Her Best Friend's Baby

Her Best Friend’s Baby

By Teona Bell

Published by Shelby Clark

jamocharomanceink.blogspot.com

Copyright © November 2012, Teona Bell

Cover art by The Killion Group, Inc. © November 2012

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Chapter One

“Zai, mind if I come over right now?” Leith asked.

Zaierra pried her eyes open to glance at the clock on her nightstand. Two a.m., and she had to be in the office early to prepare for the executive meeting. The big wigs were coming in from all over the country to strategize. They did it every year, and she knew the routine for ordering them breakfast, lunch, and dinner since they’d be at all day. She already had her handouts started, and no doubt her boss would have more and changes because he couldn’t let her enjoy the well-oiled machine she had going in his department.

Of course Leith knew all of this because he was one of the junior executives, and he would be in on the meeting. She knew what he would eat and need even though she wasn’t his assistant, because they had been friends since high school.

“You’ve never asked before,” she grumbled, “and you have a key. Why are you waking me up at this ungodly hour, Leith Stone?”

“I’ll be there in half an hour.” The line went dead. She blinked at it and then hung it up, or attempted to. The receiver missed the base and crashed on the floor. Leith had been the one to bug her to get a landline since half the time at home she forgot to charge her cell. What would she do without him?

“Sleep,” she muttered into her pillow and drifted off. The next time she woke up, it was to the feel of Leith’s big body crushing her when he dropped onto her bed. Zaierra shoved at him, groaning. “Get off, you big ape.”

Leith didn’t move. She reached up to touch his head, her fingers tangling in his silky hair. He said something she didn’t catch, but they stayed there with him half on top of her, a thick comforter separating their bodies. Zaierra drifted off again with the sound of Leith’s quiet breathing above her.

In the morning, she woke to the sound of the shower going and the scent of coffee brewing. This routine was nothing new. Often Leith came to her apartment unannounced, used the shower, and found clothes for himself already hanging in the closet. They were like an old married couple with none of the physical benefits. Not that Leith used her. He’d pulled her ass out of the fire more than once. They just came from two different worlds that happened to collide in the same school. Leith came from an upper middle class family, and his parents provided him with a top education in one of the finest universities. Zaierra worked her way through community college and later transferred to the cheapest university she could find. Circumstances forced her to drop to part time, and she had finally finished last year. She expected to move up in her career one way or another, whether it was at Hanson and Associates where she and Leith worked, or somewhere else. One issue got in the way of that plan, an issue that had grown larger over the last couple of years, and no matter what she did, she couldn’t shake the idea of it.

Zaierra rose from the bed and shuffled into the bathroom. She didn’t bother putting on a robe. Leith had seen her down to skin plenty of times. Not on purpose of course, but it happened. She’d seen him too, and boy oh boy that man had a body. If he weren’t her best friend, she wouldn’t mind sampling the goods.

At the sink, she began brushing her teeth. “So, what’s up?” she mumbled around a mouthful of paste.

Leith didn’t answer right away, and she thought he didn’t hear her. She opened her mouth to speak louder, but he cut her off. “I ended it.”

She stared at the reflection of the shower behind her. “You’re serious?”

The shower door slid to the side, and Leith came into view. She forced her gaze to stay on his face, but her peripheral vision took in the big chest and broad shoulders. Water glistened on his taut skin, rolling downward. She shouldn’t be attracted to Leith, but damn if she wasn’t. That made her dilemma and the solution her crazy brain had come up with that much harder to dismiss.

“You broke up with Jenna Slutty, I mean Hutty?”

Leith glared at her.

Zaierra shrugged. “Come on. You have to admit her name does rhyme with slutty, and her character…”

“Okay, you’ve made it clear from the start what you thought of her.”

“And you made it just as clear you wanted her for her looks. You let her wrap you around her little finger and play with your emotions. I don’t know how many times I had to resist kicking her ass for the way she treated you, but if you say you’re done, that’s good enough for me.”

He ran a towel over his skin and wrapped it around his waist. Only then did she let her gaze travel lower to his abs.
Mercy
. They were toned to perfection, ripped, and hard. She knew just how hard because she’d teased him about washing clothes on them and used the excuse to run her fingers over his body. Leith had done the same with her. Not her abs because she fought with a pouch and extra weight around the hips and thighs, but just like he did last night, he liked to jump on her and tickle her until she cried uncle.

“Yeah, I’m finished being manipulated. Jenna liked to make everything a big production.”

“Only when you controlled the money too much.”

He had been on the way to the door and stopped to look back at her. “What was that?”

She smiled. “Nothing.”

Leith eyed her with suspicion, but he didn’t push. He left the bathroom, and she took her time with her shower and getting her hair together. By the time she walked into her room, Leith had vacated it and left his yummy male scent behind. Quiet prevailed in the apartment, and she moved to the kitchen to find a breakfast plate and coffee waiting. A note from Leith told her he’d see her later, and she sat down to eat. While she chewed her bacon, she considered whether she’d talk to Leith about her idea. Now that they were both free, it might work. The question was, would he agree and could she handle it if he did.

* * * *

Zaierra made her way around the conference table handing out drinks. A couple of the other assistants distributed lunch selections. Zaierra noticed how Cammie, Leith’s assistant, leaned over him a lot more than the others, showing off her cleavage as if she thought that would get his attention. She couldn’t know Leith would never go there, not where his buddy had been. Cammie dated one of the other execs a couple years before, but it didn’t work out. Everyone said mixing it up in the office was against policy. No one followed the edict, not even the big boss, who everyone suspected of having a thing with the CFO.

When she left the conference room, Zaierra returned to her desk to get some other work done. Cammie darted up not five minutes later, interrupting her flow. “Zai, I need you to cover my phone really quick, please. I’ll owe you one.”

Zaierra frowned. “Why? Where are you going?”

Cammie widened her eyes, and Zaierra got it.

“Okay, sure, but hurry up. I’ve got two other lines including my own, and I have to get this order in along with a million other tasks.”

Cammie thanked her and jetted from the area. The light on Zaierra’s phone lit up when it rang, and she knew Cammie had transferred Leith’s calls. The world seemed determined to disturb her when it rang again. She sighed and stabbed the button to answer. “Good afternoon, Leith Stone’s office.”

“I’d like to speak to Leith, please.”

Zaierra gritted her teeth. She recognized the skank of an ex-girlfriend right off, but apparently, Jenna didn’t pick up her voice or she wouldn’t have added please on the end of her sentence.

“I’m sorry, he’s in a meeting for the rest of the day. May I put you into his voicemail?”

The grumble of annoyance came through loud and clear. “This is an emergency. Go in and get him.”

Zaierra grinned. “Leith requested all calls be held. I’ll put you into his voicemail.”

Before Jenna could say another word, Zaierra transferred her, but she dialed over to a catchall mailbox, one she knew was not Leith’s personal box. After a few minutes, she checked the box that all the assistants had access to and heard Jenna’s whiny voice begging Leith to call her. Zaierra rolled her eyes and pushed the number for delete. Leith was free of that woman, and if she had anything to say about it, he would not fall into her trap again. No more using him for his money and for eye candy when it worked for her.

She fielded two more calls from Jenna over the next two hours and wondered just how long Cammie needed to pick up some dang pads from the store. When she called in sick and didn’t return, the brunt of taking care of the executives fell on Zaierra’s shoulders for the rest of the day, and late that night, she finally made it home to collapse on her couch, face down. If nothing else, she needed to move on structuring her life for a lot more meaning, and it would start with Leith.

Chapter Two

Zaierra must have dozed off because she became aware of hands touching her. She opened her eyes to find Leith sitting at the end of the couch massaging her feet. She moaned and closed her eyes. Her friend tended to be around more when he didn’t have a woman in his life, but he never stayed single long, not with his sexual appetite.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey, yourself. I’m sorry you had to deal with so much today.”

She grunted. “All in a day’s work. I’m Superwoman if you didn’t know.”

“Yes, I already knew that.” He pressed an expert thumb in a crucial spot at the base of her foot, and she moaned again.

“Mm, that feels so good. Yeah, right there.”

Leith shifted on the chair. “Stop that. You make it sound like I’m fucking you.”

She smirked. “You wish.”

“Maybe I do.”

She opened her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him. “Please, that sampling of a black woman ship has sailed. From my last count, you’ve had two black girlfriends and one Asian.”

“You make me sound like a man whore.”

Zaierra didn’t comment, and he gave her an extra jab that made her yelp. She kicked him and sat up. Tiredness lined his eyes, and she felt sorry for him. Leith probably deserved a massage too.

“Turn around,” she ordered. “Let me get your shoulders.”

He did as she asked, and Zaierra slid up close. Not intending to, she bumped his back with her breasts, and he stiffened. She worked the tension from his shoulders, going after every knot she found. They sat in silence a long time while she worked up the nerve to ask him about her thoughts.

“Jenna called you all day.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. She said it was important.”

“Not interested.”

“I didn’t think so.” She chewed her lip for a bit. “Um, you know I’m not getting any younger, right?”