BABY DADDY (11 page)

The elevator dings at her floor.

She scrambles to get out. I let her.

I follow behind her, confusion and fury rioting inside me.

She stops in front of her suite’s door.

She takes out her card key from her shoulder bag but doesn’t tap the lock.

“Look, Raiden—“

I take the card key from her hand and open the door. “Get in.”

I follow her inside and close the door.

She faces me, her eyes defensive. Hostile. “What do you want me to do now? Apologize for being still a virgin at my age?”

I’m not in the mood to be sympathetic of her hang-ups. She owes me some explanation. Big ones. “I don’t care about your age, but you just don’t do that, Ella! Have sex with a man and not tell him anything, especially something as important as that!”

“It wasn’t important to me!!!” she screams.

Her sudden outburst shocks me. I’ve detonated something inside her, but I have my own issues, too and I want answers. Satisfactory answers. “Not important? Is that why you’ve remained so all these years?”

I see her flinch and swallow like there’s a lump in her throat. I know there’s more to this than what she’s telling me and I want to find out. Why? I don’t know. I just want to. Badly.

Stella Rhodes is an enigma I want to crack.

“What’s your goddamn point?!” she demands.

I lose my temper, too. She’s shouting at me like this is all my fault when she was the one who has been sneaky all along.

“My point is you lied to me! You lied twice and they’re not little white lies! A virgin and then a baby! Dammit, Ella, what were you thinking?!”

“What have you lost? Nothing! You’re a man! I thought you’ve forgotten about it already!”

“Christ, you think I’m such a monster?! I’ve never abused a woman in my entire life! I was raised to be a decent human being and you managed to heap a load of emotional guilt on me all in one night!”

“Oh, is that why you’re here? You feel guilty? Well, don’t be. It’s over and done with! I wanted it. I don’t hold you accountable. Jesus, I’m thirty-seven! I’m an embarrassment already! Thank you for mercy-fucking me and helping me get rid of my pesky V-card which was long overdue for popping anyway, but please, spare me the further humiliation and just fucking drop it, okay?!”

“Mercy…?! What are you talking about?!”

“Oh, shut up!”

She runs to the bathroom and slams the door shut.

“Ella! Open the door! Ella!”

“Please, Raiden, we’re disturbing the other guests. Just leave!”

I’m sorely tempted to kick the door down and continue our argument but I opt to let it go for now. She’s right. We’re creating a major racket and I don’t want security to come knocking and find me here causing the commotion.

“We’re not finished yet, Ella. I’ll be back tomorrow,” I say and leave her suite.

Tomorrow I’ll deal with this. I don’t know exactly why I still want to talk to her or what I’d get out of further associating with her, but I do want to and I must.

More than ever, now, I want to know more about Stella Rhodes. No woman has intrigued me like she has and I’m not about to let her get away just like that.

I sag in relief when I hear
the soft sound of the door closing. I carefully open the bathroom door and peek. He’s gone.

I hastily slid the security latch on and walk over to the bed, plopping my tired body on it.

My bones and muscles ache. I hurt all over. But I know it isn’t from the day’s activities. It’s my old wounds reopening all over again.

Ol’ Stella is back. Insecure, zero self-esteem, no good qualities that a man can love, no impressive skills that her family can be proud of.

It’s the old me awakening in full force, overpowering my façade, my exterior shell, the impenetrable fortress I’ve carefully built around myself all these years to survive.

Thanks to HIM. That boy!

I’d like to think now that he’s just a boy and he’s no match to me. I’m fucking Stella Rhodes, CEO of my own little empire and he’s just some spoiled brat raised in extreme privilege by whoever sired him. I don’t want to know more about him. I don’t care anymore what he thinks.

What he thinks of me particularly.

He awakens all my old demons and he’s bad news to me. Bad news to my present and my future.

Nobody is allowed to make me feel insecure anymore. Least of all a boy.

I grab the phone from the side table.

The woman at the reception answers right away.

“I’d like to leave the island first thing in the morning.”

SEVEN

___________________________________________________________

25 CONTROVERSIAL QUOTES FROM THE STYLE EMPRESS

On her love-hate relationship with the paparazzi:

" I wish they’d stop making references to my most

infamous display of bad taste in men.

That’s so 800 seasons ago. I’m in a red-hot love affair with

my clothes now. Here, I have impeccable taste.

I wish they’d write more on that than my ol’ boring chestnuts.”

Stella Rhodes

__________________________________________________

THE LAND CRUISER SMOOTHLY NAVIGATES
the road to the airport. I hate what I’m feeling. The lump in my throat won’t go away and that pressure in my chest…shit.

These are feelings that are alien to me now that’s why they’re so piercing. The more I fight it, the more it feels like a sadist is making little cuts all over me, punishing me.

I want to cry.

There. I admit it.

I want to sob my heart out. Scream to the heavens. It’s been a long time since I last cried. Since I wasted my tears on someone.

On a man in particular.

I don’t want to feel this, to waste a single tear for him.

What for? And why?

I’ve known him for two days. Two days!

Three.

Today doesn’t count.

Today, you’re about to cry for him. It counts. A lot.

I groan and rest my head on the backseat, closing my eyes, massaging my temple. The beauty of the verdant forest only aggravates the heavy weight that seems to be crushing my heart. I wanted to explore the island some more, discover its famed wonders but I know I can’t stay here knowing we’d see each other again and…

He comes too close and I don’t think I can handle that.

His intensity. His seemingly boundless energy.

He overwhelms me, overpowers me. I’m not used to being defensive. I’m always on the offensive.

Is it possible to develop feelings for someone you don’t even know in just three short days?

You know him.

His body, yes.

You know he’s looking for someone with similar interests as his. Proof, he chose you over those women who looked like Maxim cover girls.

I don’t know his interests! And knowing he likes plus-size women doesn’t make him special! Maybe it’s just his fetish. I don’t want to be a fetish. I’m not a fucking guilty pleasure!

He’s deep. He can carry a decent conversation. More than decent conversation.

No.

He cares that he took your V-card. Not many men would care in this time and age. In fact, I kinda think he values it that’s why he was so pissed off. He feels responsible for you.

Ohhhh shut the fuck up! He doesn’t care! Why would he even care? For me? Me?! There are too many gorgeous girls in the island. Why would he want someone like me?!

Here you go again, loser. Looooo-ser.

I groan louder, trying to shush the nagging little voice in my head who’s playing devil’s advocate, tempting me to start entertaining ideas with that boy.

Ideas that I know will only lead to a big heartbreak and I don’t need that level of insanity at this point in my life. I’m too old. It would end me.

Besides, my investors wouldn’t like to see me turn into a train wreck after risking their millions on my brand. I have too much responsibilities right now to risk inviting chaos into my well-organized orbit.

Excuses. Excuses. Excuses.

All I want is a baby, not a fucking love life! That’s the plan! Stick to the fucking plan!

Coward.

No. I can’t handle being called a cougar. It’s for brash, truly confident women, not someone who’s just pretending. And that’s that. Now, shut the fuck up already!

After getting cleared
by the airport authorities, I’m asked to board a shuttle.

“Am I alone? Where are the other passengers?” I ask the driver as we cruise slowly on the side of the runway.

“You’re the only one, ma’am,” replies the Asian driver. That puzzles me but then again, I’m probably the only one who cut her vacay in half after paying for almost a month’s stay. Of course, the rest of my payment has been forfeited.

The shuttle slows down.

“We’re here, ma’am.”

The driver disembarks and helps me out.

“Where’s the plane?”

“You’ll be taking a helicopter. Your luggage is already in there.”

He points behind me. I look and there’s a gleaming black chopper parked nearby. Its rotor starts to move.

“Let’s go, ma’am.”

“But…wait! I thought I’m taking a plane!”

“Planes are on schedule for designated flights. You requested a special trip back to Singapore. Our special and emergency trips are via choppers only. Don’t worry, ma’am, it’s a short flight to the Lion City, no more than thirty minutes.”

I nod, surprised at this new development but do I have a choice? I just want to leave the island as fast as I can. “Okay. Let’s go.”

The chopper’s engine is running now and we dash under the rotor.

The driver opens the front passenger door for me.

I get in. The door closes.

“Hello—“ I begin to greet the pilot and then swallows my tongue.

“Raiden!”

He greets me with that heart-stopping smile packed with enough megawatts to decimate my common sense in a blink.

“Hey, baby. Welcome aboard.”

He straps the seatbelt on me and places the headset on my head with an expertise that makes my head spin.

His morning freshly showered scent assaults my nostrils and I sit there immobilized, unable to process what’s happening. When my mind finally rights itself, we’re already airborne. He’s sitting there like this is an ordinary drive to the park, except we’re flying!

“Raiden, what are you doing…there!” I squeak.

“Relax, Ella.”

“Wait, I’m supposed to be flying to Singapore!”

“What are you going to do there? Boring place.”

Well, better boring than heartbreaking. “I do have a business to run back in the real world, you know, and you’re kidnapping me. It’s a crime!”

He grins unrepentantly. “Have me arrested later.”

“Seriously, Raiden, what’s this?”

“So, were you going to just leave without saying goodbye?” He shakes his head. “Tsk, tsk, I’m so hurt, Ella.”

Hurt, my ass. “We said goodbye last night.”

“No, we didn’t. I said I’ll be back and you sneaked out on me.”

“Okay…okay, this is no joking matter, Raiden. Are you taking me to Singapore?”

“No.”

“Boy, you’d better turn around and take me back to the airport. Now!” I order him in my no-nonsense Stella Rhodes voice that had many a men scrambling to obey me.

He looks at me, amused. “Boy?”

“Yes, boy! You’re a boy who’s being naughty with a guest and you’re gonna get punished by the authorities!”

“Guilty of being naughty with a guest. Not gonna defend myself on that. Cuff me. To the bed, I hope.”

“Raiden, I’m really, really, really serious!”

“I can see that. I’m really, really, really serious, too.”

I groan. “My god, deliver me from juvenile shit!”

“Ahh, so you’re really gonna play that I’m-too-old-for-you card? Very uncreative. This is the 21st century, Ella.”

“I’m too old for you!” I’m exasperated and frustrated. I didn’t know he could be this tenacious and stubborn.

“Did you think about that while we were having—“

“What do you want from me?!” I screech, totally freaking out now. I was running away from him and now I’m trapped in a chopper with him and we’re thousands of feet above water!

“We’re just going to have breakfast.”

I gape at him, at the casual way he was talking while I’m shaking with the chaos his mere presence is causing inside me. “Breakfast? Are you crazy?!”

“Yes.”

I stare at him, swallowing nervously. Lowd, have I run into a psycho? One of those kids twisted by too much money and power they want to test how far they can go with the law? Like preying on women? Jack the Ripper? I don’t really know anything about him.