Victoria The Billionaires Maid

My hackles rose. Everything rose, truthfully, including my dick. Since when did her silky voice have the power to wake up my cock?

For that matter, since when did I hear her voice as silky? I was on the verge of turning in my man card and signing up for eternal blue balls all in one week.

“Hi. How are you?”

“I’m okay. How are you?”

So she thought we were going to keep it cordial as if we were strangers. No dice.

“Why do you sound exhausted?” I asked.

“I stayed up late fucking my neighbors. Is that all right with you?”

That I gripped the edge of the sink instead of realizing right away that she was screwing with me proved how messed up I was. She’d said things like that a million times, and I’d tossed back my share of those kinds of replies as well. We didn’t get overly personal when it came to sex, but we’d never shied away from most topics either. I didn’t know much about her sex life, and I was okay with that.

Or I had been until I had decided I should become part of it. For babymaking purposes only, of course.

Mutual orgasms would just be a bonus.

“I know today is a rough day for you.” I relaxed my grip on the edge of the sink. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Yeah, it’s been rough. A lot of days have been lately.” She let out a breath and I wished like hell that there wasn’t a phone between us so I could hold her.

Not to make a baby. Not to soften her up for my wild plan. Simply because she was my closest friend, and her pain was palpable.

“Wanna come over?” I asked softly.

At any other time, I wouldn’t have had to voice the question. She would’ve just shown up, and we wouldn’t have talked about the meaning of the day other than to maybe hipcheck each other or sling an arm around each other’s shoulders before she left for the night.

We weren’t touchy-feely. She was basically like my best guy friend, except she was even better-and she also had one hell of a body, which thankfully was only a recent obsession of mine. Very recent.

If I’d allowed myself to notice her curves before, we couldn’t have remained platonic friends for so long. I’d have banged her and probably driven her out of my life years ago.

There was a reason I didn’t try to have relationships anymore, and it wasn’t just because I didn’t trust easily. I wasn’t built to be a married guy.

Or maybe that was just what I told myself.

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” she replied, just as softly.

“Why the hell not? You’ve spent part of every Mother’s Day here since Laurie’s birth. Hell, even w

hen Marj was pregnant, you were the one here on Mother’s Day making a fuss over her. More of a fuss than I made.”

By then, things had been so strained between Marj and me that I’d had trouble tamping down on my feelings long enough to do my husbandly and fatherly duty. But I’d made breakfast and gotten her flowers and tried to pretend we were a real family.

And I’d ignored my bitchy wife when she crabbed about Ally “always hanging around” instead of appreciating her kindness.

“Being a mom is special,” Ally said, and I felt like an asshole all over again. “So is being a dad.”

“Yeah, it is.” I grabbed a sponge and wiped halfheartedly at the sink. “Look, I’m not asking you to come over here so we can discuss things. I mean, unless you want to.”

“Why would I want to? I’ve spent the last few days hoping you had developed amnesia and had forgotten the whole asinine idea.”

I tried to rein in my temper. I’d told her we didn’t have to discuss this right now, and today was a difficult day for her. Of course she wouldn’t be in the best frame of mind.

“Judging from your silence, you haven’t. So I’m not really sure what else we have to say to each other, since you’ve lost your goddamn mind. Telling me you wanted to-” She broke off and hissed out a breath. “Lunatic.”

“Is telling you I want to have sex with you that startling that you think I must’ve developed a mental condition?”

“When you say it like that… Yeah, maybe. It certainly came out of left field. Though I get that it’s just the means to an end to you.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Yes, it is.”

“No, it fucking isn’t. Okay, maybe it started that way, and maybe I never noticed you had tits before, but”

She huffed out a laugh. “See? And they’ve been here all along.”

“I just never saw you that way. Intentionally. Not because you aren’t hot. You’re just-”

“Not your type. Yeah, yeah, Hamilton, I know it and I’m cool with it. We stay in our lanes. You’re the one who’s suddenly swerving all over the place. Maybe this is just the male version of a ticking hormonal clock. I didn’t know it happened to dudes, but possibly something went off inside you and you panicked. It’s no big. We can just move on from here and forget we ever brought up the subject.”

“Wrong answer. It is big, and if you ever stopped freaking out at the mere idea I could want to fuck you, you’d find that out for yourself.”

“You want to fuck me to make a baby with me. A baby you can then raise as a storied Hamilton child without my involvement to taint him or her.”

Her words stole the breath from my chest. “You honestly believe I’d view your involvement that way?”

“I don’t know. You’re the one who told me I could run off and be a free bird as soon as I gave birth. Didn’t really seem like you wanted my input. And for that matter, I wouldn’t do it anyway, so why are we still talking about it?”

“Because you can’t seem to talk about anything else. Which is pretty damn funny considering you supposedly find the idea so off-putting. Me thinks the lady doth protesth too much.”

“Oh, fuck right off.”

“I’d love to. When can I expect you?”Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

She growled at me and the tight band around my chest loosened for the first time since I’d walked into the diner during her shift on Thursday. That sound was pure Ally. She might be annoyed and questioning my mental balance, but she didn’t hate me. And I wasn’t entirely convinced she hated the idea of us making a baby either.

I could work with both of those things.

“Look, we’ll just hang out. Laurie’s been asking for you.”

“She has?” Ally cleared her throat. “Again, using your child is a dick move, Hamilton.”

“I’m not using her. Just saying I’m not the only one who misses you.” All right, so I hadn’t intended to phrase things quite like that.

I didn’t miss her. Did I? That would be nuts. It had only been a few days since we’d seen each other. You couldn’t miss someone in that time.

Even if the tightness was back in my chest at the possibility she wouldn’t come.

“Now you’re sweet talking. Pulling out the big guns, huh?”

“Nah. I haven’t pulled out the biggest gun yet. But if you’d like me to…”

“Hear that sound? It’s me not being amused by your sexual innuendoes.”

“Who mentioned sex?” I used my most innocent voice as she audibly swallowed a laugh. “You filthy-minded pervert.”

“Yeah, it’s all”

“Daddy!” Laurie screamed from upstairs.

I didn’t think. I barely held on to the phone as I rushed down the hall and up the stairs, my only thought my little girl.

“Seth? Seth, what was that? Did I hear a scream? Oh my God, was that Laurie? Is she okay?”

Turning the phone against my shoulder, I hit the top of the stairs and booked toward Laurie’s room. She wasn’t in there, but the door to her en suite bathroom was open. And water was running.

“Oh fuck,” I muttered, my heart slamming in my ears.

“Seth? Goddammit, Seth.” Even Ally shouting into the phone couldn’t distract me from crossing the room to the bathroom.

I stepped over the threshold, my eyes bugging out at the sheer number of bubbles flowing everywhere. The tub was full and the bubbling water was still rising, and in the middle of it sat my little girl, her hair wet, and her eyes wild.

“I can’t turn it off, Daddy,” she shrieked as I moved forward and did the honors, barely managing not to curse a blue streak. I pulled the stopper up, rather amazed that Laurie had thought to put it in, and waited while several inches of water flowed down the drain. Her assorted Care Bears and other toys floated in what was left.

Laurie squealed in dismay. “My bubbles!”

“Yeah, well, my bathroom floor. Why are you in here? You were supposed to pick out clothes and get ready for a bath, not start it yourself.”

“Seth! You better answer me, you jackass! Is she okay?”

Somehow I smiled in the middle of chaos. That was the gift Ally had given me since the first day we’d met.