Page 9 of The Billionaire's Christmas Baby Surprise

“You are so beautiful, Billie,” he said. “Feel how you make my heart race.”

And then they were kissing again. Time seemed to slow to the pace of honey poured from a spoon, slow and golden and sweet. Billie took off her sweater and tossed it over a chair. Max ran his hands along the curves of her hips, down her spine, along the line of her bra. Then his own shirt was off, and they were pressed together, kissing again, as Billie savored the feeling of his bare chest and firm muscles against her.

Then Max was on his feet, with Billie held effortlessly in his arms. She wrapped her legs around him and they kissed again, gentle yet full of heat and expectation.

“Shall we go to bed?” Billie breathed against his ear.

“Oh, yes,” Max said, and he carried her across the room and laid her back on her bed. Billie tossed aside her worries and doubts and let herself be a woman of pure sensation, caring for nothing more than how Max touched her, how he whispered her name, how he looked at her with longing and never looked away.

For a long time, they had little more need for words.

CHAPTER 5

BILLIE

Billie woke to the gentle classical music of her alarm. Still half-asleep, she reached for her nightstand and slid her alarm off. Yawning, she sat up — and memories of the night before came flooding back. Going to the Grateful Gala. Meeting Max. Feeling annoyed with Max. Going with Max to a bar. Talking to him for hours. Inviting him home.

Inviting him into her bed.

Then the night they’d spent together. It had been truly amazing. For all he had seemed uncaring and ruthless, Max had been both gentle and attentive in bed. In the light of day, Billie still felt butterflies at the thought of how he had looked at her like she was the only person in the world who mattered, and the way he’d whispered her name.

Yet, in the light of day, Billie also realized that she’d made a mistake. What had she been thinking, inviting someone who was practically a stranger to spend the night with her? No, a stranger might have been okay. Max was worse than a stranger — he was someone she barely knew, yet could hardly get through a conversation with without dissolving into disagreement.

Now, she was going to have to gently kick Max out of her apartment. She had a lot to do today. Hopefully, it was as abundantly clear to him as it was to her that their relationship, such as it was, had run its course. They’d enjoyed a wonderful night together, and that was it.

“Max?” Billie called hesitantly. There was no reply. She got out of bed, wrapped her sheet around herself, and made a quick round of her apartment. Since she lived in a studio, there weren’t a lot of places to check besides the bathroom, so it was quickly clear that Max had already left. This conclusion was backed up by the note lying on her dining table.

Billie, thank you for a wonderful evening together.

Max

Billie let out a sigh of relief. Max hadn’t left his number or made any mention of them seeing each other again. He understood that this would only be a one-night, one-time thing.

Feeling lighter, Billie dropped the sheet back onto her bed and headed for the shower. The warm water was invigorating, and she began to feel more like herself as she woke up fully. The warmth and wakefulness brought another, less pleasant, memory from the night before, though: Billie hadn’t secured a single donation for the Christmas program.

Oh, no.

At least the evening and night she’d spent with Max had distracted her from that looming problem.

Billie finished rinsing the soap from her hair and stepped out of the shower, where she wrapped herself in a fluffy towel. Whatwas she going to do? It was already almost Thanksgiving. In just over a month, it would be Christmas, and if she didn’t find at least one very generous donor, hundreds of kids would wake up to a Christmas morning without gifts, decorations, or even food.

It was a Saturday, so Billie would normally have spent the day either at home or with her family or friends. Today, though, she dressed in a pair of jeans and a gray sweater, grabbed her winter coat and scarf, and hurried out into the chill November air. The sky was Colorado blue today, but the air was still frosty.

Billie strode to the bus stop, where she was just in time to catch the bus to her outreach center. On Saturday mornings, a few of her staff members came in to host workshops on photography, drawing, music, and robotics, so the center was already buzzing with kids and adults when she arrived. Billie nodded a hello to a small group in the entryway, trying not to make eye contact with the kids who, because of her, might not get the Christmas morning they deserved.

Billie went straight up to her office, where she retrieved the pile of physical business cards, as well as the airdropped virtual business cards on her phone, that she’d collected during yesterday’s event. One by one, she wrote to each of the potential donors, thanking them individually for a pleasant conversation the night before, restating the need for Christmas donors, and offering a link to Sweetest Surprise’s website.

Near the bottom of the pile, Billie saw Max’s business card. She hesitated. Sweetest desperately needed money, but Max was a lost cause. It wouldn’t do any good to write to him. It would just create an awkward situation for her, and she was ready to move on from what had probably been a mistake last night.

Billie set the business card to the side and went on to the next.

Morning dragged into afternoon. The kids and staff members trickled out, a few of them stopping by to say goodbye to her. Evening came, and Billie ate an oatmeal bar from the vending machine, trying to ignore the growling in her stomach. If she could just getoneperson to agree to cover the Christmas program, she could go home happy… For billionaires like Max and the other attendees of the Grateful Gala, the few thousand it would take to cover the Christmas program was little more than loose change. Yet, still, Billie had no luck.

She went home after darkness had fallen, feeling exhausted and disappointed. At least all the busyness as she’d tried to find a donor was a good distraction from Max. Even as she’d worked hard to chase down potential donors, though, memories from the night before had kept floating unbidden into her mind. Without the distraction of needing to fund the Christmas program, Billie was sure she’d have thought of little besides Max all day.

Sunday morning saw Billie back at work, digging into old records of previous donors in hopes of striking gold twice. By Monday morning, she was so discouraged that she could barely spare a smile for Barbara the accountant.

Then, around eleven, just as Billie was about to throw her hands in the air and declare that this was impossible, one of her employees came hurrying into the office.

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