Special Delivery (The Billionaire's Baby Book 1)

by S Cinders

  She was refreshingly honest and straightforward. He knew that she still felt guilty about keeping the baby from him, but he didn’t blame her—not any longer.

  Mandy’s eyes fluttered open, her dusky lashes brushing against her cheeks.

  She was beautiful, shit, she took his breath away.

  “Is everything okay?” Mandy asked reaching a hand out to touch his arm.

  Elliot couldn’t help the sudden urge to gather her tightly against him. As he did so, one of his hands covered hers on her pregnant belly. He felt a definite kick and reared back in surprise.

  Mandy laughed and lifted her shirt so that they could watch the baby kick or punch, visible through her skin.

  “It’s getting a little crowded in there,” she explained shyly.

  “Does it hurt?” his question was a hushed whisper.

  Mandy shook her head, “Not usually. There are times when it feels like the baby gets caught in my ribcage and that doesn’t feel very good, but I don’t know what is really happening in there. There are other times when the baby gets the hiccups, and my belly bounces with every time.”

  Elliot was fascinated by her stomach. His large hands covered the delicate skin, and he delighted every time the baby moved.

  Mandy was trying not to feel self-conscious about the red stretch marks at the bottom of her baby bump. She had used lotion every day, but they had come anyway. However, Elliot didn’t seem to care. His hands touched them as reverently as he did any other part of her.

  “You are so damn beautiful, sometimes it hurts to look at you,” he whispered.

  Mandy blushed, her hands coming up to cover her cheeks. “I am as huge as a hippopotamus. My ass has spread, my nose has spread, and I hardly recognize myself in the mirror.”

  He looked up into her face and gently pulled her hands away, “You are gorgeous, Mandy. The fact that your body is swollen with my child makes me want to put a dozen in you. I love the way that you look, don’t ever doubt that.”

  Mandy blew out a short laugh, “A dozen, Elliot we are going to need to negotiate on that number!”

  He kissed her bare belly, “Fine. I can knock it down to ten.”

  Mandy felt her smile widen, “I was thinking three.”

  “Eight is my final offer,” he teased.

  “Well, one is a nice number,” she winked at him, and he moved up to kiss her lips.

  Slowly he lowered his head until their lips touched in the softest and sweetest of kisses.

  “How about we get to three and then leave the possibility of negotiations open?” He growled and kissed her a little harder.

  Mandy sank her hand into his hair, pulling him closer to her. She kissed him back hungrily. She hadn’t thought that she would still be so sexually attracted to him at this stage in the pregnancy. But she was starting to realize that as long as they were both breathing, she would want him.

  “Do you have a deal, future Mrs. Brand?”

  Mandy froze for the briefest of moments—she had agreed to be the future Mrs. Brand. It was as if the reality of it was hitting her for the first time. And what was even more surprising is that she didn’t want to run away from it. She loved this man, and she was almost sure that even though he hadn’t said the words to her that he loved her too.

  “Elliot,” her voice was hoarse.

  He frowned and then kissed her temple, “Am I going too fast?”

  Mandy shook her head, “No, it’s not that.”

  He tipped his head to the side, “Then what is it, sweetheart?”

  “I-I need to tell you something,” she stammered, “And I don’t want you to say anything. I just feel like I need to tell you. I don’t want to force you into anything that you aren’t ready for.”

  His lips twitched, “Mandy.”

  “No,” she hurried on, “Don’t say anything! I will lose my nerve and then who knows when I will get it out again. I just wanted to tell you that-well, Elliot I am terrible... Damn it, why is this so hard?”

  “Mandy,” he said more forcefully this time, but she wasn’t finished.

  “No! I need to say this. And I am not just telling you because you saved me, or because I like working with you, which I really do. And it’s not because you have an amazing apartment or that Mrs. H and Robert are like the family Kim and I never had.”

  “Mandy!” he demanded, and she blinked at him in surprise.

  “What?”

  “I love you, too.”

  The words hung between them until she grasped them with all of her heart.

  “I love you, Elliot Brand. I love everything about you. And I want to be your wife, whenever you want to do it.”

  It was Elliot’s turn to be surprised, “You will?”

  She nodded, her eyes filling up with tears, “Are you sure you love me?”

  “Oh, Mandy, so fucking much, you have no idea.”

  There was something a little bit more when he kissed her this time. The depth of his emotion was urging him onward until he had to have her—now.

  His hand slipped between her silky thighs, and he stroked her wet heat. Mandy was more than ready for him. He turned her so that her back was against his chest and she lifted her leg and placed it over his. His massive cock bumped against her soaked folds, and she gasped and pushed her hips back trying to get him to enter her.

  Elliot moaned as his dick became coated with her juices, and he thrust himself inside of her.

  His hands were coming around to stroke her breast as he moved back and forth in a delicious slow dance that had her crazy with need.

  The more that she tried to get him to speed up the slower that he took things until she finally submitted to him and let Elliot control their lovemaking. His strokes were long and deep. She could swear that she felt every inch of his hard length and she never wanted it to end.

  Elliot pinched at pulled at her nipples, loving the sounds that she made as she hurled closer and closer to her release. He started to go a little faster and changed the angle slightly until he heard that hitch in her labored breathing. The one that told him he had found her sweet spot. And then she was clenching him, crying out, her hands reaching back to dig her fingers into his skin. Her tight pussy milked him until he couldn’t hold back any longer and he came inside of her causing another orgasm to rip through her.

  Elliot had known a great deal about sex, hell. Some would say that he was a master. But what they had together was so much greater, and more fulfilling than he even knew was possible.

  He was a man in love and didn’t care who knew it.

  CHAPTER 42

  Mandy and Elliot sat in horrified silence as the birthing video came to its conclusion. Mandy had read about having a baby, she knew the particulars. Her book had gone into detail about the hormones that caused the muscular walls of the uterus to contract. She understood that the mother’s body would naturally know how to expel the fetus.

  But none of that had prepared Mandy for what childbirth actually looked like. To make matters worse, Elliot hadn’t said a word, not one during the thirty-minute video. He had sucked in harshly during a few moments and his hand on Mandy’s leg had seemed almost painful at times.

  She knew that she should reassure him somehow. But all of the terms kept floating around in her mind vying to attention. There was breech presentation, APGAR scores, placenta, amniotic fluid, meconium, the cephalopelvic disproportion.

  Mandy didn’t know what to think, but one thing was certain, she couldn’t do this.

  Her hands were shaking, and she tried to push herself up from the couch.

  Elliot’s hand on her arm stopped her, “Where are you going?”

  Mandy tried to brush him off, “I can’t do that. You need to call Dr. Robert’s and tell him that there has been a mistake. Elliot, I cannot push a watermelon out of my vagina. Did you see what happened to that woman? This is insane.”

  Elliot’s eyes widened, Mandy was seriously freaking out. “Hey,” he tried to reason with her, “You
will have doctors and medicine if you want it, whatever you need.”

  “I need to not have this baby!” Mandy wailed, her eyes rapidly filling with tears. “Did you see everything that could go wrong? Elliot, I am the poster child for things going badly. You have to stop this. I am not kidding.”

  “Mandy, you are four weeks away from delivery, I would say we are committed at this point.”

  Tears ran down her face and she buried herself in his neck, “I’m sorry, of course I want our baby. I am so just damn scared. What if I screw this up? What if something goes wrong?”

  Elliot gathered her close and whispered against her hair, “I refuse to let anything go wrong.”

  “You aren’t God!” Mandy weakly hit his chest.

  Elliot’s brows rose, “Sweetheart, every new mother gets scared. Shit, I am terrified.”

  Mandy wiped her nose on her sleeve and hiccups, “You are?”

  Even during an ugly cry, she was still the most beautiful woman in the world to him.

  “Fuck yeah,” he answered honestly, “What if I am a terrible father? What if I lose my business and I can’t support my family?”

  Mandy frowned at him, “That’s ridiculous, you will be an amazing father. And even if you lost the business you have more money than you could spend in ten lifetimes.”

  His lips twitched, and she realized that he had been making a point.

  Mandy hiccupped again, “D-Damn I hate when you are right.”

  “Maybe we could talk to a doula?” Elliot offered, “I am sure that Dr. Robert’s won’t mind.”

  Mandy arched a brow, “What do you know about doulas?”

  Elliot’s cheeks were flushed, “I’ve been studying up on my birth plans. I know a thing or two.”

  Mandy felt the knot inside of her loosen a little. Elliot was so good for her, and she knew that.

  “Okay,” Mandy nodded, “Let’s talk to a doula.”

  ELLIOT CALLED DR. ROBERT’S and was given a few names of doulas that Mandy could choose from. On the third interview she knew that she had met the woman that would help her through the birthing process.

  Her name was Faith and she was in her early thirties. Having had three children of her own, Faith had gone back to school to be a midwife and was working as a doula on the side. She spoke highly of Dr. Robert’s and liked working with him.

  For the first time since watching the video, Mandy felt like she had a sliver of control back. They talked about medication options, things that Mandy could use in place of those methods or in conjunction with them. Faith said that she would be there every step of the way. And as much as Mandy loved Elliot’s support she needed someone who knew what they were doing to help them.

  Mandy had been having nightmares of Dr. Robert’s assistant Tina being the only one to help her. It was crazy and not at all likely, but then Mandy figured that pregnant dreams were meant to be crazy.

  She was rushing home to speak with Elliot when he was struck on the head from behind. One moment she was walking on the street and the next she was trying to push the obnoxious thing off of her face. The paramedics fought her to keep the oxygen mask on.

  When Mandy realized that she was on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance she really began to panic.

  “Is my baby okay?” she pleaded over and over again.

  “Ma’am, there is no reason to assume that anything is wrong with the baby. But you have a nasty gash on the back of your head. You are lucky that someone caught you before you could fall to the pavement.”

  Mandy wracked her brain over and over again to try and see if she could remember who might have hit her. But the faces on the sidewalk were a blur to her, she hadn’t been paying the least bit of attention. Mandy’s focus was to get to the apartment to tell Elliot after he had gotten home from work.

  She was rushed to the emergency room. There Mandy was immediately taken back to check vital signs on the baby. The doctor seemed young, Mandy wanted to ask him how old he was.

  “Did you call Elliot Brand? I need Elliot Brand!”

  The doctor motioned for a nurse to call Elliot and hooked her up to a fetal monitor. He did a regular ultrasound and a vaginal one.

  “Mrs. Brand, you were very lucky. Your baby seems to be doing well, I wish the same could be said for you. I had to put in five stitches to seal the wound. Your hair will most likely cover the scar in the long term. I will be keeping you overnight for observation and Dr. Robert’s will be coming over shortly to evaluate you further. But rest assured that your baby is fine.”

  Mandy hadn’t even known she was crying, she thanked the young doctor over and over again. And then felt the medication that he had given her start to kick in. Her eyelids became heavy and she was drifting off when she heard a great commotion in the hospital. But she was too far gone to know what all of the fuss was all about.

  Elliot was livid. The police had tracked down Andrew three blocks over, he was still carrying Mandy’s purse. The junky cockily admitted to hitting Mandy and then boasted how he gently laid her down afterward.

  Elliot had been told as he was on his way home and immediately traveled to the hospital. With his heart on his sleeve and his stomach in his throat he demanded that she be moved to a private room and be given the best care that money could buy.

  She seemed so tiny, lying there with machines hooked up to her belly to monitor the baby, oxygen mask and an IV in her arm.

  He had sworn to protect her and let her down. Elliot felt like he wanted to vomit. He spoke with the police but refused to leave her side.

  Dr. Robert’s arrived shortly after and was followed by Nate and Kim. Apparently, Kim and Mandy’s parents had been involved in a drug-related shooting. They were both dead. Kim was a mess and Nate promised to bring her back in the morning after she had gotten a little sleep.

  Elliot nodded mechanically before looking down at Mandy’s small body still under the influence of the medication. His heart broke for Mandy, because he knew that no matter what they had done to her she would grieve their loss.

  It was a long quiet night, the sounds of the machines the only thing breaking the silence as he sat beside her and prayed.

  CHAPTER 43

  Mrs. Brand has been in an accident. The sentence kept replaying itself over and over again in Elliot’s mind. In truth, she wasn’t Mrs. Brand—yet. When Mandy had been rushed to the hospital she kept repeating Elliot’s name to the medical team that was assisting her.

  Mandy didn’t have any identification; her driver’s license had been in her purse along with her wallet and other forms of identification. They had assumed that he was her husband, after all, she wanted him by her side, and she was very pregnant.

  He wanted that to be the truth. Elliot wanted Mandy to share his name and his life more than he had ever wanted anything before. Kim and Nate had shown up early the next morning. The sisters held each other and cried.

  Nate and Elliot looked on in helplessness as their grief manifested. There were so many conflicting emotions. Andrew had been charged with conspiracy for the murders and wasn’t offered bail. The sisters could have never dreamed of that the man Kim had once married would be capable of such atrocities.

  Mandy was released later that day with the assurance that everything with the baby was fine. Elliot took her home to where Mrs. H had homemade chicken noodle soup on the stove top. There were plans to be made for the funeral, but for now, Elliot had called a reputable mortuary and gotten the ball rolling.

  The next few days were a myriad of sadness for Mandy. It seemed that she was going through the motions of living but that the world had stopped spinning the moment she was struck. Elliot was attentive and had even taken off work to be with her.

  Mandy wanted to talk to him, she wanted to break free from whatever trap she was being held captive in. The hazy fog threatened to envelop her, and she fought to stay present. On the fourth day after the accident, Mandy slipped on a somber black dress with plenty of stretch and stood side by side
with Kim as they bid their parent's goodbye.

  It seemed strange to Mandy that after all the tears she had shed over the past few days she couldn’t summon even one at the graveside. In fact, the longer she stood there listening to the priest tell lies about the individuals being laid to rest the angrier she became.

  The priest who was officiating the service was one who worked with the mortuary, and in truth never knew the Johnson parent's personality. His words were more of a generic send off than anything personal.

  But Mandy couldn’t take it anymore, “Stop! Just stop! They were not loving or kind. And I sure as fuck can’t imagine that they will end up in heaven.”

  The priest’s eyes bulged, and his mouth snapped shut.

  Kim gave Mandy a comforting squeeze of her hand to show her support of Mandy’s words.

  When Mandy spoke again it was directed toward her dead parents. “All I ever wanted was to be loved by you two. And you refused to give it to me. No matter how hard I tried, how many A’s I’d bring home, or how quiet I could be, it was never enough! And now you are gone.”

  Her laugh was a harsh sound that raked at Elliot’s soul.

  “I wish I had been the one to do it,” her fingers squeezing Kim’s tight enough to burn, “I wish I had been the one to finally stand up to you. I wish that I could go back and protect those little girls that you should never have been allowed to keep. You deserved this, and frankly a whole lot more. I hate you! I hate you!”

  Elliot wrapped her in his arms and Mandy clung to his dress coat as the tears that wouldn’t come, finally fell from her eyes.

  “I hate them!” she choked, “I hate them, and I hate that there is still a part of me that wants them to love me. How fucked up is that?”

  Elliot made soothing noises as he stroked her back. He noticed that Kim had slipped into Nate’s arms as well.

  The priest tried clearing his throat to resume the service, but Elliot shook his head. As harsh as Mandy’s words were, they were a whole lot more fitting and what the Johnson parents deserved. They would be laid to rest in plots that Elliot bought, and a stone would be placed marking their final resting place.