The Cowboy's Baby: A BWWM Billionaire Cowboy Pregnancy Romance (17 page)

The sheets she had once refused to sleep in now felt cool and inviting against her cheek, and, carefully, Daniel lowered her drowsy form to the bed, covering her with the blanket. When he slipped beneath the sheets behind her curling his body around hers as he held her to him, Esme hadn’t the slightest protest.

Even the baby within her was silent – content – and she’d never known things could be so right with the world.

***

Chapter Nine: Off into the Sunset

It was as if nothing could go wrong. For a week, Daniel was content in the knowledge that Esme would stay with him – that she had grown to love the unborn baby she was carrying enough to rival even his own affections, and that he wouldn’t have to fear losing her.

The first night they slept together was the best he’d ever experienced. That night and every night thereafter, she came to his bed without the slightest hesitation, and while the press of her curvaceous form against his was a reward in and of itself, for Daniel, the bigger reward was that she felt comfortable enough to sleep with him at all.

Esme had finally let down her guard and stopped being afraid of pressing imaginary boundaries. For him, it was if the sun had emerged from a cloud. She laughed more freely now – her smiles were warmer, and for the first time since she’d conceived, she was unafraid to talk about the baby.

She didn’t call it her own yet – he knew that would take time. But now, hesitantly, she expressed her vision for the child. He might learn snippets of his father’s business as well as the more physical side of things, to ensure he was well rounded. It might be a good idea for him to attend a public school, just to ensure that he wasn’t sequestered – that he thought with a level head and didn’t take advantage of his privilege.

For the first few days, she looked to him with each suggestion she made as if she were afraid he might bite her head off – shout at her, or turn her from the manor. But in truth, Daniel soaked up every word she said hungrily. He’d been contemplating raising the baby alone for far too long to scorn any advice she might give. He needed it – and to hear it from her lips brought him far more joy than trepidation.

After a few days, she grew less tentative, more outspoken. Of course, she still asked rather than demanded, and listened closely to everything he might say- that was Esme’s way- but as her trepidation began to fade away, Daniel started to see the three of them – himself, her, and the baby, as a family. The family he’d always wanted.

And then, reality hurtled into their lives with the force of a charging steer.

On a Saturday morning, Daniel was woken by the sound of a car door slamming outside. He was immediately alert and irate. He hadn’t been informed that he would have any visitors, and he certainly hadn’t made any business plans. After a quick – quiet – check with his head of security, he pressed a soft kiss to Esme’s cheek as she slumbered, before throwing on a robe to descend the stairs.

He was ready to inform the paparazzi to leave his premises before he sued the ever loving daylights out of them, but when he opened the door, a completely unexpected sight met his gaze.

It was Alyssa.

She was dressed in a black dress that was extremely inappropriate for daytime, but highlighted all her best features – the curves and valleys of her body – her inky dark hair spilling over her shoulders as she advanced toward him on stiletto heels.

“Daniel…you don’t know how happy I am to see you.” Her brown eyes glinted with an indiscernible emotion the moment before she threw her arms around him, catching him off guard. “You’re all I’ve been able to think of for the past few months. Literally,
nothing else
has crossed my mind.”

When she lifted her mouth to his, the taste was sour in his mouth, and he quickly pulled away, as if it burned. Alyssa, however, continued as if nothing were wrong. “Honey, I’m sorry I left. I was angry…but you have to understand, you gave me no choice. The baby…all these changes…I was overwhelmed.”

“And…now you’re not.” He eyed her with no little amount of skepticism, still in disbelief that she had just waltzed back into the manor after all this time.

“Well…I’ve gotten used to the idea of us having a baby together. Maybe you were right…maybe we do need to jump-start our little family.” Her smile was heart
wrenchingly
sincere – almost exactly as she had looked when they’d first gotten together – when she’d been carefree and genuine. “I came back because I wanted to apologize, Daniel. I blew up, and I left when you and the baby needed me most. Now, I want to make that right.”

Daniel’s mind was immediately a whirl with complete shock at her words. This, from the woman who’d told him she never wanted a baby in the first place? Who’d fought him through the entire surrogacy process?

It was like night and day.

He took a deep breath, wondering how the hell he was going to handle this. “Alyssa…” He spoke lowly, his blue gaze pained. “Things are different now.” Was it terrible that her words swayed him slightly? That he believed the sincerity in her gaze and remembered that she had, indeed, contributed her genes to the child they’d created together.

Now, she wanted to take on the motherly role – to provide for her own child. He should have been rejoicing, and yet all he could think of was Esme’s sleeping form upstairs. Alyssa sauntered over to him, cupping his face so he looked down at her breathtaking visage. “I know you must have been lonely, baby. And I don’t care about anything that happened while I was gone. Let’s just start over – you me and the baby. It will be amazing…what you’ve always longed for, right?”

Looking into her eyes here, now, it was easy to forget all the pain she’d caused him. How she’d left him desolate and broken. How many times during the course of their relationship had Alyssa ever expressed a desire to make things right? To give up all her selfishness and do what was right not for herself, but for them?

This was a golden opportunity.

“Daniel?”

He froze, his stomach churning, at Esme’s low call from the foot of the stairs. Slowly, he turned, taking in her shocked expression at the sight of Alyssa effectively wrapped around him. Her gaze shone with confusion, then hurt, as she looked from him to the buxom beauty in his arms. “Daniel, what’s going on?”

“Oh, you
are
here.” Alyssa slid from his grip almost immediately, starting toward the nightgown- clad woman. “I thought you might be. Daniel does like to keep his little pet projects close.”

Esme visibly winced at the comment as Alyssa came to a stop before her. “I understand what’s happened here, Esme. I really do. You were here to comfort Daniel when I wasn’t. I was harsh with him. Overly harsh…and I haven’t taken this thing about the baby seriously. But now, I am. I want to be a good mother. I want to do this parenthood…thing. I’m ready.”

“Are you?” Esme inquired almost sharply, her almond eyes narrow as her gaze took on a look of fierce protectiveness that was almost frightening. She lay a hand over her belly firmly, glaring at Alyssa. “That’s a pretty quick turnaround from crushing the man you love and not giving two shits.”

“Esme.” Alyssa’s smile was almost sickly sweet. “I understand how I treated you, and I know I could have handled the situation better. But now, the baby’s coming soon.
My
baby. I have all the legal rights to the child and I am not about to give them up now. Not when I have a second chance. I thank you, really, from the bottom of my heart, for being here when Daniel needed someone to lean on, but I think I can take it from here.”

Esme just stared at her in complete and utter disbelief, before turning to him, her gorgeous eyes fraught with distress. “Is this what you want, Daniel? Do you want me to leave?”

“I…” Daniel found himself at a loss for words. It seemed like Alyssa was finally ready to be the woman he’d always envisioned she could be, but Esme…Esme
had
been there for him when no one else had. Only now, as Alyssa spoke, he was beginning to wonder if he hadn’t simply acted out of desperation when he’d latched onto her.

After all, she was supposed to have been simply the surrogate. Alyssa and he had been happy together for three years. Perhaps his feelings had been a little twisted. Alyssa was the mother of his baby. Could he just deny her that now, when she seemed truly ready to make a change? “Esme, if we could be alone. Just for a while.”

The young woman’s lips parted in utter and complete shock as she stared up at him. Then, they narrowed, surprisingly, in anger. “Daniel, you are smarter than this.” Her voice trembled with emotion as un-shed tears glimmered in her eyes. “This woman tore you apart. She left you alone when you needed her most. She’s been manipulating and leading you on for years. And now…you’re just going to take her back? Let her have the
baby
?”

“It’s her baby.” His words came out more brusque than he would have liked as his defenses shot up. He was, after all, a man who had made billions of his own hard work and determination. He wasn’t used to being questioned – or his decisions doubted. Least of all by Esme, who had always stood by him.

Or so he’d thought. “It’s
our
baby, Esme. Once upon a time, you told me you never wanted children. You were very insistent. Well, now you’ll have what you want. Your life, your career, without any of the hassles of children.”

His heart in his throat, the rancher watched the light fade from the young woman’s eyes. She turned from him, taking a deep breath as she collected herself. “Well, let me be the first to tell you congratulations in advance, then, Alyssa.” Her voice was strained as she addressed the tan-skinned woman. “I wish you all the happiness in the world with the baby…and with Daniel.”

With that, she wrapped her robe more tightly over her protruding stomach, stepping into a pair of flip flops near the door before grabbing the keys to the car she hadn’t driven in over five months. Then, she slipped through the door, closing it quietly behind her, and leaving the foyer in silence.

Daniel felt something inside him twist with a knife-like pain. He swallowed the almost insurmountable desire to chase after her – to take back what he had said and pull her into his arms. Now, Alyssa was back. He had his baby’s mother to contend with.

“It’s OK, honey.” The Hispanic woman’s touch on his arm was soft and reassuring. “Everything will be alright. The baby will come soon, and then you’ll never have to see her again. Come here, darling.” She pulled him into her warm embrace, kissing his slack mouth a moment before she began to lead him up the stairs – towards the room Esme had vacated only moments earlier.

Daniel felt her absence as acutely as if it were a physical blow. In an instant, he had given up everything he had built with her – all the promises he’d made – and all in hopes that Alyssa had truly changed.

He could only hope he didn’t come to regret the decision he’d made.

**

2 months later

It had to be perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

Esme stirred the chocolate sauce on the stove, being careful not to let it bubble over or burn. She was working on a new dessert, and the sauce was the main event. Sweat trickled over her brow as she struggled to work the spoon dexterously. In the final months of her pregnancy, her joints had unexpectedly swollen somewhat, causing her no small amount of discomfort.

And of course, Daniel was now unavailable to massage away all her aches and pains.

When she thought of him, Esme’s gut clenched and her breath hitched. She would
not
cry. She hadn’t shed a tear for the man, and she wouldn’t. She was only his surrogate – a vessel for his child, and becoming emotionally involved with the man had been
her
mistake.

She should have known better.

While Daniel Hartsford was a financial powerhouse, women like Alyssa easily swayed him. They wiggled their way into his insecurities and exploited the hell out of him, and he was far too kind to see it.

He wanted Alyssa – little bean’s biological mother – to be the one woman in his life. The fact was evidenced in how the man had stopped coming to doctor’s appointments altogether. Now, her only company was Alyssa, who tapped away on her new iPhone while pretending to listen to everything the doctor said with a sweet smile. She hadn’t asked Esme a single question on the baby’s progress- how she was feeling or if she was comfortable.

Which told the truth about her intentions.

She hadn’t changed at all. What had probably happened was that she had run out of money and come crawling back to leech off a man she knew she could twist around her finger.

Which left Esme out in the cold.

Of course, the statement was figurative rather than literal. She was still receiving her stipend, most of which she still planned to return to Daniel. She didn’t need his money – especially now since she had started full time at Pierre’s. Once she forced herself to forget that it was Daniel who had given her the job opportunity in the first place, she put all her frustrations, her desperation, and her pain into her cooking.

The restaurant exploded onto the national food scene with a loud bang. Within weeks of starting, she was being interviewed by a range of food magazines. Chefs from all over the country were arriving in her kitchen to watch her work, and she found herself in her element. She was surrounded by food, a supportive staff, and people that believed in her.