Victoria The Billionaires Maid

Seth’s [POV]

“No mo peas.”

Staring at my daughter’s stubborn chin as she shook her head in refusal of the healthy vegetable I’d added to our meals, I briefly reconsidered what I’d asked of Ally.

Did I really want another child?

Hell, could I handle another child? Basically on my own along with the nanny I employed on workdays since I didn’t expect Ally to be tied down.

She could be as involved as she wanted in whatever capacity she chose, but I’d proceeded as if she would choose minimal involvement. Thinking otherwise made things sticky.

Made me itchy in ways I couldn’t define.

Now I had an almost four-year-old staring me down and a bowl of peas I didn’t even want myself. But good example and all that. And if I wanted another kid, good examples were the rule of the day.This is property © of NôvelDrama.Org.

God, was I crazy?

Dutifully, I spooned up my vegetable. “Okay, if you don’t want the rest of your dinner, as soon as I finish, we’ll get you upstairs for your bath. School tomorrow. Mrs. O’Connor said you’re drawing mermaids this week. That will be fun.”

“No bath.” Laurie pushed at her plate and inched back in her chair, step one in lurching to the floor.

She still wasn’t the best at climbing but she liked sitting at the big table without a highchair. As small as she was, she’d used one longer than some kids, but now she was done with it.

Done with everything judging from how many times she’d said no tonight.

“You need a bath. You were playing outside with Fritz for an hour this afternoon. Digging up Mrs. Polenti’s flowerbeds no less.”

It wasn’t much of an admonition. Laurie and the neighbor’s cocker spaniel were so cute together. Mrs. Polenti was soft on them too, so I knew she wouldn’t mind a few trampled leaves.

Though as soon as I said mentioned the neighbor’s pup, I knew what I’d be in for.

“Daddy, I want a dog. Like Fritz.” Laurie’s big blue eyes zeroed in on mine. “I’d take care of it. Feed and walk it.”

“What about clean up after it goes on the sidewalk? You have to scoop the poop into a bag and take it home to throw it out.”

Her little nose wrinkled. “Eww.”

“Part of being a pet owner, kiddo.”

“Okay. Then I’d do that too.” She sounded decidedly less enthusiastic.

“Maybe next year,” I said

as I always did.

Someday I intended to get her a puppy, but not until she was older and more responsible. And I’d figured out juggling the whole two little kids deal.

Yeah, I’d been plotting this scenario for a few months. Shifting things around in my head until I could figure out how to make it all work.

Ally was at the center of the plan. Without her, the rest fell apart. Considering she hadn’t contacted me since our conversation at the diner, that wasn’t a good sign.

She’d made it clear by not answering any of my calls that she needed space to think. But today was her first Mother’s Day without her mom, and I couldn’t just let the day pass without her knowing I was thinking about her. So I’d sent a simple bouquet of flowers with a brief card and hoped that sufficed. Even if she hated me, at least she knew I cared.

As far as the reverse, she hadn’t come by to see Laurie today, and she always did on this day for obvious reasons. I couldn’t blame her. Much. My offer had upset the balance, but it bugged me that Laurie was paying the price.

Not that my baby girl had mentioned Ally. Not once. She barely seemed aware of the day, though it was always a big deal in her preschool class. She’d brought me home a card she’d drawn, as was standard on a parent celebration day when the parent in question wasn’t a part of the child’s life. So she knew what today was. Knew what it meant.

Maybe that had something to do with her cranky mood since waking up from her nap. She had to miss her mom, right? Even if they’d only spent a few months together while Laurie was too little to remember much, Marj had carried Laurie for nine months. That created a special bond. It had to. Not that Marj had seemed overly affected.

Yet you’re asking your best friend to bear your child then to walk away?

“Daddy, ice cream?” Laurie picked up a couple peas between her fingers, squashing them together before popping them in her mouth. Her idea of a concession in the hopes of getting dessert.

“A scoop of ice cream after your bath, then you brush your teeth.” I wasn’t above bribery.

Laurie tilted her head, her blond pigtails falling over her shoulders. Every day she looked older. The chubbiness in her cheeks was fading, and her eyes were taking on a more knowing quality I was both proud of and worried about. I didn’t want her to have to face the world. She’d never be alone-not while I had breath in my body-but there were far too many things out there that I couldn’t shield her from.

And I would be taking on a whole new set of worries with a new one. Voluntarily.

Maybe Ally was right. I had gone mad.

“Okay,” Laurie said after a moment’s thought. “Strawberry?”

“It’s Neapolitan,” I told her. “Vanilla, strawberry and chocolate.”

Again with the stubborn chin. “Just strawberry and brush my teeth for three seconds.”

“Thirty,” I corrected, grinning in spite of myself. My daughter was a negotiator to the core. Just like her daddy and Uncle Oliver and our father before us. Always wheeling and dealing.

“Thirty what?”

“Seconds.” I reached over to ruffle her cornsilk hair. She was also a con artist. “You can have a scoop of mostly strawberry and then brush your teeth for thirty seconds.” I looked at her plate. “If you eat a few more peas.”

With a loud sigh, she grabbed a couple and smashed them into her mouth, chewing and swallowing so fast I feared she would choke. Then she made a face. “I hate peas.”

“You liked them last week.”

“Elizabeth doesn’t like peas.”

“Oh, so if your best friend doesn’t like them, you can’t like them?”

She nodded as if that made total sense. “Ally doesn’t like them either.”

Halfway to my feet to clear the dishes from the table, I paused. And sank back down as heavily as a stone in a lake.

Just her name slayed me.

“Is she coming over today?”

Like an idiot, I stared wordlessly at my daughter. I honestly didn’t know, and that was my fault. On another Mother’s Day, she would. It was almost guaranteed. But because of my crazy scheme, I’d put distance between us. And distance between her and my little girl.

“I’ll find out,” I replied, unsure exactly how.

I was trying to give Ally space. Trying to not push or cause her any more discomfort on a day that already had to be tough. Not being there for her on this first holiday without her mom was like a physical ache in my gut. She wasn’t just the woman I’d asked to have my child. She was my best friend, in many ways my other half. The person I wanted with me when I was going out for a good time or just kicking back with a beer and a movie.

And Jesus Christ, I’d told her I wanted to fuck her. In lurid detail.

The kind of detail that had kept me up late every night since, fisting my cock and imagining the shock on her face. The way her pale pink lips had trembled open, as if she was stunned I would ever say such a thing.

But I had. Now there was no coming back from it. We could only go forward. The one thing I wasn’t going to do was apologize, because I wasn’t sorry for being honest. I was just mad at myself for not realizing sooner that the occasional flickers of interest I’d dismissed as being due to a lengthy dry spell were so much more.

It wasn’t like I wanted a relationship. Experience had taught me I sucked at those. Enjoying the process of getting Ally pregnant, however, was a completely different ballgame.

If she ever talked to me again. Which I wouldn’t know unless I tried.

“I’ll call her,” I decided, standing up and grabbing Laurie’s plate as she reached for another couple of peas. I waited while she grabbed them and pushed them into her mouth, shaking my head with a smile. “Fork next time, young lady.”

She gave me a toothy green-smeared smile. “Call Ally now?”

I could do that. Sure, why not? It wasn’t a big deal, calling my best friend on an important holiday.

That I’d told her I wanted to fuck her until my cum spilled out of her was incidental. Besides, I didn’t want it to spill out. I wanted it to stay inside until her belly grew rounded with my baby.

Our baby.

Swallowing hard, I carried our dishes to the sink and rinsed them off before loading them in the dishwasher. “Why don’t you go up to your room and pick out what you want to wear tomorrow then start getting ready for your bath?”

Sending Laurie off to dig through her drawers was always a dangerous proposition, but she preferred to dress herself these days, even if that meant she ended up more often than not in mismatched-and sometimes strange-outfits. Not like I was the fashion police. She was reaching for her independence, and so far, we hadn’t yet hit an impasse. It was coming, I was sure, but it wouldn’t be over rainbow leggings and light-up sneakers.

“Okay.” She heaved herself off the chair, her feet landing on the tiled floor with a thud. She circled the table and grabbed me around the legs, hugging me hard. “Love you, Daddy.” Then she ran down the hall, ponytails streaming, and I grinned.

Moments like that were why I wanted another one. Also, possibly a healthy streak of masochism.

After I heard Laurie’s footsteps climbing the stairs, I dried off my hands and tugged out my cell from my pocket. No missed calls or texts, which meant Ally hadn’t responded to the texts I’d sent. I’d only checked twenty times today, so not sure when I thought they might’ve come in.

Nada.

Nyet.

Eh, fuck it. I was calling her anyway. She couldn’t hide from me forever. If her answer was no, well, I’d just have to change her mind.

Steeling my shoulders, I hit the number one saved number. She didn’t answer for so long that I figured I’d get a voicemail.

“Hi.” She sounded tired.