Billionaire's Baby: Single Dad Steamy Romance (Player's Club Series Book 1) Read online

  “I promise, it’s totally fine,” Cara said, touching his shoulder with smoldering sensitivity and sincerity.

  The nicer she was to him, the guiltier he felt, but she was just acting the way he wanted her to. He was a master manipulator in business, but that same skill often carried over to his personal life. The only person he couldn’t seem to negotiate with was tiny Thomas.

  “It’s late,” Brodie said gallantly. “You don’t need to hear about all my personal drama. You should leave your car here and let my driver take you home. He can pick you up in the morning to come get your vehicle.”

  Cara looked at him with big, brown eyes and sweeping lashes. “Don’t you want me to stay?” she asked seductively, weakening Brodie where he sat.

  He stood and pressed his lips to hers for a simple, brief kiss. It took everything he had not to break down and let her stay, but he just couldn’t. “I’d love it if you could,” he said bravely, “but I think we’d better call it a night. I’m as emotional as any new parent over the fact that I left my little boy with that horrible woman. I’m just…not ready for this, Cara.”

  “Can I ask you something?” she said softly.

  “What?” he said.

  “What happened to his mother?”

  Brodie hesitated.

  Sensing she’d overstepped her bounds, Cara quickly took her question back. “I’m sorry. It’s okay if you don’t wanna tell me,” she said.

  “She left us,” he replied bluntly. “When we got involved, it was just…convenient. It was really just an arrangement, but she got pregnant. I really liked her, thought she had a lot going for her. When she announced that she wanted to keep the baby, I respected that. The more I warmed to the idea of being a father, though, the colder she got about being a mother. She never showed any sign of second thoughts at all. I thought she was as excited as I was. I mean, why else did she continue with the pregnancy?”

  “Right,” Cara said, nodding her understanding. “That doesn’t make much sense.”

  Brodie took a deep breath, preparing for full disclosure. “Well, I figured out why she wanted to keep him. I should have known. There was no straightforward discussion, so I had to figure it out. After Thomas was born, she got real quiet for a minute, then blurted, ‘I can’t. I can’t do this anymore.’”

  “Oh no! I can’t even imagine.” Cara shook her head.

  Brodie held up his hand to stop her. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said, “but I can’t even go there. If I do, I’ll get bitter, and Thomas doesn’t need that. I have to remain as levelheaded as possible, ya know?”

  “Yeah, that makes sense,” Cara said, nodding again.

  Brodie took Cara into his arms, and he could have kicked himself. She was a decent woman, yet he went out with her in the hopes of casually taking her to bed. His plan all along was to satisfy his needs, then show her the door. That was his signature, his MO, and it was also how he ended up with his son. He felt like a scumbag, because he certainly didn’t earn his son or deserve him. Admitting that to himself now worked on him like a cold shower.

  “I just don’t think the timing is right,” he said. “I hope you understand. Let me text my driver.”

  “You don’t have to. I’ll be fine,” Cara protested. “I’m wide awake now,” she said, but her kiss on his lips was lazy.

  Overcome again by the guilt and anxiety over the fact that he had left his infant son with an irresponsible babysitter, Brodie had to break away.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked.

  “I left him with the worst possible person,” he said. “Sorry for being a drama queen, but—”

  “You’re not,” she said with a smile, stroking his back to console him. “You’re just a good daddy.”

  Soothed by her kindness, he smiled back at her.

  “You did the best you could. Stuff like this happens, unfortunately,” she assured him. “I’ve got a few connections. Maybe I can help you find a replacement nanny for Thomas?”

  Brodie looked at her in horror. “A replacement? Already?”

  Cara faintly smiled. “Poor darling,” she said. “I’m sorry I asked.”

  “Sorry. It’s just… Well, I can’t even begin to think about that right now. Maybe when the time is right,” he said.

  “Well, the offer is always on the table,” she replied sweetly. “I sure wish there was something I could do to make you feel better.”

  “You’ve done so much already,” he said, then paused. “There is one thing though.”

  “One thing?” she said, raising her eyebrow teasingly.

  “Yes. At least let me give you a ride home. I’ll sleep easier. Besides, who turns down a limo ride?”

  “Okay,” she finally relented. “I admit I’m a little tired, and a little luxury won’t hurt either!”

  For the second time that night, Brodie called his staff, this time to make arrangements to have Cara driven home. He loosely held her hand and led her out to the limo that pulled up front moments later.

  As he held the door for her, she turned and took his face in her hands. She drew his face to hers and kissed him slowly. “I’ll call you,” she whispered.

  “I’ll see you in the morning, silly. I have your car here.”

  “Oh yeah,” she said with a smile and a blush.

  “Text me when you get home,” he replied dutifully.

  Chapter Three

  Cara wasn’t a stranger by any means, but Brodie felt anxious engaging with her, as if they were boyfriend and girlfriend. To complicate matters even further, it wasn’t lost on him that she looked at him in a certain way, a thirsty way. She didn’t have dollar signs in her eyes like Thomas’s mother ultimately did, but she wanted something from him, wanted a piece of him that he wasn’t yet willing to give to anyone.

  Just the notion of having another person to steal even more of his attention was too much for him to consider. They’d only been out for a couple hours, and already, he felt a strong urge to go check on his son. Even though he knew better, Brodie felt like he had abandoned his baby; though little Thomas was safe and sound asleep, his father needed to see him.

  Brodie closed and locked the door behind him and scurried to Thomas’s room. He held a finger beneath his tiny nose to check for breath. Once he was satisfied that Thomas really was okay, he stripped down to his shorts and crawled under the covers of the double-bed that occupied the room. He needed the rest, because his nine a.m. conference call with IBC Bank the next morning meant he had to be up by seven to prepare. With no nanny to help him with the baby, negotiating multimillion-dollar deals seemed far more daunting and time-consuming than it used to when he only had his career to focus on.

  Seemingly no sooner did Brodie’s head hit the pillow than little Thomas stirred in his crib. The boy’s cries tore Brodie from his sleep, and he sat up, struggling to clear his mind. Since he had taken on the role of fatherhood, sleep deprivation had been part of his life, something like being drugged constantly. I’ll get through this, he told himself time and time again. I have to. We’ll get through it together, Thomas and I. Only when the baby finally stilled again did Brodie welcome the restless sleep that came to greet him.

  Despite his lack of sleep, Brodie awoke before his cell phone alarm blared. He moved about the room as quietly as he could, and Thomas continued to snooze soundly. In the end, though, the daddy couldn’t resist leaning over the crib to admire his child. As he looked down at the baby’s tiny face, he thought his heart would burst, and when he reached for his camera to snap a picture, the little one’s eyes fluttered awake.

  “Sorry, little guy,” Brodie whispered, then dashed off to use the bathroom and wash up. While Thomas wailed his little lungs out, Brodie did his best to remain calm, remembering the pediatric nurse’s wise words. She’d talked to him numerous times warning him that Thomas would tense up if he did, so he struggled to keep his nerves at bay.

  Back in the nursery again, he lifted his wee son and pressed his smooth lit
tle face to his lips. The baby calmed immediately, and Brodie smiled broadly. “Maybe I’m doin’ something right after all,” he said as he laid the little fellow down, changed him, and set about to fix him a bottle. A glance at the clock told him he still had plenty of time to review for the conference call.

  The days were definitely getting longer, and as Brodie entered the kitchen, a full blast of sun streamed in through the sliding-glass door. He had a clear view of the driveway that bent around in an arch in front of the house, and he saw Cara’s car still parked out front. The sight of it consumed him with guilt, because he had simply forgotten about her.

  He set Thomas down in his little swing and prepped his breakfast just as he had a thousand times before. He leaned down to smile at the baby, and Thomas mirrored his father’s grin. Brodie could have easily fed him while standing, but he couldn’t resist the urge to pick him up. He enjoyed a sweet, quiet moment with his son and looked forward to playing with him a little before he put him back down for his morning nap.

  Thomas, however, had other plans, because every time his father put him down, he burst into tears, leaving Brodie with no choice but to work with the baby in his arms. When Brodie answered another call prior to the conference, Thomas insisted on crying the entire time and didn’t mellow out till Brodie hung up the phone.

  Brodie grew increasingly tense, fearing he might have to reschedule the teleconference, which would only look bad to the dealmakers. He looked up at the ceiling and prayed for patience and strength. Other dads have to be in this position from time to time, he reasoned. How the hell do they handle it? And do moms have the same issues? Damn, this single father stuff is harder than I thought.

  A knock on the sliding-glass door interrupted his thoughts. “Hello?” a familiar female voice called. “You guys up this early?”

  Brodie sat straight up in his chair when he heard Cara; he had never been so glad to see another person in his life, especially because her ear-to-ear smile brightened the whole room. He hurriedly greeted her and let her in, and he almost heaved an audible sigh of relief when she immediately reached for the baby. “He’s got good taste,” murmured Brodie when he saw his son’s toothless smile.

  “So have I,” she said and craned upward to kiss him.

  “I would love things to like this for a while,” Brodie lied softly, his head instantly hatching a rather diabolical plan, spawned of his desperation, “but I’ve got an important call comin’ in. I need to get him down for a nap, even though he just woke up a bit ago.”

  “Let me,” she said cheerfully. “It’ll make my morning.”

  Feigning surprise, Brodie calculated his next words carefully, secretly proud of himself for still having his manipulating touch. “Don’t you have to work?”

  “Beggars can’t be choosy,” she said.

  “Huh?”

  “I work for a nonprofit, Brodie,” she explained, her sweet smile never leaving her face. “There are no rules or time clocks.”

  “If you insist,” Brodie said.

  Without another word, the beautiful woman comfortably waltzed away to take Thomas to the nursery.

  Damn, how did I get so lucky? Brodie thought as he made a pot of coffee, just another part of his plan. He had to play the gallant gentleman and offer her a cup before he hunkered down to prepare for the conference call. It was the least he could do for the woman unwittingly giving him free babysitting services.

  Unable to stave off his guilt or curiosity, though, he had to sneak a peek into the nursery to see if Thomas was back to sleep already. He was so quiet that Cara didn’t notice him at first, and she seemed entirely entranced with his tiny son. Who can blame her? He’s just…perfect. Heck, I can’t stop looking at him myself.

  Really, the whole thing surprised Brodie. Never in a million years would he have thought he could be so moved by the kindness of someone nurturing his tiny son, who was abandoned by his own mother. Stark, intense emotion flashed through him like powerful lightning, so much so that when he rolled back out of the doorway, he simply slumped against the wall.

  Even still, he was careful not to spill her coffee. They’d been in several meetings and events together, since her nonprofit had deep connections to his corporation, so he knew exactly how she took her cuppajoe: lightened with just a little soy milk.

  As he stared down into the hot, steamy beverage, he felt downright evil for preying on the woman’s good nature. All things considered, while Cara was seeing to Thomas’s needs, she was really seeing to Brodie’s. After firing the slutty sitter, he needed childcare so he could start the ball rolling on what he was sure would be a slam-dunk deal, a boilerplate prospect. Fatherhood was not something he was accustomed to just yet, and it had certainly put a wrench in his normal way of doing things, especially when it came to his business. He needed help, and if Cara was willing to give it, he was willing to take it from her, even if the poor thing was so naïve and kindhearted that she didn’t realize she was being used.

  “He’s fast asleep,” she whispered, popping her head out the nursery door, “and I’m in love.”

  “You are?” Brodie asked, flinching a bit.

  “Yes, with a much younger man,” she teased.

  “Oh,” he said with a chuckle, relieved that she was talking about the baby. “Yeah, my kid’s quite the ladies’ man already.”

  “For me?” she asked sweetly, reaching for the coffee in his hand.

  “Yeah,” Brodie said, jolted out of his haze.

  “Mmm…perfect,” she said after a sip, “but I can’t believe you keep soy milk in your fridge.”

  He wasn’t about to tell her he’d bought it for her, hoping he’d get lucky and she’d spend the night, and he certainly didn’t want her to get the wrong idea and mistake it for thoughtfulness or some sort of invitation to move into his life or his place. Nevertheless, a sudden pang of conscience kept him from telling the truth. “Birds of a feather,” he said with a shrug.

  “So what? You’re a closet organic now? After all that teasing about how I shouldn’t eat fruits and nuts because we are what we eat?” she asked, a smiling smirk stretching across her gorgeous face.

  “I, uh… Well, it’s just—” Brodie stammered, struggling with emotions he didn’t want to feel.

  She tilted her head, trying to figure out what was going on with him, then saved him with an interruptive reminder. “That conference call is due any minute, isn’t it?” she said. “I’ll stay until it’s over, just in case Thomas wakes up. Do you have anyone lined up to look after him the rest of the day?”

  “I don’t,” he said. “I suppose they’ll make room for him at the nursery at my office.”

  “Why didn’t you just take him there before?” she asked firmly.

  “I didn’t want him to get sick,” he said. “I also didn’t trust them too much, with all those kids there. I guess I thought I was doing the right thing. We see how great that decision turned out, with a naked woman crawling out the window after a naked man,” he said sheepishly, once again punched in the chest with the harsh reality that he’d left his son with a loser who cared nothing about him. He took a deep gulp of his coffee, as if the hot liquid might burn the pain out of him, but his agony was evident on his face.

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Cara consoled. “As you said, you did the best you could, what you thought was right. Everybody has to make a living, especially when you have a child to provide for,” she said.

  Brodie shook his head. “That’s just it,” he countered. “Really, the living’s already made. I mean, not to sound arrogant, but how much more does a man need to make?” Brodie’s billionaire status was often the big, green elephant in the room, and he assumed Cara was aware of it. Even strangers were nice to him because of his fortune, but something about Cara’s kindness seemed genuine, and she treated him like a real person instead of a bank account or sugar daddy.

  He didn’t have much time to prepare for the conference call that morning, but there was somethin
g exhilarating about stepping into it without the usual structured responses at his disposal, something thrilling about the risk of it. He only had a few notes and his adrenaline to go on, but he was excited to get back to what he did best as he tucked his Bluetooth behind his ear and readied himself to let the chips fall where they would.

  As Brodie listened to one of the directors drone on with a list of boring pros and cons, the sweet, alluring aroma of fresh-baked goodness wafted into his nose. Whatever was being created in his kitchen, it piqued the interest of his stomach and instantly derailed his focus from the meeting. From that point forward, he struggled to stay in the game, but the voices on the other end of the call still seemed positive about the deal.

  “I think we’ve got something we can work with here,” the chief counsel of the bank said.

  Brodie could hardly believe his ears, and when he heard his lawyer cover up a sputter with a fake cough, he knew they were both thinking the same thing.

  “Well done,” Brodie congratulated all involved.

  “We’ll be signing off now,” the counsel said with a smile in his voice, “on the call and the deal! I’ll have my assistant email the documents.”

  A roar of way too much laughter erupted from his speakerphone, but Brodie knew it had little to do with the counsel’s wordplay and much more to do with the shock and satisfaction that the whole thing went so smoothly.

  “I’ll call you on your direct line,” Brodie’s lawyer said to him after the others left the call.

  “Got it,” Brodie said, then hung up and waited for the next call. As he did, he let out a squeal of victory and stomped his feet, crazy happy that the meeting went so well.

  “What the hell was that?” asked the lawyer as Brodie picked up.

  “That, my friend, is how you make a deal!” said Brodie.

  “But you didn’t say two words in the whole conversation. That deal practically worked itself. You got very lucky, pal,” said the lawyer. “By the way, how’s the baby?”