The Billionaire’s Baby Arrangement Page 2

  “Are you seriously not seeing the problem here?” Jane asked him, her hand going to her head like she had a headache.

  “That I didn’t get their numbers? Or perhaps that there was a photographer at a private party taking pictures without consent?”

  “No.” Jane narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s that your business is going down the drain and the only way to save it is to clean up your reputation. You tell me that you’ll keep your hands to yourself for a bit and stay out of trouble. And then you pour gasoline and light a match to destroy everything we’ve worked months for.”

  “This is not my fault. You said to keep a low profile. This was a private party. I don’t even know how this photo got out.”

  Jane rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Getting into a fist fight is not low profile. Fucking a girl on the bar is not low profile. Having a threesome with her and her sister in the hot tub of the hotel is not keeping a low profile. It doesn’t matter what the hell kind of party it was.”

  “At least they had a good time,” Jackson replied with a smirk. He remembered now. It had been a great night. He leaned back in his office chair, keeping his cool.

  “Right.” Jane glared at him. “Telling them to get lost after was a nice touch. Very gentlemanly. It’s really selling your product for you.”

  “This will blow over in a couple of days,” Jackson told her. He sounded more confident than he felt. He’d never seen Jane this angry. The PR woman was usually the epitome of calm, always rolling with the punches. Physically, Jane reminded him of his very Italian grandmother, so her being angry was not a pleasant experience.

  “It will not ‘blow over.’” Jane sighed and smoothed her hair back into the neat bun at the back of her head. “Sales are already down. The stock price is already down. The comments on our social media ads are out of control.”

  “It can’t be that bad. It’s never that bad.”

  Jane pulled out her phone and cleared her throat. “I used to love W&W products for my baby, but now I won’t buy them ever again. The owner is a horrible human being who obviously only cares about money and women. Why in the world would I buy diapers from him? Hash tag #lostcustomer and hash tag #FireWeathers.”

  Jackson shrugged. “There are always negative reviews.”

  “There are over three thousand like that on an ad that only ran for five hours,” Jane informed him. “We had to stop running the ad because of the negative comments. Our moderators couldn’t keep up with them. Hash tag #FireWeathers is trending right now.”

  Jackson felt a cold settle over his shoulders. This could be bad.

  “So, we change advertisements. I lay low,” Jackson replied.

  Jane shook her head. “The board of directors is done with you. They’re starting to talk about kicking you out.”

  “They can’t do that,” Jackson said, anger heating his voice just slightly. “This is my company. This is my father’s company.”

  “They can if you are a detriment to profits.” Jane motioned to the newspaper. “Which you are. Your playboy antics are hurting your company and given the evidence, you don’t care. That story isn’t the first one to blow up since you were supposed to lay low.”

  “The board shouldn’t care about this kind of thing,” Jackson said. The newspaper no longer felt silly. It felt like it might turn into a snake and bite him.

  “And if your antics weren’t costing them money, they wouldn’t. You can’t treat women like that and not expect a backlash.”

  “They consent,” Jackson informed her. “They come up to me and ask for this. They want their fifteen minutes of fame and are willing to use their bodies to get it. I’m not going to say no to a good time.”

  Jane sighed. “I know you aren’t a bad guy.” She looked over at the newspaper. “But no one else does. They just see the headlines. And the headlines aren’t good.”

  “What do you know about the board?” Jackson asked, pointedly looking away from the paper. “How much time?”

  “Not long. This latest advertising blowup has them all riled. They want you gone,” Jane told him. “And right now, they’re right. You are costing profits.”

  “I’m not losing my company,” Jackson growled. He got up and paced behind his desk. “What do I do?”

  “Other than resign with what I assume you consider dignity?”

  Jackson gave her an annoyed look. “Yes.”

  She evaluated him for a moment, her dark eyes looking him over. Once again, he was reminded of the way his grandmother used to look at him. The only difference was that Grandmother liked to hold a wooden spoon as a threat.

  “I have a nuclear option,” she told him. “You aren’t going to like it. It’s something the board can’t know you planned, but if you do it, they will leave you alone. It will let you keep your company.”

  Jackson sat down behind his desk. “Tell me.”

  “You need a wife and a baby,” Jane told him.

  Jackson couldn’t help but let out a quick laugh. “How in the world is a wife and a baby going to save my company?” he asked, leaning back in his big office chair. His kept his expression easy, despite the difficult nature of the discussion. He always appeared calm. It was how he successfully ran a business.

  “You need to change your image,” Jane told him. The slender woman settled into the over-sized leather seat facing the desk and got comfortable. She crossed her legs at the ankle and once again smoothed her graying hair back into her bun.

  “Isn’t that what you were supposed to be doing?” Jackson asked.

  “It was, until you made headline news negating everything I’ve done,” Jane replied coolly. “There is no amount of photoshoots of you holding babies that can fix this.”

  “I thought you said the baby ads were working,” Jackson countered. “That they upped sales.”

  “They helped, but your competition is a loving mother and her two adorable kids,” Jane said. “She’s beating you in every demographic because she’s real. Your customers relate to her. They don’t relate to you.”

  “But her prices are twice what mine are,” Jackson countered. “People prefer cheap.”

  “True,” Jane acknowledged, bowing her head slightly. “However, her numbers are going up and yours are going down. Cheap isn’t winning anymore. You need people to want to buy what you represent. You need people to trust you. ”

  “What’s not to trust?” Jackson asked, giving Jane a winning smile. His blue eyes sparkled.

  “That.” She pointed to his grin and then his whole body. “You exude confidence and charm. You’re full of easy sex appeal.”

  “And what’s wrong with that?” He asked her, still giving her the full Jackson Weathers’ smile. It had the effect of making women drop their panties and willingly give themselves to him on a regular basis.

  “You want to know what’s wrong with that?” Jane didn’t seem affected by his smile. If anything, she seemed annoyed. “You sell diapers. No one wants to buy sexy diapers.”

  Jackson let the megawatt smile fade. It wasn’t working on her anyway.

  “You are known as a playboy. You have a different model or actress in your bed every other night. And that was fine until the Innocence Company started cashing in on the sweet nature of Jessica Balboa. She’s a mother that other mothers want to emulate.”

  “And that’s not me,” Jackson agreed.

  Jane stood up from the chair and put her hands on the front of the desk.

  “You hired me, Mr. Weathers, to fix the fact that every single one of your products is down this year,” Jane told him. She was all confidence. “Your brand hasn’t changed. Your prices and suppliers are all the same. The only difference now is the competition. And that means that we have to beat the Innocence Company at their own game if you want to be king again. You need to be the face that mothers want to trust their babies with. Right now, I wouldn’t trust you with a houseplant.”

  Jackson evaluated Jane for a moment before speaking. He hated that
she was making sense. The only change in the market was the addition of a new player. Jessica Balboa’s Innocence Company was doing something he wasn’t.

  “So, you want me to get married and have a baby,” he repeated back. “What if that’s not what I want? I’m not exactly looking to change my ways. I rather like a different model or actress in my bed every other night.”

  “And I’m not telling you that you can’t,” Jane replied, standing up straight. “Once you have this set up and people trust you again, you can go back to being the bad-boy billionaire. Until then, you have to be the epitome of fatherly love and trust. And that means no screwing up. I don’t care if it’s in a private setting or not. This is all or nothing. You can’t accidentally slip up with this.”

  She pointedly looked at the newspaper. He would have to say goodbye to his fun for a while if he agreed to this. He could understand that. If he had a wife and child, there was no way he could even go to a party where women threw themselves at him.

  It would be a difficult change. He wasn’t just reducing the sex he had with random beautiful women. He’d be giving it up.

  “And if I don’t do this? If I hire someone else to fix the brand?”

  Jane shrugged. “Your sales are down twenty percent this year and dropping. Last year, it was ten. Since the article ran, we’ve had two stores refuse to carry you. You can do the math on how long you have before the board kicks you out.”

  She was right. Something had to change. As much as he hated it, the change was going to have to be from him.

  Jackson sighed. “And you’re sure? You’re sure that this is the only way to salvage this?”

  “We’ve done countless market surveys. Mothers don’t trust you, and thus don’t trust your brand. If you sold condoms, you’d be a billionaire.”

  “I am a billionaire,” Jackson corrected her.

  Jane shrugged. “For how long? You can’t keep losing sales to the Innocence Company.”

  Jackson stood from his desk and stared out the window at the city skyline. It was early summer, which meant that all the women were out in flowery dresses and starting to show skin with the warmer weather. His favorite time of year.

  His eyes looked over to the photo on his desk. The black and white photo held a seven-year-old little boy pretending to answer the phone while his father smiled at him from the background. Jackson remembered that day in his father’s office. It was the day that Jackson knew his future was with this company. His future was W&W BabyCo.

  W&W had started out as a part-time idea from his father. With his father’s hard work, the company had grown, but it was Jackson who’d made it into a billion dollar enterprise. He’d taken his father’s small diaper company and created a line of baby care items the world couldn’t live without.

  Until now.

  He was watching his success, and with it his father’s memory, slowly fade. Something had to change.

  “You’re sure?” Jackson turned from the frame and looked out the window at the city below.

  “Positive,” Jane assured him. “In every test group, showing you as a caring father made people trust your brand again.”

  He turned slowly. “And it’ll all be for show?”

  Jane shrugged. “If that’s what you want. It has to be believable, though. Mothers have to believe that you’ve left your wanton ways and settled down.”

  “That might be harder than it sounds,” Jackson replied. He rather liked his wanton ways. They were a part of who he was. How could he possibly be with only one woman? It sounded like torture.

  But losing his company was a worse torture.

  “It’s only for a couple years,” Jane reminded him. “Once the public trusts you again, you can go back to your old ways. Albeit, you’ll have to be a little more discreet. As long as the public thinks of you as a caring father, your sales will reflect that.”

  Jackson sighed. This wasn’t going to be an easy thing to do. He liked his life. He liked knowing that he could have any woman he wanted. His world revolved around women and his company. He was going to have to give one of them up.

  “And the children?” Jackson asked, raising an eyebrow at Jane. “You’re sure just getting a wife won’t do it? I need a kid?”

  “You sell diapers, not women’s items. People need to believe that you would use these products yourself, not that you’re just hawking them like a used car salesman. They need to believe you.”

  “So the kid is non-negotiable?” He didn’t like the idea of bringing a baby into this world just to make him some money. It felt cheap and underhanded.

  “Yes,” Jane replied with a nod. “It’s the key selling point. You need a kid.”

  The more he considered the idea of the public trusting him with a baby, the more it made sense. He knew that his actions were hurting the company. He needed to change what the public thought of him. He needed to look like someone who would have a reason to sell diapers and baby supplies. He needed to be a trusted source, not just a supplier.

  He also knew that if he was going to bring a child into the world, he was going to be a father to it. The mother could come and go, but the baby would most certainly be his. He would make sure that kid had everything it could ever want.

  He looked at the photo again and thought of his own father. The man had been stern but kind. Jackson rather liked the idea of raising a son like his father had raised him. It was something he could get behind. He’d never really envisioned himself a father, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be an amazing one.

  Just because he wasn’t good at sticking with women didn’t mean he couldn’t be good at sticking with kids. Kids were special.

  “How will we convince my new wife?” he asked Jane. “Marrying me is easy money, but having a baby? That’s a little more complicated.”

  “It’s not like you have a hard time convincing women to sleep with you,” Jane replied with a shrug. “It’s not a big step from there.”

  She had a point. It was rather ironic, actually. For the past few years, he’d been doing everything he could to prevent having a child. He’d gone out of his way to make sure he didn’t knock up one of his one-night stands looking for an easy meal-ticket in the shape of child support. Now, he was going to have to try for that exact outcome.

  He looked at the picture of him and his father again. Jackson could do this. He could find someone that would play the part. And he would love the child. Staying away from women wouldn’t be the end of the world. And if it would save his business, he would do anything.

  Time held for a moment, the way it always did right before he made a big decision.

  “Okay.” He hated the way his stomach twisted. “I’ll do it. For the company.”

  “Excellent, sir,” Jane said with a hard smile. “I have a list of potential brides for you. They’re all in advertising, so they know what to do. I can have the agreement and a pre-nup to you by the end of the day.”

  Jackson nodded, feeling like he was being led by the nose to slaughter. This was how stallions felt on their way to become geldings.

  “I would recommend choosing someone that you get along well with, so I’ll have you do some interviews first. You need someone bright and bubbly. You should like her and most importantly, the public should like her. She needs to be good with kids, especially babies.”

  The phrase, “bright and bubbly” stuck out in Jackson’s mind. Good with kids. He looked away from his desk and directly at Jane.

  “You want someone to rival Jessica?” A thought was already turning in his head. “Someone who is sweet and kind, loves kids, and would look good on a billboard?”

  Jane nodded. “Not model good. Mother good. She needs to be attractive, but more girl-next-door and less your usual Barbie-doll. The market must believe that she’s a real person.”

  Jackson smiled. He already knew the perfect woman for the job. Someone he got along with and was possibly the most cheerful person he’d ever met.

  “I won’t need y
our candidates,” Jackson informed Jane. “I have someone in mind. As long as I can convince her, she’ll be perfect.”

  Jane looked at him. “Just give her that smile you gave me earlier and she’ll say yes to anything you ask. I would have married you on the spot if you’d asked me, and I’m already married.”

  Jackson grinned. He thought he’d lost his touch with Jane, but he still had it. He really could get to any woman in the world with that smile.

  Chapter 3

  Jackson

  * * *

  Jackson’s hands sweated. They were sticky and hot, and he wiped them nervously on his pants the entire way down the elevator.

  He hadn’t been this nervous since junior high.

  Asking out women was easy. He could smile and get any woman he wanted to hop in his bed for the night with hardly any effort. However, the idea of asking Emma to marry him and have his child to save his company made him nervous.

  So, halfway down to the lobby, he decided he wasn’t going to ask her directly. He was going to take her to dinner. That made his palms dry a little, but his heart still raced in his chest. He still made him nervous. She had turned him down before. She was one of the few women that consistently told him no.

  He didn’t know why she said no to him. As far as he knew, she wasn’t seeing anyone, and even if she was, he was fucking Jackson Weathers. No woman said no to him. The fact that she could say no actually made him like her more. She was unobtainable.

  Maybe that was why his hands shook as the elevator doors opened. Maybe that was why the butterflies in his stomach suddenly came to life. He had done hundreds of high power meetings with men and women worth billions, their entire companies on the line, and he hadn’t been this nervous.

  It had to be her. Emma was special.

  He took a deep breath, licked his lips, put on his smile, and walked into the coffee shop.

  She was at the register counting change out for a customer. He watched her for a moment. Her dark hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail under her company hat. He’d never seen it down, yet he had a feeling it would look lovely framing her slender face and big hazel eyes.