by B. B. Hamel
I don’t know what it means that the very thought of sleeping in the same bed as him makes me excited.
The nanny shows up about a half hour after Logan leaves, and so I head out to buy everything we need. I spend a stupid amount of money getting a crib and all the furniture and toys we’ll need. I hire some guys to go into his apartment and to set everything up, and it all costs double since we’re doing it in such a rush. But Logan told me to do whatever needs to be done, and so I’m taking him at his word.
It takes me all day and a bunch of trips, but finally I get most of what we need, or at least all the big stuff. I’m sure more things will crop up as we go along, but at least I can safely feed her, change her, and we have a place for her to sleep. She doesn’t seem to mind the formula, which is really good. I know some babies can be fussy about that, so I’m thankful Alexa isn’t one of them.
I relieve the nanny from duty around six that night and Logan still isn’t home yet. I carry Alexa into her bedroom and feed her a bottle while sitting in the rocking chair I had set up next to the crib for late night feedings. She seems so peaceful, and I have a sudden stab of surreal emotion as I watch her drink her pre-bed bottle.
I don’t know what I’m doing here. Logan is basically a stranger to me, but suddenly I’m in his life in a serious way. I’m going to marry this man and for what, for money? I don’t care about money that much, although $1 million seems pretty good. The promotion will be nice, but the promotion isn’t it, either.
I think it’s him. I think I want to help him more than anything else. He’s such an arrogant bastard at work, but seeing him totally out of his depth made me realize that he’s just a man like everyone else. He’s an impressive man, handsome and rich and intelligent, but still just a man. He seems so much more accessible now.
I want to know him. I know there’s more to Logan than meets the eye, but I only got a single glimpse of that person last night. Marrying him and lying for him is probably just about the most insane and absurd way of getting to know him, but I know it’ll work at least. And he really does need someone to help him take care of this baby, even if it’ll only be temporary.
I get Alexa down around six-thirty and head back into the kitchen to make myself something to eat. The door to the apartment opens not long later and Logan comes in.
“Hey,” he says, dropping his bag on the table.
“How was work?” I ask him.
He can’t help but grin a little bit. “Good,” he says.
“What?” I ask, smiling back at him.
“That just felt… normal.”
I laugh a little. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“And there’s nothing normal about this arrangement.”
“No, there really isn’t.”
He eyes me for a second and I feel exposed, though I don’t know why. I have to look away from his intense gaze.
“How is everything?” he asks.
“It’s all set up,” I say. “Crib, changing station, toys, everything.”
“How is she?”
“Asleep,” I say. “You can go see her if you want.”
He hesitates. “She’s still a stranger to me.”
“I know,” I say softly. “Give it time.”
He nods. “Thanks, Everly.” He cocks his head at me. “Do you want to, uh, go home?”
I bite my lip. “I probably should, at least to get some stuff.”
He smirks at me. “Since you’ll be staying here.”
“I mean, we are going to be married.”
“All part of the illusion, right?”
“If you’re implying that I want to move in with you, think again.”
He laughs softly. “Oh, please. It’s not so bad here.”
I glance at the view. “I guess not.”
“Go ahead, go home and get what you need. You can have whichever room you want.”
“Thanks.” I motion at the baby monitor. “You can see and hear her, in case she wakes up.”
He looks afraid for half a second. “Will she wake up?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “But you’ll be okay. Just check her diaper and see if she’s hungry. I’ll be back soon.”
“Right. Diaper and bottle.”
“You going to be okay?”
He shrugs and grins at me. “It’s just a baby. I think I can handle a baby.”
“Of course you can.” I watch him for a second before gathering up my stuff.
He turns on the baby monitor and watches her sleeping as I get myself together. I feel something strange, watching him like that. He seems totally engrossed with it, like he enjoys looking at her.
“I’ll be back soon,” I say to him.
He glances at me. “Okay.”
I give him one more look before leaving the apartment.
I know I don’t need to be worried. He’s going to take to fatherhood. He just needs a little time to get adjusted. But I know he’s going to be okay. You don’t look at a baby the way he was if you’re going to be a bad father. He just needs to learn.
I’ll teach him how to take care of her. And hopefully I’ll get through this in one piece.
5
Logan
I never thought I’d turn one of my fucking guest rooms into a goddamn nursery, but here I am, staring at a crib.
Everly did an amazing job. I didn’t really expect her to get this room entirely set up in only two days, but she managed to pull it off. Now my daughter, assuming she’s my daughter at least, doesn’t have to sleep in a cardboard box. It was a nice box, but I think the crib will be better.
I lean up against the wall and just look at the room. It stands for something I didn’t know I wanted, and am definitely not ready for, but I have no other choice. I’m not the kind of man to turn my back on my responsibilities. If Alexa is my daughter, I’m going to raise her the best I possibly can. If she’s not, well, I’ll find someone that wants to adopt her and take care of her. Either way, this baby is going to be loved and taken care of.
Though that’s the long-term. In the short-term, I have Chester Winterfield and this land deal to agonize about. I can’t risk letting this fall through and potentially lose the entire project.
And so I’m doing something insane, something fucking stupid and crazy. I’m going to marry a girl I barely know, and I’m going to pay her a lot of money to pretend that Alexa is actually her baby. I don’t know what made me even think of this little plot, but I’m not going to turn away from it now.
“What are you thinking about?”
I half turn and catch Everly standing in the hallway, holding Alexa.
“Just how fast things can change.”
She smiles alittle. “No kidding.”
“In an hour, we’re going to be married. Are you scared?”
“Not really,” she says, shrugging. “I guess I’m resigned to it.”
I laugh and turn toward her. “Resigned isn’t the word I always dreamed my wife would use.”
“You dream about getting married?” She gives me a clever little smile.
“Maybe I do,” I say, stepping toward her. “In my dreams, my wife always had long, dark hair and these lips that are always pouting. She’s stubborn and tough, but she’s clever and beautiful.”
She blinks at me, a little taken off guard. “Yeah, and my dream husband is rich, handsome, and doesn’t have a kid.”
I have to laugh at that. “Let me take her.” I reach out and she hands me Alexa. The little baby squirms in my arms a little as I hold her. So far, Alexa is actually a really good baby.
“We should get going,” I say to Everly. “I have a driver downstairs waiting for us.”
“Okay,” she says, taking a deep breath.
“If you want to back out, now’s your chance,” I say. “No hard feelings.”
She hesitates but shakes her head. “No, I’m doing this.”
“Good.” I grin at her before heading into the other room.
We gather our
things and meet the driver downstairs, Alexa in tow. I took off work today so that we could meet with Richard in his office. It’s our wedding day, and I figured I can miss a single work day for my own wedding.
Everly is quiet on the drive over. I figure she’s probably wondering how the hell she ended up following through with a crazy idea like this, and I can’t blame her. There’s nothing normal about what we’re about to do, but for some reason, it doesn’t seem so bad.
I study Everly’s face as she looks out the window. She has beautiful lips and wide eyes with dark eyelashes. She’s pretty in a gentle and unassuming way. My eyes travel down her body, and I can’t help but picture what it would be like to feel her skin underneath mine, to taste her lips as my hands roam down between her legs. I want to hear her breathing get heavy and deep as moans struggle to escape her lips. I want to feel her body shiver and push against mine as I make her feel something she’s never imagined before.
I’m supposed to keep this professional, or at least as professional as I can. This isn’t a real marriage. But just thinking about Everly’s body underneath mine as I take her tight little pussy makes me fucking hard as hell.
We pull up outside of Richard’s office and climb out. I carry Alexa’s car seat with me, her diaper bag slung over my shoulder, as Everly leads the way. I direct her toward the elevators after we check in with security at the front. We ride them up to Richard’s floor, and he meets us as we step out.
“Logan,” he says, grinning at me. He’s my age, broad shoulders, dark eyes, and a full head of dirty blond hair. “What the hell is that?”
“It’s a baby, asshole.”
He laughs, shaking his head. “I mean that bag.”
“Diaper bag,” I grumble.
“You really are a dad now, aren’t you?”
I sigh and shake my head. “We’ll see, won’t we?”
“I guess so.” He turns toward Everly. “And I assume you’re his bride-to-be?”
She blushes a little. “Everly. Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.” They quickly shake heads. “Come this way, guys.” We head down the hall, passing other offices on the way, before making it to Richard’s corner office.
He’s a senior partner in one of the biggest and most powerful law firms in the city, and possibly the country. He’s young and successful and a damn good litigator. Normally he does high-profile courtroom stuff, so he’s slumming it a bit here in helping me with this issue, but he knows I’d do the same for him.
I get Alexa set up and comfortable before we sit down. She fusses a little bit but calms down as soon as I pick her up from the seat.
“Okay, guy,” Richard says. “Let’s dive right into this, because I have a meeting in twenty minutes.” He pulls out a sheaf of papers and pushes them across his desk toward us. I take one copy and Everly gets the other one.
“This is a pretty standard contract. Essentially, it says that Everly will marry Logan and claim Alexa is her baby up until the land deal with Chester Winterfield is finished. At which point, Logan will give Everly $1 million and a promotion at work. It’s all there, but in legal jargon so that it would hold up in court if it comes to that, which I’m sure it won’t.” He proceeds to walk us through the contract, which is three pages long and pretty standard.
“One important feature to note,” Richard says, finishing up. “There’s a nondisclosure agreement, binding for both of you. Neither of you can speak of this arrangement in public or in private, ever. Logan, this means you, too. I’m sure Everly here doesn’t want the world to know about this, so you won’t be able to write it in your memoirs or some shit like that.”
I laugh and bounce Alexa in my arms. “Why would I write my memoirs?”
“I don’t know,” Richard says. “Just seems like an old rich guy thing to do.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t have any interest in writing my life down.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Everly says, grinning. “I could see it happening.”
“Am I really that self-centered?” I ask, shaking my head.
“Probably,” Richard answers, winking at Everly.
We finish going through the rest of the contract. When we’re done, Richard turns his copy toward us.
“Okay, time to sign,” he says. “Last chance to back out.”
I look at Everly but she doesn’t hesitate. “Let’s do it,” she says.
“Okay then.” Richard hands her a pen and she signs her name, dates it, and initials each page. When she’s done, I do the same thing.
“Good,” Richard says. “That was easy. Now, I have a nurse here that’s going to take some blood from Logan and Alexa, just to establish paternity. Is that okay with you, Logan?”
I nod my head. “Thanks for setting this up.”
“No problem.” He hits a buzzer on his phone. “Lucy, send her in.”
A minute later, a young woman in scrubs enters the room. She walks over and efficiently sets up her tools. It takes her less than five minutes to get a vial of blood from me, and another minute to get some from Alexa. Surprisingly, Alexa doesn’t cry, even though we’re ready for her to melt down.
When the nurse is done, we thank her and she leaves. Richard leans back in his chair and checks his watch.
“Shit, okay, we’re really moving here.”
Everly glances at me. “You okay?” she asks.
“Fine,” I say. “Just thinking about the results.”
She reaches out and squeezes my hand. “It’ll be fine,” she says. “Don’t worry.”
I nod at her, a little surprised at her reassuring smile.
“Last step here, folks,” Richard says. He hits the buzzer on his phone again. “Lucy, send him in.”
An older man comes into the room, dressed in a suit, but I know what this is almost immediately. He places his briefcase down on Richard’s desk, pops it open, and takes out some papers.
“I’m Judge Franklin,” he says. “I’m here to marry you two kids, is that right?”
I nod my head. “You sure are. Jesus, Richard, you’re efficient as hell, aren’t you?”
Richard laughs. “Figured we’d get this all done at once.”
I look over at Everly, and finally she looks a little nervous. I think I’d be worried if she didn’t even break a sweat through this whole process.
“This’ll be easy. Do you two want to get married of your own free will, free of threats or coercion?”
“Yes,” I say.
“I do,” Everly says.
I grin at her and take her hand again, this time offering the support.
“Well then, sign these papers, and it’s done,” the judge grumbles.
I take the paper and sign it before passing it to Everly. She hesitates but signs her name. The judge makes us sign a few more things, he stamps them, and finally collects everything up.
“Thanks so much, Judge,” Richard says.
“Anything for you, Richard, just don’t be a stranger now.” The judge packs up his things.
“Golf next Tuesday?” Richard asks as he walks the judge to the door.
I don’t hear the judge respond as he and Richard reach the door. I slip out a small box from my jacket pocket and turn toward Everly, Alexa still pressed against my chest.
“One more thing,” I say to her softly.
“Logan.” She stares at the box. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Yes.” I flip open the box with my thumb and show her the ring. The diamonds are large but tasteful. I spent a ton of money on it, since I want this to look real, and I had to do it all last minute.
She gasps a little. “That’s too much.”
“If I were marrying you for real, I’d give you something better. But this is good enough.”
She bites her lip and slowly takes the ring. I watch as she slides it onto her finger, and I feel a strange sense of satisfaction.
“Is this crazy?” she asks me softly.
“Absolutely.” I lean toward
her. “But I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else. You’re my wife now, Everly.”
She looks at me with surprise on her face. For a second, we’re inches apart, and the only thing I want in the world is to kiss those beautiful lips. I want to make this real, make her my actual wife, keep her in my apartment and fuck her when I please. I want to make her mine completely.
But Richard returns, making some joke about the judge, and the moment is gone. I pull back to my chair and Everly gathers herself, clearly a little flustered.
The rest of the meeting winds down from there. We’ll get the paternity results back as soon as possible, and there’s nothing else to do but figure out a way to announce this last-minute marriage to the world. That’ll be Everly’s job, of course, since she’s the marketing person.
But now it’s real. We’re really going to go through with this. We’re going to try and make it work. Everly is my wife, even if it’s fake by contract, though genuinely legal. Together, we’re going to try and pull off this crazy plan while taking care of an infant.
I don’t know why, but I’m excited as hell about it.
6
Everly
The easy part is over.
It feels like getting married to your rich billionaire boss should be the hard part, especially when he’s practically a stranger and is one of the most difficult people you’ve ever met. Except filling out paperwork is definitely the easier part, and I even ended up with some fantastically expensive ring.
I didn’t ask him how much the ring cost, but I can only imagine. I don’t want to know, honestly. I’d be too afraid to wear it if I suddenly learned that it costs more money than I make in ten years.
Getting married and signing that contract was the easy part. Now we have to actually go forward with this plan. I don’t want to spend too much time holding back and beating around the bush, though. I want to dive right in.
Which is why I had Logan schedule a dinner with the Winterfields as soon as possible.
I’m nervous as I get dressed. I have my own room in Logan’s impressively large apartment, right next to Alexa’s room. I’m mainly on baby duty these days, and I’ve been given a leave of absence from work. I never wanted to become a nanny, but I’m finding it’s actually pretty rewarding. For his part, Logan is good with Alexa. We aren’t sure if he’s her father yet or not, but the results should be back soon. He’s treating Alexa like she’s his real daughter either way, and I’m honestly surprised.