BABY ROYAL

by Bella Grant

  “I can’t depend on him.” If I did, he would only think of me as the exploiter he already made me out to be.

  “Why not? He bears some responsibility for this too.”

  “No, Ruby, it was all my stupid mistake. He doesn’t want a baby. Right after we had sex, he told me to get the emergency contraceptive pills but I got them too late. He’ll think I did this spitefully—to have a Caine baby.”

  “Hmm, well he might change his mind when he finds out you are actually pregnant. You know, he’s been coming around the room asking for you. He stopped by today.”

  My heart squeezed tight. “He did?”

  “Yes, and if that guy’s not in love with you, Debra, I don’t know what love is.”

  Whether or not Lucas loved me wasn’t so much the issue. All that seemed inconsequential now in comparison to this hurdle I wasn’t sure we could get over together. I was about to ‘confirm’ his worst suspicion of me when he found out about the baby. Which meant he couldn’t find out.

  My mind was already racing with how I could conceal the pregnancy from him for the rest of the semester. We were at the end of March, which meant two months to go before the school term ended. This could work. I wouldn’t get big enough for him to know I was pregnant. While we were on vacation, we would go our separate ways. The baby wasn’t due until September when I would be due back on campus for the new semester, but I would figure that one out over time. Besides, this was Lucas’ final year, so even if I returned to campus very pregnant, he wouldn’t be around to see me.

  Ruby dropped me off at the residential hall and left, stating she had some errands to run. I told her thanks once more, grateful she hadn’t mentioned my secret to Lucas. I’d thought it only fair to come clean with her after the way she had fussed while I was in the hospital, but I’d sworn her to secrecy. I never trusted girls with secrets before because they blabbed so much, but Ruby was proving to be different. I was glad I had her for a roommate and not some nosy blabbermouth.

  I went straight to the bathroom to take a long shower, my hands wandering over my tummy in wonder. Pregnant. A baby growing inside me. I was fascinated at the idea. Before, I’d never given thought to anything remotely similar. All my priorities had been tied to finishing college. I never had time to think about a boyfriend, husband or kids.

  Towel-drying myself in the bathroom, I heard a knock at the door.

  “Give me a minute!” I shouted and reached for my robe to pull on. I had a suspicion who was at the door and although I didn’t know what to say to him, we had to talk about the relationship not going to work out for us.

  I opened the door and my suspicion was confirmed. Lucas looked relieved when he saw me at the door.

  “Thank God, Debra. I swear, I was about to call the police and report you missing!” he exclaimed and I opened the door, letting him in.

  “I-I had to go away for a while,” I lied, picking up the story Ruby had told me she had fed him.

  “But dammit, couldn’t you pick up your phone?” he said with disappointment. “Do you know how worried I was about you? For all I knew, you were kidnapped.”

  “I did tell you I was okay,” I replied, moving away from him, but he wouldn’t let me. He reached for my arm to keep me next to him.

  “I don’t think you were okay,” he said softly. “I talked to your dad.”

  I’d gathered as much from his message to me. “Where?”

  “He came here looking for you,” he answered and led me over to my bed where we sat, our knees bumping while he took my hands. “I understand you were upset about your mother. Why didn’t you talk to me about it instead of running off on your own?”

  I bowed my head. “I needed some time alone. There was too much to deal with. My father lying, wanting to find my mom, you and I—which I still can’t figure out.” And the baby you don’t want.

  “Hey, in case I didn’t make myself clear, I’m down for you, Deb. There’s no figuring us out. It’s you and me and nobody else. Just the two of us.”

  I inhaled deeply. I wish I had the courage to tell him it wouldn’t be the two of us anymore, but I’d just gotten back with him and I wasn’t ready to let him go yet. Tears blurred my eyes. I didn’t know what to do. What was the right thing to do? He had been so adamant about the emergency contraceptive pills. What if he wanted me to get an abortion?

  I was so confused I burst into tears. Not gentle, quiet sobs either but snotty-nosed, loud cries. I would lose him because of this baby. I knew it but I wouldn’t give up my baby for him.

  “Ah, babe, don’t cry,” he soothed, wrapping his arms around me and drawing me closer. I laid my head on his chest and cried. For a mother who had been denied me. And a child I now had to deny a father who didn’t want him.

  “Everything is going so wrong,” I sniffed. “Lucas, I’m so afraid about us.”

  “Afraid of what?” he asked and I pushed out of his arms to walk to the bathroom to wipe my nose.

  He was still sitting on the bed, waiting for a response, when I returned.

  “That we’re going to break up again.”

  He groaned and beckoned for me to sit beside him. I did.

  “I’m sorry I called you a gold digger,” he apologized. “There’s no excuse for it, but when you’re wealthy you learn to be cautious. I can’t remember one girl I’ve been with who didn’t have my money on their mind when we hooked up. I knew you were different, but then I took what your dad said out of anger and believed it. I’m sorry, Debra. You’re a good person. You’re real to me and I should have never thought so ill of you. Will you forgive me so we can put all that behind us?”

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and smiled sadly at him. “There’s nothing to forgive.”

  I followed his lowered eyes and saw him staring into the V of my robe. My breath hitched, our eyes met, and I never wanted him more than I did in that moment. The fear of the uncertainty of our future together, the opportunity to have him one last time before I had to avoid him, made my desire for him flare.

  “Deb, if you don’t want this, I can wait,” he whispered to me.

  In response, I kissed him and with a groan, he took over. He laid me on the bed and kissed me sweetly, and our hands were as busy as our mouths, divesting each other of our clothes. I was urgent, wanting us to get our business done before Ruby got in.

  Pulling him down on top of me, I wrapped my legs around his waist and he entered me slowly.

  “Shit,” he uttered and pulled out. “As good as you feel, all tight and wet around me, babe, I need to get a rubber out my wallet. We can’t keep doing this naked every time and not expect that we’ll get stuck with a baby we’re not ready for.”

  I swallowed hard, watching him search his wallet for a condom and got it on in record time.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, noticing how stiff I’d become. I tried to relax against him to throw off his suspicion.

  “Can we do it slow?” I asked, clutching his shoulders. The doctor had said sex was okay but to avoid rough sex for a couple of weeks.

  “It doesn’t matter how we do it, babe,” he answered with a smile and pressed a kiss to my breast. “It always feels so good with you.”

  He spooned against my back and slipped his condom-sheathed cock into me from behind. I could feel the difference of the rubber but it still felt wonderful. He rested his arm around my hip and rubbed my tummy affectionately as he slowly worked his hip, penetrating me slowly but deeply.

  “Oh, God,” I gasped. The feel of him inside me was indescribable. He was so gentle, kissing my neck and my shoulder, his hand fanning over my belly so softly that tears leaked from my eyes.

  He joined our fingers again like the first time we’d had sex and squeezing each other reassuringly, we gasped and moaned and reached completion.

  I lay quietly on my side while he hopped naked off the bed and into the bathroom to dispose of the condom. He returned to the bed and nestled against my back, pulling the cover up over us.


  “Did you enjoy it?” he asked, his hand idly brushing a nipple.

  “I always do,” I confessed.

  “Deb, would you consider going on birth control pills?” he asked but feeling the stiffness in my body at the question, hastened to add. “If you don’t want to, it’s fine. We can continue using condoms, but sometimes, I want you so much I forget until I’m already inside you.”

  “It’s fine,” I replied noncommittally. He didn’t need to know why condoms and birth control pills were now unnecessary. “My roommate’s going to be here soon.”

  “Come back to my place?” he suggested. “I’ve got something for you anyway. Your dad gave it to me before he left Denver.”

  I thought long and hard about it. I had every intention of letting him go once I was out the hospital. It was better not to court trouble, or at least more than I was already in. But I couldn’t resist him. I wanted to be with him so much. Maybe for today, a few days, a few more weeks, I could be with him and when we got back from Easter break, I could make a clean cut.

  It could work. It had to. I wasn’t ready to give him up yet.

  “Okay. Let’s get dressed.”

  Lucas

  With one last deep kiss, I pulled out of Debra’s body and rolled to the bed beside her. Another amazing night of sex. I could scarcely believe she was here in my arms almost every night instead of her dorm room. Not that we had sex every night. Sometimes, we lingered in bed, kissing and talking. Other times, I helped her to get a project done or she helped my unmotivated ass to study for a test.

  We were hardly ever separated when we had free time together, whether it was to hang out at the mall, catch a Sunday matinee, or go out for grub. She had become an extension of me and it didn’t scare me half as much as I had been scared in the past to have a main girl with no side chick. Being with her, she slowly become everything and I couldn’t dream of being with anyone else.

  I sensed something in her, though, that she held back. Sometimes, I would catch her looking at me with a sad expression. Whenever I called her out on it and asked her what was wrong, she would tell me she was fine or she was just anxious about meeting her mother. That sounded plausible enough, but I wasn’t sure that was all there was to it. I still worried she hadn’t forgotten nor forgiven my cruel remarks to her and wondered if that was the reason she sometimes shied away from me. Although we’d had sex several times, she refused to undress in front of me and it irked me because I wanted her to be as comfortable with me as I was with her.

  She gave a heavy sigh and I looked at her to find her frowning, almost brooding. I shifted onto my side and pulled her onto her back so I could see her features more fully. I brushed her hair out of her face but she refused to look at me.

  “A penny for them,” I said softly. “Although something tells me they are worth much more. What’s going on up there, Debra?”

  She stared up at the ceiling. “Just thinking about tomorrow.”

  Tomorrow, she was going to see her mother. She agreed to me driving her but she was firm that she wanted to confront the woman alone, so I’d agreed I would drop in at my dad’s for a visit since he was in town. She’d been shocked to discover her mother lived in Cherry Creek, less than a half hour’s drive from the university. No wonder her father hadn’t wanted her to move to school in Denver, knowing her mother was close by. She’d not let me see the details of the little book her father had left for her and I hadn’t pried and looked. I’d volunteered to help her with the search for the woman but she claimed she had all the information she needed so I backed off.

  “I’m sure everything will work out for the best.” I tried to reassure her.

  “Maybe. I don’t want to get my hopes up. People can be very disappointing.”

  Something about her voice hinted at more than just her mother leaving her to marry well. Was she referring to me or her father?

  “Have I disappointed you?” I asked curiously.

  She shifted to her side and pulled the covers up over her naked shoulders. “It’s late. We should get to bed. Claire did say I should drop by at ten.”

  “Debra,” I started to say.

  “Please, Lucas. I’ve a lot on my mind. I’d rather not add anything else to it right now. I just want to focus on tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” I strangled out though I wasn’t pleased at all, but she was already stressing enough about her mother.

  Long after she was asleep, I lay awake, my mind roaming over what to do with her. She had me tied up in knots and terrified of losing her. Having never loved anyone else this deeply before, it was hard to imagine losing that. Or worse, if what she felt for me wasn’t love. How would I take that when I already knew she was the woman I wanted to grow more in love with each day, the woman I wanted to marry, have kids with, grow old with? Didn’t she realize how serious I was about her? Only her attitude about us kept me from declaring all I felt for her. At times, I got the feeling she wasn’t fully happy and I didn’t know how to fix that. When I tried the usual routes and offered to take her shopping, to go to a concert, or hang out at the club, she refused.

  Something was missing from the way we had felt about each other when I first met her.

  The next morning, we got up on time to head for her ten o’ clock with her mother. We stopped at Wafflehouse on our way to get breakfast. At least her appetite was back as I watched her eat with gusto.

  “Wow, you must have been hungry,” I commented, to which she blushed and looked away from me.

  “I’m making up for all the times I couldn’t eat,” she answered, stuffing the last bite of a Belgian waffle in her mouth.

  She had gained weight, which looked good on her. Her face was fuller and on days like these when she didn’t seem to be thinking a lot, she sparkled. I didn’t bother to comment on her weight gain, though. Women could throw themselves in a tizzy and immediately start dieting if a man suggested they had gained a single pound. Even when it was meant as a compliment.

  We left the restaurant and continued to the address she had gotten from her mother on University Blvd. The two-story house was large and had a double door garage, with large trees planted at the sides and medium-sized flower pots at the front containing green plants.

  “Wow!” she exclaimed beside me and that made me a bit uneasy. If she thought this was grand, how would she react seeing my father’s sprawling mansion or my condo in Aspen?

  “You sure you don’t want me to go in with you?” I enquired. I didn’t like the idea of leaving her alone with a woman she barely knew. A teary conversation over the phone and mumbled regrets was hardly enough for me to know what type of woman her mother was.

  “No, I’ve got to do this on my own,” she said tightly. “But thanks for offering. Didn’t you say you were going to meet your father anyway?”

  “Yes, but I’d cancel to give you support.”

  She turned and pecked me on the lips. “No, that’s not necessary.”

  “I’ll be back to pick you up at noon. Will you be ready then?”

  “I should. I’d rather keep this first meeting short, but I’ll call you if there’s any change.”

  I watched her exit the car and walk through the gated stone archway which led up to the house. She ran the doorbell and I waited until the door opened and she waved to me before disappearing inside the house. Only then did I feel satisfied enough to leave her on her own.

  My father’s mansion, one of several he had, was located in Castle Pines, a thirty-minute drive from where Debra’s mother lived. We had decided to meet at the country club of Castle Pines, the place where he spent most of his time, golfing in the mountains when he was around.

  Only the most affluent people living in the area were able to afford a membership at the country club. I personally no longer had a membership there, but Father had his guest list which all his children were able to get in on. I met him in the gentleman’s lounge where he smoked his usual King of Denmark.

  “Lucas, my boy,” he
announced upon seeing me. “So glad you decided to drop by.”

  My father’s ex-wives and my siblings were all of the opinion I was his favorite child. If I was, I didn’t get it at all. I’d always had material possessions growing up, but what I associated with a favorite child—such as time and attention—I’d never gotten it from him. As I sat across from him, I found myself comparing him to Debra’s dad and how different the two men were. Even when he made mistakes, her father did so out of love for her.

  “Good to see you too, Dad,” I said. “How long have you been in town?”

  A beautiful woman in her mid-twenties walked up to us and asked if we were okay or needed any drinks. I asked for a glass of iced tea, not wanting to start drinking with my dad. I had to drive and one drink and him could drive you to several more.

  “For a week,” he answered, taking a draw of the cigar. “Want one?” he extended a cigar from his pocket towards me but I shook my head. The cocktail waitress returned with my iced tea with slices of lemon on a saucer.

  “Now, that’s a pretty, young thing,” Dad murmured, watching the woman. She must have heard his comment because she turned and gave him a flirtatious smile before walking away. Just shy of fifty, Gregory Caine was an older version of me—dark hair with streaks of gray at his temples and blue eyes which still had enough sparkle in them to capture a woman’s heart, or their hands itching to get a hold of his wallet.

  “How’s the latest wife, dad?” I asked, reminding him he was married.

  “Ex-wife,” he answered with a rueful grin. “It turns out she was a passing fancy. We parted on good terms, though.”

  “So you’re on the prowl again,” I commented. “Don’t you ever get tired of chasing skirts?”

  “I’ll ask you that question when you’re my age,” he said on a laugh. “You’re a chip off the old block, Lucas. I’ve never once seen you bring a girl home to introduce to me.”