daughter to ease Zendaya’s mind. “A little, button, but they are happy tears.”

  “Who is this little bundle of goodness?” Jake crouched down before Zendaya.

  “Dad, this is my daughter Zendaya Marley, soon we’ll officially add Powers.” Zac came around and squatted beside their daughter.

  Kourtney knew he referred to the fact that Zac had given his lawyer orders to have Zendaya’s birth certificate amended and have Zac added to it legally as the father. She glanced from her little one, to Zac who stared at Zendaya with matching gray eyes. His eyes were filled with multiple emotions; joy, pride and love.

  “Well, Zendaya, you are as pretty as a tulip. Do you know you have a heart stuck on the side of your face?” Zac’s father reached out and brushed a fingertip gently over the mark, tracing the pattern.