by Tara Wylde
Table of Contents
Part I
Epilogue
Part II
Part III
Epilogue (Elina)
Foreword
The Baby Race
Jeremy
Evan
Caitlin
Keeping Her
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
The Baby Race
Tara Wylde
Holly Hart
Red Cape Romance
Contents
Foreword
I. The Baby Race
1. Jeremy
2. Jeremy
3. Evan
4. Jeremy
5. Caitlin
6. Jeremy
7. Jeremy
8. Caitlin
9. Caitlin
10. Caitlin
11. Jeremy
12. Jeremy
13. Jeremy
14. Jeremy
15. Caitlin
16. Caitlin
17. Caitlin
18. Jeremy
19. Caitlin
20. Caitlin
21. Jeremy
22. Jeremy
23. Caitlin
24. Jeremy
25. Evan
26. Caitlin
27. Evan
28. Jeremy
29. Jeremy
30. Caitlin
31. Caitlin
32. Caitlin
33. Caitlin
34. Caitlin
35. Caitlin
36. Jeremy
37. Jeremy
Epilogue
II. Keeping Her
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
121. EPILOGUE: SARA
III. Daddy Wanted
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Chapter 134
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
Chapter 137
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141
Chapter 142
Chapter 143
Chapter 144
Chapter 145
Chapter 146
Chapter 147
Chapter 148
149. Epilogue (Elina)
Foreword
Hi!
Thanks so much for downloading a copy of The Baby Race! I - we - hope you love it!
It might be Holly and my’s last time writing together for a couple of months, since we’ve both very recently had amazing ideas for solo books. So we hope that we can go on hiatus with a bang!
I can’t wait to hear what y’all think. Caitlin and Jeremy are such a cute couple - I hope you’ll agree.
I should warn you, Jeremy’s twin brother Evan is a real asshole! There are a couple of darker scenes - although nothing tooo bad - but just wanted to warn you!
Love,
Tara Wylde.
(Holly sends her love as well, but she’s away…)
Part I
The Baby Race
On your marks, Get... Pregnant?
My evil twin brother Evan has been behind bars for years, while I’ve made billions running the family firm. I figured the company was legally mine, so I enjoyed the perks. All of them...
Next on that list is Caitlin. She's everything I need in a woman: just the right kind of curvy, a hint of pluckable innocence... and an @ss that drives my c*ck wild. I can barely restrain myself around her - and I don't plan to...
But that fantasy comes to a crashing halt when I find out that Evan is getting paroled – and that he’s found a loophole in our father’s will. The first twin to have a legitimate child inherits the entire company.
I don’t have a wife, and sure as hell don’t have a kid… Suddenly everything I've built is at stake. Unless two can play at this baby game...
Now I need to find a girl, put a ring on her finger - and knock her up! Should be a piece of (wedding) cake, right? It's not like I need to fall in love - just put a baby in her oven.
It sounds easy, but it isn't. Because Caitlin is special: the missing piece I didn't know my heart needed. She's the One.
The race is on. First to the delivery room win
s...
But Evan hates coming last.
And Caitlin is in his way.
1
Jeremy
Denver, Colorado
I stop a few feet from the massive Caldwell Building and tip my head back, taking a moment to admire the magnificent glass and steel building that serves as the headquarters for the massive business.
A familiar thrill quivers through me. It doesn’t matter that I’ve been the man in charge of this place for the past six years. Or that at the time, taking over the place was the last thing I wanted to do. Today, knowing what I’ve accomplished, how many lives I’ve changed for the better since moving into the president’s office on the top floor sends a thrill through me.
It doesn’t matter that my brother, Evan, was the one who was groomed to take over the family business. He’d been given all the tools needed to take over from my father, leaving me free to pursue other interests, but he’d screwed up. His actions forced me to take over the reins of the company, and it was only then that I’d learned the truth about my twin brother.
A vision of his smug, laughing face, so very much like my own, floats to the forefront of my mind and I instinctively recoil. Five and a half years have passed since the last time I saw him, and I’d be perfectly happy to live out the rest of my days without ever seeing him again. Life is easier without him. Better, too.
I shove the unwelcome image away. It’s too pretty a day to waste on thoughts of my brother. He’s done enough to destroy my life, and so many others, too. There’s no way in hell I’m going to let him taint anything else.
Squaring my shoulders, I let myself into the building. It’s already alive with people, each with their minds already full of the things they need to get done today. Most notice me and greet me with a friendly smile and a quiet greeting. I respond to each hello without breaking my stride until I reach the elevator door.
I poke the call button and the doors slide open after a few seconds’ wait. I step inside and slap my hand across the opening, holding the door for a young woman I’ve never seen before.
“Thanks,” she says, offering me a small, rather shy smile before pressing her back to the opposite wall, standing as far from me as she possibly can. Her grip on the smartphone she’s holding tightens, causing the narrow bones in her hand to press against her pale skin.
Probably a new employee. One that doesn’t want to make a bad impression – and just as importantly, one who didn’t plan on finding herself stuck in a small space with her boss.
I lean a shoulder against the elevator wall as the doors glide closed.
“Which floor?” I don’t have to consciously think about keeping my tone low and gentle. It’s an instinctive response to the waves of tension rolling off the slender woman.
She jumps. Her head snaps up and she stares at me with bright green eyes that, even though I’m positive I’ve never seen this woman before in my life, seem somehow familiar.
“What?” she squeaks.
I bite the inside of my cheek to prevent a smile and wave my hand at the control panel before me. “Which floor,” I repeat, “do you need?”
I wonder if I hadn’t asked if she would simply have stood in that corner and ridden the elevator with me all the way to the top, and not said a word. If she would have waited until I stepped off the elevator before finally selecting a floor…
“Um.” She looks at her phone. “The forty-ninth floor.”
“Nice.” I tap the corresponding button. “One floor below me. Looks like we get to ride together.”
She murmurs something inaudible and stares at some point on the wall like it’s the most amazing thing she’s seen in her entire life.
Amused, I cross my arms over my chest and study her, not bothering to disguise my curiosity.
She didn’t know what floor she wanted, meaning one of a few things: she’s either here for a meeting, or this is her first day or … I pause for thought. The floor directly beneath my penthouse office consists of primarily human resource offices. While it’s possible that she works in that department, I’m willing to bet a week’s pay that she’s actually here for an interview.
She’s tall, just a couple inches shorter than me. While she’s a few pounds heavier than the current fashion, I like the way the curve of her hip fills out the skirt of her budget hunter-green suit that is far more conservative than anything the women I know wear. Her long, auburn hair is swept back into a low ponytail that shows off her high cheekbones. Not a classic beauty, but pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way. More than pretty, actually. Stirring, somehow.
She seems older than she looks, as well. I’d bet she can’t be more than a few years younger than my own thirty-five – but she looks a decade better for it. I reassure myself that I’m aging gracefully. I hope it’s true…
As the elevator hurtles upwards, I run through a mental checklist of what I know about her. Pretty. Nervous. Quiet. Clothes that are cheap but clean and actually drape nicely on her. My gaze drops down to her hands. No rings, so not married or engaged.
Good.
That last thought startles me, forcing me to look a little deeper at my observations.
Not being the kind of guy to downplay or hide from the obvious, I’ll admit it. I’m attracted to her. Really attracted. Attracted enough that I might need to do something about it. I’m not a man who likes missing out on adventure.
My mind plays out a little fantasy of me crossing to the opposite side of the elevator and pinning her to the wall, immobilizing her with my body as my lips lay claim to hers.
As her knees turn to butter, I’ll slide that cheap paisley-patterned scarf she’s wearing from around her neck and use it to bind her hands to the rail as she moans into my mouth. My hands will bunch in the fabric of her shirt, grabbing large fistfuls of it and pulling, make the buttons scatter as I shove it down her arms until her bound wrists stop me.
I’ll lower my head, taking the peak of one full breast deeply into my mouth. Her cries will fill the small elevator as she bucks and thrusts herself against me.
Beneath my feet, the elevator glides to a halt. A small bell chimes just a second before the doors slide open.
I jerk myself out of the fantasy and shift my weight, trying to find an angle that will disguise the fact that my cock is now tenting the front of my pants. A cough dies in my throat, and I glance around, wondering whether I’ve been caught.
I needn’t have bothered. The redhead scurries out of the elevator without casting a single glance in my direction.
“Nice meeting you – and good luck,” I call out as the elevator doors start sliding shut.
The woman gives no indication she’s heard me. Probably because that would mean acknowledging my presence, something she seems desperate to avoid at all costs.
I blow out a heavy breath and focus all my attention to trying to regain some control over my body. What the hell just happened? I haven’t had a reaction like this to the mere presence of a woman, especially one dressed so conservatively and just as clearly uninterested in me, since I was a teenager. And while this fantasy may have been brief, it was definitely more intense than any other fantasy I can remember.
Ever.
If the elevator ride had lasted just a few seconds more, I might have crossed the elevator and attempted to turn fantasy into reality.
Obviously, it’s been too long since I was last with a woman. Especially a woman like that. Hell, I don’t even know what it is about her that’s got me so…invigorated. Just a glimpse at this girl makes me feel like a horny teen all over again…
The elevator dings its arrival at the top floor and I step out, still feeling flushed and aroused.
I dig my phone out of my pocket and scroll through my contacts, searching for the name of the supermodel I had dinner with … four months ago. At the time, she’d made it abundantly clear that she was very interested in turning our little business dinner into something … less formal. I was too busy to take advantage of her of
fer, but maybe the next time she’s in town I should.
“Hey, boss.”
Ben Dern, my head of security, pours himself a cup of coffee from the pot my personal assistant always keeps hot. “How was that business trip to Brazil?”
