Baby For My Billionaire Rival (Billionaire Daddies)

10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Jake

I wake up in the morning and memories of last night come flooding in.

Last night was… really good. That’s a massive understatement actually. It was fucking amazing. Feeling her after all this time we’ve spent becoming unlikely friends in such an intimate way was something I never expected. Yet I’m so glad it happened. Even if perhaps it shouldn’t have.

But fuck that. It didn’t just feel good in the carnal, messy way. It felt good in my chest. In my heart. In the time since my dad passed away, I feel like I’ve been looking at life through frosted glass, trying to remember what it’s like to be alive. Unable to really connect to people the way I used to be able to.

Last night, though, I broke through the frosted glass. I didn’t realize it, but ever since meeting Caroline Gladstone, she’s been creating cracks that would allow the glass to shatter.

It’s not convenient, of course, given how we have to be in school together, and come from different yet similar worlds. But I know I want more of it.

I reach my hands out to her side of the bed, sad to find it cold and empty. “Caroline?” I say, groggily, as if she might still be in the room.

It’s quiet. I push myself up on my elbows and scan my surroundings. In the daylight, I can see how her room is very much a reflection of her. The ivory furniture, the framed vintage magazine covers on the walls, and the door to a walk-in closet that is lingering open, allowing me a glimpse of her absolutely oversized collection of clothes. I wouldn’t have expected any less.

The aroma of coffee hits my nose. At least she didn’t leave me alone in her apartment to sneak off to Savannah for her Christmas break. That would have been heartbreaking.

Begrudgingly, I push myself up out of bed and find my boxers and shirt on the ground, both of which I put on haphazardly to step out into the main area of Caroline’s apartment. I can hear the coffee pot puttering along. “Caroline?”

“In here,” she calls out. Her voice is laden with sleep, like delicious dark chocolate.

I follow the sound of her voice into the kitchen, where Caroline is busying herself steaming some milk in a frother. No person should be as beautiful from behind as from the front, but Caroline Gladstone isn’t like any other person. Her blonde hair is piled on top of her head in a messy bun and her lilac robe covers her frame in such a way that accents all her beautiful curves. Her waist, that ass… I already feel the morning wood I woke up with starting to get ideas.

“Hey.”

She gives me a look over her shoulder, a small smile before returning to her work. “Hey.”

I carefully walk up behind her and slide my arms around her waist. Caroline’s body braces for a moment before leaning into me. Over her shoulder, I can see she’s not wearing anything under her robe, the swell of her breasts just barely hidden.

I lean my head down and kiss her neck, then inhale deeply. I want to bottle up her morning scent to have with me forever.

“Coffee?” she asks.

“Sure, although this is just as good,” I say.

Caroline giggles, although it feels slightly false. I can’t blame her. Morning afters are always a little bit awkward, especially when they happen out of the blue like this. It’s like our bodies know exactly what to do, but now in the light of day are way too self-conscious to be able to function appropriately.

“Thanks for letting me stay,” I say.

Caroline opens the cabinet above her and pulls out two mugs. “Of course. I couldn’t let you drive with all your hiccupping.”

I laugh. “Right.”

As Caroline works on the coffee, I don’t let her go. I keep her pressed right up against me, watch as she works methodically on pouring the coffee and the milk, grabbing a brown sugar cube, then two, plopping them into one mug. “Sugar?”

“I think I might get a cavity with all the sugar I have already, but…” I nudge the side of her face, urging her to turn to look at me so I might get a taste of her lips.

“ Jake …”

“Just one.”

Caroline turns slightly toward me, all I need to capture her mouth with mine. Tender, warm. The kind of kiss I could spend a lifetime in.

Not that I’m thinking one night in bed translates to a lifetime together.

Gradually, I work my tongue into her mouth, letting my hand slide from her waist to her ass and –

Caroline pushes me away. “Jake, we should talk.”

Dammit. She felt my erection. That’s embarrassing. I glance down at the swell in my boxers and step back. “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to start anything, it just kind of happens.”

She hands me a cup of coffee. “It’s not about that.”

Though we both hold coffee mugs, neither of us drinks from them. I’m confused. Unsettled. “Okay. What’s wrong?”

Caroline’s lips purse. “I thought we were on the same page.”

“About…?”

She takes a deep breath in. Exhales. Her eyes won’t meet mine. Shit, I’ve done something wrong. “Last night was a one-time thing. Right?”

I don’t expect my heart to tremble the way that it does. “I mean, if that’s what you want,” I say.

Caroline licks her upper lip. “It was great. Like I don’t want you to think I didn’t have a good time.”

“That’s good,” I say, desperate to make sure the sound of my heart breaking doesn’t come through in my words.

“But, you know, business and pleasure.”

Storm clouds collect on the kitchen ceiling, threatening to downpour. “They’re not a good mix,” I say coolly, then take a sip of the coffee which burns going down.

“Right, exactly.”

We are both quiet. I don’t have anything to say. She’s expressed a boundary and I’m not willing to beg, not after one night in bed together. Okay, fine, I’m suppressing my desire to beg. Because what I feel for Caroline isn’t just about the sex. It’s about the way she looks at me and treats me like an equal when I still get sidelong glances from our other classmates. The way she laughs at my jokes, even my stupid ones. The fact I can and have trusted her with things I don’t tell people who aren’t my family.

Fuck it, I’ve been falling for her.

“We’re finally friends, Jake.”

Slap me in the face, why don’t you?

“And I don’t want to ruin that. When we have to work together and… I mean, we’ve got companies to run.” She says that with a little laugh that stabs me with how cute it is. “CEOs don’t make a good match, I don’t think.”

I am quiet for a moment too long. Caroline’s friendly smile starts to fade. But I can save this, I can manage. I clear my throat. “I totally agree.”

She breathes a sigh of relief. Relief . I have never wanted to disappear more in my life. “Good. Good . I’m glad.”

I hold up my coffee mug. “Cheers to friends, then.”

Caroline’s mug clinks mine. The closest thing I will probably get to a touch from now on. “Cheers.”

I can do this. I have all of Christmas break to recover, to push her out of my mind, and reset us into the zone of friendship we once had. Except I’m not sure we ever had it.

Before Caroline and I were paired together, we were practically enemies. The second we stepped out of that space was the moment I became doomed to fall for her.

Now, I’m smashed up on the ground.

I can put the pieces back together though. I know I can.

The next time I see Caroline, I’ll be done with her. Over her. And that’s a lie I’ll tell myself until I believe it.