Christmas Baby For The Billionaire. DONNA ALWARD
any more than you’re willing to uproot yours.”
She was right. If the shoe were on the other foot, he’d never agree to leaving his life behind and moving to small-town Nova Scotia. They were from totally different worlds.
“I respect that,” he said, putting down his knife and fork. “I really do. But I thought I should at least put the possibility on the table.”
“Of course.”
“We don’t have to decide right away, right? You’ve got a few more months to go.”
She nodded. Then her expression softened. “About today… I’m sorry if I picked at a sore spot. Was your childhood awful? Is that why you don’t talk about your family?”
He sliced into the steak and considered. She was going to find out at some point, wasn’t she? All she had to do was get on the internet and do a bit of digging and she’d find out who he was. “My older sister works on Wall Street. And my big brother moved to California straight out of MIT. He worked for a few start-ups right out of college and then started his own. Now he’s CEO of a Fortune 500 tech company.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. Being in property, I’m kind of the underachiever of the family.”
“But property is a huge investment,” she contradicted, and he was amused and a bit flattered that she jumped to his defense. “And you don’t sell average houses. Your clientele are all rich, right?”
“Yeah. Dropping a few mil on a house is no big deal for them.” He realized she had no idea exactly how wealthy he was, and it both amused and pleased him.
“It’s a whole other world.”
He looked at her and held her gaze. “They’re people, just like anyone else. They have their own pressures, insecurities, heartache. It’s true that money can’t buy happiness, you know.”
“But it sure can help take some of the stress off,” she remarked, leaning back in her chair. “So how much are you worth, Jeremy?”
She said it lightly, teasing even, but he figured now was the time to be honest.
“One point two billion,” he replied.
She burst out laughing, then stopped abruptly as he merely kept watching her. He knew it was a crazy sum of money. Some days he didn’t believe it himself.
“Wait. You’re not joking.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You’ve made that much money in realty?” Her lips dropped open in disbelief.
“Hardly.” He pushed his plate away, leaving a few little potatoes, and reached for the beer. “But I had a big trust fund—the one thing my dad left me. And I have a sister on Wall Street who manages my money for me. Add all my assets together…and you get that number.”
She breathed out a couple of curse words that made him grin. “I always knew you had money, but…holy—”
“Our child won’t have to worry about a thing, and neither will you.” On impulse, he leaned over and took her hand. “I don’t know what this is going to look like, but I do know this. I promise that I will never abandon you or our kid. If that means we’re just friendly and we co-parent, then that’s how it’ll be. But if you need anything at all, you just have to pick up the phone. I’ll be there for you.”
He meant every word. He also knew that what he’d just said had essentially tied him to her for the rest of his life.
What had he just done?
TORI TRIED TO quell the thrill that slid through her as Jeremy took her hand and promised to be there for her and their child. He was a tough man to resist at any time, but right now, with her hand in his, and the knowledge that he was a freaking billionaire swimming through her brain, she was quite overwhelmed.
She didn’t care that he had bags of money. It wasn’t that. It was just that she’d never met anyone quite this rich before. She certainly hadn’t known last summer. It shouldn’t change him in her eyes, but it did. He was so out of her league.
Not as a person; she knew that money and character were two very different things. But in worldly ways, he was on a whole other plane of existence.
“I don’t know what to say,” she responded, biting down on her lip. “I had no idea that… Well, Jeremy.” She let out a big breath. “I’ll make you a promise in return. I promise that I will never exploit the fact that you have money. I don’t want us to use money against each other, you know? Either how much we have or the lack of it.”
“Me, either. I want us to figure this out in a way that’s best for our baby.”
“You really do believe everything, don’t you? About it being yours and everything?”
He let out a sigh. “I didn’t react so well when I saw you were pregnant. But yes, I believe you.”
“When the baby is born we can do a DNA test. I wasn’t going to do an amnio if I could avoid it. The idea freaks me out.”
“A what?”
“An amniocentesis. It’s a test where they insert this needle and withdraw a bit of the amniotic fluid—”
He shuddered. “Ouch, and gross.”
She laughed. “Yeah. And there are some risks involved. I didn’t want to take any chances.”
“So you really do want the baby.”
She nodded. “I do. It wasn’t planned, but I… I don’t have much family. And I like children, a lot.”
Her clock hadn’t really begun ticking yet, not at twenty-eight, but she couldn’t lie. She’d been starting to think about a family the last few years. This pregnancy was inconvenient and a shock, yes. But also a blessing.
“I’m not close to mine, as you might have gathered.” He took a long pull of his beer and pursed his lips. “I’m closest to my sister, and we both live in New York so we see each other most of anyone. But my brother… He’s on his third marriage already and does his own thing.”
“And your mom?”
“She’s still at the family home in Connecticut. Married to my stepfather. Socializing with the right people, that sort of thing. My dad left and she got the house. Not much else, but we all had our trust funds and she married again within a few years. She made sure she was looked after.”
There was a bitterness in his voice he couldn’t disguise, and Tori wondered about the little boy he must have been. “I take it she wasn’t the nurturing type?”
He laughed—a short, mocking sound. “Not an ounce,” he replied, then drained his beer glass. He got up, went to the minibar, and took out a bottle of Cape Breton whiskey, adding a significant splash to a highball glass. He swirled it for a moment before turning and looking at her. “My mom was a social climber. I didn’t know it then, but I know it now. I see the type. And when Dad left, she lost her ticket. She would have had to sell the house and finish bringing us up on her own. Instead she married Bruce, and since she came with the house, he brought the rest of his money and status was restored. Some investments on her part paid for our college. Bruce, apparently, was more than happy to pay my four years of tuition to boarding school. I wasn’t really home after I finished eighth grade.”
He downed the whiskey in one gulp, and poured another.
She sat quietly. First of all, clearly the topic was painful to him, because he was fortifying himself with alcohol. And secondly, as much as his words were delivered in a factual, who-gives-a-care way, she could tell that the lack of affection