Page 3 of Santa Baby
Yeah, this is not a good idea at all. I don’t need the man with that voice to be mad at me when I already have an agency after me as it is.
Chapter Three
____________
Nic
The voice on the phone irritates me. It’s too…irritating. I can’t put my finger on why it sets me off. It just does and I’m a man who doesn’t really take the time to figure stupid shit out like why a voice irritates me.
“Just hang up.”
I spin in my chair and away from my computer at the sound of the new voice on the phone. That voice does not irritate. The annoying one shushes it causing me to narrow my eyes like they can both see me even though I realize they can’t.
“I have a friend who used to date Chris. She told me he had to get married - I don’t know the reason and frankly, it’s none of my business. I just wanted to know if he still needs a wife. You see, I have this other friend who needs to get married to keep her baby.”
I interrupt. “To keep her baby?”
Is it the little voice I heard in the background I wonder? Does she have a baby?
“Long story short - she wants to adopt this baby, but they won’t let her unless she’s married. So, if Chris still needs a wife…can you tell him to meet us at the Drip on Main if he does? Thank you.”
She gives a time and date before the line goes dead, and I’m left with nothing more than an empty office and a silent phone. That voice was…sweet and soft. If I’m being honest with myself, I would admit that it made my cock twitch in a way it doesn’t normally react. Hell, it doesn’t react at all most of the time.
Between work and sleep, I’ve been…stagnant. It’s literally been all work and no play. And up until now, I haven’t given one fuck if it’s made me a dull boy or not. But now…things could be different. If I can just find the owner of that voice and talk her into coming home with me.
The fact she might be looking for my brother just makes me want to wrap my hands around his neck and throttle him. I’m twelve years older than the little shit and have been keeping him out of trouble for the past twenty years. I knew exactly what they were talking about when they mentioned Chris’s need for a wife.
My father passed away about eighteen years ago and instead of leaving the company to my mom - which would have been the smarter thing to do - he left it to a business partner of his with an amendment that we take over after we both turn twenty-one… if we are both married by then. I already knew that wasn’t going to happen for me, so I set out to find the loophole. Even at fifteen, I understood enough about the legal process to realize everything has a loophole.
Since the company went to the business partner if we didn’t marry there would be nothing saying he couldn’t sell it back to me and I made sure to be ready when the time came, when the company needed help because of bad business decisions and a shaky economy and like a hungry hawk in the sky…I swooped in and bought shares of the company bit by bit until I bought back my fifty percent.
Patrick Carter, my father’s old business partner, had no idea it was me buying all the shares at first but eventually, I was brought back into the company and given full reign over all the decision-making. Now, Patrick’s only hope to retain his fifty percent of the company is if my brother allows his twenty-first year to go by without a wedding. If he shows up married…Patrick is out.
I can’t say I would be broken-hearted if he was out. He’s not necessarily a bad guy…he’s just fucking annoying, and I tire of listening to the drama he allows into his life. He has a habit of thinking with his dick first and his head second, which gets him in all sorts of trouble. Very much like my brother now that I think about it.
I didn’t have to buy back the company. I could have chosen to do hundreds of other things but this…this company…it has become a part of me, and I have grown to love it. It’s not because it belonged to my father. He was sort of an asshole who had the moral values of a 1950s CEO - he didn’t think women could do anything other than be a secretary or wife, cheated on my mom with every one of his secretaries, and drank way too damned much. The best thing he ever did for his family was to die early so we didn’t have to endure him longer than we had to.
Even though my office is empty of everyone except me, I still find myself stiffening and looking around. If my mother heard my thoughts about my father, she would have taken me by the ear and given me the spiel about how we don’t speak ill of the dead, and how he was after all my father…like the fact I owe him my life because of his sperm has any sway over me. However, I would never upset my mother and wouldn’t want to bring up something that would cause her any worries or stress. She’s had enough of that putting up with my brother.
Which is why I plan to go to the café and figure out what my brother has gotten himself into. Why are women calling him and asking him about marriage? And what’s up about this baby? And the woman wanting to adopt it? Has my brother been a naughty boy? Is it his and the girl just doesn’t want to say anything until she talks to my brother?
On the day the woman told Chris to meet her at the café I was there early taking a seat in the corner so I could see all the people coming and going. I was surprised that I started looking forward to coming and maybe meeting the woman with the soft voice that’s been haunting my dreams since I heard it. What does she look like? What else would I find surprising about her once I met her? And then…the door opens and in steps a redhead with bedroom eyes and Cupid’s pout. She has trouble written all over her and I start to turn away when she captures my attention again by opening the door and pulling another girl in behind her.
And it’s this girl that keeps my attention firmly anchored. It’s this girl that has me noticing everything about her. The dark curls, the soft green eyes that remind me of bright mint, or the stripes that wrap around wintergreen candy, all draw the eye so she is all anyone can look at if she’s in a room. And young. So very young that I started to worry my brother might have been a very, very bad man and done something awful. If that’s true, mother won’t have to ever worry about him again. I'll kill him.
“I can’t do this, Naomi.” She struggles against the first woman’s hold even as she takes a seat at one of the booths, one woman on each side. “I can’t.”
“Think about that sweet little baby, Talia. You have to if you want a chance of keeping her.”
The girl gnaws at her lower lip, “I love that baby.”
“I know you do. Which is why you are here and you’re going to stay here until this guy shows up. Because you are doing it for her!”
It’s with those words that I stand up and come over to their table. “Ladies.” I give them a small nod, loving the fact her eyes are on me now, “I do believe you are here for Mr. Bell.”
Chapter Four
____________