Expecting the Billionaire's Baby

by Andrea Laurence

  A Texas-size pregnancy surprise!

  Cecelia Morgan needs to take her business to the next level, and decorating the new luxury resort in Royal, Texas, is just the ticket. But at the meeting to pitch her designs, she comes face-to-face with Deacon Chase, her former flame from the wrong side of the tracks who grew up to be a billionaire hotelier. Turns out he’s the silent partner in this project. Their chemistry is off the charts. Too bad she’s spoken for.

  But when the blackmailer terrorizing the Texas Cattleman’s Club targets Cecelia, revealing a past secret that ruins her present engagement, she turns to Deacon for comfort...only to soon be expecting!

  Before he could ask what was wrong, or why she was here, she was in his arms and kissing him.

  At that point all Deacon could do was react. And in that moment, with the woman he had once loved in his arms again after all this time, he couldn’t push her away.

  Her mouth was hot and demanding as she kissed him. This was nothing like the sweet, hesitant kisses of their teenage years. Cecelia was now a grown woman who knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it. And from the looks of it, she wanted Deacon.

  He tried not to think about how her fiancé could’ve been the one to teach her these new tricks.

  That was the thought that yanked Deacon away from Cecelia’s kiss. He took a step back, bracing her shoulders and holding her away from him. “What are you doing here, Cecelia?” he asked. “Shouldn’t you be making out with your rich fiancé right now instead of me?”

  Cecelia silently held up her hand, wiggling the bare finger that had previously held the gigantic diamond he’d noticed that afternoon at the presentation. So the engagement was off, and just since he’d seen her last.

  * * *

  Expecting the Billionaire’s Baby is part of the series Texas Cattleman’s Club: Blackmail—No secret—or heart—is safe in Royal, Texas...

  Dear Reader,

  As I neared over twenty titles with Desire, I noticed something: I hadn’t been asked to participate in the Texas Cattleman’s Club series. Now, I get it, cowboys aren’t really my strength, but I have to admit my feelings were hurt just a teensy bit. So like any professional, I whined about it on Twitter to my editors. They hadn’t realized I wanted to do one! Of course I did. So when the next series came around, they found the perfect plot for me.

  There’s not a cowboy in sight. But that’s okay, because instead we have Deacon Chase, the sexy hotelier from the wrong side of Royal. He never fit in with the rich rancher’s kids and Dallas elite, but that didn’t keep him from catching—and keeping—Cecelia Morgan’s eye back in high school. Years later, he’s returning to Royal a billionaire with something to prove to the town and the girl that broke his heart all those years ago!

  I can’t wait for you to read Deacon and Cecelia’s story. If you enjoy it, tell me by visiting my website at www.andrealaurence.com, like my fan page on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I love to hear from my readers!

  Enjoy!

  Andrea

  ANDREA LAURENCE

  Expecting the Billionaire’s Baby

  Andrea Laurence is an award-winning author of contemporary romances filled with seduction and sass. She has been a lover of reading and writing stories since she was young. A dedicated West Coast girl transplanted into the Deep South, she is thrilled to share her special blend of sensuality and dry, sarcastic humor with readers.

  Books by Andrea Laurence

  Harlequin Desire

  Brides and Belles

  Snowed In with Her Ex

  Thirty Days to Win His Wife

  One Week with the Best Man

  A White Wedding Christmas

  Secrets of Eden

  Undeniable Demands

  A Beauty Uncovered

  Heir to Scandal

  Her Secret Husband

  Millionaires of Manhattan

  What Lies Beneath

  More Than He Expected

  His Lover’s Little Secret

  The CEO’s Unexpected Child

  Hawaiian Nights

  The Pregnancy Proposition

  The Baby Proposal

  Texas Cattleman’s Club: Blackmail

  Expecting the Billionaire’s Baby

  Visit her Author Profile page at Harlequin.com, or andrealaurence.com, for more titles.

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

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  To My Fellow TCC Authors—

  I loved sharing a little blackmail between friends. Looking forward to working with you all again!

  And To Our Super Editor Charles—

  If you can keep up with all twelve stories, you’re officially a superhero. I’m going to buy you a cape. Maybe some tights.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Excerpt from Pride and Pregnancy by Sarah M. Anderson

  One

  “You can do this, Cecelia.”

  Cecelia Morgan attempted to encourage herself as she looked over her portfolio for the hundredth time. Tomorrow, she was presenting her design plans to the board of directors of the new Bellamy Hotel. This was a big step for her and her company, To the Moon. The company she started after college specialized in children’s furniture, bedding and toys. From the beginning she had targeted a high-end market, catering to wealthy parents who were looking for luxury products for their children.

  The company had been a success from the very start. What had begun as a small online boutique had exploded into a series of stores across the United States after a celebrity posted on social media about how much they loved one of TTM’s nursery designs. Cecelia had been forced to open her own production facility and warehouse outside her hometown of Royal, Texas, to keep up with the demand.

  The portfolio on the desk in front of her, however, could take To the Moon to the next level. Designing furniture, toys and accessories for pampered little ones had been her first love, but now Cecelia was ready for her business to mature along with her tastes. The Bellamy Hotel was her chance to make this a reality.

  The Bellamy was a brand-new five-star resort opening right outside Royal. Owner Shane Delgado had contacted Cecelia about decorating and furnishing the hotel about a month ago, after a previous designer had been fired well into the process. This would be a big step for Cecelia. If she could secure the contract with The Bellamy, it would give her the footing she needed to branch out into the luxury adult furniture market.

  As her daddy always said, if you’re not moving forward, you might as well be moving backward. She was successful, but that wasn’t enough for the Morgans. Her subsidiary of To the Moon—Luna Fine Furnishings—could change everything for her.

  She was shocked that Shane had reached out to her, given he was pretty clear he’d dismissed her as part of the mean girls clique, along with her best friends Simone and Naomi. Admittedly, she wasn’t very nice to his girlfriend Brandee and recent gossip had been less than flattering about Cecelia and her friends. Some even suspected them of being behind
the recent blackmailings. Shane was taking a huge leap of faith inviting her to submit her ideas for this incredible opportunity; she wasn’t about to screw this up.

  Cecelia gathered up everything into her portfolio binder and slipped it into her leather briefcase. She’d probably gone over it a hundred times already. She needed to stop fiddling with it and just let it lie. It was perfect. Some of her best work yet. As usual, she was putting too much pressure on herself. Her parents certainly didn’t help matters. They always held Cecelia, their only child, to very high standards and never accepted anything less than perfection.

  She supposed that was why she was so successful. Brent and Tilly Morgan were practically Texas royalty and had raised their daughter to follow in their footsteps. She went to the best private schools, rode horses and competed in dressage in high school, and went on to graduate summa cum laude with a business degree from a prestigious Ivy League university. Anything less for the younger Morgan would’ve been unacceptable.

  While her parents had been supportive both emotionally and financially when it came to her company, Cecelia always worried that their support came at a price. If Luna Fine Furnishings wasn’t the success that she hoped for, she might never hear the end of it. The last thing she needed was for her father to pat her on the back and tell her that maybe she needed to just stick with the baby things. You know...woman stuff. Or worse yet, to hand the business over to someone else and focus on settling down with Chip Ashford to make actual babies instead of baby furniture.

  She wasn’t opposed to settling down with Chip—he was her fiancé after all—but she certainly didn’t want to throw away everything that she’d worked for in the process. Chip was a Texas senator, and he had been very supportive of her business so far. But Cecelia got the feeling that once they got married, Chip might feel the same way as her parents did.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t want kids. Cecelia wanted her own children more than anything. But she was confident that she could be both a mother and the CEO of her own company. She didn’t intend to set one ambition aside for the other.

  A chime sounded on Cecelia’s phone. She reached for it and tapped the screen to open up the Snapchat notification she’d just received for a private message. It took her a moment to realize what she was actually looking at. The picture was of a document with small text, but the header at the top brought a sinking feeling to her stomach. It read “Certificate of Birth” with the seal of the state of Texas on the bottom corner. The message across the screen was far more worrisome.

  Somebody has got a secret.

  Cecelia looked once more at the photo before it disappeared. It was then that she realized that this wasn’t just any birth certificate, it was her original birth certificate. The one issued before she was adopted by the Morgans.

  For a moment, Cecelia almost couldn’t breathe. Her adoption had always been kept a secret. Everyone, including members of her extended family, believed that Cecelia was Brent and Tilly’s biological daughter. Even Cecelia had believed it until her thirteenth birthday. That night, they’d told her that she was adopted but that they had kept it a secret for her own protection. The unfortunate truth was that her birth mother had been a junkie, and child services had taken Cecelia away from her when she was only a few weeks old. Her mother had overdosed not long after that, and she was put up for adoption. The Morgans thought that it was best if Cecelia’s birth mother and that dark past were kept secret.

  But someone had found out.

  Cecelia didn’t know how—she hadn’t even seen her original birth certificate before. A new one had been issued when her adoption was finalized, so someone had done some serious sleuthing to find it.

  Another image popped up on her screen. This one was a message written in letters cut from magazines like some sort of ransom note. She supposed that in some way, it was a ransom note. It demanded that twenty-five thousand dollars be wired to an account within twenty-four hours or her secret would be exposed to the entire town. It was signed, Maverick.

  Considering everything that had been happening in Royal, Texas, lately, she should’ve known she would be targeted eventually. Maverick had been wreaking havoc on the lives of Royal residents for the past few months. This anonymous blackmailer had been the talk of the town, and everyone at the Texas Cattleman’s Club had suspicions about who it could be. The most recent suspects had been Cecelia herself, along with Naomi and Simone.

  Cecelia was a busy woman. She ran her own business, served as arm candy for her fiancé’s various political events, was busy keeping up appearances for her parents and for Chip... She hardly had time in her schedule to get a manicure, much less to research and dig up dirt on her fellow residents. Her busy schedule and high standards made her come off as a bit snobbish, and Cecelia supposed she was, but she was no blackmailer. Unfortunately, the only way to prove it was to let everyone know that she was Maverick’s latest victim.

  That certainly wasn’t an option. She couldn’t have the whole town knowing that her entire life was a lie.

  Unfortunately, this wasn’t just her secret. Her parents had built their lives around their perfect “biological” daughter. They’d lied to countless family members and friends to keep up the charade, but they’d only done it to protect her. Paying Maverick was probably the only way to shield Brent and Tilly from the fallout.

  But hers wasn’t the only family she had to worry about. The Ashfords would have a fit. Chip came from a certain kind of family, and he believed that Cecelia was cut from the same cloth. Would Chip call off the engagement if he found out the truth? Their relationship was more about appearances and family alliances than love, but she hoped that Chip cared enough about her not to throw everything away if her secret got out. As far as she was concerned, she was a Morgan, through and through.

  And as a Morgan, it was her responsibility to safeguard her and her family’s reputation, or tomorrow’s presentation would go down in flames. Her reputation where Shane was concerned was hanging on by a thread as it was. Surely, he wouldn’t want a scandal to interfere with his hotel’s grand opening.

  But when did it stop? Would Maverick be content with the first payment, or would he drag this out until Cecelia was broke and her business was bankrupted?

  Cecelia clutched her head in her hands and fought off a pending migraine. She’d suddenly found herself stuck between a rock and a hard place, and there was no easy way out of this. She either paid Maverick, or the truth of her adoption would be spread all over town. The clock was ticking.

  She wasn’t sure what her path forward would be, but Cecelia knew what she was doing next. In her life whenever a crisis arose, Cecelia always called her daddy. This conversation, however, was one that needed to be had in person. She didn’t know how Maverick had found out about her adoption, but if her phone lines were tapped or her computer was being monitored, she couldn’t risk anything but face-to-face communication.

  * * *

  It took Cecelia over an hour for her to reach her parents’ mansion outside Houston. It was nearly ten o’clock by the time she arrived, but her parents would still be awake. As expected, she found her father sitting in his library. He was reading a book and smoking one of his favorite cigars.

  Brent Morgan looked up in surprise when he noticed his daughter standing in the doorway of his library. “What are you doing here, sweetheart? Your mother didn’t tell me were stopping by tonight.”

  Cecelia took a few steps into her father’s favorite room and took a seat in the leather chair across from him. “She doesn’t know I’m here. I’m in trouble, Daddy.”

  Furrowing his brow, he set aside his book and stubbed out his cigar. “What is it? Are you and Chip having problems?”

  “No, this isn’t about Chip.” With a sigh, Cecelia told her father about the message she had received. His expression had morphed from concerned, to angry, to anxious as she spoke.
“I’ve got twenty-four hours to wire them twenty-five thousand dollars, or everyone is going to know the truth.”

  “Our family can’t afford a scandal like this. And imagine the pain this would bring to the Ashfords. Surely this isn’t what you want. You’re just going to have to pay him,” he said, matter-of-factly.

  Cecelia hated being put in a position where she had no options, and being under Maverick’s thumb was the last place she wanted to be. The only real way to combat blackmail was by exposing the truth before the attacker could. If they beat Maverick to the punch they could put their own spin on her adoption and why they’d lied about it.

  “Are you sure, Daddy? I mean, I know you and Mother were trying to protect me, but I’m a grown woman now. I’d rather the story not get out. However, would it be the end of the world if people discovered I was adopted? Does it change anything, really?”

  “It absolutely does!” her father said with his face flushing red, making his salt-and-pepper hair appear more starkly white against his skin. “We’ve lied to everyone we know for thirty years. This would ruin our reputation. And what would the Ashfords think? They wouldn’t understand. Neither would my customers or my friends. I could lose business. Hell, you could get thrown out of the Texas Cattleman’s Club. It’s social suicide, and your mother’s heart couldn’t take the scandal. No,” he insisted. “This stays a secret. Period. I will loan you the money if you need it to pay the blackmailer, but you will pay him.”

  Cecelia noted the finality in her father’s tone. It had been the same when she was an unruly child, the same when she was a teenager testing her boundaries. She was an adult now, but Brent Morgan was still in charge. She didn’t have the nerve to go against him then, and she certainly didn’t have the nerve to do it now. She’d come here for his advice, and she’d be a fool not to take it.

  “No, I have the money. I’ll make the transfer in the morning. I just hope it is enough to put an end to all of this.”