Maid To The Billionaire: The Tycoon's Baby (Contemporary Romance Novel) (14 page)

The nurse brought our beautiful boy back to us, wrapped tightly in a blanket. He was all cleaned up and his skin was pink and beautiful. He was so small that as I held him I was afraid he might break. He was wearing a little stocking cap and Alex pulled it up and peeked underneath. “Blonde fuzz,” he said with a grin. The baby had his eyes closed, so I hadn’t seen the color yet, but none of that mattered. He was gorgeous and like the doctor said, “Perfect.”

“How much does he weigh?” I asked.

“Four pounds eleven ounces,” the nurse said.

“Wow, that’s incredible,” Alex said. “It’s amazing that something that weighs less than five pounds can be such a perfect little person.”

“It is amazing. It’s also amazing that I already love him so much. My chest feels like it’s going to burst when I look at him.”

Alex reached over and let his finger trace the round line of his tiny little face and said, “Me too.” I looked up at him and I could see that he was as consumed by this child as I was. That did my heart good because no matter what ever happened with he and I… anything or nothing, the baby would have a father who would love him. “Do you know what you want to name him?” he asked me.

“No, not yet,” I said. I thought about Manny and all of his silly names. “What’s your middle name?” I asked him.

“Michael,” he said.

“Hmm, I like that. What about Michael Alexander Reigns?”

He pulled his head up to look at my face quickly like he was afraid I was kidding. “Really?”

I nodded, “Yes, I like it, don’t you?”

The tears began to flow freely down his face and he said, “I love it. I didn’t think you would give him my last name.”

“Is that okay?”

“I don’t think I could put into words how okay it is,” he said. He touched the baby’s cheek again and said, “Hi there, Michael Alex. I’m your daddy.”

We sat there silently staring at him, watching him sleep, watching him breathe and finally I asked the question that had to be asked. “What about Cassandra… and the lawyers… and the tabloids…”

He sighed and said, “Cassie will not be easy. She’s angry and I understand that she has a right to be. But most grown-ups would take that anger and try to begin their own new life. Cassie is not most grown-ups. She’ll come at me hard… and you.”

“I should probably not work at the house then…”

“Cassie’s not going to be at the house, Vicki. I’m going to finish the divorce. I don’t love her. I’m not going to stay with her out of fear that she’ll take my money any longer. My attorneys can deal with her and I’ll do my best to help them reach a settlement with her that she’s satisfied with. But I don’t want to be with her any longer. We’re both miserable and it’s as unfair to her as it is to me.”

That news made me happier than I probably had a right to be. I felt a little ashamed that a divorce made me happy. But I’d heard so many awful fights and I’d borne witness to the fact that he was right; they didn’t belong together. “I want to share him with you, Alex… but please promise me something.”

“Anything,” he said.

“Please promise me you will never try and take him from me. I couldn’t bear it. I already love him so much that the thought of being without him makes it hard to breathe.”

He shook his head and looked back down at our son. “I promise. I would never consider it. He needs you and you need him and we need each other. We’re a family now. How ‘bout that, Michael Alexander? You made us a family.” He looked up at me again. His long, dark eyelashes were wet with residual tears and he said, “Vicki, I’m so sorry for everything. After we were together that day in the basement… I was so confused. I didn’t understand why being with you had made me feel so differently from being with the other women I’d been with since Cassie left. I was overwhelmed by the emotional part of it and it scared me to death so I just tried to ignore it and pretend it never happened. That was so wrong.”

I reached up with the hand that didn’t hold our son and touched his face. “It was a confusing situation,” I said.

“Maybe,” he said. “But my behavior was inexcusable.”

“But not unforgiveable, and that’s what matters.” He brought my hand to his lips and held it there for a few beats.

“Thank you,” he said. “I need to apologize for so much more… the lawyers, the fights with Cassie that you had to overhear… I thought that I was grown up and a man of the world and then I slept with my maid and realized I didn’t know anything at all.”

I laughed. “I think I have a lot of that growing up stuff left to do myself,” I told him. “Maybe Michael can help us with that.”

“Vicki?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I hold him?”

“Of course.” I scooped the tiny little man with one hand under his bottom and kept the other under his head as I handed him to Alex. Then I watched as the baby yawned and stretched and peeked open one of his little eyes… his hazel eyes. He looked at his daddy and the look on Alex’s face was priceless. They were bonding and I knew that my baby would never have to want for anything, most especially love.

When Alex was able to tear his eyes away from Michael he said, “Michael and I were wondering if his Mama might consent to having a date with his daddy when she gets out of the hospital?”

I laughed and said, “Mama would love that… but I don’t think I’ll be able to get too far from him for a while.”

“That’s okay,” Alex said, looking down at his son. “He has a standing invitation.”

Holly Rayner

The sequel to this story is coming soon!