Billionaire Baby Bump

by Chance Carter

  When Max didn’t speak as quickly as I wanted, I continued. “You just dragged me out of bed and made me pack so fast I thought that an anvil was about to drop on us. You’ve told me nothing except that we got kicked out, but I think at this point I deserve a little more than that. Don’t you?

  “Baldric is a dick. That’s why we got kicked out.” He turned to look out the window.

  I kicked his shin. “Elaborate.”

  He turned his gaze back to me, licking his lower lip. My stomach quivered at the glass-cut rage on his face. He looked fearsome, like a vengeful god on the attack. I wasn’t afraid of him by any means, but I wouldn’t want to double cross Max either. It was poignant how much different he looked now versus his normal, easy smile and mischievous eyes. I wanted to comfort him but I also wanted to smack him. I figured I was better off staying in my seat, just in case.

  “Baldric was ready to accept my offer,” he explained. “But he wanted something from me that I wasn’t willing to give.”

  “And what was that?”

  “You.” He spoke in almost a whisper, the rage and pain evident in his face.

  The word hung in the air between us as the plane began rolling down the tarmac. I was suddenly very happy we were leaving, and couldn’t wait for this plane to take us as far away from that lecherous pig as possible. Who throws a woman into a business deal? It was sick.

  “So he kicked you out because you wouldn’t let him sleep with me?” I asked.

  Not that even Max’s permission would have gotten me naked in front of that perv. Did he not realize that I had a choice in the matter too? I’d never felt so much like livestock in my life.

  Max turned to look out the window again. “No.” His voice was quiet, stronger though, but still laden with stress. “He kicked us out because I broke his nose.”

  My gaze instantly slid down to Max’s hands, gripping the edge of the armrests. The knuckles on his right hand were pink and puffy.

  “You’ve got a real penchant for breaking noses, eh?” I said, trying to lighten the mood a little. “Maybe you could try aiming for the jaw next time. A swift uppercut perhaps.”

  Max’s mouth remained in a firm line and he still wouldn’t look at me.

  An announcement from the pilot informed us to prepare for lift off. I looked out the window too, since apparently my conversation with Max was dead in the water.

  Was he mad at me? I understood how much he’d wanted this deal, but it hardly seemed fair for him to be upset with me just because Baldric was a piece of garbage.

  Maybe he was upset that I was there in the first place. Maybe none of this would have happened if I hadn’t gone out to meet him that day in the lobby with those drinks. If I’d just kept to myself and not put myself in Baldric’s path, he could have been the owner of a set of paradisiacal hotels by now.

  The plane lifted into the air and my stomach flopped. I badly wanted to talk to Max, but I didn’t know what to say. I certainly wasn’t going to apologize. Even if he thought it was my fault that the deal had gone awry, it wasn’t. I refused to feel guilty for existing. I wanted him to tell me he wasn’t upset with me, but couldn’t gather the nerve to ask. I was too afraid of what he’d say. I couldn’t stand hearing from his lips how he blamed me for losing him this deal, especially not with how emotionally charged the air in the cabin was.

  I decided to wait. It was due to be a long, quiet flight. A stressful flight. I hoped that Max would say something to me before we landed at JFK.

  Somehow I doubted he would.

  Chapter 26

  Max

  Even after several hours of sitting, my blood still felt thick and hot in my veins. My fists ached, too—not because of the damage they’d already done, but because of the damage they still longed to inflict.

  I knew I was being a dick, but I needed to cool off before I tried to speak to Emma. She deserved better than me giving her the silent treatment, especially when she’d done nothing wrong, but she also deserved better than to have me go off on a rage fit because I didn’t take the time to sort out this anger.

  I’d had a lot of anger problems as a kid. My dad always joked that I’d inherited my mother’s fiery temper, which was something I was so adamant to overcome that I spent the better part of my teenage years struggling to balance my hormones and frustrations until I reached a state where I could be cool and collected even in high stress situations. Now my calm demeanor was one of my best attributes when it came to business, and it was something I prided myself on.

  This was the second time in the past year that I’d let my anger get the better of me. It was also the second time that I felt no remorse for doing so. The commonality between these occurrences was Emma, and where she was concerned I didn’t care if I came off as a hothead. The thought of anybody touching her made me spitting mad. Furious.

  This was a scary thought, considering we were never supposed to be that serious. I knew what I was getting into when I suggested we take our relationship to another level, but I’d had girlfriends before without wanting to rip out the throat of every man who so much as looked at her the wrong way.

  I knew she was upset with me, but decided I would approach the topic once we were back in New York. I’d take her home with me, apologize for being an asshole, and then make love to her until she forgot all about it. This thought and this thought alone helped calm me down on the long flight. By the time we landed, I was ready to put my plan into action.

  Too bad I made the mistake of turning my phone on once we landed.

  I swore under my breath at the sheer volume of missed calls and voicemails I had from my mother. It didn’t matter that it was five in the morning, Paulina made it clear that she needed to speak with me the moment I was back stateside.

  I called her as we disembarked, holding the phone away from my ear in anticipation of her shrill tone.

  “Maximilian Augustus Westfield! What the fucking hell do you think you’re doing?” she answered. Not giving me a chance to answer, Paulina continued. “Come over to my apartment immediately.”

  “I just got home,” I replied. “I’m not coming over right now.”

  “So help me God, Maximilian, if you don’t come over right now I’m going to have a heart attack. I’ll carve into the floor with my last dying breath that you were the one who killed me, then spend the rest of my miserable existence haunting the ever loving shit out of you. Do you understand?”

  I gritted my teeth. “Fine. I’ll see you soon.”

  I wasn’t in the mood to argue with my mother, and she wasn’t in the mood to be argued with. Besides, it might be nice to have a little screaming match with her. It would certainly help unload some of the anger still rushing through my veins.

  I instructed the driver to take us to Emma’s first. She stared out the window, not even trying to initiate a conversation.

  “Emma,” I said softly.

  She refused to look at me. “Just take me home, Max.”

  What was I expecting after not talking to her for the entire plane ride and being a jerk when I did speak? I wanted to sort things out with Emma before I even tried to fix anything else, but I knew that wouldn’t work. There wasn’t enough time in this car ride to fix what I’d damaged on the plane, and I owed it to my mother to go over there like I promised. Her threat had only been a threat, but sometimes I did worry about the stress she put on her heart with all the silly ways she got overexcited.

  We stopped in front of Emma’s apartment building and I leaned across the backseat toward her. She promptly got out and slammed the door in my face.

  My mother was approximately three gins deep by the time I made it to her door.

  I could tell because her eyes weren’t yet glazed over, but they couldn’t focus on one spot too well either. Another tumbler, presumably her fourth, was gripped tightly in her free hand.

  “I’m surprised you actually came.”

  I walked past her into the apartment, slipping out of my suit jacket
and hanging it over the back of one of the stools at her breakfast bar. I didn’t know how long I was going to be here, but I expected it was better to get comfortable.

  “Even a demon wouldn’t dare ignore your summons, Mother.”

  She closed the door with a slam and sneered at me. “Always such a smart ass. Just like your father. Of course, he wielded his wit like a weapon in the board room, whereas your main objective in life appears to be vexing me.”

  I bristled at that. Paulina seemed incapable of measuring my devotion to the company, and preferred to use her presumption as law. If it didn’t appear to her that I was playing my part, she automatically assumed it must be true. I didn’t know if she’d always been this way, or if it had simply evolved out of not trusting my father enough to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  Paulina stalked over to the living room and practically fell onto the sofa. It wheezed with the sudden weight. I joined her, sitting on the opposite divan and settling in for what was sure to be an unpleasant chat.

  “My main objective in life is to run Goodman-Westfield to the best of my abilities,” I told her. “Since you have few shares and even less participation in the business, I suggest you remember that before you start making assumptions.”

  She guffawed, tipping more of the clear liquid down her throat. “If yesterday’s incident was you running the company to the best of your ability, I don’t want to see you on an off day.”

  I tensed, even though I’d been expecting this. “That was a unique situation.”

  “Unique in what way?” She flung her hands into the air in exasperation. “You assaulted an influential player in an industry we’re trying to get into.”

  “He deserved it.”

  “Excuse me?” Paulina inched forward, leaning toward me so that I could almost smell the spirits on her breath. “What excuse could you possibly have for punching Baldric Hammond? Every time I answer my phone it’s someone asking me about it, so I’d love to have something to tell them.”

  We both knew she wouldn’t be telling anyone anything. I doubted the incident would attract much attention outside of the business world, especially since I found it unlikely that Baldric would want others to know about it. We had lawyers and publicists to deal with these kinds of things. It was nice to know that it would all being taken care of while I continued to work on things that mattered. Maybe I should hit people more often. It felt good.

  “He insulted me.”

  Paulina raised a perfectly sculpted brow. “He insulted you.”

  “Yes.”

  She laughed bitterly. “What are you? A child? A man insults you and your first reaction is to attack him and thus tarnish our company’s reputation?”

  Technically I had only tarnished my own reputation, and I doubted it would stick for long. The wealthy had done far worse. Punching one idiot who undoubtedly deserved it was hardly going to end with me being ostracized for life. I was sure I’d fulfilled a lot of other people’s fantasies by taking a shot at the guy, and we might even form positive relationships with Baldric’s rivals in the aftermath.

  That being said, it was unfortunate that obtaining those hotels was out of the question. Paulina was right to be upset about that missed opportunity.

  “He was being a creep. He wanted me to give him Emma for the night,” I explained. “I only did what any man would do in my situation.”

  “You’re not any man!” Paulina wailed suddenly.

  I flinched.

  “You are the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation! You command a work force of thousands, and all of those people look to you for guidance and support.” She took a breath, so on a roll that she didn’t even notice the liquid slashing out of her glass with every exultation. “You need to be better than any man. I just don’t understand, Maximilian. You’ve never been reckless like this before. What has changed?”

  I leaned back into the cushions, contemplating how much I was willing to reveal to defuse my mother, and how much of what I had to reveal would only ramp her up more.

  I had completely fallen for Emma. I couldn’t deny it anymore after the sickness that engulfed me following Baldric’s request. I felt things for Emma that I’d never felt for anyone. I just wasn’t sure if I was willing to admit this to anyone yet.

  Paulina waited for my response expectantly, fingers tapping out a staccato rhythm on the side of the glass. She wasn’t a patient lady, and as time continued to drag on, she started beating it out faster.

  “Baldric wasn’t worth my time or energy,” I said finally. “Hitting him felt good. I won’t apologize for that.”

  “Is that what you’re going to say to the investors?” she asked snidely.

  I exhaled through my teeth. “That’s what I’m telling you. As my mother.”

  This seemed to catch her off guard. Though it was never in question that she was my mother, it wasn’t often that it felt like that was the role we shared. Most of the time I was just happy to keep her off my back and well hydrated.

  “I’m disappointed in you.”

  The words cut deeper than I thought they would. I’d heard enough. Rising to my feet, I stood over my mother and stared down at her with a sad smile.

  “Some things are more important than business,” I said.

  Paulina looked like she was about to faint. Her pale cheeks turned ashen, eyes widening in their sockets.

  I ignored her expression of horror and strolled to the door, opening it halfway and turning to toss a final phrase at her.

  “If you don’t like it, you can get in line.”

  Leaving my mother’s apartment had never felt so satisfying.

  Chapter 27

  Emma

  I hadn’t lived on my own in a long time. I had moved straight from my parent’s house to a little cube with a sink and a toilet in the Bronx almost right out of high school. It was a hellish little flat but it was better than being locked away behind layers of intolerance and religious greed with my parents in Illinois. Hell, a cardboard box would have been preferable to that.

  Growing up, they had controlled every single thing I did. They picked out my subjects, which sports I played, and who my friends were. They didn’t allow me to date, nor did they allow me to do anything else they thought might be fun or dangerous in any way. Teachers loved them because they rarely saw parents so involved in their child’s education, but those teachers also never saw how mean my Mom and Dad could be behind closed doors.

  I knew why they did it. Losing Teddy had been a major blow to them, a wound they held closed by sheer force of will. The best way to honor their dead son, it seemed, was to protect their living daughter. Too bad their protection went too far, often resulting in me being punished for something as innocent as going to the mall after school instead of coming straight home and studying.

  It wasn’t all because of Teddy’s death, of course. I think they were always a little unhinged, but losing their firstborn was a blow from which they never fully recovered. Many parents end up splitting up after a tragedy like that, but not mine. They banded together and became stronger. They encouraged each other’s madness. They became a wall that I needed to scale if I was ever going to have a normal life.

  I remembered the feeling of freedom I had experienced the first day I moved into my new apartment. At that point, my parents were still convinced I was going to fail and come crawling back—refusing to talk to me until I admitted they were right. That meant that my first week of living in New York, I didn’t talk to anybody other than the guy who delivered my pizza.

  I had no friends, no family, and no clue. Coming of age movies had taught me that things would start to fall into place by themselves and, once they did, I’d be well on my way to happily ever after. Maybe that was why I threw myself so wholeheartedly into the first relationship that landed on my door step.

  I met Lance when I was trying to navigate the subway. I couldn’t figure out which direction I was supposed to be going, and the loopy lines all o
ver the map didn’t help. He stopped to assist me, and from that point on I was smitten. My first real boyfriend, first apartment, and first step on the long but exciting road of adulthood.

  I was alone again in a new place. Still no parents, but I had friends and technically even a boyfriend. So why did this feel like starting over? Something had shifted in my life and I still wasn’t sure what. There was change on the horizon, and the only thing I knew was that it involved Max. I just didn’t know how.

  Rather than sitting by myself and stewing for the whole evening, I opted to give Willow a call and suggest we go out for drinks. It was one of the few times my despondency didn’t push me toward Pinterest and pretzels. I’d been dying to try the pub down the street, and I hadn’t seen my best friend in almost a week. Granted, I’d been in the Dominican Republic for most of that time, but I still missed her like crazy.

  We agreed to meet in half an hour, which felt like a long time now that I was painfully aware of how lonely I was living by myself. Maybe I was just one of those people who preferred not to be alone. It would make sense why I’d jumped on Lance’s offer to move in together without the hesitation such an offer deserved.

  After waiting a bit so I didn’t arrive too early, I tied up my hair and headed down the street to the pub. It was a cute little basement pub called The Bandstand, and from the sound of it they’d already started their live music for the evening. I walked through the frosted glass panelled front door, inhaling the warm, aged smelling atmosphere.

  The bar was split in half, with half of it devoted to a recessed eating and drinking space, and the other focused more on the live music. Right now, there was a bearded man with an acoustic guitar crooning into the microphone about lost love. I decided to sit on the other side of the bar.

  Willow joined me soon after, pulling me up into a fierce hug before she sat down.