Evan put up a defensive hand. “Stop, Mother. Can’t you see she’s upset?”
“She’ll be more upset when the police arrive. That’s right. I called them and they are very interested in Miss Jessica Collins here. And you, son, well you can cut me out of your company. But I will cut you out of my will. You’ll be left with nothing.”
“You know I don’t care about money,” Evan replied meekly. Then he put his arm firmly around Jessica’s back. “Let’s go somewhere so that we can talk. Don’t even worry about the cops.” He dinged his driver on his phone and the sleek black car pulled up. “Let’s go, dear,” he said, as he helped her into the car.
“You’re aiding and abetting!” his mother cried hoarsely. She had already had quite a bit to drink and it was apparent in the way she tipped and swayed. Other people gasped; a huge pool of onlookers had gathered on the portico to watch the scene unfold and many of them recognized Jessica from the office.
“Take us to a park far from here and hide the car,” Evan instructed his driver. He pulled Jessica into him and could feel her beating heart. “I won’t let you get arrested,” he assured her. “My mother was probably just bluffing, but I’ll keep you safe.”
“They’ll probably check your place,” Jessica replied anxiously.
Evan nodded. “Perhaps. So we’ll get a nice room. Wow, I was so worried about you. I wasn’t sure if I would ever see you again.”
“You’re not mad at me?”
“Why would I be?”
“Well, I did try to scam you,” she admitted reticently. She seemed to be puzzled by his warm reception.
“I knew that for a long time. But I wasn’t trying to scam you, Jess. Can I call you Jess?”
She nodded, a slow smile started to touch her beautiful and full lips.
“I knew who and what you were for a long time. But I sensed more underneath. I was hoping to unlock that and get the truth straight from you over time. That was my only scam. I should’ve just been honest.”
“I’m glad you feel that way because I missed you.”
“Oh, you have no idea.” Evan squeezed her close.
“By the way…what I had to tell you is….” She fumbled in her pocket and pulled out a strange plastic object. Evan squinted at it, trying to figure out what it was. “I’m pregnant,” she informed him just as it registered what the device was and what the two lines on the window meant.
Chapter 18
Jessica felt tender and shy, and a bit afraid, as different emotions played across Evan’s face. Suddenly he seized her and pulled her into him. “You’re having my baby?” he asked, seeming like he couldn’t quite believe the news. But he sounded enthused, which relieved her anxiety.
She nodded as tears started popping out of her eyes. They were tears of pure joy and shaky relief. She would not have to raise her child as she had been raised. There would be no Christmases of suffering, no loneliness, no needing sleep as her baby wailed in the next room. Her baby could have what Jessica never did: a father’s warm and loving arms to hold her.
“I was so scared,” Jessica admitted as Evan wiped the tears from her face. “But I am so happy now.”
“I am, too. I think we’re more than ready for this, hun. We can make it work.”
Jessica nodded. “Not if your mother sends me to jail.”
“Mom is just mad that I took the company key card from her and told security to keep her out.”
“You did that?” Jessica was stunned, and a newfound respect for Evan welled up within her. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“Are you upset with me?” Evan seemed confused.
“No – I’m proud of you! You finally stood up to her. You’re the CEO, after all.”
“Not for long.” When he caught Jessica’s surprised look, he went on to explain his plan to step down when he found a viable replacement. “I think I know the guy. He’s a bit timid, but that goes away with time in the position. He’s always watching out for the company and doing his job. He cares about his co-workers. In fact, when you left, he asked about you.”
“Who is he?” Jessica tried to remember everyone in the office.
“Isaac Whitewood.”
“Oh.” Jessica smiled. “Isaac is sweet.”
“Yeah. I think he had a bit of a crush on you.”
Jessica laughed dismissively. “The only guy I want to have a crush on me is you.” She snuggled into him and he instinctively placed his hands over her stomach.
“I have more than a crush. I’m in love with you. And now we’re having a baby.” Jessica could feel his face muscles move into a wide grin through her hair. Evan really had the most beautiful smile, and she pulled away just to look at it.
“You’re really excited, aren’t you?”
Evan nodded even more.
“Do you want a boy or a girl?” she went on.
“I’d be happy either way. I just want a healthy, happy baby with you.”
“I think she’ll look like you,” Jessica said.
“She? So you want a girl?”
“I’m happy either way, too,” Jessica shrugged. “But I do feel that it’s a girl. Mother’s instincts, I guess.”
The car stopped at a darkened park. The driver got out and stood sentry a little ways away from them as they cuddled under a tree and watched the distant lights of Las Vegas. Evan checked the ground before Jessica sat down, ensuring there was no trash or used syringes lying under her. “I had a strange dream about a baby recently and I woke up hoping that it would happen to me sooner or later,” Evan confided in Jessica as she snuggled into his chest.
“I hope I didn’t interrupt your Christmas party,” Jessica suddenly said, thinking of all of the people back at Linda’s palace.
“Oh, I don’t mind. We do it every year. You’re more important. I’ll open my presents when we open the offices back up,” Evan assured her as he stroked her hair. “The most important thing is getting us into a safe place and getting you a good doctor. I have some connections, so you will get the best care.”
“I’m nervous for that part,” Jessica admitted. “I heard labor really hurts!”
“You’ll be fine. You can get drugs to feel nothing.” He kissed the top of her head. “Jessica, I just want to know all about you. I want to know about your past. Who you really are. I feel that I know a lot already, even without you telling me, but I need to know more.”
“Well.” Jessica swallowed. Where to begin? Her past was not the most glamorous. “My father was never in the picture. He dumped my mom when she found out she was pregnant. So she raised me all by herself. Your father tried to help, you know. He gave her a job at Davis Enterprises, where she was only an intern when she get pregnant. But your mother got jealous and had her thrown out. After that, it was tough.” She sniffled as she thought of years of mac ‘n cheese, dollar store cornbread, and ramen for dinner. “As a kid it seemed awesome because my mom was good at hiding how hard she struggled. But when I was a senior, she got sick. Well, she had stage 4 cancer that had metastasized throughout her entire body. It only took a few months and all of my college savings. So I was on my own. I met this guy, Gary, who lived in my building. He seemed to feel sorry for me and took me in while my mother was close to the end. He showed me…” She groaned and buried her face in her hands.
Evan stiffened. “Did he…rape you?”
“Oh no, no, nothing like that. He was like a dad to me. Or so I thought. I just hate admitting what we started doing. Well, we started running scams. All over the city. We were smooth and we never got caught. We moved around the city, from hotel room to apartment to hotel room. It was a rough life, but a fun one. I was saving up to get out, you know, to go to college and make something of myself that my mom could be proud of. Well maybe not college, but I wanted to do something else. But then Gary betrayed me. Last year he ran off with all of my money and that was it.”
“Is that why you decided to scam me?” Evan asked gently, trying to make light of th
e situation to avoid hurting Jessica’s feelings.
“No. Not at first. But I went back to our old place and unpacked some of my mom’s things. The landlady was nice enough to keep it for me until I came back for it. I moved into my own place and was putting my mom’s things up to try to honor her memory. That’s when…well, that’s when I found her journal. It was nice to read at first, you know? It reminded me of her and I could hear her voice, narrating the passages. But then I read about what your mother did to her. And I just got angry. I was tired of suffering while you guys led the high life.” She turned to him with tears beading on her lashes. “I am so sorry. Had I known you, and how kind you were, I would never have gone after you. I was actually trying to meet your father.”
“I know.” Evan pulled her head into him to comfort her. “I knew all along but I still cared about you. Honestly, my father was a good man, too. My mother just had too much control over him. He meant well by your mother. In fact, he kept sending her money after he fired her, until Mother found out and shut down his control over the bank accounts. She took full rein and he couldn’t send money anymore. I am so sorry about what my family did to yours, though. Your mother deserved better, and so did you.”
“It’s really not your fault. You never would have done that. I’m just glad you finally stood up to your mother,” Jessica reassured him.
“Me too. Things are going to change around here, Jessica. And you and the baby will have a good life. I will amend the wrongs my mother committed against you and your mother.”
“Where are we going to stay?” she ventured. The weariness of early pregnancy was overtaking her suddenly. It had been a long and trying day.
Evan took her to an elite hotel not too far away from his place. Jessica thought he was going to leave her to go home, but he assured that he would stay with her every night from now on. “We’re a couple, aren’t we?” he asked her.
Jessica hesitated, surprised by the word more than anything. She had never really been in a “couple” before. Then she grinned and nodded.
“Okay, then.” Evan pretended to be irritated as he gave her a hard kiss before slipping off all of her clothes but her pink lace. Then he loosened the bed and tucked her in. “Should I sing the baby some lullabies?” he asked.
Jessica teased him because he couldn’t remember any nursery rhymes. He laid with his head on her tummy, feeling the rise and fall of her breath. The baby was too small to show or kick, but he told Jessica that he sensed a presence within her, a little soul.
“I feel it, too,” she told him.
He reached up and took her face in his hands to kiss her. Their kiss was slow and passionate, but Jessica already felt the heat pooling between her legs. She desired Evan with a fierce craving that she barely understood, for it was an entirely new sensation for her.
“Feel this,” she instructed Evan, placing his hands between her legs.
He grinned when he felt the hot dampness soaking through the lace of her panties. He brought his fingers to his nose and inhaled her scent, then grinned. “You still smell like heaven,” he told her.
“Stop it,” she laughed, wrapping her legs around his waist and pulling him close. “Are you going to make love to me?”
“It won’t hurt the baby?”
“I read I need sex for a healthy pregnancy.”
Evan raised his eyebrows and grinned. “You need sex, huh?”
She pursed her lips and nodded, enjoying the excitement that she could see mounting on his face. She felt down his chest, to the hard stiffness forming in his pants. “I need that.”
Evan teased her by slowly removing his shirt and then his pants. He rested his throbbing member in her hand. “What do you think?” he asked.
“I think you’re sexy and you should make love to me right now.”
“I can’t argue with that.” Evan supported himself on his elbows over her and began to kiss her tenderly. Each kiss made her wetter. As Evan gently pried off her panties, she rose her hips and arched her back into him, pushing his head into her. He teased her for another moment before groaning in pleasure and sinking into the depths of her. Her tight, wet cave resisted him at first, then swallowed him with relish. As he sank deep into her stomach, she let out a loud moan and he didn’t bother to silence her.
Suddenly, with a ferocious passion she couldn’t contain, she sunk her claws into his back and began to thrash her hips wildly. He cried out in pleasant surprise and then began to match her rhythm. The bed squealed in protest as they attempted to destroy each other with passion, clawing at each other and gnashing their teeth. With each thrust, Evan’s eyes rolled back. Together they reached an explosive climax, where they both screamed loud enough for the other guests and the driver standing guard at the door to hear. Then they fell apart, panting like animals who had just been in a fight.
“Sorry, baby,” Evan joked, patting Jessica’s stomach. “It’ll all be fine. You’ll meet me soon enough.”
Jessica just giggled. This experience of having a baby with the father involved delighted her.
Chapter 19
For two days, Evan and Jessica hid out in the hotel. Evan only went home to get some things, like toiletries and clothes. His doorman tried to find out where he was staying, but Evan kept mum. He was determined to find a new doorman.
They celebrated Christmas in the room. Evan brought Jessica a small tree that lit up when they plugged it in. They made love by its light many times. He also bought her clothes and shoes, and found her an obstetrician. He worried that the cops might be on their trail, but he was fairly sure that his mother had been bluffing. She was manipulative, but she would not do such a thing to him, or so he hoped.
On the third day, it was time to open up the office again. Evan went in with his head held high, not flinching at all from embarrassment because of the drama at his mother’s. His employees stared at him as he walked in. Then they began to flood him with the gifts he had not opened.
“Congrats,” Isaac told him.
Evan smiled as he opened Isaac’s present. “Actually, Isaac, I would like to see you in my office in a minute,” Evan told him.
Isaac looked terrified. Then he straightened his tie. “Sure thing.”
After Evan opened all of his presents and thanked everyone in the office with hugs, he went into his office with Isaac and shut the door. “Isaac,” he began, “I really want to thank you for your service with this company.”
“Sir, sorry to interrupt, but I just don’t understand.”
“You don’t understand what?”
“What did I do wrong? I have a very important place in this company as the head of development. I manage my team well and I get the job done. I would like to remain here, so please tell me what I’ve done wrong and I will work to fix it.”
Evan smiled. His respect for Isaac increased. Isaac wasn’t as timid as he looked. Clearly his job meant a lot to him, as well. “Well, that’s the thing. You haven’t done anything wrong. You have done so much right, in fact, that I want to offer you a significant promotion.”
Isaac’s jaw fell. Then his face suffused with joy. “Really, sir? Wow! You had me scared there for a minute.”
“I’m not going to beat around the bush. I have never been cut out for this position.”
“You have done great, sir. You turned this workplace around. I mean, it wasn’t bad under your father, but you made it wonderful to work here. You kept his best policies and made them better. You’ve kept this company a Fortune 500 and…”
“I agree. I did some things correctly. But generally, I have not taken control as I should. I let my mother run things. And that just shows how I don’t need or want this job.” He removed the key card hanging around his neck. “This company, this corporate life, is not for me. Today I am writing my letter of resignation and turning in at the board meeting tonight. My mother will be there, and she will have a cow. Don’t let her get to you. You will be there at my side at the meeting as I make you a board
member. And I want you to fill my shoes after I exit this position.”
Isaac simply sat there, his hands trembling in surprise. “Really?” he finally managed.
Evan nodded. “I am moving onto public service. That’s what I really want to do. So please, this position is yours if you want.”
The grin spread across Isaac’s face slowly.
At the board meeting that night, Evan arrived early and perched eagerly at the top of the table. When his mother entered, the second to arrive escorted by another worker since her key card had been revoked, she glanced at him before assuming a frosty expression and sitting far away from him.
When everyone had arrived and Isaac had taken his seat beside Evan, Evan began his exit speech. Everyone stared in shock. Then his mother slammed her fist down.
“This company is a family company! It must be run by a Davis,” she declared. “I won’t see you throw away everything your father and I worked to give you by handing it over to… to…that.” She waved hatefully at Isaac.
Evan just smiled coolly. “Mother, this is my company. I am handing it over to someone who is far more qualified than any Davis. In addition, he has license to rename and rebrand the company if he so chooses. Now how he chooses to treat you, is up to him. He may give you some of your privileges back, or an actual job here. Or he may cut you out of the company.”
“I will cut you out of the will!” she screamed.
Evan shrugged. “I have enough money to support Jessica, me, and the baby.”
Linda’s face turned pale. “The baby? Do you mean that Jessica is…?”
“Yes. We are expecting. I plan to propose to her later and we will resume the project we started on together. Of course, this time, it will be completed. And she will live with me without any interference from you. No planting earrings in our room and no calling the cops on that poor woman. You have done enough, Mother, and I am done.” He turned to face the rest of the board members. “Isaac has accepted this position, so I will spend the next few weeks making a clean exit. Understand that I value all of you and so does Isaac. He has assured me that he will be keeping this place the same and you will not have to worry about losing benefits or your jobs. I will make sure that everything is as smooth and seamless as possible.” He laid his letter of resignation on the table and walked out.
Daddy Plus One: A Single Dad Secret Baby Billionaire Romance Page 11