Bad Boy Baby Daddy

Bad Boy Baby Daddy

© 
2016 by Avery Wilde

**Warning: This novel contains steamy situations which may be objectionable to some readers. Not recommended for anyone under the age of 18.**

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COPYRIGHT

Please respect the work of this author. No part of this book may be reproduced or copied without permission. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Any similarities to events or situations is also coincidental.

© 
2016 Avery Wilde

Chapter 1

Riley

“Kaiden Cross?
Kaiden Cross?
”

Despite my usually reserved demeanor, my boss Eric’s latest announcement had surprised me enough to make me lose my cool and practically shriek, almost spilling the latte that had been halfway to my lips when he’d walked into my office. He’d just announced who my latest public relations client was going to be, but I’d surely misheard him. It couldn’t be
that
Kaiden Cross.

Then again, who else could it be? There weren’t many super-famous athletes with a name like Kaiden Cross, after all.

I could picture him my mind as clear as day; every tiny little detail and aspect of him—his towering height, the colorful tattoos twining up and down his biceps and across his chest, all that ropey muscle which flexed whenever he stretched and grinned from the TV screens he frequented, and those gorgeous dimples and electric blue eyes which were always flashing with that daredevil look he was so famous for. Those sinful eyes alone had made him the object of every girl’s fantasy within the last year or so, including me, but you couldn’t pay me enough to actually admit that to anyone I.

Nope, not even a million bucks.

My boss flashed me a beatific smile, obviously expecting me to jump up and kiss him out of sheer gratitude for the huge new client he’d just dumped on me. “Yes, Kaiden Cross. The UFC fighter. I gather you’ve heard of him?”

I composed myself as well as I could, swallowing hard to try and mask my nerves, but my heart continued to flutter like the wings of a trapped bird. “Yes, I’ve heard of him,” I said. “At least that’s one way to put it,” I added in a mutter.

I’d more than heard of the guy. Believe it or not, I’d actually grown up next door to him up until the age of twelve, upon which I’d moved away with my Mom after she and my Dad got a divorce. Back then, Kaiden had been a lanky, geeky kid with a slight lisp and coke-bottle glasses. He’d also been my best friend. We’d played after school every day, climbed trees together on weekends, stomped in puddles together after rainstorms, and helped each other defeat high-level bosses on our console games. We’d even kissed each other’s cuts and bruises whenever one of us fell over.

Yeah, he used to be a real sweetie. Those lips weren’t so innocent anymore, although they were probably just as sweet…but I digress.

After I’d moved away from our old neighborhood in the sixth grade, I’d thought we’d stay in contact, but fate had other plans for us. Kaiden’s father had moved him to the other side of the city and a different school within a month of me and my Mom moving, and I had no idea what his new address or home phone number was. This had all been before the age of Facebook and Instagram, so it had been a lot harder to stay in touch with someone, especially as a child. I’d given him my new address before I’d moved, and he’d written to me a few times, but within six months, the letters had stopped. For a while, I’d wondered why, but I’d eventually let it go. Sometimes friends simply drifted apart, and even at the tender age of twelve I’d understood that. I’d been sad for a while, but it was relatively easy for kids to bounce back. I’d found new friends, and eventually, a whole week had gone by in which I didn’t think about my old friend. That week became a month, then that month became a year, and soon, that year had stretched into many.

I hadn’t thought about him at all in nearly eleven years until I turned on my TV one evening a year and a half ago. I’d barely recognized him at the time, but as soon as the sports news presenter had mentioned his name, my eyebrows had shot up, and I’d leaned closer to see if it was the same boy I’d once known.

It was. It had to be.

He’d grown up to be mouth-wateringly handsome with abs that could render even the staunchest woman senseless with her panties on the floor in a puddle, but those eyes were the same—crystal blue and no longer hidden behind thick lenses.

He’d been twenty-three back then, and according to that newscast, he’d apparently just become the youngest MMA fighting champion in the country in his weight category. My initial reaction at that announcement had been total and utter shock. Kaiden, the geeky little boy from next door who’d always loved math and reading, had become a frickin’ MMA fighter?

Weird as hell, but pretty cool once I thought about it. Watching people beat each other up was certainly not my scene, but if Kaiden had found his passion and become amazing at it, then I was proud of him.

I’d almost tried tracking him down and sending him a quick message to see if he still remembered me, and to let him know I was happy for him, but when I’d typed his name into an internet search engine, I’d realized just how much he’d changed in the last decade and decided against it.

It wasn’t just his looks and height that had changed.

From all the photos and articles about him online, it seemed rather apparent that his personality had drastically altered as well. He was a reckless bar-hopper, arrogant man-whore, and a hotheaded troublemaker who’d found himself on the wrong side of the law more than once—all of those things rolled into one perfectly-muscled, golden-tanned six foot four frame.

To be honest, I’d been too nervous to try and contact him after I’d seen all that, because I hadn’t changed as much as he had since I was a child. I was still just as much of a geek as I’d always been, although I managed to hide that fact somewhat with the help of my best friend Alexa, who took me clothes shopping every six months and acted as my personal stylist. I’d also scored a job straight out of college which apparently ranked quite highly on the ‘cool-meter’—an assistant social media director’s position at a PR firm in L.A. That coupled with my improved dress sense had built up my self-esteem over the last couple of years, but not enough to give me the confidence to contact Kaiden now that I knew what he’d become.

He probably wouldn’t even remember me, anyway.

In the eighteen months since he’d come back onto my radar, nothing seemed to have changed with him other than the fact that he was even more famous now…and not only for his MMA career. He was still an amazing fighter, but apparently, he was even more amazing at picking up women. I couldn’t count how many actresses, models and socialites he’d supposedly bedded now, according to the gossip blogs.

Probably a trillion.

Nowadays, I wouldn’t have wanted to contact him even if I had all the confidence in the world. He’d become the
exact
kind of guy I’d tried so hard to stay away from all my life, and up until now, I’d been successful at that. My parents had divorced because my father had cheated on my mother with three different women, so the last thing I ever wanted to do was associate with a man-whorish guy who had a looser set of morals than a drunken pirate.

Too bad that exact guy had fallen right into my lap thirty seconds ago in the form of a new client.

I realized I’d been silent for far too long, and I squeaked out a question to Eric. “So…are you sure you want me to take him on as a client?” I said. “I mean, he’s uber-famous. I know I’ve handled quite a few celebrity clients, but not at this level. The guy is in the gossip columns twice a day!”

Eric nodded. “There’s a reason I made you my assistant director of social media and marketing when you first came here, Riley. You’re damn good at it, and you’re good at keeping to yourself and staying out of the spotlight while letting it shine on our clients. I can’t count the number of PR agents I’ve gone through who’ve done nothing but use their job to push their own agenda of being famous. But you’re not like that. You’re…”

A shy mouse. A homebody. A nerd complete with a big L on her forehead.
That’s probably what he wanted to say as his voice trailed off.

“Reliable, and you don’t screw around,” he finally finished. “I honestly think you’re ready for such a high-profile client, and you have been for quite some time.”

I nodded. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up, as much as I didn’t want to represent Kaiden. God, it would be awkward. What would I even say to him when we finally met again after all this time? I could picture it now. ‘
Hi, Kaiden, it’s me…we used to ride bikes together, and now I have to protect your media image while you let every woman in town ride you.’

Every woman but me.

Even though I couldn’t stand the sort of guy Kaiden had become in his adult years, I couldn’t deny the flush of heat I felt every time his face showed up on my computer screen, and I couldn’t deny the way my heart raced when I saw that famous megawatt grin flashing at me from the TV screen. When we were kids, we’d made each other soaking wet by playing in puddles after storms, and now he could make my panties soaking wet from a simple print photograph of him in a gossip rag.

Amazing how puberty, hormones and thirteen years could change things.

I wasn’t going to let it change my attitude to work, however. Public relations might not have been my dream job in life, but it was always interesting, paid the bills, and most of all, I was a professional. I wasn’t the usual type of person who you’d imagine working in PR, but I was good at my job, and I always tried to do it well.

I straightened my shoulders and smiled at Eric. “Thank you, Eric. That means a lot to me. I’m glad you trust me enough to—”

He waved his hand at me, cutting me off. “Oh, come on. I don’t need a big speech from you,” he said with a wink. “Just do the damn job and make me proud.”

My face flushed, and I caught a glimpse of one of my coworkers casting a jealous stare at me. She probably wished she’d received Kaiden as a client instead, and honestly, I would’ve been happy to hand him off to her if Eric hadn’t been so dead-set on giving him to me.

“So why did he come to our agency?” I asked.

“Well, his current PR people are morons, and like you said, he’s in the gossip columns twice a day. His manager is sick of it, the UFC administration is sick of it, and well…let’s just say that this time, he’s gotten himself into even more trouble than usual,” Eric replied.

“Drugs?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. With the kind of muscles he had, I wouldn’t exactly be surprised if Kaiden was secretly on steroids.

Eric shook his head. “No. You know Serra Silver?”

I frowned. The name sounded familiar, and I racked my brains until I recalled the blonde B-list actress from an afternoon TV soap my best friend loved. “The actress from Meadowlands?”

He nodded. “Uh-huh. Well, apparently she had a one night stand with Mr. Cross, and yesterday afternoon she started shopping around a story saying she’s pregnant with his child. He’s denying the whole thing and saying it’s not his kid, and as you can imagine, that’s already driving a few gossip sites crazy. So it’s our job to manage the scandal as it breaks.”

So the tattooed troublemaker had knocked up a bleached-blonde starlet. Color me unsurprised.

God, when had he changed so much? How the hell had this guy once been my best friend? It was like aliens had abducted him and given him a lobotomy.

“So when do I see him again?” I asked.

Eric arched an eyebrow. “Again?”

“Er, I mean, when do I see him?” I said, quickly realizing what I’d said. “Is he coming into the office?”

“Actually, no. He’s apparently busy all day getting ready for some big fight tonight— against Mac Brydie, I believe—so I thought it might be a good idea to do this.”

He pulled out a ticket from his pocket with a flourish and put it on my desk. “That’s a front-row ticket to the fight tonight. You’ll be able to watch the fight, get to know exactly what his career is all about, what his fans are like, and so on. Could be helpful. Then you’ll speak to him and fill him in on what you’re going to be doing for his career after the fight, once he’s done signing autographs. Sound good?”

Sounds horrible.
“Sure,” I said, forcing a smile.

I guess it never hurt to try new things, and Eric was right. Going to one of these MMA fights would be a good way to get to know the ins and outs of Kaiden’s career, which would certainly help me in my job whilst I was representing him.

“The fight starts at nine. I’ll warn you now—it’s very loud in those places.”

My lips turned up slightly at the corners with amusement. “Yes, I can imagine,” I said. ‘Very loud’ was probably an understatement.

“Anyway, you’ll probably be out late, so come into the office late tomorrow if you want. And trust me, you
will
want to. I’ve been to one of those fights before. Left me with a pounding headache, so you’ll probably need some time to sleep in and get over it.”

Oh, I was going to need a lot more than sleep to get over the job I’d just been given…

***

I stepped out of the Uber I’d caught to the converted warehouse where the fight was being held tonight. I thanked and waved to the driver before smoothing down my skirt and falling into step behind a group of young girls on the sidewalk ahead of me, obviously headed to the fight as well. They were dressed like they were going clubbing; tight crop tops, bandage skirts, sky-high heels and teased hair, and I glanced down at my own outfit, feeling a little underdressed. I had no idea people got so dressed up for MMA fights, but it was too late now. My cream-colored blouse, plain black skirt and black ballet flats would have to do.

The girls stopped dead a moment later, and I almost ran right into them before managing to stop myself just in time. They’d stopped just outside the warehouse entrance, and they were staring up at it, entranced.