Alpha's Baby: A Secret Baby Romance

by Lauren Landish

  You don't care about my options, I wanted to scream at my mother. You just want me to kill the baby.

  A black cloud seemed to press down on my chest and it became hard to breathe.

  Surprisingly, Emma spoke up on the side of my mother. “Stefan, you must let Bella decide. You're not helping the situation by making life-altering decisions for her. If you really love her as you say, you'll let her have some freedom.”

  Stefan stared at Emma for a long time before nodding in acceptance and stepped away from me. “You’re right. This is Bella’s decision here. I'll let Bella decide what she wants to do if that will make you all shut up. Bella?”

  He turned to me, his eyes full of hope and love, and a little bit of fear as well, fear that I’d go with my mom, but he knew he had to trust me now. “What do you want to do? Do you want to stay with me or go with them?”

  My answer was immediate. Sure, we’d made a lot of mistakes. We should have come clean on this as soon as things started going to hell. But standing there, his eyes shining with new-found maturity and the love they contained, I knew all my worries in the past were phantoms, and I needed to trust him as much as he was trusting me.

  “I'm staying with Stefan,” I said after I found the spit to moisten my dry mouth. “I don't want to go anywhere or talk to a counselor because I plan on having the baby . . . no matter what.”

  Stefan let out a sigh of relief, and our parents began laying into me again, trying to make me see reason. Mom was worried about some mythical future, about a social reputation. Terry was thinking about his company and the family name. Neither of them said one thing about Stefan or me. It pissed me off. They were thinking only about themselves.

  “That's enough,” Stefan said loudly over them after they'd started repeating themselves, and he could see I was about to scream at them. “You heard Bella's decision. She isn't giving up the baby, no matter how hard you browbeat her otherwise. Now that the issue is finally settled, if you can’t respect her decision as an adult, you can all just leave.”

  Our parents resumed yelling, calling Stefan out on how hypocritical he was, but Emma interrupted them.

  “You heard Stefan. He wants us to leave. I know it irks you both as their parents to be kicked out, but they are adults and this whole thing is going nowhere.” She glanced uneasily between Stefan and Terry. “Lord knows, we don't want another fight to break out.”

  “You heard Grandma,” Stefan reinforced, pointing at the front door. “Go.”

  Emma walked over to the front door and held it open, motioning to my parents. “Come on, you two. There is nothing left we can do for now.”

  Mom glared at us both for a long while before throwing up her hands in exasperation. “Fine!”

  Shaking her head, she walked out of the apartment, not deigning to throw me a second glance. Grandma, however, paused at the door, giving us an appraising look. I wondered—it had been so long since we’d spent a lot of time together. Just how much wisdom, how much did I miss not going to see her before? She nodded once, and while she didn’t smile, she wasn’t pissed off, either. She was worried, but still, there was a look of respect in her eyes when she saw Stefan come over and put his arm around my shoulders, and I wrapped my arms around his waist.

  “The invitation to come out to the estate is still there. Goodbye for now, you two.”

  “Bye, Grandma,” we said in unison.

  Chapter 35

  Stefan

  “I can’t believe what just happened,” Bella said quietly when our parents were gone. “That was the most embarrassing thing ever.”

  Her arms were crossed across her chest, and she stood there in her short shorts and tattered crop top, looking vulnerable. She looked so beautiful to me in that moment, so sweet. I held out my hand, and she clasped it, letting me pull her into an embrace.

  “I know it was tough,” I whispered, knowing it was the understatement of the century but not wanting to dredge up the bad shit that had just happened. “But in some ways, I’m glad it’s finally in the light of day.”

  “Why didn’t you lock the door?” Bella demanded, her voice sharp. “Jesus, Stefan, if we had just locked the damn door!”

  The me that I’d been even a few hours before would have gotten pissed off. Hell, maybe I was still pissed off, but I was so over the line that I didn’t know it. Instead, I hugged her tighter, holding her close. “Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter. Bella, you don’t know how much it meant to me when you said you’d stay.”

  Bella swallowed, looking down. “I’m sorry.”

  It wasn’t the answer I was expecting. “What do you mean, sorry? Bella, in that one answer, you told me that you loved me, that we’re doing the right thing, and that somehow, for all the fuckups I’ve made, you’ve still got faith in me. I promise you, when I figure out how we’re going to get out of this—”

  Bella held up her hand. “Stop right there, Stefan.”

  I was confused and tilted my head. “Stop what?”

  Bella looked up at me with a hint of her old fire, the same light that I’d taken for bitchiness, the same desire for power that she’d only shown flashes of since we found out she was pregnant. “Stefan, I love you. And I’ve learned over the time we’ve been together that I like taking care of you. Hell, I like cooking you breakfast and washing your funky ass socks. But I can’t just sit back and let you do everything. Now, I understand that you want to work to save me some physical stress, but we can’t do it alone anymore. You can’t just expect me to sit here on my rapidly expanding ass while you figure things out by yourself! I’ve got a brain too, you know!”

  I stopped, stunned by the determination in her voice and the glint in her eyes. I nodded, licking my lips. “You’re right. I haven’t respected you sometimes. But I don’t want you to be working. Like you said, it’s for the baby.”

  “Then we’ll figure something out together,” Bella said, still determined. “Stefan, at the Governor’s party, you called me your future wife. If you really meant that, if you want me to be your wife, then we need to be a team. No athlete, I don’t care how much of a superstar he or she is, wins without a team.”

  Her eyes were filled with fire, her tiny little fists balled by her side, and I stood in momentary awe at the strength of my Bella. She was so determined, and maybe that was what had been missing from all of our efforts. I’d been trying to do it all by myself, and I even worked to stop Bella every time she tried to help or even to offer an idea. But if I was going to make a life with her, to have a baby with her, it was going to have to be a team effort. Finally, I nodded. “Okay.”

  She stopped, stunned. “Okay?”

  I nodded, smirking. “Would you like a poem or something? You’re right. I’ve been fucking up as much as I’ve been doing the right things. I need you, and that means all of you.”

  Silence wrapped around us and my eyes fell to her chest. I could see the swell of her nipple buds pressing against the torn fabric. Blood rushed below, causing my pants to tighten.

  Horny as fuck now, I pulled Bella into a passionate kiss.

  “What are you doing?” Bella gasped breathlessly when I finally allowed her to breathe. “I mean, I’m happy you’re going to listen to me, but—”

  I pushed her back onto the couch and tore off her shorts, my mouth watering as I prepared to go down on her with a vengeance.

  “I’m going to celebrate by finishing what we started before they came in,” I growled. “I’m going to make love with my future wife.”

  Bella’s moan started even before I got to my knees, kissing up her long leg and across the inside of her thigh. I’ve never had a problem going down on a girl, considering the number of times they’ve gone down on me, but with Bella, it was different. I loved licking her sweet pussy. There was a heady aroma, a sweetness to the taste that was different.

  Or maybe I was just nuts, and it was special because it was Bella’s.

  I didn’t care as I let my tongue drift over her
lips, relishing the texture. Bella didn’t totally shave. She kept a little ‘landing patch’ up top, but her lips themselves were as smooth as silk, sensitive and tender to my touch.

  The effect was just what I wanted. Bella gasped, reaching up to pinch her nipples herself while her left hand went to my head, urging me on. “Mmm, Stefan . . .”

  “I love you,” I mumbled into her pussy, her thighs and soft skin blurring my words, but her fingers tightened in my hair. She got the message.

  I ran my tongue up and down her tender lips, teasing Bella a little, just the way she liked it, before I slid my tongue between her wet folds, driving it as deep as I could inside her to feast on the dark tanginess that was her essence. Her hips lifted off the mattress and I grabbed her ass cheeks, loving the extra curves that she’d added. Forget the concern about baby weight. Bella had become thick in all the right places. Holding onto her ass, I didn’t let up at all, wiggling my tongue until I couldn’t get any deeper.

  Bella rewarded me with a deep moan that started in the middle of her chest, her fingers tugging on my hair as I pulled my tongue out to nibble and suck on her clit just the way she liked, running my tongue around it before sucking hard on it. “STEFAN!”

  She screamed so loudly that I wondered if our neighbors heard us, but then I realized I didn’t give a shit. Let the whole world know. Hell, let Veronica release our sex tape on the six o’clock news. I loved Bella, and if I could make her this happy, who cared?

  Bella screamed again, no words but just a deep cry of pleasure as she came, soaking my face in her juices and her hand yanking out a few of my hairs before it tore free to beat against the cushions, tossing her head side to side as she rode it out, delirious.

  When it finally passed, Bella collapsed, gasping against the back of the couch. “Holy fuck, you were more amazing than normal.”

  I stayed on my knees, taking her hand. “You deserve the best I can be.”

  Bella chuckled and ran her hand through my hair again. “Well, give me a few minutes, and I’ll show you the best I can be. Have I told you that one of my pregnancy hunger urges is your come?”

  I raise an eyebrow, smirking. “No, but now that I know, I can think of great ways to add to breakfast in the mornings.”

  Chapter 36

  Stefan

  “Holy shit!” Bella exclaimed from the kitchen, where she’d just gotten off the phone.

  It was several days after the explosive argument with our parents and our coming to a new agreement with each other. Since then, while Bella and I were enjoying every new day as we explored our new level of relationship, our parents hadn’t called or tried to check on us, but I knew they were planning something. I just didn’t know what.

  It made me nervous as fuck.

  Sitting on the couch, I looked up from my laptop and over at Bella. I’d just sent in yet another application to another company for a job. It was hard finding a decent job without a college degree, and I refused to work a minimum wage job. The type of money I would make flipping burgers was just not enough to support Bella and me. Unfortunately, if I didn’t find a steady job soon, that's exactly what I'd be doing.

  Maybe I can try my hand at modeling again, I wondered.

  The last company had accepted me in less than twenty-four hours. They had really wanted me for the job, stating that I had the looks of a Hollywood movie star and the type of face that could sell millions of magazines. Obviously, if I couldn’t use my brains to support Bella, maybe I could use my looks.

  “What?” I asked curiously.

  “That was Sara Delany who just called.”

  “Sara?”

  “Yeah, the girl I roomed with back at school. Remember?”

  “Oh yeah,” I said, remembering the girl who had greeted me at Bella’s dorm and eyed me like I was a piece of meat. They’d stayed in touch, although Bella and I had both agreed to wait a little longer before making the general public aware of our relationship. There was a chance to rebuild a relationship with our family, so we weren’t ready to nuke that bridge just yet. “What'd she say?”

  Bella walked out of the kitchen and over into the middle of the living room. She was wearing some of her short shorts that always got me hot under the collar and a light pink top. The shorts hugged her hips and showed off her growing ass. She still wasn’t sure I wasn’t bullshitting her, but I felt pregnancy had done her body good, filling her out in all the right places, and it was hard to keep my eyes off her. “You’re not going to believe it.”

  “Spit it out already.”

  “Well, first, she said the school has finally concluded its investigation. Both institutions will remain open. Kappa Beta was hit with probation, but Alpha Gamma basically got off clean, which is not surprising at all.” She paused dramatically and her expression became darker. “Second . . . it's Veronica.”

  My heart jumped in my chest, but I kept my expression cool as a thousand doomsday thoughts ran through my head, mainly about our sex tape that I knew Veronica still had in her possession.

  Had the bitch spread it to the internet now? I might not have cared if people knew that I loved Bella if they found out, but there’s a big difference between declaring my love and having my dingus on the Internet for everyone to see. But if she was up to something else, there wasn’t shit I could do about it.

  “She quit school.”

  I looked up at Bella with surprise.

  “Quit?”

  Bella nodded, and I could tell she was trying not to crack up laughing. “Yeah, Sara said that someone in Alpha finally cracked and told everyone in Alpha and Kappa that Veronica had planted the camera. Apparently, she was planning on blackmailing me over the Sacrifice no matter what. Hanna, the Kappa president, found her diary, and Veronica had hated me from first semester, for some damn reason. She wanted to ruin me no matter what and get me to quit school.”

  “Damn,” I muttered. “That’s fucked up. Why?”

  Bella shook her head. “I don’t know for sure, but I think it was even before the stupid damn dildo sucking contest. During one of the Rush Week parties, a guy hit on me. I heard afterward that Veronica had her eyes on him. I didn’t fuck him, but neither did Veronica. I’d blown it off. He was a drunken asshole. I guess the bitch didn’t.” I was taken aback by the hatred burning in Bella’s eyes, but I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. Veronica had done some really fucked up shit to us, and the worst thing about it was, none of it made sense. To try and ruin a girl’s life over a drunken idiot hitting on you? Fuck my life.

  She got exactly what she deserved as far as I’m concerned, I thought to myself. And she’s lucky she didn’t end up with worse. Fucking with people's family is asking for bad shit to happen.

  “She’s lucky,” I finally said. I shook my head. “We don’t like her, but if she had done that to some of the people I know on campus . . . a lot of crazy, messed up dudes have no qualms putting their hands on women. I knew a couple back at Alpha.”

  Bella’s face darkened into a scowl. “Jace being one of them.”

  I grinned at her. “Yeah, but he got his.”

  Bella giggled. “And now Veronica is getting hers.”

  “Yeah. I just hope she learned her lesson, although as long as she stays out of our lives, I don’t give a shit anymore.”

  My phone thrummed inside my pocket, and I quickly snatched it out and answered it without looking at the caller ID, hoping that it was someone calling me back about a job interview.

  “Hello?”

  “Stefan.”

  I held back a groan and contemplated hanging up. “What do you want, Dad?” I asked finally.

  “I just want to have a real talk with you.”

  “Didn’t I tell you that I'm not going to discuss Bella’s and my relationship with you? The answer is still the same.”

  “Just give me a minute, Stefan.”

  “No, Dad.”

  “I'll make it worth your while.”

  I paused. I could read bet
ween the lines. My father was offering money. Considering how I hadn't gotten any job offers yet, I could definitely use some. But there was no way I was going to accept a bribe in exchange for discussing Bella terminating the pregnancy. That subject was finished. Over and done with. The same with me staying with Bella.

  “Just hear me out. If you don't like what I have to say, then you can leave and I'll never bother you about the matter again.”

  “I'll think about it,” I said finally, hanging up.

  “What did he want?” Bella asked, placing her hands on her hips, unknowingly enticing me with her sexy curves.

  I shrugged and sat back against the couch, spreading my legs out. With the stress pressing down on my shoulders, I could've really used a quickie right about now, but I didn't want to ask. Maybe we did have sex every day, but I didn't want her to think that was the extent of our relationship.

  “The usual. He wants to talk.”

  Bella pushed a section of her hair away from her face. Since her pregnancy, her hair had gotten really thick. I liked it. “Mom's been calling me too,” she said quietly. “Mostly, when you're asleep or out looking for a job. I ignore her.”

  “Maybe we need to look at changing that,” I said as I stood up.

  Bella stared at me in surprise. “Where are you going?”

  “I'm going to talk to Dad.”

  Shock spread across Bella's delicate features. “What’s brought on this change of attitude? A few days ago, you didn’t want to say shit to them.”

  I scratched the back of my neck. “I did, but Dad said he had an offer for me. I want to at least see what it is before I ignore him altogether.” I walked forward and pulled Bella into my arms, delivering a soft kiss to her lips. “But mainly, I'm going because I want to drive the point home to him that we are going to be a couple for a very long time, and he needs to get used to it. Otherwise, he doesn't have to be in our lives.”