Rock Me: A Billionaire Romance (Billionaires, Brides and Babies Book 1)

by dos Anjos, Maria

  “Did you find anything?” I asked.

  “Only these.” Beth opened her purse and retrieved a handkerchief. She unwrapped it carefully and revealed two gold wedding bands. “They belonged to mom and dad,” she said.

  My mouth dropped open. “I know. I would recognize them anywhere.”

  The nurse returned with a bottle of formula. “I know you probably all want to get your hands on baby Elizabeth, but it’s time for her feeding.” She handed me the bottle and explained exactly how to hold it. It wasn’t that difficult, but it was my first time. I was a little intimidated.

  “What if I don’t do it right?” I asked. My thoughts about my sister and Lucas flew out the window when faced with the daunting task of nourishing the tiny life in my arms.

  “You’re doing it right,” the nurse replied calmly. “Your mothering instincts have already kicked in. You’re a natural.”

  We all watched spellbound as Elizabeth suckled the bottle of formula.

  “I don’t know how to burp her,” I whispered, feeling like a failure.

  “That’s what I’m here for. I can show you,” the nurse replied. “If we’re lucky, maybe the new daddy will get to change her diaper before I bring her back to the nursery. How does that sound? Are you up for the challenge?”

  “I’m willing to try,” Dom said. “It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it,” he quipped.

  Everyone in the room laughed softly, careful not to startle the baby in my arms.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Elizabeth and I were given a clean bill of health and discharged from the hospital barely forty-eight hours after I gave birth. I couldn’t believe it. To me, it seemed awfully soon. Clarissa, the kind nurse who had been there during my delivery, explained that some mothers were sent home the very next day.

  I couldn’t imagine going home any sooner. This was too soon for my taste to begin with. I knew little to nothing about taking care of a baby, and I was afraid of bathing her, feeding her, changing her and generally just being alone with her.

  “You’re going to be a great mother.” Dom stroked my hair. He reassured me plenty, but it didn’t help. “Maybe I can talk to Beth about having her stay with you.”

  “Won’t you be staying with me?” I had just assumed that he would move in with me.

  “Of course. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. What would I do without Dom there to tell me that things were going to be okay?

  “Would you like me to hire a nanny?” he asked.

  “No,” I said. “Elizabeth is my baby, and I’ll take care of her. If there was one thing more frightening than taking care of my newborn myself, it was allowing a stranger to take care of her.

  “My two girls,” Dom said proudly. “We’re going home as a family at last.”

  I was speechless at the way that Dom had opened his heart not only to me, but to the little girl I’d conceived one month before I’d met him. It took an amazing man to share that kind of love. That’s exactly what he was. “You’re an amazing man,” I told him.

  “I know,” he teased. “I get that a lot.”

  A cheerful hospital volunteer in a bright yellow jacket took me to the front door in a wheelchair with Elizabeth in my arms. Dom wanted to wrestle control of the wheelchair from her, but she insisted it was her duty to see me safely to the door.

  Roscoe was waiting outside with the limo, but he wasn’t alone. As he stood patiently by the back door, ready to usher us inside a vehicle, a herd of paparazzi lurked nearby.

  I saw the crowd through the window and panicked. “Dom, what are we going to do?”

  “We’re going to walk through the crowd smiling, and I’m going to answer their questions politely as possible while getting us into the limo as quickly as possible. Ready. Set. Go.”

  Dom took the handles of the wheelchair from the hospital volunteer and rolled it confidently through the crowd, keeping his cool even as cameras were thrust in his face.

  “Dom. Dom. Dom. Is it true that you’re a father?” a man called out.

  “Yes, I am a very proud father,” he said. “Thank you for asking.”

  “Dom,” another man shouted. “When’s the wedding?” There was a chorus of laughter.

  “I’m glad you asked. My lovely fiancée and I plan to marry as soon as we possibly can. We don’t want to wait another moment before we all share the same last name.” He deftly scooped the baby from my arms, easily placed her into her car seat and adjusted every strap and buckle until she was safe.

  “Dom, are you sure you’re the father? The numbers don’t add up,” a woman yelled.

  He helped me stand from the wheelchair and assisted me into the limo before he answered. “I don’t know where you went to college,” he said. “But I have an M.B.A. in finance from Northeastern University, and my math skills are right on point. The math adds up just fine.”

  Dom slid onto the seat next to me, and Roscoe closed the door. To my surprise, Dom opened the window. “Thank you all for your support,” he said. “My family and I would like to ask that you respect our privacy as we get our daughter acclimated to her new life. Thanks.” He waved before closing the window.

  Roscoe carefully pulled away from the curb and drove slowly to avoid running over anyone’s toes as they fought to take one last photo of the limousine as we drove away.

  “How did I do?” Dom asked me. His face was beaming with pride, and he looked every bit the proud new father as he gazed lovingly at Elizabeth and me.

  “The paparazzi love you,” I said. “I used to think it was because you’re painfully handsome, but I think it might have something to do with your winning personality.” It was true. I had been drawn to him for his good looks, but it was his kindness that had really won me over.

  “I have something to ask you,” Dom said. “I know my name is on the birth certificate, but I wonder whether I should legally adopt Elizabeth to make sure that no one else could ever claim her as his own.”

  “Well, I doubt that Jeff would ever try anything like that,” I said, hating to talk about Elizabeth’s biological father when everything was going so well. “Maybe you could talk to your attorneys about it after the honeymoon.”

  “You’re right,” Jeff said. “We’ll worry about that later. Right now, we have a whirlwind wedding to plan.”

  Epilogue

  My wedding day was nothing like I imagined it would be. It was so much better. Upon Dom’s insistence, we were getting married just six weeks after our baby was born. I knew exactly what the significance of the six-week mark was, and I wasn’t complaining.

  I was looking forward to our wedding night even more than Dom was.

  It was a cold winter, but that didn’t stop Dom from wanting a summer wedding. He paid for all my family and friends to fly to the Caribbean where it was warm all the time. Even though my only family consisted of my sister Beth and a few cousins, it was beyond comforting to have them there on my special day.

  The only thing that could have made it even better would be if my own parents were there to walk me down the aisle. However, Dom’s father had offered his services for that honor, and I had gratefully accepted.

  Meeting him for the first time was terrifying, but Dom reminded me that even billionaires put on their pants one leg at a time. He even demonstrated, sending me into a fit of laughter that nearly woke the baby.

  Now, we were here, barefoot on the sand, about to pledge our lives to each other. Dom had truly rocked my world, and he didn’t show any signs of stopping.

  Nervously, I cleared my throat and reached for my future father-in-law’s arm. I was grateful for his steady presence and his dark eyes that looked just like his son’s.

  “Are you ready, Jennifer?” he asked.

  I smiled. No one ever called me anything but Jenny. The way he said it sounded like an endearment. It sounded fatherly. I liked it.

  “I think I’ve been ready to marry your son since th
e night we first met,” I admitted. “Do you believe in love at first sight?”

  “Absolutely. I know love at first sight is real because Donald told me that’s the way he feels about you.”

  I giggled, unable to repress it. “Nobody calls him Donald anymore, Mr. Chance,” I whispered.

  “Well, his father does, and I’m not about to stop. I changed his diapers, and I can call him whatever I want.” He patted my arm. “That reminds me. I won’t have you calling me Mr. Chance for a moment longer. I think you’d better call me Dad.”

  So many emotions flooded through my soul at the word. He wasn’t my real dad, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t help fill the hole in my heart that my father had left when he died. “It would be my honor and my pleasure to call you Dad,” I said, and I meant it.

  He grinned. “I’ve always wanted a daughter,” he said. “Don’t tell Donald and Lucas. I don’t want them to feel bad, but they were really rowdy boys when they were growing up. It would have been nice to have a little girl with ruffles and bows around once in a while. That’s why I’m so grateful to have a granddaughter to call my own.”

  He looked at my sister Beth, standing at the front of the aisle. She was holding little Elizabeth, who slept peacefully in her arms.

  “I think there will be plenty of ruffles and bows in your future,” I said.

  He nodded his head. “The music is starting,” he said.

  Sure enough, the first notes of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” began to play.

  Dad led me down the sandy beach to the place where my fiancée stood waiting.

  My feet nearly floated above the flower petals and sand that made up the path to the podium where a Catholic priest stood with a Bible propped open in front of him.

  I hardly heard the words he said until he instructed me to repeat after him.

  “I, Jennifer Sweet, take you, Donald Angelo Chance, to be my husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.”

  Then it was Dom’s turn.

  “I, Donald Angelo Chance, take you, Jennifer Sweet, to be my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life,” he repeated. “And I promise always to rock your world.”

  The priest raised an eyebrow but continued without commenting on Dom’s addition to the standard vows. “You have declared your consent before the Church. May the Lord in his goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with his blessings. What God has joined, men must not divide. Amen.”

  Dom and I turned to the priest and looked at him expectantly.

  “You may now kiss the bride,” he said.

  Dom touched my face gently with both hands and held my head as he pressed his lips to mine. His mouth was soft and warm.

  I let the kiss go on and on until I was startled out of my reverie by the sound of the priest coughing. Embarrassed but tingling from my face to my toes, I pulled away.

  My favorite song began to play again, signaling us to travel back down the aisle as husband and wife. Dom had arranged for a large white tent to be set up nearby for our reception.

  We walked the short distance to the tent. I could smell the delicious aroma of the local cuisine wafting from inside.

  Dom suddenly picked me up and carried me through the entrance of the tent. “I’ve been dying to do this,” he said. “There was no way I could wait until tonight.”

  I giggled in his ear. “Well, there are some things that will have to wait.”

  “There are some things that are worth waiting for.” He set me down gently, but didn’t release me. “Thank you for marrying me, Jenny Sweet,” he said.

  “Haven’t you heard? It’s Jenny Angelchance now.”

  Even though there was no music playing, he waltzed me over to the area that had been set up as a dance floor and spun me around and around like I was the princess in a Disney film, which was exactly how I felt.

  “I told you so,” Dominic said.

  “What did you tell me?”

  “Sometimes dreams really do come true.”

  Check out my other books!

  The Billionaires, Brides and Babies Series

  Rock Me: A Billionaire Romance

  Worship Me: A Billionaire Romance- Coming Soon

  Share Me: A Billionaire Romance- Coming Soon