Accidental Baby for the Billionaire (A Billionaire's Baby Romance)

by Lia Lee

  “Which one?”

  “The I, Frankenstein one.”

  She did groan that time. The red number had been Tonya’s idea the last time she’d gone costume shopping. The design had been a bit more risqué than her usual fare, so it made complete sense that it was also the episode Xavier had seen.

  “You, uh, liked it?” she said as they walked in line with the crowd deeper into the church.

  He smirked down at her, a look that made her want to cross one leg over the other to keep her pearl from throbbing with need. “I loved it.”

  Sandra was about to say something else when the main view of the church came into focus. It took her breath away. Arching her neck up to the ceiling, she had to rely on Xavier to lead her through the crowd and to usher her safely to where she needed to go. The honeycomb feel continued inside as the mass of columns twisted in and out to create cubbies in the ceiling. The sandstone of the building gave the entire cathedral a light, refreshing look and served as the perfect backdrop for seemingly endless colors to splay across. One corner turned a bright crimson, another was bathed in butter yellow, and a third was the darkest, royal purple she’d ever seen.

  “It’s like being inside a kaleidoscope,” she whispered, awe filling her voice.

  “Like I said, the outside scared me as a kid. I always felt like the statues might actually be alive. I used to tell Javier when we’d visit from America that they were really alive, and if he weren’t careful they’d reach out and grab him.”

  “That’s devilish.”

  “True,” Xavier said, his grin playful. “But in here? I always felt it was magical, like maybe I’d landed on an alien planet or something. Like I was an explorer to a brave new world.”

  “This would be an amazing place to set a movie,” she whispered as they got in line to light the white candles at the altar.

  He quirked his head at her as he approached the altar and picked up a small alabaster votive. “I was wondering about that.”

  “About what?”

  “Well, you clearly love film. You can hear it in the enthusiasm you have even for bad ones. Besides, I heard the names and dates you were dropping just for I, Frankenstein. You know the history of it better than I bet my dad remembers all the history of Catalan Food Industries.”

  “And?”

  He pressed the wick of his candle to an already lit one at the altar and placed it down. “Did you ever want to make your own?”

  “You know I do.” She picked up her own candle and then flinched when she remembered that, no, actually, Xavier didn’t know that about Jules the valet. He’d only heard it from Sandra, the girl at Atlantis.

  “Huh?”

  “I mean, it’s kind of obvious, right? I would love to, but it takes the right schooling and connections and equipment and capital. So many things I don’t have right now, so I write screenplays, and I save what I can. One day, I know I’ll do something, but today’s not yet that day.” She placed the candle beside his as her shoulders slumped. Suddenly the energy felt as if it had been drained out of her.

  Xavier took her hand in his and squeezed it. “I think that’s noble of you. People never admit their deepest desires or their secrets. They’re always afraid that they’ll get laughed at. I think what you want to do sounds amazing, and I’m glad you shared something so private with me.”

  She swallowed hard. Of course, if I were honest, I’d stop the Sandra-Jules charade and let you know that it’s easy to tell you because I already did. No wonder it always looked so hard in the movies when Superman and Clark Kent had to deal with a dual identity. In reality, it kind of sucked, and it was super hard to keep track of what you were supposed to know and not have heard yet.

  “Maybe it’s this place. Harder to be dishonest, even with myself, when we’re basically camped out in the gumdrop kingdom. It’s so overwhelming and awe-inspiring here. Plus, you know, the religious part. Maybe I just needed to be honest while I was here.”

  He squeezed her hand. “I understand that. Come, I have another place to show you, and it’s going to rock your world.”

  ***

  “Oh my god!” she shouted. Then she rolled the creamy sensation around in her mouth again. “This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever had between my lips.”

  Xavier chuckled and dug his fork deeper into the velvety layers of chocolate cake from the Bubó bakery in the Gothic Quarter of the city. “That was my reaction the first time I ever had this. I assumed that even if it won an award for the best chocolate cake in the world, it was all subjective.”

  Sandra brought another bite to her lips and tried to keep herself from licking every tine of the fork. That wouldn’t be polite. Then again, neither was moaning like Meg Ryan from When Harry Met Sally over cake. But she couldn’t help it. The confection was a mix of dark chocolate icy, hazelnut crunch and the richest milk chocolate ganache she’d ever had, all mixed with a flaky dough that melted in her mouth.

  Relishing the bite, she waited to speak. “Let’s just say that there’s no way they had to bribe the judges to win this. I might want to live on only this if it wouldn’t result in massive vitamin deficiencies.”

  “Well, we wouldn’t want that.”

  She shrugged. “It might be worth it. Then again, this would go to my rear, and it’s already too round.”

  Sandra flinched and set down her fork. Smooth, that doesn’t sound like fishing for compliments.

  Xavier chuckled, that honey smooth voice making her inner core clench again with heat and need. It was a miracle any female execs and some male ones could concentrate around him at all. There was nothing Xavier did that wasn’t charming as hell.

  He leaned forward in his chair and made a show of glancing at her hips. “I think you look just right. Some men want something a little more to hold on to. I’m only saying that…well, you don’t have to always judge yourself by the latest fashion magazine.”

  Holy shit, he just complimented my ass.

  Pushing a long strand of strawberry blond hair behind her ear, she nodded back at him. “I wasn’t…that was just a slip of the tongue. I got too relaxed, and I know that’s so not something a valet should say to her boss. I wasn’t trying to get you to compliment me.”

  “First, today we’re just Xavier and Jules out to see my city. Second, I wanted to compliment you. I don’t know why you think you’re not pretty enough.”

  “I haven’t always had the best dating experience or judgement.” Like before, with you. “Sometimes, the self-doubt creeps in. Then you add in the fact that I’m twenty-six and I don’t feel yet like I have a ‘real, grownup job,’ or at least that’s what my mom says, and sometimes I have all the nerves.”

  “Don’t,” he said. “I mean, we all have things we wish we could have, and trust me…bad relationships? Name a human on the planet—one who’s not a hermit—who hasn’t had one.”

  “Well…”

  “Exactly.”

  “You can’t possibly want anything different,” she said. “Outside of getting the union negotiations to go well this month.” She felt a bit like a voyeur or someone playing a cruel trick. She knew exactly what Xavier would have actually wanted out of his life. Was it wrong to pry it from him again for “Jules’s” benefit? “I mean, it must be nice to have everything.”

  “I have a great family. I love my parents and my brother, annoying as Javier may be, very much. Granted, I may not have the swinging bachelor lifestyle as organized or under control as I thought.”

  She snorted. “Not if Lisette and Carrie had anything to say about it.”

  “See, then that’s a set of relationship failures. You and I, Jules, are both currently single and enjoying one of the most beautiful cities on earth.”

  “No, don’t skate from this,” she prodded, covering her hand over his. “What is it that you really want, Xavier? What is it in life that makes your heart sing? You know I want to make movies. What do you want?”

  “Horses,” he said, and then he ro
lled his eyes and corrected himself. “That didn’t come out quite right.”

  She chuckled. “I think I follow. So to race, like in the Kentucky Derby?”

  “No. Mother loves them. She has always had a few Arabians, whether we’ve been living in Spain or the US. She still does. I always adored riding too, and training. There’s something powerful in breaking in a bronco. I’m never happier than when I’m out there riding.”

  “I guess being a CEO doesn’t give you much time for it?”

  “I could delegate, but I know it would matter to Father that Javier and I keep up tradition. To be honest, even I’ll admit it, Javier is the planner behind everything, has his eyes on five- and ten-year plans. I can glad-hand, smooth out the board when they balk.”

  Her face flushed. “You’re blessed with a silver tongue, huh?”

  “People say that.”

  She shivered, knowing full well it was true in more ways than one.

  “But that’s not what I love. Maybe one day I could find someone to take the CFO or a different minor position and let Javier take my place. He’d do the best job of it, but I feel like I’d let my family down.”

  “Well, it seems to me that horse raising is part of the family tradition too.”

  “Not the part that pays,” he said. “I guess we’re all trapped sometimes between what we want to have and what we have to do.”

  She leaned forward, her heart thudding in her chest. When she spoke, her voice had dropped an octave to a sultry alto that she barely recognized. It was that vixen from the night at Atlantis surfacing again. “But what do you really want?”

  He reached across the table and rubbed a thumb over her lips. “You, uh, you had a bit of chocolate on your mouth.”

  “And?”

  Xavier stood and walked around the table. Then, he leaned low and kissed her, his tongue working its way first over her lips before seeking purchase in her mouth. When he pulled back, he still stayed lingering by her mouth, the heat of his breath against her face, the taste of chocolate fresh on her tongue.

  “You, Jules. I want you, but I know you’ve seen me at my worst. Seen that I can like my women too much. I just wanted you to know that for these few weeks, you can be more than my valet, if you want to be, and I’d never hold it against you.”

  Sandra nodded, but her heart broke again. She’d already been in the club of women Xavier never called or tried to find again. “But it would be a fling. I’m not sure I’m made like that, that a few weeks of pleasure are all I want from you.”

  Xavier’s grin widened, and those dimples were back at the corner of his cheeks.

  Her knees wobbled under the table, and she was glad he couldn’t see her. God, he was her Kryptonite.

  “Who said I only wanted a little while?”

  “The fact I had Lisette throw a glass at me when her aim missed you,” she replied. “I need time to think about this, okay? To be ready to take a plunge.”

  Xavier stilled and a bit of the light faded from his eyes. “I feel this connection with you, Jules. I know that sounds like a line, but there’s something about you that makes me feel like I’ve known you so much longer than I have. It’s all up to you, but I just wanted to let you know that I’m waiting, and I think you’re worth it.”

  She nodded. He thinks we’re connected because we are, at least from that night. But I just can’t tell him. How connected can we be if he rejected me? “I…let’s go see the Park Güell and we can talk about it later. I…it’s not a no, it’s just so complicated that I need some time.”

  Xavier offered her his hand. “Then we’re off to see Gaudí’s greatest gift to the city.”

  Chapter Five

  While he’d felt bruised and confused a bit by their conversation over cake, Xavier was feeling better now. Jules intrigued him on every level. It was rare that a woman said no to him. It was usually easy to get them to do anything he wanted. Typically, he was a one-woman man. He’d taken Carrie to two official functions on his arm. He hadn’t expected a cat fight. In general, Xavier was loyal, and he tried to be considerate of the women he dated.

  He just dated a lot of them. He couldn’t deny that.

  But he’d rarely had a woman turn him down, and certainly not after he’d kissed her. That usually did the trick. But there was something special about Jules, and it wasn’t just her reserve. There were other things. This connection that seemed so strong between them even though he’d known her barely a week. There was her infectious smile and the way he’d already become hooked on her YouTube channel and watched more than a third of her videos by now, even though he’d played it off as only having seen one or two. There was something utterly captivating about Juliet Gaines, something that seemed to deflate some of his usual charms, but at the same time, made him crave her even more. It was up to her, of course, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t keep charming her.

  There was something between them, damn it, and Xavier wouldn’t walk away from that.

  Her face lit up with joy as they finished climbing the interminable hill and then the steps to the Park Güell. Gaudí had designed this too, and while the Sagrada Família had a sinister edge on the outside, this felt more like a fairy tale mixed with a Greek legend, especially with the giant mimic of a Parthenon-like structure at the hill’s crest.

  She ran ahead of him, her ballet flats clamoring up the white marble steps. “This is like a dream!”

  He watched her, the way the sunlight caught the red highlights in her strawberry blond hair and the hem of her skirt grazed her mid-thigh, and the beatific smile on her lips. Yeah, I’ll say. “It is a dream, Jules.”

  “No!” she said, spinning around and marveling at the Corinthian columns that towered thirty feet over her. “This really is. I feel like I’m in A Midsummer Night’s Dream or something equally amazing, like fairies or nymphs will just dance right out from under the bushes or I’ll see Zeus or something!”

  He nodded and joined her, threading his fingers with hers and leading her up the final set of steps to the viewpoint. In his youth, it had been an actual park with greenery and space. Now, years of people trampling or playing soccer had left it a dusty field. One where dozens of pigeons waited for their opportunity to charm tourists out of food. However, the white stone benches were adorned with the tiles and cut glass that made them shine in the setting sun. Plus, they provided the perfect view for the entire city down to the port.

  Breathtaking, just like Jules.

  Walking with her to the bench closest to the edge, he sat her down and watched her grin widen at the spectacle before her.

  “My favorite place to think in all of Barcelona.”

  She chuckled. “I don’t know how you could think. All I want to do is play ‘Where’s Waldo’ with the view. It’s amazing, and I think I can see the entire city from here.”

  “Assuredly you can.”

  She curled into his side, and he took that as an invitation to stroke her hair, so soft like silk between his fingers. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Today. This was one of the best days of my life. It’s one thing to read about these sites or to imagine them, but this entire day was like something out of my dreams. I guess with how hard I work, I never thought I’d get to see any part of the world that wasn’t Washington, DC. Although some of this Greek architecture could give the Lincoln Memorial a run for its money.”

  He nodded and kept stroking her hair. “It could be like this all month, at least around the work I have to do.”

  “And me. Just because we had a good day doesn’t mean I’m going to shirk my valet duties. Estelle would kill me, and I don’t…I like working. I’m always obsessed with what I have to do. ‘Type A all the way’ is kind of my slogan.”

  “I don’t know if I can woo you while you work.”

  She giggled. “That’s almost a song. I mean ‘Whistle While You Work,’ but at least your version has no dwarves.”

  He frowned and let his mind p
rocess the reference, or try to. Alas, he didn’t have her encyclopedic movie knowledge. “Dwarves?”

  “Snow White? 1937? Animated classic?”

  “I lived here till I was six. My favorite kids’ classics were from Spain.”

  She looked up at him, eyes large and limpid and her teeth worrying her bottom lip. “Then I overwhelmed you with my super geek movie knowledge.”

  “Nah,” he said, kissing the crown of her head. “I think it was just right.”

  “Well then, we’re still at an impasse,” she chirped. “I won’t just lie around and be a tourist when I’m actually your maid, you know?”

  “I’d feel bad making you do things during the day.”

  “Then what do we do?”

  Xavier considered the fact he’d never just make any woman he cherished do things as menial as clean his villa or organize his dishes. Then it struck him, an inspiration as clear as a bolt of lightning. “I know what I want from you, while I’m at work.”

  She snorted. “This so doesn’t involve some French maid outfit thing, does it?”

  We can get to that later, if you want.

  He pushed that thought away and then focused on his idea. “You work on a screenplay.”

  She frowned up at him, her doe eyes wide. “What?”

  “You said you want to make a movie. Well, let’s call this a fair chance. You write a screenplay or get started on one, and I’ll take it when it’s done to Javier. If he thinks it’s actually good, we’ll fund it. I’ll let my brother decide since he’s very critical, and that way you know it’s not just nepotism. Believe me, I can’t get Javier to listen to me about anything.”

  “I…you’d give me permission to do that?”

  “I’d be angry if you didn’t. I’ve seen your videos, more than I’ve let on. I’ve seen the passion and creativity you have just with small sketches and skits. You have something, Jules, and I think it’s worth you pursuing. I think it matters very much.”

  She quirked her head at him, doubt clouding those gorgeous chocolate-colored eyes of hers. “Even if we are never more than just friends?”

  “Yes,” he answered honestly. “One of us should be able to embrace our talent.”