THE BILLIONAIRE'S BABY (A Secret Baby Romance) (16 page)

I smiled lazily at him as I absorbed the gaze of his clear blue eyes framed with thick lashes and the pinkish hue of his tanned cheeks. Damn, he was gorgeous, and I was falling for him.

I looked slowly from Braden to the table we lay on, then over to the door on our right, and my mind woke with a start. At the same time, I started to panic—not only about the fact I’d just had sex with Braden in the conference room, but the fact that we’d used no protection whatsoever.

I heard him say, “I think I’m falling for you.”

I sat bolt upright, and the uneasy feeling in my chest spread and replaced the lazily pleasant, satisfied after-glow with anxiety. Braden was falling for me, or so he thought, and I was falling hard for him. I was terrified. I sat for a moment, and all the reasons I’d had to not date Braden Huntington flooded back as I regained the logical part of my brain.

Braden and I could never work out long-term. He might not always be my boss in the future, but he’d always be several class and income levels above me. And even if I made a decent living screenwriting and joined his social circle, our backgrounds would still be different. Then there was the old ‘once a playboy always a playboy’ idea that rattled me to the core.

His feelings for me now might be sincere. He might indeed be falling for me, as he’d claimed, yet I felt certain he’d go back to his old womanizing ways once the novelty and excitement of our relationship died. Therefore, as I’d concluded numerous times before, I’d be left broken-hearted.

I didn’t respond to Braden’s words. I scooted off the table, pulled my hiked up skirt down, and started to shimmy into my undies that had been thrown on the floor. “I… I have to go, Braden.” My body shook as I tried to hook my bra.

Braden sat straight up and leapt off the table, a dazed expression in his eyes. “Wait, Lexi, don’t…” He looked around again and seemed to finally come back to earth himself and realize we were in the conference room at his company and someone might either notice we were missing or need to use the room.

“Okay, we do need to get out of here, but I meant what I said, Lexi. This isn’t just some game to me.” As Braden spoke, he pulled on his boxer briefs and pants. He came over to brush his fingers gently along my arm while I re-did all the buttons that hadn’t popped off on my shirt. Delightful shivers ran through my arm, and I paused to meet his earnest gaze.

He continued. “You don’t have to run from this. I’m sorry we broke our agreement and that maybe I acted a little on my emotions from the meeting, but I say to hell with the agreement. Like I told you yesterday, I like you, Lexi, and I really care about you.” His tone was strong and passionate and his face flushed with emotion as his clear eyes remained on mine.

For a split second, I felt the impulse to agree with him and go for it—throw my rules and reservations out the window. Yet I simply couldn’t take the risk. I shrugged away from him, pulled on my jacket, grabbed my already packed-up laptop shoulder bag, and fought down the turmoil of emotions that twisted inside.

I felt Braden’s eyes on me like magnets as I gathered my stuff and pulled my wild hair back into a neat bun. Steps from the conference room door, I turned towards him, gave him the best steely gaze I could muster and said, “I’m sorry, Braden. I can’t keep crossing the line, so I can’t keep working for you. I’ll be applying for new jobs immediately, and until then, this will not happen again.”

With my remaining courage, I unlocked the door and left a silently gaping, still shirtless Braden behind and went straight home.

***

I bent my knees to a crouch while the ocean water sprayed my face with refreshingly cold saltiness as I rode the curl of a medium wave. The sun was lower in the sky and lit up the deep blue with shimmering gold sparkles. I’d lost track of how much time I’d been out there as I tried to make sense of the storm of emotions that raged through me.

After I’d left Braden dumbfounded in the conference room, I’d texted Clara, who was working on her commercial shoot and going straight to her shift at the bar, but she’d told me to hang on and go surf. So, as I threw my stuff together for some therapeutic wave-riding, I texted Beth, who’d agreed to meet me for dinner at a crab shack off the Santa Monica pier at eight.

I felt a little calmer but couldn’t get this heavy sense in the pit of my stomach to go away. Not even surfing could do that. I pulled out of the wave as it ended and paddled out past the breakers to lay stomach down, resting on my board as I bobbed gently up and down over the swell of incoming waves. I turned my head to watch a school of dolphins swim by about fifteen feet out from me. They looked happy and playful as they arced out of the water and dove under, their noses and fins flashing with a shiny gray.

Why can’t life be as simple and carefree as that?
I watched them disappear from sight. If only I didn’t have this highly unwanted attraction to Braden, like a powerful magnetic pull I couldn’t resist. Why couldn’t I have been stronger and not given into the pull? He’d just seemed upset, and I wanted to comfort him and make him feel better.

With a sigh, I returned to shore, changed into shorts and a tank in the public bathroom, and headed for the crab restaurant on foot, my surfboard secured on top of my car.

“Sweetie, over here,” Beth called from a side booth as I walked up to the hostess podium at the crab shack. I smiled, sank into the booth opposite her, and ordered a white wine.

Beth swished back her graying red hair and reached a hand across the table to cover mine. “My poor Lexi, how are you feeling? And I need to hear everything from start to finish, just so you know.” A gleam entered her eyes, and I felt a comforting warmth wash over me, happy to have Beth as my part-mom, part-friend.

I’d stoically held back all threatening tears since I’d left Huntington Productions, but as Beth’s sympathetic face looked at me, a few tears ran down my cheeks. I moved my hand to wipe them away and let out a little laugh. “I’m basically a mess, if you couldn’t tell. And I need to quit my job.” I stated this part matter-of-factly. As if on cue, I looked down at my silenced phone and saw three missed calls and five texts from Braden. I stuffed the phone back in my purse.

The waiter delivered my wine and we ordered a huge platter of crab legs to share. Beth sipped her margarita and tilted her head at me. “You must be a confused mess, honey, if you’re going to quit a job with a salary like that—and the benefits for your dad.” Her tone was firm but gentle.

I took several long sips of the cold wine and let it ease into my limbs and head before I answered. “Okay, I know, but I can’t work for him, Beth. It’s killing me.” I let out a heavy sigh and continued, “But you’re right, I can’t lose the benefits, especially with my dad’s appointment next week. So I’m going to find another job with the same insurance and stay at Huntington until I get that new position. Now that I have experience, and hopefully a great recommendation from Braden, I think I can do it. Beth, I have to do it.”

She studied her margarita glass as she pinched some of the salt from the rim thoughtfully between two fingers. “I like that plan much better—more sensible. But make sure you get fantastic health insurance again, for both you and for your dad’s sake. Sean, I’m not as worried about since I’m sure he’ll get picked up by a major soccer league and get insured though them.” Beth looked me keenly in the eye and added, “But, honey, are you sure you want to run away from this man? Are you sure you don’t want to try having a relationship with Braden before writing him off? I mean, he’s gorgeous, filthy rich, in the same industry you want to be in, and he seems to be crazy about you.”

As I listened to Beth, a huge oval plate of crab legs was set down between us with two smaller plates for each of us. After we dug in, and after I had time to compose a response, I finally answered. “Beth, trust me, I thought and thought about giving this relationship a chance, and believe me, I see the appeal since I can’t seem to resist him. But I’m really falling for him.”

I paused to frown at my drink. I looked back up at Beth who, as always, listened patiently with an understanding expression. “And I’m scared he’ll just go back to his playboy ways after the first thrill of our relationship is over… And that’s a risk I’m not willing to take.”

I spoke firmly and with a resolve that Beth could see written clearly on my face, so she nodded. “Well, as long as you know that, I guess it’s time to job hunt. Any chance you’ll come back to the cleaning service? The new girl I’m working with is so lazy and always texting on the job. Ugh.” I shook my head with an apologetic shrug.

We ate the rest of the crab legs and finished our drinks while we talked about places I might apply and more about Beth and her new unhelpful work partner. By nine, I went home utterly exhausted, showered, changed, and got ready for bed, not looking at Braden’s texts or listening to his voicemails.

I did see a text from Clara, who was at work bartending, which said:
Come by 4 a drink on the house if u want… and Lexi, my one piece of advice right now is—CALL IN SICK TOMORROW!! Love u
☺
.

A sound piece of advice, and one that I decided to take.

***

After I called in sick and, thankfully, spoke to one of the administrative staff rather than Braden, I busied myself doing chores around my apartment. I went surfing and headed over to my dad’s place around two to help with chores and hang out. His big appointment with the new, top MS doctor was Thursday afternoon, and he seemed to be doing okay for the time being, without any signs of an attack from the possible growing lesion.

Once I’d picked up around the place, did the dishes, vacuumed, and started a load of laundry, I plunked myself down on the couch near my dad, who was watching baseball from his favorite recliner. Sean was out with friends at the movies and would be back for dinner, which I planned to start after I put my feet up for a moment since it was already close to six.

I released a sigh and handed my dad an iced tea with fresh lemon and sipped my own. The fact I’d kept myself busy had helped me not have to think about the whole Braden/work situation. I’d set aside that evening after dinner to start job searching.

“You don’t really look sick to me. Is something wrong at work?” Dad’s voice sounded from my right and made me lurch in my seat.

I turned to look at him, my eyebrows raised in surprise. “Uh, I guess I’m not really sick. I needed a day to catch up—a personal day, you know?” I shrugged nonchalantly, though my dad’s brown eyes scrutinized me in a way that told me he could see right through my act.

“Okay, Lexi. It’s just…” He paused and looked uncomfortable with initiating such a personal conversation. “I notice and hear more than you might think, Lexi, and I’ve read about the guy you’re working for—Braden Huntington.” He paused again, and my heart skipped a beat, not believing what I was hearing. Was my dad about to give me guy advice?

“And if he’s giving you trouble, or being overly flirty or anything, just let me know. I know I can’t fill in for Mom with this kind of talk, but you can always talk to me if you want, okay, honey?”

I blinked in even more surprise. He almost never mentioned Mom, and his tone was uncharacteristically riddled with emotion. I felt my cheeks flame, and my dad, also completely red-faced now, focused on his drink and on the TV. “Okay, Dad,” I answered hesitantly. “Thank you, and don’t worry, I’ve got Braden handled. Actually, I’m looking for a new job in the production industry starting tonight.”

My dad nodded, his eyes safely glued to the Angels game. I softly said, “And don’t worry about the mom thing. I already talked to Beth about Braden, not that there’s really anything to talk about,” I added hastily. “Beth is a kind of mother-figure for me, but it’s nice to know I can talk to you, too. I love you, Dad.”

I stood up, bent to kiss him on the cheek as he blushed, and went to fix a simple baked chicken and potato dinner. Nearly an hour later, Sean, Dad, and I sat around the small table wedged in the kitchen. “So how was the movie? Who’d you go with again?” I asked Sean.

My brother swallowed a huge bite of chicken, starved as any growing teenage boy would be, and said, “It was good. We saw that newly released Keith McCullough action flick,
Rogue Robot
. And I went with a group—Dave, Carlos, Anne, Chen, and Sophia.” He took a bite of potato, trying to look casual, but I tilted my head at him and noticed how his voice hitched when he’d said Sophia.

“Right. This Sophia girl, is she in your grade? I don’t remember hearing her name before,” I asked casually. Sure enough, his pale face turned bright pink up to his ears, and he coughed, grabbed a glass of water, and gulped it down before responding. “Um, yeah—she just moved here from the Seattle and is neighbors with Anne, so she got into our group.”

He shrugged and kept eating as my dad looked from me to Sean with a twinkle in his eye, though he didn’t say anything. “So when are you going to ask her out?” I said, deciding not to beat around the bush. Sean practically choked on his chicken, drank some more water, and looked at me, his dark eyebrows raised.

“What? Who said I wanted to… oh, okay, fine. I like her, okay? I’m just working up the courage to ask her out. Do you think two weeks of hanging out in a group is too soon to ask her out just me and her? Should I wait?”

The idea of my brother asking me, of all people, for relationship advice struck me as funny since I clearly wasn’t doing so great with my love life. But I’d give some big sister advice anyway. “I say go for it before another guy beats you to the punch. Those new girls always attract a lot of interest. And how can she say no to my adorable little brother? You’re a catch.” I winked playfully at him as he cringed from embarrassment.