Most Eligible Baby Daddy (12 page)

Elle was intensely aware that she was blushing. No one had ever spoken to her like that before. No one had ever read her so clearly.

Forrester wasn’t like other people. He seemed to understand her in a way that she wasn’t even sure she understood herself.

She wanted to be sure. She wanted to know for certain that she could trust him. She wanted to know that he wasn’t going to disappear, like everyone else who’d ever meant anything in her life.

But what would she have seen?

If she’d been able to read Forrester’s mind, what would it say to her?

One thing. He wanted to make love to her again. In fact, more than that, he didn’t just want to make love to her, but he wanted to do it without a condom. He didn’t have any trouble with condoms, he wasn’t one of those guys who hated them, but he wanted things to be different with Elle. He wanted to be inside her more deeply, more intimately, than he’d ever been inside anyone. He wanted to put his seed inside her. He wanted their skin to touch. He wanted their bodies to merge. And without even realizing it yet, he wanted her to be the one who gave him a child. That’s what he wanted.

She didn’t know it yet either. All she knew was that he was sitting there, next to her, with his hand reassuringly on her knee, and that he was the most beautiful man she’d ever dreamed of.

“Okay,” she said.

“Okay?”

“I’ll try. I’ll try not to let my fears control me. I’ll try to trust you, Forrester. You just have to promise me one thing. Promise you won’t ever let me down.”

“I won’t.”

“Don’t ever let me go.”

“I promise, I won’t.”

“Don’t disappear, like my mother did.”

Chapter 21

Forrester

F
ORRESTER WAITED FOR ELLE AFTER
her shift in his pickup, the engine running. She looked thrilled to have a guy waiting outside of work for her, and Forrester wondered if that had something to do with the guy who’d been around earlier, causing trouble. He could tell that the guy had upset the girls, earlier when he’d entered the diner, but he didn’t ask them about it. If it was serious, he’d figure it out soon enough.

Plus, he had something a lot more interesting on his mind.

Elle’s pussy.

Well, not just her pussy, her entire body. He was obsessed with all of the things that he could do to it, and he thought in a million different ways about what they’d get up to when they got back to his hotel room later that night. He’d even asked the concierge at the hotel to buy him some sex toys, and the valet had been very obliging. Forrester tipped him handsomely, and looked forward to seeing what the concierge had been able to come up with on short notice.

Another thing that he found surprising, was that he didn’t just want to fuck Elle, he wanted to make love to her. There was a big difference. And for some reason, the idea of not using a condom kept coming back to his mind. He’d never had sex without a condom in his life. He’d never wanted to take a chance of making a girl pregnant. Having a child was something he’d never imagined before, but seeing Jackson and Grant back home, and how happy they were to have babies, it had gotten him thinking. Until he’d met Elle, he’d never really given the idea of having a baby serious consideration, but that was because he’d never met a girl he could imagine having a baby with.

Now, he could.

He wasn’t sure how serious of a thought it was. All he knew was that the idea of Elle giving him a baby made him very happy.

“How’d the rest of your shift go?” he said to her when she got into the car.

God, she looked so cute. He definitely had a weakness for a girl in a waitress’s uniform. That little dress, the white apron, the black tights, the whole package. It was very adorable. The scent of her perfume was intoxicating.

“Okay,” she said.

He looked at her, waiting to see if she’d bring up the jerk from the morning, but she didn’t. That was okay, either it had nothing to do with her, or it did. If it did, she was entitled to her privacy. If she needed help with anything, he knew she’d ask him when she felt she could trust him.

“Do you want to go back to your place to change before dinner?” he said.

“Nice try, hotshot. I have a feeling if we went back to my place right now, we wouldn’t leave again until morning.”

Forrester laughed. “You can see right through me, can’t you?”

“I know your type,” she said playfully.

“All right. I see what you’re saying. I have to buy you dinner first.”

Elle nodded. “Yes, you do. Nothing fancy though.”

“You don’t want to go back to my hotel? They have a restaurant there. A really good one, apparently.”

“I’d rather just go to Harry’s, if it’s all the same to you.”

Forrester looked at her and nodded. He was impressed. All too often he’d been with girls who were more interested in the expensive things he could buy them than the quality of the time they spent together. Elle was different. She just wanted to share a nice meal with him.

At Harry’s, they took a booth near the bar, close enough to make conversation with Harry, but private enough to be alone when they wanted.

Harry came over to their table with a bemused look on his face.

“I knew it the minute I saw you two together the other night,” he said.

“Knew what?” Elle said.

“This is a date, isn’t it?”

“Yes it is,” Forrester said, and he was so proud when he said it that he surprised himself.

“So I guess I’ll have to call Elle your girl.”

Forrester looked at Elle. She was embarrassed but she was smiling. “That’s up to her,” he said.

Harry looked at her, putting her on the spot, and she gave him a very small nod.

Forrester slapped the table. “Well, that just does it,” he said. “This calls for celebration.”

“It’s not a marriage proposal,” Elle protested.

“It’s better than nothing,” Forrester said, “and a guy like me, hell, I take what I can get. Harry, do you have champagne in this fine establishment?”

Harry’s eyes lit up at the mention of champagne. “You’d be surprised, son. I’ve got some very fine bottles.”

“Well, bring us your finest.”

“You seem pleased,” Elle said when Harry left them to get the champagne.

Forrester didn’t answer. He knew he had a big, stupid grin on his face, but all he could think about was having a future with Elle. The world was suddenly very full of opportunities. He thought about Lacey and Faith, and how happy they’d been during their pregnancies, how excited they’d been about having a baby, and how in love they’d been with their men. He wanted to see Elle like that, if that was what she wanted.

He reached across the table to her and she gave him her hand.

“You really are something, Elle. You know that?”

She shook her head. “If you knew me better, you might not say that.”

“Yes I would.”

“I don’t know, Forrester. You seem awfully sure of me.”

“I know what I like, Elle.”

“But you don’t know half of the baggage I carry.”

“You’re talking about that jerk from the diner this morning, aren’t you?”

“How do you know about him?” Elle said, her eyes widening.

“I saw him walking out. We had a little chat in the parking lot. Charming guy.”

“Yeah, real charming,” Elle said.

“He’s your ex, isn’t he?”

Elle nodded slowly. “I don’t know how he followed me here. I tried to leave him behind. Somehow he found me.”

“Guys like that, if they’re intent on finding you, they’ll find a way. I have a friend, a good friend, practically a brother, and it took him ten years to get rid of some guys who wanted to harm his woman and his baby.”

“Ten years?” Elle said, startled.

“Ten years. It wasn’t quite like your situation. He had trouble with a criminal gang down in Nevada. But he knew that he couldn’t come home until he neutralized the threat. He knew that guys like that, they’d find him, even if he did everything in his power not to be found.”

“So what did he do?”

“He took care of them.”

“Took care of them?”

“Let’s not get into the details,” Forrester said.

“All right,” Elle said, “but you do know that sounds pretty mysterious, don’t you?”

“My brothers are mysterious guys, Elle. That’s something I’ll have to explain to you some day soon, if you want to stick with me.”

“If
I
want to stick with
you
?” Elle said.

“Well, I’m not the one who’s sneaking out, first thing in the morning.”

Elle laughed. She was about to explain herself, and Forrester was curious about what she had to say, but Harry came over just then with the champagne.

“This is the finest bottle in the house,” he said to Forrester. “I assure you.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“It’s not cheap.”

Forrester nodded. “Harry, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

As he poured, the doors opened and a gust of snow blew into the bar. Along with the snow came five guys. Elle had her back to them and didn’t turn, but Forrester was facing them and he noticed every single detail. Along with the four jerks he’d had the altercation with the night before, was the new jerk in town, Elle’s ex.

“You better pour us a couple of glasses fast, Harry,” Forrester said. “Something tells me I’m about to get interrupted.”

Harry saw the guys enter, but didn’t seem as afraid of them as he had before. Now that Forrester was in town, things didn’t seem to be quite so hopeless. He continued pouring the champagne as if nothing was out of the ordinary, and Forrester clinked glasses with Elle and enjoyed a sip of the crisp, ice-cold vintage.

Gris was already walking toward him. Forrester sighed. He’d have liked to avoid another fight, and he’d have liked to keep the atmosphere romantic with Elle. Everything was going so well and she seemed so happy and relaxed. The last thing he wanted was a confrontation with her ex.

“Hey, dip shit,” Gris said. “Do you know you’re drinking wine with another man’s girl?”

Forrester stood up. “Please excuse me for a few minutes,” he said to Elle. “There’s some trash I have to take care of.”

To his surprise, Elle winked at him before he left. She wasn’t as helpless and afraid as he’d have thought. She was actually quite courageous. This guy was definitely big enough that he could do some serious damage to a girl like Elle, and Forrester had no doubt that he’d hurt her badly in the past, and yet, she was playing this cool, or at least as cool as she could. As well as winking, he noticed that her hands were trembling.

“Look, buddy,” Forrester said. “Your little friends here will be able to tell you that I’m a fighter. Fuck. I love to fight. Feeling your face crush beneath my fist would be a special treat for me. But I’m on a date right now. So if you’d rather save yourself a whole world of pain, I’d be happy to watch you leave.”

“I ain’t leaving, fucko.”

“Fucko?” Forrester said.

“That’s what I called you,
fucko
. You got a problem with that?”

“I don’t have a problem with anything,” Forrester said. “You fellas just play nice and leave me and
my
girl alone, and we’ll all get on just fine.”

“
Your
girl. Oh, hell no. Elle’s a little slut, I’ll give you that much, but she’s
my
slut, fucko. Always has been. Always will be.”

Forrester was willing to do quite a lot to avoid a fight with this guy, he had no desire to put him in hospital, but one thing he wasn’t going to do was stand by and let him insult Elle.

“What did you say?” Forrester said, his voice a low growl.

“I said she’s a little slut,” Gris said, and he looked back over his shoulder at his four henchmen for moral support.

That did it. Forrester gritted his teeth. Gris had crossed the line. Keeping perfectly calm, Forrester sized up the situation. He didn’t know how Gris had hooked up with the four local troublemakers. By the look of them, they were a little more cautious than Gris was. They’d seen Forrester fight already. Two of them had even had a taste.

Forrester let a wry smile cross his face. He might not have chosen this job, but he was good at it, and he knew he was good at it.

“Let’s take this outside,” he said.

Chapter 22

Elle

E
LLE COULDN’T BELIEVE WHAT WAS
happening. Forrester led the way, walking straight out of the bar to the parking lot, and Gris and his four cronies followed. Elle gave a desperate look to Harry before running to the door herself. She had to see what was going to happen.

She was surprised at how calm she felt. Ordinarily, Gris had the ability to scare the crap out of her, especially when he’d been drinking, as he clearly had been. Not only that, but he was with the guys who’d been causing trouble at the diner since her arrival, Phil and his idiot friends. Not only did they cause her and Kelly trouble, but their fathers had the power to shut down Gracie’s diner and Harry’s bar at the stroke of a pen.

There was a lot to fear. Five guys against one. Gris threatening to take her home with him and cut short her bid for freedom and a new life. She should have been terrified.

But she wasn’t.

She knew that she wasn’t alone anymore. Forrester had called her
his
girl. He’d insisted that she was his. He’d committed to her and she knew he meant it. She could feel it. He wasn’t just some guy trying to pick her up. This was something real.

And it made her feel safe. Safer than she’d ever felt in her life.

Even with him about to face up to five big, mean assholes, Elle felt safer than she ever had. That was the effect a real man could have on her.

She’d seen how Forrester had wanted to avoid all of this. Forrester didn’t want a fight. But when Gris had called her a slut, that’s when things changed for Forrester. That was when he decided to take action.

She stood at the door and watched. Despite her new confidence in her own position in the world, she grew more afraid when she saw five guys standing in a circle around the man she was falling in love with.

She prayed he didn’t get hurt, but when she looked at his face, he only looked amused at the situation.