THE BILLIONAIRE'S BABY (A Secret Baby Romance) (18 page)

Dad took a long drink and said, “Not much, really. Surfing a bit, and I went down to Curitiba, then up to Sao Paulo and now here. Like I said, the women here—damn.” His eyes crinkled and he looked at a pair of passing women wearing only bikinis. He wiggled his eyebrows at me and said, “You know, I met two girls, so if you want either of them tonight, take your pick.”

And just like that, any warm feelings I had towards him dissipated. I shook my head at him. “No, that’s okay, Dad, I actually really like this girl back in L.A. I’m going to propose soon.”

My dad’s mouth dropped open as he looked both alarmed and amused. “Really? You’re ready to get married so soon? You’re only twenty-six. Braden, enjoy the single life while you can, take my advice.”

He smirked and I smiled. “No Dad, sorry, but I don’t think I will.”

Going to sleep that night after drinks and bidding Dad goodnight, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. He was lonely and maybe even a little lost, even though it didn’t show outwardly. I just felt it, and it made me more sure than ever that I didn’t want to end up wandering around, sleeping with different girls every night like they were playthings. More than ever, I wanted to marry Lexi Montgomery.

Lexi

“Oh, my God, I can’t believe you got me an invite,” Clara gushed as we drove to the big party being held by the PR Agency where Shawna worked, Stellar Group, Inc. The event would include finger food, drinks, and dancing, and would hopefully help clear the air between Braden and Shawna.

Clara continued to bubble, “Well, I actually believe it because Braden would do anything for you. This is going to be amazing and… Sorry, Lexi, I know you and Braden are on a thin line right now, but I can do some serious networking at this event. I could get something more than a cereal commercial. Not that I don’t appreciate getting that gig, but I could get my big break, so thank you.” She smiled over at me.

I sat in the passenger seat of her older but well-running BMW. I gave her a sincere smile back, happy to help my best friend reach her dreams any way I could, yet I was a bundle of nerves underneath. I’d been both relieved and disappointed when I returned to work Wednesday to find Braden was in Rio taking care of Keith and checking on the shoot. He was gone all last week and only texted or emailed the bare minimum of business-related tasks or requests, all perfectly polite and professional.

This week, after feeling an onslaught of jumbled emotions when I’d seen Braden again for a team meeting, we’d kept our interactions in open areas. We’d also communicated only about business except for when he’d asked about my dad’s appointment, which, as I’d told him, had gone very well with some new treatment options already in play.

I longed to be near Braden and I wanted to quit my job, though I was surprised at the lack of response I’d received on the job hunting front. I’d been invited for only one interview and was called the next day and been told they’d chosen another candidate. I hadn’t heard a word from Rob Greenberg.

This was the most surprising to me since I’d thought we’d hit it off as friends and for mentor-apprentice possibilities, or at the very least, I thought Rob would have the courtesy to respond to my email even if he didn’t know of any openings. I’d kept trying, searching every day for new positions. I simply couldn’t work with this irresistible man—a man who would break my heart in the end.

“There will be a ton of people you can schmooze with and charm your way into an acting job, especially if you flirt with the guys wearing that outfit.” I gestured to the aqua-blue sequined, sleeveless dress that showed off Clara’s petite, tanned shoulders and upper back and hugged her small, curvy body like a glove. She also wore smoky evening makeup to play up her high cheekbones, dark eyes, and heart-shaped lips, not to mention three-inch, sex-kitten silver heels.

I didn’t look too shabby myself with a sparkly black cocktail dress that had thin straps, a fitted bodice, and a skirt that flared out and reached two inches above the knee paired with two-inch strappy sandals. My hair was half down and half pinned up with silvery, lacy, leaf-shaped pins, and my face was also tastefully done in evening makeup.

Thirty minutes later, we were at the soiree, and I’d left Clara talking with our casting director, Mark Wolkowsky, after introducing them, and walked over to where Rob Greenberg stood by the bar with a martini in his hand. I’d already seen and greeted both Adrianna and Braden, who looked gorgeous in a tux with a blue bow-tie, but I wanted to take care of some job business.

“Hey, Rob, how’s it going?” I said casually as I slid up next to him at the bar, taking the place of some guy he’d just been talking to. I ordered a rum and coke and saw Rob fidget nervously with his martini glass out of the corner of my eye before he answered.

“Hey, Lexi, I’m good. I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you yet… to your email about working with me.”

I took my drink from the bartender and faced Rob, trying to look nonchalant though I’d been hurt at not getting a response. He took a long sip of his drink as I shrugged and said, “That’s okay, no big deal. I know you’re busy.” I smiled and sipped my rum and coke.

Rob let out a sigh and looked furtively around. “Look Lexi, if you want to work with me as an assistant, you got the job. I looked at your screenplays you sent and they have great potential. It’s just that, well…” I waited, holding back a squeal of delight at the job offer while Rob looked pointedly to the right of the bar where Braden stood with a group of older men.

Rob continued in a low voice. “You see, Braden called me last week and asked if I could please not hire you or give you any leads.” Rob teetered a little as he stepped to put his drink at the bar, clearly tipsy, and added, “I think he did the same with other places you’ve applied. He really doesn’t want you to leave, Lexi—I think he’s in love with you. But don’t tell him I said anything. He’d kill me. Just pretend you coerced your way into a job, okay?” He held up a finger to his mouth, looking anxiously over at Braden again.

I was having trouble breathing and keeping the heated flame of anger from completely taking over my senses, I looked at Braden as well, my shocked expression turning into one of raging disbelief. He’d done what? He’d specifically gone out of his way to thwart my attempts to quit my job with him? Where did he get off controlling my life to that level?

Slamming my drink down and ignoring the pleas from Rob, I marched over to my boss and stopped right in front of him. After leveling him with a seething look, I glanced at the others in the group and said a general, “Hello.” Once they’d all greeted me, I turned my gaze back on Braden, my eyes glaring into his as I said in a fake sweet tone, “Can I talk to you for a minute about a private business matter?”

Braden’s eyes widened with wariness. “Of course. Excuse me, everyone.” He followed me quickly to an empty corridor just off the main party room. I whipped around, heat filling my veins. I tried to keep my voice low and under control. “Is it true?” was all I could think of to start with.

He blinked down at me then ran a hand through his gorgeous dirty-blond hair and responded, “Lexi, you look really upset. Is what true?” He appeared concerned, but I saw a knowing look flash in his eyes. I crossed my arms over my chest, not in the mood for games.

“Did you or did you not sabotage my attempts to get a new job, and invade my privacy, so that I’d stay working with you? Even going as far as to tell Rob Greenberg not to even respond to me?” My voice rose towards the end. I watched his face drain of all color and turn bright pink.

Braden’s mouth opened and closed several times before he answered. “I know it sounds bad, and I’m sorry to invade your privacy, but I was desperate. I just couldn’t let you go when I—”

I interrupted him, not wanting to hear his excuses. I saw red. “Braden Huntington, you have no right to control my life—my career—like you own me!” My voice had risen to a shout. “Here I am, trying to move up in my life since not all of us are handed money and careers on a silver platter, and what do you do? You pull strings like I’m your puppet—like you’re a god!” Braden’s face got redder, and he tried to speak, but I backed him against the wall, jabbing my finger at his chest. “Well, I’m through with your games, Braden. Rob Greenberg just offered me a job, and I’m going to take it. I quit.”

With one last look at his panic-filled, shocked expression, I whirled around and pushed my way through the small crowd of people that had gathered to watch our little drama and strode up to Clara, who was, thankfully, in the crowd.

I didn’t need to say anything. She’d probably heard it all. She put an arm around my shoulder and pulled me toward the exit. “It’s okay, don’t look back. I’ll take you home.”

***

The following three weeks after the Stellar Group, Inc. event and my confrontation with Braden passed in a whirlwind of change underlined with an empty feeling of great loss. I ignored the desolation by focusing on my new job with Rob, who was an amazing writer and a great boss, hanging with my dad, Sean, Clara, and Beth, and, of course, surfing.

Rob paid me a decent salary and agreed to give me the same health insurance benefits that included my dad and Sean. Though it wasn’t the extravagant money and benefits I’d had at Huntington Productions, I was making a comfortable amount and happy to get paid to do what I loved, both writing and editing scripts.

Braden had tried again to email, call, and text in an attempt to explain. At first, I refused to read or listen, but by my second week away from Huntington Productions, I caved and both read and heard how very sorry he was and how his feelings for me were so strong that he’d been terrified I’d never come back if I found a new job. He’d also added that he wasn’t trying to make excuses, just wanted to give me the reason. He even said I was right about how controlling and intrusive his actions had been. By the third week, after talking to Clara, Beth, and even Adrianna, who I’d had coffee with, I’d softened towards Braden and believed his motivations, though I hadn’t liked his devious methods.

On Friday morning at the end of the third week, I was running late for a meeting with Rob at his modest office in Santa Monica to go over the new scene in a drama screenplay we were co-writing. I was sleepy as I threw a strawberry pop-tart in my bag and pulled a brush through my hair. I’d been feeling more tired than usual lately. There’d been a heat wave the last week, and I assumed it was due to that.

As I drove towards downtown Santa Monica, I felt a little dizzy and sick to my stomach, so as I waited for a red light, I opened the pop-tart in my bag and started eating it with my to-go coffee.

I parked in the outside lot next to Rob’s office ten minutes later, my stomach full of pop-tart and coffee. I felt even more nauseous. “Geez, I must have a bug or something,” I muttered to myself as I ran to the building’s public bathroom and immediately threw up three times.

“You do look a little green,” Rob told me minutes later after I’d washed up and told him what had happened. “You should head home now and take a few days to rest and get better,” he told me with a concerned frown.

Late that afternoon, after I’d rested on my couch, going in and out of sleep most of the day, I realized something. I quickly checked the calendar on my phone and, sure enough, I was a week late for my period. My stomach heaved as I remembered the condom-free sex Braden and I had had about a month ago.

“Oh, shit,” I muttered to myself as panic began to run through me. I called Clara with shaking fingers and she was over at my apartment with two kinds of pregnancy tests within thirty minutes.

She reassured me. “It’s going to be okay, Lexi. I’m here for you, and we can raise your baby together… if there is one.”

She gave me a hug before I numbly stumbled into my bathroom and emerged ten minutes later with my heart racing out of control and another nauseous feeling invading my insides. This time, the sick feeling was from shock that both tests had shown positive. I was pregnant with Braden’s baby.

Braden

Two weeks after the night of the Stellar Group event, my stomach wrenched when I recalled the scathing, hurt look on Lexi’s face. She’d looked stunningly beautiful, of course, which didn’t help matters. I’d been ready to murder Rob Greenberg after Lexi had confronted me, quit, and stormed out.

I’d seen the two of them talking at the bar right before Lexi had come over and knew it was him who had spilled the beans—and given her a job to boot. But Rob had left before we could talk, and after I calmed down, I realized it was all for the best that Lexi knew about my job sabotaging. Everything was out in the open, and Lexi deserved the job working with Rob since it was perfect for her.

During the last two weeks, after trying to apologize profusely to her—though she’d predictably ignored my texts, emails, and calls—I was devastated that Lexi was completely out of my life. I had even bought a gorgeous, round-cut 2.35 carat diamond engagement ring that Adrianna had helped me pick out the Sunday after I’d come back from Rio.

By the Sunday three weeks after I’d last seen Lexi at the PR Agency event, I couldn’t take it anymore. I missed Lexi so much I ached deep inside. I had to get her to go to dinner with me so I could give her the ring and make everything right. At five p.m. I walked up to the run-down duplex where Lexi’s dad and brother lived, which I knew from HR since this address had been on the insurance forms. I’d tried Lexi’s place first, but when I found she wasn’t there, I walked to her dad’s and rang the doorbell. I waited with cold sweat on my hands. A tall teenager with pale skin, dark hair, and familiar green eyes opened the door and gave me a puzzled look.