The Billionaire and the Cleaner (19 page)

She dropped her gaze to her purse. The pregnancy test was
inside her purse waiting for her to show him.

Lifting her head she stared at him. “I’m in love with you,
Kent. I’m not after your money or anything else. I love you, the man. I don’t
want you to stay with me because you feel guilty.”

For the longest time she waited for him to respond. Nothing
happened, and she felt her whole world crumble.

****

Kent
stared at
her bowed head. His family had heard every word she spoke. He saw them beyond
the door with tears in their eyes. They were supposed to jump in with
congratulations. He’d not intended to start an argument with her that made her
talk with him.

The past she spoke of made him feel sick. He’d figured a
horrid parent or something was in her past. He never expected something so
stressful.

Her past didn’t affect his decision.
Kent
loved Lana
the woman, not her past. He reached out, cupping her cheek. “Do you really
think I give a shit about that life? I know it’s not who you are. I love
you
, Lana.” Sinking his fingers into her
hair, he pulled her close. Her soft warmth pressed against his body.

Closing his eyes he absorbed the pleasure of her next to
him.

She loved him. He smiled as all of her words penetrated his
mind.
Kent
opened his eyes and tilted her head back to look at him.

“Frank’s an asshole. I don’t care what happened to you.
However, it does explain your tendency to clean everything and that day your
shoe was dirty. You’re an obsessed cleaner. I can live with that, but I think
you should relax around the baby. Our son or daughter won’t like your obsessive
cleaning.”

She gasped. “How did you know?” she asked.

“Know what?”

Lana opened her purse and pulled out a plastic bag. She
handed him the bag. He went to open the bag.

“Don’t open it. It’s got urine on. You can read the result
on the front,” she said.

He turned the bag over and saw the test with two blue lines.
“This is a pregnancy test?” he asked.

“Yes. It’s positive.”

Throwing the test down on the floor, he picked Lana up in
his arms and swung her around. His family charged in the room cheering. Lana
rested her head against his chest, and her cheeks were flushed.

“Do it,” his mother said, whispering. He laughed but got
down on one knee before Lana.

The box he’d shown her was still in his pocket.

“Lana Hawkins, you crazy cleaner, will you do me the honour
of becoming my wife? This is not because of the baby. This is because I love
you and I can’t imagine living the rest of my life without you. You mean
everything to me.”

Tears fell down her cheeks as she looked at him. “You still
want to marry me?” she asked.

“Why wouldn’t I want to marry you?”

She nibbled her lip. “After what I told you, aren’t you
angry with me?”

Kent
got to his
feet. He cupped her cheeks and claimed her lips under his. “What you’ve just
told me has made me want you more than ever before. You’re a brave woman, Lana.
What you told me about your past has only made me want you more. I love you so
much.” He kept kissing her lips in between each word he spoke.

“I love you, too,” she said.

“Be my wife and I’ll show you what true love really is.”

She stared at the ring in the box then nodded. “Yes, I love
you.”

He pulled the ring out of the box and slid it on her finger
as his family cheered. John stood with Samantha in his arms. A few of his other
friends raised a beer toward him.

Kent
took Lana in
his arms outside and danced with her. For the rest of the day he refused to let
her leave his side. As the day passed he took her for a walk down the street
for them to have some alone time.

“You’re not embarrassed about my past?” she asked when they
were far enough away.

“I admire you, Lana. What you’ve told me mustn’t have been
easy to overcome.”

“It wasn’t.”

He took her hand and led her down toward a tree. Pressing
her against the tree he stroked her face. “What was the hardest?” he asked.

“Of living like I did?”

Kent
nodded. He
needed to show to her he could handle the truth.

“The worst part was waking up in the morning and seeing one
of the guys from my year. I would be getting ready for school, and they’d be
pulling up their pants. I’d pretend not to see them, and all day I’d see them
smirking in my direction. I felt dirty. Their looks made me think I’d slept
with them or something. My mom never cared about what happened.”

Kent
saw it was
still hard for her to talk about. “I want you to know you can talk to me about
anything. Your past is part of who you are. I don’t want you to be embarrassed
about it.”

She nodded. “I know, but I don’t want to remember any of it.
The Christmas I spent with you made me realise how messed up my past was. My
Christmas was spent doing catch up on school work. I was always behind because
of her rages and the men she brought home.”

Lana shook her head.
Kent
wrapped his arms around her.
“Nothing like that is going to happen. You’ll always have me.”

“How did this happen?” She pointed between them.

“Because you were in love with me from the first moment you
saw me,” he said.

She laughed, and so did he.

“Also, I couldn’t get you out of my mind. At first I wanted
to fuck you, and then I wanted to get to know you. I slowly fell in with you.”

“You’re a charmer.”

“I’m your charmer, Lana.”

Kent
turned her
so
her
back was against the tree. She gasped as he
covered her mouth with his own. Pressing his free hand to her stomach he
caressed her.
“My woman.
My child.
I’m never letting you get away from me,” he said.

“I look forward to you keeping me in one place.”

Epilogue

Five years
later

“Tommy Anderson, you get your little butt back up here and
clean these toys,” Lana said, shouting to where her son stood with his father
in the backyard. She walked down the steps of their five bedroom house as her
son walked inside the house.

“Sorry, Mom,” he said.

She dropped down to her knees and opened her arms. He went
to her without hesitation. Lana inhaled his sweet scent. She adored her son, and
she looked forward to their second child arriving in a matter of months.
Rubbing her stomach she let Tommy go to his room. Lana tried to get to her feet
and struggled to lift herself from the floor.

“Does my love need help?”
Kent
asked.

Smiling up at her husband, Lana let out a sigh. He was turning
fifty in a matter of days, and he looked as handsome now as he did the first
day she met him. “I can’t get up.”

“Baby, you’re seven months pregnant.” He took her hand
helping her up.
Kent
’s
hands moved to her swollen stomach. “How is my girl?” he asked.

“It could be a boy,” Lana said. Her back ached, and she
rubbed the spot giving her most trouble. Tommy had been an easy pregnancy, but
Kent
didn’t
want to bombard their house with kids. He wanted to take the time to enjoy
every one of them. Lana couldn’t argue. There were times Tommy was a handful.
Also,
Kent
encouraged her to spend the last five years working on her cookbook. She’d been
trying and testing recipes on all of their family.

Last week she’d scent off the final manuscript to several
publishers to see if anyone wanted to pick it up.
Kent
’s help and support finally
gave her a place. When they’d first gotten married they’d struggled to
accommodate each other. Their friendship had deepened, but living together
married seemed to make things stressful, especially with her pregnant. Over the
months their difficulty changed, and now she couldn’t imagine life without him.
Kent
was her rock, her best friend, and her soul mate.

He stroked her back. “She’s causing trouble again.”

Kent
was
convinced the child she was carrying was a girl.

“She’s making her presence known.” He helped her into the
garden and then went to assist his son.

Lana sat down on the chair staring up at the sky. The
calming blue sky was glorious to look at. Her peace was interrupted by Tommy’s
shout. She laughed as he ran past her and jumped on the trampoline they’d
installed in the back garden.

During her first pregnancy
Kent
had gone house hunting and
found this place down the street from where his parents and siblings lived. He
wanted to make sure she was never alone he’d told her.

When she couldn’t work as his cleaner,
Kent
cut back
his hours to spend more time with her. Letting out a sigh she watched her son
play as her husband joined her. He wrapped his arm around her.

“I love you,” he said.

The last five years had been amazing with him by her side.
Kent
placed a
hand on her stomach and gasped as their baby kicked her stomach.

“She’s a feisty little thing,” he said.

In no time at all Penny and the rest of their family walked
into their backyard. Penny sent
Kent
into the kitchen to finish drinks. Her mother-in-law rubbed her stomach. Heat
filled Lana’s cheeks at the attention. Her swollen stomach made her
uncomfortable. The only clothes that fitted her frame reminded her of tents.
She missed
Kent
’s
attention in the bedroom, but her pregnancy made her uncomfortable in the
bedroom department.

He walked back outside and handed out drinks.

She took her drink and smiled at
Kent
as he winked at her. He always
made it hard to resist him.

Tommy soaked up the attention from his grandparents, aunties,
and uncles.

When night finally fell Penny took Tommy home with her
leaving Kent and Lana alone.

Walking downstairs after a long bath she found
Kent
sat in the
centre of the living room with a letter in his hand.

“What’s going on?” she asked, moving into the room.

She wore a pair of shorts and one of
Kent
’s larger
shirts. Her stomach peeked out of the bottom, which drove her crazy. There was
nothing she could do to stop her large stomach.

Kent
patted the
floor. He’d arranged several cushions around the floor.

Lana nibbled her lip. Getting up and down was troublesome to
her.

“I’ll help you with everything, Lana,” he said.

Sitting down, Lana stared at him. “What’s the matter?” she asked,
rubbing her stomach.

“This came in the post a couple of days ago.” He handed her
a letter. “Lana Hawkins” was on the envelope. Opening the letter she recognised
the hand writing.

“This is from my mother.” She read through the letter. It
was full of apologies and regrets. “I don’t understand. Why send me a letter?”
she asked, looking at
Kent
.

“I didn’t want to show you this until after the baby arrived,
but I think you have a right to know. Your mother died over three months ago.
That letter was in possession of a nurse who’d been caring for her. She died of
alcohol poisoning.”

Lana covered her stomach. The knowledge of her mother’s
death didn’t hurt her. Staring down at the words she re-read the letter.

Dear Lana,

I don’t know
where you are or what’s happened to you. Until this moment I didn’t really care,
but dying has made me review my life. I didn’t give you the best start in life,
and that I regret. I spent so much time drinking that I really didn’t care
about the child I’d given birth to.

Your father,
if he was looking down, would be ashamed of me. Your father was in the army. He
was a soldier, and he died before you were born in active service. I said I
didn’t know who your father was because it hurt too fucking much. It still
hurts now. Being sober wasn’t the answer as that hurt. Everything hurt accept
drinking. Drinking and being in the arms of another man could make me forget
everything I lost.

Nothing I
write in this letter is going to change what happened. When I found out I was
pregnant I was so happy because when your father got home, we’d be a family. He
never came home even though he used to write all the time.