A Billionaire's Life Ch. 06

"What's going on?" I repeated my earlier question, now with a touch more concern after Mia's idle comment.

Rebecca exhaled and then took a deep breath to steady herself. She canted her head to the side and her eyebrows tilted in apology. "John, we're moving out."

I looked back and forth between the two of them. "What, both of you?"

Mia nodded, but for now she deferred the talking to Rebecca.

The statuesque brunette leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees. The motion opened up the front of her robe, half-spilling out her sizeable round breasts. But she caught my altered gaze and closed her robe to hide away the distraction. "John, we all knew this would never be permanent."

I sighed and nodded, my shoulders sagging a bit. "I know, but it's only been what, six months?"

I pouted for a second but then took a deep breath and nodded in acceptance. "It was very nice while you guys were here."

"It was," Rebecca said earnestly. "This place has been a paradise for both of us. It's like we've been on vacation since we moved in here: luxurious accommodations, fine dining, and *extremely* fun activities." Rebecca grinned and rubbed her ass, probably sore from our recent fucking.

Then Rebecca continued. "But it's time we moved on with our lives. While you all were out on your anniversary trip, Mia and I went into the city almost every night to visit with friends and hit a few clubs, flirting with other guys. In a way, we missed doing that while we've been out here. I'm not saying you kept us away or anything, but Montauk is just a different world from Manhattan."

I nodded in understanding. Rebecca hesitated before continuing. I just tried to give her an open expression and invite her or Mia to continue.

Rebecca sighed and then said, "I'm not blaming you for what happened, but the whole Kate situation DID remind us that we really are just friends who happen to be crashing at yours and Taylor's home. This isn't OUR home. We aren't your girlfriends."

I just nodded.

"Look, we've had a lot of fun and the sex has been amazing," Rebecca glanced at Mia, who just grinned and nodded agreeably. "But we've no future with you, John. You're taken, and there's no way we'd want to steal you from Taylor or anything. So eventually, we would have to move on and begin searching for romance and our own partners in life."

"I understand," I said seriously. "Doesn't mean I want it to happen right now, but I understand."

"It's time, John." Rebecca glanced at Mia again. "We... uh. We found out you and Taylor are trying for a baby. The staff figured out she's not ordering birth control pills anymore. And you HAVE been spending less time with us ever since you got back from Paris."

I frowned. "I'm sorry guys. I never meant to neglect you."

"That's just the point, John. It's not neglect. You don't owe us anything," Mia piped up. "Wasn't that the whole issue with Kate? We don't have obligations to each other, remember?"

I chuckled. "Yeah, I remember."

"It's just time," Mia said firmly.

"When are you guys moving out?"

"About a week. First of October," Mia answered. "We got an apartment together not too far from your office, actually. So we can still meet up with you all for lunches or whatever."

"And I'm still your personal trainer," Rebecca added. "So it's not like we won't be seeing each other every week."

"And it's not like we want to give up the fantastic sex!" Mia giggled. "We just won't be as geographically convenient as before."

I nodded. I wasn't thrilled, but I accepted the situation. "Have you told Taylor yet?"

Rebecca smiled. "Yeah. Why do you think Taylor wanted to leave us alone at the last minute?"

I tilted my head back and went "Ahh..." in understanding. But then I caught a gleam in Mia's eyes. "What?"

The Chinese girl clapped her hands together and jumped up and down excitedly. "Taylor said we could have a going-away orgy!"

***

*OCTOBER*

I fixed my gaze on Sharpley. "Competition?" I asked.

"Ah, yes, sir," he looked at the table, avoiding my eyes.

"Let me guess, Dean?"

"Yes, sir."

I rolled my eyes. I still didn't know how Dean was doing it. He made splash after splash in the market and I was wondering where his capital was coming from. Even with my VERY deep pockets, I would never have risked juggling this many deals at the same time. "Fine," I growled. "Get to work, gentlemen."

"Yes, sir."

As one, all my Directors and Vice Presidents got up. I stayed in my chair with Cassandra to my right. The last Director closed the door to the board room on his way out.

I stared out the window and she waited me out for a few minutes. Then, I turned and gave her a sharp look. "How's he doing it?"

"I don't know, Jonathan. Every number I've got says he's stretched too thin. Either he's got an investor we don't know about, which is possible. Or he's doing something illegal, which actually seems more likely. Then again, he could just be really reckless, beyond anything I could imagine a rational person doing."

I sighed, "Reckless works as long as nothing goes wrong."

Fifteen minutes later, we met up with Taylor and Charlotte for the flight back home. And since I couldn't figure out a business reason for how Dean was being so successful, I started dipping into an area I usually avoided.

Turning to my wife, I asked, "When was the last time you met up with Kate and Ashlyn?"

Taylor leaned back as she searched her memory. "Ah, two nights ago, Johnny. By the way, they HAVE noticed that I'm not drinking my Cosmos anymore." She gave me a sardonic grin.

I shrugged. "It's not a secret."

"They're both just happy for us."

I shrugged, my mind on one track right now. "Did they mention anything about Dean? How do THEY read him right now? Are things going well?"

Taylor frowned as she thought about it. "Well, everything seems fine. And you were with me when we all met for lunch last week."

"Yeah," I nodded. Both girls had been showing off new jewelry Dean had bought them. Kate looked almost embarrassed to be wearing a necklace around me. and things were still a little awkward between us. "They both seemed quite comfortable."

Taylor shrugged. "Like it or not, Johnny, he's been very good with them. And while I think Kate still misses you, Dean's not mistreating her and he's supporting her the way she wants."

I sighed. "Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Dean really has turned over a new leaf. You know, he's never kept a girlfriend for as long as he's been with Ashlyn? He's still a rat-bastard for what he did to you, but I can't help but admit he's been a decent guy otherwise."

Cassandra leaned in. And with a wise tone, she remarked, "It's easy to be a nice guy when everything is going well. Wait for one of his deals to go bad, then see what happens."

Everyone nodded at that. But then I got quiet. "And Rebecca and Mia?"

Taylor heard some of the hurt in my voice and she paused. We'd met for lunch with both girls a few days ago, and Rebecca had been somewhat standoffish towards me. Plus, after our last workout, she'd declined to make use of my erection. I'd been hoping we could keep the same playful-sexual relationship we'd always had, but my beautiful trainer seemed to be drifting away from me.

"Are you sure you want to know?" Taylor asked softly.

Tight-lipped, I nodded.

Taylor glanced down and said, "Rebecca has a new boyfriend. He's a stockbroker she met before she moved out. In fact, I think she moved out because she wanted to date him and didn't feel comfortable inviting him to the house in Montauk. They seem to be getting rather serious."

I tried to smile. "Good for her. And Mia?"

"Mia is still Mia. She's having fun. She's in Seattle right now on a job, but she should be back in time for Jeff's birthday. Charlotte's already worked with Kaitlyn for all the arrangements."

"Okay." I smiled wistfully, trying to see the silver lining that at least I'd be seeing Mia again soon.

"What's wrong, hubby?" Taylor wrapped her arms around me. "You getting bored of trying to knock me up? Need some more fresh pussy?"

"No, of course not." I looked into Taylor's deep blue eyes. "I'm sorry, honey. I don't want you to feel like I'm holding back any of my love for you."

"I don't."

"It's just, you never know what you've got until it's gone. And I did start getting really attached to Rebecca and Mia."

"And Kate?" Taylor asked quietly.

I closed my eyes and saw the pretty blonde's face in my mind. I nodded. "Kate, too."

"It's okay, I understand," Taylor rubbed my cheek soothingly. "I feel the same way about all of them. You can't be that intimate with a person for that long without feeling SOMETHING."

Then Taylor's hand slid down to my crotch where she began to obviously pet me, oblivious to Cassandra and Charlotte nearby. "But, you are my one man and you have the magic sperm. So what do you say we go home and make a baby?"

I smiled at my wife. I may have some lingering feelings for the departed women, but if all I ever had in my life were Taylor and Cassandra, I would still be a very lucky man. "Sounds good," I smiled. And Taylor kissed my nose.

***

*NOVEMBER*

"Are you serious?" I asked the phone again. I turned and started snapping my fingers at Cassandra and pointing to get her to pick up the other phone.

"Yes! Yes! YES!" Taylor gushed through the phone line.

I leaned back against the headboard, my feet propped up on the bed in our London hotel suite. By now, Cassandra was on the desk phone and looking at me oddly. Staring straight at her, I said into the line so that everyone could hear, "We're going to have a baby..."

"I'm pregnant!!!" Taylor crowed, and Cassandra broke into a wide smile.

I started grinning like an idiot and shook my head in mild disbelief. Certainly, now that Taylor was off her birth control and as I continued filling her womb with my sperm, I had intellectually understood that this was a distinct possibility. But to hear the words made it so much more REAL in a way I don't think I could have ever prepared for.

"Congratulations, Taylor," Cassandra said warmly.

"Oh, Cassandra! Oh, thank you! Oh my gawd. I am SO excited!" Taylor half- shrieked into the phone. "Oh, hang on guys. I'm going to take a picture of the tests and send them to you."

"We're going to have a baby..." I murmured again.

"Oh, Johnny! When are you guys coming home?"

I blinked twice while trying to remember exactly what date. But Cassandra smoothly answered, "Day after tomorrow, Taylor."

"Can you come tomorrow?"

Cassandra winced. We still had some negotiations to work out. But I started nodding my head already. "We'll be there."

We'd finish the negotiations in record time. If things didn't come together, it was no big deal. I'd survive the lost opportunity. After all, it wasn't like I needed the money.

I'm Jonathan Kwong... billionaire. I can do whatever the fuck I want.

***

It's amazing how much you can accomplish when you set a hard deadline to walk away. The London cabal of business sharks expressed outrage when I told them they had until 4pm to finish the deal or I'd be perfectly content to fly away empty- handed. They refused to capitulate to my deadline, but then I laid down the facts: my wife had just told me she was pregnant with our first child and I WAS going home.

Cassandra called them on some misleading numbers and they started folding around 3:20pm. At 3:50 we started packing up our briefcases. At 3:56 we shook on an agreement. They'd fax the paperwork to us on the plane.

We were wheels-up by 5pm London time. We'd arrive on the helipad at the Montauk house just after dinner New York time.

It was my first chance to call my mom. She was ecstatic over the news and I was so happy I actually chatted with her in Cantonese. I promised to bring Taylor to visit soon, and after hanging up and leaned back with a silly grin on my face.

'We're having a baby,' I hummed happily, the words themselves only in my head. 'We're having a baby.' I could already picture the little miniature version of me trying to hit a golf ball. Or maybe a miniature version of Taylor clomping around in her mom's high heels.

"You're in a good mood," Cassandra peeked at me from over her wire-rimmed glasses. She was working on her laptop but paused for a moment to smile at me.

"How can I not be? We just closed the deal and Taylor's pregnant!" I sighed happily and sunk a little deeper into my plush chair.

"Want some more good news?"

"Absolutely."

"Martin Dean just declared bankruptcy."

The words that had just come out of Cassandra's mouth were so completely unexpected that I didn't react for a good five seconds. Then my eyes flew open and my jaw dropped and I turned to her with an incredulous expression on my face. "Excuse me?"

From her seat to my right, Cassandra rotated the notebook PC screen to face me. She was on wsj.com, the Wall Street Journal's internet portal. And there it was: "Martin Dean Enterprises Folding".

I half-crawled out of my seat and leaned forward to get a closer look, and together Cassandra and I read through the article. Apparently Dean had overextended himself, investing money he didn't have yet into new deals and taking himself to the point where his company had almost no liquid assets. First one company he'd invested in tanked and he couldn't GIVE the damn thing away. And then when he was unable to pay on a new acquisition, his whole house of cards had collapsed. Now there was a SEC investigation already under way to evaluate several inconsistencies that had cropped up in his recent deals.

"Wow, that's incredible," I said when I'd finally finished. I frowned and sighed.

"You don't seem as pleased as I might have thought. You seemed to hate the man," Cassandra's sky blue eyes were piercing. And it wasn't often that she couldn't predict my reactions.

"Well... I guess I did hate him. He was an asshole to me. He fucking *raped* Taylor. And, to be honest, I wasn't exactly thrilled knowing he was sleeping with Ashlyn." I gave a frank expression to Cassandra, who shrugged. She knew my latent attraction to the gorgeous redheaded supermodel.

"But business was business. Yeah, he beat me to a few deals, but it's not like I could blame him for that. He was trying to make some money and succeed the same way I was. I'm sure we beat him out to a lot more business than he beat us. Especially since his game was really more I-banking before." I pointed at the screen. "He got risky and he got burned with bad luck and maybe some bad decision-making. I'm pleased that there's one less competitor out there, but it's not personal."

Cassandra nodded, coolly evaluating me. "I get it. You don't hate him in the business arena so much as personally. So seeing his company fold is one thing. But if... say... Ashlyn dumped him, THEN you'd be happy."

Uncontrollably, I broke out into a big smile at the very thought.

Cassandra caught it. "NOW I understand."

I waved her off. "Let's change the subject to happier thoughts."

"You're having a baby?" Cassandra arched an eyebrow.

"We're having a baby!" I gushed and grinned.

I stayed in my perky mood for another hour. I couldn't read and I couldn't focus on the movie playing on the LCD screen before me, even though it was a movie I hadn't seen yet and had chosen specifically for this flight home. Cassandra was nominally trying to work, but she seemed rather distracted by my exuberance.

At last, she just leaned back in her chair and took her glasses off while folding up her computer. Still holding the glasses in hand, she put one glasses arm against her lips and coyly looked over at me, her eyes dancing.

I glanced over at her. "Thinking about something?"

She turned away quickly, like she'd gotten caught ogling me or something. "Yeah..."

"You going to tell me?" I asked.

Cassandra blushed and looked away. "Uh, no, it's nothing."

I could read her just a bit myself. Very softly, I asked, "Are you thinking about children, Cassandra?"

She blushed again and looked down. Then she shook her head as if to banish the thought. "It's not something I normally think about. But today is a little different."

"Do you WANT children, someday?"

She sighed. "I don't know. My life is devoted to this family, Jonathan. That means you and Taylor and your children. I don't know that there's any room for me to have kids."

My eyebrows furrowed at that, and for the first time since Taylor's news, I started to feel some sadness creeping in to my otherwise happy day. I watched Cassandra very closely. She was good at guarding her emotions... most of the time. But I'd been around her long enough to know when she was bottling something up inside her.

"Cassandra... do you WANT children, someday?" I asked with more seriousness.

"It would be nice... But really, Jonathan. I don't want a husband. And I don't want anyone else but you."

"What about a child *with* me?" I asked softly.

The light that jumped into her eyes was all the answer I needed.

But almost immediately, she snuffed the light out. Shaking her head slowly, Cassandra gazed at me with intensity. "Not yet, Jonathan. Maybe never."

I nodded in understanding and leaned forward. "But maybe?"

A small smile crossed her face. "Maybe..."

***

It was just after 9pm when the helicopter landed at the house. Taylor came scurrying out the door despite the cold November weather and we met at the edge of the tarmac in a warm hug.

Taylor was crying and kissing me and crying some more, slobbering all over my mouth while trying to simultaneously kiss me and say, "You're home! You're home!"

I finally pried her off me enough to get inside the house. We went to the main living room just inside the door and I immediately pulled Taylor into my lap while reaching down to pat her belly, which was still just as firmly muscled and slender as ever. I couldn't wait to see her baby bump start forming.

We kissed passionately and when I pulled away I hummed, "Let's go upstairs my little MILF."

"MILF?" Taylor wondered for a moment. And then she remembered the acronym for Mom-I'd-Like-to-Fuck. "Oh..." she giggled.

"And then we'll take a nice soak in the bathtub and relax..." I said soothingly.

"Johnny, I can't get in a bathtub anymore," Taylor looked at me sternly.

"You can't?" My brow furrowed.

"Pregnant women can't. Messes up their body temperature, which isn't good for the baby."

I shook my head. "I've got a LOT to learn, don't I?"

Cassandra touched my shoulder and I turned to see her standing over me. "We'll teach you," she reassured.

"Well, maybe we can't put you in a bathtub, but I know we can learn what pregnancy massages are out there. Because the Mother of my Child deserves some pampering!" I crowed.

Both Taylor and Cassandra started laughing. Taylor saw the grin on Cassandra's face and then she pointed, saying, "Ooh, Cassie likes that idea. You'd better knock her up too."

Cassandra blushed and then Taylor's jaw dropped. My wife glanced over at me with an odd expression. "Are you trying to knock her up, too?"

"No, no." I held up my hand. "But we did talk about it when we found out your news."

"Ooh!" Taylor gushed. "Hurry up, Cassie. It'll be fun being pregnant together!"

Cassandra waved her off. "No, not yet. Let's get one out of you before we even THINK about that."

Taylor reached up and hugged the both of us. "I'm so happy! I LOVE this family!"

Cassandra and I both moved in and the three of us embraced each other tightly.

Taylor started crying and then Cassandra started crying and I started to feel the tear ducts activating in my own eyes. But a low, "Pardon me, sir," broke the mood and I turned around to see Edward, our butler, standing beside Charlotte at the entryway to the living room.