Steven (11 page)

He called Cody from the road.  “I forgot to get her address from you.  Where is she?”  He felt like an idiot and grimaced as he heard his friend’s laughter.  He knew Cody and Justin would be needling him over this for years to come.

He punched in the address while stopped at a light and followed the annoying GPS voice to the address Cody had given him.  What he found when he got out of his car, was a ranch that had seen better days.  He got out of the car, nervous for the first time since Cody had left his house.  The ring was in the front pocket of his
jeans
as he knocked on the door.

Bailey had just put Faith in her saucer to play when she heard the knock.  Amber was doing one of her group lessons for horse crazed girls, so she went to the door.  When she saw Steven standing there, she almost closed the door, but sucked in her breath and opened it for him.

“Hi.”
  What else could she say?  Had he come to get the car back?

“I miss you.”  He hadn’t meant to start out that way, but it’s what he was thinking and the words just flew out of his mouth. 

“We’ve barely spoken for months.  How could you miss me?”  She stared at him in disbelief.

He sighed.  “I liked knowing you were there.  I liked knowing I could go to your room and talk to you if I wanted.  I liked knowing Faith would be there if I wanted to see her.”  He reached out a hand and brushed
away
the tear falling down her cheek with his thumb.  “I love you, Bailey.  Please come home with me.”

She stood with her mouth open gaping at him.  “What?”  She must be hearing things, because Steven would never say that to her.  Never.

She stood watching as he dug in his pocket for something.  Suddenly, he dropped to one knee and held out a ring box to her.  “Bailey, will you do me the honor of being my wife?  We’ll raise our beautiful baby together, and hope we are blessed with a dozen more.”

She blinked her eyes as the tears started again.  “Why?”  Why did he suddenly want to marry her?  He’d never shown any indication he even wanted her living in the same house he was in.  What had come over him?

“Because I love you, and I don’t think a life without you is worth living.”  He paused.  “I used to think money meant happiness, but it doesn’t.  Happiness is having you beside me.  Happiness is holding Faith and burping her.  Happiness is everything I felt when we were on the island.  Please, Bailey.  Marry me.”
  He held his breath as he waited for her answer.

She put her hand over her mouth and sucked in a breath.  Finally, after a moment, she nodded.  “But there’s something you need to know first.”  It was time to tell him.  She had to now, because he needed to know there would be four of them, not three.

He got to his feet and pulled her into his arms, kissing the top of her head.  “What do you want to tell me?”  He found her ring finger and slipped the ring on, pleased that he’d guessed right on the size.
  Whatever it was, he didn’t care.  As long as she was by his side, they could handle anything.

She stared down at the ring on her finger as she fought to find the courage to tell him.  Finally, she looked up into his eyes.  “
By marrying me, you’re not just taking on me and Faith.”  She laid her hand over her still flat stomach.  “I’m going to have your baby.”

His eyes widened and his face broke out into a huge grin.  He picked her up and swung her around.  Faith started clapping and giggling.  “I can’t wait!”

He put Bailey back on her feet and reached down to pull Faith out of her saucer, noticing her for the first time since he’d arrived.  “Are you ready to be a big sister, Faithy?”  Faith patted his cheek happily.  “I guess that’s a yes.”  He grinned at Bailey.  “Come home with me.”

She nodded.  “I need to leave a note for Amber, and pack up all our things again.”  She looked back over her shoulder at him as she wrote the note quickly.  “Do you want a big wedding?”
  Not that she cared overmuch.  As long as she was his wife, and they were a family, she cared about nothing else.

“I don’t care one way or the other.  I just want to be married to you, and I want us to officially adopt Faith, so she’ll be ours.”
  He wanted it clear Faith was his daughter by love, even if she wasn’t his natural daughter.

“Let’s just do a small ceremony then.  Maybe just a justice of the peace.  We can have the gang there, but no one else.”  He knew immediately she meant Cody, Justin, Amber and Sarah.

“That’s fine.  I really don’t care.  As long as I get you for my wife.”
  The look he gave her told her in no uncertain terms she needed to hurry.  He wanted her home with him where she belonged.

She smiled at him, able to be content about the future for the first time in a long time.  “I love you, Steven.”

His whole face lit up at her words.  “And I love you.  No more running.”

“No more running.”

Keep reading for an excerpt of the second book in the Dallas Billionaires,
Justin
,
now available.

Justin Owens shut down his computer, glad to be leaving on time for once.   Everything was always hectic at that time of year with football just over, basketball and hockey seasons in full swing, and baseball only a couple of months from starting up. 

He had an idea for expansion as well, and needed to talk to his two business partners, Steven and Cody, about it to see if it was even worth pursuing.  He’d call them both this evening to set up a meeting.

He’d just locked his office door when he heard a throat clear behind him.  “Mr. Owens?”

He turned to look at the young woman in front of him.  “Yes?”  His eyes traveled up and down her, and he felt a jolt of electricity shoot through his body.  Her shoulder length brunette hair was worn down.  Her eyes were a shade of green he’d never before seen without the help of contacts.  Could they possibly be real?

“May I please speak with you privately?”  Her voice was husky, and sweet. 

“Yes, of course, Miss?” He held out his hand to shake hers, desperately needing to touch her somehow.

“Roberts.  Sarah Roberts.  I work in Human Resources.”  She put her hand in his.  She was a tall woman, almost as tall as his own six feet.  He had never thought he would be interested in someone as tall as she was, but found he could only think of getting her somewhere private so he could taste her full lips.

He recognized the name, but not her face.  She couldn’t have been working for the company for any length of time, or he’d have met her before.  He knew most of the three hundred employees in the main office by face if not by name.  “Will my office be okay?”

At her nod, he unlocked the door and ushered her inside.  He gestured for her to sit on the black leather couch along one wall of his office, and instead of taking a chair opposite her as he normally would he sat down mere inches from her on the couch. 

If she felt crowded by him, she gave no indication of it.  He turned to her, waiting to see what she wanted, and he found her staring at his lips.  He told himself he was acting like an idiot even as he leaned down and brushed her lips with his.

At first, she seemed startled by his abrupt move, but then she moved one hand to the back of his neck and returned the soft kiss.  After a moment, she pulled back, as if surprised.  She cleared her throat.  “I..umm..wow, I didn’t expect that to happen.”  She fanned herself with a file folder she’d been clutching as if to try and get her brain cool enough to start thinking again.

He smiled at the way she waved the folder.  She was just as attracted to him as he was to her.  “Would you like to go to dinner this evening?”  The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.  She was here for a reason, and all he could think about was getting her naked and under him.  What was his problem?

Her eyes skirted away.  “I think I’ve given you the wrong impression.  I don’t sleep with my superiors.”  She took a deep breath and shook her head.  “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”  Taking one more deep breath she straightened her shoulders.  “I’ve come to you about an HR issue.”

He nodded, watching her carefully.  “What’s the issue?”  Why hadn’t she gone through Melanie the HR manager?  She wasn’t following the chain of command.

“I’ve discovered several people on the payroll who are illegal aliens.  They’re using falsified documents to work in this country.  Because that’s against company policy, I talked to Melanie, the HR manager.”  She was speaking quickly now, as if trying to get all of the information out fast before she lost her nerve.  Her eyes were still on his lips, though, making him want to lean down and take
hers
again.  “She told me to not worry about it, but I had to let someone know, just in case.  Did you know?”

He shook his head, his eyes staring straight into hers.  “Thank you for telling me.  You have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.  Are they contacts?”  He knew on one level what she was telling him was extremely i
mportant.  On another, he could
think of nothing but the beautiful woman in front of him.

She shook her head, still staring into his eyes.  “Are you going to do something about it?”  She hoped she hadn’t read him wrong.  He seemed like such an honest dedicated businessman.  He did care about the problem, didn’t he?

He nodded.   “Right away.”  He leaned forward to taste her lips with his one more time.  She had full lips that made him think of nothing but kissing her. 

She stood abruptly.  “Thank you for seeing me, Mr. Owens.”  She turned and ran from the office, leaving the folder on the couch beside him.

He sat on the couch staring at the open door.  Sarah Roberts.  He picked up the folder she’d dropped and flipped through it quickly.  Proof of her allegations were on the pages it contained. 

He walked to his computer and quickly looked up her personnel file.  Jotting down her address, he left the building, going straight to the underground parking facility.  He programmed her address into his GPS and followed its instructions to a large apartment complex. 

He sat outside her apartment watching the building for a few minutes, trying to decide what he should do.  How would she react if he knocked on her door?  He shook his head.  He was acting like a lovesick puppy.  He hadn’t followed a girl home since he was in junior high.  He backed his black Maserati out of the parking lot and drove home.  He couldn’t go to her apartment now without scaring her.  He’d call her into his office tomorrow. 
And do what?
Chase her around the desk?

He’d think of something.  He was going to make her his as soon as humanly possible.  He couldn’t risk frightening her in the process, though.  He could still see her big green eyes.  What was wrong with him today?

*****

On the long bus trip home, all Sarah could do was sit and stare off into space, wondering what had happened to her.  Sure, she’d had a crush on Justin since she’d first seen his picture in the newspaper a few years ago, but she had never imagined kissing him as soon as she met him.  What was wrong with her?  She licked her lips, his taste lingering there.  What was it?  Butterscotch?  Why would he taste like butterscotch?

Why she’d latched onto him as her ideal man, she didn’t know.  She’d deliberately applied for a job at his company, hoping to work in close contact with him.  Every time she’d signed up for a boring business class in college, she told herself it was to work for his company and get close to him.

Yes, she probably could have sent him an email or an anonymous interoffice memo with the information, but she had to meet him in person.  His reaction to her had been the real surprise.  She raised her fingers to her lips.  He’d actually kissed her. 

If he called her into his office tomorrow, what would she do?  Strip down and lie back on his desk and let him have his way with her?  She needed to get a grip on her lust.  She’d never felt anything like this before.  It wasn’t his money either. 

Oh sure, that was probably what had first attracted her to his picture in the paper, but over the years it had developed into so much more than that.  She had an entire scrapbook with every newspaper clipping about him in it.  It was amazing how he’d started this company with just two other college students and they’d been billionaires before they’d graduated. 

She didn’t expect him to sweep her up onto his big white horse and ride off into the sunset with her
,
though.  Things like that didn’t happen in real life.  Not to girls like her.