Baby for Sugar Daddy: A Secret Baby Romance (Heartstring Dating Agency Book 6) by Lauren Wood (inspirational books TXT) 📗

and we would be professional. It was better this happened now than later on down the road, wasn’t it?

But the longer I sat in the feeling, the more I realized this wasn’t what I wanted at all. As I walked through my penthouse, I noticed one of her shirts still lying by the bed. I couldn’t resist picking it up and drawing it to my nose to take in a deep breath of her scent. It hit me like a train. I didn’t want to lose her.

My fists clenched as I thought about her being out there with some other sleezy guy right now, trying to get in his pants just to spite me. I knew I’d have to get used to the feeling. We’d both have to move on. But my throat tightened with the realization that I wasn’t so sure I wanted to.

My hand was so close to reaching for the phone to call her, even though I knew that would only make things worse. Sooner or later, this was just the harsh reality we would have to face…This was how things needed to be. I wanted to rip the bandaid off now before we got in too deep. But the question nagging at me…Was I already in too deep?

I was snapped out of my desperate state by a knock to my door. I hesitated to answer. I was in no shape to see anyone, and I doubted that Cat wanted to see me. She wouldn’t have shown up here, but she might have been the only person I was willing to answer the door for at that moment.

Another series of loud bangs rattled through the door, growing stronger with each passing second. I growled and went over to answer just for fear of the neighbors getting pissed at me. I didn’t need another problem on my plate right now.

But that was exactly what I got, and it was way worse than any angry neighbor could be.

Mark stood there in the hall looking mad as a charging bull. He pushed past me into the apartment and flew into a rage.

“You’ve fucked up big time, buddy!” He pointed his finger at me, practically spitting with anger. “You’re going to regret ever laying a finger on my daughter!”

“Okay, I see what this is about,” I raised my hands in surrender. “Calm down, Mark. I can explain everything.”

“What is there to explain!? You’ve been sleeping with my own daughter behind my back! You knocked her up and broke her heart!”

“I didn’t mean to…”

Suddenly, I froze. The rest of what he said sank in, and I felt like I might pass out. Somehow I managed to keep it together enough to wrap my head around the words.

“Wait. What did you just say?”

“You heard me,” he seethed. “What did you think was going to happen!? Oh I guess that’s the problem…you weren’t thinking at all, were you!? You thought you could use her just like you have with all those other women. I know how you are. I just never thought you’d stoop so low as to drag my Catherine down into your games.”

“I need to sit down,” I murmured, looking aimlessly around the room. I wished there was some escape route. Not just from Mark…but from the whole damned situation which was apparently more complicated than I realized.

But my thoughts went shooting off in rapid fire. Maybe I was grasping at straws, but a glimmer of hope surged inside.

“No, impossible,” I insisted. “She can’t be pregnant. I just saw her a few hours ago and she didn’t say anything.”

“She was supposed to tell you while you were breaking up with her!?” he thundered.

“I didn’t break up with her. We weren’t together like that. I just said we couldn’t keep…”

My words stopped dead with the daggers he shot right through me with his eyes, and it was for the best. Whatever dumb thing I was about to blurt out certainly wouldn’t have helped matters any.

“I already know what she was to you,” he grumbled. “And it’s taking everything in me not to pummel you right now. So if I were you…I’d keep your mouth shut.”

“Of course,” I mumbled, stumbling over to the couch. “I don’t want to seem disrespectful. I’m sorry. I just…This is a lot to take in. Cat is pregnant!?”

“Yeah,” he fumed. “And yes, you’re the father. So don’t even ask.”

I didn’t have to ask. Of course it was me. I had spent so much time inside of her over the past weeks that she couldn’t have possibly had time to sleep with anyone else. I made sure of that.

I sat for a moment, despite Mark’s obvious desperation for some kind of answer, and let the news wash over me. I was going to be a dad.

Oddly enough, a fog seemed to lift from the room. Maybe it was terrible to think, but things actually felt better this way.

“Is it horrible for me to say I’m relieved?” I confessed. “I’m sorry. I know you’re furious. But really, Mark…You don’t know what you mean to me. I’ve hated lying to you all this time, and I really did feel terrible about messing around with her behind your back. That’s the only reason I ended things today. I didn’t think you’d ever let us be together.”

His face scrunched up. “Be together? You mean…You’re actually serious about this thing with my daughter?”

“I know, I know. You don’t have to say it. I know you’d never approve of me being with her. That’s why I lied for as long as I could, but finally…I just knew I couldn’t anymore. I knew ending it was the only right thing to do…for you and for her. But I swear…I had no idea she was pregnant.”

Now he was the one letting things wash over him. The air seemed to be knocked out of him for a moment, forcing him to sink down onto the couch next to me.

“You want to be with her?” he asked in shock. “Like