Have My Baby: Baby and Pregnancy Romance Collection

by Jamie Knight

  They couldn’t honestly be suggesting I pick up an escort. This was a legal firm!

  “How did that turn out?” I asked skeptically.

  Vicky grinned and bounced a little on her heels. “They realized that they were meant to be. Jim found Leo a job, and now they are getting married in a few months,” she said proudly like she had orchestrated the whole thing.

  “Wow,” I said, really not expecting that and not sure what else to say. It sounded like a fairy tale. Certainly, it would take more that one night for two people to fall in love.

  “It could work for you,” Vicky said with more excitement than was necessary.

  “How?” I asked, giving both ladies a hard look like I thought they were crazy. Which I did. “How could that possibly work? How can I get someone to ever go along with it?” I clarified.

  As if I put in an order to the heavens, one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen walked into the office with a thick folder of documents that still carried the smell of the photocopier. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-five with bright ivory skin, curves that grabbed my attention, long, thick blonde hair, and the face of an angel.

  Ann and Vicky looked at each other briefly, shared a cunning smile, and then turned back to the assistant. “Hayley!” they exclaimed in unison, making the poor girl jump.

  “Yes?” Hayley asked, holding the folder up against her full chest.

  “Are you single?” Vicky asked, and I started to worry about what their plan was.

  I wasn’t the type of guy to date. A commitment was not my style. After I got out of the army, I figured that no woman could handle the man I had become, so why try. It was best to just have a string of one-night stands and leave it at that. Pretending to be in a relationship even sounded dumb.

  The woman, Hayley, seemed quite surprised and nervous at her boss’s inquiries. She tried to reply but started to choke on her own shock, managing to crumple the folder against her chest and creasing the pages inside.

  There was something about her innocence that was really turning me on.

  “Y-yes,” she stammered in a breathy voice that heightened my desire. The poor thing looked so flabbergasted that I thought she might faint. Part of me wanted her to fall right into my arms.

  Maybe a fake fiancée wasn’t the craziest idea.

  Vicky winked at me before leaving the office. I just looked at Haley for a moment, not sure if it was really a good time to ask her to go to the wedding.

  Chapter Two - Hayley

  It was my first real, grown-up job. Like so many of my friends, I had hidden in the halls of academia to keep from having to join the “real world.” While my twin brother was away in the army, I studied. Eight years and two degrees later, though, it was time to stop hanging around and start living. Or so said my parents, right before they kicked me out of their house. Well, that’s not quite accurate. They did set me up with a place in Silver Lake and an interview at the Howell and Howell Law Firm beforehand.

  I had all the training I needed to be a legal aid, so the interview wasn’t a problem. They didn’t even call me back for a second interview, I just got the job right there on the spot. However, I didn’t really fit in at work.

  It was partly because Vicky and the other girls at the office looked like they could have been supermodels. I wasn’t hideous, more average, but I knew what I looked like, especially next to them. “Softy pretty” was what my dad used to say. I could honestly see his point.

  I also didn’t dress as fancy as the native city girls. I had gotten used to buying my clothes second hand and doing my best with what I could find. Even so, I felt like people knew. Like they could still smell the distinctive thrift shop smell on them, no matter how many times I put them through the dryer.

  It also didn’t help that most of the other women at the firm didn’t socialize with me. The only ones I talked to were Ann and Vicky, and that was mostly business. They also had their sister-in-law thing going on, which made me feel very much on the outside. It was okay, I was used to being a loner.

  I had just gotten back into Ms. Howell’s office with a fresh batch of thrilling photocopying. There was quite the little powwow going on with Ms. Howell, Vicky, and a man I recognized immediately as Liam Adams, founder, and president of Black Flag Security. The sight of him stopped me in my tracks.

  The man was hot, unbelievably hot. His sharply carved face and bright blue eyes had been on the cover of the last issue of Forbes, and I had bought three copies just for that photo. However, the picture did not do his muscular body justice. The former soldier was fit with his tailored suit showing off every perfect line. The profile had put his company’s value at $5 Billion. A true example of the triumph of the American Dream, or so the writer had said. I wasn’t sure what that meant.

  They had clearly been talking about something before I came in. Something about me considering how Vicky and Ann had said my name when I stepped in the door and how Mr. Adams had looked at me with intense eyes.

  “Hayley, is it?” he asked as he stood, his voice soft and smooth, making me tingle all over.

  “Yes,” I said.

  He reached out a large hand. “I’m-”

  “I know who you are,” I said, a bit too quickly, and then shook his hand just as quickly. “E-everyone does, Mr. Adams.”

  “I see that my reputation precedes me,” he said with a deep chuckle.

  “Yes,” I said, looking at the floor and wishing I could sink through it.

  Mr. Adams let out another laugh. “And you seem to have me at a disadvantage,” he said.

  “Oh, right, I-I’m Haley Booth,” I said after I finally put the file folder onto Ms. Howell’s desk.

  “Pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he said, taking my hand again, firmer this time, and kissing the back of it, making me blush furiously.

  “I-I-”

  Desperately nervous, I glanced around the room. My boss, Ms. Howell, was totally ignoring the situation. She had her chair turned slightly and was looking at her computer as if she was trying to give us privacy. I didn’t understand why.

  Pulling slightly on my hand, Mr. Adams made me turn back towards him. “Would you like to go for coffee?” he asked.

  “I-I have to work,” I said, nodding my head towards Ann.

  “It’s okay, it’s about time for your lunch break anyway,” my boss said, suddenly paying attention to us again.

  “O-okay,” I said, trying not to cry, taking her easy dismissal as an indication she didn’t think much of my work.

  “Splendid,” Mr. Adam’s said, seemingly overjoyed.

  I wasn’t sure why he was so excited. It never even crossed my mind that it might actually be me. He was so handsome and rich he could have almost any woman he wanted. Why on earth would he want me? Was it some kind of joke? A hazing for the new girl? I’d never heard of that happening at law firms, but I could have been misinformed, or things could have been done differently in Los Angeles.

  Grabbing his cane, Mr. Adams turned towards the door. “Ann, I will be back up after lunch to finish the paperwork.” He held out his arm for me to take. “Hayley? Shall we?”

  Still feeling awkward, I gently wrapped my arm around his, touching as little as possible.

  As we walked out of Ann’s office and towards the elevator, Mr. Adams leaned in and whispered, “You can call me Liam.” I could feel his minty breath on my ear. A shiver went through me, and I hoped that he didn’t feel it.

  My lungs froze. I could barely breathe, let alone think of something to say back.

  I told myself that I went on the date mostly to please Ms. Howell. She wasn’t really forcing me to go but seemed like she would be disappointed if I didn’t, and I was really keen to keep my job.

  If this was a hazing, Mr. Adams didn’t let on. Either he was a really good actor, or he was actually serious about his interest in me — not that that seemed possible.

  I had been told
that everyone had their own taste, particularly when it came to what they found attractive in a sexual partner, but I never thought it would apply to me. Statistically, I figured it was possible, but the fact that I was still a virgin at twenty-seven seemed to be a strong argument against the odds.

  It wasn’t even that I didn’t want sex. Like I was on some kind of self-induced celibacy. There were times I honestly ached for it. I just had yet to find anybody willing. It could be that my standards were too high.

  I had heard that Mr. Adams was an army vet, but the article I read had glossed over his limp. Going by the sight of it something, a bullet or shrapnel or something had got through his left hip. Not enough to inhibit his primary joint movement, but he did seem to have trouble with pain and walked with a strange shifting motion. Hence the cane, trying to keep the weight off the afflicted joint. He had clearly learned how to get by, but by the way he was holding his cane now, it seemed like he hadn’t accepted it.

  I caught myself wondering if it affected him in bed. Could he still thrust, or would the girl need to be on top and ride him? This, in turn, got me thinking about what his cock might be like. I could feel my pussy tingle at the very thought.

  There was a café next door to Howell and Howell’s building. I typically stopped in there in the mornings to get a cup of hot chocolate before work. I had never really liked coffee, and too much caffeine made me jumpy.

  As Liam and I approached the café’s door, I wondered if I should tell him of my opinion or if I should just drink an icky cup and then let him get on with his day — ending whatever this was.

  There wasn’t much of a line, and as we approached the counter, my heart started beating a mile a minute. It was pounding so hard that I thought that I might faint.

  “Would you like a sandwich?” Mr. Adams asked as we got to the counter to order.

  I shook my head like a child, too embarrassed to speak. I could not get my vowels and consonants to cooperate.

  He looked into my face. Under the scrutiny of his light blue eyes, I felt like I was turning crimson.

  “Just coffee then?” he asked, a tiny bit of disappointment evident in his voice.

  I suddenly became self-conscious about whether it was childish to find coffee yucky. I couldn’t say anything so dumb. So, I nodded, and he ordered two black coffees.

  After the barista handed them over, we found a seat at a nearby table. My mind was spinning so fast I didn’t even realize that Liam was sitting next to me, asking me a question. But he was. His eyes were on me expectantly as he waited for an answer. I just wished I had the ability to respond or to properly engage — I couldn’t even keep myself from trembling.

  That was when I dropped my coffee, my shaking hands fairly useless for their designed purpose.

  Chapter Three - Liam

  Hot coffee splashed all over the table.

  At first, I didn’t quite understand what had happened. Did she burn herself? Why was she shaking so badly?

  But the pool of scalding liquid soon became too much for the table and poured onto my lap. It burned so bad, I jumped up, bumping the table with my thighs and pushing it off-kilter.

  “Oh, no!” Hayley gasped, grabbing at anything to soak up the coffee and getting her fingers scalded in the process. She pulled them back quickly, sticking them into her mouth — her face turned down in disgust.

  One of the staff came over and helped, giving me a towel for my pants and soaping up the rest of the mess on the table. Needless to say, the entire crowd in the café was looking at us now. I hated causing a scene, and with the front of my pants ruined — and burning — my temper started to burn as well.

  “Damn it!”

  Hayley flinched away from me. She looked up at my face for a second then dropped her eyes to the floor like an ashamed puppy.

  I clamped my mouth around my next outburst and tried to cool my temper. Picking up the dropped cup, I salvaged what I could of her drink, apologized to the barista, and taking Hayley gently by her shanking hand; I handed her the cup.

  She looked down at it like I had handed her a snake.

  “Shall I get you a fresh cup, miss?” the waiter asked as he finished cleaning up the spill.

  Hayley looked at him. “Yes…I mean, no. I’ll have hot chocolate. I hate coffee, it’s disgusting.”

  Why didn’t she say anything earlier?!

  Staring at her and the distant look she had on her face, I felt embarrassed. My feelings were only made worse when the barista looked over at me and raised his eyebrows, seeming to indicate that I was rude to not get my date what she wanted. But she had never said anything.

  I sat down, trying to get my mind off of my annoyance, but it was hard with wet pants and everyone still staring.

  This was probably a bad idea. I wasn’t good with women. I should have ignored what Ann and Vicky said. Hayley would never make a good fake fiancée for Carl’s wedding. The girl obviously could not stay calm, and there was no way we could get along.

  It was the hot chocolate that was the final proof. Not the fact that she preferred that to coffee, which could admittedly be pretty disgusting, but that she didn’t even bother to tell me. How could I deal with a woman who wouldn’t even talk?

  To be fair, she also hadn’t said a word since we had left Ann’s office. It was a form of selective mutism I had seen before, generally brought on by trauma, or at least intense fear. I didn’t know what she had heard about me, but it was a safe bet that it wasn’t good. It was a mistake to ask her out, cute as she was.

  “I won’t bite,” I said after a few moments of silence.

  “I-I know,” she said, still not looking me in the eye.

  “What’s wrong, then? Your shaking like a Chihuahua in a thunderstorm.”

  That actually got a giggle out of her, which was a nice surprise. I really hoped I wasn’t as scary as I seemed.

  She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, then immediately looked back down at the table again. “I-I’ve just never been on a date with a rich man before. Y-your also really s-sexy, it’s, you know, intimidating,” she managed.

  Her words hit me hard. On the one hand, I was happy that she thought I was sexy. On the other, did she only think I was sexy because of my money? I wasn’t really interested in a gold digger, even if it was just supposed to be for one night. Women like that were hard to get rid of.

  “Well, thanks for the compliment, but you don’t have to be scared,” I told her calmly. “I have money, yes, but it hasn’t really changed me that much.”

  We paused as the waiter brought over her hot chocolate and set it on the table before giving me another judgmental look. I tried to ignore him.

  “I’ve heard of that, I think,” Hayley said when the man had gone.

  “Self-made men?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” she said, looking down at her new cup.

  As I waited quietly, she blew on the cup a little to cool the liquid, then took a hesitant sip. It must have been fine because she settled in her seat a little. However, she still wouldn’t look at me.

  It didn’t appear that she was going to say anything more. Conversation with this woman was almost impossible.

  “Did you hear something about what I did in the war?” I asked.

  “No, not really, just that you were there and then parlayed your military training and a keen mind for tactics into one of the most successful security companies in the nation.”

  Wow. A full sentence.

  Too bad it wasn’t an original thought that was hers.

  “You read my write up in Forbes.” She had quoted it almost word for word.

  “Yeah,” she said blushing.

  “You memorized it?”

  “No, I just remember things. I don’t know why.”

  Okay.

  “Must be useful in your line of work,” I said, trying to keep the conversation going, not that it had ever really started.

  “Yeah
,” she said.

  And that was it.

  I could tell she was winding down, closing off again. I couldn’t read minds, not really, but I could read people, and more to the point, their feelings. It was a skill I’d always had that had only gotten stronger during my service.

  It was clear the whole fake fiancée thing hadn’t been a good idea. At least to try and do it with Hayley. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt or scare her. The evidence told me I was doing at least one, if not both of these things.

  I knew I had to find a way to let her down easy. It would be better in the long run. I cleared my throat, something that actually got her to turn toward me.

  “Well, I should get going,” I told her, standing up.

  Hayley looked up at me, her eyes wide. It was like she was wondering if she had failed a test. “Already?” she asked, slightly breathless again. “Your coffee isn’t even done.”

  I couldn’t help it. All my frustrations from that morning started to overflow. How could she possibly expect me to stay when she hadn’t shown the least bit of interest in me?

  “You’ve barely said one word to me this whole time,” I snapped a little too loudly. “It is obvious, by your silence, what you think of me, and I won’t bother you any longer. I’m going to head up to Ann’s office now. By the time you finish your hot chocolate, I will be gone, and you won’t have to ever see me again.”

  I picked up my cane and left without looking at her.

  Chapter Four - Hayley

  The disaster of a date was mercifully short, and my lunch break at the time was thirty minutes, so I had to get back to work after my hot chocolate was done. I had thought that Liam asked me out as a joke, but when he snapped at me, I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. Was he really interested? Did he indicate that he was? Maybe he had, and I hadn’t noticed, being too busy hiding in my shell. He did seem to think that my inability to talk was rude.

  I guess I could kinda see that. I certainly hadn’t meant it that way.