Cheeky Romance (Billionaire Dads Book 4)

On the way, he calls the hospital. And then he calls Dawn.

“You’re freaking kidding!” Dawn screams. “She’s having the baby?”

“My worst nightmare. Another Hadyn is finally coming into the world,” Max says wryly.

“Dawn, can you smack your husband for me?” I ask.

A thump follows.

“Done,” Dawn says proudly

Hadyn smiles and tries to wrap me in a hug, but my belly stops him like a chaperone yelling ‘leave room for the Lord’.

I can feel myself smiling like an idiot, but I don’t really give a damn.

Vanya leans toward me. “I always thought that I only needed myself. But I was wrong. I need you. I love you, Hadyn.” She blinks rapidly to keep her tears at bay and croaks, “I’ve asked you to divorce me twice, but today, I’d like to ask something new. Will you marry me… again?”

“I don’t want anyone else. I love Vanya so much it scares me. I’ve never cared about anything and anyone before her. It was all meaningless. But then we got married and she got pregnant. Suddenly I had someone to protect. Suddenly, I had a purpose outside of myself. It didn’t matter if I was good enough or not. It only mattered that I was there.”

I stalk over to her, feeling the distance growing between us and not knowing how to bridge it. “Vanya, I love you. I’m in love with you.”

“No, you’re not.”

Everything inside me falls flat.

She lifts her chin and speaks coldly, “You like me because I’m the most convenient option. We’re already married. We already have a kid. You fell into this. But you didn’t choose me.”

“That’s not true.”

“We’ve been friends for a long time. You care about me and you care about Project Vegas. You mistakenly translated that to love. But I’m a grown woman, Hadyn. Not a child. And I will only accept love that is for me.” She taps her chest. “Not because of any other situation.”

Silence falls. Heavy. Final.

Vanya walks to the door.

“It is for me, dad. Family is waking up in a house all by myself because mom is in the hospital and you’re at work. It’s making my own breakfast and packing my own lunch. It’s forging your signatures on notes and baking my own brownies for the school bake sale. It’s never telling you about the bullying and pretending everything is fine because you and mom didn’t need another thing to worry about.”

I stare out into the darkness and I think about the divorce lawyer I’m going to call.

He drops a kiss on me that teases a moan from my throat. And the moan becomes a low whimper when the rest of my clothes land on the floor and his kisses turn more languid, as if he has all the time in the world.

“I can’t breathe without you, Van. That’s what you’ve done to me. You’ve turned me into the kind of man who can’t sleep without knowing you’re safe.”

“Do you know how worried I was when the clock kept ticking and you didn’t come home?” Hadyn’s voice is a lethal whisper. “I thought the worst. I kept skipping through the news checking if there were any car accidents. I couldn’t breathe.”