by Amie Denman
A Secret Baby on the Billionaire’s Yacht
A Sweet Billionaire Romance
The Billionaire Yacht Club, Book One
by
Amie Denman
A Secret Baby on the Billionaire’s Yacht
Dear Reader
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
A note from the author
Dear Reader,
Opulent yachts, fine dining, luxury, adventure, and sexy billionaires. I invite you to indulge in all these delights in my new series The Billionaire Yacht Club. In the first book, billionaire Luke Monroe has everything on his mega yacht including a secret baby, his best friend’s wedding, and an off-limits attraction to his best friend’s sister. Hosting a wedding on his yacht with a honeymoon tour of the Greek Islands should be a welcome escape from his automotive empire, but Luke quickly realizes he’ll have a hard time keeping his head above water when love takes his breath away.
I hope you enjoy this book, and please visit my website www.amiedenman.com, follow me on Twitter @amiedenman, or visit my Amazon author page for updates on the rest of the series coming in 2020.
Bon Voyage!
Amie
A Secret Baby on the Billionaire’s Yacht: A Sweet Billionaire Romance
Copyright 2019 by Amie Denman
All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work, in whole or part, by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, is illegal and forbidden.
This is a work of fiction. Characters, settings, names, and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination and bear no resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, places or settings, and/or occurrences. Any incidences of resemblance are purely coincidental.
Chapter One
Luke Monroe stood alone on the deck of his massive yacht. Named for his mother and his aunt who raised him, the Paige Ellen drifted calmly in the Aegean Sea. His crew was busy below deck, except for the ones piloting the tender to pick up the wedding guests who’d flown into the Athens airport.
The water below him was blue and green and all kinds of colors he could hardly describe. When was the last time he’d tried to think of a word that meant blue mixed with green? He usually cared about metrics, performance, engineering, and power. All of those things combined in his amazing yacht that he took a secret pride in but didn’t use nearly enough.
A wedding. All eight bedrooms on his yacht would be filled with the wedding party and their guests. Hosting his best friend’s wedding was the finest opportunity he was ever going to get to repay the Benedict family for all their kindness when he was a skinny, lonely kid.
He wasn’t that kid anymore. He never worried about the roof, the car payment, or his next meal—unless he was trying to decide between two five-star restaurants. But he would never forget what he owed Grady Benedict and his family. Throwing a lavish party aboard the Paige Ellen to celebrate Grady’s finding the love of his life felt good—far better than anything he’d done since his own wife passed away almost three years ago. Was it three years? He should know. Should be able to count the days and months she’d been gone.
The fact that he couldn’t—didn’t—tortured him more than the empty walk-in closet in his lakefront Michigan home they’d shared for only a few years.
“I could bore you with all the details,” a voice said from behind him. “But that’s what you hire me for.”
He didn’t have to turn around. “Maria, you’re the best.”
“But in case you want to take a personal interest in the accommodations before your guests arrive, you can see it all right here.” Maria, his personal assistant who appeared somewhere between forty and seventy, depending on the light and how tightly she pulled back her hair, shoved a tablet at him.
“You showed me last week,” he said. “And I have total confidence in you.”
He had to trust the people who worked for him. In his business, he had to pay attention to every detail and there was no time for mistakes and do-overs. In fact, a seven-day wedding cruise in the Greek Isles exploded his tight schedule, but here he was. He didn’t owe anyone an explanation for why it was so important to him, and he would never own up to the quiver of nerves one particular member of the wedding party ignited in him.
“There have been a few changes,” Maria said. “I moved the groom’s parents to a room where they’ll have fewer steps to get to the dining room and sundeck. Bum knee.”
Luke nodded. He knew Grady’s dad had taken a fall on a construction site and was toughing out a knee injury that probably needed surgery. Grady’s dad Bill had been a city engineer and had been home for dinner every night. Luke had eaten plenty of dinners at the Benedict table in the small kitchen with scuffed linoleum and a stove that was a slightly different shade from the refrigerator.
“And the groom’s sister,” Maria continued.
Luke felt his heart still. His pulse stutter. His breath catch.
“Grady asked for a larger room for her because she’s bringing someone.”
His pulse throbbed in his ears now. Autumn Benedict was bringing someone. She had every right, of course. The invitations for the few single guests had included a plus one. But she had a boyfriend? Fiancé? No one had told him. In fact, he hadn’t heard a word about her in—God, had it been two years? More?
Not since that night.
“I can see you’re not interested,” Maria said. “I recognize that look. My teenagers used to have that same expression when I tried to talk to them while they were playing video games.”
Luke cleared his throat and ran his hand along the smooth railing, calming his thoughts by focusing on the elegant teak under his feet and the powerful engines in the three-hundred-foot yacht. He hadn’t made billions by letting his emotions get in the way of his thinking, but he was still surprised he fooled Maria. She thought him uninterested in the Benedict family rooms aboard his yacht and couldn’t possibly know there were whirlpools under the surface of his tranquil expression.
He’d need the skill of appearing calm a lot in the coming week.
“I’m interested in everything that happens on my yacht,” he said, forcing a smile for Maria. “But I’m so confident you have it handled that I don’t want to insult you by micromanaging.”
Maria laughed. “Nice try.” She glanced at her watch, tapped it, and read a message. “Guests departing downtown Athens. Six in the first group, and eight coming in a few hours.” She cocked her head and grinned. “I’ve worked for you for five years now, but I’ve never helped you plan a wedding. If it goes well, I might quit and start my own wedding planning business.”
“Then I hope you hate every minute of it,” Luke said, flashing a grin at his assistant. “I can’t replace you.”
“Everyone is replaceable,” Maria said. “Start watching for your guests. You should see your tender coming out of the harbor soon.”
She walked away, but she left Luke thinking about her words. Maria was right about most things, but she was wrong about one. Everyone was not replaceable. He’d fallen out of touch with the Benedict family during the past two years that he’d spent almost entirely in Europe, and he relished the chance to reconnect with them. All of them.
Luke leaned on the railing. Who would be on the first boat?
The anticipation ate a hole in his gut, so he tried to think about something else li
ke the new patents his company had just acquired for a car safety system that could revolutionize the industry. Holding the patent could mean—would mean—millions for his automotive manufacturing company. He remembered the early days when he had ideas but no money for protecting them. Plenty had changed since then, but he still felt just as possessive of his ideas. His intellectual property. His hard work had propelled him, his mother, and his aunt out of a run-down house on a shabby street.
He breathed deeply of ocean air. The Aegean Sea, a place he’d once only dreamed of seeing was laid out in front of him like a greeting card offering him congratulations on his success.
A white boat caught his eye. It could have been any of the private pleasure crafts that navigated the harbor out of Athens, but it was on a direct course toward the Paige Ellen. Luke didn’t take his eyes off it. After two lonely years, Luke was anxious for a glimpse of his childhood friend. Grady had defended him when necessary, called him out when he deserved it, and offered him friendship when he’d needed it most. He still did.
And Grady’s little sister? Luke rolled his shoulders and breathed deeply. He was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a guy who took advantage of his best friend’s sister no matter how beautiful she was.
Minutes passed, and then the gleaming white vessel pulled up alongside the long swim platform of his yacht. Luke turned and dashed down two flights of outdoor stairs. His owner’s suite and private lounge took up the entire upper deck, but the main deck he passed on his way down would offer opulent cabins and amenities including a lounge and pool for his guests.
On the lower deck, Luke strode across to offer his hand to guests stepping off the thirty-foot tender. Grady was the first person off the boat, and Luke was glad to see his old friend hadn’t changed in the two years since he’d seen him. Luke had finally given up a height rivalry during their sophomore year in college and conceded the inch Grady had on him.
“You look happy,” Luke said. “Is it true you’ve talked someone into marrying you or is this just an excuse for a vacation?” Their handshake turned into a quick hug and then Grady turned to the person behind him.
“I keep waiting for her to change her mind,” Grady said. He put an arm around his fiancée who gave him a sheepish grin. “This is Kelly, but she’s a bit seasick.”
“Only a little,” she protested, shaking hands with Luke. “And it’s my own fault. I kept turning around to see the view of Athens on the way out here and riding backwards…you know.”
Aside from being a little green and pale, Luke’s impression of Kelly was that she seemed just right for Grady. They had similar dark blonde hair and friendly smiles, and they looked like they fit. He swallowed. He doubted he’d ever looked like he fit with his wife, even during their wedding and honeymoon.
“I hope you won’t notice any movement aboard my,” he hesitated, uncomfortable calling it the superyacht that it was in front of his unpretentious friends. He knew Grady had recently gotten a job at a law firm in Detroit and Kelly taught dance classes. “Aboard the Paige Ellen,” he finished, calling the boat by its name instead.
“I’ll be fine,” Kelly said, gesturing at the yacht. “How could I not be on such an amazing boat. And how can we thank you enough for making our wedding incredible?”
“It’s my pleasure,” Luke said. He tried glancing past the bride and groom to see who else was coming off the boat. Was Autumn there? And who was she bringing?
Grady’s parents appeared behind him and his bride, and Luke offered them a welcoming hand as they stepped onto the deck.
“The true guests of honor,” he said and they laughed. He hugged them both and was amazed that Grady’s mom still smelled like cinnamon rolls baking, even halfway around the world from their Detroit neighborhood. He handed their bags off to a waiting crew member and looked past them to the tender. He loved the entire Benedict family, but there was one he truly was dying to see. He caught a glimpse of long blonde hair floating on the Aegean breeze as its owner bent over to retrieve something from her seat on the tender.
He started forward to offer help with her bag, but Autumn turned and their eyes met and held for just a moment before he saw what she had on her hip.
A baby. A boy, judging from the blue sailor’s outfit and cap he wore.
Autumn Benedict had brought a baby on his yacht?
Seeing her with a baby—some other man’s child—hit him like a baseball bat.
He’d been hit with a ball bat before. It was Autumn who had taken a wild swing when he and Grady had allowed her to play with them. Luke still had the scar near his hairline where six stitches had closed the wound. Grady’s parents had paid that emergency room bill, insisting it was the right thing to do since Autumn had swung wildly and let go of the bat. But Luke knew his family’s poverty was no secret and the real reason for their generosity.
What he didn’t know and couldn’t have predicted was how much his heart had been tangled up with Autumn’s for too long to think about. And now she was on his yacht, his guest, under his protection for the next seven days.
She glanced up and smiled at him. Not the wide smile so much like her brother’s that he expected, but a hesitant one. She gripped a railing on the smaller boat to maintain her balance with her child on her hip, and Luke sprang forward. He reached her in one long step and put a steadying hand on her arm.
“Welcome aboard,” he said, struggling to play the gracious host as a thousand questions whirred through his mind. He’d given and received easy hugs from her parents and brother. But how could he hug Autumn as if she were just an old family friend…just the girl who’d grown up down the street…when a question racked him to the core?
When had Autumn had a baby, and why hadn’t anyone told him?
****
It was over. The first initial meeting, the first shock. She hadn’t planned for it to be that way, right there in the unrelenting sunshine, wobbling on her feet before she got her sea legs. Autumn held her son close, taking courage from his sweet baby smell and his soft hair under her lips as she brushed a kiss over his sleeping head.
“Thank you,” she said in a low but friendly voice. She had known Luke for years, knew the colic in his hair that was exposed in the breeze at the moment. Knew he was exactly ten inches taller than she was and had been for a decade. Knew how hard he’d worked to make something out of nothing. “And thank you for having my brother’s wedding aboard your boat.”
She knew she should have said yacht, but it was too late and he didn’t correct her. This was probably her one and only chance to spend a week living like a millionaire. Or was he a billionaire now? Either way, she was determined to get through it for her brother’s sake. He deserved a peaceful and happy wedding.
If only her brother’s dream wedding didn’t involve a collision of forces that could prove disastrous. She cradled Carter’s head protectively against her chest. He’d fallen asleep on the boat, the gentle rocking soothing him after a tough day of travel. The flight from Detroit to New York and then on to Athens had been endless. She didn’t know how her parents still seemed so chipper after helping her by taking turns with a fussy child. Never once had they suggested she leave Carter at home with a reliable friend, even though it would have been so much easier. Her brother was running on full love-fueled adrenaline, but she was so exhausted she could hardly stand.
Still, Luke’s hand on her arm was too much. Too tempting. She should be an expert at resisting his charms after being half in love with him since she was fifteen. Thirteen long years of knowing her brother’s best friend was out of her reach. Only seven years older, he’d always been just beyond her touch. Not counting that one night. No, there was no counting, recounting, or calling back that reckless night.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Luke said. “Your family, I mean. You know how much you all mean to me.”
She smiled, happy to have her feet on the solid surface of the massive boat—yacht—and anxious to stick to the pleasantries. Safe topics
like her family, her brother’s future happiness, the amazing luxury vessel Luke’s business success had bought him.
“Who’s this little guy?” Luke asked, nodding at the boy. Autumn noticed he didn’t touch him, and she was glad. She didn’t want to wake a sleeping child, she told herself, even though the real reason was a match waiting to be struck.
“My son,” she said. “Carter.”
Luke nodded, a question in his eyes. “I didn’t know you got—”
“Married?” she asked. “Nope. I didn’t. Carter is just my son.” She shrugged as if his parentage was no big deal. And that was the way she had thought of him throughout his eighteen-month life. He was hers. Only hers. She’d never told her family about his father, and she’d tried to bury the fact so deep in her heart and her past that she could often go an entire day without remembering the one-night stand that had given her the gift of the precious boy but raised every eyebrow in her world.
If it weren’t for her job as a school secretary where there was a daycare facility on site and she had summers off, she wouldn’t be able to manage, or at least she didn’t know how she would. School would start again in another month, and she was already dreading being separated from her little boy, even if it was only a few hours at a time and he was in the same building.
“My assistant said you had asked for a bigger room,” Luke said. “Is there anything else I can get you? Any arrangement like a—” He made a big square with his hands as if to indicate a crib.
“I have a portable crib with me,” she said. “I came prepared, and it even survived being crammed into the luggage compartment of two different airplanes.”
Luke’s smile relaxed. “You’ve had a long day. All of you. I’ll make sure you all find your rooms and you should rest until dinner. Put your feet up or…something.”
She knew it would be awkward. They hadn’t seen each other or spoken since that night when she’d meant to offer him comfort and ended up offering him far more than that. She would take that secret to her grave because no one would understand. Even—especially—not her family. It was the timing. Disastrous timing that would make explanations ugly and her—their—actions seem unforgivable.
