Billionaire BWWM Romance 1: The Billionaire's Arranged Marriage (19 page)

She felt nerves in her stomach tighten and she turned toward him. “Anderson, I’m really not sure what’s going to happen.”

“I know. Please don’t feel awkward, it’s just happens that this particular guest room adjoins mine. It’s going to be fine. I won’t open that door unless you want me to. You are safe and you will be in a place where you can have some privacy and some space to think about what you will do. I’ll have the staff move your belongings into your new room right away. Please,” he said, leading her back into her room, “make yourself comfortable.”

She might not have been sure about what she was going to do about Reed and Anderson, but she did know she needed the space and privacy that Anderson was offering. She had a lot to work through and think about, so she allowed the move, and in no time at all, her belongings had been moved into the new bedroom.

Reed took Daisy out to the pool house and settled her into the room there. It was a two bedroom, two-bath facility with a kitchen, a deck, and a living room area. It was the same place that Jillian had discovered the two of them having intercourse the day that Reed asked Jillian to marry him. When he thought about it, it made him sick. It was not what he wanted now, and he felt enormous shame over his past actions and was remorseful that they were affecting his current life choices.

Daisy didn’t have much with her, and the staff was able to fully stock the place quickly for her.

“Now, this is not a permanent move for you,” Reed told her as they stood in the living room. “This is only a place for you to stay for now, until we figure out what’s going to happen with you and…” his tongue tripped over the words, “…and the baby.”

She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him. “That should be easy to figure out, Reed. You’re my lover. We’re having a baby. You should marry me and love me for the rest of my life.”

He pushed her arms away from him. “No, Daisy, it isn’t that easy. You and I were never more than a fling and I was foolish and didn’t use protection with you. I was irresponsible. Now I have consequences I have to face and a fiancé who I have to try to work this out with.”

Daisy glared up at him. “You can’t still be thinking of marrying her! I’m pregnant! How can you even consider marrying another woman? Reed, I am carrying your child!”

He shook his head at her. “I’m planning on it because I love her. That’s what we were going to do. It’s what our families want us to do. You were never supposed to be in the picture. I was never supposed to have a child. I don’t know what’s going to happen, I haven’t talked to her about this yet. Look, just stay here and make yourself comfortable. Let me know if you need anything.”

She locked her arms around him and pressed her body up against his. “I need you, Reed. I need you to love me and stay with me. The baby needs you.”

Reed sighed and pushed her away, then shoved his hands into his pockets. “I need some time to digest the news you’ve given me, and I need you to remember that right now, I am engaged to another woman, a woman I love very much and who I want to spend the rest of my life with.

“Please don’t act like you have been acting since you walked in the door here, we are not lovers any longer, and you can’t touch me like you have been. You and I saw the end of our relationship when I left you in Las Vegas. I made it clear that you and I were finished then. I am committed to her, I am hers now, and you need to respect that. At the very least until we have our situations all figured out. Please, at least extend me the courtesy of some respect,” he said kindly but firmly.

She pouted in dejection, but she nodded and plopped down on the sofa, grabbing a pillow and holding it to her. “Alright, but you need to really think about what you’re doing.”

He left her and went to his father’s office. Carter was on the phone when Reed walked in. He smiled at his son, closed his conversation and hung up the phone.

“How are you doing, son?” he asked with a jovial smile. “You won’t believe it. Your wedding is already making headlines in the business world and Jillian’s uncles will be here for the ceremony. They’ve agreed to an extended stay so that we can discuss merging the companies and expanding here in the states.

“They have technology that you would never believe, son, and your marriage is the key to making that part of our family business. I’m so pleased with you for finally getting it together. Well done, my son,” he said with a smile.

Reed sat down slowly and awkwardly. “Well, Carter, that’s good to hear. There has been a development this morning that we need to talk about.”

Carter tilted his head and rested his hands in his lap. “Oh? And what would that be?”

His tone was friendly, but his eyes were focused sharply on his son.

Reed rubbed his fingers over his forehead and decided that the best thing to do would be just to come out and say it. “Well, I was seeing a girl named Daisy, off and on for a little while right before Jillian came into the picture, and Daisy came to visit me this morning. She said she had some news for me. For us. Uh… she said she’s pregnant. I put her in the pool house as a guest until we could sort out what we are going to do about it.”

Carter glared at his son with steely eyes. “We aren’t going to do anything about it. You are engaged and you are getting married. If this girl Daisy is pregnant, then it’s her problem. If I was you, I would take her down to a clinic this morning and have that problem taken care of. Get rid of that baby, Reed, you are just about to make the biggest change in your life and you don’t need some irresponsible accident like this wrecking your future!”

He leaned forward in his chair and continued, as the level of his voice began to rise. “I thought you said you loved Jillian, that you two were actually going to be married because you wanted to spend your lives together, and now look at you! You’re about to let a mistake from your past screw up your entire future! To be honest, I can’t believe this hasn’t come up before now, the way you get around with so many women.

“There’s a lot more riding on this than just your future, Reed.  You are about to be handed the reins to our family fortune, our company, and everything we have. I am not going to hand all of that to a fool who can’t even figure out how to have an affair without getting a woman pregnant!”

Carter rose up and walked around his desk, all the while keeping his eyes on Reed. “Don’t you dare mess up this business deal for me. This is non-negotiable, son.
Non-negotiable
. You will marry Jillian. You will bring our families together and we will close this deal with them. I am not about to lose a fortune or jeopardize the future of this family over your indecencies!

“You get that woman out of my pool house, you take her downtown and you get your little mistake taken care of immediately!”

Reed felt like he was going to vomit. He hadn’t quite been sure what his father would say, but the reaction he was getting wasn’t what he had expected at all.

“Does Jillian know about this?” Carter asked, his anger beginning to seethe.

Reed nodded. “Yes, she knows.”

“What did she say?” Carter asked worriedly.

“She left with Anderson. I’m not sure where she is yet. I was busy getting Daisy out to the pool house and then I came to see you to find out what you wanted me to do about this. I’m sure she’s pretty upset.” Reed sighed, knowing he was going to have a hell of a time explaining any of it to her. He wanted her to stay with him; he wanted to marry her and make her his wife, but now there was a baby to think of.

Now there was a child in the picture. His child, growing inside of Daisy, and he could not have been more conflicted about what to do.

His father scoffed. “Perhaps I should have arranged for her to marry Anderson instead. He’s always put the family and the business first. I gave you the chance because you are my firstborn, the oldest, the heir to the kingdom, as it were, and you have done nothing but give me reason after reason to hand it to your younger brother.

“I’m about out of patience with you, Reed. You either get rid of that mistake and the girl in the pool house and marry Jillian, or you are out of here. No money, no inheritance, nothing at all. I want a decision made on this immediately. I’m right in the middle of your wedding plans and the last thing I need is for you to screw that up for yourself, your bride, our family and our business.” Carter returned to his seat and narrowed his eyes at his son. “Go take care of it, now.”

Reed stood up and pushed his hands into his pockets. “Thanks for the talk, Carter.” Then he walked out and carried the weight of the world on his shoulders with him. He thought he would make one more stop and he poked his head into Anderson’s office. His brother was sitting at his desk working, as usual.

“Busy, Anderson?” he asked casually.

Anderson waved him in and Reed walked in and closed the door. His brother turned and looked at him, a half-smile on his face.

“Well, if it isn’t the new father to be. How are you, Reed?” Anderson stood up and poured them both a drink.

“I’m a wreck. I have no idea where Jillian is or how she’s doing, Daisy is set up in the pool house as a guest and she’s pregnant with my child.  Carter just told me that I have to take Daisy downtown to a clinic and have the ‘mistake taken care of’ or I will be disinherited and kicked out of the family and the house. I’m not doing very well.”

Anderson smiled to himself and handed Reed his scotch. “Well, that’s a lot on one plate, Reed. Jillian is fine, I took care of her. What are your thoughts on the matter? Surely you aren’t going to listen to father on this.”

“I don’t know what to do. I thought I’d come and talk with you about it before I speak with Jillian. She’ll want to know what I’m going to do and I honestly don’t know right now. I have no answer for her. What do you think, Anderson? What would you do?” Reed looked up at his brother for some kind of answer and direction.

Anderson sat down beside Reed and looked at him earnestly. “I would keep the child. Think of it! Reed, you have created a new life! You’re going to be a father! There’s a little person inside of Daisy right now that is there, living and growing, because of you!

“You have an obligation now, Reed. You have a duty and a responsibility to that child to care for it and bring it into this world. You have a duty to it to raise it and care for it, to teach it and help it grow up. Be a father, Reed. Be a dad. That’s your child out there inside that beautiful woman. I can’t even believe you would consider killing it, not even for a moment!”

Reed took a long pull of his drink and rubbed his hand over his face. “I’ve thought about that. Carter made the point that if I keep this child, then I’ll be jeopardizing everything he has worked for to build up this family, and that I will be costing the family an unimaginable future. It’s an enormous responsibility. I have far more than just myself to think of here. I have to consider Jillian and Daisy, you, Carter, and now a baby in the mix. I have no idea what would be best to do here.”

Anderson took a different tack. “Reed, I’m just going to come out and say this. It’s time to pay the piper. You have led a wild and reckless life and now it has caught up with you. You have no business trying to get out of this. You have a duty and responsibility to that woman out there and to your unborn child, and everything else comes second.

Everything else.

“You want to know what to do? You pack up and leave with Daisy, you help her through her pregnancy, and then you stay with her through the delivery and you help her raise that baby of yours. That’s what you do. There is no other option. There is no alternative. You screwed around, this is the consequence, and you have to own up to it. You have to face it.

“You had several chances to take your place in this family and you screwed them up left and right. You always have. Well, now you’ve gone and made your own family, and since you have never acted with any responsibility or respect toward this family, you owe it doubly to the family that you just created to give them your all, for the rest of your life. That’s what you do. It’s what you have an obligation to do.” Anderson sat back in his chair and swallowed his scotch.

Reed buried his face in his hands and moaned. “What about Jillian?”

“If you really wanted her, you would have been thinking of her the whole time, and this wouldn’t have happened, but you weren’t. It’s too late, Reed. You’ve lost her. Your actions and mistakes have taken you down another path. You’re going to have to let her go and focus on what is really important now, and that is the baby that needs you more than anyone else in this family, including Jillian.