The Billionaire From New York City: A Steamy BWWM Billionaire Romance (UNITED STATES OF BILLIONAIRES Book 4)

by Simply BWWM

  Brianna finished her donut and managed to finish her coffee as well, and then Ethan bundled her into the back seat of his car, and asked her, gently, for her address. She rattled it off, tears still dripping down her face as she thought about how incredibly complicated her life—as well as Ethan’s—had become.

  The drive passed in a blur and almost before she knew it, they were in front of her building, and Brianna tried to find her keys in her bag, her hands fumbling and almost numb from the sheer shock of knowing that she was pregnant, that she and Ethan were bound to be in trouble from this. If he was being investigated by HR, then her being pregnant couldn’t have happened at a worse time.

  After a few minutes of fumbling, they were in the building, and Ethan gently took the keys away from her as they rode up the ancient, groaning elevator up to her floor. “If you tell me which unit it is, I’ll let us in,” he suggested. Brianna smiled wanly at him, nodding.

  She led him to her door and he unlocked it, then opened it, gesturing for her to precede him. It felt strange, letting Ethan into her apartment; he had never seen it, never been inside it, and Brianna thought absently that it was a new moment in their relationship. Instead of feeling stronger on what she could consider her own turf, she found herself feeling more vulnerable as Ethan closed the door behind them and shot the bolt, turning and looking around until he spotted the bowl where she kept her keys, next to the door.

  Brianna’s skin crawled as Ethan looked around the shabby-neat place, wondering if he was looking down at the fact that her couch was imitation leather, or that she didn’t have a nice, big fireplace, or the dishes she’d left in the sink that morning—all the little details that didn’t matter when she was the only one to see the place, but which suddenly had become all-important in the knowledge that Ethan’s apartment, in Manhattan—less than thirty minutes away in the same city—was so much grander, so much nicer.

  “You’ve got great style,” Ethan commented, kicking his shoes off before coming more fully into the apartment. Brianna choked back a relieved sob.

  “Oh god, I only just found out I’m pregnant and I’m already—already t-t-turning into one—one of th-th-those pregnant women,” she said, stepping out of her shoes as she moved towards the couch to collapse onto it, overwhelmed. Ethan was next to her in an instant, sitting down close enough to offer support but not so close that he would crowd her, and Brianna curled into him, letting her head fall to his shoulder.

  “Shh,” Ethan murmured, wrapping an arm around her and giving her shoulders a squeeze. Brianna felt him press a soft kiss to her temple. “Even if you were already becoming a hormonal mess, it would be normal,” he pointed out. “But I kind of think that finding out that you’re pregnant—and everything else that’s already happened today—makes it pretty understandable that you’re weepy.” Brianna laughed wryly.

  “Okay, okay,” she said, dashing the tears away from her cheeks. “I’m okay. I am. I just…” She took a deep breath and shook her head.

  Ethan tilted her face towards his and kissed her lightly on the lips, his hands falling to her waist. For a moment, they both stayed just like that—barely kissing—and then, consumed by relief and gratitude, Brianna deepened the kiss. She wasn’t sure why, but in that moment she wanted nothing more than to feel Ethan’s body against hers, with nothing between them. She wanted to feel him inside of her again, to feel that connection of their bodies and forget about everything else.

  Ethan hesitated for a moment, pulling back a bit, but Brianna slid her hands beneath his blazer, making her intentions clear, and he dove back in, kissing her more hungrily. Brianna broke away from his lips to kiss and nibble along the column of his throat, and Ethan’s hands began to work on her clothes, unbuttoning the cardigan she’d worn to the doctor’s office that morning.

  Their clothes fell away bit by bit and Brianna felt herself becoming more and more turned on as Ethan’s hands moved over her body. She squirmed at the sensation of the damp, slick heat gathering along her labia, slithering down almost onto her inner thighs as Ethan touched and teased her. She couldn’t quite get her hands to work right on the buttons of his blazer, or—later—on the fly of his trousers, but they kept going, touching each other everywhere, caressing and kissing.

  She could feel the tension growing between her hips. She wanted him—simply wanted him—in that moment, and no matter what else was going on, she wasn’t going to turn back unless Ethan decided that he didn’t want to push forward.

  Before she knew how, she’d become completely naked, Ethan pressed her gently onto her back on the couch, pulling her legs apart with gentle-firm pressure. He grinned at her eagerly, leaning in to kiss her quickly on the lips and then dipping down to her sensitive breasts to worship them each in turn with his lips and tongue.

  A flicker of an almost-thought flashed through Brianna’s mind; something about her nipples, about the baby to come—but it was gone before she could even put words to it, and as Ethan moved down along her abdomen, towards her pussy, she couldn’t help but writhe and squirm in impatience.

  By the time Ethan finally—finally—reached the spot she wanted him most, Brianna felt as if she’d been waiting forever, as if she might actually die if he didn’t give her satisfaction. She cried out as he buried his face against her slick folds, his tongue slithering up and down along her labia, probing and tasting her, teasing her by barely avoiding her swollen clitoris.

  Brianna’s hands sought for his head, his shoulders, and she fought the urge to close her thighs around him, to keep him exactly where she wanted him, as Ethan nuzzled against her, tasting and teasing her more deeply. Brianna let her head fall against the arm of the couch as Ethan worked her with his lips and tongue, sucking and licking, devouring her as if her pussy was a piece of ripe fruit that he wanted to get every last drop of sweetness from.

  Brianna gave herself up to the pleasure, her hips twisting and bucking almost with a will of their own as Ethan sucked and licked, pulling her clitoris between his lips and swirling the tip of his tongue around the sensitive bead of nerves. He worked her up to the edge of climax and then backed off, teasing her relentlessly, dropping down to her inner labia right when she was about to orgasm, until Brianna almost couldn’t stand it any longer.

  Her fingers tangled in his hair, her nails dug into his bare shoulder, and in the few instants when she could keep her eyes open, she loved the sight of her dark skin against Ethan’s pale skin, the look of her red nails against the cream of Ethan’s shoulder, flashing among his strands of hair.

  Finally, Ethan focused all his efforts on her clit, sucking it between his lips as he slid two fingers inside of her, curling them upward until the tips dragged against her g-spot. Brianna cried out, her thighs shaking as the tension in her hips reached an almost unbearable level.

  An instant later, she felt it break, and wave after wave of pleasure rocked her body as Ethan continued to work her with his lips and tongue and fingers, as if he wanted to wring out every last bit of pleasure her body was capable of giving her. Brianna moaned out again and again as her orgasm intensified, until she was almost afraid she would lose consciousness from the pleasure.

  After what seemed like half an hour, Ethan began to slow, and Brianna felt her orgasm ebbing away, the waves of pleasure growing smaller as they coursed through her veins and lit up her nerves. She was panting, gasping for breath, moaning every so often still as Ethan worked her, slowing down bit by bit, bringing her back from the heights of her pleasure. He took his time, and when he finally slid his fingers out of her still-tightening pussy, and pulled back with his lips, Brianna was so full of pleasure she wasn’t certain she could even move.

  He worked his way back up to her mouth and kissed her, sloppy and still faintly slick from her fluids. The taste of herself mingled with Ethan’s normal flavor was enough to stir Brianna out of her torpor—she draped her arms around his shoulders and held him close. “I think if you start slow we can go on to act two right away,”
she said, not even entirely sure what she was talking about. Ethan chuckled lowly.

  “I can give you at least a few minutes to catch your breath,” he told her. Brianna nodded at the wisdom of that, and struggled to slow her breathing so that she could feel him inside of her; she could feel the heat and hardness of his erection pressing against her hip already.

  As soon as she was ready, Ethan guided the tip of his cock up against her slick folds, and Brianna pushed her hips down at the same moment that he thrust up into her, taking him as deeply as she could. Like magic, they fell into a near-perfect rhythm together right away, moving in a tidal flow that Brianna couldn’t have resisted even if she had wanted to. She touched and caressed him, kissed him everywhere her lips could reach as they moved together; Brianna pushing her hips down and twisting them back, Ethan thrusting into her steadily—never too slowly or too fast.

  She felt the tension start to form in between her hips again, and they both picked up speed at the same moment. Brianna moaned against Ethan’s neck, against his shoulder as he began to push deeper and deeper inside of her, filling her with every other movement of his hips, letting her feel the heat and thickness of his cock against her inner walls as every thrust rubbed against her clitoris.

  It seemed to take no time at all for Brianna to reach the edge of climax once more, and Brianna only held back for a few more moments, wanting to make sure that Ethan wouldn’t end up disappointed. She could feel the tension in his body, feel it at its breaking point, and when she finally gave into the pleasure crowding in her hips as well, and let it rampage through her once again, she knew that Ethan was only a few heartbeats behind her.

  They both kept moving, kept working each other’s bodies as the climax flowed between them, intensifying and then beginning to ebb. Brianna held onto Ethan as if for life itself as pleasure coursed through her veins for the second time, tingling through every nerve in hot and cold flashes of sensation, and finally, all at once, it was over—they were both so spent that they collapsed against each other on the couch, tangled up together. She drifted off into a doze, for the moment no longer even aware of—much less concerned about—her sudden pregnancy, or the trouble that loomed over them.

  Chapter14

  Ethan sat back against the cushions of his couch, looking idly through his window at the Manhattan skyline. He and Brianna had made it through the week since they’d both found out about her pregnancy, and thus far no one in the office was any the wiser. But they had yet to actually—really—face the issue of the HR investigation into his relationship with Brianna.

  And they hadn’t really discussed what they were going to do about both situations. It was Friday night, and instead of going out, the way they normally would, Ethan had suggested they stay in, and at his place; he’d ordered in a five-course, gourmet meal, and let Brianna soak in his bathtub, and then she’d curled up in his bed with him holding her until she drifted off to sleep.

  Now, however, he was looking at the dark and light of the city beyond his windows, and he was worried. Ethan sipped at the scotch he’d poured for himself after leaving Brianna’s side and tried to focus on what was important. The investigation was moving forward; on Monday, he would be meeting with the board to discuss the ongoing HR investigation in general—and he was certain that his own involvement would come up.

  They needed to know what they were going to do, and for once in his life, Ethan found himself utterly clueless; unable to even think about what the best option would be. He wasn’t sure if it was—strictly speaking—fair to put the decision mostly or entirely on Brianna as to what they would do about her pregnancy. He was still so shocked in the knowledge that he’d gotten her pregnant in the first place. How had it happened? Had it just been a casual accident—the kind of thing that just sort of happened sometimes—or had one of them been at fault?

  His phone buzzed on the table where he’d left it, and Ethan got up to answer it before it could possibly wake Brianna up; he knew she was a light sleeper, and she’d already been napping for over an hour—long enough for her to wake up at the slightest notice. He hurried over to the table and unplugged the phone from its charging cable, recognizing the number flashing on the screen as being one of the office lines.

  “Hale speaking,” Ethan said.

  “Ethan, it’s Mark,” a voice on the other end of the line said quickly. Ethan felt his stomach sink down to his knees. Mark was the HR person in charge of the investigations.

  “What’s going on?” He glanced in the direction of his bedroom, and decided to step out onto his balcony, in spite of the chill in the air.

  “I just got an email from someone who spoke with one of your employees, Cassidy,” Mark said as Ethan stepped out of the living room and closed the balcony door behind him for the sake of privacy.

  “Okay,” Ethan said, making it not quite a question.

  “She claims that Brianna Evers told her that she had gone after you specifically to get the job she was given,” Mark told him. Ethan scowled.

  “There’s no truth in that. None whatsoever,” he said firmly.

  “I know it’s impossible to prove a negative, but it’s kind of…” Mark didn’t finish his sentence.

  “It’s ridiculous!” Ethan was glad he’d thought to step outside; he didn’t want Brianna to wake up to his irritation at his employee’s betrayal.

  “Do you have any records for your hiring process of her?” Ethan clenched his teeth. Technically, he had—at one point—had records about her hiring. He’d given them to her, and even if he still had them, those records wouldn’t exonerate him.

  “No, I met her the first day she started at the company—the same day I completed my purchase—and after speaking with her and interviewing her informally, decided that she would be a good fit for the position I had open,” Ethan said.

  “It seems to me like Cassidy was trying to go after Brianna—some kind of jealousy thing,” Mark explained. “If she can somehow carry the argument that Brianna tried to start up a relationship with you to advance her own interests, it might deflect some blame from you for starting up a clandestine relationship with her...but it wouldn’t look great for you, and it would almost certainly result in Brianna’s termination on top of it,” Mark said. “So I have to ask: did either of you pursue each other before she was hired?” Ethan swallowed against the sudden dryness in his throat. Could he lie, outright, to the HR investigator? What proof would anyone at all have?

  “The whole situation came about very organically,” Ethan said. That seemed the safest thing to say—and it would be difficult to disprove, especially if he had the opportunity to discuss the situation, calmly, with Brianna before she was questioned.

  “Can you be more specific?” Ethan took a quick breath. “We happened to meet by accident on the end of her first day in her previous position,” Ethan said. “We went for dinner—it was completely aboveboard—and by that evening I had decided that Brianna would be a good fit for the position I had in mind.”

  That much was true, but Ethan knew he had to be careful. “The next morning I put in the request for her transfer to the new position, and gave her the day off so that she could prepare for that transition.”

  “What was the justification for offering her the job on such short notice?” Ethan looked out over the city, glittering with lights. It was not very late, but he knew it would keep showing those little glimmers of light until dawn—at different points in the evening it would be more, and less, like dozens upon dozens of fireflies settled into the geography of skyscrapers and the valleys they created. Manhattan was constant movement.

  “I appreciated the skills she had, and thought she would be a perfect fit—and thus far she has proven to be exactly what the position requires,” Ethan replied. It was a good thing that he had chosen someone who actually was qualified to do the work he’d put Brianna to—of course, since he’d more or less created the position for her, that would stand to reason. “If I had interviewed her norma
lly there would be no question,” he added.

  “Of course—but you have to understand that it is a little...unusual,” Mark pointed out, sounding uncomfortable. Ethan chuckled.

  “Yes, I can understand that,” he said. He forced himself to sound more at ease than he was. “I can tell you with full authority that there is no way that Brianna sought me out for her advantage.”

  “Okay,” Mark said. “We will ask Cassidy to come up with some kind of evidence...but I suspect there is going to be a lot of difficult questions before and during the meeting on Monday.” Ethan nodded to himself.

  “I appreciate that,” he said. “Thank God it’s a short week—with Thanksgiving on the way.”

  “Yes, I am definitely glad that we’ll all be out of the office after Wednesday,” Mark said with a sigh. “We’ll tackle this on Monday. I just wanted you to be prepared.” Ethan nodded again.

  “Thanks for keeping me updated,” Ethan told the man. “I’ll be ready to close this all out Monday.”

  He ended the call and stepped back into his apartment, where he saw that Brianna had awakened; she was seated on the couch, watching for him. “Something up?” Ethan nodded.

  “Apparently—and I don’t want you to get too upset—Cassidy tried to throw you under the bus,” he said. Brianna’s dark eyes blazed with instant reaction, instant anger. “I told you not to get too upset,” Ethan reminded her.

  “She’s always hated me,” Brianna said, her voice taking on a growling note. Her hand went unconsciously to her abdomen and Ethan realized that while they hadn’t discussed the plan for dealing with her pregnancy, she seemed to have started to associate her own safety and security with that of the future child; he was fairly certain that she wasn’t going to decide to terminate. They would have to decide, then, what they would do together.

  “She has a thing for me,” Ethan said with a sigh, picking up the tumbler he’d put aside before answering the phone. He gulped down the last of the whiskey in it and resisted the temptation to throw the glass against the fireplace as irritation raged through him. Instead he set it down and sat down next to Brianna. “I didn’t realize how much of a thing.”