A Billionaire's Life Ch. 07

"But Taylor and I will work it out, right?"

"I hope so. She's pretty upset right now." Cassandra sighed. "I'm not saying your marriage is irreparably ruined, Jonathan. But trust that I'll always be here for you. I love Taylor, but through you. I'm on your side, okay?"

My jaw quivered. I knew Cassandra was trying to reassure me, but as the tears started rolling down my cheeks, I said, "You each are the legs supporting me. I need both of them to stand."

***

Cassandra held me for a few minutes before tilting my face to hers and then dropping a sweetly passionate kiss on my lips. She nodded her head slowly and then said reassuringly, "I'll talk to her."

"Didn't she just kick you out?"

"I can be pretty stubborn when I want to." A small smirk came onto Cassandra's face. "Go find Ashlyn."

Cassandra then went back to the Master Bedroom, turning to smile at me before she went inside.

I found Kate and Ashlyn in the Common Room, curled up together on a plush sofa. I went over to join them by sitting on a nearby chair. Misery loves company.

"She kicked me out, too," I said by way of explanation when the girls looked up at me.

Ashlyn was sobbing with her face against Kate's chest. But eventually, she got her tears under control enough to glance over at me. The redhead managed to burble, "I'll have an abortion."

"No!" Kate cut in loud enough and harsh enough to grab my attention. Then the blonde looked imploringly at me. "No, you can't let her."

Ashlyn looked at Kate like she was a crazy woman.

Kate just continued. "You can't let her."

"Why not?" I interjected and then turned to Ashlyn. "Ash, do you want to keep the baby?"

Ashlyn just paled and the tears kept streaming, but she didn't answer me right away.

Kate spoke softly. "She had an abortion when she was nineteen. It broke her heart. I was one of her best friends and I could do nothing but stand there as Ashlyn nearly killed herself with grief. You can't let her do it again. Please, John. Please don't make her abort it. Too many terrible things have been happening to her lately."

My heart went out to her. Ashlyn was 25 now, but curled up and crying she looked like a broken-down teenager again. She was visibly shivering despite the warm temperature of the room. And the internal war over her baby frightened the hell out of her. Could she really abort another child? If she didn't, could she really risk ruining my family and damaging her relationship with Taylor?

At the same time, it wasn't all her decision. I had some choices to make as well. Aborting the baby would be the easiest for me. One pregnancy with non-spouse erased. No paternity questions, no astronomical child-support payments, no protracted court battles. But like it or not, life had been created. Life derived from ME.

I slipped across the room and knelt beside the sofa. One hand went to Ashlyn's knee and my other touched her shoulder. "Ashlyn, I'm here for you. I'm not running away from this and I'm not going to try and hide it. Whatever you want to do, I'll support it. I'll support you. We'll make it work."

A ray of hope came into her sparkling blue eyes. It was clear from her expression that she didn't want to have an abortion. She wanted her baby, unplanned or not. "You'll really have this baby with me?"

Taking a deep breath, I said, "I will." In that moment, we were bonded tightly. Together, Ashlyn and I had created life. Her hands went up to my head and my hands clutched her shoulders, and we came together in a firm, but tender kiss.

Ashlyn moaned into my mouth and for the first time when I wasn't in the middle of an amazing orgasm, I released my emotions. I adored this woman. I was even a little in love with her. I wanted her as a part of my life and I wanted to meet the child she was now carrying.

"Ashlyn..." I hummed.

For the first time, she cracked a smile and actually giggled, "We're having a baby, Johnny!" There was some excitement in her voice.

But when we pulled back to look at each other, her eyes were tight. With obvious concern in her voice, Ashlyn asked, "What about Taylor?"

I exhaled slowly. I didn't have an immediate answer. I stared off, out the window and to a distant point on the horizon. I wanted this baby with Ashlyn. I wanted my wife. There would be no compromise. There would be no giving up one or the other. I promised to myself and said aloud, "We'll make it work."

***

Twenty minutes later, I was sitting upright on the sofa while Ashlyn was curled beneath my left arm. Her legs were pulled beneath her and her face was pressed against my chest. I just held her tightly with my left arm while my right hand idly ran through her copper hair.

She wasn't crying anymore. She wasn't even sad anymore. I'd reassured her that I'd stand by her and the baby, no matter what. We didn't need to talk further, and all that was left was the sound of her heavy breathing. Twice, I checked to see if she'd somehow fallen asleep. But her eyes were wide both times, darting back and forth as she was clearly in thought.

Kate gave me a pained look every now and again. At first, she'd sat beside her friend just giving warm touches and caresses to remind Ashlyn that she was there. Then, she would be stroking my arm and looking to draw strength from my steady example. Or like now, she sat on the nearby chair just wondering what the hell was going through her friend's mind.

Out of this relative silence came Taylor's sharp voice. "Ashlyn."

We all turned and looked up at Taylor, obvious fear in Ashlyn's eyes. Cassandra was standing behind Taylor, her face neutral. I couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing. Taylor herself had an expression was completely unreadable

Ashlyn's face went ashen and biting her lower lip, she looked over at me. "I'm sorry Johnny. I can't do this to her."

Then taking a deep breath, Ashlyn looked at Taylor and said, "It's okay, Taylor. I'll get an abortion. I don't want to cause any trouble for you or Johnny."

"Ashlyn," Taylor said firmly again, and this time the redhead didn't speak. Taylor took a deep breath and then asked in a gentle voice, "Do you want to keep the baby?"

Ashlyn took a long few seconds to look at me, and Kate, and then again at Taylor. She licked her lips with an anguished expression. And then crying, she started to nod her head 'yes'.

Taylor sighed and began to nod in acceptance. My eyes went wide as the ramifications of everything started to sink into my brain, and I felt the first rays of hope that this unexpected pregnancy wouldn't somehow destroy every relationship around me. And that hope blossomed into a fireball as a smile began to cross my wife's face.

Taylor leaned forward and took Ashlyn's hands into her own. Squeezing them gently, my wife smiled and said in a soothing voice, "Then keep the baby. Congratulations, Ashlyn. I'm happy for you."

***

Have I mentioned how incredible my wife is? I swear, there's not another woman on Earth quite like her. How many other women could have faced what Taylor had just faced, and then twenty minutes later walk up in support of the woman bearing her husband's child?

At first, I moved to release Ashlyn but Taylor bid me stay where I was. Then she moved around beside Ashlyn on the other side, and then together we held the trembling redheaded supermodel who just looked back and forth at us with a bewildered expression on her face.

"How can this work out?" Ashlyn asked softly once she got her panic under control.

"Well, we can keep it under wraps for a few months," Taylor said rationally as she glanced at Cassandra. I had a feeling my personal assistant had been the one to logically lay out a plan. "But once your bump starts to show, the paparazzi will be all over you. We'll go public then that Johnny is the father."

"Won't that cause you two problems?" Ashlyn glanced up.

I shrugged. "I stopped paying attention to the media a long time ago. They threw a hissy fit over Kaitlyn and Natalie in Vegas, but it disappeared after two days."

Taylor looked at me, "This will be much more permanent than two days, Johnny."

"I know, I know." I looked down to see Ashlyn staring at me wide-eyed. "Are you going to be okay with the scrutiny?"

She blinked and then nodded. "I'm used to getting hounded. At least out here, the photogs can't even get close. And by taking the helicopter back and forth, you really avoid most everything."

"But not always..."

"I'm fine. Having a baby... Johnny, having YOUR baby, is far bigger and better than some minor media scrutiny," Ashlyn sighed and then wrapped her arms around my torso while Taylor rubbed her back.

"But Johnny?" Ashlyn said in a quiet voice before looking at Taylor and then back to me. "What about us?"

I glanced at my wife before turning my attention to the gorgeous redhead. "What *about* us?"

"Are you... just the father to my baby? Or might we be..." Ashlyn blushed and looked at Taylor again, this time with a guilty expression. "Might we be more?"

I sighed and checked my wife for any signs of jealousy. She'd shown remarkably little jealousy for our entire relationship. She never saw Kaitlyn and Lindsay as threats. And despite my extremely intimate relationship with Cassandra, the two were never in competition with each other. And she knew my thing with Kate wasn't for the long run. But Ashlyn... and a baby... would be much more permanent.

For the first time in memory, Taylor looked at me with a completely blank expression. It wasn't that she was hiding her feelings; she honestly didn't know. My wife shrugged and managed to communicate that she really wasn't sure how to advise me in this situation.

So I went with my instinct. I held Ashlyn's head and pulled her to me. Then gently, I kissed her forehead and stroked her scalp. "We'll figure it out, Ash. What happens, happens."

She sighed, clearly not satisfied with the answer. We'd danced around our attraction to one another for over a year without ever really talking about the way we felt for each other. She had been off-limits as Taylor's good friend and I'd locked away my emotions towards her for much of the time I'd known the gorgeous supermodel. Now that we were faced with a situation that might permanentlyl force those emotions to the surface, I didn't know how I'd react.

Ashlyn exhaled and then took a deep breath. And then she turned to my wife and moved their hands together. "I was jealous of you, Taylor. I've always been envious of you and your life. And I idolized you growing up in the modeling world."

Taylor arched an eyebrow. "Me? I was never that big until I met Johnny."

"Maybe you weren't the biggest name on the planet, but all the people in the industry had a ton of respect for you. You were gorgeous, you were successful, and you did it without pissing on the people around you. Your friends LOVE you, Taylor. You had it all, the Maxim cover shoots, the lingerie lines, and the high- fashion, too. And then you went and snagged the handsome, wealthy, and sweet Jonathan Kwong. Yeah, I may have won People's Most Beautiful, but I was still in awe of you."

Taylor smiled proudly and glanced at me. Then Ashlyn hung her head and continued, pinching her eyebrows together. "I think I hooked up with Marty because I was hoping he'd be like you, Johnny. Finance guy. Charming. He had some qualities that reminded me of you."

I leaned back, uncomfortable with the idea that Martin Dean and I were alike in any way.

Ashlyn picked up on the vibe and then touched my cheek. "But he wasn't anything like you. He didn't care for me like you do for Taylor. He treated Kate like a toy. It was expected of his position. It's expected of your position. But you don't treat women like that. Here, in this household, everyone always has a choice. And because you give them that choice, they choose you."

"Not always."

"Maybe not. But again, that's a choice they're free to make." Ashlyn sighed. "Just like now, I have a choice. It's a decision that could radically change BOTH your lives, but you let me make it. So it's an easy choice. I choose to keep this baby. I choose to make myself a part of your family, if you'll have me. I can't describe how happy I would be as a sister to Taylor. And for you, Johnny, will you have me? With you?"

Ashlyn took a deep breath and then hugged herself to my chest. "We don't know each other that well," she admitted. "But I've always felt a connection. It's so easy to fall in love with you."

I looked at the gorgeous young woman, her blue eyes piercing straight into my soul. It would be so easy to fall in love with her as well.

Ashlyn gasped when I brushed her hair back from her face and held her face in my hands. And then I bent and pressed my lips to hers. And at that moment, the passion of our lovemaking roared back into my head. Ashlyn had a power over me. She made me delirious with her very touch and soon we were both moaning into our embrace.

But I didn't forget where I was or who I was with. I broke away before I got too carried away kissing Ashlyn. I smiled at Kate and then turned to Taylor, who was watching us intently. My wife had made Ashlyn off-limits in the first place because she suspected the power her friend could have over me. And now that suspicion was coming true right in her face.

I gave one last look at Taylor. She'd made her own decision even before she came down here, and she fractionally nodded to me. So I looked down at Ashlyn, who was still panting from the head rush of our kiss.

"Okay," I said. "Let's give love a chance."

***

I walked through the day as if in a trance. As these things tend to do, word spread through the house like wildfire. The staff seemed as stunned as I was. It was easy to feel sad for Taylor and every staff member we ran into extended their sympathies for our loss. But it took me physically holding Ashlyn's hand and walking her through the house as well before the staff got over their initial shock and awkwardness and began to congratulate Ashlyn on her pregnancy.

It wasn't that the staff had any problems with Ashlyn. For all her naturally self- absorbed behavior, she was polite to them and never abusive. She knew these people had access to her laundry (clean and otherwise), her food, and her secrets. But watching how they reacted to the news was like a test run for when the world found out.

And the world would find out.

Everything just felt so overwhelming that it was surreal. Several times, I imagined I would wake up the next day and everything would be as they were used to be: with Taylor pregnant and Ashlyn not.

When bedtime came, I emerged from the bathroom to find Taylor and Ashlyn facing each other in bed, wearing their pajamas. I stood back and gave them space as the two friends whispered to each other, staring into each other's eyes and stroking cheeks. Every now and again, one or the other would give reassuring nods and perhaps a soft peck on the lips. And after ten minutes, Taylor finally turned and beckoned me to them.

Fully dressed, we shifted until I was sandwiched between the two gorgeous supermodels. Taylor actually turned me so that I was spooned behind Ashlyn, my left arm running beneath her pillow and back to hold her from the other side. Taylor then moved my hand onto Ashlyn's belly, still taut with muscled abs beneath my fingers.

Then my wife spooned behind me and whispered, "Let go. Let yourself love her. She needs it. And your baby needs it. Let go."

I didn't have the strength or conviction yet to say the words. But I let my head tilt forward and I brushed Ashlyn's coppery hair to the side. I kissed the back of Ashlyn's neck before resting my head against hers. And as my arms circled tighter to draw the beautiful young woman against me, I let down my mental barriers.

From the moment I laid eyes on her I was smitten. I'd known intellectually who Ashlyn Scott was and Taylor had mentioned her as a model friend on occasion, but that first time we met in person, she'd taken my breath away. Attraction had turned to lust. But repression of that lust had turned to desire. The mere sight of her would quicken my heart, even if it was something as innocent as a lunch with my wife by my side.

Desire had turned to jealousy when Ashlyn hooked up with Martin Dean. Jealousy turned to concern when she showed up on my doorstep having been beaten by him. And when concern and desire came together, so did my care for her. I didn't yet know if I truly loved her. I certainly wasn't *in love* with her the same way as with Taylor. But I did care deeply for Ashlyn's well-being. And I craved to have her be a part of my life.

And so I let go. I stopped thinking about her as an "off-limits" beauty. I stopped thinking of her as a beautiful temptress. I even stopped thinking of her as the "most beautiful woman in the world". She was just Ashlyn. And I wanted to make her happy.

***

The next day, December 31, was a quiet day. I spent a lot of time with Ashlyn, just talking. I spent a lot of time with Taylor, just loving.

We all stayed in for New Year's Eve.

***

*JANUARY*

"So deep... so good..." the young platinum blonde beneath me crooned while I slowly chugged in and out of her tight slit. Our fingers were interlaced as I held her hands against the mattress just above her head. From this position, I could use my forearms as leverage to keep my weight from crushing her much smaller body and yet have my face just inches away from hers.

Every so often, Kate would crane her neck to kiss me softly or perhaps just rub her nose against mine. I panted with the exertion and she rolled her hips into me with every thrust.

Our lovemaking was tender. I lost track of how much time we moved together in that horizontal lambada, but sometime after Kate's second orgasm I felt the swelling in my balls as I prepared to fire away my load.

"I want it in me," she said quietly.

Immediately, my eyebrows canted to the sides in apology. "I can't," I groaned.

Her lips formed a tight line, but she closed her eyes and nodded sadly. I could read the mild disappointment on her face, but when she opened her eyes up again, there was acceptance in her expression. "In my ass, then."

I arched an eyebrow, but Kate wriggled her crotch away from me and I pulled my cock free of her sodden slot. Taking hold of my member, I re-aimed a little lower while the young model rolled her hips to bring her butt up, and as I pushed the mushroom head through her anus, I felt the slickness of Astroglide lubrication. Kate had been prepared.

With a groan from both of us, I slid all the way down into Kate's bowels and picked up the rhythm where we'd left off. I knew I wouldn't last much longer. Already on the verge of orgasm, the tight constriction and heat of Kate's anal chute were overwhelming, and after a dozen or so strokes, I pushed all the way down and then let fly, splattering her insides with my hot cum.

Just as I was cumming, Kate picked her head up to me and kissed me fiercely, her tongue carving through my mouth as the climax ripped through my body. Our hands gripped each other tightly, only beginning to relax when my ab muscles released and I started to come down from my sexual high.

In these few seconds after ejaculation, my mind was completely clear. I floated on a cloud of pure bliss and I drowsily smiled with deep satisfaction. It was in this state that Kate made her final play for me.

"I love you, John."

I felt a thousand fuzzy butterflies float through my body as I heard those words. And as I smiled down at the beautiful woman beneath me, I squeezed her hands and opened my mouth to return the sentiment.

But I didn't. "I..." I began, and Kate's eyes sparkled as the hope swelled up inside her.

I took a breath as reason returned to my brain. "You're sweet, Katie," I said softly.