Bradley took my hand and we slowly walked down the hall. The hall ended with another oak door and he turned the handle and I stepped into his room.
Chapter 5
It had the same rustic feel as the rest of the house with a giant California king sized bed in the middle. There was another sleek flat screen TV on the other side with an aquarium near the bathroom door — I could see the marble flooring from here. The carpet was plush and my feet sunk into it. The windows opened up into a patio, I noticed, that overlooked the city. There was a hot tub out there too.
“Wow,” I breathed, “This is gorgeous.”
“It’s nice knowing its here when I’m halfway across the world in some business trip.” Bradley replied.
I stepped farther inside and he wrapped his arms around me from behind, “You can stay here as long as you need.”
“Just the week.” I said, not wanting to end up over staying my welcome.
Bradley was kissing along my neck now, trailing kisses down to my shoulders. The feeling came over me — the same one he could always make in me — the shivering, the goose bumps and the warmth below. He moved his hands to my breasts, squeezing them through the shirt.
“How about we don’t go in tomorrow?” He whispered in my ear.
“We can’t; we have too,” I said, trying to sound stern, “People will talk.”
He pinched one of my nipples through the fabric, “But people are already talking, Serena.”
He had a point. Plus he was the owner. He could do whatever he pleased. If he wanted to run off to Mexico for a month, he didn’t have to answer to anybody. His hand was slinking down to my skirt, bunching it up, rubbing my panties.
“Just us, Serena, us and this big apartment. I’ll make you breakfast.”
I scoffed, trying not to shudder at his touch, “Do you even know how to make breakfast?”
“You’d be surprised at what I know.”
He pulled his hands away and I instantly wished they were back. Bradley led me to the bed, undressing me, taking me all in. His eyes seemed to linger on my breasts and my hips as he undressed himself. He pushed me gently back on the bed and looked me over again.
“Serena…” He mumbled as he kissed me, his manhood pressing against my thigh, hard and warm.
Our limbs entwined, his fingers in my hair as he gently bit my bottom lip, teasing me. I arched my hips, wanting him to enter me. He was teasing me again, I thought, he so enjoyed doing that.
Then he slid in me, slowly. I loved feeling every inch of him enter me until he was fully inside. The warmth seemed to radiate through me as he began to move inside me. I clung to him, trying to match his movements, to get him as deep as I could inside me.
“Please,” I moaned softly, “Don’t stop.”
He bit my neck, tugging on my hair a little as he thrust in me. Bradley held me, his arms wrapped around me as if he was protecting me. I wrapped my legs around his waist, drawing him in deeper as he moved inside me. One of his hands were squeezing my breasts, pinching and playing with the nipple as he thrust in me. Our breathing grew heavy as we moved against each other, in the glow of the city lights. Bradley was all mine, I thought passionately, this man was all mine.
I could feel the heat rising in my face as my body started to shudder. I rocked my hips as he moaned in my ear, telling me I was his and that I was going to finish for him. I arched my back, bit my bottom lip to keep quiet as I rode the orgasm out. My body fell back against the bed as Bradley groaned too, thrusting deep in me, murmuring my name as he finished inside me. He collapsed next to me, our fingers touching lightly and both of us out of breath.
“You’re right,” I murmured to him, “Let’s not go in tomorrow.”
Bradley smiled and he moved me under the bed sheets that were so soft they felt unreal and I was soon dozing off in his arms.
The driver took Greg to school. I sat in the limo with him because it didn’t feel right just to send him off by himself. He had tried to get out of school earlier. Greg had sworn up and down he had caught a cold. I knew he just wanted to stay at Bradley’s and play video games. As the limo pulled up in front of the school, Greg coughed again, looking at me hopefully, with puppy dog eyes.
“Listen, be good today, okay?” I kissed his forehead, “And…” I paused briefly, “If the kids say anything to you, ignore it the best you can, okay?”
Greg nodded, looking slightly confused and he slid out of the limo, rushing up to the front of the building. As the limo pulled away, I suddenly felt sick again, like I was going to throw up. Not here, I thought to myself, trying to hold back the feeling. Every morning I had been feeling like this —
My body went cold all over, as though I took a dive into a pool full of ice water. Every morning I had been sick. My heart pounded. It couldn’t be…I had tried and been so careful. I leaned forward to the driver.
“Can we stop a pharmacy? I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, ma’am.” He replied, nodding his head.
I leaned back against the seat with my eyes closed, picturing all the times Bradley and I had had sex. It couldn’t be. I had taken my pill every day. It’s not always 100 percent. And weren’t you late taking it a couple of times? The voice in my head said, refusing to shut up.
The driver pulled into a pharmacy and I pulled a hat I had grabbed over my head tightly and slid on sunglasses. I walked into the pharmacy, hoping against hope that I wouldn’t be discovered. The rows of pregnancy tests floated in front of my eyes, seemingly blurring together. I grabbed one, paid for it and hopped back in the limo. Fall was ending and the air had a bite to it as winter was coming in. I should have brought a jacket. I slid into the limo, shoving the test into my purse.
When I stepped back into Bradley’s foyer, I hoped against hope he was still asleep. He mentioned he was planning on sleeping in for once. I stepped inside the living room but no one was there. Sunlight flooded into the living room, illuminating it better than I had seen last night. There were some magazines thrown about and a book or two, both with bookmarks shoved in them, as if he had forgotten to finish them. I peeked down the hallway but the door was still shut and I could hear Bradley faintly snoring.
I shut the bathroom door behind me. It was the one in the hallway and looked as though it hadn’t been touched in forever. It was clean, looking utterly spotless but impersonal as well. I opened up the pregnancy kit, sitting down on the toilet, hoping that maybe I just felt sick due to stress.
Then I waited, pacing back and forth across the marble flooring in the bathroom, which made it freezing. I ended up pacing the bath mat instead, avoiding the cold floor. Sunlight made its way through the frosted window.
I tried to think through what I was going to do if it came back that I was pregnant. I’d have to tell Bradley. How would he take it? Winter had said that he hadn’t wanted kids. What if he thought I had done it on purpose? Maybe I shouldn’t tell him at all. I should leave. I’d have to find another job to raise two kids but I could do it. I could do it on my own. I’d get my real estate license, I thought wildly, that’ll do it. I can go back to selling houses, figure it out on my own.
I thought of Bradley’s face when I uttered the words “I’m pregnant”. I could imagine his face falling and him offering to pay child support but I would have to leave.
What did it say about me that I thought he would do that? Did I truly know him if I was sitting here thinking like this? If I truly thought that he would leave like that and want no part of me? I felt a headache coming on.
Gathering my breath, I walked over to the counter and peered over the stick.
It was positive. I was pregnant.
Chapter 6
I sat in the bathroom a long time, just staring at the stick, unsure of what my next move would be. There was no way around the fact that I was pregnant. It was funny how this stick changed my life so completely. I had to re-think everything now. What I was going to do next.
I decided I had to tell Bradley.
That was my first major decision, sitting on the rim of the tub, staring at the stick. There was no way around that. I had tossed around not telling him anything but I decided if his reaction was not what I wanted it to be — if he blamed me or shunned me — than he was not a man that should be in my life. It took two to do the dance we had done multiple times. Not just me.
After I made that choice, I calmed down just a little. His reaction would pave the way for what I would do next. If it was a poor reaction, I’d have to go back to my apartment and figure out what to do from there. If it was a positive one, then Bradley and I would have to sit down and think about what to do next.
“Serena?” I heard Bradley down the hall, looking for me.
I wished he had slept in longer. But there was no getting around it. My heart thumped in my chest as if it was going to pop. My palms were sweaty, I realized as I stood up and tried to wipe them off on my shirt. I heard him call for my name again and I opened the bathroom door, stepping out into the hallway.
“Hey, you okay?” He asked.
The stick was clutched in my hand. My pee covered stick, I thought. Bradley’s hair was messy and his clothes had been thrown on by the ruffled look of them. He looked concerned.
“There’s a bathroom in my room, Serena.” He said to me.
My throat felt dry. This morning had all gone much too quickly and I found myself wishing I could go back and start over. I just didn’t know where I would start over. I wanted to say something but no words came. Bradley walked over to me and looked at me curiously.
“Serena?” He asked.
I just shook my head.
“What?” He looked puzzled and his gaze went down to my hand, gripping the stick.
Slowly, he leaned forward and took my hand in his, gently prying my first open. The stick rested on my palm, out in the open now. Half of me expected it to glow or some booming music to kick up. Something to break the silence. Bradley lifted the stick up and looked at it. He looked at it for a long time. Then he raised his gaze and met my eyes.
“That stick has my pee on it.” I blurted out, breaking the silence.
What an asinine thing to say, I thought but Bradley’s serious face cracked and he started laughing. He just kept laughing.
“What?” I said, confused and worried.
“Serena,” He replied, trying to look serious again, “You’re pregnant. We’re past the point of worrying about if I’m holding a stick with your pee on it.”
“We are?” I said dumbly.
He looked at the stick again and back up at me, “Serena, you’re pregnant.”
“Yes…” I said slowly, not wanting to scare him off but hoping against hope his reaction kept going the way it was going.
“This is amazing.”
“But I thought you didn’t want kids.” There I went again, blurting things out, not even pausing to think about how they sounded.
“With Winter,” Bradley replied, “Serena, I didn’t want children with Winter. Can you imagine?”
The weight in my chest lessened a little but I still felt nervous, “Are you sure?”
He took my hands in his, the stick now pressed against our hands, “Serena, of course I’m sure.”
“But…isn’t this too soon? We just…I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“I know that.” His gaze softened.
“I don’t want you to think I did this on purpose, Bradley.”
He looked at me closely and pushed back a lock of my hair that had fallen in front of my face, “Do you really think I would think that?”
“I…I didn’t mean that, I just…”
“I don’t think that, Serena. Yes, it is fast and we are still trying to figure this all out. But we can do it. I told you that I want to be with you. It isn’t as though I can’t afford a kid.”
“Yeah,” I pressed on, “But do you want one?”
His brow furrowed, “I told you, Serena, I do. I just didn’t with Winter. Are you feeling okay?”
I felt that feeling again, that sick feeling all over like I was going to throw up or something. I felt like a cold sweat was breaking out over my body.
“You need to lay down, Serena, come on. We can discuss this in bed.”
He took me by my hand and gently led me down the hallway. I couldn’t tell if I was sick from too much too fast from the last twenty four hours — the paparazzi finding my home, us escaping to Bradley’s, making sure Greg was okay and now the pregnancy. Maybe the last few weeks were all catching up to me, I thought dully as Bradley had me lay down. His bed was comfortable and I sunk into it.
“Can I get you anything?” He asked me.
“No, I just…I’m sorry. A lot has happened the last twenty four hours, you know?”
I felt weak and hoped that I wouldn’t be one of those girls who was incredibly frail her entire pregnancy. I hadn’t been with Greg. But I had been almost eleven years younger as well.
“Serena, I think you should rest,” I felt him gently detangle the stick from my fingers, “We can talk about the baby once you wake up, okay?”
I mumbled something. I was suddenly exhausted. I wanted to stay up and talk about what we were going to do — there was suddenly so much to plan when before I had just been trying to get through the day and figure things out for Greg and I. But…
I couldn’t stay awake. The cold, clammy feeling stayed with me and swooped over me in one tidal wave and I felt myself fall asleep.
I dreamt. I was at my wedding with my first husband. It was at the beach and was a beautiful, cloudless day with a breeze. It had been perfect. Was I dreaming or had I just gone back in time? What if everything else had been a dream? My belly swelled with Greg — but then I saw Greg in the chair up front, peering at me curiously. I felt confused — how could Greg be up there when he should be in my belly still? Then there was someone next to me. My dad…to walk me down the aisle. I turned my head but it was Bradley instead. My head felt confused and muddled.
“Are you going to tell your husband you’re having my child?” He asked me.
Suddenly my eyes opened. I was staring up at the ceiling and didn’t know where I was. This didn’t look like the ceiling of my bedroom. My head was pounding and my throat felt dry. I had been dreaming. But the dream was slipping through my fingers like water and I couldn’t recall any of it. I let out a sigh.
“You’re awake.”
I turned my head to see Bradley on the other side of the bed, a book in his lap, looking at me, “Yeah.” I mumbled.
“How are you feeling?”
“Shitty.” I admitted.
“Do you want me to get you some water?”
I nodded and as he slid off the bed to get me something to drink, I managed to prop myself up against the pillows. Bradley came back and I started guzzling the water. I finished it quickly and Bradley got me more. This one I drank a little slower.
“Sorry,” I said, “I feel a little bit better now. I just…Busy day, you know?”
He nodded, “It really is.” He ran his fingers through his hair.
“So,” I said, “You’re okay with the fact we’re having a child,” He nodded and I took a deep breath, “My husband passed away not too long ago.”
He went still for a moment. We hadn’t discussed my husband who had passed away recently from a heart attack. Losing the money had been too much of a shock for him.
“I’m aware.” Was all he said back.
I went on, as I started remembering my dream, “This is a big deal for me, you know? It feels like we just…we’re moving very quickly,” I felt as though I was botching up my words, “Not that I regret it, Bradley, I don’t. I just…I am worried. About what others will think of me once they find out I am pregnant so soon after he passed away.”
“Do you think your family will be upset?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted, “I know my dad really loved my husband. He hasn’t contacted me since the news of us leaked but he doesn’t really check t
hose types of magazines and is terrible with a computer so he might not know. That could be even worse. I am just going to be like hey, I’m pregnant with this guy you don’t really know.”
“He sold me a house forever ago.” Bradley reminded me.
I smiled lightly, “That makes it all better.”
Bradley took my hand, “It isn’t like we can do anything about it now, you know? This is how it is. How it is going to be. They’ll come around. We’ll figure things out, Serena. Even if you have to move in with me right away…I have plenty of room.”
“You ready for a family?”
“No,” My heart dropped, “I’m ready for a family with you.”
He leaned over and kissed me, deeply and for the first time in twenty four hours, I felt as though everything would be okay.
Chapter 7
We decided that we should be 100 percent on the fact I was pregnant so I made a doctor’s appointment. I wasn’t looking forward to it. I was worried that someone I knew would see me and guess what I was doing, even if I lied and said it was for my annual exam. In the waiting room, I left my sunglasses on, which may have attracted more attention than not. I had a beanie on my head. The weather was chillier than usual this morning with fall slowly leaving and I had bundled up in hopes to keep warm and disguise myself.
My doctor was Dr. Wright and I had been seeing her for years. I couldn’t ever be comfortable with a male doctor. It felt weird that they would go through medical school and end up preferring to study vaginas. Maybe it made me old fashioned but I always felt the most comfortable seeing a female doctor.
She came in after I had taken the test and had been waiting for the confirmation that I knew as coming.
“Well, Serena, you are pregnant,” She told me, “Congrats.”
“Thank you.” I said.
Dr. Wright flipped through some papers, “My guess is you’re about six weeks along.”
Six weeks…that put this pregnancy right at the start of fooling around with Bradley. I had taken my pills late more back then because I didn’t think I would be having sex at all.
Claimed by the Billionaire: Rescue #3 Page 3