Billionaire Benefactor Daddy: A Single Dad & Virgin Romance Boxset

by Natalia Banks

  Lorraine and Griffin left the office while the IT guys came in and tried to fix the system. It would be at least forty-eight hours, which left the two an agonizing stretch of suspense and quandary. Sitting in the back of their limo, crawling down crowded Fifth Avenue, Lorraine folded her arms in front of her stomach from the increasing nausea she’d felt since those computers went down.

  “What does this mean for us,” Lorraine asked, “for the company?”

  Griffin was staring off, distant, clearly reflecting and not liking what he was seeing in that reflection. “Not sure,” he said, his uncertainty only stirring the nausea in Lorraine’s belly. “Depends on how much was backed up to that cloud thing, how much we lost.”

  “You really think Ki is responsible?”

  This caught Griffin’s attention, and he turned from the window. “You’re talking about Jeannie and Dennis.”

  “He is in charge of the accounting department. If anybody would be involved in embezzling from the company, if anybody would be well-placed to cover up any syphoning of funds, it’d be him, right?”

  Griffin nodded. “And he’s definitely involved with Jeannie.”

  “You picked up on that, too?”

  “Oh yeah, I’ve known it for a while now. Not that I object; to that, anyway. You think those two may have cooked up some pillow talk conspiracy?”

  Lorraine didn’t have to think about it for too long. “Set up a shell company, one of many, and route the funds to an outside account. Basically, they’d be buying and selling real estate with your money — ”

  “Our money,” Griffin said.

  “And keeping the profits.”

  Griffin scratched his chin. “I’ll put in a few calls when we get back to the penthouse, have the books audited.”

  “But Grif, if Jeannie and Dennis were ripping off the company, they’ll both just disappear, wind up on some island somewhere.”

  “Where Ki already is?”

  Lorraine had to nod as the limo turned a corner. “That’s a good point. It does seem suspicious, him just disappearing.”

  Griffin nodded, turning his gaze back to the window. “Could have planted that computer virus, malware would have set it off at a certain time, and by then he’s long gone. Who knows what he did or where he went? Could have flown out yesterday straight after work for all we know. I suppose I’ll have to hire a PI to track him down.”

  The limo drove on, closer and closer to home.

  “I don’t know, Grif. I mean, how would Ki have known to run at just the right time? Presumably, he’s been up to this for a while.” As Lorraine thought it out, other things occurred to her. “And why would he have given me that profile with Westmorland in it if he was the one stealing the money? He would have buried it, no?”

  Griffin gave it some thought. “Makes sense. Unless he was planning on pinning it on Dennis and Jeannie. I always did sense the tension between them.”

  “Yeah, Ki mentioned it to me, too. But that’d be a pretty clever plan.”

  Griffin shrugged. “Ready to leave at the drop of a hat, set up that virus, maybe make it look like Jeannie and Dennis planted it, implicate them in the whole mess. I don't know, seems almost too obvious, now that I think about it.” Lorraine sighed, leaning against Griffin. He put his loving, comforting arm around Lorraine and pulled her close. “Don’t worry, baby, we’ll figure this out.”

  “I guess my learning centers are on the back-burner.”

  “Along with everything else P..E. is up to.”

  A nervous tension passed before Lorraine had to prod, “How bad could this be for the company?”

  Griffin shrugged. “We’re privately held, so stock’s not a problem. But, we’ve got a lot of partners all over the world. If they perceive us as high-risk, they could pull out of our various projects, leave us in the lurch. That happens too many times, the whole company goes belly-up.” Lorraine leaned in even closer, the limo getting even closer to home. Griffin glanced at her and said, “So what if we lose every dime? We’ll still have each other … right?”

  Lorraine turned to him with a snap of her head. “Of course, Griffin, absolutely! I don’t care about the money, how can you even think that?”

  “I don’t, baby, of course I don’t. I shouldn’t have teased you like that.”

  “That’s right, you shouldn’t have!” Lorraine’s tone surprised even her, angrier and more frightened than she’d expected. The bubble of tension around them burst and the two looked at each other, old friends and soul mates. They could only break out in a self-conscious chuckle, Lorraine returning her head to lean on Griffin’s shoulder. He pulled her even closer.

  After a brief pause, Griffin said, “Maybe we should take a little trip.”

  “Grif?”

  “Sure, get outta here for a few days, let the dust settle.”

  “Let the — ? Gee, I don't know … ”

  “We need it, Lorraine, you need it. We keep talking about Jeremy taking some time off, maybe it’s time we took our own advice.”

  “Griffin, you really think this is the time to leave the company rudderless?”

  “Actually, it’s precisely the time. On the one hand, the news could pick up on this, and if it does that’s, bad news for us on a lot of fronts. How bad can things be if I’m out on holiday with my family, right?”

  Lorraine could see the logic, but she was less than convinced. “What about your PI, the audit?”

  “Best to let the pros handle things like that, Lorraine. I think we’ve learned our lesson about amateur sleuthing.”

  “You mean … the company profiles? That’s exposed a great danger to the company, Griffin. You should thank me.”

  “And I do, in a million different ways. But, now let’s leave it to the big dogs, eh?”

  Lorraine’s nausea got just a little bit worse. “If you say so, Griffin.” She couldn’t help wonder, Why does he suddenly want to get out of town? Is there some danger here he doesn’t want to tell me about?

  No, he’s my husband, I trust him, I have to trust him.

  Chapter 14

  “Nova Scotia?” Lorraine glanced out the window of the private jet.

  “It’s gorgeous there, Lo’,” Griffin said. “Elton John and Billy Joel own summer homes there, at least I think they do. Anyway, it’s one of the most beautiful parts of the world. And I got your dad an invite to spend the day on the set of that show he likes so much.”

  “You did, really?”

  “Yeah, but don’t tell him, I want it to be a surprise.”

  “He’s gonna flip. What time do they fly in?”

  “Six-thirty. We’ll get there early, have a little snack while we’re waiting, a limo’ll be waiting to pick us up, take us to the hotel.”

  Lorraine cuddled little Kayla. “I hope Jeremy has fun in Jamaica.”

  “He’s got as good a chance as anyone.” They chuckled.

  “I hope he stays safe. We should have insisted he go to Hawaii instead.”

  Griffin chuckled. “I think Jeremy’ll be just fine. He’s not exactly a big risk-taker these days.”

  “Yeah … ” She attracted Griffin’s attention, and she explained, “Well, I feel like that’s my fault. He used to be so … so outgoing, y’know? But, after Denver, he’s just kind’a closed up.”

  Ashe looked over from his seat next to the window. “He’s sad because he’s not in love with anyone.”

  Griffin and Lorraine turned with keen interest, on Griffin’s part especially. “What do you know about it, son? Has he been talking to you about that kind of thing?”

  Lorraine asked, “What kind of thing?” Griffin’s silent response was all the answer she needed.

  Ashe tilted his head and arched his shoulders. “He didn’t say anything, I can just tell. Remember after Mom died … ” Ashe glanced at Lorraine with a vaguely guilty expression.

  But, Lorraine just said, “It’s okay, Ashe, she was your mom, I understand that.”

  Ashe couldn’t
shake that bad feeling, but he did push through it. “Anyway, Dad, you were kind of the same way. Not like me, I mean, but … you were kinda just sad all the time, y’know?”

  Griffin smiled softly. “Yeah, I know.”

  “And I was really sad, really really sad … ” The bygone misery seemed to return to Ashe’s face, brows arching, mouth twisting in a tearful frown. Lorraine leaned into Griffin’s loving embrace, a single tear rolling down her own cheek. “But, even though it’s kinda different,” Ashe went on, “it’s also kinda the same, y’know what I mean?”

  Griffin wiped away his own tear. “Yes, son, yes I do.”

  The Pictou Lodge Beachfront Resort was rustic and windswept, the early summer already ripening over the Atlantic Ocean. The crisp Canadian air was bracing in Lorraine’s lungs, so different than the air in New York, which she quickly realized was terribly polluted by comparison. That star-starved sky above the Big Apple was bursting with stars over the Canadian wilderness, Halifax’s city lights no match for that celestial masterpiece.

  Sally poured herself another martini and glanced around Lorraine and Griffin’s suite, next door to their own. “It’s quite charming, dear, really. I never would have thought of Nova Scotia as a tourist destination — ”

  Larry looked up from his chess game with Ashe. “Quick and instantly, the boys shoot nearby,”

  Griffin and Lorraine shared a knowing glance before Griffin said, “Coincidentally, Sally, we’ve got a day planned for you at the best spa in town.”

  Genuine disappointment registered in Sally’s expression, eyebrows rising, mouth sinking. “I thought I was going to be spending time with the kids?”

  “They’ve got five-star childcare for Kayla, and for you; hot stone therapy, mud baths, deep tissue massage, saunas, hot tubs … ”

  “Well, that’s very sweet, but — ”

  Lorraine added, “Open bar.”

  “ — Well, I certainly wouldn’t want to be rude.” Lorraine and Griffin chuckled, turning to Larry. “You and Ashe have something else goin’, we’ll let that be a surprise.”

  Larry repeated, “A surprise? Sounds interesting,”

  “Tomorrow we’re spending the day together, as a family.”

  Sally and Larry both smiled, Ashe nodding with anticipation. He knew what the plan was, and like his parents, he couldn’t wait.

  Griffin hired a fifty-foot yacht for the day, with a full crew to pilot, cook, and serve. They were quiet and polite and stayed out of sight when they weren't serving the delicious seafood banquet, foods prepared specially for the baby, cocktails for the adults.

  The Best of Times headed east toward Sable Island, the Atlantic Ocean choppy and energetic around them. Lorraine had to concentrate to keep from becoming aroused, knowing this would be just the time and place Griffin would lure her down to a private room and break yet another taboo. The many times they’d rutted on his own yacht brought back sweet and spicy memories.

  Phantom pain returned to Lorraine’s belly, her body lurching forward just a bit. Griffin looked at her with silent concern, but she offered him a reassuring smile and looked out over the amazing view.

  There were other things on Lorraine’s mind, nothing lethal, if perhaps still vital. She said, “Grif, back in the jet, on the flight from New York, you said to Ashe, about Jeremy — ”

  “No, Lorraine.”

  After a tense moment, she said, “I think I have a right to — ”

  “I mean, no, Lorraine, I’m not a homophobe.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t have thought so, but, the way you talked about it — ”

  “It’s not appropriate for Jeremy to share the details of his personal life with Ashe, regardless of the … nature of that personal life. He’s an impressionable kid, Lorraine, and these are important years for him.”

  “You’re afraid Jeremy’s going to indoctrinate him in his gay agenda?”

  “No, Lorraine, no. I’m the one who hired Jeremy. I knew what his whole scene was, I didn’t care then and I don’t care now. But, I don’t want anybody unloading their personal baggage on my son. He’s got enough of that on his own, and you know that.”

  “No, you’re … you’re right about that, Griffin.”

  Griffin twitched, turning his head with some quick revelation. “No, actually, I’m not.”

  “Griffin?”

  “He’s our son, not my son. I misspoke, I apologize.” They shared a tender and nurturing smile. Lorraine couldn’t help notice Ashe looking at them from nearby, head downcast before he looked out over the ocean.

  Sally and Larry shared a worried glance, Sally shaking her head, rolling her eyes and taking a sip of her martini.

  Something caught Ashe’s eye, and he pointed to the waters just off the starboard side of the yacht. “Look, look at that!”

  Chapter 15

  A big dark fin cut the water along the side of the idling yacht. A shiver ran up Lorraine’s spine, she knew at once what it was. Ashe called out, “That’s a shark!” Ashe ran across the deck to the ladder leading to the lower deck, at surface level.

  Lorraine shouted, “Ashe, hold on!” Griffin was already following him down the ladder. Lorraine handed Kayla to one of the attentive staff, who faded back into the safety of the cabin so she and her parents could take their own trips down that ladder, to whatever awaited them.

  Ashe stood back as Griffin leaned down over the stern, tapping the surface of the water.

  “Griffin,” Lorraine shouted, “what are you doing, are you insane?”

  “It’s okay,” Griffin said, tapping the water and watching the shark as it doubled around and approached him. He even whistled, like he was calling a dog. Sally and Larry looked on in amazement, Lorraine in stark horror. Ashe was smiling, sharing his father’s confidence and sense of mischief.

  Griffin said, “Ashe, keep an eye out behind me.”

  Lorraine could only look on in horror, her parents in amazement, as the shark swam up to the bow of the yacht, Griffin still tapping the water, whistling. A lump rose in Lorraine’s throat, hand shivering. She reached out for Ashe, standing nearby, and clung to him for support. He seemed just as strong as his father, and somehow Lorraine derived calm and confidence from that mere twelve-year-old.

  The shark swam to the yacht, but didn’t charge. It seemed to float toward Griffin, its huge mouth gaping. Lorraine could only imagine that famous music from the movie, cellos pumping faster and faster as the shark reached out to within striking distance of her beloved, the man of her dreams, the love of her life, the father of her children.

  She wanted to cry out his name, urge him away from that terrible beast. Lorraine sensed that Griffin knew what he was doing, as he always seemed to do; and that she would only do more harm than good by disturbing him with a shout or even a peep. So, Lorraine held her stepson and held her breath.

  Griffin reached out, the shark met it with extended jawbones, teeth reaching out for him. Griffin grabbed the beast’s conical snout, holding it and the shark in the palm of his hand. The shark kept biting, black eyes rolling over white, but its jaws couldn’t reach Griffin’s arm as long as his hand was on the big fish’s snout.

  Lorraine gasped, Ashe chuckled a bit to himself, Sally and Larry shocked, stood stock still in amazement. The shark kept biting, ineffectual, Griffin giving him a little shove just to prove who was really boss.

  Then with another twist of the big shark’s snout, Griffin managed to turn the whole shark slowly over onto its side, fifteen feet or more in length, its gleaming white belly rolling over. The sun bounced off that shiny white surface, rising up to break the surface as the shark became motionless.

  Griffin waved them all over. “C’mon, hurry!”

  Ashe bolted out of Lorraine’s grasp, despite her instinct to cling to him and hold him close, out of harm’s way. But it was too late. The boy rocketed to his father’s side and knelt down, without having to be told what to do. He reached out and rubbed the massive great white’s underbelly wh
ile the colossal beast lolled in the water, tail offering up just the slightest splash, then nothing at all.

  Sally asked, “What’s happening, are they killing it?”

  Lorraine said, “It’s called tonic immobility, happens when you turn a shark upside-down, it goes into a trance. That’s how orca kill them.” At her parents’ open-mouthed expressions, Lorraine explained, “I was a librarian, you guys.”

  Ashe said, “C’mon, Lorraine, you gotta try it!”

  Lorraine was terrified, but she knew she had to prove to herself, and to the Phoenix men, that she was no longer the timid librarian of previous years, that she could keep pace with them or with anyone, that she was truly and indisputably worthy of the Phoenix name. So, Lorraine crossed the little deck and knelt down next to Ashe.

  Sally said, “Oh, please be careful, dear.”

  Lorraine reached out, her hand timid, but a reassuring smile from Ashe was enough to make her reach out and touch the shark’s belly. It was hard, pulsing with life, its power unmistakable even at the merest touch.

  “Rub down, away from the head,” Ashe said.

  “Yeah, I’m not gonna go toward the head, Ashe.”

  Ashe and Griffin chuckled, Griffin still holding the tip of the shark’s snout in his hand. Lorraine petted the huge shark’s belly, smooth as glass, wet and shimmering, its life-force seemed to race up her arm, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.

  Ashe smiled at her. “How do you like it?”

  Lorraine could hardly find the words, much less the breath to speak them. “It’s … it’s amazing.”

  Standing nearby, Sally said, “It certainly is.”

  Griffin gazed out over the water. “Uh-oh, looks like we got company.”

  Lorraine and Ashe looked up, a cluster of black fins cutting the water in even, rolling motions.

  “Killer whales,” Ashe said. “They’re gonna attack the shark.”

  “Maybe the boat, too,” Griffin said. “Help me roll him over.” Griffin grabbed one of the shark’s pectoral fins and pulled it up, slowly trying to heave the beast over. Ashe and Lorraine joined the effort, the killer creature’s weight surprising in Lorraine’s hands.