by Eva Luxe
Billionaire’s Secret Baby
Copyright © 2018 by Eva Luxe; All Rights Reserved
Published by Sizzling Hot Reads
This book is a work of fiction and any portrayal of any person living or dead is completely coincidental and not intentional. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the author, other than brief excerpts for the purpose of reviews or promotion.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Greyson
Chapter 2
Cara
Chapter 3
Greyson
Chapter 4
Cara
Chapter 5
Greyson
Chapter 6
Cara
Chapter 7
Greyson
Chapter 8
Cara
Chapter 9
Greyson
Chapter 10
Cara
Chapter 11
Greyson
Chapter 12
Cara
Chapter 13
Greyson
Chapter 14
Cara
Chapter 15
Greyson
Chapter 16
Cara
Chapter 17
Greyson
Chapter 18
Cara
Chapter 19
Greyson
Chapter 20
Cara
Chapter 21
Greyson
Chapter 22
Cara
Chapter 23
Greyson
Chapter 24
Cara
Chapter 25
Cara
Epilogue
Greyson
Cara
Chapter 1
Greyson
The Spiced Cow was doing better than ever. After Caden had inherited his riches, he had invested the money in all the right ways. And it was paying off. I had loved working at the restaurant from day one, but seeing how Caden built it up made me feel like passion was never misplaced.
And neither was love. Caden had asked me to officiate his wedding with Harper. They had been married for six months already but seeing that it had been in a courthouse, Caden had wanted to surprise Harper with a ceremony the way she had always wanted. And because they were already legally married, he’d asked me to officiate. I didn’t need any kind of license or anything.
It was a great honor to be the one to lead one of my best friends and his beautiful bride into their life together. Harper looked like a dream and Caden looked at her like she was the only thing he saw. It almost made me believe in love. Almost.
I stood to the side, sipping a glass of champagne as I watched Caden and Harper move around from one group of friends to another. I had never seen a couple this happy or a wedding this relaxed and free of stress. We were all only friends here, no family. Somehow, that took the drama out of it.
Caden came to me while Harper took some time to talk to her friends. I grinned.
“You look a little lost,” he said.
I shrugged. My fingers were itching for a smoke, but I had quit a couple of weeks ago. I was twenty-seven and if I kept on smoking the way I had been, I wasn’t going to make it very far before my lungs gave out. I wanted to do way too much with my life to have to give in.
“I’m still trying to avoid taking smoke breaks,” I said.
“You’ll get there. You’re doing really well.”
I shrugged. It was going good with it, but sometimes it was a pain in the ass. I had given up smoking to be healthy, but in doing so had given up something that kept my hands busy, and gave me a reason to take regular breaks.
I changed the topic. Talking about smoking only made it worse.
“A married man, huh?” I asked.
“Yeah, for a while now, but somehow this makes it feel more real than the civil ceremony.” We watched Harper together for a while.
“You guys are really great together,” I said. The three of us had worked together at the restaurant from the start. Neither of us had believed that Harper would settle for a relationship. But miracles happened every day. I guess it was all about finding the right person.
“Thanks for doing this for us, man,” Caden said, clapping me on the shoulder. “You were a pretty good officiant.”
I snorted. “I think you mean pretty great.”
Caden laughed.
“I was happy to do it,” I said, and I meant it. Being a part of Caden and Harper’s wedding was an honor. They deserved happiness.
“You do realize that you’ll only get to be with one woman for the rest of your life now. No more games, no more one-night stands.”
Caden shook his head. “I don’t need any of that. Harper is everything I need and more. One day, you will meet the right girl and suddenly you’ll understand.”
“What?”
“One day, this will be you. Committing to the woman you love.”
I laughed. “It’s a nice thought, buddy.”
“I’m serious. I thought I would never find love and two months later I was married. Anything can happen.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t going to argue with him about love on his big day, but I wasn’t planning on getting hitched any time soon. I was happy as a single man. I was free to do my own thing, to take off whenever I wanted, or as my work allowed. I didn’t need a woman to mess that up for me.
Harper came up to us wearing a big grin on her face and I glanced at Caden. He had stars in his eyes when he looked at his bride, but I could see on her face she was going to start shit. It was the dynamic between the three of us. We were always going at each other.
“Looks like Caden had to ask you to officiate in order to get you into a suit,” Harper said. “I half expected you to still be in your leather jacket.”
I shrugged. “I thought it was a good day to ditch the jacket. It’s not every day that your best friends get married.”
Harper smiled and Caden put his arm around her.
“Seriously, though. You did a great job.” Harper looked around. “All of it is amazing.”
Caden had surprised Harper with the wedding ceremony, so he had needed the help of all his friends. I had spent a lot of time with him putting this together. I had to admit, Harper looked amazing. Caden had really pulled it off. I wasn’t sure how he had managed to surprise her like this because Harper was sharp, but he seemed to know exactly how to make it work with her. It was what made them so great together.
Harper and Caden, against all odds, had found love. And it seemed that they were better together than anyone would ever have imagined. Including me. I would never have thought that Harper could be serious about Caden, or that Caden had what it took to commit to someone the way he had chosen to commit to Harper.
“So, when is it your turn?” Harper asked.
I rolled my eyes. “Let’s just focus on your day for now.”
“Don’t tell me you’re scared of love,” Harper asked.
I shook my head. “I’m not scared. I just don’t need that right now. I want to be free and enjoy myself.”
Harper glanced at Caden. “Did you tell him?”
“Not yet,” Caden said, shaking his head.
“Tell me what?”
Caden and Harper glanced at each other before Caden grinned at me.
“Tell me,” I said. “Is she pregnant? Is that why you had to get married so fast? It wasn’t about the money, was
it?”
Harper shook her head. “Always so full of shit,” she said. “Are you sure we want to do this?”
Caden kissed Harper on the cheek.
“You guys are getting a kick out of this, aren’t you? I don’t think you want to tell me anything.”
Caden laughed. “Don’t be such an asshole,” he said. “Harper and I are giving you money. We also decided that because you’ve been with The Spiced Cow since the beginning, and helped it grow to the success it is now, we’re giving you thirty three percent of the restaurant.”
“Isn’t it the other way around?” I asked. “Shouldn’t I be giving you a wedding gift?”
Harper shook her head. “We already did it. We put the cash in your account. It’s a lot.”
I frowned and pulled out my phone. What the hell were they talking about? I logged onto my online banking and blinked at the screen. There were a lot of zeroes that didn’t make sense.
“What the hell is this?” I asked.
“Ten million dollars,” Caden said, matter-of-factly. I shook my head. It didn’t compute. I counted the zeroes and there were indeed seven of them.
I looked at Caden and Harper with wide eyes.
“Are you guys fucking with me?” I asked.
Harper laughed. “I told you he wouldn’t believe it,” she said to Caden.
“Better believe it,” Caden said to me.
“What’s it for?” I asked. I was struggling to make sense of it. I shook my head and rubbed my forehead with my fingers.
“It’s to say thank you for everything you’ve done for us,” Caden said. “You’ve been the best of friends, you’ve worked hard and you deserve this.”
I chuckled, finally starting to figure out what was going on.
“I can’t believe it,” I said. “This is crazy. Is this how you fire people?”
“The restaurant will always be there for you. This is home, you know? But you deserve to get out there and do what you need to do. Live your life.”
I stepped forward and hugged Caden. He laughed and clapped me on the back. When I let go of him, I hugged Harper, too. It was a lot of money and usually I would say no to a big gift, but the truth was I wanted this. My mind had already started running through all the things I’d always wanted to do and had never been able to because of money or my obligation to work at the restaurant. For money.
“This is a lot to take in,” I said. “It’s a lot of cash. Are you sure you don’t want to invest it somewhere instead?”
Caden shook his head. “I did invest it. In you. Besides, that inheritance was a lot. I have so much money, we’ll be okay with our other ventures. Trust me. We thought about this long and hard. We want to do this. If there is anyone in the world that deserves this, it’s you, Greyson. You’ve been there for us through everything, dropping whatever you were doing the moment we called. That shit doesn’t go unnoticed and now that I have the means to do this, I wanted to show you how much you mean to us.”
I shook my head again. I was starting to wrap my mind around it but it was still going to take me a while to understand exactly what had just happened. Shit like this didn’t happen to people on the daily. Not even when they won the lottery, which I was convinced was a scam, anyway.
But this? This was real. It was something my friend did for me and it was the most amazing gift he could give to me. Because with this money, came freedom.
And I had needed freedom for a long time.
“I don’t know what to say,” I finally said. “Thank you.”
“That’s all we need,” Harper said with a grin. “I am going to go mingle a little more.” She kissed Caden before she walked away from us. Caden and I stood side by side, watching her walk away.
“I can’t believe you did that,” I said.
Caden chuckled. “It’s nothing. And you may not thank me when the IRS comes knocking.”
“It’s not nothing,” I said. “I really appreciate it.”
“Do you have any idea what you’re going to do with it?” Caden asked.
“I’m still trying to let it sink in. It’s a lot of money, a lot to take in. I think once I wrap my mind around it I might have more of an idea. But I’d like to go to Idaho for a while. They have amazing hiking trails.”
“That sounds great,” Caden said.
I had always loved hiking and being outdoors. There was something about being in nature, nestled between tall mountain ranges or vast stretches of deserts that reminded me how I fit into the universe. I liked when it put my existence into perspective. Whenever I had an off weekend at the restaurant I planned a camping trip in the mountains somewhere. Now, I could do a hell of a lot more than merely an off weekend. The thought made me giddy.
“Are there a lot of women out there where you hike?” Caden asked.
I laughed. “Yeah, sometimes. But I’m not going for that.”
“You can always mix business with pleasure. That’s what I did and look where it got me.”
I shook my head, still grinning. Caden was full of shit. His ‘business’ had been trying to trick a lawyer into thinking he was engaged to Harper when they were no more than friends at the time. They had fallen in love in the process. I wasn’t up for that.
“Love isn’t exactly my thing,” I said.
Caden shrugged. “Never say never.”
“I’m not saying never. Maybe, one day. But not any time soon. I’m happy with my life.”
Caden pulled up his shoulders before he walked off to visit with his wedding guests. I stayed where I was, watching everyone. My mind still spinning with everything I could do with so much money. I pulled out my phone again and logged onto my banking app. Just to be sure the money was still in there, that it was all real. So many zeroes made me dizzy. There was so much I could with money like that. A new bike, camping trips, a bigger house. It would be good to invest some of it, too. And Caden wasn’t wrong about the IRS.
Luckily, I had time to think about what I was going to do with the money. Time was something I had more than ever now.
Chapter 2
Cara
One Month Later
I walked into the office just before eight on Monday morning.
“Morning,” Sarah said, from behind the reception desk. “You’re here early.”
“I had a yoga class this morning and decided to shower at the gym. Pointless going home again only to come in half an hour later.”
I put my bag and coat in the staff room and made myself a cup of tea. I hated the taste of coffee and had seen first-hand what kind of stains too much coffee can create on someone’s teeth. As a dental assistant, I had seen the worst of the worst.
“What do we have today?” I asked Sarah, when I returned to the lobby with my cup of tea.
“You have Jeremy coming in at nine. He’s here for his fillings.”
“Poor thing,” I said.
Jeremy was nine and terrified of getting his fillings. He had nearly hyper-ventilated for the consultation alone.
“Did Ruth stock the candy jar?” I asked.
“She did,” Sarah said, “but I still think it’s counterproductive to give the kids sweets after their dentist appointment.”
I chuckled. “We have to get them to come back somehow. Besides, if everyone’s teeth were perfect we’d be out of a job.”
Sarah shook her head, smiling.
“Your logic is messed up.”
I chuckled and walked into the examination room where I always assisted Dr. James Cordon. I switched on his computer for him, made a cup of coffee—James wasn’t bothered by everyone else’s stains—and checked the cabinets for the stock I would need for the first few patients. I liked to be prepared.
At nine on the dot, Jeremy arrived with his mother. His eyes were big and round, his bottom lip already trembling.
“Morning, big man,” I said to him. “Come on, have a seat. Doctor Cordon will be here in a couple of minutes. Are you nervous?”
Jeremy nodded, cl
utching onto his mom’s hand.
I smiled reassuringly. “You don’t have to be. You’re a strong boy. I saw you last time. And your mom is going to sit right over there.” I pointed at the chair in the corner. “And I will be here, too.”
“Will it hurt?” Jeremy asked.
I shook my head. “Doctor Cordon has the softest hands in the Northern Hemisphere. He does my teeth, too.”
Jeremy finally let go of his mom’s hand and clambered onto the dentist chair. I let him sit back and started prepping him for James while I prattled on, telling him exactly what James was going to do so he knew what to expect. There was nothing scarier than the unknown when you were a kid. Hell, adults too for that matter. Nobody likes the unknown.
“That’s it,” I said, when I was done prepping him. “Now all we need to do is wait for Doctor Cordon.”
“I don’t want to do this,” Jeremy said with a thin voice. “I want to go home.”
“I know,” I said, in soothing tones. “But we’re all here to make you feel better. Otherwise, you have to walk around with the holes in your teeth and it will hurt more and more as time goes by. Then the problem gets worse and that’s no fun at all. Right?”
Jeremy nodded.
“But if we take care of it now while it’s still a small problem then it doesn’t get worse and it is easy to fix. Besides, if you stick it out, you get a piece of candy when you’re done.”
Jeremy smiled. “I guess that’s okay.”
“It’s more than okay. Ruth bought it and she buys the best candy. Ever.”
James arrived, walking in with a smile. He was almost fifty with graying hair and watery blue eyes. He was friendly, the type of guy that could be anybody’s grandpa and the patients all loved him. His eyes fell on me as soon as he walked through the door before he looked at Jeremy.
“How’s my little champion today?” he asked. “Ready?”
“Sort of,” Jeremy said.
“Good,” he said. “With the beautiful Cara here you’re in good hands. We’ll get you taken care of as quickly as we can and then you’ll be done and on your way.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes at James’s backhanded compliment.
