By bringing Jason here to this hospital instead of enabling him by taking him to get alcohol, I helped us both. Even though I didn’t think I needed any help.
His arm tightens around me and his lips press against my neck as he whispers in his sleep, “Don’t let them take her from me.”
With no idea what he’s dreaming, I kiss his cheek to wake him. There’s no reason to let him have a bad dream. Not with all the other shit on the poor guy’s mind.
His eyelashes flutter as he opens his eyes. “You’re still here.”
“I am. I’m not going anywhere, Sweet pea.” I kiss his cheek again. It’s rough from not shaving yet he still looks as handsome as ever.
“Thank you, Britt. I really mean that. I can’t thank you enough. No one has ever cared enough to fight me to make me do this,” he says as he blinks back a few tears.
“Get ready for a lifetime of this kind of stuff. I’m in it for the long haul. Thick and thin and all that jazz,” I say as I run my hand over his tight abs.
“I’ve never had anyone do the things you do for me. Marrying you is going to be the easiest thing I’ve ever done. There will be no worries about you at all. You’ve proven yourself a hell of a lot more than I’ve proven myself to you. I don’t feel worthy of you. Not in the least. It scares me some that one day you will figure that out but until that day comes, which I pray never happens, I will hold on to you for dear life.”
With no idea what I should say to that, I just smile and move my hand up to run it through his dark hair. Leaning my head on his chest, I listen to his heart beating. I want to hear it every night before I go to sleep. I want to hear it first thing when I wake up every morning.
His strong hand moves over my head. “I’ll make you proud of me, Pumpkin.”
“I already am, Jason. You don’t have to prove yourself to me. I know the man you are deep down inside. If you think I expect you to never have any troubles, you’re wrong. I know life is full of problems.”
“My life has more than most,” he says then kisses the side of my head.
I hold my tongue so I don’t say what went through my mind. How there are more troubles because he created them. There’s no reason to add to the pressure he’s feeling.
“I can handle them, Jason. You can count on me. I will always be in your corner.”
“Do you think we can still be happy if that baby is mine, Britt? Because I think it would cause all kinds of hell.”
“We won’t let it cause any hell. I don’t want you to worry about it anymore. There’s nothing worrying can do, anyway. And I am with you on any decision you would make.”
“Would it be terrible of me to want nothing to do with the kid if it is mine?” he asks and I get a little tense.
The doctor told me not to talk about anything serious with him for at least a few days. This is serious and I’m certainly not about to tell him it’s okay to forget about a person his body created. With his knowledge or not.
“Well, that’s one of those topics the doc told you not to think about for a while, Jason.”
His hand moves over my side, stroking it. “Yeah, I know but it’s been running through my mind a lot. I need to know how you’d feel if I signed away my rights.”
“I will back you no matter what you do,” I say. But I feel kind of bad because once he’s all better I will tell him how I really feel about it. “But you know, you can’t make that kind of decision while on the anti-depressant. That will have to be thought about a bit later on.”
“No, I hadn’t realized that. The results will be in well before I’m done with the treatment. I thought I’d give him up right away.”
My heart is aching as this is such a huge decision to make and he’s obviously in need of more therapy. “Doing something quickly is never a good idea. Giving a human away is definitely not a thing one should do quickly. Take your time and think about things. It doesn’t matter when you would do a thing like that. It doesn’t have to be done right away. Giving him up won’t change the fact you have to financially care for him, anyway.”
“It’s not the money. I’d give any kid of mine all they would ever need. It’s dealing with that woman for the rest of my life,” he tells me and now I understand a lot better.
“Things can be done so you don’t have to handle things with her on your own. Advocates can bring the child to you. That would leave her out of it.”
“I know there would still be times I’d have to deal with her. You see what she’s capable of. I don’t trust her at all,” he says.
“Nor should you. Nor should you be thinking about this right now. Let me see if I can help you take your mind off of things so you can get some sleep.”
“Now that sounds like the kind of therapy I need, Baby,” he says with a low moan.
I’m not sure how the nurse will take finding the door locked, but I’m locking it. Slipping off my shorts, I find Jason watching me in the silver glow of the dimly lit room. He makes a little growl as I pull my T-shirt off.
“Baby, you look amazing in this hospital room. The next time I see you in one of these I want it to be just after you have our baby.”
I grin at him and take my bra off as I take slow steps toward him. I giggle as he adjusts the bed to sit up some. Losing the panties, I stop just in front of the bed and pull the thin, pale blue blanket back and rid him of his underwear, leaving the hospital gown on. It opens in the front after all.
“Climb on,” he tells me as the bed has him in the best position for me to ride him.
As I settle onto his hard cock, we look into each other’s eyes. “We need to get an adjustable bed, Baby. There are just so many possibilities,” I say with a moan as I am fitting him better than usual and we fit very well together as it is.
“Make it happen, Pumpkin.”
He’s almost back to being Jason again. And even though it was a very short time of having to deal with him in the other mode, I missed the real Jason far more than I realized as tears begin to flow. I run my arms around him and hold him close so I can feel him and make sure he’s real.
And just like that, it becomes apparent that I cannot live without this man. And I don’t know if that’s bad or good.
To be continued…
The Shameless Billionaire Series
Book 4
The Finish Line
By
Michelle Love
Love. Passion. Commitment.
After ups and downs, Jason and Brittany seem very close to finding their happily ever after.
Only more than one monkey wrench is thrown in their paths. A husband floats to the surface in Brittany’s past. Along with him comes a nasty little video to haunt her as well.
The way Jason takes care of the other man leaves him in trouble and needing the help of a woman who wants more from him than he cares to give.
In the process, Jason finds his love for Brittany has overcome his need to sleep with other women. But Brittany still has her doubts about that.
The two finally get to the altar but find nature seems to be against them, at first. Things seem to sort out on their own, though and our couple find a greater power might be in control of their destiny.
Can these two get past their pasts? Can they make a life with only each other? Or will things get in their way and end the love they’ve managed to find with each other again after six years of sowing their wild oats?
Find out if Brittany and Jason can find happiness in the conclusion of, ‘The Shameless Billionaire Series.’
Chapter 1
JASON
“What do you mean, she still hasn’t taken the baby to get the mouth swab done?” I shout at my attorney over the phone. “It’s been three weeks. This is insanity! She was ordered to do that! Jackson, I don’t pay you like I do to stand around and let things go. I need you to make her get that swab test done. I want to get married as soon as possible. Do you understand me?”
“I understand you, Jason. But Beatrice is saying the
baby is sick. What do you want me to do? Order a mother to take her sick baby to a lab for a swab?”
“How fucking difficult could that be?” I find myself still shouting. “We’ve been stuck here in Dallas for nearly an entire month. Britt has to be back in New York in three days for a meeting about some book cover with some author. I want to accompany her. But I can’t if I don’t have those results.”
“Go with her. I’ll take care of this from here on out. No one told you that you had to wait around, Jason.” He sighs and I can tell I’m grating on his nerves. “What’s the real problem here? You and I have been working together for a few years now and I’ve never seen you this tense. You’re usually the opposite of tense, as a matter of fact. I should point out that since you and this new girl have hooked up, you’re kind of an irrational puddle of emotions, Jason. Maybe she isn’t good for you.”
Jackson is an older man who I’ve looked up to and needed as an advisor since the very beginning of my career. His help in making sure I kept all the rights to my application was invaluable to me. If he’s saying I’m not the man I was then I need to listen to him.
I look over my shoulder and see Brittany is still outside on the balcony, talking to her agent. “Jackson, I know I’m changing. I’m well aware of that fact. I’m on an anti-depressant now.”
“Why?” he asks in what sounds like disbelief. “Jason, you’ve always been the most laid back man I’ve ever met. Why in the world would you need anti-depressants?”
“I have dark times when bad things happen. It’s been years since my last episode. But with this paternity suit hanging over my head and an accident I witnessed a few weeks ago, it sent me into that darkness I had avoided. So now I’m on medication to fix that. It’s working, I’m much better. Not entirely, but much better than when it first set in.” I run my hand through my hair and sigh.
The fact is I have gotten better. Only it seems to be taking longer than I expected for me to come back around. I keep blaming the lack of results from the paternity test but something else is there too.
I want to be married to Britt already!
“What’s the big fucking deal if the kid is yours?” he asks me with an exasperated tone. “You have plenty of money to pay whatever the court orders. See the kid, don’t see the kid, whatever. I can’t understand why the fuss, Jason. Honestly!”
“The fuss is that Britt wanted only us to have kids. I’d be letting her down if the baby is mine.”
“Did she tell you that?”
I look back out the glass door and see her still on the phone, waving her hand in the air and talking, what looks like, excitedly. “No, she’s never said that. It’s me who thinks that. I know it would bother her. I’ve done wrong by her and all I wanted to do was make it all up to her. Then one of my many women had to go and fuck up my plans.”
“You can marry Brittany after the results are in. If you are the father, then marry her after the child support is set. Not a big deal. So stop freaking out. Start making your plans. Why not set the wedding date for a year from now? Let her make wedding plans. Women love that shit,” he says with a deep chuckle.
How can I explain to anyone the rush I feel about getting Brittany permanently attached to me? It makes no sense to anyone but me, I think.
“I don’t want to wait a year. I don’t even want to wait a day. You don’t understand. I feel like there’s this tiny thing holding us together right now. It’s like, any minute she could find out something about me that’s a deal breaker for her and boom, it’ll all be over.”
“What makes you think a piece of paper, like a marriage license, will stop that?” he asks. “And what kind of things are you hiding, Jason?”
“Just a past riddled with deceit and other terrible things like that.”
The balcony door opens and I see Britt come through it with a frown on her pretty face. She gives me a glance then walks to the bedroom.
“Do what I’ve told you to, Jason,” Jackson tells me. “Go on about your business. I can sign any papers that will need to be signed. Go back to New York or wherever you want. I’ll deal with this. It’s just a legal problem when you really think about it.”
The bedroom door closes and I find myself worried for some damn reason. The fucking anti-depressants don’t stop the worry. “Okay, Jackson, I’ll leave this up to you. Don’t let me down. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Great, bye,” he says and ends the call.
Placing the phone on the table by the sofa, I go to the bedroom to find Brittany packing her things. “What are you doing?”
“I have to head back to New York this evening. Could you do me a favor and call that private jet charter company?” She walks toward the bathroom.
“I’ll come with you,” I say as I follow along behind her.
She stops and spins around. “No!”
I freeze then thaw very quickly as distrust flows through me. “Why not?”
“You need to stay here in case Beatrice gets the swab test done and the results come back. If the baby is yours, then you need to fight for joint custody! Can’t you remember what we’ve discussed a thousand times, Jason?”
I cross my arms in front of me. “You sure it’s not because you plan on seeing one of your boy toys while you’re there?”
“Lose the closed-off posture, Jason,” she says as she uncrosses my arms. “It has nothing to do with that. It’s all to do with the fact, if the baby is yours, we want to have joint custody.”
“I can go back with you. It’s just as easy for me to jet back over here for the results if luck goes against me and the kid is mine,” I say then wrap my arms around her and pull her close to me.
Her frown hasn’t gone away. The crease between her dark, perfectly arched brows deepens, as she says, “Don’t say that. Don’t think of him as bad luck. What if he’s the only child you ever have?”
And there it is, her doubt in getting pregnant. I lean my forehead to hers. “Baby, it’s not out of the question that you and I will have kids. So what if the pregnancy tests have all come back negative? It’s been less than two months since we started trying.”
“I know that. I have this feeling it’s not going to happen for us, that’s all. We both managed to get rich. We managed to find each other again. We even managed to get my parents to get over what happened between us in the past. That was a miracle in itself. I just don’t think we get to have everything. You know, like a family of our own. This baby may be all the family you ever get.”
Rocking with her, I whisper, “Baby, if all I ever have in this world is you, then I’ll count myself one of the luckiest men alive. Kids or no kids, I want you. I want you to be in my life forever.”
The touch of her hand as she runs it across my back sends chills through me. “Jason, don’t act like that wasn’t one of the first things you said to me. You wanted to have a baby with me. It was foremost on your mind. I know you. Probably better than you know yourself. If I can’t give you what you desperately want, then you’ll find someone who can.”
“The only thing I desperately want is you, my pumpkin butt.” I kiss her sweet red lips for a moment. “Everything else is gravy.”
The way her blue eyes soften and her bottom lip pouts a bit has me knowing the tears are near the surface. Her voice is shaky as she says quietly, “I wish I could believe you.”
“You can,” I say but the fact is her words sting.
How can she not see how devoted I am to her? How can she not understand what she means to me? What more can I do to show her?
From the living room, I hear my cell phone ringing. Not really wanting to let her go in her present emotional state, I hold tight to her. “Go answer your phone, Jason. It might be the call we’re waiting for.”
Taking her hand, I pull her along behind me to see who’s on the phone. The number that’s showing on the screen isn’t one I recognize. “Hmm. Who could this be?” I swipe the screen. “Jason Brennan here.”
“Jason, hi,�
�� a man’s voice says. “I have a secret that you need to know. Brittany Caldwell isn’t right there around you, is she?”
“She is,” I say then turn the phone on speaker so she can hear it too. “But she’s not right here in the room. Who is this?”
“This is her husband,” he says.
I look at Britt and she returns my confused expression. “Husband?”
She shakes her head and mouths, “I don’t recognize this voice.”
“Yes, she and I were married in Vegas four months ago. She was in Los Angeles for a party the publishing house I work for had. We got a little intoxicated. Well, a lot, actually. Anyway, we headed to Vegas and got married. The only reason I know this is because I received our marriage license in the mail yesterday. The hotel staff found it in the drawer of the room we were in. Seems housekeeping just found it.”
“And your name is?” I ask as I look at the woman I want to be married to more than life itself and now it seems another monkey wrench has been thrown in my way.
“Elmer Fartenberry,” he says and I nearly laugh out loud as Britt makes a hilarious face.
“So, my Brittany isn’t mine after all. She’s yours, Mr. Fartenberry. Well, this is awkward, isn’t it? Tell me how you found out she was with me.”
“You’re on social media, dude! Don’t you know that?” he asks. “There’s this man who’s looking for you two. Seems you helped his daughter out at some crash where his wife and son were killed. He’s been looking for you two to give you a reward for your help. There’s some footage from the scene of the accident. Someone took some video of you two with the little girl. I recognized my wife right away.”
Him calling her his wife hits me like a punch in the stomach. “Still, doesn’t answer how you found my number or my name for that matter.”
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