The Next Level: A BWWM Billionaire Marriage And Pregnancy Romance (2 page)

“
Good
to see you’ve joined us Ms. Ayers. There’s a meeting in
the conference room in five,” the voice said.
Chelsea
turned around and was face to face with Mr. Whitehill. Her boss was
on the better side of fifty, graying hair at his temples and streaks
of gray in his hair. He was pudgy from years of good eating and long
hours in the office. As she watched he ran a thick hand over his blue
suit to smooth it.

“
Of
course, Mr. Whitehill. What’s the meeting about?” She
asked.

“
Some
lake front property just became available and that fiance of yours
wants to snatch it up. It shouldn’t take too long.”

Chelsea
nodded, watched her boss walk away before she slipped into her
office. Sighing, she sat her briefcase down on her desk It was going
to be a long day. Add on top of that the planning of the wedding and
it would quickly grow longer. She readjusted the files before she
stood up, smoothed her skirt and walked to the conference room.

Seated
around the dark table there was Mr. Whitehill, a few faces that she
knew, but couldn’t put names to right away and her fiance,
Matthew. He stood in front of the wide, black screen on the wall, his
gray suit fitting him in all of the right places. His hair was golden
blond, short and lay against his forehead slightly. He would declare
it was time to get a haircut soon. Shame. Baby blue eyes locked in on
hers and the briefest of smiles touched his thin lips. Chelsea felt
her heart flip in her chest. Was it any wonder she’d fallen for
him?

She
quickly regained control of herself before settling into a seat next
to Mr. Whitehill. As Matthew clicked through his file she was both
intrigued and distracted. The property was beautiful, a large almost
mini-mansion. The land itself would be valuable. Still, in the back
of her mind all she could think about was the wedding. It was only
six months away and she still hadn’t even met his family.

As
Matthew wrapped up his presentation, the room quickly cleared out.
Matthew gave her a warm smile before he walked over to her. He
planted his hands on the table. Seeing him anywhere near the table
sent ripples down her spine, but she kept her composure.

“
So,
I have some news,” he said.

“
Oh
yeah? And what news has you smiling so hard?”

“
My
mother’s back in town. Dad will be getting back soon too. I
told them about the engagement and they want to meet you. This
weekend.”

Chelsea
kept her smile on her face, but inside she was nervous. What if they
didn’t like her? What if they didn’t want her to be a
part of their family? Matthew’s smile dissolved.

“
Okay,
what’s wrong?” He asked.

“
Nothing,
I’m fine really. Don’t give me that look. I have to go
over a few of these cases, that’s all. Lunch?”

He
nodded. “Lunch sounds great.”

Chelsea
left the conference room quickly and headed back for her office. When
she closed the door she gave a deep sigh. She wasn’t ready.
There was no way she was ready to meet his family. From what little
she knew of them, they were pretty well off. Matthew’s father
ran a construction company that was only getting more popular as the
years went by. His mother was a retired attorney herself. Chelsea had
come from humble roots. Her father was in the military and her mother
was a nurse at the local hospital. She didn’t know how she’d
fit in with them.

She sat
behind her desk. Instead of pulling out one of her work files, she
delved back into her wedding planning bible. Picking up her
cellphone, she called around to see if they could find a decent
caterer. Matthew had told her to plan big and to spend whatever she
wanted. That made her briefly wonder just how much money his family
had, but she didn’t pry. That was something to figure out
later.

Before
she knew it the time on her phone blinked one. She gathered up her
briefcase, tossed the binder back inside and headed out of her
office. She rode the elevator down, trying to dodge the many
questions her co-worker’s had about the wedding, almost wishing
she’d taken the stairs. Not in the heels she was wearing.

She
stepped off of the elevator and waved to the group of lunch goers.
Matthew was waiting, his jacket over his arm. He raised an eyebrow as
she rolled her eyes. It always felt like people were watching them as
they walked through the building now, the eyes following them to see
if they’d kiss, if they’d fight. Once they hit the
outside, the sun made Chelsea wince. The cons of life in an office,
lit by constant fluorescents and in front of laptop screens.

“
Let
me guess. They were talking your ear off?” Matthew asked with a
grin.

“
Ugh,
you have no idea! It’s like a million questions and you know
most of them don’t really care. They just want something to
gossip about. I wish I could tell them to fuck off,” she said
with a sigh.

“
Please,
don’t do that. I like working with my future wife.”

“
Not
for too long. Eventually daddy Warbucks will want you to take the
throne and I’ll be by myself again fighting with these
jackals.”

“
Or,”
he said grabbing her hand as they walked, “you make partner and
then you get to boss the jackals around.”

The
thought made her smile. His hand slipped into hers even more so. She
glanced down at his hand, his skin pale against her brown. It wasn’t
the first time she’d dated a man of another race, but she
definitely hoped it was the last time. Matthew was everything she’d
dreamed of in a man; ambitious, trustworthy, funny, intelligent and
sexy just to name a few. Sure, he could have a bit of a temper, but
he was working on it. No longer letting the stress of the job get to
him was one of the things that helped.

They
walked into an Italian restaurant that was more high end than where
their collages would visit for lunch. Matthew pulled out her chair
and Chelsea thanked him. The tinkling of classical music filled the
small building. The table cloths were white, heavy linen, not the
plastic ones she’d become accustomed to when she was younger.
She knew the silverware was all real, the plates and tea cups fine
china, the wine vintage and the people rich. She gazed around the
restaurant easily picking them out. There was a man with diamond
cufflinks, who could afford that anymore? A woman with blond curls
was wearing a black Versace dress, her impeccable red nails drumming
against the tablecloth. Everywhere Chelsea looked, she could see
signs of wealth. She wondered vaguely if Matthew’s parents
would be the same, oozing wealth and status.

Matthew
must have seen the look of concern on her face. He reached over, laid
his hand on top of hers and gave it a firm squeeze. That at least
made the frown fall from her features. A woman walked up to the
table, white button down shirt, black bow tie and black slacks. Her
breasts looked like they were about to burst out of her top. Chelsea
looked over at Matthew who was looking anywhere, but at the waitress.

They
ordered quickly. When the woman was gone Chelsea kept grinning at
Matthew, but he made himself busy laying his napkin in his lap. He
must have adjusted it ten times before he finally looked up meeting
her gaze.

“
I
didn’t look,” he said.

“
I
didn’t say you did.”

He
paused for a minute. “They were like out to here,” he
said indicating how big her breasts were with his hands.

Several
of the other patrons shook their heads or turned up their noses. He
didn’t care. Matthew had no censor sometimes and it was mostly
hilarious, sometimes embarrassing. She laughed behind her hand and
swatted at him.

“
Stop
that! Stop it!”

Matthew
grinned as he drank some water and shot daggers at the people around
them. She loved that out of the both of them, he was the one who
could lighten up. He cared deeply about his job, loved the thought of
going into his father’s business, but he didn’t seem to
care for the people. He’d told Chelsea more than once that rich
people were like toddlers only with diamonds and cash instead of toys
to fight over.

“
How’s
the wedding planning going? Ready to call it quits and hire someone
yet?” He asked once their food arrived.

She
pointed her fork at him. “No! I told you, I can do this myself.
It’s been my dream to plan my wedding since I was a girl.”

“
Yes
and now you’re a busy woman trying to make partner. I don’t
want our wedding stomping all over your dreams,” he said.

Chelsea
smiled. His consideration of her both in their relationship and at
her job was what made her love him so much. “It’s not.
It’s just, I really want to do this myself. Besides, Sangi’s
helping.”

“
Oh
Sangi’s helping, well now I’m relieved.”

“
Stop
it,” Chelsea gave him a look. “What’s wrong with
Sangi?”

“
Well,
let’s see. She told you to put laxatives in my coffee when we
first met. On several occasions she’s asked me if I was gay, oh
and tried to set me up with her cousin. Then there’s the time
we asked her to watch the apartment. She let all the plants die, ate
all of the food and didn’t even realize we got robbed.”

“
Okay,
lower your voice. I know. She can be a bit...odd, but she’s
also my best friend. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it
wasn’t for her,” Chelsea said.

Matthew
sighed, but seemed to let the conversation dissipate for the moment.
Chelsea knew Sangi could be a flake sometimes, but she had been there
for her through every stage of her life. Both of their moms even
worked at the same hospital, although Sangi’s mom was an ER
doctor. She could trust Sangi, sometimes. It was just keeping her on
task that was the hard part.

Matthew
wiped his mouth with his napkin. “So, my parents house this
weekend…” he began.

“
Yay,”
Chelsea chimed in.

“
Look,
I know you’re nervous. Hell, my mother still has the ability to
make me feel like a little kid-”

“
Yeah,
not comforting.”

“
However,
I also know she’ll like you. I mean,
you two are pretty alike,” he said before returning to his
plate.

“
Does
she know you’re dating...you know, a black woman?”

Matthew
almost choked on his chicken parmesan. He held up a finger to her as
he drank down his glass of water. She stared back at him knowing the
answer even before he came up for air. No, he hadn’t told her,
not a thing.

“
Matthew-”

“
It’s
no big deal. My parents aren’t racists, babe. Besides, race
isn’t important anymore,” he said straightening his tie.

“
Then
why are you nervous? You only do that when you’re nervous. And
it may not be important to us, but it is to some people. I mean, how
do I know I’m not just setting myself up for an evening of
failure?” Chelsea asked.

“
First
of all, they’re going to love you. Trust me. Second, I didn’t
say evening. I said weekend. They invited us for the whole weekend so
you could meet the family and a few close family friends.”

Chelsea
dropped her fork onto her plate with a clink. She rested both of her
elbows on the table and pressed her fingers against the bridge of her
nose. As much as she loved Matthew, he sure had a habit of leaving
out important details. It irritated her. When she opened her eyes,
his hand was across the table, palm up, waiting for her hand. She
looked at it before she turned away.

“
Okay,
I should have told you earlier, babe. I’m so sorry. I promise
you, we will have a great weekend, my parents will love you and if
things don’t go well, we’ll leave. Agreed?” He
said.

She
looked into his eyes. Those baby blues always seemed to win her over
in the end. She sighed heavily. The nervous twisting in her stomach
hadn’t left, but she couldn’t resist that sad look on his
face for long. Chelsea rolled her eyes.

“
Fine,
but you will tell them before we go! And the first minute I don’t
feel comfortable you will wrangle up some bullshit excuse and get me
the hell out of there.”

Chelsea
slipped her hand into his as he nodded. His fingers curled around her
hand. The smile was back on his face making the nervousness in the
pit of her stomach lift slightly. She still couldn’t shake the
slight feeling however that things weren’t going to go well.

They
finished their lunch and headed back to the office together arm in
arm. They’d do that until they were in sight of the building
and disconnect as if they were merely friends. They didn’t want
people in their business, but in the office it was almost impossible
to have a secret. Chelsea knew Jeff was a hopeless womanizer, Amy was
getting a divorce and Roger had recently attended a sex addicts
anonymous group. She wasn’t sure how anonymous it was if the
whole office now knew.

Matthew
opted for the stairs. She followed him into the narrow, dusty white
corridor. Looking around to make sure no one was around,, Matthew
laid a hand on her cheek. She felt heat sweep her body at his touch.
Leaning in, he kissed her softly. It was sweet and innocent but
quickly became something more. His tongue slipped into her mouth, wet
and warm against her own. She felt wetness collect between her
thighs. Her hands gripped his jacket. She wanted to push him up
against the wall, slip a hand into his pants, grip his cock and
stroke him into a frenzy. Even though they tried to keep a low
profile, there was something hot about rubbing up against each other
where they worked. They heard footsteps approaching and quickly broke
apart.