The Lion's Surprise Baby

by White, Jade

  He refrained from calling Blair more times than he was comfortable to admit just to get him to tell him who Bruce was. Blair would have delighted too much in it anyway, and Thomas was always happy to withhold pleasure from his friends.

  Dinner was more fun than he had ever had with a woman. The slight bruising under her eyes showed she was tired, but even that couldn’t take away from her beauty. He wondered if he could convince her to have sex more than once just to make sure it would take. He immediately squashed that thought in his mind, telling his dick to stop trying to take control.

  After his comment about Hilary, he watched her shut down. Her face lost the glow it had on it all night as she laughed and seemed to enjoy the night. He wanted to switch the subject with every intention of bringing the glow back to her face.

  “So how are the treatments going? I know we talk about them over the phone, but it never feels long enough to know exactly what’s going on.” Thomas figured steering the conversation back to their inevitable encounter would help her forget about Hilary.

  Her reaction to his date was something he hadn’t expected. When she talked to Bruce while he was on the phone, she had no problem talking about her date while Thomas waited on the line like some lovesick cub hoping the girl he liked would pay attention to him. In fact, if he wanted to point petty fingers, her conversation with Bruce led him to ask Hilary out on a date to begin with. He knew he was being ridiculous—Bruce could just be a colleague.

  Thomas wasn’t certain he would have asked Hilary out if Bruce hadn’t picked the exact time to show up in Melissa’s office. He had been crazy for Hilary the moment he met her, but he knew it was just for fun. When Melissa came along and agreed to carry his child, suddenly fun didn’t seem so appealing.

  “The treatments are hell. They make me sick to be honest. My body is getting used to the daily ones, but there are two I need once a week, and on that day, I'm super tired.” Melissa’s tone came out clinical. Her eyes were darting around the room, no longer making eye contact with him.

  Thomas blinked, surprised by the way Melissa turned on him. They were having a good time laughing and joking. In the past three minutes she had checked her phone five times.

  “Am I boring you?” he joked as she went for her phone for the sixth time.

  “Should we schedule the conception day, now? I promised Tilly I would meet her for drinks tonight and it’s getting late. I don’t want her to bail on me when I took the time to get dressed to go out with her tonight.”

  He had a feeling she was just saying that, but if she wanted to go, there was no reason for him to try and stop her.

  “Do you actually know when an ideal date would be yet based on the treatments?” he asked her leaning back in his seat.

  “Not necessarily.”

  “Then we’ll have to wait to pick a date then.”

  “I suppose we could do tentative.” She pulled out a thick black notebook from her bag and flipped to a month. It was currently August and she’d turned to November.

  “That long huh?” He stared at the page.

  “Yes, we need to give the treatments at least that long to get into my system. I think the first weekend of November will work for me, how about you?”

  She’d gotten colder and was speaking to him as more of a professional than a friend or future lover. She’d said a month and now she was pushing it way further away. Part of him knew she was just mad about Hilary, but he’d hoped they could get started a lot sooner.

  “I’ll pencil you in,” he said with a wink, although even that small joke felt wrong.

  They decided to call it an evening and he walked with her quietly back to his car. The driver was listening to some loud music and started when they got in. He was probably surprised they were back so soon.

  “So November is the time then.”

  “Yes, I’m sorry I acted weird just now. We’re going to have to get used to each of us dating other people, you know.” She smiled and this time it was genuine.

  He felt a little more relaxed. “Yes, we are. It’s okay. I shouldn’t have dropped my date into conversation like that.”

  When they pulled up outside of Melissa’s apartment, she started to say something. She looked over and saw a truck sitting on the street and her face fell. “Well crap.”

  Thomas had a bad feeling as they got out of the car and walked together across the street.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Melissa realized when she saw Nathaniel’s truck that she hadn’t even mentioned him to Thomas. Well, this was going to be interesting, she thought as her stomach flipped. They’d been having such a good time, she hadn’t really wanted to. Now he was going to get to see the crazy first hand, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for it.

  He wasn’t outside when she stepped out of the car, so that meant he was waiting outside of her apartment door. Just perfect. Thomas was talking about dating one of New York's royalty, and now he was going to come face-to-face with her dating standard. She wondered if she should have Thomas walk her in or if she should ditch him before they walked into crazy town. Nathaniel would get himself killed trying to fight the were-bear, and him seeing her with another man would put him in a getting killed kind of mood.

  As they walked toward the front of her building, she found herself slowing down. Thomas noticed and put a hand out, touching her arm.

  “What’s going on?”

  “My ex-husband is kind of a huge dick. His truck is over there, so he’s around here somewhere and you’re about to meet him. I hate admitting that he’s always been one, but he’s been almost unbearable since we started the divorce proceedings. Maybe you should just go. He still…”

  She didn’t get the next word out because she saw him running at them full speed with a crazy look in his eye bellowing, “Get away from her. That’s my wife.”

  His hand swung around without any real direction and Melissa screeched as Thomas caught it quickly in front of his face and it cracked loudly. Nathaniel yelled something as his face contorted in pain, but there was just a ringing in her ears blocking his words. She was going to watch her idiot ex get killed because he didn’t know what he was up against. What an amazing ending to her night.

  It was a very drunk Nathaniel that tried to hit Thomas again. The smell of alcohol assaulted her nose. She wished he would have learned from the first time he’d almost broken his hand swinging at Thomas, but no, the fact that he would even try again stunned Melissa. Her chest tightened and she started breathing heavily not really getting much air to her lungs. This was not happening. Not right now.

  “Listen, buddy, you need to calm down. You can keep trying to hit me, but you’re not going to get a punch in, I guarantee it. I don’t really want to hurt you if I don’t have to,” Thomas was saying as Melissa tried to pull air into her constricted lungs.

  Nathaniel let out a scary laugh and ran at him again. This time Thomas put him on the ground and held him down by his neck. It would have been funny if Melissa wasn’t in the middle of a panic attack. Nathaniel tried to get up, still fighting strength he couldn’t possibly defeat.

  “Nathaniel, just stop fighting. What are you even doing here?” Melissa wheezed, finally finding her voice and tried to figure out how she could take control of the situation. There were people watching now, so of course, someone probably called the police. This was her nightmare.

  “Are you going to calm down?” Thomas asked. He was so calm and hadn’t even broken a sweat as he held Nathaniel down without any effort.

  Nathaniel nodded so he let him up, and when Thomas turned around to see if Melissa was okay, he leaped onto his back. Not wanting to miss a chance at taking Thomas down with his back turned, Melissa saw a gleam and realized Nathaniel had a knife. The tightness in her chest and ringing in her ears came back as she yelled to let Thomas know.

  She didn’t have to worry about Thomas though, he flipped Nathaniel over his shoulder and back onto the ground like he weighed nothing. Melissa was h
aving a hard time breathing again, but this time Nathaniel stayed down. The knife in his hand hung limply at his side. He’d exhausted himself and when Thomas let him off the ground again, he backed up to his truck he spoke hoarsely, glaring at them.

  “This isn’t over.”

  Melissa didn’t say anything as she watched the truck drive away, making sure that this time he really was done with the fight. As soon as the tires squealed down the road, Melissa ran from Thomas, wanting to put as much distance between them as she could. She darted across the sidewalk and into her building. If she hurried, she could get to her apartment before he saw where she went. She wasn’t in the frame of mind to talk to him. She was so embarrassed about Nathaniel’s behavior she just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Why did it have to be tonight?

  Of course, he was too fast. He was a were-bear for crying out loud. As she was fumbling to get her key in the door, he came up behind her, caging her in between the door and his hard body. Ignoring him, she flung the door open and went inside, still hyperventilating except now she was also crying. This night was getting even worse than she thought it could. Her chest constricted painfully and every ounce of oxygen she pulled in was with pure determination on her part.

  “You need to try and calm down Melissa, it’s over now.”

  He thought she was over-reacting. She could hear the condescension in his voice. Nobody understood the inability to stop her anxiety when it took her this far. Damn it, Nathaniel always gave her panic attacks. It was like just being near him and his over bearing ways triggered them. She attempted to get her breath taking large gasps, but nothing seemed to help. Black spots dotted her vision, alerting her that she was about to pass out.

  “Just breathe and sit down.” Thomas led her to the couch and helped her sit. He went to get her some water as she wheezed. Between crying, being embarrassed, and not able to catch her breath, she started panicking more and the cycle continued becoming more volatile.

  “Can’t control it, sorry, Thomas.” She managed to get short phrases out between breaths and then he was back in front of her. She desperately wanted to explain this was out of her control. He’d sat beside her on the couch and he had both her shoulders in his strong hands.

  “Look at me.”

  Melissa managed to look at him and tried to concentrate on his eyes. They were full of concern. She thought maybe her breathing was starting to calm down and then he kissed her.

  For a while, he simply held his mouth against hers and waited. Her breathing calmed down to a normal speed, although it was faster than her normal breath because he was so close. He moved to open his mouth and the tightness in her chest started to break away. Pushing his tongue inside her mouth, his hands came to her sides and she found herself wrapping her arms around his neck. Her heart stopped trying to beat out of her chest and the hormones she’d been putting into her body sprang into action, warming her belly and lower from the desire he was spreading through her. Then he pulled away just as quickly as he started it.

  They simply looked at each other for a few seconds before he stood and moved all the way across the room.

  “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know what to do. I was worried you were going to pass out or something.”

  “No, that was apparently what I needed to calm down,” Melissa said, feeling her lips tingle from the kiss and her thighs tingle from the need.

  “We might as well have some physical contact before we make a baby, right?” His smile seemed forced and she wondered if he regretted his actions. It frustrated her how much that thought saddened her.

  “Yes, maybe you’re right.” Melissa smiled. It was apparent the kiss had been a lot hotter to her than it was to him. He’d just been trying to get her to calm down. It was okay, she could totally blame her hormones for wanting him to take her on the couch, the floor, the table, the wall, or any other surface they could find.

  “I have a late night meeting tonight to talk about Hilary’s campaign. The guys at work and I get together to have drinks and a think tank. I can cancel if you need someone to stay and guard you from that crazy man.”

  At the mention of Hilary, she was brought back down to reality a bit. Oh yes, the hot rich woman with the model’s body he was seeing. She wanted to ask if Hilary would be there, but she held her tongue.

  “No, he won’t come back. He’s a one desperate show a night kind of guy. I can lock up tight and he’ll never get in. If he comes back and makes any noise for any reason, my neighbors will call the police. Besides, I promised Tilly I would go out with her, remember? All dressed up and all. Go to your meeting and thanks tonight, for everything.”

  “Right, Tilly. I forgot. I’ll just be going.” He watched her face, his smile getting wider before he moved away from the couch and toward the door.

  She walked back to her bedroom and waited until he’d left before going to deadbolt the door. A nice, long, hot bath was just what she needed and she was going to have bubbles, candles, music, and wine while she still could.

  ***

  Thomas dropped his driver off for the night and took the car back out to the office. His favorite nights were boy’s nights. It was exhilarating when they thought of things to improve the company and it was relaxing when they just shot the shit. It was really good for work morale, but it was good for the men he worked with to see him in a light other than boss. He didn’t know many companies where you could get together after hours on purpose and be excited about it.

  His mind went to Melissa. As it always did. He’d really been worried about her when he’d kissed her. Her face had a sheen of sweat on it, and her skin was pale. She had no idea he already knew about her ex, but seeing her reaction to him he figured he didn't know everything. He worried about her and fingered his phone, wanting to send her a text just to see how she was doing. Hopefully, she wasn’t lying and really did go out with Tilly. He knew she would be taken care of if she was with Tilly and not at home alone where her psycho ex could show up. Even though she said he was a one performance night kind of guy, there were always times when a crazy and desperate guy would try again. His lips tingled when he thought of the kiss.

  It had been a spur of the moment thing, but once he was kissing her, he enjoyed it. He enjoyed it too much. She tasted sweet and her vulnerability from having a near panic attack warmed him. She trusted him, and allowed him to calm her down just with a single touch. A touch he couldn’t wait to do again. November wasn’t going to come soon enough. That damning kiss wasn’t supposed to happen though, but he found himself wondering why not? They were going to have sex in a couple months and he couldn’t even kiss her without freaking out? Maybe now that it was out of their systems for the moment, they could go back to living normally until it was time to start trying. Fat chance, he thought, ready and willing to do it again and sooner better than later.

  He was the only one in the parking deck, his shoes echoing as he walked and it was kind of an eerie sensation. No, it wasn’t the shoes, it was a feeling. He was being watched. Instantly, he looked around, but he didn’t see anyone. If that idiot of Melissa’s had followed him, he really was going to hit him. Weres of any kind normally didn’t go after humans because the strength difference didn’t make it remotely fair, but if Melissa’s ex kept it up, he was going to see what it felt like to mess with a paranormal.

  It wasn’t until he almost made it to the door to the elevator that two large men in suits stepped out in front of him. Not the ex, but good enough. The fight with Melissa’s ex, and the kiss, had his adrenaline pumping, and these two looked like the perfect way to expend some of it.

  “Hello, gentlemen, can I help you with something?” He didn't try and hide the sarcasm as it dripped off every word.

  “Stop what you’re doing.” One of the guys brought a knee up into his stomach, surprising him with the move, and his words. It knocked the breath out of him, but he didn’t go down. He wasn’t going to let a human take him down. The guy brought both his arms down on his back and
that put him down.

  “What the hell?” Thomas roared as he started to see red. His inner-bear growled inside, wanting to end them.

  “What you’re doing is unnatural. Stop what you’re doing or there will be consequences,” the other suit said.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Thomas managed to get some words choked out. That fucker really had caught him by surprise. He thought about just letting his bear out to scare the hell out of them, but refrained. Something told him not to, like maybe they’d let out something worse. He wasn’t sure where that thought came from, but he’d always had a good sense about danger and he trusted his gut.

  “The baby, the abomination. Stop what you’re doing and tell Miss Rancic to stop, too, if she knows what’s good for her.”

  The two men disappeared and Thomas tried to catch his breath. He was completely taken off guard. Who the hell were those men? Could they have been were-bears? Their strength and the knowledge of what he was scared him. Thomas’ mind was spinning as he walked into the building. No one even knew what they were trying to do. His baby was supposed to be a secret, so the fact that someone had come after him was even scarier. The thought that his baby was being threatened pissed him off.

  “You all right, Tommy?” One of his business managers, Saul, came up to him. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m okay. Just got startled in the parking lot. How’s it going? What’d I miss?”

  “We were just talking about Hilary’s can.”

  “That’s not very nice guys; she’s our biggest client.”

  “It’s okay, Thomas.” Hilary turned the chair at the head of the table and looked at him. I was talking about my can with them.” She winked and stood up, walking over to him. Standing on her tiptoes, she kissed him on the cheek and walked over to the coffee.

  “I didn’t know you would be here.” Thomas was shaken from the men and what they knew. He wasn’t in the right frame of mind to deal with Hilary. Especially when he looked at her and felt a sliver of guilt because of how he was starting to feel for Melissa. You shouldn’t be feeling anything for Melissa, he reminded himself.