Taming the Bad Boy Billionaire Bundle

by Sierra Rose

  Thus—it was with a huge smile that I woke up beside him twelve weeks later.

  It was the day of the grand merger. The day that our strings were to be cut forever, and we would finally be able to proceed forward how we wished. It was freedom incarnate.

  Mitchell had promised that when we arrived home from the party that evening, an envelope would be waiting at the front desk. An envelope containing the flash drive, along with any and all copies he might have made. While a normal person might have questioned the legitimacy of this arrangement, Nick and I knew better. As ironic as it seemed, there were some things at which Mitchell could be unquestionably trusted.

  Bargains were one of them. It was the way he’d risen to the top of the Manhattan food chain. If that man made a deal—he was going to honor it. No matter what the fall-out. No matter what the circumstances. We had upheld our end of the agreement—he would uphold his own.

  I rolled over onto my side, and gazed out at the sleeping Adonis beside me. Nick and I had been up most the night ‘pre-celebrating’ our impending freedom. Needless to say, the morning run was forgotten, and he was likely to be out for hours.

  ...or not.

  A mischievous grin crept up my face, as I slowly crawled on top of him. He adjusted in his sleep—wrapping an arm around me—but didn’t wake.

  More convincing was in order.

  While keeping my eyes locked on his face, I began trailing feather-light kisses down the smooth skin on his chest. Following those muscular curves all the way down to his stomach.

  Still nothing. The man was out like a light.

  Time to get creative...

  With an impish smile, I ducked under the covers—taking a moment to admire the physical masterpiece that lay beneath me. What other girl was lucky enough to wake up to something like this every morning? This was the kind of body you saw on billboards and magazines—not in real life.

  I stroked my hands gently up his legs, before closing them lightly around the base of his penis. Even in his sleep, it stiffened in my hand. A feeling of smug satisfaction flickered through me—pleased to be the one to surprise him for once. Then—after bracing myself squarely against the mattress—I ducked down my head and got to work.

  The effect was instantaneous.

  And...not exactly what I had in mind.

  Nick jerked awake with a gasp—unintentionally kneeing me right in the head in the process. I fell back with a muffled cry, and it took ten seconds of him rapidly digging through the tangle of sheets to be able to extract me. My eyes closed and I went petulantly limp in his arms, as I was dragged back to the land of the living—only opening my lips long enough to whimper a defeated, “You’ve killed me,” before slumping theatrically lifeless once more.

  A sparkling laugh filled the air between us, and the next second, my face was peppered with an assault of kisses. He attacked every inch of me, begging me to come back to life.

  “Don’t go—we need you here.” More kisses. “Whatever the higher-ups are promising you, I’ll triple it.” More kisses. “Just open your eyes, my love—do not go toward that light!”

  I pried open first one eye. Then the other. My lips pursed speculatively as I stared him down, before parting with an opportunistic, “Triple it?”

  He laughed again, before sitting up against headboard and pulling me into his arms. “I’m sorry, love—I didn’t mean to kick you. I was...uh...surprised.”

  My smile turned smug, as I nestled down into his arms.

  “Well, that was kind of the whole point.”

  His eyebrows lifted teasingly, as he tilted up my face to his.

  “I clearly remember a certain girl begging me to let her get to sleep last night. Said something about ‘requiring unmolested hibernation’ to recharge?”

  I considered it for a second, before shaking my head with a decisive grin.

  “Nope—I’ve changed my mind. More sex please.”

  He chuckled appreciatively, and stretched out his arms with a yawn. “You know, if I’d known how insatiable you were going to be, I might have insisted on separate rooms. You’re not the only one who needs to sleep, you know.”

  “Sleep is for lesser men.” I tossed back my hair, and clapped my hands briskly. “Come on—time’s a wasting.”

  He chuckled again, but pulled back the sheets obligingly.

  “I’m not a piece of meat, you know.”

  I rolled my eyes and swung my leg around to straddle him.

  “It’s adorable that you think that.”

  Another chuckle.

  “Oh yeah? And if I’m not in the mood?” I glanced down with a rather pointed stare, and he conceded the point. “Fine—you win.”

  I slid down on top of him with a little gasp, dropping my head back as I began swaying my hips back and forth. His hands grabbed my waist a second later—the man liked to be in control—and a second later, we picked up the speed.

  “Okay, I lied...” he gasped, closing his eyes as his hips arched up into mine. “I was...very much in the mood.”

  My teeth clamped down on my lip with a little grin.

  “Yeah, I kind of picked up on that—what with the massive erection.”

  With absolutely no warning, he flipped us over. My hair flew up around me, and I landed on the mattress with a gasp of surprise as he towered over me—spreading my legs apart to get inside even deeper. A quiet moan escaped my lips, as I grabbed desperately onto his shoulders, trying to last as long as I could.

  The jogging had given me a newfound sense of stamina, but at the same time, our desire for each other was growing every single day. A fleeting look, a tiny gesture—it all compounded into an overwhelming sense of urgency. An attraction that could never quite be satisfied—no matter how close we got. No matter how many times we came back together after pulling away.

  It made keeping myself together during sex increasingly difficult.

  “Come on, Wilder,” he teased with a grin. I had pressed a pillow over my face as my entire body arched up to meet him—that building pressure inside me was already almost too much to take. “You wanted this, woke me up for it. I demand that you wait—”

  A loud knock on the door made us jump in our skin. My eyes opened tentatively, and there was a slight pause in our rhythm, before another deafening bang made us break apart.

  “Who the hell is that?” I panted, trying to catch my breath.

  Nick’s eyes were wide with both wonder and intense sexual frustration, as he gazed incredulously at the door. “Did you leave out a mug of coffee again,” he whispered suddenly, the edges of his face paling in fear. “You know what Louise said she’d do to us—”

  The knocking started up again, furious as ever.

  “I know you’re in there,” a British accent filtered through the door, “I literally just heard the two of you fucking—now open up!”

  Nick and I shared an incredulous look, before bolting off the bed in one accord. He quickly darted to the closet and pulled on some pants, while I slipped a bathrobe over my shoulders, then hurried to yank open the door.

  “Stacy?!”

  A statuesque blonde stared back at me. The kind of woman who could stop traffic with a single glance of her eyes.

  Right now—those eyes were boring a hole in my face.

  “Hey,” she said without inflection, “guess what?”

  Stacy Heathrow’s job title with the Hunters might have been as a mere stylist, but over the years, I’d learned not to underestimate her. I shot a nervous glance back at Nick, before offering her what I hoped was my best winning smile.

  “What?”

  Her perfectly painted lips turned up in a humorless smile.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  NEEDLESS TO SAY, MORNING sex was put on hold.

  I hastened to get dressed—racing from one side of the bedroom to the other with an incredulous frown—as Stacy sat in the middle of the bed and told me the unlikely story of how she was to become a mother. Nick had been banished
downstairs to make coffee (and generally just make himself scarce), while she told me the entire bizarre tale.

  “...so later that day, I decided to get a slice of pizza,” she continued on, in the billionth precursor verse to what had actually happened. “Which was really strange, because the last time I had carbs was on my twelfth birthday, and even then, my mom made me spit out the cake.”

  With a half-latched earring still in my hand, I turned away from the mirror to look at her straight on. She seemed perfectly calm—which in a way made sense, it would take a level 4 hurricane to bring a spark of emotion to those jaded eyes—but this was motherhood! She was pregnant! With a baby! How the hell was she calm about this?!

  But perhaps a more pressing question remained...

  “Uh, Stacey—I love hearing about every detail that happened to you since the day of conception, but isn’t it a little...” I hesitated, searching for the right word, “...unlikely that you would get pregnant?”

  She stared blankly back, and I rolled my eyes.

  “That you and your girlfriend would accidentally be expecting a child?”

  “Oh,” her face cleared immediately, “Lily and I like to mix it up every now and again.”

  Like to mix it...?

  ...oh.

  “Wait—you do?” I asked with a conspiratorial grin. “How does that even work? I thought you guys were—”

  “We are,” she answered, looking almost bored, “but beauty comes in all shapes and sizes—Lil and I aren’t ones to pass up a gorgeous opportunity if it comes strolling right into our life. Take Nick, for example. The man is damn fine. So fine that the fact that he’s a man has been rendered virtually irrelevant. Now if he showed any interest in—”

  I cut her off swiftly, holding up a silencing hand. Stacy Heathrow was hands-down one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen. I knew for a fact that I would sleep a whole lot easier if Nick wasn’t aware that offer was on the table.

  “Let’s just...get back to the story,” I prompted. “So, you were getting a slice of pizza—”

  “I was getting a slice of pizza, and who should I meet at the little cart but Raphael. Now, as it turned out, it was his first time eating carbs in years as well, and so naturally, one thing led to another—”

  “Wait a minute.” I whipped around again, trying to keep it all straight. “You’re telling me that because you and some random stranger are both viscerally frightened of bread—you had sex with him and suddenly you’re pregnant?”

  I hated to say it, but stranger things had happened in this city.

  “No,” she shook her head as if I was being very slow, “I called up my girlfriend first, so we could all have a threesome. But then, yes. And it turns out I’m pregnant.”

  My eyes widened, but I shook it off as best I could. If anyone could make a baby from a slice of pizza, it was Stacy Heathrow. And as neurotic as the fashionista might be, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she would make an incredible mom.

  “Well, I’m glad you came all the way down here to tell me.” I frowned as the words played back in my head. “Stacey...why did you come all the way down here to tell me?”

  She clapped her hands together briskly, pleased that we’d finally reached her point.

  “Well—Lily had to jet off to Barcelona for a conference or some nonsense, and I’m having my first ultrasound today. I need someone to go with me.”

  My heart melted, as my eyes misted over.

  “And you wanted me?” I was profoundly touched. “You wanted me for moral support—”

  “No, genius—I wanted you to hold my eight thousand dollar handbag while they lather me up, so I don’t have to set it down on linoleum.” She shuddered at the very thought. “Plus, seeing as you and the billionaire are still playing house, you’re the only person I know right now who’s technically unemployed.”

  I blinked in disbelief, as she pushed to her feet with a smile.

  “So come on—the appointment’s in twenty minutes.” She flashed me devilish wink on the way out. “Unless you want me to help you and Nick finish what you started...”

  Chapter 21

  EXACTLY TWENTY MINUTES later, I was sitting in the waiting room of the most sought after OB/GYN in all of Manhattan. Stacy’s precious handbag was in one hand, and a magazine was in the other. I had at least four hours to kill before I had to start getting ready for the party, so I flipped through it at a leisurely pace—reading through the testimonials of other women who had suddenly found themselves on a path to motherhood they never imagined.

  “What’s wrong?” Stacy asked. “Do the magazines make you uncomfortable?”

  I sighed. “Maybe.”

  “Why? Because you’ll never have that with Nick? I mean because he can’t settle down long enough to have a baby.”

  “He doesn’t have to settle down to have a baby. It only takes one roll in the hay.”

  “I know.” She pointed to her stomach. “Tell me about it. Now what’s wrong?”

  “I’m late.”

  “Late for what? I’m more important than any event you have planned, Abby!”

  I peered at her. “My period is late.”

  “Oh no!”

  “Oh yes. I’ve been so busy, I haven’t been paying attention.”

  “When was the last time you had your period?”

  I blushed a little, but we were the only two women in the room.

  “I haven’t had one for years,” I admitted. “Not since I started taking birth control.”

  She shook her head. “Some women have been on the pill as long as they can remember, their minds are one-hundred percent focused on a high-powered career, and every time they gain even an extra pound—they fly into a frenzy until they’ve worked it off. It’s the time that you’re not thinking at all about getting pregnant, that it sneaks up on you.”

  I pondered.

  “They say about one in four women doesn’t know they’re pregnant until they’re already weeks in. Most just think they came down with the flu. Have been working too much, so they’re a little tired lately. Just feeling a bit run-down. It never occurs to most of them to actually take a pregnancy test until they actually start to show.”

  I scoffed at such distractible women.

  Then thought about that terrible stomach flu I’d had a few weeks back. The one that had lingered on and on. The one that Nick hadn’t gotten—despite having constant contact with me.

  I pitied them for being so careless and unobservant at the same time.

  Then thought about how tired I’d been lately. How my breasts had been sore and tender. I had blamed both things upon having near constant sex with Nick. I hadn’t even considered—

  I was on my feet before I made the conscious effort to stand. Trembling and pale. The magazine and handbag slipped from my hand, as I took a step toward the nurse. “Is it possible for me to get a pregnancy test without an appointment?”

  The woman nodded and got me in.

  I WALKED BACK TO NICK’S apartment in a daze. All twenty-eight blocks. I didn’t think to call a cab. I wasn’t even sure if I’d brought any money.

  Stacy gave me all kinds of encouragement and said we could have play dates. The nurse simply slipped a card, along with a pamphlet of literature into my purse as I floated unblinkingly out the door.

  By the time I finally got back to Nick’s building, a crescent moon of blisters had reddened my skin. Shoes like the ones I was wearing, weren’t really meant to be walked in for long periods of a time. They were decorative, not practical.

  I probably shouldn’t even be wearing heels anymore. The thought dipped in and out of my dream-like trance. Isn’t that what they say when you’re...

  I took off the shoes. Then headed slowly into the lobby.

  The place was a flutter with activity. The merger the Hunter Corporation was celebrating today was an international event. Business-men, foreign leaders, and socialites from all over the globe had descended upon our fair city. Ni
ck and I had watched them arriving all week. By the looks of things, booking a room in Nick Hunter’s own building was the ultimate prize, and in two years, I’d never seen the place so busy.

  Max, Nick’s bodyguard and longtime friend, greeted me on my way to the elevator. He was wearing a fitted tuxedo in honor of the occasion, and his normally crazy hair had been slicked back to perfection.

  “Abigail!” he called in surprise. His eyes flickered over my vacant face, down to my bare feet, and back up again. “Why aren’t you ready yet? Is everything okay?”

  He tried to make his way over to me, but a swarm of people flooded in between us. At any rate, I stepped bracingly away—pushing the button as quick as I could.

  I didn’t want to talk to anyone right now, because I didn’t want to explain myself to anyone right now. And the second I opened my mouth, the whole thing was going to come spilling out—whether I wanted it to or not.

  The doors opened and closed behind me—shooting me to the top story.

  There was only one man I needed to talk to right now. One man who needed to know what had happened. One man whose reality I was about to shatter into a million pieces.

  The second the doors opened in the penthouse, that man came barreling into me.

  “Abby!” he called, leaping the last of the stairs and rushing forward to sweep me off my feet. “I was beginning to get worried about you—how did everything go at the ultrasound?”

  My eyes flickered up in a daze as I tried and failed to say something in reply, but he was too caught up in the excitement of the night to notice. Instead, he merely kissed me on the forehead, and dropped me back to my feet.

  “You’re cutting it a little close in terms of getting ready—but we should be fine. I set your dress out on the bed, and Louise actually called a stylist to work with your hair. She should be here in about ten minutes, so that gives you time to change.”