Carrying the Billionaire's Baby, Book 2: The Billionaire's Gift (2 page)

Because, really, I
thought, rubbing a hand across my clit and then dragging my tongue
from the base of his cock all the way to the top — this was
Alexander Atherstone. There was probably a long line of girls ready
and willing to do this kind of thing with him. I was just a girl
with a job.

I looked up at him as I
took his raging manhood into my mouth again. He opened his eyes and
looked at me with perfect intensity. And with that look, all my
previously rational thoughts were vanquished by hopeful
questions.

Is it possible this man
could really want me
?

I wasn’t given much time
to ponder that question. Just as I was about to stand up, slide my
panties off and climb into his lap, letting my wet lips sink over
his hardness, we were interrupted by the sound of a polite
cough.

“Ms. Brook,” Alexander
said nonchalantly, without a hint of embarrassment. I, meanwhile,
spit his cock out of my mouth so fast it made a popping noise, then
moved to pull my bra back up so it covered my breasts, smoothing my
skirt over my soaked panties. I must have turned bright
red.

“Ahem,” said the woman,
who had to be close to 60 but still had nearly flawless skin and a
slim, petite body. Speaking with a British lilt, Ms. Brook was the
very definition of proper. But if she was surprised or
uncomfortable with walking in on her longtime boss with his cock
buried deep in my mouth, she didn’t show it. “Mr. Atherstone, there
is an issue with the Kobashi deal. The board is saying you need to
meet with them right away. I have your plane ready.”

“Damn,” he said, standing
up and buckling his belt quickly. He buttoned his shirt as he
turned to look at me on the floor, still feeling a bit
mortified.

“Glad we got one round in
at least,” he said with a half-smile.

I smiled too. “Rain
check?” I asked.

“Of course,” he said,
walking over to Ms. Brook who handed him a new tie. He slipped it
on and tied it expertly. “You’re using the pregnancy tests,
right?”

“Everyday.”

“Good,” he said, walking
over to the elevator and pressing the button to open the door. Ms.
Brook hadn’t moved — watching him from the other side of the room.
“You let me know the second it happens.”

“I will,” I said, rising
to my feet.

“I’ll have Ms. Brook let
you know when I get back,” he said, disappearing into the elevator.
I sighed deeply as the doors started to close, but then a hand shot
out and blocked them from closing completely.

“Forgot something,” said
the billionaire, striding out of the elevator. I didn’t know what
to expect, but he slid an arm around my back and kissed
me.

He said nothing else,
breaking our kiss quickly then turning to step back into the
elevator. With a soft ding, the doors closed.

Ms. Brook and I were left
alone in the sprawling living room. I zipped my dress up, trying to
make myself look a little less dishevelled in front of the woman
who always looked like she had it all together.

“You can stay as long as
you like, of course,” Ms. Brook said.

“Thank you,” I responded.
The woman always had a way of making me nervous.

“I’ll be in the office if
you need anything,” she said, turning to leave. I sat down on the
couch heavily, thankful that she was gone. I considered finding my
way into the guest room again — the one with the wardrobe
containing the box of sex toys. As awkward as the interruption had
been, I was still drenched with wetness. The thought that
Alexander’s cum was still inside me turned me on. An orgasm would
feel good.

But before I could make a
move toward the room, Ms. Brook emerged again through the double
doors.

“
A warning, Ms. O’Connor,”
she said tersely. Her normally serene and cool expression was gone.
She never betrayed much emotion, but at that moment I could almost
read anger in her face. “And I hope you don’t find that I am
speaking out of turn.”

I just stared at her with
a dumbfounded look.

“I have known Mr.
Atherstone for a very long time. Since he was a young man just
making his way in the world. I watched him as he figured out how to
achieve success. I know his methods. And they’re actually very
simple. Have you picked up on it?”

I moved to speak, but she
kept going.

“Of course you haven’t,
you poor girl. What Mr. Atherstone has that has made him so
successful — that has brought him to this penthouse in this tower
with all that he desires — is an unfailing ability to get what he
wants from other people. He has an almost supernatural ability to
convince people that he can do good for them. He is persuasive.
Magnetic. It’s a gift.”

I nodded. I could see it
in him. I could see it in the way he used his words so carefully. I
could see it in the way he looked at people with such fierce
intensity. I could see it in that trademark half-smile of
his.

“But make no mistake, Ms.
O’Connor. Mr. Atherstone is first and foremost a businessman. He
excels in getting what he wants. He excels in building his company.
He does not excel in making young women like yourself feel happy
and fulfilled forever.”

She shot me a meaningful
look. “I hope you can see where I am going with this?”

I didn’t. Not really. But
I didn’t want to say anything stupid — not in front of this
imposing woman.

“Oh, child,” she went on,
her eyes falling to the floor. “You really don’t get it, do you? I
can see it in the way you look at him sometimes. You think maybe
what you’re building here is about more than a piece of paper you
signed. You think it is about more than delivering a
child.”

Her words stung. She was
wrong, wasn’t she? I had been mature about this. Yes, I had grown
to love our trysts and what Alexander had given me. And, sure,
there were moments when I let my mind drift…

“He is a businessman,
dear,” Ms. Brook said. “And to him, what is going on with you is
simply business. He’ll try to dazzle you with kisses and
compliments, because that’s how this strange business is done. But
at that end of the day you will never know who he really is. You
will never know the real Alexander Atherstone.”

I felt a surge of emotion
rising up within me. Before I knew it, I was protesting. “It’s not
just sex!” I said, instantly regretting my words. “I mean, it feels
like there’s something else there…”

She gave me a tight smile,
as if she was looking at some pathetic animal. “I know, love.
That’s just how he does things.”

“What if you’re
wrong?”

“I’m not, Ms. O’Connor. I
assure you. There is not a person on this earth anymore who knows
Alexander as well as I do. You, meanwhile, are now his sexual
plaything and will soon be an incubator for his child. Nothing more
and nothing less.”

I frowned and looked
away.

“I know it might be hard
to hear, but I wanted to say it to you now, before you fell any
further.”

She turned to leave.
“Again,” she said. “You can stay as long as you like.”

As she opened the door to
leave, she added one more thing. “If you still don’t believe what
I’ve told you,” she said, her back to me. “Consider this: has he
ever told you why he wants to have a child? Why he wants to do it
this way? Do you really know anything about why you’re in this very
odd kind of business relationship with one of the most powerful men
on the planet?”

The door closed. Ms. Brook
was gone. I was alone, with only lingering questions to keep me
company.

The next couple of days
were not good ones. Alexander was gone — away on business with no
firm return date. And I, having no real job aside from being his
eventual surrogate, didn’t have much to do to fill the hours. I
spent a lot of time in my apartment, lying in bed and taking long
showers. I thought a lot, and tried to work through what Ms. Brook
had said to me.

I was analytical enough
not to cry about it, at least. I was proud of myself for that.
Mostly, I knew that doubting her would be a mistake. She was right
when she said she knew Alexander better than anybody. And, while,
yeah, it had sometimes felt like maybe Alexander and I were
connecting on a level beyond the contract I had signed to carry his
child, I had to keep in mind that the idea of him actually wanting
to create any kind of life or relationship with me beyond our
current circumstance was ridiculous.

He could have
anybody
, I reasoned. Why
would he want me?

I wasn’t an actress or a
model or a singer or European royalty. I didn’t come from a wealthy
family. I was an heir to nothing and no one. The only guys who had
been into me up until now had turned out to be slackers or jerks
who ended up running off with blonder girls.

The truth about it was that
Alexander was using me. But I couldn’t be mad at him for that,
could I? He had been up front about what he was after. And I had
agreed to it.
I very badly want to be a
father
. That’s what he had said that first
night. The meaningful looks, the stolen kisses and the
earth-shaking orgasms couldn’t erase the fact that he didn’t so
much want me as he wanted what I was willing to give him. He wanted
a child.

Before Ms. Brook
confronted me, I was desperate to please him — to get pregnant and
move this process forward. But I had to admit that her stinging
words had changed things. I knew it wasn’t honourable — I knew it
was the wrong thing to think — but during those lonely few days in
my apartment, I hoped against hope that all the pregnancy tests I
was taking would come up negative. Because a positive test, I
realized then, could mean the end of our relationship — the sex,
along with the passion, would stop.

I knew that was an unfair
attitude, but I couldn’t help it. Now that I had the billionaire, I
didn’t want to give him up.

I got the call that
Alexander was back in town on a Friday, a few days after he had
left for Japan. Ms. Brook called.

“Mr. Atherstone would like
to book another session with you,” she said.
Sessions
, she called them — so
formal. Like I was a massage therapist.

Before, my heart would
burst with excitement when I got calls like that. But things felt
different now. I definitely wasn’t going to back out of the deal —
I still needed the money, and I did legitimately want to help
Alexander — but I realized I needed to quiet my enthusiasm and
start treating this more like the job it was.

It’s a job, not a new
life
. I made that my motto.

I didn’t primp for this
meeting as much as I had in the past, nor did I glide through the
lobby of the Atherstone Tower like a pretend secret agent. But I
arrived with a smile on my face, and when the private elevator
went
ding
and I
saw him standing there — clad, as always, in a well-cut suit — I
couldn’t help but feel a rush of excitement. It was hard not to,
looking at him. He was so well put-together, with his strong
dimples and piercing eyes. It was like he could cast a spell with
just a glance.

But that was the problem, I
realized. That was what Ms. Brook had warned me about. I had to be
careful to not fall under this spell again.
It’s a job, not a new life
.

“Hey,” he said with a half
smile as I stepped off the elevator.

“Hey yourself,” I said
back, returning his smile.

He stepped toward me
quickly, arcing a strong arm around my back and pulling my body
close against his. I had opted against wearing one of his designer
dresses that night, instead going for a look that was felt
more
me
— a good
pair of tight jeans and a purple T-shirt. He didn’t seem to
mind.

His face was close to
mine. I could almost feel the stubble of his five o’clock shadow
against my skin. Our eyes locked as he moved in to kiss me, but
just as our lips were about to meet I pulled back. My mind was
racing. I kept hearing words echo through my head again and again
and they would not stop.

Consider
this
, she had said.
Has he ever told you why he wants to have a child? Why he
wants to do it this way?

In that moment, with the
billionaire about to kiss me, all I could think about were those
words. I had tried to train myself to let it go. I didn’t really
have any right to even ask the question, I realized — it was none
of my business. But it still ate at me. Why
would
a single man his age want to
have a child so badly? And why do it this way? He had no biological
clock. There was no reason to rush things. Why not find someone to
marry and have a child with them? Why go through all this
trouble?

Lost in thought, I had
unconsciously pulled away from his kiss. “April?” he asked, still
holding me close to him. “Is something wrong?”

I pulled together all my
courage. I wasn’t going to let myself be weak in this moment. We
had a business relationship. I was going to live up to
it.