Twins For My Bestie’s Brother (Billionaire Daddies)

27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Lily

W aiting until twelve weeks is desperately difficult, but after the close call with the possible miscarriage, I didn’t want to get anyone else’s hopes up, especially not when we have double the babies on the way. It’s a secret for the two of us. Well, and Kayla, but that was unavoidable.

Things just . . . fell into place after that night in the emergency room. Apologies were exchanged, and tears were shed, and then the future unrolled before us.

We’re going to be parents. And while I certainly saw more time passing before babies were in the cards, I know that this is exactly right. Just as everything has been since the very first kiss. There have been some hiccups, sure, but that’s life, isn’t it?

So, we continue on as we have, as if Banff never happened. Danforth calls from time to time, but Jackson never picks it up. I feel bad for cutting his project off at the legs, but not that bad, considering all the hoops he was going to jump through to make things convenient for Danforth. Plus, we’ve got so much to get ready over the next six months.

The plans for the tattoo parlor move forward. We’ve settled on a name, Wild Bloom Ink, and I already have a few apprentices on the docket. When Jackson isn’t tinkering with the business side of Wild Bloom, he’s going overboard on preparing for fatherhood. He goes to sleep scrolling through parenting blogs, reading about the best kinds of cribs and secrets to parenting twins. He’s seemingly dedicated his life to me.

Jackson and I move in together which seems like the next natural step for everyone around us. Oh, if they knew how backward things were . . .

I don’t mind though. Being apart from Jackson feels impossible right now. He’s my security, the father of my children, and the love of my life. When I’m at work, I feel like I’m teetering on losing it without him nearby, which I guess I can chalk up to all these hormones which are double the trouble thanks to the twins.

Tonight, though, is finally the day we get to tell my parents. Officially day one of my second trimester. No more secrets, no more bulky clothing to hide my slight bump, no more fear all this joy will get snatched out from under us.

The world gets to finally know I’m going to be a mom.

I stand at the bathroom mirror, popping my bumblebee earrings in. Jackson strides into the room, doing up his tie in a Windsor knot with such grace it’s like he came out of the womb knowing how to do it.

“Really? A tie?”

He grins. “It’s an important occasion. Besides . . . ” Jackson comes right up to me and cages me from behind against the stove. He slides his hands around my stomach which has markedly grown in the past five weeks. It’s not quite obvious yet, but it’s getting there. “I have to try and measure up to you. Tie’s the least I can do.”

Jackson kisses my neck as I finish putting in the second earring. His hands create friction against my belly. He knows what it does to me. It’s like a brand-new erogenous zone. When he worships this growing piece of me, I grow feral almost immediately. I grab the edge of the bathroom counter. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I have a gift for you,” he says, planting his hips against my ass. I feel his already full-blown erection.

I laugh. “You sure do.”

“Not that,” he says, his eyes meeting mine in the mirror. “But I can give that to you too.”

“They’re going to be here in twenty minutes,” I say with a ragged breath.

Jackson chuckles, his teeth grazing my ear. “Is that a challenge?”

After we got the all-clear for sex from my doctor, it’s as if we’ve entered a competition with the rest of the world for the couple who has the most sex. I don’t think we’ve gone a day without for the past two and a half weeks. Today, we already fooled around in the morning. Then took a midday ‘nap’ that turned into anything but. And now . . .

I grab the edge of the sink and push my hips back into him. “In. Now,” I growl.

Jackson hefts up the skirt of my dress, pulls my panties aside, and is inside within ten seconds. “Fuck, you’re dripping.”

It’s easy when one touch from him sends me into overdrive. Better get it all in now before I’m as big as a house. “Fuck me. Go fast.”

Jackson places his hands on top of mine and moves his hips furiously into me.

I moan with every thrust. It should be impossible, how fast the friction gets me to an orgasm. But I won’t question it. Not when it feels so fucking good. I contract around him, warning him that if he doesn’t slow down, I’m a lost cause.

“Shit, you’re going to make me come too quick,” he says through a breathless laugh.

“Do it. I want your come. Fill me up.”

Jackson wraps one arm around my belly, the other over my breasts. He presses into me hard, like he hasn’t already done the job, like he needs to release in me to impregnate me all over again. “Come with me,” he says in my ear.

Our eyes meet in the mirror just as I crest over the edge and my mouth falls open. Both of us shake, orgasms colliding, stripping us of sense.

He floods me, and I clench until I’ve drained him.

I’m warm all over. Would like to take off all my clothes and sprawl out in bed to let the cold air prick my skin.

But I need Jackson just as much. He pulls me into his chest and squeezes, kissing my temple.

“And my gift?” I ask.

The doorbell rings.

They’re early.

Jackson grins. “Later.”

My parents have been buzzing with excitement since they arrived. The invitation was under the guise of a celebration of me being settled in at Jackson’s. A housewarming of sorts. I wanted Kayla to come but she didn’t want to have to fake surprise when we told my mom and dad. The last thing I want is for her to feel left out now that Jackson and I are a pair of our own.

Halfway through dinner, my mother puts her fork down. “Okay, I’m sorry, but I have to say—“

“Sue . . . ” Dad says warningly.

“I can’t wait any longer. Are you two engaged or what?” my mom asks.

Jackson nearly chokes on the bite of his food. Ironic considering we’ve leapt beyond the marriage part right to the baby carriage. “Mm. Sorry.”

“I take it that’s a no,” Mom says.

“That would be fast. We thought it might be too fast,” my father clarifies, patting my mother’s hand on the table.

I start to laugh. And can’t seem to stop.

My mom grows red. “What? It’s not that funny.”

“No, it’s—it’s—” I dab at my eyes with my napkin, tearing up from laughter.

Mom huffs. “You two have been so secretive lately!”

“They’re allowed to have secrets, Sue,” my father clarifies. “Although I have noticed a lot of whispered conversations when Jackson comes by the drugstore. Which isn’t any business of mine! You’re allowed to have secrets. But we have noticed you have them.”

I look at Jackson beside me. “Well, we do have a secret.”

Jackson raises his eyebrows pointedly. “Two.”

“Two!” my mother gasps. “Okay, tell me, I can’t take it.”

I look at my mom and dad. They trust me. I know they do. More importantly, maybe, they trust Jackson. This might not be the way I ever pictured things going, this fast and all topsy turvy, but this is my life. And I’m loving it. “We’re having a baby.”

“Oh!” My mother’s hands shoot to her mouth, her eyes rocketing wide. My father is frozen like a lizard that doesn’t want to be seen.

“Twins,” Jackson clarifies. “Which is why there are two secrets instead of—“

“ Twins?! ” my mother shrieks, and then leaps out of her chair. “I knew you were acting funny. I knew it was—” She pulls me out of my chair into a big hug, tears springing from her eyes. She waves at Jackson over my shoulder. “Come here, come here!”

The three of us embrace. My mother murmurs, “You’re both going to be so good at this.” When she’s done squeezing the life out of us, she pulls back and looks at my dad. “Say something, Darryl!”

My dad blinks a few times. “I didn’t know twins ran in the family.”

Mom sighs. “He’s in shock. Let’s get him a glass of water and an aspirin.”

By the end of the night, both my parents are beaming over the news. Mom wants me to go through bins of stuff she saved from my childhood, and Dad is offering pointers to Jackson on how best to give me support. It’s good. Better than good. So much so that when we’re alone once again, Jackson and I embrace and don’t speak for a long while.

None of this has really gone to plan, and yet it all feels right.

Jackson takes my hand and pulls me down the hall. “Your gift.”

I half expect him to take me back to bed, dress me up in a skimpy nightie and ravage me again, but instead, we go past our room to his office.

However, when he opens the door, it’s not his office.

It’s a nursery. There are only two cribs set against the wall, but it’s a nursery.

I go to the cribs. No wonder he was researching. I touch the side of one and look inside. Soon it won’t be a vacant mattress. “What did . . . when did you—”

“While you’ve been at work,” Jackson says and comes up beside me, placing his hand on my back. “Wasn’t too hard.”

I frown. “But your office. There are plenty of rooms that—”

“None right next to our room,” he says. “Besides, it’s a promise.”

I tilt my head to the side.

“You’re right. That . . . I have money. We have money. I don’t need to keep grinding. I don’t need to start new ventures or waste my time with things that aren’t important. You’re my priority, Lil.” He takes my waist in both his hands and slides his thumbs down the slight curve of my stomach. “The three of you are.”

I run my hands down his chest. “You don’t have to promise me like this, Jackson.”

“I do. After what happened in Banff, I’m still . . . ashamed I gave you the impression I thought I could control you. I don’t think that. You know that, right?”

I’m ashamed too since Banff. I never liked ultimatums. Getting them in my past relationship. That’s not us. That’s not this . “You’re going to be an amazing dad, Jackson.”

His mouth quirks to the side, and his eyes fall bashfully.

“And you’re an amazing partner. Ever since the beginning. Don’t question that.”

The vibrating of a phone. Jackson’s pocket. I feel it up against my leg.

“Sorry, I thought I turned this thing—” Jackson pulls the phone out.

I see the flash of the contact. Danforth . “Answer it.”

Jackson laughs like I’ve made a joke. “No, I don’t want that life. I want you here in Cider Bay.”

I touch Jackson’s wrist. “What if you could have both? That life? Here? Why can’t you build the business here ? We’ve got the water. We have mountains for skiing. We’ve got so many trails and—”

Jackson pauses, but then shakes his head. “He won’t go for it. He’ll—”

“Will you just ask, Jackson? Please.”

We’re running out of time as the phone buzzes and buzzes and buzzes. “You don’t need to shed your past self for me.” I move his hand flat to my stomach. “For us. They’ll need to see your multitudes just as they need to see mine.”

Jackson considers for a moment. And just before he runs out of time, he answers the phone, “Hi.” His eyes flick to mine, and a smile appears on his lips. “Listen, I’ve been thinking . . . ”