Billionaire Baby Daddy: A Second Chance Romance

by Lara Swann

  “Dammit.” She mutters to me. “I’m starting to feel like we should have practiced for this.”

  I’m wondering the same thing, but I cover it with a cocky smile. “Ohh, I think I know you pretty well, babe.”

  “Well let’s hope your answers say the same thing!” Emily appears in front of me, making Cassie jump and my heart trip over itself as she hands me a pile of cards and a pen.

  “See?” Cassie hisses at me after Emily has left and I know just what she’s getting at - that sort of thing could have happened at any ill-timed moment.

  “Okay, okay.” I say, still not sure I’m actually going to change anything because of it.

  “So, the guys will answer the questions about their partners on the cards, then we’ll get the girls to give the right answer, and see how the guys did!” Emily announces. “And let’s do this in silence, please - no cheating here.”

  She sends another glare in our direction, and I struggle not to laugh.

  Cheating seems a little unnecessary for something that’s meant to be a fun party game.

  I roll my eyes at Cassie, and she moves dutifully further away from me on the couch as I unwrap the slightly excessive number of question cards I’ve been given.

  I start writing the answers to the first few and slowly relax - favorite songs, food, place, color…I can do all that. I’ve known Cassie for years.

  Why were we even worried about this?

  But then I find out why. They get more personal and I stumble around, realizing I have no idea about some of these answers. Where she went to school, things about her hometown and past that she’s just never talked about. I shrug, hoping I can put my lack of knowledge down to a six month relationship and this being the first time I’ve met her family.

  Then I see the relationship questions and that stops me entirely.

  Where did we meet, and have our first kiss, what date is our anniversary and what did we last do to celebrate it…

  Fuck.

  I look up, at everyone else scribbling away, and a couple of the guys looking as stressed as I probably do right now. Only a group of silly, immature girls would think it fun to make a test out of this stuff and try to show the guys up.

  I flick through a little further, looking for inspiration - and ‘how many kids does she want’ stops me. I pause for a moment, staring at it and thinking of the seeds I’ve already planted as the solution comes to me.

  Could I really do that…?

  But if I’m not going to get the right answers anyway, why not use it as a chance to highlight a few major issues?

  However well I might know Cassie, I’m not going to be able to guess whatever answers she’ll make up for this.

  Let’s see whether we can introduce a little more tension in our fake relationship.

  I scribble a few answers, hoping that Cassie will pick up on what I’m trying to do and follow my lead.

  It doesn’t stop me from looking around awkwardly when Emily announces the time is up and collects our cards in. She goes to stand in the middle again and starts reading questions out to Maria. She answers, and then John says what he wrote, to which Emily nods along. I can see most people getting into the swing of things, laughing and smiling at the various answers.

  He does very well, only missing a few of her favorite things and hitting all the relationship questions on the head.

  Afterward, she kisses him on the cheek and they’re smiling at each other, obviously buoyed by the reminders of things they’ve done together.

  Okay, maybe this isn’t such a bitchy game if you’re actually in a decent, stable relationship.

  They continue around the group, and I catch Cassie glancing over at me, obviously concerned. I try to smile easily at her, but I know she’s picking up on my mood. I’m starting to see her point about working this stuff out before we came.

  Mark and Anne don’t do as well, but he seems to manage passable responses, and I belatedly wonder whether I should be paying more attention to learn more about Cassie’s family.

  A couple of Beth’s friends completely bomb out, neither of them appearing to remember anything about the relationship apart from their first kiss. The guy just turns to his girlfriend with a shrug. “Yeah, I’m totally only with you for the sex.”

  She gives an outraged laugh, flushes red, then looks around and nudges him with a grin. “You know what? I’m totally okay with that.”

  “Can I do that?” I mouth at Cassie, intending to make a joke of it, but from the worried look she gives me it clearly misses the mark. I add a quick, “Don’t worry.”

  Then the attention falls on us and I give my best winning smile. Whatever I feel, no one can deny I’m good at portraying the complete opposite.

  I smile at Cassie as I start asking her for all her favorite things, getting almost word-for-word answers right. I can see her start to relax as she shoots me a few surprised looks. I have to stop myself from interrupting the whole thing to remind her that I have known her for four years.

  How we met works out because we’d already been quizzed about that, but the moment I ask about our first kiss, her slow relaxation stiffens immediately.

  She, inevitably, makes up something completely random on the spot.

  “At…UCLA.” She says, stiltedly, and when prompted with a ‘come ooon’ from Beth, reluctantly embellishes with more details that are going to be impossible for me to copy. “After…arguing about whether Friends or How I Met Your Mother is better.”

  It’s not a bad guess. We argue about that a lot.

  “After treating you to an elaborate date at the local diner.” I repeat what I’d written earlier with a wry smile, shaking my head at Cassie as if I’m amused.

  “Oh. Yeah.” She says, trying to play it off and act like I was right all along. “I’d forgotten about that.”

  “Guess it can’t have been that good, hey?” Emily quips. “You two might have trouble with the next game!”

  Another one?!

  My heart sinks further. And as much as she’s trying to play it off as joking, I swear she has it out for us because of that interruption earlier.

  “Well, I’ll tell you now, the next two were never gonna work for me.” I grin at Cassie, having already decided to preempt the anniversary questions. “Cassie’ll be the first to tell you I have no head for dates and times…and besides, we’ve only been dating six months, we haven’t even had an anniversary yet!”

  I steadfastly ignore the fact that Beth’s three-year relationship recounted at least a dozen anniversaries of some form or another earlier on.

  Cassie laughs along with me, but it feels awkward - no doubt because she’s wondering how many we’re going to fall down on. It has the intended effect of making her seem less than happy about that comment, and there’s a moment where the previously good-natured atmosphere falters a little.

  Emily frowns. “Well, okay, since you already gave away your answers for those - blank - I guess we’ll skip them. The next one’s always fun, though. How many children do you want, Cassie?”

  She starts in surprise - somehow only just realizing this would come up, despite having heard three other women be asked it so far - then looks over at me. I know exactly what she’s thinking - I’ve already used no children as a way to worry Maria, and we haven’t talked about whether she’ll play along yet or not. Either way, though, it should work.

  And the way she’s looking uncertainly at me makes it easy to mistake our tension from the game for relationship tension. Exactly as I’d hoped.

  “I…don’t know.” Cassie finally answers.

  The rest of her family are starting to look concerned now, and I know this has always been a hot topic between Cassie and her mother.

  “Aww, c’mon Cassie, you don’t have to be certain, just pick a number - one, two, three…you never know how it’s going to work out anyway. It’s just a bit of fun.” Beth enthuses, obviously not minding the drama at all.

  “Well, maybe…” She loo
ks over at me again, and my mouth quirks in a small, secret smile. I see understanding dawn in her eyes a moment later, and she jumps on the bandwagon with me. “I…don’t know that I want…any…yet.”

  There’s a moment of stunned silence, and Emily looks down at the card with my answer on it.

  I smile at Cassie like I’ve won some sort of victory.

  “Yeah, I don’t want children.” I confirm again, wrapping my arm around Cassie. “We’ve got our whole lives ahead of us - far too much to enjoy for us to be worrying about that.”

  Adelaide is looking at us with a mixture of shock and utter horror, and everyone else won’t look at us at all. Maria is the only one who doesn’t seem surprised, but even her expression is sad and more than a little worried as she glances over at her little sister.

  I’d actually thought it wouldn’t have been that much of a surprise to Cassie’s family, since I’d already announced it to Maria - but I guess she didn’t tell anyone.

  “Right…well…” Emily tries to recover the situation, and I feel a momentary pang of guilt for spoiling the mood of the party.

  Maybe I went too far?

  Emily forces a smile. “So, Adelaide and Henry, would you like to go next?”

  “I…er…” Henry blusters.

  Adelaide interrupts with a cheery agreement, and then what follows is at best Henry scraping through some idea of his wife’s favorite things and vague memories of what must have been years ago now.

  They don’t do particularly well, but at least Adelaide’s obvious disappointment and chastisement of her husband takes some of the attention off us.

  Beth and Neil are the last couple to go, as I could’ve guessed from the beginning, and that brings the atmosphere back to a pleasant, warmer feel as they recount more love-at-first-sight stories.

  I squeeze Cassie’s hand. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” She murmurs back. “I guess we got through it.”

  “Mmhmm - maybe it wasn’t a bad thing, Caz. It set a few things up for us.” I say quietly.

  She nods and shrugs, taking another sip of her champagne that almost empties the glass, but at least she seems to relax a little. “At least no one seems to think we’re not actually a couple…but I swear, next time we do this, we plan it out properly like I wanted in the first place.”

  “Next time, Cassie?!” I do everything I can not to laugh and interrupt Beth again.

  Cassie looks at me, realizes the insanity of what she just said, and bites her lip hard to contain her own laughter. Not trusting herself to speak, she makes a dismissive gesture instead and I grin at her.

  She makes a point of looking away from me, refocusing on Neil and Beth. I try to do the same, and catch the tail end of the questions they’re being asked.

  “Do you think they rehearsed this?” I say quietly to Cassie, as they give almost word-for-word answers to each question.

  “Shh!” She says again, but she flushes and gives me a brief, knowing grin before starting to shake with restrained laughter.

  At least she’s happier again.

  The questions come to an end - at which point Emily announces gleefully that they’ve won, and are clearly the best couple in the room.

  I hadn’t even realized this was meant to be a competition.

  Luckily, most of the other couples in the room are older and mature enough not to take offense at that comment, and to accept indulging Beth’s ego for today at least.

  We get a few minutes’ break, where everyone chimes in and congratulates Beth and Neil - again - and chats about some of the things they’ve said. Cassie and I just chuckle together on the sofa - whether from so-far-restrained amusement, the champagne, or stress relief at it being over, I’m not sure.

  “Aaand now, the kissing contest!” Emily interrupts us all shortly after that.

  I look up, getting irritated by her whole attitude - but also feeling my body light up at the prospect of kissing Cassie again.

  We don’t have a chance to do much more than look at each other before Emily declares the rules for this game - which seems to just involve everyone kissing each other, at the same time, and her judging it.

  Okay, so you can think of a worse game…

  I grin at Cassie, and see she’s slightly flushed as she looks back at me, eyes wide. I can’t believe how beautiful she is like this, and I have to shift on the couch to disguise my sudden interest as I lean in towards her.

  I barely hear Emily declare the start of this game, too intent on the woman in front of me as I bring both hands up to cup her chin, my fingers caressing her neck.

  The whole thing might be ridiculous, but I don’t even care - the last game was complete shit, but this…this I can work with.

  And if we’re doing this on display I’m going to make it as over-the-top intense as I want it to be. Maybe it’s for something as cheap as a silly contest, but if I have the chance to kiss the woman I can’t stop thinking about…yeah, I’ll make that count.

  Cassie is looking up at me expectantly, her eyes wide, and I give her a slow smirk as I bring our lips together.

  I brush hers with my own, gentle and exploratory for one brief moment, letting her feel the barest glimpse of me against her. But I can’t do soft and teasing for long. I want so much more.

  Within moments, that desire overcomes me and I’m deepening the kiss - my tongue entering her warm mouth and desire rushing through my body as I feel her respond and open to me. I take full advantage, unable to contain my need to have her, and I kiss her like it’s the start and end of everything.

  Her eyes drift closed, and sparks are shooting behind my own as my pulse thuds in my ears.

  I suck on her lower lip, our mouths moving over each other and her lips vibrating against mine with a moan she doesn’t dare let anyone else hear. Her whole body shifts against me and it’s all I can do not to push her back onto the couch, to take this so much further.

  My cock is hard and throbbing in my pants, and I know if my hands were to drift down, to reach and touch, that I’d find her nipples stiff and eager for my attention.

  I don’t.

  I keep my hands above her neck, chaste and innocent.

  Except for everything about the way I’m holding her. Firmly. Intently. Deliberately.

  Keeping her open and exposed as my tongue explores every part of her desperate, eager mouth. I can feel every hitch in her breath and the pounding of her pulse at her throat, and I steal that breath one slow, toe-curling moment after another.

  By the time I finally ease off, heat and desire has flooded through every part of me, my body tingling where it’s touching hers. I break the kiss with a soft parting and a hand brushing her hair back from where it had fallen into her face, then look back at her and smile.

  I couldn’t keep the look of pure lust out of my eyes if I tried, so I don’t even bother. It’s reflected on her face anyway, and I see her try and catch her breath, staring at me with a mixture of shock and longing.

  “Good thing we practiced last night, hmm?” I ask softly.

  Emily interrupts the moment loudly enough that I actually notice there are other people in the room again, announcing grandly that Beth and Neil won the contest - of course.

  Cassie seems to be having similar difficulties paying the slightest attention to that, the atmosphere hanging suspended between us, and I feel like those wide, beautiful eyes are seeing me for the first time.

  “My god.” She finally says. “What…was that?”

  I smile, cupping her chin again and deciding on the spot to take the easy way out. It’s Beth’s engagement party, not the time for big, potentially life-changing conversation.

  Besides, I’m starting to think that a hell of a lot of things are working better unspoken between us.

  “You know me, I can’t help that I’m competitive, baby.” I say, my voice deep and sinuous despite me trying to lighten the tone - the desire still pounding inside me spilling out anyway. “Do you really think their kiss wa
s better?”

  She gives me a half-smile, meeting my heated gaze with her own. “I have no idea, Josh…I couldn’t see anything else.”

  My cock pulses in response, and I ignore it with effort as I lean forward to kiss her forehead. Only the slight tilt of her head makes it obvious she would have liked it to land somewhere else.

  “Good enough for me, Cassie…” I murmur, and finally shift back to give us both some space.

  I feel like we could start a fire with the sparks flying between us right now, and we’ve been completely ignoring the rest of the party around us.

  Not to mention, I’m horny as hell, and I’m not sure I can let Cassie know just how much of an effect she’s had on me. Not yet.

  Instead, I turn back to my champagne glass and see Cassie do the same. I raise it in a brief toast, and she clinks hers against mine before we both down them.

  Forget what I said earlier.

  Alcohol seems like a fucking good way to get over this slightly-shaky-feeling right now.

  Chapter Eight

  Josh

  “Hey - have you…seen Cassie?”

  I look around at the room I just stumbled into - no Cassie, just a few half-hearted decorations.

  Fuck it.

  I take my eyes off her for a few minutes and she manages to get completely lost. Or maybe I did.

  The blurring at the edges of my vision, and the confused thoughts tumbling through my mind make it hard to tell. And fucking impossible to find her again.

  All these damned hallways look the same. And there are fucking dozens of rooms here.

  The only occupant of this one - a pretty brunette girl - turns around to answer me, dropping the towel she’s wearing to reveal far too few clothes.

  “Who’s Cassie?” She arches an eyebrow at me, smiling coyly.

  “My…girlfriend.” I hesitate on the word, alcohol interfering with my usual ability to say it completely naturally.

  Her eyes sweep over me and she comes closer. Slightly too close.