The Billionaire's Reluctant Pregnant Bride: A BWWM Romance (10 page)

She studies me again. “You do not fool me. This isn’t over.”

“I didn’t think it was,” I say, standing.

Just then, the door bursts open. The most beautiful blond haired, blue eyed young woman I’ve ever seen bursts through.

“Oh God, mother,” she exclaims. “Preston and I both told you not to contact her on your own! You’re lucky I found out before he did.”

Priscilla Easterbrook glares back at her daughter. “Kate, You and Preston do not control my behavior. And besides, gentlemen are not allowed in the Rose Court.”

“If Preston knew you had her cornered in here, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be acting like a gentleman.”

“Yes, well, that shouldn’t surprise me.” She sighs as she looks at my belly. “It’s the reason why we’re in this mess to begin with.” She then raises her eyes to my own. “Think over my offer. Take the paperwork with you.”

“Yeah…I’m gonna pass,” I tell her.

Kate glances at the other bouquet on the table. “Oh no. You didn’t.”

“I did only what was necessary,” Priscilla defends.

“
That
was never necessary.” Kate grabs my hand. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before my brother catches wind of this and challenges whatever that is in the middle of the table to a duel.”

“This isn’t over,” Priscilla says, following us to the door. “Regardless of whether or not you sign—”

“She’s not signing that,” Kate interrupts.

Priscilla takes a deep breath and starts again. “Regardless of whether or not you sign, you’re expected at your baby shower next week. That is not a request”

I almost trip.
Baby shower?

“We can have another later,” Priscilla continues, “But, after all that nonsense that was printed in the papers, it is important to introduce you property to society as soon as possible.”

I shudder.

Kate squeezes my hand. “Alright mom! Will do. Now, we’re going to leave.”

“Why are you leaving together? What can you possibly have to do with her?” Priscilla scowls.

“Shopping, if you must know,” Kate responds.

Priscilla’s lip turns up as she glances over my outfit. “That is a good idea. She’ll definitely need something suitable for the shower, and a few town outfits. I will not allow the woman carrying my grandson to look shabby.”

And with that, Priscilla dismisses us by closing the doors of the Rose Court.

Chapter 12

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that,” Kate whispers, looking over her shoulder one last time at the Easterbrook Garden Club before hopping into the town car.

“You don’t have to keep apologizing,” I reassure. “She’s just worried about her son and her grandchild. Maybe some of her concerns are misplaced, but I can’t say I blame her. She doesn’t know me.”

“Still…” Kate shudders. “All that paperwork freaks me out.”

“I know, right? What was even in all of it?”

“I think it’s best for us to never know,” Kate laughs. She then gives instructions to the driver and we’re off.

When the town car stops, I feel like pinching myself. I’d only met Kate thirty minutes ago. At first, this doesn’t sound too strange. I have amnesia, so I feel like I’m meeting everyone in my life for the first time. But Kate is different from everyone else because thirty minutes ago was also the first time she met me.

She didn’t drop that bomb immediately, though. First, she dug for dirt, asking me if I remembered anything about Preston yet. I explained that even though I didn’t, I apparently used to call him Easterbutt.

“That is brilliant!” she’d laughed. “You’re a genius.”

“I wouldn’t go
that
far,” I said, but in all honesty.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t know you when we were kids,” she said. “I never would have stopped calling him Easterbutt.”

I couldn’t help but laugh again. It was just so silly. “So…if I didn’t know you when I was a kid, when
did
we meet, Kate?”

“One second…” she looked at her watch, “about thirty minutes ago?”

Shit!

“Oh, don’t go white darling. I’m not going to make you sign a form to be my friend.”

That wasn’t what I was worried about. I suddenly remember how I’d made her give me the foil wrapper from her bubblegum after we first got into the town car so I could fold a paper crane out of it. Totally would not have done that if I’d known she was a stranger! I glare at the little crane sitting on the seat in between us. “I assumed you were one of my friends!”

“Oh, I am! It’s just that neither of us knew we were friends yet,” she smiles. “Now come on. Let’s get you some clothes.”

I didn’t want to buy clothes, but Kate wouldn’t hear of it. And, after notifying me that if her mother saw me parading around town in what I had on, I’d never hear the end of it either. “She already called the newspapers to ask if they could cut and paste a different shirt into that RELUCTANT PREGNANT BRIDE article. The thing’s already been printed! Poor mum doesn’t know how image manipulations software works—or printing presses, for that matter.”

I shiver as I get out of the town car, searching the street for paparazzi but they are nowhere to be found. All I find are people carrying large white shopping bags, businessmen on cell phones and tourists taking pictures.

“I’m not nearly as interesting as my brother,” Kate whispers.

I think about all the bodyguards. “You know, that isn’t a bad thing.”

“There may be one or two people following us,” she continues, “But I think they’re all swarming Easterbrook Tower.”

Poor Preston!

“And don’t you dare think about feeling sorry for my brother,” Kate continues. “The world is full of wealthy men—even good looking ones—and the majority of them do not command the public’s attention. Preston dug his own grave by chasing so many singers and models and any other hot up and coming piece of ass.”

I frown.
Do not be jealous, Tachell. Jealousy is ugly, especially unwarranted jealousy. You weren’t dating. You had no claim on him.
Still, I can’t help but ask, “So he’s…a bit promiscuous?”

“I guess you could say that,” Kate scoffs. Then, she looks back at me, eyes wide. “Oh no. Don’t worry about any of it. My brother has been obsessed with you for years.”

“What?”

“It’s true!” she tells me. “It’s why he refused to leave Eaglebrook. Mother wanted to send him to a better prep school. He always put it off, but when she enrolled him he said he’d emancipate himself before going to school there. He said it was because he didn’t want to leave his friends, but I knew that wasn’t it. I’d found his composition notebook.”

“Composition notebook?” I ask.

“Yeah. Preston wrote a lot of love poetry to his muse—a dark, mysterious princess who beckoned his soul with the scent of lavender. He’d tried to conquer her heart by offering her a white rose, but she thought it was too proud and forever turned her back on him. It was really melodramatic. I think he was channeling the powers of every emo teenage boy in the state.”

“That’s…” I don’t even know how to feel about that. I think back to all the times he’s offered me lavender. There’s always been a white rose in there, too. Maybe because he’s still trying to find a way to get me to finally see
him
.

“Yeah, my brother’s a pretty sensitive, romantic guy,” she mumbles. “But he’s also a manwhore. Let’s pick out something for tonight that will blow his mind.”

She grabs my hand, pulling me forward.

“Uh…Kate? What’s tonight?”

She looks over her shoulder, grinning. “A charity ball, of course! And you’re gonna bring down the house!”

Before I have time to respond, Kate’s already got us in the first shop. “Hey Tina! This is the infamous Tachell.” She looks at me, giving me a devilish smile. “Do your worst!”

Chapter 13

I can’t believe I’m doing this.

No, make that I can’t believe I’m doing this while
wearing this
.

The limo pulls up to the building. It looks like the White House, with large pillars stretching into the sky and thick brick pathway leading to the gigantic black doors. All around are beautiful men and women dressed in their finest.

After one turn around the driveway, the door to the limo opens. A butler offers me his hand.

Alright. I’m not ready for this. Maybe we can just keep driving in circles all night?

“Go!” Kate whispers, giving me a “gentle” nudge from behind.

I take the butler’s white gloved hand and step onto the sidewalk. He’s careful to make sure I avoid the puddles. Kate gets out after, giving me a grin as her mother shoes me aside. “Don’t dawdle!”

Priscilla Easterbrook isn’t happy that I’m here. However, as Kate explained to her, I need to present myself to society and the annual charity auction and ball for the firemen of New York City is a perfect place to do it.

After we’re out, we enter the swell of the crowd walking up to the mansion. Cameras flash around us like disco lights. After marching up the stairs for what seems like forever, two more men dressed in black uniforms with small billed hats open the doors and we’re ushered inside.

Oh.

My.

God.

Everything is sparkling and white. The white gold chandeliers above making everything in the room dazzle. A string quartet plays beside a fountain. There’s even a freakin’ cherub pouring water out of a vase. I’d entered a completely different world.

Impeccably dressed Waiters dance between groups of people, serving water chestnuts wrapped in bacon, shrimp cocktails, and drinks on silver platters.

Kate grabs a few water chestnuts and hands me one. “These are soooo good.”

I put it in my mouth. The chestnut is a hard and crunchy. The bacon was cooked to perfection—not too crispy, not too soft—just full and bursting with apple cherry smoked flavors. I moan as my teeth sink into it, releasing the flavors.

“Get me away from these,” I tell Kate.

She laughs. “You wanna eat them all?”

“No, I seriously will.” I glance around. ‘Far, far away.” I was kind of afraid of tackling a waiter and stealing his tray.

“You can have as much as you want, you know—”

“No, she can’t,” Priscilla Easterbrook interrupted. Her lips thinned as she looked down at me. “Control yourself. You are to be an Easterbrook. Act like one.”

Oh man. Pissed off the matriarch.

Kate hands me a glass of white wine. “Let’s go find Preston.”

Priscilla Easterbrook frowns. “Is that
really
necessary?”

“If she doesn’t say something to him, people will think something’s wrong!”

Priscilla sighs. “Fine. Be quick.”

Kate pulls me towards the refreshment table and the two of us scan the crowd. It’s a sea of pastel dresses. Some women wore white or black. A few younger women hanging onto a rich man’s arm wore red.

No one wore a dress with a pink as loud as mine, and very few of the women had skin as dark as mine. Kate had decided to use this to our advantage.
You’ll be a bold sapphire in a sea of diamonds
, she’d told me. Priscilla’s comment wasn’t quite as flattering, but she seemed to begrudgingly admire my gusto.
The mother of an Easterbrook should command the attention of any room they enter
, she’d declared.
This will do.

Well, the hot pink dress I wore certainly made a statement. It wasn’t as revealing as most of the other dresses—Kate’s comment about the ball being a cleavage showdown wasn’t an exaggeration—but there was something unmistakably sexy about it. Maybe because only someone confident could pull it off.

Lately, there’d been so many reasons for me to worry. Not remembering anything. A new baby. A devastatingly handsome man who was constantly helping me out or pulling away. And though I did worry, that wasn’t me.

I was an artist, which meant that I looked at each new experience unflinchingly. Preston had been right. That was a quality all of my paintings had, and I still had that strength within me. It was time to let it out.

“Uh oh, I think he found us first,” Kate laughs. “And he looks pissed.”

What? Why would Preston be pissed? I crane, trying to find him, and then I do. Suddenly, I kind of wish I hadn’t.

He’s stalking towards us. I can see his muscles straining beneath his tux. And his face?

Oh man.

Save me now.

Why is he so mad?
What does he have to be mad about?

He stops in front of me, dark eyes flashing and nostrils flaring.

“What are you wearing?” He doesn’t just ask. He demands an answer.

“Hello to you too, brother,” Kate interjects.

He glances sideways at Kate, eyes narrowing. “Are you to blame for this?”

She bats her eyelashes. “To blame for what?”

He glances at me once more, looking me up and down. “You know exactly what. You’re going to get me thrown in jail.”

“I think you’re overreacting. We just gave her a mini makeover and got her a dress. Mom approves, by the way.”

“Mother does
not
approve of this.”

“Oh yes she did. And, as you know, mother has impeccable taste. Doesn’t Tachell look lovely?”

“That’s not the problem,” Preston rasps.

“You know, I am standing right here,” I tell Preston. “You should stop talking about me like I can’t dress or make decisions for myself.”

Preston’s eyes soften. “That isn’t the issue.”

“What is the issue, then?” I am starting to feel more like a mannequin than a person with the way they keep looking at me and speaking to one another as if I’m not here.

His eyes darken. Kate makes a gagging sound as he takes my hand. Suddenly, he doesn’t look like a man—he looks like a ravenous wolf who hasn’t eaten anything in two months. Then, without answering, he pulls me away from his sister and the crowd.

I can feel judgmental eyes following us, but Preston doesn’t slow down and I don’t even care. The truth is, something about the situation thrills me. His commanding grip on my hand. The primal intensity radiating from him beneath all his finery. I want to push him down onto the ground, rip open his shirt, and lick all those perfect muscles….