Daddys secret baby a con.., p.1
Daddy's Secret Baby: A Contemporary Romance Boxset, page 1
Daddy’s Secret Baby
A Contemporary Romance Boxset
Lauren Wood
Copyright © 2021 by Lauren Wood
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Her Naughty Rich Boss
1. Bishop
2. Gretchen
3. Bishop
4. Gretchen
5. Bishop
6. Gretchen
7. Bishop
8. Gretchen
9. Bishop
10. Gretchen
11. Dale
12. Gretchen
13. Gretchen
14. Bishop
15. Gretchen
16. Bishop
17. Gretchen
18. Bishop
19. Gretchen
20. Bishop
Daddy's Best Friend
21. Jacob
22. Karen
23. Jacob
24. Karen
25. Jacob
26. Karen
27. Jacob
28. Karen
29. Jacob
30. Karen
31. Jacob
32. Karen
33. Jacob
34. Karen
35. Jacob
36. Jacob
37. Karen
38. Jacob
39. Jacob
40. Karen
Epilogue
Housemates with Benefits
41. Mona
42. Cedric
43. Mona
44. Cedric
45. Mona
46. Cedric
47. Mona
48. Cedric
49. Mona
50. Cedric
51. Mona
52. Cedric
53. Mona
54. Cedric
55. Mona
56. Cedric
57. Mona
58. Cedric
59. Mona
60. Cedric
61. Mona
62. Cedric
63. Mona
64. Cedric
65. Cedric
66. Mona
67. Cedric
68. Mona
69. Cedric
70. Mona
71. Cedric
72. Mona
73. Cedric
74. Mona
Small-Town Affair
75. Orion
76. Mila
77. Orion
78. Mila
79. Orion
80. Mila
81. Orion
82. Mila
83. Orion
84. Mila
85. Orion
86. Mila
87. Orion
88. Mila
89. Orion
90. Mila
91. Orion
92. Orion
93. Mila
94. Orion
95. Mila
96. Orion
97. Mila
Epilogue
Best Friend’s Brother Secret (Sneak Peak)
Chapter 1
Also by Lauren Wood
About the Author
Exclusive Offer
Her Naughty Rich Boss
Blurb
When a man meets the one, he just knows.
I’d heard it before, but never believed it.
Now I believed.
Now I knew that there were things in life that were inexplicable.
The feeling I had for Gretchen was like that.
It started at an interview.
Gretchen was gorgeous, even if she had sadness in her eyes.
I knew her pain well.
I’d had a tragic loss of my own.
We bonded over the shared misery.
Then, we bonded on more intimate levels.
Gretchen was perfect in my eyes.
Her beautiful, lithe body called to me, curved in all the right spots.
Shiny black hair, bedroom eyes.
She was the catch of the century.
And I wasn’t the only one with a line in.
My partner, Dale, was obsessed with her as well.
He wanted her, though his need wasn’t as pure.
I tried to warn him off, but he kept coming.
When I didn’t move fast enough, Dale threatened to take it all away.
He was going to take away Gretchen and our baby.
Now, not only do I need to convince Gretchen of our shared fate, but I have to keep Dale at bay.
He goes too far, threatening what we had together.
I can’t let that happen, no matter who stands in my way.
Even my own friend.
***
1
Bishop
The phone had been ringing for the last twenty minutes since I got to work. Everything felt behind and then Dale walked in nonchalantly. He was late, like always, and he had the nerve to tell me to answer the phone.
“You can hear it too, can’t you?”
“Ah yes, Bishop, but I am a silent partner.”
“If that were the case, you wouldn’t be here, and you would actually be silent. Answer the phone or get out.”
He tightened his lip and I thought that he might buck with the idea of it all, but he didn’t. He just answered the phone, reciting the name of our investment firm and giving me a dirty look the whole time. Dale came from money and hadn’t really ever worked. This was new to him and after two years, he still wasn’t willing to get his hands even close to dirty.
After a minute, he hung up and I asked him who it was.
“I don’t know. It was for you, but they will call back tomorrow. Sounded urgent, but you know how most people are, everything is an emergency.”
I scoffed and determined that I was going to have to call whoever it was back.
“Why don’t you let the machine pick it up?”
“It’s full and I don’t have time to go through it. We need help in here, Dale, and if you don’t want to help me, then we need to get someone in here to answer phones and that sort of thing. I bet it wouldn’t be too hard to find someone to fill the spot.”
I waited for his railing on me trying to spend a dime more than what he thought was necessary. It was what Dale liked to call ‘austerity measures’, though to me it just seemed like Dale being petty. He had a trust fund that kept him going, so he wasn’t worried about a thing. I was, though. I had people to take care of in my family, so that meant I had more riding on it all working out how it was supposed to.
“You know that I am not coming in here every day and grinding it out. I was the capital.”
“Well, if you don’t want to lose your capital, something has to change. We either hire someone, you pick up the slack, or we end it now.”
He shrugged like it didn’t matter, until I reminded him what would happen if this went to hell. It meant that his father would be disappointed and that was far worse than anything else that Dale had to deal with. He wasn’t much of a man that cared what people thought of him, sure and cocky as the wealth made him, but he didn’t want his dad mad at him. His father, Richard, was the only person’s opinion that mattered.
“That’s a low blow. Fine, hire you some assistant or something to answer the damn phones. I called for almost ten minutes straight trying to get through, clients aren’t going to wait that long at all. We either have to have a smiling face to greet them, or we can kiss it all goodbye. You can see that, can’t you?”
I agreed and he was puffing out his chest like it was his idea or something. I didn’t want to talk to him when he was like this, greater than thou, but I didn’t have a choice. He was right. He was the finance side of it all, so he owned half. We were full partners, after all. I thought it was a good idea back then, but I don’t think it was going to work out. The longer the company was up and running, the worse off it became.
“Sounds good, Dale. You want to do some interviews and put an ad in?”
He grimaced at me. “I have a lot to do today.”
I nodded my head and ignored him, turning my back to him, while I tried to figure out the schedule and where I was going to find time to meet with enough investors to make a dent in the loss that we’d felt from the market hiccup.
“You can’t have someone do it for you?”
“No, Bishop. My assistant works for me, does what I want. When you get one, you will be able to order them around as you see fit.”
He walked off, with an air of bullshit around him. We’d been friends for years, but as we started to press on the bounds of our friendship, I started to realize that he was one of those fair-weather friends that I’d always heard about from my father. There when they needed you, but never when a favor was asked in return. He’d warned me about people like Dale, but apparently, I hadn’t listened.
Sighing out loud, I sat back in the chair and raked my hands through my black hair. Even that was out of whack, too long and in need of a trim. I looked back at the calendar that I was trying to set up and I gave up. There was no more time. I didn’t need an assistant, I just needed more time in the day, or the ability to sleep less.
My phone beeped at me with an alert and I turned it off quickly, glad it hadn’t lit up like that when Dale was here. He was n
“Help me, Bishop, please, help me!”
I could hear my sister’s voice, but I couldn’t see where she was. I tried to find her in the darkness, eyes scanning the water that was undisturbed, even though there were tire marks into the water. I knew that was where they were, but I knew that I couldn’t get to her, locked in the icy depths, her husband in tow.
I stayed on the beach for hours, yelling at her, willing my body to go through the invisible boundary that I couldn’t cross. I could hear her calling for help, begging me to save her, and I wasn’t able to do anything. I was frozen in place, just like she was when the rescuers finally brought her up.
I called out to her until I was hoarse, and then watched with avid fascination as they pulled her body out of the water, her husband laid beside her on the wet sand. I was calling to Abigail to wake up, begging her really, but she wouldn’t. She wasn’t going to get up, I just knew it. I could feel her life leaving her body, leaving me. Jared was already gone, lying silently beside her.
Waking up with a start, I could feel cold, icy breaths of the dream still on my skin. It was always the way of it, and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep, no matter how tired I was.
Rubbing my eyes at the edge of the bed, I tried to push the thoughts away. I had the same dreams for years and it wasn’t getting any better. Instead of being able to get through the loss of my sister and brother-in-law, I had taken it internally and felt overwhelming guilt.
My sister and her husband had been out for the night. They were going to the opera and had asked me to go. I’d refused because I didn’t want to waste my night in that way. What happened instead was pure chaos. I was at the office working when Abigail called. She was drunk and Jared wanted to drive. He’d been drinking as well. They needed me to get them home.
Instead of stopping what I was doing and getting my baby sister like I was supposed to, I called my driver instead. The business was doing well, and I was convinced that I was too busy for her. My driver had been called away and never got there to pick them up. Instead of calling a cab, keys in hand, Jared attempted to drive them home. He drove them off the side of a bridge and into the water instead.
I got a call from his cell phone a while later and I thought it was Jared, telling me that they had made it home. That’s what I expected, but it wasn’t what I got at all; instead, it was a police officer, surprised that the phone had made it in the water.
He was calling to tell me that they were both dead, my sister and her husband. Jared had been a good friend, but Abigail. I’d been told since I was young, that I was supposed to be there for her, no matter what. I wasn’t there for her. I failed her…
That was the same feeling that I woke up with every morning and I waved to it like an old friend. It didn’t matter the visit. I had to push it from my mind and get up. I had to fix my business and keep busy. If not, dreaming wasn’t the only time I would hear Abigail calling out for me to help her.
2
Gretchen
“Hi, you must be my two-o clock?”
I agreed and shook the proffered hand, trying my best not to stare. The guy that was interviewing me was actually the owner. I had read up on the company before I came for the interview. Two years before, Charleston Investments was one of the top in the country, the two partners were rich, and everything was going great. I can’t say that I got the same impression now. Something was definitely amiss here, but I had no idea what. I don’t know if I even wanted to know, anyway.
Bishop was just as handsome as his magazine cover had been, maybe even more so. He towered over me with a grin on his lips and a promise in his eyes. I had just met him, and my mind appreciated the way his hand engulfed mine. I would be the first to admit that my thoughts went out of bounds for a minute, but it wasn’t long before I pulled it back.
The man’s green eyes danced when he looked me over. It was quick, but I felt in full display in front of him, vulnerable and on display.
“Yes, Gretchen Jennings, nice to meet you. I didn’t realize that the owner would be interviewing me. I think I would have stayed up later preparing.”
He barely met my eyes before his attention was back down at the paper in front of him. I don’t know why, but there was obviously something that he was interested in. My resume was pretty standard, except for the full year that I didn’t have a steady job. I’d had several, but they were just random jobs I would work for a few weeks on the road, just making enough to get to the next town. It was my wandering year, while I was lost and trying to figure out what was next.
Bishop finally sat down and then his pale green eyes met mine and held me where I was. The intensity was rife for me to swoon. I almost considered it when moments passed and nothing was said.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but you look very familiar. Have we met before?”
I felt the knowing clench in the stomach and I hoped that I was going to be able to respond correctly, the way that I should. I was liable to say or do too much. It wouldn’t be the first time. It wouldn’t be the first time that I lost my cool in all kinds of situations, but it had been a year, longer than I’d imagined I would grieve. I couldn’t let it run my life for the rest of it.
“You must be thinking about my sister. She’s an actress, was…”
I could feel redness and pain going to my eyes. I fought back tears, something that I should have been better at, as much as I did it.
“Sorry. Yeah, my sister was in a lot of shows and commercials on the local front. You probably saw her.”
“Twins?”
I agreed. “Identical.”
His face searched mine for a moment and thankfully, he didn’t comment about the reason I got all teary-eyed. I was thankful for that. I don’t know what I would have said, and I probably would have embarrassed myself.
“Yes.”
“I am sorry. I remember now. I am sorry about your sister.”
I think that was even worse, but I managed to keep it together. She’d been gone for over a year now, and still, I could lose it in seconds. I just wanted her back and even though I was trying to move on, I was reminded of her always. Ashley was my best friend, and was like looking in a mirror. Now, she was gone. Forever. I had lost a part of me in the crash. A part that I’d spent a year looking for.
“You know, if it makes you feel any better, I know what you’re going through.”
