Love Regardless: A Billionaire BWWM Pregnancy Romance (2 page)

I uncrossed my legs, and took
another sip of water. He had told me everything the newspapers had,
and yet, with his melancholy voice, it became easy for me to pity
him. I would have to watch that – if I took up work as his
lawyer, then I should never pity him. Lawyers need to be clinical in
the courtroom.

Elliot leaned back in the chair,
exhaling and took his smartphone from his pocket, glanced at it, and
tossed it onto the chair beside him, letting out an immense sigh. It
struck me just how young he looked in that moment – even the
action of throwing his phone seemed youthful and carefree. If I
hadn’t known that this was Elliot Cresham, then I would have
thought he looked almost vulnerable.

“
Your
sister owns the lion’s share of your family estate, does she
not?” I asked crisply. This too was common knowledge –
she was said to have been a favorite of Michael Cresham, Elliot’s
father.

“
My
sister, Ophelia, was left the house and grounds – which are
extensive, along with the stocks. My brother Henry is with the family
estate in Moldova.”

“
And you?”
I probed. It seemed like madness to me that Elliot, as the oldest
child, would have been neglected in a will. But then again, I know a
great deal about father’s distaste, so maybe it was not quite
as difficult to imagine as I thought.

“
I am able
to take care of myself, thank you for asking, Clara.” His smirk
vanished and my flush returned, but I plowed ahead regardless –
he cannot be surprised I asked. I was Clara the Confident –
something I always told myself before big exams in Harvard. It
usually worked.

“
You know,
Elliot, if you want me to defend you in this case you’ll have
to trust me. And let me get to know you.” It was my turn to be
terse.

For the first
time since our acquaintance, Elliot squirmed
.

I made Elliot
Cresham squirm,
I
couldn't help but think in my head.

“
The case
is not until January, Clara.” I nodded – another fact I
already knew, we had just under a year. All of a sudden, Elliot stood
up again, picked up his phone and flipped it in his hand before
tucking it securely in his back pocket. He smiled down at me,
evidently enjoying my shocked expression.

“
Where are
you going?” I stuttered, confused, caught in a realm of
momentary unprofessionalism.

“
I think
that’s enough for you to begin working on a counter-case. In
other words, you’re hired.” He spoke harshly, but as if
catching himself he offered me a smile.

I couldn't help but wonder what
made him harsh in the first place.

“
You don’t
even know me.” I stated bluntly, eyes wide. This was a
multi-million dollar deal and for him to hire me without time to
think seemed like madness.

“
You don’t
know that. Your life is not in the tabloids, but you are easier found
than you think Clara. Don’t worry – I’m sure you’ll
see me shortly.”

The thought that Elliot Cresham may
have had is private investigator searching my name was horrifying –
I wondered how much he knew of my past.

Elliot swept from the room, and I
could hear him say to Denise – perhaps speaking just loud
enough for me to hear – “Please draw up the contract for
myself and Miss Greyson. I’m sure she’ll approve.”

Of course I would, but this still
seemed insane. Like a whirlwind blur that didn’t really happen.

I exhaled all the tension the last
five minutes had held, and slumped back down onto my chair – I
was exhausted. I couldn’t help but wish he had stayed around
longer.

*****

The rain was still pounding as I
left the office – no surprise there. Denise handed me my
double-breasted trench coat and umbrella, as I stepped in the
elevator, and waited to drop the thirty-nine floors to my building’s
foyer. People smiled as a passed, trying to engage me in
conversation, but I politely smiled and made for the car waiting for
me outside in the rain-washed street.

Usually I was gracious and polite,
but my head was beginning to pound. It had been a long enough day.

Inside the car, my driver Charlie
smiled at me in the rear-view mirror. Charlie was a kind man whom had
been in my service since I began to earn enough to afford a driver,
in many ways he was like the father figure I had never truly had.

“
That man
has been waiting outside the building every evening, at this time.”
Charlie sounded concerned as he nodded towards a man in a shabby
suit, sitting on the marble steps off my building. I saw he had a
ragged newspaper placed on the step to avoid the wet. Charlie was
always too protective.

“
I know.
He’s tried to speak with me several times.” My voice
faltered as I looked at the man’s defeated expression. He had
to be no more than forty and I never seemed to have time to talk to
him. I would have to remedy that.

“
Be
careful, Miss Clara. Men like him will prey on a young, beautiful
empathetic woman like you.”

“
Charlie,
no one can prey on me without my consent. I am young, but do not
consider me foolish.” I spoke harshly and immediately regretted
it.

Charlie’s expression sobered
up and he pulled out into the streaking rain. I sighed and rested my
head back against the leather seat. All day, throughout all of my
following meetings, Elliot’s face followed me around –
his smirk seemed to peek over all the heads of all of my contenders.
He was everywhere and I was nowhere. I opened my phone, agitated, to
find a text from my best friend and housemate – Kally. She
shared my penthouse with me while she was trying to figure out if she
wanted to do a Master’s degree in English Lit. In many ways,
Kally was aimless, but she was my best friend and reminded me to let
my hair down every once in a while.

It read;

“
Come
home already! Celebrations are in order!!!”

I chuckled under my breath, already
intrigued to find out what we would be celebrating. Knowing Kally, it
would probably be that she’d made it through her shift in the
bar without dropping a single glass or getting groped.

I bid goodbye to Charlie outside my
penthouse apartment and dashed out of the rain. Thankfully, Kally had
left the heater on and the apartment was toasty. Music blared from
the lavish marble kitchen, but I walked straight to my master bedroom
and changed into my pajamas and dressing gown. Finally, I was
comfortable.

Kally took one look at me in the
kitchen door way and laughed loudly.

“
Rough
day, Clar?” She asked, flipping a pancake and taking a swig of
OJ from the carton. “This will probably only make it rougher,
but do you remember Megan from school?”

Megan was once the complete member
to the trio of Clara, Kally and Megan. She was our best friend until
our friendship fell apart in High School. I nodded.

“
She died
this morning in a car crash.” Kally’s face frowned as I
swallowed this news. Technically Megan was nothing to me but a
memory, but she was only twenty-five.

Twenty-five
and dead.
The
thought seemed to stay glued in my mind. I was immediately hit with
the pain of not dying so young without children or family. What good
would my success be?

Kally watches my expression and
smiles, “You look like you’ve seen better days.”
She’s teasing now, trying to distract me. I took the bait.

“
Hey,
what’s that supposed to mean?” I laughed, picking up a
strawberry from the platter she had laid out and popped it into my
mouth.

“
You only
wear the purple dressing gown when it’s been a bad day. Or when
you’re going through a break-up – just saying.” She
had me there. But in my defense, the purple dressing gown was my
extra fluffy one. Kally rolled her eyes and continued. “Whatever,
Clar open the wine, we’re celebrating!”

It was my turn to roll my eyes.

“
Oh, and
what are we celebrating?” I walked over to my wine shelf and
mused before choosing a tasteful white wine I knew Kally loved.

“
Besides
the fact that tomorrow is a weekend and you’re not working?”
Kally raised her eyebrows giggling at me as I rolled my eyes. “I
finally dumped Raj!” She exclaimed with an extra-large
splattering of pancake batter.

I frowned. “The Starbucks
guy?” I could never really keep up with who Kally was seeing.

“
Yep.”
Kally said, popping the P.

My phone buzzed on the counter-top
as Kally launched into the story of her traumatic break-up with the
ice latte specialist at Starbucks. I smiled and nodded at all the
right moments, but really I was trying to think about who would be
messaging me after work – I had a strict no-contact policy
after hours. I hummed along with Kally’s story as I opened up
my message box.

Right there, in crisp letters of
pristine text, was a message from Elliot Cresham. It read;

It
was a pleasure to make your acquaintance today. – E.

Who else could E
be? But how had he gotten my number? All I could do was focus on the
word
pleasure
.
I frowned and quickly typed back, hitting send and looking back at
Kally.

Who
gave you this number? This is hardly professional. – C.

I had barely thrown myself back
into Kally’s story before my phone vibrated off the counter
into my palm. Irritated now, I opened the message.

I
thought you wanted to get to know me? – E.
I
flushed, and this time, Kally noticed.

“
Who is
it?” She was full of suspicion. I did my best to feign
innocence.

“
I don’t
know what you mean.” I busied myself by pouring wine into two
large glasses – after all, I didn’t have work tomorrow.

“
Come on
Clar. Tell me.” She whined like a five year old begging for a
pony, and I laughed.

“
Just a
new client. Elliot Cresham. He text me but I’m not sure how he
even got my personal number.” I tried my best to pretend like
that name did not absolutely make my heart pound. I took a gulp of
wine, hoping it would help.

“
Wait,
wait, wait, Elliot Cresham?!” Kally turned off the cooker mid
pancake, and rounded on me. I took a cautionary step backwards.

“
Yes?”
I guess he was somewhat famous, but I hadn’t thought that he
would be in Kally’s list of bachelors.

“
The
billionaire? He’s your new client?” Her disbelieving tone
had me laughing – if I hadn’t known Kally I would have
been insulted.

“
Yes. The
billionaire who has been accused of arson by his sister.” I
stepped around Kally, and resumed the pancake cooking seeing as she
was too stunned to do anything.

“
Is he as
beautiful as the billboards?” Her tone was instantly dripping
with love. Damn, I’d forgotten Elliot had done that commercial
for
Teach
for America.
But I couldn’t lie.

“
More.”
I scooted the pancake onto a plate and covered it in icing sugar,
strawberries and cream. I handed it to Kally who was taking in my
nonplussed face.

“
More?
Come on Clara! How can you be so cavalier about this?” She
demanded, spiky red curls flying in every direction.

“
He’s
a client and I have to represent him in court. It’s no
different from any other job.” I knew I was lying. It was
hugely different in every minuscule way.

My phone buzzed and Kally snatched
it before I could reach it. I sighed.

“
If he’s
just a client, then tell me why is he asking you why you’re not
messaging him back? Hey, maybe I should - ” But before Kally
could so much as type the first letter I snatched it out of her hand
and pointedly handed her the spatula.

Kally was right.

Have
I done something to offend you, Miss Clara? – E.

“
Can we
just agree not to speak of this? Let’s have some wine and
celebrate.” I implored Kally as I switched off my phone
altogether and chucked it in my pocket. I had to be professional –
he was my client and I was his lawyer – no matter how beautiful
he was.

But it was also a Friday night and
I needed a drink.

*****

Four hours and three bottles of
wine later, my head felt woozy. The fluffy white rug in the sitting
room was just too comfortable. Kally’s soft breathing was all I
could hear. I sat up, head spinning.