by Katy Kaylee
God, she was just perfection.
I slid out of bed and made breakfast for us both—I didn’t have a whole lot in the apartment but it was enough for me to make us omelets. Claire stumbled out, yawning, her red hair a total mess, and I couldn’t help but grin. She looked cute as fuck.
“Did you sleep well?”
She nodded, sitting down. “I… I didn’t expect to. I’ve never slept with another person in bed before. Except when I was little and had sleepovers with friends so… that was years ago, though. But I really… I liked it.”
She was blushing. I thought I might actually lose my goddamn mind over how adorable she was.
“I do have to go home and change, though,” she said. “I can’t wear the same thing to work twice in a row.”
“Actually, you don’t have to,” I admitted, nerves fluttering in the pit of my stomach. “If you don’t want to, I mean.”
Claire raised a questioning eyebrow at me.
It was easier to show her than to explain. I led her back into my bedroom and to the closet, where I had a small section of clothing hanging up to the side. There wasn’t much. Just a few jeans and shirts, a blouse, a couple dresses. One of my classic moves, back when I’d been a playboy, was to buy a dress for the woman I was bringing as my date and send it to her beforehand so that she could wear it to whatever event we were attending. Women always went nuts for it. I had a personal tailor who had taught me everything about my own suits, and now I was pretty damn good at figuring out someone’s measurements so long as I had my hands on them.
And I’d had my hands all over Claire.
“It’s not much,” I told her. “Just a few spare casual outfits. I hope they fit. I just thought that—well I’ve wanted you to spend the night here for a long time but I knew that you might have to rush back to the hospital and wouldn’t want to do that in the same clothes as before, so this was a way to make that convenient for you.”
Claire looked inordinately touched. She turned to face me, her hand over her mouth. “That’s really thoughtful of you,” she told me.
“It’s nothing, really, I just want to look out for you. You’re risking a lot by being with me and I just want to make sure that you feel appreciated.”
Claire’s hand dropped from her mouth and before I could realize what she had planned, she was in my arms, kissing me. I held her tightly as Claire’s tongue slid against mine, her body pressing against mine with a purpose. She made me fucking lightheaded but in the best damn kind of way.
“Careful,” I warned her, squeezing her hips. “If you don’t behave yourself, I’ll drag you back to bed and we’ll never make it to the hospital.”
She blushed, smiling up at me through her lashes. “I hate that I’m tempted to make you do just that,” she admitted.
I laughed and stepped back. “Get dressed, Dr. Montague.”
I’d known there was a vixen underneath her strong professionalism. And I couldn’t wait to discover the other hidden parts of Claire.
24
Claire
I couldn’t believe that it had already been a month.
A month of secretly dating Alex, and nothing had imploded. Nobody had caught us, nobody knew, and he hadn’t turned out to secretly be a jerk. In fact he was nothing short of chivalrous. He let me set the boundaries for our relationship, never pushed me to stay at his place or to stay at mine if I felt it was too risky, and was perfectly professional when we were at the hospital together in front of others. I genuinely trusted him.
And, well, everything else was just—honestly, I felt giddy just thinking about it. We didn’t really do anything much. We couldn’t risk being seen. Oh, sure, billionaires weren’t generally instantly recognized the way that actors and such were, but Alex was still one of the richest men in the world, and a very good looking one at that. Not to mention he’d been making waves lately. The article with the reporter had been a massive hit. Everyone was excited for different reasons. Some by the merger, some because of the massive amounts of money he was donating and his newfound goal in life as a philanthropist (all so that Tabitha could have a better world to grow up in, and I’d practically felt the people falling in love with him when I’d read that in the article), some because of Tabitha, and some just because he was still single. As far as they knew, anyway.
Between all of that, Alex would most likely be recognized if we went out anywhere. That would mean I’d be recognized, the jig would be up, and I’d get fired. So we ended up staying home a lot of the time. Just watching movies together, relaxing, playing board games. Alex would massage my feet while I read books out loud to him. It wasn’t at all what I’d thought dating a billionaire would be like. But it was peaceful and comfortable. It was ours.
He was mine, and I was his. It was—it was more than I’d ever dreamed of with someone.
Tabitha was doing really well, too. After her fever had broken and she’d recovered from the infection, she’d been healing rapidly, responding exceedingly well to the treatment. In fact, I was starting to hope that she might even go into remission and be discharged sooner than we’d predicted. I wasn’t too surprised. I knew Tabitha well by now, and she was a real fighter. Not to mention she had Alex in her corner, Alex who seemed ready to literally will his daughter back to health if that was what it took.
People were noticing that I was in a better mood lately as a result. “You seem more relaxed,” Pippa noted that morning as I made my rounds. “I’m glad. You were always so serious and I get why, but you’ve made it. You’ve overcome all the hurdles. You can let go now.”
“Thanks, Pippa.” It was hard to remember that sometimes, after all the hard work I’d had to put in, being so young and so far ahead. “I…”
Someone walked by, one of the other nurses. He had a bag of… Indian food, I think, and normally I liked Indian food but now the strong smell of saffron was making me…
I quickly excused myself, dashing into the nearest unoccupied bathroom and throwing up my breakfast. Oh, God. I’d never felt nausea rise in me so quickly before. Shit, was I sick? Did I have the flu? This was the third time in a week that I’d gone from being fine to hurling up my last meal. But I wasn’t feverish, or chilled, my appetite was fine. I wasn’t showing any other signs of being sick. In fact my appetite was even stronger than usual. I’d been craving hamburgers and pickles something fierce lately. And…
I paused, halfway through washing my hands. I looked up at myself in the mirror.
No. It couldn’t… but actually, it could. Alex and I hadn’t been using a condom all the time. Not the first few times, certainly. Alex was clean—he got tested regularly—and so was I, for obvious reasons. We’d been so caught up in lust that we hadn’t really thought about it and I took my shots but honestly I couldn’t remember the last time I’d upped it…
Shit.
I snuck a few pregnancy tests out of the supply closet and took all three. Not that I really needed to worry about believing just one of them, but I liked to be thorough. If I was going to have to tell Alex about this, then I wanted to be sure, I didn’t want to scare him over a false positive, as rare as those were.
What if it was positive, though? Would I actually tell him?
We lived such different lives. Things were serious right now, or at least seemed to be, but that was just because of Tabitha. Once she was cleared to leave the hospital, then Alex would go back to Los Angeles and back to his glamorous life, and I would stay here. I was working constantly. We couldn’t even officially be together so long as Tabitha was a patient here. Yet it was the one thing guaranteeing our relationship. The irony was sickening.
And of all times to drop the news of a baby on him, this definitely was not that time. Alex was helping his daughter to fight for her life. He didn’t need this.
On the other hand… he was such a good father to Tabitha. He adored her, and she loved him. She’d slowly been switching from ‘Uncle Alex’ to ‘Alex’ to ‘Pops’. Probably to differentiate hi
m from her biological father that she’d loved and lost. Maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing if I was pregnant. Maybe Alex would want another kid.
The minutes seemed to pass like hours as I tried to keep calm and not freak out. At least, I looked over and took the tests in my hand. All three said the same thing.
I was pregnant.
25
Alex
Tabitha frowned as she inspected the puzzle. We were close to being finished with it, but all these black pieces for the night sky looked remarkably the same. Tabitha had good patience for it, though. I was glad. If there was one thing the business world had taught me, it was the value of having patience.
A knock sounded on the door frame. “Mr. Conner?”
I turned to see Dr. Franklin standing there. He was smiling. “I have some good news for the two of you.”
“Oh?” I carefully set the puzzle aside so that Tabitha could give him her full attention.
“Congratulations are in order. Dr. Montague just sent in the latest scans for me to verify and I can happily tell you that Tabitha’s leukemia is in full remission.”
My heart stopped, only to pick up speed again, beating like it was trying to outrun the devil. Tabitha’s eyes lit up. “You mean it!?” she asked.
“I sure do.” Dr. Franklin grinned at her. “You’ll be able to go home from the hospital soon.” He looked over at me. “We’ll have to continue maintenance treatments, but you could easily do that at home in LA, find a good doctor there. We have solid contacts who do great work.”
Oh, thank God. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Dr. Franklin. I felt like he was too possessive of Claire, and I would’ve thought that even if I had no interest in Claire myself. The way he treated her was just… it left a bad taste in my mouth, and I could see from Pippa’s behavior that I wasn’t the only one who was noticing it.
Still, he was a good doctor, and he had been helping my baby girl to get well. I stood up and shook his hand. “Thank you,” I told him genuinely. “Thank you and your team for all of your hard work.”
“I’ll discuss continuing treatment options with Dr. Montague,” Dr. Franklin added. Pippa entered, and Dr. Franklin nodded at her, then me, then Tabitha and left.
“Pippa!” Tabitha was practically bouncing on the bed in excitement. “Guess what! I’m in full remission!”
Tabitha’s ability to spit out all these medical terms was, on the one hand, endearing, but on the other hand made me a little sad. The reason that she knew so much about medicine and knew all of these long words wasn’t because she was just interested in the field but because she’d had to hear them all the time as a patient, stuck in a hospital.
“I knew you’d get better,” Pippa said loyally. “Especially with Dr. Montague on your side.”
“Where is Dr. Montague?” I asked. “I’d like to thank her as well.”
“She’s got a long in-service today, and she has tomorrow off, so I wouldn’t count on seeing her right away.” Pippa grinned at Tabitha. “But you know what, I have some extra good news for you. Tomorrow, the hospital is planning a big celebration for their anniversary and they’ve hired clowns and entertainers, and there’s a big group sleepover for all the kids. Would you like to join?”
Tabitha looked at me, hope shining in her eyes. She hadn’t gotten to really hang out with other kids while she was in here. Sometimes, sure, but with kids being too sick to play, or needing special care… it was hard, to say the least. “Can I, Pops?”
The moment she’d first called me Pops might have been the greatest moment of my life. Tabitha accepting me as her new parent meant the world to me. I didn’t even have words for it, and even though she’d been saying it for about a week now my heart still skipped a beat each time. I didn’t think it would ever really get old.
“Of course you can. I could use the day to catch up on a few things myself.”
Tabitha wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, silly work stuff.”
“Exactly, Ladybug. Not nearly as fun as you.”
In my head, though, the gears were turning. I had an idea.
It was easy enough to find where the in-service was and wait for Claire while I made arrangements with various people on my phone. When she finally appeared, I pulled her aside. “Sorry to bother you,” I said quickly, glancing around, “but I was hoping that I could take you to dinner tonight.”
“As in, out to eat?” Claire asked, anxiety flashing across her face.
I nodded. “I know you’re anxious about anyone seeing us together, so I picked a spot that’s nice and quiet. Pippa told me you have tomorrow off, so I was thinking that we could spend the next day together as well? I promise, it’ll be totally private.”
Claire bit her lip, and I could tell from the light in her eyes that she was tempted. “Well… all right.”
I grinned. It was so hard not to kiss her right then. “I’ll pick you up in two hours.”
Claire blushed. “Sounds a little early for dinner.”
“Just trust me,” I told her, walking away. Claire rolled her eyes at me fondly. I couldn’t wait to put this plan into action—finally, a chance to properly wine and dine her, and to surprise her the way I had always wanted to.
26
Claire
I had no idea what to expect when it came to our date tonight. We had never had a proper ‘date’ and I honestly didn’t mind one way or another. For me what mattered was spending time with Alex.
Of course… it would have been nice to spend time together in public if we wanted to. Going out to a movie instead of always staying in. Taking a walk in the park. That kind of thing. If we had wanted to always stay in, that would be one thing but it wasn’t our choice, it was because we had to. And that frustrated me.
Now that I had given Alex free reign… I was dying to know what he would do. What he would pick for our date. Somewhere private, he had promised me, and since he had the resources, I was sure it would be private indeed. Would he rent out another restaurant? Take me to a cabin in the mountains? A secluded little spot?
Turned out, he did none of those things.
Did you know that a million seconds is forty-seven seconds?
A billion seconds is thirty-two years.
So when I pictured a billionaire, I found that I had been picturing a millionaire. That was how much wealth people could reasonably fathom. That was what most people thought about when they thought of a wealthy person.
But a billionaire was so much more than that, and the gulf, the canyon, the yawning chasm, between millionaire and billionaire was more than I could have ever anticipated or imagined.
When Alex showed up in a slick rented sports car, that I could sort of imagine. It fit the playboy image of him that I’d seen online. It was bright red, and gorgeous. I couldn’t help but smirk a little as I climbed in.
Alex winked at me. “You like it?”
“I think if I didn’t know any better I’d say you were compensating for something.”
“Oh, but I am. I’m compensating for all the times I haven’t been able to sweep you off your feet this past month.”
“Hilarious,” I said out loud, but inside, butterflies erupted. He wanted to sweep me off my feet? I hadn’t thought of it that way. The very idea filled me with warmth—the idea that I was someone to him who was worth the effort, someone he wanted to show off for and someone he wanted to impress.
Alex waited until I put on my seatbelt and then expertly drove us through the city streets. I kept sneaking glances at his hands on the wheel, on the gear shift, and wishing I could have those hands on me again. I’d never had sex in a car before, and if I was going to ever do it, it would definitely be in a car like this. The rumble of the engine vibrated up through my body and I shivered. Around Alex—around his easy confidence and his relaxed command of the situation—everything seemed sexy and exciting, full of possibilities.
“What restaurant are we going to, exactly?” I asked him as I looked around, realizing that I didn’t k
now where we were going.
Alex gave a small, knowing grin. “It’s this place called Geoffrey’s. It’s right on the water.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Well, that’s because it’s in Malibu.”
My jaw went slack. “Malibu? As in—as in California?”
“The one and only.”
Holy shit. “…how?”
“We’re headed to the airport. I’ve got my private jet on standby.”
“Alex, we can’t go to Malibu for dinner!”
“And why not?” He grinned at me, a twinkle in his eye. Dammit, my stomach was swooping just looking at him. “Pippa is looking after Tabitha for the night at the sleepover and the celebrations tomorrow. I wouldn’t be really included anyway. You’ve got tomorrow off, and so why shouldn’t we get some actual time to ourselves? Nobody knows you in Malibu, and we’ll make sure to go to places where we won’t be photographed. Geoffrey’s is the definition of discreet.”
I wasn’t sure what to think. On the one hand, I was giddy, excited. On the other hand, this was totally unexpected. “I need to pack.”
“Pippa packed a couple things for you.”
Oh my God. I was so getting Pippa back for this… but at the same time I was grateful to her for it. I liked the surprise, and how Alex was thinking about my needs and protecting our privacy at the same time.
When we got to the jet, Alex wasted no time showing me around. He was so excited, like a kid. It as adorable, honestly. I had the feeling that he hadn’t really gotten to impress anyone with his things like this before. “Didn’t you use to bring women on here all the time?”
“On my old jet, yes,” Alex replied. “It was much bigger than this one. I sold it for charity and got this smaller one.” He paused. “After my sister came back into my life, I started to take a good, hard look at my choices. I started to refocus my finances and begin the process of breaking up my empire. Liquidating assets and repurposing them for humanitarian projects like world hunger or the environment, or just straight-up donating them. Then I got Tabitha and it became even more urgent to me. I want a beautiful world for her to grow up in. I want her to be proud of me. So that’s what I try to do, now.