The Billionaire's Ultimatum: His Absolute Need (A BDSM Erotic Romance Novel) (Book One) (21 page)

"Do I look
serious?"  I thought I looked pretty serious right then.

"It's hard
to take you seriously when you're huddled up to your chin in comforters,"
he said.

"Oh.  Well,
yes, I'm serious."

"Listen,"
he said.  "I don't know if you've thought this through, or if you're
winging it, or whatever, but the whole egg donor thing?  Surrogacy?  There's
doctors involved, right?  And examinations?  If you're staying here during the
process, there's that whole 'getting your stuff' thing that people usually do. 
I mean, you have a home, right?  Apartment, house?  Something?  Maybe you want
to feed your cats?  Tell your friends?  Family?  Whatever?"

"Oh,"
I said.  Yes, I knew these things, but no, I hadn't thought too much about
them.  Truth be told, I was a fairly quiet person without a cat(or dog),
friends that I spoke with but not every day, and family who was just about the
same.  They probably hadn't realized I was gone for a few days, let alone
bothered to worry about it.  Not that they had any reason to worry, anyways.

"So,"
he said.  "You want breakfast?  I'm your driver for the day.  I'll bring
you around wherever you need to go, help you out, that kind of thing.  We have
to go to a doctor and have them do a physical, though.  Check out the parts,
whatever.  I don't know what you women do at the doctor."

"Right,"
I said.  "Yes.  I'll shower and be right down.  Um, I'm kind of not
wearing proper clothes, so do you mind?"  I shooed him away.

"You're so
difficult," he said.

"I'm not
difficult!"

"You're so
difficult and ungrateful!" he repeated in a playful tone, rolling his
eyes.  "What do you want for breakfast?  How about French toast?"

"Yum.  With
strawberries and peanut butter?"

"You're one
weird chick, but sure, you got it.  Strangest French toast I'll ever
make."

He left, closing
the door behind him.  I lounged in bed for awhile longer, letting my body fully
wake up.  Today was the day and I needed to prepare for it.

Everything, all
of it, my arrangement with Asher and the start of a different kind of life.  I
supposed it wasn't entirely different, but this was all somewhat sudden.  I
wanted to do it, though.  I felt almost like I needed to, as if there was a
driving urge within me to perform up to par.

Except what was
I going to tell my parents?  Not that they had any real say in the matter, but
I didn't know how to explain this to them.  Oh, yes, so, mom?  Right, I met a
billionaire and he wants me to have his children.  Not really in that exact
way.  It's for his wife, you see.  Except don't tell Aunt Nell, please?  She's
kind of a gossiper.  Yes, and...

Ah, well.  I had
time to think on it still.  I'd ask Jeremy to bring me to my apartment first
and then see what I needed to gather up.  That would take up some time.  And
maybe I should ask him what to do, too?  Jeremy seemed resourceful in those
regards.

Everything was
going to work out, I thought.  Why wouldn't it?

"Do we
really have to stop here?" Jeremy asked.

With breakfast
finished, my morning preparations done, both of us were driving around the city
on the way to my apartment.

"It won't
take long," I said.  "That's my favorite bookstore.  I just want to
grab a book."

"Right. 
Because Asher doesn't own enough books.  I totally understand."

I sat up front
this time, as opposed to the backseat when Jeremy first drove Asher and I to
the Landseer estate.  I rolled my eyes at Jeremy as he rolled his eyes at me.

"You don't
get it," I said.  "It's a different experience looking through a
bookstore.  It's not the same if you already own the book.  Buying a new book
is exciting."

"Technically
you don't own the books in Asher's library," Jeremy said as a point of
fact.

"Ugh! 
That's not even it," I said.

"Fine.  We
can stop here, but don't take forever.  I know your type, you book people. 
Wandering through aisles of shelves for hours and then you forget what you were
even doing beforehand.  We have stuff to do today.  You have ten minutes."

"Yes,
sir," I said, offering him a disingenuous salute.  "Whatever you
say."

"Don't you
sass me, girl."

I laughed. 
"This is fun.  Are you going to come in?  I'll introduce you to the
owner.  He's very nice."

"You have a
cracked idea of fun," Jeremy said.  Then he softened.  "Yeah, let me
park the car and then I'll be right in.  Have to make sure you don't take
forever, right?"

"Right,"
I said.

Jeremy let me
out in front of the independent bookshop we'd been idling in front of forever. 
I waltzed towards the entryway, feeling light and springy, then swung open the
door and walked inside.  Robert, the owner, wasn't behind the counter, but that
wasn't too strange.  Sometimes he did things in the back, or went around
re-organizing the shelves.  I'd see him soon, no doubt.

I headed
directly to my favorite section.  It wasn't exactly
my
section, but it
might as well be.  Robert had it set up with books he thought I'd like, and he
said that since he'd done it he'd seen an increase in sales.  I didn't know if
he was just being nice, or if his other customers really enjoyed my choice in
books, but it was neat to have a section somewhat of my own.

Literary
fiction, with some romance.  I liked historical and contemporary, and sometimes
fantasy ones.  I really enjoyed Elizabeth Haydon, but she hadn't written a new
book in forever.  The occasional science fiction book was good, too, like
Dune,
but I wasn't too into the genre as a whole.

Unfortunately
the shelves that usually contained the books in my section were empty.  Some
books lay in stacks nearby, presumably left there from some planned redesign of
the shelves.  This was both exciting and upsetting.  I looked forward to seeing
what Robert might change, and had a few suggestions for him, but that didn't
help me right now.  I sifted through one of the nearby stacks just in case I
found something new and interesting.

I didn't, but it
was nice to catch up on old books I'd read.  I remembered the ideas in them,
and the thoughts I had while reading them, like a memory within a memory.  Yes,
this one, a Glen Cook book I didn't actually think I'd like, but enjoyed very
much.  I'd taken it with me in the bath and read amidst bubbles.  When the
fantasy army started fighting off their magical enemies, I turned the hot water
on to fix the temperature of my lukewarm bathwater.

It was fun to
remember things like that.

I moved to a
table with more stacks, planning to check through them, too.  I stopped before
I started, though, feeling odd.  Something... oh, yes.  Nearby was the
curtained off doorway to the local book club's meeting room.  And people were
talking behind the curtain.

Nothing too
strange, except it was a bit early for a book club meeting.  Sometimes they did
lunchtime ones for people who had long lunches, but still, it was barely past
ten.  When I listened further, it didn't sound like any book discussion I'd
ever heard, either.

"You have
to understand," a man said, "we need to tread carefully here.  It's
not something we can enter into lightly."

He sounded
familiar somehow, but I couldn't quite place it.

"Why?"
a woman asked.  "Just do it.  Figure out some plan.  I'm tired of this. 
It's always the same.  Always.  Do you know what he did last night?  He brought
home some woman.  He plans to have her act as a mother where I can't.  I keep
having to lie to him, and I'm tired of it.  Do you know how much of a nuisance
it was to pay off the doctor to say I was..."

"Shh,"
the man said.  "Not so loud."

"There's no
one here.  It doesn't matter."

"The owner
of the store is here."

"He's out
back.  And, if not, what of it?  Do you think anyone will believe someone like
him?  He is beneath me."

Beatrice Landseer
and... Solomon Royce?

I stood
perfectly still, caught up in the moment.  Panic and awareness blazed through
me.  I wasn't supposed to be here, I wasn't supposed to hear this.  And, why
were they here, too?  I didn't understand.

"It's just
so boring," Beatrice said.  "Do you know how annoying it is?  I make
excuses to Asher, time after time, and yet he won't do anything about it."

"He's not
going to divorce you, obviously.  Even he knows that won't go in his favor. 
What grounds does he have for it, anyways?"

"If he
knew, then he'd have plenty of grounds," Beatrice said.  I imagined her
grinning, some sly, sleek look like a wicked Siamese cat.

"Yes, and
then you'd receive next to nothing afterwards.  Just relax and be patient.  I
have everything under control.  Asher's not an idiot, but he's too trusting by
far, and he'll play into my plan exactly."

"Our
plan," Beatrice said, sweet and seductive.  She sounded so much different
now; still the same voice, but with more emotion.  "You won't leave me out
of it, will you?"

"Of course
not," Solomon said.  "For now, just continue as you have been and
we'll go from there.  I won't have another 'business trip' planned for awhile,
so I'll be able to set things up.  You should do the same.  Keep tabs on this
new girl, too.  Maybe see if you hear any rumors?  If Asher's done anything
with her, even something remotely incriminating, it'll work out in our favor
later on."

"Yes, but I
doubt he will.  She seems dull.  Though that type does seem to be his sort most
times.  His pet projects annoy me to no end."

"I know.  I
know.  Soon.  Don't worry."

I needed to
leave.  Beatrice and Solomon sounded like they were finishing up in the book
club meeting room, and if they realized I'd heard everything, well, I didn't
really know what they'd do.  Something bad, obviously, but the scope of it was
beyond me.  I didn't even fully understand most of what they'd said, except for
the obvious parts.  Insinuations and assumptions and piecing together parts of
their conversation only went so far.

I rushed to the
bookshop door and tried to hurry outside, but a man blocked my way.  Shit, oh
God!

"You're
sure in a hurry," Jeremy said as I crashed into him.

Oh.  Oh!  This
wasn't terrible.  Just Jeremy.  "We need to go," I said.  "Now. 
Hurry."

"What?" 
He gave me a funny look.

I pulled him out
of the store, dragging him along.  He seemed reluctant to come, but went
nonetheless.

"Jessika,"
he said.  "Seriously, what's wrong with you?  You wanted to get a book and
now you're pulling me away from the book store.  You were only in there for
like three minutes."

"I'll tell
you in the car.  Where is it?  We need to hurry.  We can't..."  I looked
over my shoulder just in time to see two people exiting the book store: Solomon
and Beatrice.

A corner,
somewhere, we needed to hide.  I rushed to the right and pulled Jeremy into an
alleyway.  The greasy, stale air in the side street smothered me and I wanted
to choke, but I carried on.

"I really
don't understand," Jeremy said.  He refused to move any further, holding
his ground.

Out of the
corner of my eye I saw Beatrice and Solomon walking past the end of the
alleyway.  Beatrice tilted her head slightly, looking just barely at me and
Jeremy.

Fuck!  An
excuse, we needed an excuse to be in the middle of an alley, to evade her
scrutiny.  I jumped into action and grabbed Jeremy's face in my hands, twisting
us both to hide the majority of our features.  I pulled him into an awkward
kiss, shoving him against the wall.

Beatrice
scoffed, sounding repulsed.  Then the telltale sign of her departure, her heels
tapping past the alleyway entrance.

Jeremy gasped,
astounded.  When I was sure Beatrice and Solomon were gone, I let him go, which
worked out well because he pushed me away at about the same time.

"I'm
flattered and all," he said.

"Don't
be," I said.  "It was a ruse."

"Right. 
Like some spy stuff, huh?  Detective movies?  You on the run from the law or
something?"

"No.  I'll
explain it in the car.  Where did you park?  Can we get there this way?" 
I peered down the alleyway, reluctant to go back to the main street.

"Yeah,"
he said.  "I guess."

"Alright. 
Let's go."

A million
thoughts flipped through my mind as Jeremy led me back to the car.  At first I
was elated, overjoyed at the fact that Beatrice didn't like Asher in the
least.  That feeling soon faded, though.  I was happy, but did I have a right
to be?  Asher remained—or tried to remain—loyal to Beatrice, and so it didn't
matter what exactly she did to him, but how he felt towards her.  Which I
assumed would change if her plans were... if they were what?  I wasn't quite
sure, since I didn't know anything about her plans in the first place.

Though it
sounded like her and Solomon were doing something more, too.  An affair? 
Definitely a possibility, but even that seemed difficult to prove.

And then it
dawned on me, as sure as that.  I couldn't actually prove anything.  I didn't
have a recording of anything they said, and I didn't have any real credibility
as far as anyone taking my word for it, either.  If I came right out and
accused Solomon and Beatrice of some kind of treachery, they could deny it. 
And then what?  Well, if they had actual plans, they'd delay them, I imagined. 
Possibly doing something about me, too.  I briefly imagined a mafia style
murder situation, but I doubted that would actually happen.

Still, no matter
what, I needed to figure out how I should approach this.

"We're
almost there," Jeremy said.

I decided I
needed to tell Jeremy, at the very least.  He might know what to do, or he
might think I was insane.  I really hoped it was the first one.