Secret Baby: Billionaire Stepbrother (8 page)

But before they could get her and her luggage out the door, their mother’s last shot arrived. “I live in that town, something could slip accidentally. But a million dollars would have me and your father out of there for a long time.” She looked meaningfully at them, and not at all like she was extorting them. “You know how your father talks. And I tell you the financial mess he has gotten us into is because he is losing his mental faculties.”

Beck had to hold Millie back from attacking their mother, as he growled, “I’ll look into it. Goodbye, mom.”

When he came back inside from pressing his mom into a cab, he found Millie pacing with sharp turns and a huge glass of wine in her hand. She stopped and gulped half of it down, coughed, then looked up at him with tragedy in her eyes.

“I guess we never had to worry what she thinks, just pay her off, and we’re good,” she snapped.

It did feel like blackmail and extortion from their own mother.

“If you give her a dime, I’ll never forgive you!” Millie exclaimed.

Beck stalked forward, grabbed the wine glass and set it on the counter, then he hauled her against him. She didn’t fight him, but settled in to lean on him as he brought an arm around her.

To the top of her head, he murmured, “It’s not good for the baby, if you drink.”

Millie stiffened against him, and then she turned her questioning gaze slowly up to him. But when she made a move to leave his arms, he held her pinned to him.

“I saw the test strip in the trash,” he said.

Her eyes looked surprised and somewhat guilty. “I was planning on telling you,” she whispered, in that intimate way she had.

“And, I’m not a trash rifler. I swear,” he said, trying to lighten their already frazzled emotions.

She bit her bottom lip in a way that made him want to kiss her. “I think I probably just tossed it on top without thinking you would be here to see it.”

He nodded slightly, and he ran a hand through the side of her hair, sifting its silkiness. “You think you and I can make something together,” he asked, in a deep murmur.

He wasn’t being fair and he knew it ... they had time now. He should take it slow, so he didn’t fuck her like a slut again, which every time he got her naked and in bed was all he wanted to do to her. Hard, fast, and deep.

Before she could answer, he said, “You need to get some sleep.” Then he added, “We will talk later.”

***

I lay in bed, unable to sleep.

You think you and I can make something together?

Beck’s question haunted me as much as it excited me. It was amazing that I could feel that way after the way our mother had acted that evening.

But all I could think about was Beck and me, and the possibilities, while I stroked my belly where his baby grew inside me. Of course the test could be wrong; it was one of those early detection ones. But somehow I knew he’d given me another baby.

Only this time he’d be there to know it.

I rolled onto my side, murmuring, as I cuddled a pillow as if it were him. My fantasies were blossoming, but this time they could be coming true. Now we were free to tell anyone we wanted that we were having a baby. I could watch Beck’s eyes assess me as I grew rounder with his child.

“It might turn him on,” I whispered. I had heard that happened to some men.

Somehow the mess with our mom just didn’t matter. What was happening was too important. It was epic, and it was right within my reach, if I didn’t mess it up. Then being a girl, and one without a close enough friend I could really lay out my life too, I spent the next thirty minutes analyzing Beck’s every move that night.

Like that kiss. It had been to prove something to our mother, but his lips against mine had felt real and very intense. That was the kiss of a man who yearned, if I could only get him past my betrayal.

As my mind drifted, I was slightly surprised to find myself wondering if Beck would be as forceful and raw the next time we went to bed together. It was all building toward us colliding together again. I just had to tip the scales that way.

But had I really liked being so used by Beck? My body sure liked it. In the past, I’d had such rich fantasies about Beck for so long, I guessed I shouldn’t be surprised, after the shock, that being completely slut-itized by him had actually turned me on.

Then, because I was so sure now that I was going to get him to take me to bed again, even if I wasn’t sure if that would mean anything binding in our relationship, I wondered if he’d do the rough stuff the same way.

Then, I moaned and tried very hard not to touch myself under the covers, while thinking about my sexy, hot, and wow, I guessed, forceful stepbrother.

The next day the best thing in the world finally happened; Beck asked me out on a date. Well actually, he’d just said that morning while changing Bart’s diaper, right before I left for work that he’d like to meet me at his hotel restaurant for dinner so we could talk. He’d said he would get a hotel sitter for Bart or mine if I preferred.

Then I had made-up all that into our first date. It took me until lunch to come out of daydreaming about it, when I realized—

“I need something to wear!”

Penny had declared that I was practically useless that day with my head in the clouds, she’d called it. But she hadn’t asked why, instead she’d just looked at me knowingly, and mouthed Beck’s name. So I finally called it a short day at lunch so I could go find something to wear, but I had to deal with mom too.

I wanted to make certain that she wasn’t still trying to hit up Beck for money, and that she really was going back home. Luckily, Beck had not put her up at his hotel and the one he’d picked on short notice was much more expensive, and downtown.

It was lucky for me because it was close to a couple boutiques I could pop into after talking to her. Once I found her room, I knocked on her door, and mom opened it with a frown.

“I just don’t know what to say to you,” mom said, but she stood back so I could enter. I could see her bags were packed and in a pile, as if waiting. “Beck’s already been here to give me a ticket home.” I looked at her in surprise, as she crossed her arms. “I’ll never get to see Bartie, you know. I had to have Beck bring him so I could hug him goodbye.”

I found it hard to believe that she meant it, but I wasn’t going to call her on it.

“I’m sorry Beck and I have to be so firm on this, but that is the way it has to be.” Each word I spoke to her made me feel more powerful, as if I was wrestling my life from her, and winning. “Just to be clear, if I hear anyone from back home knows Beck and I are together, I will know where it came from.”

Mom made a disgusted sound, and then she muttered, “Like I would do that. But you really need to get him to help me, honey. He has billions, one little million is only right for his parents.”

God, she’d never stop.

“Maybe if you show him how supportive you can be about us, after a while he will soften. But right now, it sounds like blackmail.”

Mom’s lips tightened and her eyes grew angry, but she seemed to control her words. “You soften him, then,” she finally said, and that kind of hurt.

“He worked hard for his money and he does not owe anyone,” I said, maybe snottily.

Then I gave her a quick hug, practically an air hug. “Have a good trip back, mom.”

And I left quickly after. After that scene, I wasn’t in the mood to shop for something sexy to wear to dinner, but I walked across the street to look, and after a little while I got back in the mood.

My first real date with Beck!

I needed a killer black dress.

Chapter Ten

Beck felt as if he’d been punched in the gut when he first laid eyes on Millie that evening. The black dress she wore cupped her generous breasts with a deep revealing v, while the short skirt of the outfit clung to her curvy hips. There was a ruffle on the bottom hem that drew his eyes down her sexy bare legs, until his jaw hardened as his gaze landed on her heels. They had to be five inch stilettos, and what his mind immediately called them “fuck me” heels.

It took a lot of control not to snatch Millie up and drag her to his hotel room, as he watched her swaying towards him.

But her eyes were eating him up as much as his eyes were eating her up, while he straightened his suit jacket, and tried not to fall to his knees to worship in front of her. It probably made him look fierce with his jaw tight as she stopped in front of him.

“Oh wow, Beck, you look so hot in a suit,” Millie said quietly, but intensely, so people around them couldn’t hear.

Of all the things he thought she would say that wasn’t it, and it sidetracked him for a second. He looked down at his suit, he hadn’t really been a suit wearing kind of guy, but being a billionaire now, maybe it was time to start. He had to admit he felt good when it meant a woman like Millie, dressed like Millie, was at his side.

He smiled with a side quirk of his lips. “Thanks, boo.”

She touched his arm and smiled back, and he lifted that arm until he had it around the back of her waist, clasped warmly to the indent.

He dipped his lips next to her ear. “Got to say, baby, those fucking heels make me want to see them wrapped around my waist, you moaning my name.”

He had not intended for their evening to start out like this, or end like this. He had been planning something like a first date, and then maybe they could clear the air. But when he felt her quiver against him, he thought the possibilities had just gotten bigger.

“Like before?” She turned and whispered against his jaw. “I can’t stop thinking about that.”

He was a little surprised, but then instantly more aroused. It had been an angry hard fuck, and she’d been so hot in his arms, she had exploded.

He pulled her against him. “Yeah, just like that. We work things out, I want more of that.”

Her lips were at his jaw for a heated moment as her body melted into his, and then she pulled back, because they were in the lobby of a hotel. But she didn’t move completely out of his arm clasped around her back. Looking down into her eyes, he saw the answer was a heated “yes” full of arousal.

“Maybe we should eat,” she said, but it was breathless. His eyes ignited even hotter. “I didn’t mean that,” she admonished, even more breathless.

He chuckled. “Come on, beautiful, let’s go public.”

He’d gotten them a private room, a private table, and a private view of the city lights. He was putting it out like he had money, and she was worth every penny of it with a sparkle in her eyes and her lips soft and inviting.

Beck was pretty certain they both felt like they owned the night. For the first time in their lives they were out in public as a couple. And they weren’t afraid.

He could tell Millie had given it up, he could tell she’d finally stopped worrying about what other people thought or had to say, and stopped worrying about being found out. It relaxed her and made her even more beautiful.

Once they were seated and alone for a moment—he had planned the entire meal in advance—he leaned forward and lifted a glass with bubbling amber liquid in it toward her.

“Non-alcoholic champagne,” he said. His eyes lowered to where he knew she carried his baby.

Millie’s smile was dazzling. “Thank you, handsome,” she said.

He leaned back and got his flute of real champagne, and then he leaned forward again to touch his glass to hers. “To our first date.”

It was only a simple statement, but the look in Millie’s eyes was so amazing, he wanted to pull her to him for a kiss.

After she took a sip to the toast, she said, “I hoped you thought this was like our first date.”

Beck settled back and set his glass down as he looked at her in the candlelight.

“I can never stay mad at you,” he said simply. He didn’t mean to break the mood, but he meant it.

She set her flute down and fiddled with her long hair. “I hate that I ever made you mad at me, and I wished it was more than you just not being able to stay mad at me, I wished it was that you’d really forgiven me. But I know it’s probably impossible to totally forgive what I did.”

Before he could answer the first course arrived with two waiters, and he and Millie set back, to be served, before they were alone again. He picked up a soup spoon and looked at her.

“Maybe if you tell me why, Millie. What you were thinking. Help me understand.”

She looked nervous and he hated it after they’d been moving in such a promising direction, but they had to clear the air. Besides, he had suspicions that she hadn’t done it frivolously.

He gave her until they finished the soup course, to give her an inquiring look again, and she looked as if she was trying to set things straight in her mind before she opened her mouth.

“After we were together, and I was too afraid to be with you again,” she said, looking at him with emotions in her eyes that said she hoped he understood. “You got with Tracy, and moved on.” He started to open his mouth, but she raised her hand and hurriedly continued, “Which was perfectly understandable.”