Regency Romance: The Rake's Fake Marriage (Historical Arranged Marriage Romance) (19th Century Victorian Romance) (43 page)

“Alright, we’ll go back to being boss and assistant again.  The best things in life are worth waiting for.”

He raised his glass and I mine, and we toasted the agreement.

****

On Monday, I went back to work as though nothing happened. Tom had changed.  His passion towards work overtook him and his nightlife faded considerably. 

A few months passed and he hadn’t been with anyone in a while.  He seemed to distance himself from many of the women that had thrown themselves at him in the past as if a part of him died.  I felt sorry for him.

He started spending a lot of time with his brother’s family.  Before our trip to Paris, he barely would see him once a year but now it seemed to be once a week.  Tom would show me photos of him giving new toys to his brother’s children and how happy they were.

In those few months I had learned something else.

I was pregnant.

I had a strong feeling it was his and I didn’t want to burden him further with the responsibility of being a parent.

“Tom,” I said one day after a meeting, “I think it’s time I move on.  I’ve been working towards a few projects of my own with the money you’ve helped me raise and I think I have some good prospects.”

He flashed me his smile again, and I was struck by how sad his eyes looked.  He embraced me, and my feelings were swept away.  I kept myself straight faced, which was the hardest thing I’d ever done.

“Don’t make me wait.”
Was all he said.
 

I pushed myself away, knowing that, if I stayed any longer, I would become a mess. 

“I’ll have my things packed and be out of the house before day’s end.  Thank you again, Mr. Ellis.” I said.

I turned and left, leaving him standing there sullenly. 

As I exited, I wondered if I’d gone too far, if there was something else I could’ve done to know if he wanted me for my business savvy or my looks.  But, I couldn’t decipher anything at the moment.

At the mansion, I began to pack everything I had, which I realized was not much.  Then I heard a knock on the door.

“Hey, Nia.” It was Brent. “I know we don’t talk much, but can we have a chat?”

I cracked the door and let him wander in.

“This place is way better than the shack I’m living in.  You must be one smart cookie,” he said admiring my living space.

“Did you come here to talk or to admire the scenery?” I asked rudely.

“Whoa, calm down,” he said while stepping back toward the door. “I just have one thing to say so I’ll say it.  You got Mr. Ellis twisted up good.  I never seen him like this in the last ten years I been workin’ for him.”

“Are you referring to how he doesn’t seem to sleep around as much?” I asked.

“No, I’m referring to how he keeps askin’ me what you’re up to.  He wants to know if you’re seein’ anybody or if you are feeling taken care of.”

“He asks about me when I’m not around?”

“He does.  I never seen him like that for anyone.”

I finished packing my bag and zipped it closed.  I took a moment to take in all the sights from this palatial bedroom and let out a deep sigh.

“Let’s go, Brent,” I said. 

I made for the door, but Brent wouldn’t let me carry my own bags.  Like a gentleman he took the bags and followed me down the front stairs.

I had him take me to a hotel downtown for the evening and scheduled time with a real estate agent while on the way.  My excessive funds from working with Mr. Ellis had continued to grow over the past few months into a small fortune. 

I said my final farewells to Brent and entered the lobby.  It was completely empty save for the one attendant at the front desk waiting patiently for business.

He looked at me, smiled, and handed me a room key.  I found it rather odd as I hadn’t called ahead.

“Is this for me?” I asked.

“Of course it is,” he replied. “Room 1506. The elevator is around the corner.”  Another on hand attendant swooped in to relieve me of my luggage and led me to the elevator.

We zoomed up to the 15
th
floor, and my curiosity swelled.  I inserted my keycard into the door and swung it open. 

Mr. Ellis was sitting on the bed, waiting patiently.

“How did you-“

“I work downtown, it’s only three blocks from headquarters,” Tom said.

“Mr. Elli-“

“My name is Tom. I told you months ago, Nia.” 

He sat me down on the bed and stood over me.

“I’m going to talk, and you’re going to listen,” he began. “The last several months I’ve been meeting more with my brother and his family and you know what I learned?  Don’t answer that, I still want you to listen.  I learned what makes him tick; I learned why he wakes up every morning and goes to his dead-end job upstate; I learned that it’s not easy to be in love.”

He was pacing back and forth as he talked, and I smiled as he continued on.

“That’s right, Love.  Love is what gets him out of the house in the morning so he can go work a dead-end job to provide for his family.  I saw him get in fights with the person he loves; only to watch them kiss and forget it ever seemed to happen.  It was like some kind of magic was happening in his household.

“I watched them play with their kids and how amazing it is to see someone grow up.  I watched them roll their eyes and the millionth diaper they’d had to change, knowing that they’d have to do the same thing an hour later; only to give that baby a kiss on the cheek. 

“Love and compassion are two things I’ve been trying to spread around the city, and, yet, I haven’t ever been able to find those things in my own life.  These last few months I think I’ve started to find it, and would you like to know where it started? Guess.”  Tom paused. “No, don’t answer that either.  I started finding it the moment I caught you downstairs that night.  I continued to find it in the airplane the next day, and I know I found it when I saw you exit that airplane wearing that black dress.”

I could feel tears streaming down my cheeks as he continued to talk.

“I want you in my life; I
need
you in my life.  I don’t want to feel like I’m forcing this because I think you want me in your life as well.

“Nia, I love you.  And, if you’ll have me, I want to start a family.”

I stood there shocked to hear all of it.  All I could do is nod and smile as he leaned in for a kiss.  I stopped him before he could, though.

“I need you in my life, too.  But, I have a couple things I need to say first.”

Tom sat down in a chair nearby and listened.

“As it turns out, starting a family will be easier than you think.”

He thought about it for a moment, and then I could see his eyes start to beam. “You’re-“

“Yep,” I nodded. “And the second thing is: I only want to start a family as long as I can continue pursuing my own career as well.  I want to be your equal and not your damsel.”

Tom nodded happily. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

I gave him a loving embrace and kissed him all over his face. 

We walked from the hotel arm in arm.  Our future started that day and it never looked brighter.

*****

THE END

The Billionaire’s Secret
Love Child
– Brianne’s Story

A BWWM Billionaire Pregnancy Romance

1

Danielle Harper wasn’t sure she had
heard
the man correctly, so she leaned forward. It was, after all, pretty noisy in the club. She lived in
Vegas
and made some money on the weekends working as a waitress. She was tall and slender, her skin and hair dark. The most important thing was that she looked good in heels and a skirt. Her long legs got her a lot of tips, and perky cleavage got her even more.

The club was called The Event, which Danielle thought was a stupid name, but it was popular and busy on the weekends, and Danielle needed every bit of help with her student loan debt that she could. She had a year of school left, and already the prospect of the debt felt crushing and suffocating.

It was early in the
evening,
before the large crowds came in, but she had been serving a couple of the small round tables that dotted the outside of the dance floor in the dark club. At one table
was
a man and three of his friends. He was handsome. A young caucasian man with a strong jaw that made him look a bit like a superhero. His hair was blonde and buzzed. None of his friends made the same impact that he had on her. She had been with one white man before, a one night stand. The way the young man had kept looking at her, she was wondering if she was on her way to another.

But then it looked as though he and his friends were moving on, and they gathered their things and
paid
their tab and walked out the door. The good looking one
lingered,
though, and he caught Danielle’s eye and waved her over.

“Yeah?” Danielle asked as she went to speak with him by the front door.

“What’s your name?”

Danielle tapped a manicured nail against the small plastic
nametag
she wore to the left of her chocolate colored cleavage. “Danielle.”

“I saw that, but don’t most women in Vegas have fake names? What’s your real name?”

Danielle laughed. “Where are you from?”

“Hidden Hills,” the man said. “It’s near Los Angeles.”

“Well I don’t know who is feeding info to Hidden Hills, but Danielle is my real name.”

“All right, Danielle.
Well,
I think you should marry me.”

That was the part she had thought she hadn’t understood. She leaned forward and shook her head. “Excuse me?”

“I think we should get married. You are
absolutely
stunning.”

“I’m not going to marry you.”

The man laughed. “Why not?”

“I don’t even know your name.”

The man held his hand out. “Ray,” he said. She shook it. His hand was strong, but not rough.

“
Okay,
Ray. Well, my answer is no.”

“Hey, I
really
need to run right now, but I think we should talk more about it. What time do you get off?”

“One.”

“In the morning?”

“Yeah.”

Ray whistled through his front teeth. “Rough gig,” he said.

Danielle laughed. “It’s alright.”

“Well, listen. I have a penthouse in the… well shit, I don’t remember the name. But we’ll be drinking like crazy and
generally
raising Hell. I can have someone pick you up and bring you over, and we can get to know each other.”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll send someone, and come if you want. Alright?”

Danielle didn’t know what he meant
about
sending someone, but she just nodded. “Okay then,” she said, and Ray smiled and then turned and left.

Danielle wasn’t sure what was going on, but, somehow, she felt an attraction for Ray. He was obviously nice to
look at
. Taller than she was and wide in
a muscular
way, with broad shoulders. He had
been dressed
in expensive clothes, but she had spent most of her time around him
imaging
what he looked like without a
shirt on
. Maybe going over to his penthouse in some hotel was the perfect opportunity to find if her fantasy shirtless Ray lived up to the real thing.

As her night wore on, and the club became packed, she couldn't push her strange conversation with Ray from her mind. One in the morning rolled around quickly, and she clocked out and headed outside. The club would be open for a few more hours, so she stepped quickly through the entrance and through a sea of people trying to get in. Her car
was parked
along the side of the building, and she reached for her keys. She had a paper due on Monday, and she didn’t know a single thing about Ray or any of his friends. She didn’t make it a habit
to go to strange hotel rooms with men
she didn’t know, and
she
had decided she wasn’t about to now.

And then she saw the stretch limo parked along the side of the building, boldly blocking the traffic that was trying to stream in from the well lit road which ran through the famous Vegas strip. The driver was ignoring the honks and the curse words
being thrown
at him, and he was holding a piece of paper with Danielle’s name on it.

She had never ridden in a limo before, and thoughts of strange men and papers due vanished. She would take her shot. She smiled at the driver as she neared, and tapped her finger on her name tag.

“Looking for me?” she asked, and then older man nodded.

“Looks like it, Miss,” he said, and he pulled the door open for her.

Danielle half expected Ray to be waiting for her in the limo, but he wasn’t and she felt a wave of disappointment wash over her. There was a bouquet of flowers inside, and a couple of bottles of wine and a glass, so she poured herself some as the car started moving.

Danielle had
been raised
in New Orleans, about as far from a life which would afford her rides in stretch limousines as she could get. It had just been
her
and her
mom,
and her mom had always struggled to keep them in houses, and food on the table.

Danielle had seen education as a way
out
and had grades that were good enough for her to have offers from six schools. She had ended up at
Ryeman
College, twenty minutes outside of Vegas.

Vegas was a town built for the wealthy, and Danielle had only ever seen the edges. But riding in a limo, looking through the dimmed windows as the strip passed by, a glass of wine in her hand, it was about as much fun as she had ever had. She only wished she had someone to share
it with
.

It turned out Ray was staying at Wynn Las Vegas, one of the nicer hotels and casinos on the strip. The driver took her to a side entrance, where a bellhop met her. He was obviously younger than her twenty-one, but only by a few years. He had traces of acne, and he looked her over without shame as she climbed out of the limo.

“Mr. Ferris left this for you,” the boy said, holding a keycard to her. “Slide it into the slot in the elevator and it will take you to the top floor.”

“Thanks,” Danielle said, reaching down to pull the hem of her skirt a little lower while the little creep glanced at her legs again. She went inside and found herself in a nondescript hallway with concrete walls. It
obviously
wasn’t meant to be seen by the guests. She wondered just how Ray Ferris managed everything. He had sent a stretch limo for her, a bell hop was waiting around for her to come by, and he had a top floor penthouse that needed a special elevator key. It all sounded like something out of a James Bond
movie,
if James Bond had a billion dollars instead of just millions.

There was a small elevator at the end of the hall, and the doors opened
quickly
when she pressed the button on the wall. Inside it took Danielle a moment to find the small slot where she could slide the keycard into the wall, but when she did the doors
closed,
and the elevator car started upward.

It seemed like a lifetime,
or, at least,
five
minutes,
though Danielle was sure it was much
shorter, but finally,
the elevator
stopped,
and there was a soft chime before the door slid open. Danielle tried not to gape. The door opened directly into the penthouse suite. Music was blaring, and people were dancing. A lot of people. Young and good looking, more women than men. None of the women were wearing much clothing, some were just shaking their hips in their panties, their breasts swinging freely. It made Danielle
uncomfortable,
but she found the whole thing strangely alluring as well. She had never been much of a party girl. She
was always focused
on school.

The men at the party, in fairness, were just as underdressed as the women. Everyone looked sweaty. She saw more than a few couples making out, and a few groups of people grinding and kissing and rubbing.

“Danielle!” a voice called, just as she was trying to figure out if she should leave or get off the elevator. It was Ray. He wore swim trunks and nothing
else,
but seeing him
smile made
her step forward, off of the elevator. The doors shut behind her.

“Swimming?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow and nodding her head to his wet swim shorts. As far as she knew, even the penthouse suite didn’t come with
its
own
pool.

“I’ll show you,” Ray said, and he took her hand and led her through the throng of people dancing in the living room. As she made her way further into the suite Danielle saw that the music was coming from a DJ, an attractive blonde woman with hardly any meat on her bones that she swore she recognized from TV.

“Is that…?” Danielle started, and Ray cut her off with a grin and a nod.

“It is. Her dad and my dad are friends. Come up in the business together,” he said.

“What business?”

“Film. My dad is a producer.”

“Wow,” Danielle said. It was all she could think to say.

Ray led her into one of the bedrooms, where a group of people
were
grabbing water balloons from four giant plastic tubs and throwing them at one another. From the smell, Danielle wasn’t so sure they
were filled
with water.

“Vodka,” Ray said with another grin which made the young black woman weak in the knees.

“Looks
fun,
” Danielle said.

“It is,” Ray said, and then a balloon came sailing by, and it broke on Danielle’s shirt. It soaked through the thin white material, giving everyone a good look at the
lacey
red bra she wore underneath. Ray looked her over, and she found it didn’t annoy her the way it had when it was the bellhop doing it.

“Want to play?” Ray asked, nodding his head to one tub.

“Maybe later.”

“Want a drink?”

“Now you’re talking,” Danielle said with a laugh, and Ray took her hand and led her out of the bedroom. There was a whole room off of the living room which had been given over to a bar of sorts. Three bartenders who worked
for
the hotel were there, mixing drinks and slinging beers. Danielle found herself suddenly
self-conscious
as she looked them over. They looked like she did. Servers. Servants. Pouring drinks while rich people played.

“What can I get you?” Ray asked her, making his way to the bar and pulling her along.

“Any beer,” she said to the bartender, a young blonde girl. She nodded and set a frothy bottle on the bartop. “Thanks,” Danielle said, taking the beer and sipping.

“I think you’re gorgeous, and I’d
really
like
ot
have sex with you,” Ray said, and Danielle almost
spit
her beer out.

2

Ray was more forward than any man Danielle had ever met, and she had met some
forward
men. Ray was a millionaire, or maybe a billionaire. And he had just told her he wanted to have sex with her.
They were surrounded by a hundred people;
all jam packed into the most expensive hotel room Danielle had ever seen. It all felt like a dream. A dream someone else was having. Danielle hardly recognized her
own
voice when she spoke.

“Okay,” she said.

Ray grinned again. His teeth were white and perfect, like a movie stars. He took her by the hand again and led her out of the bar room. He led her to a closed door, and then pushed through it. Danielle found herself in a bedroom that was empty, besides the two of them. No one was throwing water balloons filled with
vodka,
and the music
wasn’t
as loud after Ray shut the door and locked it behind them.