Baby For My Billionaire Rival (Billionaire Daddies)

9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Caroline

“ I am still in awe. In awe ,” Amy says, her hand glommed onto my arm as we walk into Paulette’s Tavern, a classic haunt for Coastal Crest College.

I roll my eyes. “You’re being dramatic.”

“Am not! I mean, no one produced a presentation half as good as yours.”

We follow the stream of our classmates into the bar, immediately filling the establishment to the gills. We’ve just finished up our end-of-semester presentations, which is an evening affair for all the students and business school faculty.

Now that we’re finished, it’s time to drink.

“Not to mention, Dean Gorman stopped taking notes halfway through he was so engrossed.”

I flush. “You and Schwartz’s was great too.”

Amy scoffs. “You don’t need to lie. It was fine.”

“I really liked it! I think attempting to make sustainable crypto is a really formidable endeavor.”

We stop by an empty high-top, debating if we should claim it. “Yeah, it’s formidable because it will literally never happen. Schwartz’s bitcoin pipedream.”

I smile at Amy sympathetically. She was forced to pigeonhole herself into Schwartz’s idea for a plan. I’m grateful I got to work on something that’s actually in my wheelhouse.

“Gladstone!”

I look over to the bar where Jake has managed to grab a bartender’s attention.

“What do you want to drink?” He pantomimes a glass in his hand and knocking it back.

I laugh. He’s been on cloud nine since we finished our presentation, leaving our audience engaged and mesmerized. His expressions are as animated as they were when we were out on the farm.

That’s the Jake Simmons I started falling for.

Yes. You read that right. I am falling for Jake Simmons. It’s so totally dangerous and I’m obsessed with the way he makes me feel. He hears me in a way I haven’t been heard in a while.

I know I can’t have him. But I can flirt a little, right? “I’ll get my own drink!” I call out.

“No, I’m here, what do you want?” he calls back. I can practically feel the annoyance of the people whose heads we’re shouting over.

I sigh. Jake won’t take no for an answer when he wants to do something nice. Another thing I like about him. “Vodka cranberry!” I shout out.

“Amy?” Gosh, he’s such a doll, he won’t leave anyone out.

“Same!” she replies.

Jake gives us a winning smile, then turns to place his order. Amy and I settle into our seats at the table and wait patiently for our alcoholic rewards.

“So, what’s going on with that?” Amy asks.

My throat constricts. “What do you mean?”

“I mean… it’s obvious you make really good partners… if you catch my meaning.”

I shake my head. “Nothing’s going on.”

“Not yet,” Amy says.

“Not ever,” I retort.

“ Not. Yet .” She narrows her eyes. “Don’t act like everyone can’t see it, Caroline. I mean, tension has been brewing since the first day of class.”

I gulp back my nervousness. Is it really that obvious to everyone? To everyone ?

“Ladies –” Jake comes over, balancing three drinks against his chest. “Two vodka crans and –”

“Surprise, surprise, a beer,” I tease as we take the drinks from him.

“What’s wrong with a beer?” he replies, then swigs his Bud Light.

I stare up at him. “You’re at a bar and you can have any drink you want and you choose a bottled beer you can get at the grocery store.”

“Sorry, we can’t all have such an elevated palate to really taste the nuances of a watered-down vodka cranberry,” Jake shoots back. He lays his arm across the back of my chair, fingers skimming my back. “Miss Caroline Patricia Gladstone,” he finishes, leaning toward me just enough that I have to wonder if he might kiss me.

I glance at Amy who is looking smug as ever, then back at Jake. I push him on the shoulder hard enough for him to stumble back to the empty chair. “Get your beer breath out of my face, Simmons.”

Jake laughs and settles onto the chair, legs parted, hand resting on the seat right between his thighs. “It’s the simple things, Amy. Like bottled beer and boiled peanuts.”

Dear God, I need a drink. I suck down some of my drink. Damn. Watered down. Just like he said.

“You really are a fish out of water around us, aren’t you, Jakey?” Amy asks.

His smile fades slightly. “Well, I –”

“No, Jake fits right in. I mean, you saw him up there, didn’t you?” I interject. “A total natural.” I look back at Jake and smile. What the hell? Christmas break starts tomorrow. If something is going to happen, now would be the perfect time. Get it out of our systems and then move right along. I extend my foot and press it against his calf, feeling the heat of him through his denim (these are his “formal” jeans, as he described).

Jake’s mouth parts slightly, like he’s about to gasp. Then his lips spread into a smile.

“Right where he’s supposed to be,” I finish. And I mean it. Jake deserves his spot in the program just like any of us. We need him there to keep us grounded.

Correction: I need him. To keep me grounded.

And for so many other reasons.

“Damn, you weren’t kidding. I feel like we’ve been –” Jake hiccups mid-sentence. “I feel like we’ve been walking for ages.”

“Told you it was a mile,” I say, bringing my shoulders up to my ears and attempting to bury my face in my scarf. There’s an intense chill in the air tonight not even the alcohol from… well, however many vodka cranberries I had can keep me warm. Lost track after the third between the tequila shots that someone bought for all of us.

Jake hiccups again.

“Are you seriously so drunk you’re hiccupping?” I ask, shooting him a grin. In my drunken state, my legs cross over one another and I stumble to the side.

“Woah, woah, woah.” Jake scoops his arm around my waist, pulling me to his side so I’m practically glued there. He’s so warm. I don’t want him to let me go. “Clearly not as bad off as you are.”

Jake offered to walk me home when the bartender shouted, “Last call.” And of course, I accepted. Not just because it’s late at night and no woman should be walking alone, but because I want every last minute I can have with him before I won’t see him for a month over Christmas.

And there’s a third reason. An obvious one.

The flirting got more and more intense from that very first drink. We were side by side the entire night. He had his arm around me at one point as he engaged in an argument with one of the frat bros about the stock market and had his hand on my leg under the table while I networked with Fig who tagged along for a drink.

“I knew you two could be brilliant together, but that knocked it out of the park,” she complimented.

Then Jake squeezed my leg and… well… I was done for.

Now he’s walking me home. His arm is around my waist. We’re both drunk. And I know doing certain things while drunk is usually a mistake, but I’ve wanted to kiss him while sober too. I want my hands all over his body, want to feel him whisper against my ear, want him inside me.

I want Jake in all ways I can have him. This is my one opportunity before everything resets at the start of next semester.

Jake hiccups again.

“You’re a drunk hiccupper!” I say, grabbing the lapel of his jean jacket (denim on denim never looked so sexy).

Jake laughs, his wind-burned cheeks growing even redder. “I am, I am. I’m sorry.” His fingers dig into my side. “Not as bad as being a drunken stumbler, though.”

He lifts me off the ground up onto his hip for a moment. I squeal and kick my legs. “Put me down!” I beg through laughter until my feet are once again on the earth. Still unsteady. But not with Jake at my side.

“Woah, wait.” Jake stops. “Isn’t that…” He points up at the fa?ade of one of the apartments we just walked past. “That’s your building, isn’t it?”

I follow his finger and indeed, that’s mine. “Oh God, you’re right. I must have been…”

Jake's eyes burn in mine.

“…distracted.”

“Welp. Rewind.”

Jake walks backward, overaccentuating all of his movements, then stops right in front of my apartment building. “Don’t you try that,” he says. “Your balance isn’t nearly as good as –” He hiccups.

I laugh and rush to meet him on the sidewalk. Without thinking, I throw my arms around his neck, and let him pull me up into a big bear hug. “We did it!” I say excitedly.

“Yeah, we did…” Jake murmurs.

We pull back just enough to look into each other’s eyes. “You probably shouldn’t drive, given the hiccupping.”

“I’ll be fine,” he says, only half-convincing.

“On those country roads? No. I don’t want to wake up to a notification that you’ve gotten in an accident or something.”

The corner of Jake’s mouth quirks. “So, what do you suppose I do?”

God, his mouth. God, his eyes. God, Jake Simmons . I push myself onto my tiptoes, leaning all my weight into him, and find his lips with mine in a gentle kiss. It’s tender. Innocent, even, if not for the rolling heat I can feel building in our cores as they press together. “I think you should probably stay,” I whisper against his mouth.

I hear him swallow. Nervous. I like that. “Are you sure?”

I kiss him again, deeper. Jake follows suit, his mouth opening just enough to allow my tongue inside. His hands clutch at my back, harder and harder until it feels like he might be able to rip my jacket apart with brute strength. “Is that answer enough?” I whisper as soon as I get a chance to tear my lips from his.

Jake answers me back with a matching kiss.

It’s fucking on.

After stumbling our way inside and up the stairs, kissing and grabbing the whole way, we make it into my apartment. I step inside, kicking off my shoes, and sliding my coat down my arms. As I spin to face Jake again, he eclipses my vision, rushing toward me, lifting me off the ground and into his arms, our lips connecting with intense need.

I slide my legs around him as he carries me into the apartment.

“Mm-which way is your –”

“Left,” I instruct.

Jake takes a step to his left and presses me up against the wall, hands needily working up my thighs and under my dress as we’re caught in kiss after kiss after kiss.”

“Sorry, I meant –” I can barely get a word out and that’s just the way I like it. “My left.”

“Oh, I know, I just wanted you pinned up against the wall,” he grins.

“God, you’re so fucking sexy.” I rake my hands through his hair as our lips and tongues dance together, creating a pit of fire in my belly. This is going to be so good. It’s going to be so bad because it’s going to be so good.

Jake’s hands work further and further up until his bare hands touch my waist, cold to the touch. I squirm, letting my legs drop to the floor. “ Cold ,” I hiss.

“Sorry…” He keeps his hands against my bare waist, letting his skin warm while mine cools. “You’re so soft.”

I’m not just soft, I’m fully melted. I slide my arms around his wrists and guide them further and further up under my dress until the tips of his fingers glimpse my breasts.

Jake gasps. “I knew it.”

“What did you know?”

“You –” He kisses me. “Ms. Caroline Gladstone –” Another kiss. “Aren’t wearing a bra.”

I moan as his now-warm hands cup my breasts, caressing their fullness, thumbs playing upon the sensitive buds of my nipples. “Is it that obvious?”

“To people who aren’t me, maybe, but I’m…” Jake stops, withdrawing his hands all at once. “Fuck Caroline, I’m –”

“What? What?” Have I done something wrong? Ruined the moment somehow?

Jake turns around and ruffles his hands through his hair. That’s my job . “I’m totally obsessed with you,” he says, finally facing me once again.

I smile.

“Not in a weird, way. Not a creepy way, I promise. Just… look at you.”

I feel myself flush all up and down my body. I could say the exact same about him. Instead of wasting our time talking, though, I prance over to him, grab his hand, and yank him full force across the apartment into my bedroom. It’s completely dark except for the streetlight that beams through the window, casting long slats of light across the floor.

“Come here,” I whisper.

We embrace, foreheads tipping together. The room would be completely silent if not for our matching, timpani heartbeats. Thumping hard. Waiting, waiting…

Jake tips his mouth toward mine. “I want you so bad.”

“Have me. Tonight, I’m all yours.” For one night and one night only. That’s all we can afford when our lives are so closely entangled. Not to mention, CEOs don’t fall in love with CEOs. The work that goes into running companies as big as ours is no joke. Who stays home and keeps the house? Who takes care of the children?

I’m getting just a little bit ahead of myself.

“I have a condom,” he mutters, reaching into his back pocket for his wallet. “I always have one, I wasn’t expecting –”

I kiss him to stop the rambling. As if I care if he planned to have a condom tonight or not. “Want you. Now.”

“I like a woman who knows what she wants,” Jake says with a small, country-boy nod.

But that polite country boy disappears in a flash when his hands land firmly on my shoulders, pushing me back onto the bed, my body landing with bounce. I laugh giddily and watch him as he hurriedly undresses. Jacket first, sloughing off to the floor like snakeskin, then belt, metal clattering against hardwoods. His jeans follow, leaving his legs totally bare up to his boxer briefs caging in his very swollen package.

Dear God, he’s big.

I can’t wait to have him inside me.

As he works the buttons of his shirt, down, down, down some more, he looks at me, concentration broken with a smile.

I sit up, grab his shirt, and pull him on top of me. “Let me help,” I moan. I undo the rest of the buttons, then run my palms across his broad chest, soft hairs tickling my skin. “My God, Jacob.” My eyes are as wide as moons, taking in all the tight ridges of his muscles. “You’re like a fucking statue or something.”

“Are you objectifying me, Gladstone?” he jokes with a raised brow.

“Absolutely.” I tuck my hands around his neck and pull him on top of me, kissing him. Delicious. If I had any patience, I’d take the member pulsing against my thighs into my mouth, and beg him to do the same to me. I’d tease and taunt and take my time, but this fire wants to burn and it wants to burn now. I need him inside.

“It’s only fair if I get to see too,” Jake whispers.

“Hell, yes, I think that’s a deal I could sign off on.”

He pulls my dress up over my head, leaving me entirely naked except for my underwear. “Dear Lord…”

Feeling the lust in his gaze makes me bashful. I take care of my body as best I can. I’ve given into procedures to make it tighter, firmer, skinnier, all of the things that are supposed to make me perfect. And yet, this moment is still so scary. Him taking in my nakedness.

I can’t hide behind anything anymore.

“Beautiful,” he murmurs. He kisses the insides of each of my breasts, then my collarbone. “Fucking beautiful.” Then, Jake cups my chin, tilting it just so. “I like this part the best though.”

I inhale sharply.

We continue to kiss, touch, and caress a little longer, trying to figure each other out. Sex is never good the first time you do it with someone new. But we don’t have the luxury of a second chance. So, we have to make this count.

Jake’s hips begin to grind against mine. The want grows between us. I’m already so wet. I plead, “Jake, please, I need you so badly. I needed you like half an hour ago at the bar, just please –‘”

“If you keep begging I’m gonna come before I even get the condom on,” he huffs.

I giggle as he withdraws, sitting at the edge of a bed as he shirks off his briefs. As I shimmy off my own underwear, I hear the splitting of a condom wrapper, a soft grunt from between his lips as he feels his hand around himself.

If that’s what he sounds like with just his hand, imagine what he’ll sound like when he’s inside me.

Jake returns, his hair all messy from my fingers running through it. Not nearly as well-coiffed as he was at the beginning of the evening. He smiles nervously and touches my leg, guiding himself back to the spot between my thighs he left for himself.

He lays over top of me and I feel his length against my thigh, yearning to be inside. Our lips brush one another’s.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Jake says.

I clutch the sides of his cheeks, stubble imprinting into my hands. “Do I seem breakable to you?”

Jake tries to laugh but stops. “I just want you to know how amazing I think you are.”

I did it. I’ve won. Earned his respect. Got him right where I wanted him from the first day I met him.

But that’s not enough. I need more.

Need all of him.

I tuck my hands along the seam where his backside meets his thighs and pull on him. “Show me how amazing you think I am, Jake.”

For all of Jake’s swagger, his country boy charm, his unreadability in moments, his expression is not immune to a woman telling him he’s wanted. His forehead creases at the center, eyes widening as his mouth parts. He does not resist the pressure of my hands, pushing his hips forward slowly.

The head of his shrouded cock rubs up against my opening, then slides past it. Once, twice.

Jake laughs nervously.

I reach down between us. “Here.”

When my hand lands around his cock, he bites his lip, a tiny grunt suppressed in his mouth. I adjust the unflinchingly hard member until the head of his cock is at the exact right angle to slide in. Jake pulses his hips forward slightly and he pops inside.

I take a shallow breath. “Go slow.”

“Oh, I will, darlin’, I will.”

I try not to let myself get hung up on him calling me darlin’ because that would ruin the temporariness of this arrangement in a heartbeat. Thankfully, I’m distracted by Jake pushing himself deeper inside, my body adjusting to the prickling pain of stretch while the nerves inside me bloom simultaneously. Feels so… fucking good to have him inside.

Jake slides his hand across my forehead and through my hair. From his expression, you’d think he’s taking a math test rather than having sex. “You alright?”

I nod. “Uh-huh.” And to prove it to him, I wrap my legs around him, locking my ankles around his hips. “I’m ready.”

Jake starts to undulate his hips, still intently focused as he tries to read my expression. His lips fold together tightly.

With each thrust, I feel my body get lighter. More open. Pleasure starts to prickle up my spine. “Yes. Damn, that feels… so good.”

Jake leans down, his mouth by my ear. “That’s all that matters to me.”

“Mmm, you say all the right things,” I chuckle, though my throat is constricting with a moan as my head tips back on the pillow. “Go faster.”

As his hips increase in speed, Jake drops his head into the crook of my neck, his lips finding my skin. I can hear the desperation in his small groans. I wrap my arms around him, tucking my face up against his forehead.

This isn’t drunken, one-night stand kind of sex. It has tilted into another realm completely. I don’t know how to go back, how to reset the feeling of emotion and euphoria that are rumbling through my body.

And I’m not sure I want to.

I dig my fingernails into his back, relishing the way Jake’s body shudders at my touch. “Fuck, you feel good,” he growls.

Suddenly, Jake lifts his body from mine, positioning me so I’m resting between his knees, my legs spread wide. From his kneeling position, he fucks me deeper and harder, his mouth open and eyes heavy with lust.

“Oh my God, Jake, yes, that feels so good,” I moan, my back lifting upward as I feel electric zaps through my body. “You’re going to make me come .”

Jake’s blue eyes are eclipsed by his pupils. He starts to thrust harder, animalistic and terrifying in the sexiest way possible.

From this vantage point, I get to watch his muscles ripple, and his forehead fold with concentration as he fucks me. I run my hands up his forearms, grab at his elbows and pull to guide him deeper as if that were even possible.

Jake’s head tips back, his breath ragged and shallow with each and every stroke. His hands grip my thighs so hard it’s like he’s trying to leave marks in clay. I reach back for something to grab onto, my hand landing against the headboard.

A fire is being stoked inside me with each press of him inside me. I don’t care how loud I’m being, don’t have any sort of self-awareness at this moment. All I can conceptualize is how hot it’s getting inside me.

The headboard knocks against the wall with the force of our fucking, adding a rhythm that only spurs us to move faster and harder.

“Jake –” I say desperately. “I can’t hold on.”

“Don’t.” He says, his voice gruff and demanding.

I have no choice but to yield to the animal inside him.

“Come for me, Caroline.”

My body grows taut like a rubber band being stretched, my head tipping back, body raising up, up, up, reaching for the pinnacle of pleasure until I have been pulled to the absolute limit. Then, I snap. I cry out, my body clenching around him as an orgasm as enormous and powerful as a natural disaster slams into me.

Jake’s eyes squeeze shut for a long moment before bursting open, a strained sound from his lips that’s almost like a word. I feel him pulsing inside me, releasing, letting it all go. It adds aftershocks to my pleasure, more warmth and loveliness than I know what to do with.

Jake leans down his head drooping like a wilting flower as he pants. I grab his shoulders and pull him into my arms. His mouth lands against my face like he’s about to say something, breath cascading across my skin as we both come down from the highest height.

Eventually, we’re laughing like two idiots. I don’t even know what the joke is, but I can’t help it. Our bellies both shake with laughter. Maybe due to how ridiculous this whole situation is. Knowing that we will always have this secret between us that one night in the first year of grad school, we tumbled into bed together. It’s a funny thought.

Also, a strangely heart-rending one. To know that when we return from Christmas break, we will both have this secret to share. No one else can ever know.

And we can never touch it.

Jake rolls off me, a lopsided smile on his mouth as he laughs. His hand lands against his sternum, catching his breath. I can’t help but admire his form, so strong and gorgeous. Delicious.

I turn onto my side, dipping my head onto his shoulder. Jake turns his face toward me and kisses my forehead.

He can’t do that if this is going to be a one-time thing.

His head snaps up abruptly, all afterglow seemingly washed away. “Shit, the condom –”

“What’s wrong, what’s –”

Jake curses, reaching between my legs. He pulls up the shriveled skin of the condom. “I’m sorry, it must have come off during –”

I roll my eyes. “It’s fine. It probably just slid off while you were pulling out.”

Jake eyes the well of the condom, the smear of his seed inside. I try not to look too hard.

“I’m not worried about it,” I say softly.

Jake eyes me, still not convinced he shouldn’t worry. I’ve had sex plenty of times, even with just the pull-out method and nothing has happened. I’m unconcerned.

“Jake…” I say softly in a voice I’ve built only for him. I stretch my body out and nudge him with my knee. “Just throw it out and come back to me.”

That gets him out of his head. He smiles, nodding in such a way that causes his hair to fall out of place. Quickly, he disposes of the condom in the bathroom and returns to my bed. We get under the covers, shuffling our legs together for warmth. I push myself into the broad expanse of his chest and nuzzle my nose against his collarbone. “Now, I’d say that’s the right way to celebrate a good presentation,” I murmur.

Jake laughs. I can feel it vibrating through his chest. “True, I can’t say I’ve ever slept with a co-worker.”

“Well, check it off your bucket list, I guess.”

We talk idly for a bit, neither of us able to hold onto being awake for too long. However, just before I fall asleep, I crack my eyes open to watch Jake’s repose. He’s perfect. And beautiful.

I know I should be grateful I got to have him just once. But I’m so sad he can’t be mine.