Vega Brothers: Khan: Secret Baby BBW (The Bear Shifters of Vega Ranch Book 2) (3 page)

Bailey sighed. She could really use a night out. Get dressed up, put makeup on and feel pretty for once. Even at work she was always wearing unflattering scrubs, had her tied back in a lazy ponytail and was covered in dog and cat hair. It would be nice to put some effort into her appearance for once.

She’d be tired the next day but she was always tired so that was no excuse.

Jodi was looking at her with hope brimming from her eyes. “What do you say?”

Bailey smiled. “Go for it!”

three

“Where are you going all dressed up?” Hannibal asked as Khan walked into the living room.

Julius sniffed the air. “Is that cologne I smell?”

“I’m going to the bar,” Khan said, barreling past them to the front door. His two brothers jumped off the couch and followed him.

“For a date?” Julius asked.

Khan huffed out a breath. It was hardly a date. Was it?

He knew this was going to be a bad idea but he just couldn’t stop himself. Bailey was constantly on his mind and it was killing him. He had to see her. Even if she slapped him, threw a drink in his face or cursed at him, or all three; he had to see her.

If there was a chance that he was actually going to get married to save the deed to the Vega Ranch he had to know absolutely that his chances with Bailey were a hundred percent over.

“I’m just getting a drink at the bar,” Khan growled.

Hannibal smiled. “Great! We’ll go with you.”

“No,” Khan said with a frown. “I’m going alone.”

Julius and Hannibal high-fived each other behind his back.

“Who’s going on a date?” Alexander asked in his thundering voice as he walked into the room.

Khan glanced up at his polar bear shifter brother. He hadn’t seen much of Alexander’s gloomy presence lately. It had been wonderful.

“Nobody,” Khan replied.

“Good,” Alexander barked. “We don’t need any more women running around here.”

Julius rolled his eyes. “You do realize that we won’t have anyone running around here if you three don’t get married by the end of the year.”

Alexander narrowed his eyes. “I guess we won’t have a ranch then.”

“You know you’re really starting to piss me off!” Julius said, stepping forward.

Hannibal jumped in front of him and pushed him back with his hand on Julius’ chest. “Relax.”

“You’re seriously not even going to try?” Khan asked, feeling his pulse speed up. Khan would go kicking and screaming to the altar but he would go through with it. He couldn’t lose the family ranch. He could always just get divorced after the deed was transferred over to them. He didn’t understand why Alexander wasn’t willing to do the same.

“I’m not taking on a mate or getting married,” Alexander said. “And neither should you.”

Anger bubbled up inside of Khan. His brother always only looked out for himself.

Julius shook his head. “It’s always a pleasure dealing with you, Alexander. I’m sure that you’re going to do just fine with no home, no job, and no brothers to carry your selfish ass.”

Alexander puffed out his big chest and shook his massive head. He was the largest of all four of the brothers and the second oldest, after Khan. “Nothing is worth taking on a mate,” he growled. “Not even this ranch.”

“I don’t have time for this shit,” Khan said as he ripped the front door open. He stormed down the path to his pickup truck. He had more pressing things to deal with than his stubborn brother.

“Wait,” Ava said, trotting on top of that old decrepit horse that she was always riding. She pulled up beside the truck and hopped down onto the grass beside him.

“Good boy, Max,” she whispered as she petted the horse’s face.

“So?” she asked with a wide smile. “Big date?”

Khan let out a breath. “Yup.” He didn’t have to lie to her.

“With the blond?”

“Yup.”

But he also didn’t have to tell her the whole truth.

“Okay,” she said, bouncing from foot to foot. “Remember. Open the door for her, chew with your mouth closed, use a napkin, tell her she looks pretty, pay for dinner.”

Khan just stared at her blankly as she rattled off her unwanted advice.

“Oh yeah, and smile.” She gave him a big fake smile. “Show your teeth. You have such a handsome smile, the rare times that you use it.”

“All done?” he asked.

“Just one more thing.” He stiffened as she reached out and hugged him. “Good luck!”

“Thanks,” he said, reaching around to pat her back. He was going to need all of the luck he could get.

Bailey sat in the car and checked herself one last time in the rear view mirror. She almost didn’t recognize the woman looking back at her. She was hot!

It had been so long since she got all dressed up and put makeup on. She went shopping with Jodi and Liam this morning and bought a new outfit. It was tight and uncomfortable, unlike all of her other clothes but she was loving it. Her new bra and shirt pressed up her boobs that had flattened since Liam had sucked the life out of them.

Her new jeans were tight on her big curvy thighs but they made her ass look good and she felt great in them. Even Liam had voiced his approval when she was leaving. “You look hawt, Mommy,” he had said when she went in to kiss him goodnight.

She pulled out her phone and dialed Jodi’s cell. Her sister answered with an exaggerated sigh.
“He’s sleeping! Stop worrying!”

“I’m just checking,” Bailey said. “I’m allowed to worry. It’s my job.”

“No,”
Jodi answered.
“Tonight it’s my job. Your job is to get in that restaurant and get your flirt on with mister sexy investment banker.”

“Thanks,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Any last advice?”

“Yeah, push your tits up. Make them look nice and perky.”

Bailey laughed. “They’re a long way from perky.”

“That’s why you spent sixty bucks on a push-up bra. Do it!”

“Love you,” Bailey said.

“Love you, too.”

She hung up, checked that she didn’t have any lipstick on her teeth and then pushed her breasts up like her sister had suggested.

The evening air was nice and warm in the small town. She looked around the town of Davenfield and breathed in the fresh country air. Bailey loved it here. She always thought of Montana as home. The wide open spaces, the wild animals, the mountains, the breathtaking sunsets, the lack of traffic and stressed out people. It was where she belonged.

She had been born and raised in Portland but her family had spent a summer near the small town of Colwood, Montana when she was nineteen. She fell in love with the state and vowed to move here when she got older. Portland was nice but it was nothing compared to this. Montana was like another planet.

The restaurant was up ahead and she waved at the car who stopped to let her cross the road. It was a cute steakhouse with delicious baked potatoes. She had taken Liam here a few times. He loved the French fries.

Bailey’s stomach started to flutter as she approached the door. It had been so long since she had gone on a date. What did real adults talk about besides kids? Would she even have anything to say?

It’ll be fine.
She took a deep breath and opened the door.
OH SHIT!

Bailey jumped back out of the restaurant and quickly closed the door. She closed her eyes as she hurried back to her car.
Did he see me?

It was the last person that she was expecting, or wanted, to see. Her ex and Liam’s father, Khan, was sitting at a table by himself with two menus on it.

Was he there with his wife? Was she in the bathroom? What is he doing here? So many questions were racing through her head. She couldn’t even focus. When she reached into her purse to pull out her car keys, she grabbed her lipstick instead and tried to shove it in the lock.

Bailey wasn’t ready for to face him and there was no way she was walking back in there, no matter how many sexy investment bankers were waiting for her inside.

“Bailey,” a deep, familiar voice called out from behind her. Her muscles quivered.
Don’t turn around.

But she did.

Khan was standing across the street with his hands in his pockets watching her. He looked older, with new lines on his face, including the big scar running down his cheek. It made him look dangerous in a sexy kind of way.

She gulped as he crossed the street with his dark eyes locked on her. He was wearing jeans and a tight button up shirt that showed off his hard muscles. An image of her and him rolling around in the grass after swimming naked in the lake came to her mind. She could still feel the curves of his hard muscles under her excited fingertips. She could still taste the saltiness of his skin and the deep sexy sounds of his grunts in her ear as he slid inside her.

Can you remember when he left and broke your heart? Can you remember the feeling of your heart shattering?

“Where are you going?” he asked as he stopped in front of her. He was so close. She could reach out and touch him if she wanted to.
You don’t want to,
she lied to herself.
Maybe just his shirt.
It looked really soft.

“I don’t know,” she said, dropping her eyes to his shiny shoes. “I just panicked when I saw you.”

“I’m sorry to just show up like this,” he said.

She shrugged. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know I was going to be here.”

He grimaced and scratched the side of his face. “Actually, I did.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, feeling confused. “I have a date.”

“With Chip Edwards,” he said, nodding.

She tilted her head to the side. “You know Chip?”

He rubbed his palms on his jeans and bit his bottom lip. “I am Chip.”

“Huh?”

He explained to her what he did and she listened as a fiery heat flushed through her body. “You did what?” she snapped. “You don’t call me for five years and then you pull this shit to see me? I bought a new outfit that I can’t afford for this!”

“I’ll pay you back,” he said. “I promise.”

“Keep your money,” she snapped, turning and ripping the car door open. She threw her purse inside so hard that it nearly shattered the passenger side window.

“Please, Bailey,” Khan said with desperation in his voice. “It’s killing me that you’re not in my life. I think of you every day. I miss you so much that it’s eating me from the inside out.”

She dropped her head and slowly closed the car door behind her. “Then why did you leave?”

“I had to,” he said.

She crossed her arms and glared at him with her chin held high. “Why?”

Khan sighed. “The government forced me and my brothers to work for them in a special military unit. They needed shifters for a special forces team.”

“What?” she asked. “That’s the excuse that you came up with? After five years, that’s the best story that you could have come up with?”

“It’s not a lie,” he said. He grabbed his shirt and pulled it up his stomach. She gasped when she saw his skin. There were faded, little bullet-sized pink circles all over his torso. In the deep ridges of his abs, over his muscular chest and on his ribs.

“What happened to you?” she asked as she reached out to touch his skin. She stopped herself an inch away from his body even though she desperately wanted to graze her fingers along his skin, along the lines of his abs.

“I told you,” he said. “It’s not a lie. They threatened us. The recruiters warned us that they would eliminate anyone we told.”

“Eliminate?”

“It’s exactly as it sounds,” he said, “and they were serious. These people don’t fuck around.”

She studied his face for a sign of any lying. Khan was never a good liar, especially with her. Bailey could always tell the second he was lying whenever he told her how good her cooking was or when he let her win in a swimming race. There were no signs of lies on his face.

And she wasn’t so innocent herself. She had kept a huge secret from him: his son. He still had no idea.

“What happened to your face?” she asked, reaching up and tracing the long scar down his cheek. “Did you get that in a battle?”

“Uh, yeah,” he said, his eyes darting up to the sky.
Okay, that was a lie.

“I’m sorry,” he said, placing his hand on his chest. “I was a scared kid. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want anything to happen to you.”

Bailey looked away and bit the inside of her cheek.

“Are you hungry?” he asked. “Can I buy you dinner?”

She was all dressed up and she was starving. This was Liam’s father and he did have a right to know about his son’s existence. But did she have the guts to tell him and how would he react?

“Alright,” she said. “Let’s go eat.”