Admit You Need Me: A Secret Pregnancy Romance (Irresistible Billionaires Book 4)

by Ajme Williams

  “We’ve been waiting a long time for you,” I said to the man behind the wheel as he opened his door to greet me.

  “Sorry about that, couldn’t be helped. We’re here now. There’s supposed to be two of you right?”

  “That’s right. Can we head down immediately?”

  The man said there was no problem. He emphasized to me the importance of driving slowly down the road even though it was clear now. It was going to take longer than if there hadn’t just been a huge blizzard. The snow was melting but it was still piled pretty high where it hadn’t been cleared.

  I asked whether they could do some work on the entrance and driveway of the property so that the cars would be easy to get out. We would have to shift some of the snow that had piled on top of them and of course, make sure they were running all right before leaving as well. I went back into the cabin and let Maggie know that we were good to go.

  “Perfect. I’ve been dying to get out of here.”

  “We can use the SUV. Is your bag down already? I can throw it in the car.”

  Maggie shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I drove a rental up here too and I’m going to be hit with the fine if I don’t return it.”

  “A fine? How much could it possibly be? Five hundred bucks?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “I swear to God, some crimes are legal if you’re rich.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing. If I don’t have to pay it, then I don’t want to.”

  “You don’t have to regardless. I’ll cover it if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  She shook her head again. “Look, you’re not doing me a favor by driving me down off this mountain. I got up here myself. I don’t want to have to think about it anymore.”

  “Then ride the SUV with me and I’ll take care of.”

  “You don’t understand. It’s not the money that’s the problem. We’re going to the same place anyway, it doesn’t matter. I’ll just meet you a little later.”

  “Just because the road is clear doesn’t mean it’s one hundred percent safe. The SUVs going to do better than the car you drove up here in.”

  She ignored that one. “Ready to leave?” she asked, and then walked right past me out of the kitchen and out of the cabin.

  Okay then, she knew what she wanted. She would rather ride down the mountain on slippery roads in a little sedan instead of in the SUV with me. Okay, I trusted that she was a good enough driver to make it on her own. I didn’t like the fact that she seemed to want to get away from me so badly. I wanted a little more time, alone time with her. In the car, driving when neither of us was looking directly at each other seemed like a good time to bring it up. The situation wouldn’t be too high stress and I could tell her how I felt about her.

  I had already psyched myself up to do it and now it wouldn’t be happening. I’d have to start all over again when we got to the resort and had a little bit of time to ourselves. Crap, the ride on the way to the resort really would have been the perfect moment. That was okay, I’d get to talk to her eventually.

  16

  Maggie

  I stared at the road in front of me. Really, it was just the back of Toby’s SUV, moving at a slow cruise down the road. My hands hurt from how tightly I was gripping the steering wheel. We had been driving for hours. Just because the snow was mostly gone didn’t mean the road was one hundred safe and that meant driving at the speed of a fast crawl.

  Why hadn’t I just let him drive me down off the mountain?

  No, I had to pretend I actually preferred doing this kind of bullshit myself.

  My options had been spending even more time cooped up with him in an enclosed space or going through the harrowing event of driving down the mountain myself in a dinky little sedan. Even though I was regretting my choice at least forty-five percent, the rest of me knew that I wouldn’t have stood a chance with him in the car.

  Distance.

  From here on out, what I needed from Toby was distance. The way that things had been going was simply unacceptable. What the hell was that last night? I fell asleep in his arms like he was my boyfriend or something. He wasn’t anything close to being a boyfriend so it shouldn’t have happened. The more time I spent with him, the more time I wanted to spend with him and that was simply off the table.

  I couldn’t let that happen but I could feel it. At some point, I would fall for the bastard. If I got away from him now, I felt like I stood a chance of truly getting over him. Any more contact and I would cross the point of no return. He was so incredibly out of my reach; it was ridiculous to even entertain the thought of being with him.

  I had seen the caliber of women that he liked to be seen in public with. The skinny, underfed models, never older than twenty-four; that was his type. I was a curvy redhead who never got tall enough to model and couldn't even hack it if I tried. I had a low-key job that wasn’t that glamourous even though it was technically in the fashion industry. Maybe he liked to roll around in the hay with me, but when it came to business, meaning pumping and dumping all the tens in New York City, that wasn’t me.

  My mind was running through all of the advice I had heard about men throughout my life because Toby was exactly the kind of man it applied to. Men were trash. Never trust what men said only trust their actions. Never let a guy tell you he didn’t want you twice. He had told me more than twice at this point, but it seemed it was indecisive.

  No, that was just me giving him access to me when he didn’t deserve it.

  I was trying to convince myself not to do something stupid and it wasn’t working. Being at the resort was going to be a good thing. We weren’t going to be alone anymore which meant contact would be limited by force. Everyone else was going to be around so we were going to have to pretend like nothing had happened in the cabin. As far as they were concerned, we were distant professional acquaintances who happened to belong to the same friend group.

  After the work portion of the trip was over, we would have no reason to be in each other’s presence. This was what should’ve happened in the first place. At the resort, forced apart by the fact that we were not supposed to be together, I’d leave that man the hell alone.

  I was going to remember this one day and laugh.

  I saw the resort coming up on the left. After we turned in to the main entrance, Toby parked and came out of the SUV, taking his bags out with him. He handed his keys to a man waiting and that man took the car. Oh, valet parking, of course, this place had valet parking. I forgot all my friends were rich sometimes because they hung out with me.

  I felt a little bit of my excitement for the remainder of this trip coming back. Of course, it wasn’t a treat for Toby and Missy the way it was for me, but I was determined to enjoy myself. When it was my turn, I hopped out of the car, grabbed my bags, and let the valet take the rental.

  The lobby was a huge, grand hall. Everything was made of shiny, expensive-looking wood with touches of wilderness, fitting in with the mountains and forests in the region. With the obvious luxury apparent everywhere, I started to feel slightly out of place.

  “Maggie? Maggie, there you are!”

  Missy came running up to me and engulfed me in a hug so violent that I dropped one of my bags. I hugged her back. It had been way too long since Toby was the only other person that I could talk to, I was thrilled to see her.

  “You guys made it. I was so worried.”

  “You guys made sure we got help coming down the mountain. Everything is fine.”

  “I'm so sorry it took so long,” she said.

  “It's fine. I've spent more time in worse places before,” I said, trying to laugh it off.

  “I promise I'm going to make it up to you. This place has the best spa in the whole state.” I fully intended to take her up on that offer. I felt like after my ordeal, and yes, it had been an ordeal, I deserved it. This was what I had wanted in the first place, the reason I was so excited to come out here. A fucking vacation.

&
nbsp; “This place is really beautiful, the pictures on the website don't do it justice,” I said to her, changing the subject. It was over now so I didn't want to talk about it anymore. Things were going to go back to normal now since we didn't have the option to continue the way we had been.

  It was starting to become obvious to me now, what had happened in the cabin with Toby had only happened because of the ridiculous circumstances. In reality, in normal life, nothing like that could have taken place. Something extraordinary had happened because we had been subjected to extraordinary circumstances.

  It might as well have been a dream. Nightmare more like. It had been a nightmare and I had just woken up.

  Trying situations were supposed to reveal who a person really was, but in this case, I didn't think that was true. People adapted to their surroundings and we had adapted to ours. We were the only two people around for miles so of course, sparks had flown and lines had been crossed. I had learned something valuable about myself so it wasn’t all for nothing. In a situation where Toby was the only man available, I would choose him. Since he wasn't the only man available any longer, I was not going to.

  “Come on, let's get you sorted out then. If you like it out here, you're going to die when you see your suite.”

  I followed Missy in a daze to the front desk where we got our key cards. I had seen the price per night for the resort and let's just say, if I had ever wanted to come here on my own dime, it would have taken months if not years of saving to do it.

  I felt myself get sentimental all of a sudden. Missy was such a good friend and such a good boss too. My life had completely transformed because of her. Where would I be without her? Not here, that was for sure. I started sniffling a little bit. Was that...was I crying? Why? Because I was getting to stay at a resort? What was wrong with me?

  Maybe the stress of the entire situation had finally caught up to me.

  After getting our key cards, Missy accompanied me up to my floor with Toby and Easton. Technically, it was our floor, all of us. She broke down the sleeping arrangements.

  “We’re all on the same floor so don't hesitate to knock on anyone's door if you need anything. This room is yours, Maggie. Niall and Eddy are right across from you. Brenna and Charlie are down the hall, and I'm two doors down with Easton. Toby, that one is yours.”

  Toby had barely looked in my direction since we had gotten here which was a good thing, but it still gave me a little bit of a strange feeling. I didn't want him to give away what we had spent our time together doing, but it was still a little jarring after all the attention he had given me since last night. Hopefully, the thought of the two of us together was so ridiculous that it didn’t even cross anyone’s mind.

  “I suppose all we're doing today is getting settled in?” Toby asked Missy.

  “Oh, of course. I forgot to fill you two in. The storm changed everything. Even though the people from the magazine booked the cabin and were really intent on getting beautiful wilderness shots for the spread, plans changed. The roads are probably going to be hard to navigate for the next few days anyway, so they have decided to shoot the entire thing here.”

  “So, what does that do for the timeline?” he asked.

  “We are shooting out of one of the suites and it's staged already. That means if you are up to it, the shoot can happen today.”

  “I thought the reason we came out here in the first place was to get wilderness shots with the drones,” Toby said, directing the statement at Easton. “That was supposed to be the whole draw.”

  “I ran a test run already around the resort and I’m pretty sure we can get better stuff from here than we would have out there,” Easton said. Toby didn't look convinced. Having very little idea of what the two of them actually did, the conversation was fascinating to me. I thought I knew what Toby's job was, but I had never seen him at work per se. It was kind of sexy seeing him in that mode even though I would never admit it to him.

  “The mountain is accessible from here, but here we have something else that we would have lacked out in the wild, and that's people. We can have close up shots following people up and down the slopes. Movement automatically makes a shot more dynamic and people love that.”

  “Are you telling me that going out there in the first place was for nothing?”

  “If we hadn’t had the first idea, we wouldn’t have gotten this one, relax. If you don't believe me, I can show you the footage.”

  “In other words, yes,” he said, getting testy.

  “If you want to blame someone, blame the weather. We restrategized when things didn’t go to plan. Are you going to get here and then bail because you’re mad at something none of us could control?” Easton asked him. I watched, surprised at this side of Toby. He was stressed too, he was just a little better at hiding it.

  “Does all of this have to happen today?” he asked.

  “We can do the drone shoot tomorrow morning, early, right after the sun comes up. What do you say? The indoor shoot though, we can do right now.”

  Toby seemed to like that idea. He said to give him an hour and he would be ready. That meant I had an hour to get ready too. The group split up and I opened up the door to my suite.

  The place was huge. Easily, the living area alone rivaled the size of my entire apartment. It was spacious with a large leather couch and two armchairs. Next to the fireplace which was already lit was a smaller table with two chairs on either side of it. Sliding glass doors opened to a small balcony that looked out over the wooded mountainside. A massive television was mounted to the wall and the luxuriously fluffy carpet lined the floor.

  There were two bedrooms and of course I chose the bigger one. The king-size bed faced another huge television mounted to the wall and there was a fireplace in there too. It was spacious, decorated in earthy, natural tones and textures. I collapsed dramatically onto the bed. I closed my eyes, grateful beyond belief for the opportunity to be there.

  I wished that was the only thing that I felt.

  In front of Easton and Missy, Toby hadn’t given anything away about what had happened between us, and instead of reassuring me, that made me nervous. He and Easton were friends, and I had no idea whether he would tell him what had happened. Between the cabin and here, he had made a massive shift.

  He had been insistent on riding here together but now he wasn’t giving any indication that he still wanted to be close to me. It might have been because we were no longer alone together, and he didn’t want anyone else to know but I still had questions.

  What happened now?

  I felt like we had unfinished business.

  I got up and started unpacking. I didn't think my question was going to be answered as quickly as I wanted it to. No matter what, I would still have to interact with Toby during the duration of this trip. We were headed to a photo shoot. Watching him looking his best, working it for the camera was going to be a challenge and I wasn't sure I was up to it.

  17

  Toby

  “No smile, please. Serious, give me serious,” the photographer said. I wasn’t smiling so I didn’t know what he was talking about. I looked into the camera and tried to focus.

  “Easton, please, interact with the set. Move around,” the man said.

  “Me?” Easton said.

  “Not you, Easton,” he said.

  “I’m Toby, he’s Easton,” I said.

  “Toby, move around, interact with the set. You’re too stiff.”

  Too stiff? I had done this before, gotten professional pictures taken here and there for work reasons and this was no different. I knew how to do this, even though I didn’t enjoy it.

  No, scratch that, this time was different. Usually, the stylist assistant who was working on the shoot was a woman I had slept with. She was distracting me. It wasn’t her fault that I wasn’t a natural at this kind of thing but at the same time, I would have been performing much better if she wasn’t around. I had to physically hold myself from bending her over right
here in front of everyone.

  We had gone through three outfit changes and this was the last round of photos. I resented this part of our work usually but it was part of the territory. Branding was everything and we wanted to project a certain image. High-end and professional but still forward-looking and for lack of a better word, hip. We were two guys still shy of thirty with military backgrounds and not that bad to look at; we used that to our advantage. We were different in the market of nerds and old guys and while some people held it against us, our products spoke for themselves.

  “Perfect,” the photographer said, looking down at his camera.

  “Are we done?” I asked.

  “We’ll look at the shots first and then come back and see whether we need to include anything else,” Missy said. The women disappeared with the magazine staff and the photographer into one of the other rooms. I sighed loudly and collapsed onto the couch we had been posing next to.

  “Hey, man, are you okay?” Easton asked me.

  “What? Yeah, of course. You know I don’t like this kind of stuff.”

  “No, I meant with what happened to you. Getting stuck out there in the blizzard.”

  “I was in a fully furnished cabin with food, running water, and heat. It wasn’t that bad.”

  “You sure about that? I know how much you wanted to get out.” Easton was my oldest friend, there was no use trying to keep things from him. He might have been the only person who I knew for a fact wouldn’t judge me no matter what I told him.

  “I wouldn’t do it again, let’s just say that.”

  “What was the worst part?” he asked me.

  “I wouldn’t recommend getting stuck in the cabin in the middle of the woods with a woman you find very attractive and not being able to do anything about it.”

  Easton raised his eyebrows. “You have a crush on Maggie?”

  “I don’t have anything with Maggie, I’m just saying.”

  “For someone who is used to only entertaining women for a week, tops, that must’ve been hard for you.” Why did your own habits always sound so bad when someone else reiterated them to you?