Surrogate For The Billionaire: A BWWM Pregnancy Romance (12 page)

“Lateisha…”

“No, I can’t, Bryce. I just got this job. I need this
job. Please just show me the phones so I can get back downstairs.”
Lateisha begged him with her eyes as well as her words.

Bryce nodded, the look on his face unreadable. He took the next
fifteen minutes to explain the phones, staying as far away from where
she sat as he could. Lateisha knew it was to make a point but that
didn’t make it any easier for her. When he was finished, she
stood, thanking him and turned towards the door. Just as she stepped
out she felt his hand on her bicep.

“This isn’t over, Lateisha. Far from it. You can’t
run from me forever.” He turned and headed back to his desk.

A chill ran down Lateisha’s spine from anticipation. What did
he mean by that?

*****

Bryce followed Lateisha from the room with his eyes. A few months
ago he would have balked at a display like that in the office. Today
he couldn’t keep his hands, or anything else, away from her.
Cursing under his breath, Bryce stood, unable to concentrate on the
memo he had been typing when he heard her enter the office space.
Actually, it was more like he felt her enter. He couldn’t see
the kitchen area from his office but he had the urge to go down
there. When he got there he understood why. Lateisha was there. His
body, and his mind apparently, wanted to be where she was at all
times. Running a hand over his face, Bryce stood and walked to the
window. The skyline below never ceased to amaze him. Lateisha never
ceased to amaze him. If he had only met her before all of this
surrogate nonsense. No, this surrogate nonsense brought her to him.
He was a firm believer that everything happened for a reason.
Lateisha was the reason for this whole mess and he would do anything
to make her understand just how much he wanted her.

*****

“Lateisha, can you get in here please!” John bellowed at
her for the fourth time in an hour.

Four hours in and the work was nonstop. She had already taken two
memos, ran more copies than she could count, hand collated all of the
copies, took a dictation, made fifteen cups of coffee and was working
on editing a brief that Mr. Wilson needed to go out before lunch,
which was in twenty minutes. It didn’t help that he called her
into his office several times an hour and added something new to her
tasks, as if he wanted her to stop what she was doing and complete
the new task first. Lateisha developed a system the third time he did
it. She had an in and out box organizer on her desk and she found
another one in the copy room lying abandoned on the counter. The
organizers were used to set up a place order for most important and
next in line. So far the system was working and kept her from getting
confused and off task.

Sighing, Lateisha stood, glancing once more towards her organized
files. This job was helping her feel proud of herself for once. She
stepped into John’s office, a pen poised over a notebook
waiting for him to give her instructions.

“Lateisha, can you please get Nashima in Tokyo on the line?
And prepare the conference room for the lunch conference. Did you
order the sandwiches?” Mr. Wilson rattled off a list and
Lateisha wrote quickly. “And where are the briefs I asked you
to edit earlier?”

“I’m editing them right now, Mr. Wilson. The sandwiches
will be here in thirty minutes and I’m having them set up in
the conference room along with some drinks and other necessities. I
typed and sent out the memos and I’m almost done with the
dictation as well.”

John looked at her strangely before dismissing her from the room.
Shrugging, Lateisha went back to her desk and finished up a few
things before shutting down the computer and grabbing her purse. She
was oddly surprised at how happy she was with the possibility of
seeing Bryce when she went upstairs to get her lunch. It was an
obviously stupid thought, especially since she knew she was letting
him go. Punching the number for the sixteenth floor harder than she
meant, Lateisha tapped her foot with impatience. Her mood went
downhill quickly. She started off happy to be seeing Bryce and
suddenly she was melancholy and wanted to get the whole thing over
with.

The elevator door opened and Lateisha was relieved to see that
Rachel wasn’t at her desk. She knew from the fifteenth floor,
if she wasn’t there to buzz someone in the door was left
unlocked. It seemed like a security flaw but Lateisha wasn’t
concerned about it. She pulled the glass doors opened and walked into
the office. It was quiet and it seemed most everyone was out to
lunch. Lateisha hurried down the hall to the kitchen, looking around
for Bryce even though she knew it was a bad idea. Where was everyone?
Was there some sort of meeting she wasn’t aware of? Then she
remembered the lunch conference downstairs that she had set up.
Probably most of the office was there and the rest were out to lunch.
Relaxing at the idea of being left alone, by not only Rachel but also
Bryce, Lateisha yanked open the fridge and sought out her lunch.
Locating it pushed to the back by a large tray of sandwiches, she
retrieved it and stood. Lateisha felt a presence behind her and
turned around.

“Hey.” It was Bryce.

“I didn’t think anyone was here. All the rest of the
associates are downstairs for the lunch meeting.” She looked
behind him as if looking for a way to escape. This was crazy. It was
just Bryce.

Bryce smiled his thousand watt smile and Lateisha’s demeanor
melted a bit. “John called me. He said you have some sort of
filing system that you’ve created. He was pretty impressed. He
even told me that you set up the lunch meeting and that everything is
great.” He continued to smile at her and Lateisha felt her
insides turn to jelly.

She nodded, unable to speak right away. Bryce had never given her a
compliment before. It was funny how she felt like a duck out of water
in the fast food industry but somehow here she seemed to fit. Maybe
she was more suited to Bryce’s world than she had originally
thought.

“Well that’s great! I’m so glad that you seem to
be getting on well here. I’m pleasantly surprised and so was
John. Keep up the good work.” Bryce finished speaking and
leaned down, bringing Lateisha in for an unexpected hug. At first, it
was awkward but then she relaxed in his embrace, the feeling of his
arms around her making her feel secure and other emotions she didn’t
want to discuss.

He released her and looked down at her as if waiting for something
more. “I’m just going to go back downstairs and eat my
lunch in the office,” Lateisha mumbled, not wanting to make a
big deal of the fact that she was eating alone.

“What? No, come eat with me in my office. I’m not
expected to be at the lunch meeting; that’s what John is for,
so I was planning on catching up with some paperwork while I ate. I’d
love the company.” Bryce inched closer, and suddenly looked as
if he was going to take her hand.

“I, it’s alright. I’m used to eating lunch alone.”
Lateisha wasn’t sure why she said that, even if it was the
truth. The only person she ever ate lunch with was Becky and that was
rare.

Bryce frowned. “What are you afraid of, Lateisha?”

Lateisha sighed, keeping her distance was hard when they worked for
the same company and it was only the first day. How would she do it
for the next several months?

“It’s okay, really. I need the peace and quiet after how
busy John, I mean Mr. Wilson had me all day.”

“Okay. I’ll check in on you later to see if you need a
ride home.” Bryce turned, gave her one last look and then
walked from the kitchen.

Lateisha released a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.
Being around Bryce was taxing on her mind and body. Fanning herself
with her hand, Lateisha heated up her soup, contemplating how she
would break the news about wanting custody of the baby. Bryce was a
reasonable man and she had no doubt that he wouldn’t agree. But
he would be angry with her and any chance they may have had at being
a couple would be destroyed. Lateisha was well aware of that and she
was willing to risk it, for her baby. The door to the kitchen area
creaked opened again and Lateisha thought Bryce had come back to try
to convince her again. Smiling she turned around. The smile left her
face when she realized it was Rachel who had entered the kitchen.

“Hello,” Lateisha said in what she thought was her best
‘leave me alone bitch’ voice.

“Hello there, Lateisha.” Rachel circled around her like
she was eyeing up her prey.

“What do you need?” Lateisha asked, looking at Rachel
warily. She was clearly up to something.

“Oh nothing. Just checking up on Bryce and seeing how his
lunch is going. We do that you know; Bryce and I. He doesn’t
like to talk about it because we work together, but,” Rachel
leaned in towards Lateisha as if she was telling her a secret, “we
are kind of together.”

Lateisha stepped back as if Rachel slapped her. She was lying. She
had to be lying. The sound of the microwave beeping filled the small
room and Lateisha turned to get her soup. She was mostly hiding her
reaction from Rachel. If Rachel and Bryce were together it would
explain her animosity towards Lateisha. Maybe she knew about the
surrogacy and she despised the idea. But if they were together, why
wasn’t Bryce having a baby with her instead? More confused than
ever, Lateisha turned back around, ready to question Rachel about the
situation a little bit more.

“Oh. Bryce never mentioned that to me.” Lateisha wanted
to make sure that Rachel knew they also had something of a
relationship, to see what she would claim to know. Something about
the story seemed fishy, but Lateisha didn’t have ownership of
Bryce so she wasn’t exactly sure it was false either.

“Hmmm, well he told me all about you. How he helped you out
with a job because you were broke and how you’ve been a great
help to him otherwise.” When Rachel said otherwise she lowered
her voice and raised her eyebrows.

Lateisha gasped, putting her hand over her mouth. She knew about the
surrogacy which meant she must be telling the truth.

“I, uh, I don’t know what you mean,” Lateisha
stumbled over her words.

Her lunch forgotten, she began to back towards the door. She had to
get out of there. Off of the sixteenth floor and possibly out of the
building. What was she going to do?

“You know what I mean, Lateisha. I saw you in your cheap
polyester pants when you came in that day. The whole office knows.
You’re a whore and a liar. He’ll never love you like he
loves me. You don’t fit in here and you never will. You’re
trash and he only wants you for one thing and when that’s over
he’ll toss you aside.” Rachel backed Lateisha against the
wall closest to the door and spit the venomous words at her, little
drops of spittle flinging in her face as Rachel spoke.

Shaking with anger, Lateisha put her hands up, to force Rachel away.
Before either of them could say another word the doors burst opened
and Bryce came in. Lateisha looked away from him, afraid to see pity,
or anger in his eyes. She also didn’t want him to see the hurt
and shame in hers.

“What the hell is going on here!?!” Bryce exclaimed,
stopping in front of the women.

“Bryce, darling, I’m so glad you showed up. This, woman,
was verbally abusing me and was about to become physical until you
burst in.” Rachel began to fake sob and threw herself at Bryce.

Stunned, Lateisha took a minute to move. Finally she found her
voice. “I guess I was just a naïve imbecile for falling
for you and your lies, Bryce Henderson. I quit. I never want to see
you again. You’ll hear from my lawyer regarding the baby.”

A strange look appeared on Rachel’s face, almost like the
mention of a baby was news to her. But she said she knew? Not wanting
to wait around to find out, Lateisha pushed past them and stormed out
to the elevators, tears streaming down her face. What had she been
thinking falling in love with the lying bastard?

Bryce could only stare as Lateisha stormed out of the room. What was
happening? What had Rachel said? Determined to put an end to this,
Bryce pushed the woman off of him and looked down at her, fake tears
drying on her face.

“What the hell is going on, Rachel?” He watched her
demeanor change from sobbing to defensive.

“She threatened me, Bryce. She told me that you would fire me
because she was your mistress and you had to do what she told you. I
just saved you. She wants your money, I can tell, I know women like
her. I…”

“You are women like her,” Bryce barked.

Rachel jumped back, her tears suddenly dry and her back ramrod
straight. “What are you implying?”

“Rachel, I’ve told you countless times that I’m
not interested in you and that you need to remain professional and do
your job. You are to call me Mr. Henderson at all times and never put
your hands on me. Is that clear?” Bryce had enough of her
antics and was going to speak with human resources first thing
tomorrow to see what he could do to get rid of her.

“Bryce, what do you mean? I thought you felt what I feel? That
woman, she was only trying to use sex as a way to get what she wanted
from you. But I love you. I always have.” Rachel moved towards
him again trying to embrace him.

“Don’t touch me or I will have you led out of here in
handcuffs.” Bryce stepped towards the door but Rachel moved
with him.

“Bryce, please. Where is this coming from?” Rachel
grabbed his arm and Bryce stepped back again, putting his hands in
the air.

“I’m calling security,” he said turning and
snagging the phone on the wall.

The security guard at the front answered on the first ring and said
he would be right up.

“It’s your word against mine you know,” Rachel
said, her voice full of venom.

“Not likely. Every area of this building, besides bathrooms,
is video monitored, with sound.” Horror played across her face
for a moment.