Auctioned to the Billionaire Surgeon (West Bay Billionaires #3)

Prologue

Jelly

I looked at the stick again just to be sure.

Two lines. Yep. I was pregnant. I closed my eyes and did my best not to scream.

Or cry. What the fuck? Evan and I always used protection, and I’m on the pill.

I thought back over the past couple of months or so.

That’s when I had to have conceived. Evan had been on leave then, and he was the only person I was sleeping with.

Hell, he was the only person I’d ever slept with.

I’d been on antibiotics for a sinus infection that had turned into bronchitis. I’d ended up being on medicine for more than three weeks because it took a while to get better. I bit my lip. That would be enough to screw with the pill’s effectiveness. But what about the condom?

I shook my head, tears welling up in my eyes. I was going to have to tell him, and I didn’t even have the luxury of time. He was only going to be home tonight before leaving in the morning. He was headed overseas for a six-month tour. Again.

I wasn’t in love with Evan. I liked him.

I had a crush on him, though that sounded like something a fourteen-year-old girl would say.

He was fucking hot, too. He was tall and muscular with tattoos and these light green eyes that made my knees weak.

We’d been fucking for a while now. I couldn’t call it anything other than that.

He barely spoke to me. We’d hardly ever had much of a conversation.

Anything I knew about him, I’d learned from others.

I went to high school with him. He’d been one of the cool kids, like my best friend, Nadine.

I… wasn’t. If it weren’t for Nadine, I wouldn’t have been invited to any of the typical high school events.

Like parties.

That’s where I’d first hooked up with Evan.

We’d been alone in a hall outside the restroom and started kissing.

He’d dragged me in the bathroom, and we’d fucked like animals, twice.

IT was a little painful—that’s how I lost my virginity and all—but also amazing.

We’d cleaned up and gone back out into the party.

I’d been excited to be with him, but he’d immediately put distance between us.

I’d followed him down into the basement of whoever’s house we were at.

That’s when I saw him go up and kiss a pretty blonde girl.

I’d wanted to crawl into a hole and cry.

But I don’t do that kind of shit. So, I leaned against a wall and made myself look bored until Nadine was ready to go.

I acted like I wasn’t bothered or upset at all.

I didn’t even tell Nadine about it. I was too embarrassed.

That’s how my ‘relationship’ with Evan started.

And it stayed under wraps. I’d blow him behind the bleachers like some goddamn cliché.

We’d fuck in his car sometimes. He’d send me a text right before climbing in my window and fucking me, putting his hand over my mouth when I came so we didn’t wake up my grandparents.

We were together sexually all the time. Like, many times a week.

But socially? None. He didn’t want to be seen with me.

He didn’t come right out and say it, but he didn’t have to.

I saw the kinds of girls he wanted to take to dances and football games.

They were pretty and wore the right kind of clothes and makeup.

They looked like cheerleaders and prom queens.

I didn’t. I’d started wearing only shades of black, white, and gray when I was in middle school.

I wore short skirts, but I also wore black and white striped tights underneath them.

I wore thick-soled Doc Martens wherever I went.

I wore loose tops with the names of weird bands from the nineties on them.

I wore thick makeup, too. It made my face very pale, which made my naturally black hair seem fake.

I wore lots of makeup—thick eyeliner, several shades of eyeshadow, and dark purple lipstick.

I liked how I looked, but I also knew I was trying to hide behind all that.

If I looked like that, my grandparents were too embarrassed of me to make me go anywhere with them, but that’s another story.

So, Evan never asked me on an actual date even though we slept together all the time.

I would’ve felt bad for his girlfriend, except he didn’t have one.

He just dated around a lot, and usually they were the type of girl who didn’t have sex.

Probably not even blowjobs. Maybe that’s why he wanted so many from me.

Evan said he loved to see my purple lipstick on his dick after I gave him head.

My grandparents, who I’d lived with my whole life, were very religious. Or they said they were. They went to church alright, but they weren’t particularly nice or charitable people. They were judgmental, snobby, and often downright mean. Maybe that’s why my mom left.

She had me when she was a teenager. Then she moved in with her parents when whoever my dad was didn’t want to have anything to do with her…

or me. They were awful to her, and she’d finally packed up and left when I was ten.

I’d begged her to take me with her, but she’d just given me a hug, while she was crying, and told me to be strong.

Then she was gone.

I’d done everything I could to make my grandparents happy, but it was never enough. So, I gave up. I spent most of my time with Nadine and her mama out at their rundown trailer. It was more of a home to me than my grandparents’ two-story brick house ever was.

I looked back down at the stick in my hand and sighed.

How was I going to take care of a baby? I had two jobs right now trying to save up money for more school.

My grandparents paid for two years of community college.

That had been enough to become a registered nurse.

I wanted more than that, though. I dreamed of being a physician’s assistant.

For that I’d need a Bachelor of Science in nursing and a master’s as well.

But I didn’t have the money saved up yet to go back to school.

Plus, there are no four-year colleges out here in the sticks.

I’d continued online classes toward the BSN, and I really didn’t have all that far left to go to get it.

But I’d have to go to West Bay for a PA degree.

It was a big city less than two hours from where I lived, but you’d think it was on the moon for how people around here talked about it.

I took a deep breath and texted Evan asking to see him tonight.

I knew he’d think I just wanted to hook up. He would never see this coming. I didn’t expect that he was going to be happy about it. The thought of telling him made me as nauseous as the morning sickness that had been plaguing me so much lately.

***

“Whose is it?” he asked.

I stared at him. “It’s yours. Why the hell do you think I told you about it?”

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Who else have you been with? How do I know it’s not their…”

“Just you.” I folded my arms over my chest. It was like I was trying to give myself a hug. He was making me feel small.

He looked around, hands on his hips. He’d met me at an overlook just outside of the town limits. “Are you going to keep it?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

He looked pissed. Or maybe just resigned. “Well, I’m not going to be around. And, uh, this is the last time we can see each other.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I met someone. Overseas. She’s in the military, too, and we’re together.”

“Oh.” I tried to act like I wasn’t freaking out inside. He wasn’t going to help me with the baby.

“Look, don’t take this the wrong way, but she looks normal. Like someone I’d like to settle down with.”

I didn’t say anything. What could I say? I was standing there, feeling nauseous for more than one reason, and just trying to understand I was hearing him right. “You’re not going to help me at all?”

“What, like money?”

“Yeah, or just help?”

“Nah. Sorry.”

I stared at him open-mouthed. He didn’t even look sorry. “Seriously?”

He just looked at me. “Look, I’m not planning on coming back here. My parents moved after I graduated, there’s really nothing for me here anymore.”

“Well… your kid will be here.” The shock was wearing off, and I was starting to get pissed.

He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t believe I’m the only guy you’re fucking, sweetheart. You’re too good at it. Like you’ve been getting lots of practice. I mean, guys don’t call you ‘pink ho’ for nothing, am I right?” He grinned, like I would thing that was funny.

“It’s my damn name, dumbass. Jelly Pinkoe.”

“Oh.”

Asshole! I gaped at him. Did he not even know my name?

“So, are we done here? I’m leaving in the morning.”

“That’s it then? You don’t think the kid is yours so you’re just going to abandon it?”

He frowned then. “Hey, if I really thought it was mine, I might step up. But it would really get in the way of me proposing to my girlfriend.”

I shook my head. “Just take me home.” My dad had done this same thing to my mom. Then Mom had left me. My grandparents didn’t like me. Evan didn’t even want to be seen with me. The only constant in my life had been Nadine and her mama.

“Sure. Get in.”

We got in his car. It was incredibly awkward now. I was in semi-shock as well as a state of mild panic. I really was all on my on with this baby.

It suddenly dawned on me that we hadn’t started moving. I looked over at him. He was staring at me with lust in his eyes. Tell me he’s not going to…

“Want to fuck one last time?”

I gave him a look. “You’re kidding, right? You just basically called me a whore, said you’re going to marry your girlfriend, and not help with your child at all. You told me I don’t look normal. And you think I would sleep with you?”

He shrugged. “We’re good together. Maybe just suck me off?”

“You’re out of your goddamn mind. Either take me home, or I’ll walk home. In the dark, on the side of the road, pregnant with your kid.” I had one hand on the door handle.

He had the grace to look slightly ashamed. “No, don’t do that. I’ll take you home.”

I was out of the car as soon as he pulled to a stop outside my grandparents’ house. I hurried off, still hugging myself, and didn’t look back.

I could just add him to the list of people who didn’t want me.