Billion Dollar Man

by Ali Parker

  I moaned as he started rocking back and forth again, my body moving with him as he fucked me. My breasts swung back and forth, his balls slapped against my clit. An echo of the orgasm came back, washing through me, drowning me in pleasure as Ben pounded into me. This was what I had needed. This was the sex that was able to take away everything I was thinking about, wiping the slate clean, giving me the escape I wanted.

  We changed positions a few more times – on my side with Ben from behind, on my back again with my legs over his shoulders, up against the wall with my legs around his waist – and I lost track of how many times I orgasmed. Or maybe it was just one long orgasm.

  When we returned to the bed, Ben was on top of me, my legs wide, and he moved slowly inside of me. It was romantic and sensual. He looked me in the eyes, his lips only an inch from mine, and I had never been so connected to someone, not even with Ben every time we had orgasmed together before. Why was he leaving when everything was so serious between us?

  I couldn’t complete the thought. Ben started moving again, pulling out and pushing back in faster and faster. This time, it was all for him. I could tell he was getting closer by the way his cock kicked and jerked, by how hard he was.

  His strokes shortened, and his pace kicked up another notch. I cried out as I climaxed yet again and this time, Ben was right there with me. He cried out as well, and we orgasmed together, his dick spasming inside me, my body clamping down around him and milking him for everything he had.

  When it was all over, Ben collapsed on top of me. He shifted a little so that I could breathe, and we lay together in a puddle of sweat, our skin slick on each other and our chests rising and falling as we breathed equally as hard.

  Ben finally rolled off me. He swallowed hard, opening his mouth after to carry on panting.

  “I’ll be right back,” he said breathlessly and disappeared into the bathroom. I smiled when I noticed that he was walking stiffly.

  When he returned, he collapsed on the bed next to me. He put his arm around me and pulled me closer, shifting me across the mattress until our bodies were pressed together. He dropped a kiss on my hair and sighed.

  “That was the best sex I’ve ever had,” he said.

  I blushed. “Thank you.”

  Ben chuckled. “You know how much you mean to me, right? I would tell you I love you, but I don’t want to be a dick when this is our last night together.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about that. I love you, too.”

  Chapter 63

  Ben

  On Sunday morning, I woke up in Mila’s bed again. She was curled up on her side, her back to me, and I lay behind her, my arm was thrown over her body, holding her against me. I could do this for the rest of my life, I thought.

  I had to stop thinking like this. If I was going to leave, I couldn’t commit my emotions the way I was now. Mila was the perfect woman. I wanted desperately to be with her, but she deserved someone who was here for her completely, not someone who was torn between here and New York, who was distracted by business problems.

  How many excuses was I going to come up with? I knew what I wanted. But I knew what I had to do, too. And they were not the same thing. I had to accept that and stop arguing with myself about this.

  Mila and I had spent an amazing time in New York when she had been there, despite what she had been through. And last night with her had been wonderful, from the dinner and the conversation to the walk on the beach to coming back here and not watching a movie together.

  But this was goodbye. It was why I had come to see her again. We had both known this, going in. Even though neither of us wanted to accept it.

  Mila rolled over onto her back, and I shifted to give her space. She blinked sleepy eyes at me.

  “Morning,” she said with a smile. I leaned down and kissed her.

  “How did you sleep?” I asked.

  “Nightmare free for the first time in a while,” she said. “It helps that you were here. Or that you exhausted me before we fell asleep.”

  I chuckled. “If being exhausted is the remedy, I’m sure we can figure something out to make it happen more often.”

  Mila and I laughed about it, but the laughter died down quickly. We could joke about it – but that didn’t take the sting of the truth away.

  “Do you have to go to the hospital today?” I asked.

  Mila nodded. “I do, but only later. I have the morning and most of the afternoon off.”

  “What do you want to do?” I asked. I wanted to spend as much time with Mila as I could.

  “We can go to breakfast,” she said. “I could do with some sustenance after the night we had.” She flashed me a cheeky smile, and I laughed and pressed my lips against hers. The kiss turned from a chaste peck on the lips to a full-blown make-out session. Before it led to anything more, though, I pulled away. I could spend the whole day between these sheets with her and not think about any of my responsibilities or worry about what Mila had to do. But I wanted to spend more time with Mila talking, making up for the time I was inevitably going to lose when I left for New York while she stayed behind.

  I wondered vaguely how my dad had managed to leave his family behind and leave to the Big Apple for business. He had been married, and they’d had me for several years before he’d decided to leave. I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to do that.

  We got dressed. I was in the living room, checking my phone while Mila finished up in the bedroom when there was a knock on the door.

  “Coming,” Mila called out and walked past me from the bedroom. She looked through the peephole even though we both knew who it was already. Jerrod was the only one that managed to get into the building almost every time and knocked on her door rather than waiting to be buzzed up.

  “Can we talk?” I heard Jerrod ask when Mila opened the door. He didn’t sound happy.

  “It’s not a good time,” Mila said. She wanted him to go away as much as I did. Things were bad enough already – I had told Jerrod that I had broken up with Mila and that I was leaving her behind when I went back to New York.

  “It won’t be long,” Jerrod said, stepping into the apartment even though Mila hadn’t invited him in.

  “Jerrod,” Mila said, trying to call him back but he saw me and froze.

  “What the fuck is he doing here?” Jerrod asked Mila, immediately pissed off

  “Watch your tone,” I said, standing up. I knew he was upset, but he didn’t have to be disrespectful.

  “We’re adults, Jerrod. I can be with whoever I want, even if you don’t think it’s right,” Mila said.

  “So, I guess you told him then, huh?” Jerrod said.

  Mila blanched, swallowing hard.

  “Please, don’t do this,” she said in a thin voice.

  “Told me what?” I asked.

  Mila was shaking her head. She reached out for Jerrod, wrapping her hands around his arm as if she could stop him from talking if she could hold his body back. The tension was thick in the room, suddenly.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, looking from Jerrod to Mila and back.

  Jerrod looked at Mila. “So, you’re still keeping secrets. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  “Please, Jerrod,” Mila pleaded.

  Whatever it was, it was serious. Which made me want to know.

  “Are you both going to just ignore me standing here?” I asked. “What is going on?”

  Jerrod looked at me. Mila’s bottom lip quivered, and tears sprung to her eyes.

  “Jerrod,” she said one more time, but it was softer as if the fight had gone out of her. She knew he was going to say it. I wanted him to. I wanted to know what was going on. Did she sleep with someone else?

  I guess if she did, I couldn’t blame her. We weren’t together. How pissed off would I be? I would stay calm and not give Jerrod the satisfaction of driving a wedge between us as he wanted.

  “Mila is pregnant,” Jerrod said.

  My resolve flew
out of the window. Of everything that had gone wrong, this was the last thing I’d expected. I blinked at Jerrod, wondering if he was just looking for shit.

  Mila was crying properly now, tears streaming down her cheeks, her whole demeanor deflated. She had let go of Jerrod’s arm.

  “Is this true?” I asked, even though everything showed me that it was. But I wanted to hear her say it. I willed her to say that it was all a lie. Even though I knew deep down that it wasn’t going to happen.

  “Yes,” Mila said with a hoarse voice. The tears ran down her cheeks even faster and her face crumpled. She covered her face with her hands.

  My heart was beating fast. I could almost taste it in my throat. Adrenaline coursed through my veins. I didn’t know how I felt. Angry? Yeah, I guess. Shocked, for sure. What the fuck?

  “And you didn’t tell me?” I asked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Mila didn’t answer me. She only cried harder.

  My shock turned into anger. My body tensed, and heat flushed through me. I started sweating. I had no idea how to handle this. I pictured walking to Jerrod and punching him in the face. But that wouldn’t accomplish anything. I was angry with Mila, after all. But he was the one that had said it.

  And he stood there with a smug grin on his face that I very much wanted to wipe off with my fist. I shook my head. I was getting distracted. I had to keep a clear mind to deal with this.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” I said to Mila. “What were you thinking?”

  “Can we not do this right now?” Mila asked. She had managed to swallow some of her tears, but she looked awful. Her cheeks had become blotchy, and she looked like she was barely holding it together. Maybe I should have been more sympathetic, but I was so fucking angry that she had done this to me, I couldn’t find it in myself to feel sorry for her.

  “When were we supposed to do this?” I asked. “Were we ever going to do this? Or were you just going to wait until I left and then you wouldn’t have to face it at all?”

  Mila shook her head over and over as if she was hoping that if she shook it hard and long enough, it would all go away.

  “I can’t do this,” she finally said. She grabbed her car keys and walked to the front door.

  “Where are you going?” Jerrod asked.

  Mila didn’t answer him. She opened the front door and slammed it shut behind her.

  Jerrod and I were left alone in her apartment, and the space suddenly wasn’t big enough for the two of us.

  “Way to go, asshole,” Jerrod said to me. “You fucked her up for life.”

  “Shut up,” I said to Jerrod. “You’ve done more than enough damage by being here.”

  “Hey, I’m not the one that’s been keeping secrets. But this time you’re on the other end. You’re the one that was left in the dark so suddenly it’s a big deal. But when the two of you were sneaking around behind my back, you didn’t care so much, did you? Well, you’re in the shit, now.”

  I clenched my fists, fractions away from losing my temper. I closed my eyes and forced myself to count to ten. If I didn’t get myself under control, I was going to do something that I would regret.

  Instead of getting into a fight or rising to the bait that Jerrod was laying out for me, I turned around and did the same thing Mila had done. I walked to the door and left the apartment. Jerrod could close things up if he wanted to. Or not. Whatever.

  I left the building and walked to my car, climbing into it. When the door was closed, I hit my steering wheel and screamed out my frustration. It was just one thing after the next, wasn’t it? And I couldn’t control any of it. Breakups, the Mafia, kidnapping, and now this. What had I done to deserve this?

  What was more, why had Mila kept it from me? I was hurt and upset that she had. It was my baby, obviously. It had to be. I had considered that maybe she’d been with someone else by how Jerrod had acted and how she’d pleaded to stop him. It would have been easier to handle if that had been the case. I would have been able to leave Mila and Portland behind without thinking about it twice if I had thought she’d moved on from me in the blink of an eye.

  But this was something totally different. And seeing that she hadn’t slept with anyone else, that baby was definitely mine. And Mila had kept it all from me.

  I was so fucking angry I didn’t know what to do with myself. I wanted to break something.

  The first thing I needed to do, I knew, was to calm down. Maybe, if I calmed down enough, I could think about it all a little more clearly. And then I would be able to do the right thing.

  I took a couple of deep breaths, taking air in through my nose and blowing it out through my mouth so that my cheeks billowed. Slowly, the anger started to fade, the feeling of burning rage in my chest subsided, and I could think straight again.

  Chapter 64

  Mila

  I cried all the way to the beach, my tears blurring the road ahead of me. I felt like I was breaking apart. By the time I reached the beach, I was nothing more than a million shattered pieces that blew away in the wind when I opened the car door.

  The beach was fuller than usual – it was late morning on a Sunday, and the weather was beautiful. The sea was a deep blue. The sky almost reflected the ocean in lighter shades of the same color.

  But the beauty was lost on me. My chest physically ached with the pain in my heart, and I had no idea how to deal with it. I had been through so much lately – trauma and breakups and panic and stress. But this was a new feeling, and I had no idea how to handle it. I felt like I had been trampled.

  My stomach rolled as I walked along the beach that Ben and I had followed so many times. How was it possible that all the good experienced just a couple of hours ago had evaporated like that? He would leave for New York, and I was willing to bet that he was damn happy, now. There could be nothing worse than being saddled with a woman and child he wanted nothing to do with.

  When I sat down, the nausea only got worse. Was this anguish or morning sickness? Maybe it was both.

  I sat there and rubbed my hands on my upper arms. My muscles were sore as if I had been doing strenuous exercise. I guess I did last night, but that felt like years ago, now.

  I struggled to swallow, and my throat hurt from crying so much.

  Right now, I was too upset about what had happened when Ben found out to be angry with Jerrod for telling on me. I would be upset about that, later. But Ben had looked so angry. Fresh tears rolled over my cheeks when I thought about his face, how he had looked at me as if I had betrayed him somehow. As if I was the enemy. God, I hated it. I covered my face with my hands and sobbed.

  I should have told him. Ben was the father, and as Skylar had said, he had a right to know. I should have told him right away instead of waiting, allowing my own fears to rule it all. But so much had happened, I hadn’t known how to handle it all together. I hadn’t even been able to deal with the kidnapping and all the hell that had come with it before I’d found out I was pregnant.

  To have a rejection from Ben, or a fight about the pregnancy, on top of everything else had seemed like something I just wouldn’t have been able to handle.

  Not that this was so much better, of course. Ben was angry with me. And I still hadn’t been able to deal with it all, yet. But the cat was out of the bag, as the saying goes. I had no choice now but to face it and handle what was going to come. Jerrod had thrown me into the deep end, and the only choice I had now was to swim.

  I would be okay. I would tread water until I made it.

  I didn’t know how long I sat alone in the sand with the wind tugging at the dunes around me. After a while, I heard footsteps. The sound of someone coming closer could be heard well above the wind. I didn’t look to see who it was but a moment later, when Ben sat down beside me, I wasn’t surprised.

  “You found me,” I said.

  “I had a feeling you would be here.” He looked out over the ocean. “It’s such a lovely place, and we’ve been coming here so often,
it’s my favorite place now, too.”

  I didn’t answer. I had no idea what to say. I had half-expected him to scream and shout at me, to be furious, to tell me that he wanted no part in this.

  Instead. Ben was calm, and it felt good to have him beside me. I didn’t feel attacked the way I’d thought I would.

  We sat together and looked out at the sea for a while without saying anything.

  “How long have you known?” Ben finally asked.

  “About a week,” I said. My tears had dried up. And where I had felt like I was falling apart earlier, now I didn’t feel much of anything at all. I was numb. I had switched off all emotions. “I think I’m about eight weeks along.” I had worked it out after I had realized my period was late. They always calculated the pregnancy from the first day of the last period and according to that, I was far enough along to be sure that this was what was happening.

  “Really?” Ben asked, and he sounded surprised. I glanced at him. There was still no sign of the anger outburst he’d had earlier, the rage I had expected him to come to talk to me with.

  “Yeah,” I finally said. I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I should have.”

  When he didn’t answer me, I continued without looking at him. I didn’t know what his face would show, and I couldn’t bear it if it was hostility that I would see in his features. Ben and I had been through a lot, rocking back and forth between happiness and heartbreak. But anger had never been a part of the equation between the two of us, and I didn’t want it to be now, either.

  “There was just so much to deal with. I didn’t know how to handle this on top of it all. You’re leaving soon, and Jerrod hates that we’re even together. I didn’t know how he was going to react to this, but I guess now we know.” I took a deep breath and let it out with a shudder. Everything had gone wrong. I wasn’t sure how anything was ever going to go right again – maybe I would have been able to eventually get over the trauma of being kidnapped. Maybe I would have been able to move on from Ben when enough time had passed. When we moved on with our separate lives. But a baby was a forever kind of thing.