ROMANCE: BAD BOY ROMANCE: Basketball Daddy (BWWM Alpha Male Billionaire Pregnancy Romance) (African American Unexpected Pregnant Contemporary Romance) (134 page)

Lindsay

“Amanda, slow down and tell me what happened.” I try futilely to get her calm down.

“I can’t marry him, Linds. You and Ethan were right. Nathan is a complete asshole.”

I can’t disagree with her on that one. “What did he do?”

She looks at me with tears in her eyes. “He doesn’t love me. I heard him on the phone talking to one of his lawyer friends. He said I would be nothing but a trophy wife, too young and stupid to realize why he really married me.”

I gasp. “He said
what
?”  I want to take a swing at Nathan with a baseball bat. Amanda bursts into tears. “I’m so sorry, Amanda,” I console, wrapping my arms around her. “He’s wrong, you know. You’re a smart woman, and too good for an imbecile like Nathan.”

Her lips twitch. “He is pretty dumb, isn’t he? Who wouldn’t love me? Look at this face.”

We both snicker. “You want me to sneak you out of here?”

Amanda sniffs. “No. I’m going to march out there and give Nathan a piece of my mind in front of everyone.”

“That’s my girl.” If my best friend is going to exercise such bravery, so will I. “Um, Amanda. I slept with your brother,” I blurt out, before I lose my nerve.

“What?”

“More than once.”

“Oh my God. I’m going to kill Ethan. Did he seduce you? Charm you into his bed like he does all those other women?”

I gape at her. I assumed she would be disgusted with me and tell me to get out of her sight. Such anger at her brother was not what I expected. “Er, actually, I was the one to seduce him the first time.”

Amanda blinks, surprise flickering in her eyes. A knock sounds, stopping her response. “Amanda? Lindsay? What’s going on in there?” It’s Ethan.

“We’ll be out in a minute,” Amanda calls, her eyes still on me.

“Amanda, please don’t hate me,” I beg.

“Did all this start since Ethan got here for my wedding?”

My eyes shut briefly. I’m going to have to tell her the entire truth. “The first time was after our graduation.”

Her mouth drops open as I continue to look at her, my eyes pleading. “Casey is three, isn’t she?”

My heart is pounding in my chest. “Yes.” I force the word out.

“Lindsay, of all the stupid, selfish things to do. You never told any of us your baby belonged to Ethan.”

“What did you just say?”

Amanda and I wheel around, our expressions of surprise identical. Ethan has pushed the door open.

“Ethan! This is the ladies room, for goodness sake,” Amanda scolds.

It’s too late. I can tell by the look on his face that he heard Amanda. He’s staring at me with a mixture of disbelief and hurt. “Is it true, Lindsay? Is Casey mine?”

I can’t look him in the eyes. “She’s yours. I’m sorry, Ethan. I should have told you, but-”

“Save it, Lindsay. This isn’t the time or the place to have this conversation.” His jaw is clenched, and his shoulders are stiff with tension as if he’s making great effort to hold on to his temper. “Amanda, your guests are waiting.”

“Well, they might as well go home. There will be no wedding tomorrow,” Amanda grumbles. She turns to me, sympathy on her face. “I don’t hate you, Lindsay. I’m pissed as hell, but I’ll get over it. I’m going to go out there and fix my problem, and you fix yours. We’ll swap stories tomorrow over strong drinks.”

I grab her hand and give it a squeeze, grateful for forgiveness from at least one person. “Thanks. Good luck.”

“You too.” She leaves the bathroom, leaving me to face Ethan’s wrath alone.

He glares at me. “I don’t know what that was all about, but if the wedding has been called off, I guess there’s no need for this dinner. Let’s go.”

“W-where?”

“I drove you here, so I’m taking you home.” He turns and leaves without waiting for a response. My shoulders droop with defeat. Great, he’s going to drop me home and drive off as soon as I step out of the car. He hates me, and I can’t blame him. I follow him, dragging my feet, feeling like I’m on my way to the gallows.

***

Ethan parks in front of my building. He still hasn’t said a word to me. I suffered through what must have been the most uncomfortable drive in history. I would feel better if he had said something to me,
anything
, even words of anger. But all I have gotten is silence, torturing silence. “Ethan-”

“Let’s go inside.”

I sigh. Finally, he speaks. “Will it be safe to be alone in my apartment with you?” I ask sarcastically.

I’m given a withering glare. “You really shouldn’t be a smart ass right now, Lindsay.”

Pulling my lower lip between my teeth, I slide out of the car and march up the steps with Ethan on my tail. I can practically feel his anger. Once we are inside, and he has closed the door, I turn to look at him. My heart twists, seeing his pained expression. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out something, throwing it down on the center table. I stare at the small box with confusion.

“Why, Lindsay? Why would you keep the fact that you have a child from me for
three
years?”

I take my eyes off the box. “I didn’t want to hold you back, Ethan. You had just been drafted to the NFL. It was your dream. I just wanted you to have a future. If I had told you about Casey, you would have hated me.”

Ethan runs a hand over his face. “Are you listening to yourself? Why would I hate you because of
our
child?”

I shrug. Now that he says it, I feel like a complete fool for keeping something so big from him. My lower lip quivers as I fight back tears. “I didn’t want to ruin your life, burden you with the responsibility of a child. I thought at least one of us should live our dream.”

“You should have told me. We could have made things work.” He falls silent. “I have a daughter,” he whispers. It’s as if he still can’t believe it.

“I suppose all I have managed to do is make everything worse by keeping such a secret. I kept it from everyone. My mother suspects, but she doesn’t say anything. She looks like you.” He looks at me with sad eyes. My conscience berates me for hurting him this way. Because of my stupidity, he missed out on three years of his child’s life. “I’ll understand if you never want to speak to me again.”

“I was going to ask you to marry me.”

My eyes widen. “What?” I eye the velvet box once more. “W-why?”

He looks at me as if I’ve lost all sense. “Because I love you, Lindsay. I fell in love with you, okay? I think I did when you approached me at your graduation three years ago.” I’m gawking at him at this point. His lips twitch. “Yeah, I was just as surprised at the discovery too.”

I blink rapidly. Ethan is in love with
me
? Well, hallelujah, because I love him too. “I love you, too. I always have.”

Ethan gives me the full intensity of his stare. This time, there is nothing sexual about it. What I would give to know what he’s thinking right now. Is he condemning me? Planning to take me to court and sue for full custody of his child? My mind is racing, and I’m on the verge of panic. “Please don’t take her from me, Ethan. I’ve already given up so much in my life.”

He frowns. “What are you talking about?”

“If you’re contemplating taking Casey from me, please don’t. We’ll work something out. You can see her whenever you like.”

He lets out a laugh, taking me by surprise. “Take her from you? I’m planning to take away the
both
of you.”

Huh
? “I- I don’t understand.”

He moves toward me, and I instinctively take a retreating step back. “I have a family. I’m not leaving you or Casey. You’re both coming back to Texas with me.”

My heart jumps excitedly, but I’m a bit apprehensive. “We can’t just uproot our lives, Ethan.”

“What’s here for either of you, Lindsay? If you come with me, Casey will have everything she’ll ever want and need and so will you. You’ll be able to go to the best art school in the country if you wish. I’ll take care of both you. I’ll pay for your mother to visit anytime she wants.

Wow
. I honestly thought things would go much worse. He’s offering to take Casey and me with him. I didn’t see it coming. I’m starting to feel a little bit like Cinderella, and I hate that damn fairy tale. “Ethan, I don’t know what to say. This is all so-”

“Just say yes. And say yes to marrying me.”

“That’s not a very romantic proposal,” I murmur.

Ethan swallows a grin. “Give me a break, here. I’m still in shock. I’ll wine and dine you later and pop the question again. How about that?” 

I can’t help but smile, elated that he still wants me in every way and incredibly relieved that I’ve been forgiven. “I don’t care about wining and dining. I’ll marry you.”

He lets out a long breath. “Good. Let’s go get Casey now. I need to meet her. I don’t want to waste another minute.”

“Of course. Let’s go.” I move toward the door, but Ethan snags my wrist, pulling me back.

“You’re forgetting something.” He reaches for the box on the table and opens it, revealing an intricately designed ring with a solitary stone. It’s the biggest diamond I’ve ever seen. My breath hitches in my chest. This is really happening. My dreams are starting to become reality.

“I love you, Lindsay. You have no idea how much you have changed me. You make me a better version of myself.”

A face splitting smile spreads across my face. “You never needed any improvement. You’ve always been perfect in my eyes.”

He swallows hard. “It’s dangerous for you to say things like that to me. Now I want to take you to the bedroom. But there will be plenty of time for that later. Let’s go get our little girl.”

  As we head through the door, I glance down at our intertwined hands. My time has finally come to be wholly happy.

*****

THE END

Bonus Book 28: The Shifting Boss's Mate

By:
Eliza Moon

Description

A curvy personal assistant ready to re-start her life PLUS her hot possessive boss who has it all PLUS a rival who wants to destroy them both!

Curvy 20-something Jacqueline Smith isn't looking for romance; she's looking for a job.

Three years after the death of her parents sent her spiraling into a deep depression, she's ready to get back in the saddle and take control of her life once more. The problem is that nobody seems to want to hire her.

Nobody except Myles Foster, that is. The Alpha of the largest werewolf pack in North America is a self-made billionaire and the head of a massive agricultural empire. He’s also sizzling hot. But Myles is not looking for a mate–and certainly not a human one.

Which is just fine for Jackie.

At least it would be fine, if Myles wasn't so dang sexy. She knows it's ridiculous. Men like Myles don't go for women like her, and Jackie's not ready to make room in her life for love. It’s not like she needs another wrong man around, anyway.

Besides, sleeping with her boss would be
so
unprofessional…

But then a rival challenges Myles in an Alpha fight and Myles must make a difficult decision. Can he fight off his rival? And will Jackie be able to resist her attraction to him? Find out now in this steamy billionaire romance!

The interview wasn't going well. Jacqueline Smith didn't need to be a mind reader to know that. All three of the interviewers, two men and a woman, were asking the most basic of questions, nodding with little smiles at her answers, but not engaging with her at any deeper level. They had already decided not to hire her.

Cross being a personal assistant to Myles Foster, owner of one of the largest agricultural empires in North America, off the list.

It was the same every time she had an interview for a new job. The interviewer would welcome her in, shake her hand and then spend the fifteen-minute interview thinking more about the size of her waist than the words coming out of her mouth.

Still, she kept a bright smile on her face. Her mother always said that her smile was her best feature.

"So, Miss Smith," the woman said, looking over her resume. "It says here that you were the personal assistant to Scarlet Thorne, the CEO of Dragonco Games, but it's been three years since you last worked. Can you tell us why that is?"

"I left my position at Dragonco due to personal issues."

Those 'issues' being her parents dying in a car accident and the resulting depression Jackie had sunk into. The next three years had wreaked havoc on her, both emotionally and physically. She had gone from a size twelve to a size twenty-nine, and she just didn't have the energy to get out of bed, let alone hold onto a demanding job.

Eventually, her sister had forced her to go to therapy, and slowly Jackie had managed to find ways to cope. She was ready to get back to work now and so had sent her resume out, only to be met with these polite but uninterested smiles. Though she had managed to get her weight back under control and was back down to a size twenty, which really didn't look too terrible on her six-foot frame, she was no longer an attractive candidate for the high-energy job of being a personal assistant.

Not that she was going to say anything about that to these interviewers. That would be unprofessional.

It would help if I was able to buy something more suitable to wear for these interviews,
Jackie thought. Running out of money was one of the main reasons she wanted to get back into the workforce, but on her budget she hadn't been able to afford the high-quality suits she used to have.

Still, she kept eye contact with first one interviewer and then another, hoping she could turn this around. "When I was at Dragonco, I was responsible for everything from scheduling Mrs. Thorne's meetings to arranging for her dry cleaning to be picked up. She also trusted me to take minutes during meetings with the board of directors, and I handled disciplinary action for several departments."

"But she didn't hold your job for you?"

Jackie's smile faltered. "Dragonco's offices were moved overseas last year. I want to stay more domestic."

"You have an impressive resume," the female interviewer said, doing that paper-shuffling thing that meant she was about to tell Jackie that they'd call her if they wanted her. "But what do you really know about the agriculture business?"

Jackie's heart sank. She needed this job. She had already been turned down from most of the gaming companies she had applied to, and it was really taking a number on her confidence. "It's true I have more experience in gaming, but as you can see from my resume I have recently completed an agricultural management course at the local university, and the skills I gained as a personal assistant are transferable to any field."

"I see. Well, it was so good to meet—"

The door behind Jackie opened. She swiveled to see who would interrupt an interview. Her jaw dropped as the man entered. Myles Foster himself. What was the company owner coming to sit in on a preliminary interview for?

Jackie recognized him, of course. Everybody knew his story. He had inherited his father's place as Alpha of his werewolf pack, the largest pack in North America, at the age of sixteen. The same year, oil had been found on his packlands, but rather than wasting his good fortune Myles had reinvested that money. Within a decade he owned land throughout the United States and Canada and was invested in crops and livestock of all sorts. Not many men could boast of having an agricultural empire as successful as his.

Of course his calendars sold well, too. Jackie had bought one for her sister just that year, and the two of them had spent plenty of time drooling over the various shirtless poses, reassuring themselves that his strong jaw and chiseled eight-pack
had
to be photoshopped.

Myles closed the door behind himself, his expression vaguely annoyed.

"Mr. Foster." One of the men jumped to his feet and offered his boss the chair. "We weren't aware that you were going to join us in the interviews today."

"I'm tired of you sending me idiots and decided to see what we have today for myself," Myles replied, not taking the chair. He stared at Jackie, head cocked to one side.

The calendars didn't do him justice. He was taller than Jackie realized, a good foot taller than her even, and even though he was fully clothed in a tailored suit the cut showed off his massive shoulders and flat stomach. Five o'clock shadow roughed his cheeks and chin, but he looked even better for it than if he had been clean-shaven. But all that could be seen in a calendar. Maybe the reason he was so much better in real life was because of the smell. There was a distinctive scent of werewolf thorn coming off him.

Jackie's nostrils flared as she eagerly sucked in the smell. Maybe it was a good thing that she wasn't going to get this job. It would be difficult to keep her head around him.

"You've got some werewolf in you," Myles said, his cool gray eyes staring hard at her.

Jackie brushed a long, loose golden curl behind her shoulder. "Yeah. Yes, I mean. Um, I, my." What was
wrong
with her? She was never this tongue-tied! She cleared her throat. "My great-grandfather on my mother's side. But I can't shift or anything, although I'm told I have a better sense of smell than… others."

Why
did she have to blush? It was going to clash terribly with her honey-gold hair and the olive blouse she had chosen for this interview.

Myles, whether because of her reaction or her confirmation that she had some werewolf in her, suddenly smiled. Perfectly white teeth flashed; they were all even except his canines, which were slightly longer and more tapered than the rest of his teeth. He broke from Jackie's gaze, letting her suck in a deep breath. Yep, it was definitely a good thing she wasn't going to get this job. It would be far too hard to be professional.

"Dragonco," he said, glancing through her resume. "Impressive. Scarlet has always struck me as a rather demanding individual. Well, we'll give it a month to see how you do. Be here seven o'clock sharp tomorrow morning. Julia here will get you your ID card. I look forward to working with you."

Myles nodded, clearly done with the conversation. Jackie's jaw dropped, and she hardly had the presence of mind to jump to her feet and shake his hand, thanking him for the opportunity. The three interviewers looked shocked but Julia, the woman, gave her a rundown of how the offices worked and made her an ID card before she left.

It wasn't until Jackie had called her sister to tell her the news that it really hit her. She had a job working for Myles Foster, the most gorgeous man in the entire universe.

She was so screwed.

"Just don't give away your treasures and you'll be fine," her sister advised.

Jackie snorted at the phrasing. "Penny, I'm not going to sleep with him. I'm not ready for any sort of relationship."

"Honey, that's not what I meant at all."

"I know what you meant. And I'm saying that it's not going to happen. Even if he oozes sex appeal and he smells better than a roomful of hamburgers. Now I want a hamburger." Jackie winced as a wailing child's voice came over the phone. She loved her nieces and nephews, but she didn’t know how her sister survived them. "It sounds like you have to go. Tell the kids I love them."

"I will." Penny's voice was layered with Big Sister Concerns. "And I mean it, Jack. Don't do anything you'll regret. I know you, you only get involved with men you think are going to stick with you forever. And all this 'mating for life' stuff that the werewolves like to talk about is nonsense. They cheat just as much as anybody else."

Jackie repressed a sigh. The idea of forever love was romantic, but romance wasn't anywhere on her list of concerns right now. "Love you."

She hung up and then tugged her long hair back into a ponytail. Her mouth ached for something to eat, but it was only half an hour until supper, so she decided to watch an episode of Beverly Hillbillies while she jogged on the treadmill instead. Nerves were already fluttering in her stomach at the prospect of this new job, but she swallowed them down and focused instead on the positive things.

Five months into her new diet and exercise routine and she was still going strong.

She had found three new business suits in a consignment store that she could easily tailor to fit her frame.

Her bathing suit looked cute.

Myles Foster was her boss.

Jackie grinned. Myles Foster was
her
boss. The job could still turn out to be terrible, but at that moment she felt like the luckiest woman alive.