The Billionaire's Baby 2: A Single Dad Romance Read online

  Table of Contents

  The Billionaire's Baby 2

  Copyright

  Book description

  1 - Hollie

  2 - Jude

  3 - Hollie

  4 - Jude

  5 - Hollie

  6 - Jude

  7 - Hollie

  Filthy Billionaires Sample

  mASSterclass Sample

  The Billionaire's Temptation Sample

  The Billionaire's Baby 2

  LILA BELLA

  Copyright © 2017 by Lila Bella. All rights reserved worldwide.

  No part of this publication may be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any form without the prior written consent of the author/publisher or the terms relayed to you herein.

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  ***

  The Billionaire’s Baby

  When they find out who I am, they always want to know what it’s like to f*ck a billionaire. Screw that. I’ve got a kid to take care of.

  It’s true what they say: money can’t buy happiness. I can’t trust anybody, especially not all these gold diggers lining up outside my office. I don’t need another bimbo as my secretary–I’ve had more than enough already.

  No. This time, I need someone who can take care of what I cherish the most in this world: my baby girl. My new nanny is the only good thing that happened to me and my daughter ever since my ex-wife left me.

  But here’s the problem: I want her. She’s the most beautiful, most desirable woman I’ve ever seen–and I’ve seen a lot! I can’t risk it all. Giving in to the temptation could ruin everything... but I can’t help it: I’m falling for her.

  1 - Hollie

  “Oh my God, what do I do? She won’t stop crying!”

  I sobbed into the phone, at my wit’s end because Kaylee had been crying for an hour straight.

  I’d changed her diaper, offered her a bottle, and even put her down for a nap with her favorite mobile playing the music that always put her to sleep, but nothing was working. Nothing! I didn’t know what else to do, so I called Violet for help.

  “Okay, have you…” she stared, but I interrupted her.

  “I’ve done everything, Vi. What the hell do I do?”

  “Stay calm. Can anyone there help you?”

  I let out a harsh, dry laugh. “They won’t do anything. They won’t even talk to me.”

  I was sitting on my knees on the floor of the nursery, my phone pressed against my ear. Kaylee lay in her crib, howling and wailing. I sniffled a few times as my sobs finally subsided.

  Just having someone on the other end of the line seemed to help a lot, another human voice, an adult voice instead of the wails of an unhappy child.

  “I’m on my way. I’m already in the car and I’ll be there in a minute. Will they let me in when I get there?”

  “Probably.” I didn’t know, really. I hoped so, since they’d seen her before and Jude had supposedly told them it was okay for her to come over.

  “I’m hanging up so I can drive, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Hang in there.” She disconnected and left me sitting there, all alone with a crying baby who showed no signs of letting up.

  I dropped the phone into my lap and covered my ears. I couldn’t handle any more of the crying. I started crying again, closing my eyes tight as I tried simply not to hear the baby, the cursed baby.

  “Hollie.”

  Violet’s gentle voice and soft, reassuring hand on my shoulder brought me out of my paralysis.

  They’d let her in after all, and she was already moving toward the screaming baby in the crib. I watched as she picked Kaylee up and cradled her against her shoulder.

  She didn’t say anything to baby, at least not any actual words. She made a few incoherent, soothing sounds as she put Kaylee in place and started to gently rock her body from her hips. Kaylee started to dry up her tears and quiet down. In no time she was her normal self again.

  “Sometimes, all you have to do is hold her. Babies aren’t that difficult if you don’t let them get to you. And this one is especially sweet.”

  She pressed Kaylee’s fingers to her mouth and kissed them. “Yes, you are. You’re just the sweetest little thing.”

  The baby actually smiled and giggled. What had I been doing wrong that something so simple was beyond my ability? She made it look too easy.

  “She’s more than diapers, bottles, baths, and naptime, you know,” Vi reminded me.

  “I know,” I sighed, getting up from the floor. I put my phone in my pocket and walked over to the two of them standing in the middle of the room.

  Kaylee didn’t even look at me as I ran a curled finger down her soft cheek. Had I been that bad? Had I been that distant and removed?

  “You’re going to be in trouble if this is the best you can do,” Violet told me. “You’ve got to do better and up your nanny game here, Hollie.”

  “I know.”

  “She’s not some strange little animal. She’s a little human, and the same stuff that applies to us applies to her. She needs affection and attention the same as we do. In fact, she needs it more. You can’t put her down and leave her alone, just ignoring her like she’s not there. You have to hold her, pat her back, and show her that she is loved.”

  I mustered up a small grin and wiped a few leftover tears away. I didn’t know if I had it in me at the moment to be tender and caring.

  She’d taken a lot out of me that morning with her little tantrum. I thought I’d been doing okay, until things went south that morning.

  “You don’t have a rocking chair or a glider in here, do you?” Violet looked around the room, searching for a chair to help her rock Kaylee to sleep.

  “There are a couple of recliners in the family room,” I told her.

  “Is there a place in there to set her down once she’s asleep?”

  I nodded. “There’s a small crib down there.”

  “To the family room then,” she said, nodding toward the door.

  I led her downstairs to a den that was off to the side of the house, tucked away from the large, open living and dining room. It was a cozy little room with a warm atmosphere.

  There were a couple of bookshelves, a TV mounted on the wall with a small stereo underneath, a small sofa, and a couple of recliners. The crib sat next to one of them, and there was a small round table between them.

  “I haven’t really spent much time in here,” I explained as we came in. “It feels sort of private, you know?”

  “It’s totally different from the rest of the house,” Violet agreed. “Totally different indeed.”

  She was right. Other than the bedrooms, the rest of the house was very plain, very clean and sterile. The family room even made the bedrooms feel as cold and impersonal as the rest of the house.

  “This would be where I would spend all of my time. Either here or in the nursery,” Violet added, as she sat down in one of the recliners with Kaylee.

  “You think?” I looked around the room again. It still felt very personal, like it belonged to Jude and someone else. I didn’t feel welcome in there for some reason, like I was an outsider, an intruder.

  “Absolutely. See, the kitchen is right through that little doorway there, so you’re not really isolated in this room, but it’s not so empty. Try it. Sit down here with her tomorrow or whenever, and spend most of your day in here. You should notice a difference in both of your moods.”

  She’d been rocking in the recliner the whole time she was talking, and I noticed Kaylee was already fast asleep
. That baby was passed out on Violet’s shoulder.

  Her eyes were closed, her little mouth was hanging open, and she had a fist balled up in front of her face. My heart melted at the sight. I couldn’t stay upset about the fit she’d thrown earlier, not when she was so adorable.

  Violet mouthed the words watch this as she sat up slowly and carefully lowered sleepy little Kaylee into the crib next to her chair.

  She winked at me and gave me a nervous smile that told me she was hoping it would work, though there was an air of confidence that told me she believed it would. She pulled the tiny little blanket up over the baby, and we both held our breath as we waited to see if she would stay asleep.

  She didn’t even move. Success!

  “Good job.” I sat back in my recliner and kicked my feet out, pushing back so that I lowered the back of the chair. I spoke in a low voice, trying not to wake the baby.

  “And if you do it with the TV on, some background noise, you don’t have to be as quiet. Once you figure out how heavily she sleeps, you’ll be able to get into a routine.”

  “How do you know so much about babies?”

  “Big family. Lots of little cousins, a few nieces and nephews, and I took care of my little brother and sister when they were younger.”

  She shrugged it off like it was nothing, another day in the life of for her. “I mean, see it as an instinct thing. You have to stop looking at it like a job and look at her like a baby instead.”

  “I guess so. You schooled me today, and you saved my life. Thank you.”

  “No problem, but speaking of your job, how are things with Jude?” She looked at me with raised eyebrows, as she slowly let the footrest up and reclined the back of her chair.

  “Oh, you know,” I shrugged. It was as noncommittal of an answer as I could give.

  “Don’t give me that. One day I’m being run off by the guys here at the house, and the next, they’re letting me in like nothing ever happened. What did you do?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” I said as I smiled and shook my head. I usually told Vi everything, but for some reason, I felt that telling her about what had happened with Jude would somehow rob me of something. It would be like sharing him with her.

  “You must have done something. Did you two, you know?”

  I tried to look away before she caught me blushing, but it didn’t work. I heard her gasp with excitement and almost squeal as I tried to hide my red cheeks. There was no use in trying to deny it now, she knew.

  “How was it?”

  “I don’t know. It was sex.”

  “Stop trying to downplay it, Hollie. Obviously, he thought it was good, so what did you think? How did it happen?”

  “Okay, fine.”

  I sat up in the chair and told her everything. I told her about all the sex we’d had, not just the night before. She listened with a wide-eyed, rapt stare, her jaw literally hanging open.

  As I told her about his body, about the way he moved, and the way he made me feel, I could feel myself growing excited again. Even the thought of him thrilled me, bringing me to life in a way that no other man ever had. I felt my desire growing as I talked to her about him.

  Under normal circumstances, it might have been embarrassing to realize my body was responding lustfully in someone else’s presence, but I felt a sense of pride because I was describing a gorgeous man who was immensely successful and wealthy, who had invited me to stay in his house and care for his child, and who was sleeping with me—me.

  I felt a kind of ownership, knowing that he could have any woman he wanted, and he chose me.

  It didn’t hurt that my best friend was practically drooling on herself as I told her about what had happened between us, and the ways it happened.

  I could see the envy in her eyes, the desire in the way she listened, the way she hung on every word. She shook her head as I finished.

  “You’re one lucky bitch, you know that?”

  I laughed. “I guess I am, huh?”

  It was hard to hide how proud I felt. I was beaming. I lay back in the recliner again, a satisfied smile on my face. I was pretty lucky to be in the situation I was in, and I owed it to her for talking me into applying for the position.

  “I know girls who would kill to be in your position,” she mused under her breath.

  I glanced over and caught her checking on Kaylee. I would have killed to have had her motherly instinct. I could tell it was going to take some work for me to get the hang of taking care of a small child, at least to feel confident about it.

  I had so little experience, and it didn’t seem to come naturally to me the way it did for her. I figured it boiled down to being more attentive to the baby’s needs and trying to make a connection.

  “When she wakes up in a little bit, I want you to get her,” Violet said, as she lay back in her chair. “You need to try to bond with her a little bit and get to the point where you two have a better understanding of each other.”

  “Yeah, but you made it look so easy. You knocked her out effortlessly.”

  “And once you get more comfortable with her, you’ll be able to as well.”

  I lay back down and looked up at the ceiling. I could already feel my nerves tensing up at the thought. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

  I’d picked her up from naps before, what was my problem. The only difference was the fit she’d thrown that morning.

  “Okay, don’t get nervous. Just keep your cool. You’ve been taking care of her for a few days now, and things have mostly been fine. You’re going to have mornings like today when she’s in a mood, and you’re going to have to learn to handle it without freaking out. Learn what calms her down. Hold her, play with her, rock her in one of these recliners. Maybe even try some music. She’s a baby girl, for crying out loud. You can do this. You’ve been doing this. Now, you’ve still got a little while before she wakes up if you want to kick back and get a little shut-eye, too.”

  She closed her eyes and turned over to one side. I sighed, realizing she was right again, and I closed my eyes as well, figuring I’d try to make the most of Kaylee’s little nap.

  Of course, it felt like the minute I closed my eyes and started to doze off, she was stirring and starting to cry again.

  2 - Jude

  “It’s a shame you didn’t record the call.”

  Lane sat across from me in a booth in the back of the darkened room at the Downtown Tavern.

  He sipped his drink and took a bite of his steak. We were discussing the phone call from Marie over a quiet, private lunch.

  “I know… I wish I had.”

  “I mean, you should probably be recording every call that comes into the office anyway, for liability purposes.” He looked up from his plate and pointed his fork at me.

  “You know how I feel about that. I like for my clients to have a little privacy on the phone with me, man. I don’t want to betray that by recording our conversations. Then, everything becomes a liability, and for what? For that one conversation when you need it?”

  “There you go. Think about it. Think about what all you told me she said, and tell me it wouldn’t be worth it.”

  He sat back, still chewing a piece of steak, and took another sip of his drink.

  I paused a moment, thinking about what all she’d said to me:

  “You can’t keep my daughter from me, Jude… I’m getting a lawyer and taking this to court. I want to see my daughter… I deserve to see my daughter. She needs to know her mother and you have no right to keep her from me. She can’t live with you.”

  I had tried to point out that she was the one who had left, and that no one had taken her daughter from her.

  She’d abandoned her—abandoned us, really—when she left and didn’t return. She’d grown furious then and starting making all kinds of wild threats.

  “If you won’t cooperate, I’ll just take her from you,” she’d threatened at one point.

  Lane was the only person I knew to call. I f
igured he would have had some insight that might have been helpful, being a lawyer. I didn’t feel like Marie really had a leg to stand on, but I also wanted to make sure my bases were covered.

  “Well, I guess if I had ever expected a call like this one, I probably would have installed some kind of system to record my calls.”

  “Yeah, fair point.”

  “So, what do you think? How worried should I be, and if she tries anything, what options do I have?”

  He inhaled through his nose while he finished chewing the meat in this mouth. I wanted to ask him how the hell he could eat steak for lunch.

  I couldn’t imagine eating something that heavy in the middle of the day and trying to go back to work. I’d grabbed their turkey club sandwich, which was still going to be pretty big for me for lunch.

  “I’m not a family law attorney, so take my advice with a grain of salt, of course. I know a couple of guys who do work in family law, and I’ll talk to them for you, but it’s always a good rule of thumb to document everything you can. That’s why I mentioned recording your calls.”

  “I’ve got call logs. I make my secretary keep track of everyone who calls and when, as well as what they say to her.”

  “That’s a good start.” He talked with his silverware, gesturing with his knife and fork while he gave me a few pointers.

  “It’s my understanding that custody usually defaults to the mom unless you can prove abuse or other reasons why she’s an unfit mother.”

  “Like abandoning her child. There’s documentation of that. Remember? I called the cops, and there was even an investigation launched until they chalked it up as a runaway,” I told him, eager to get that point out there.

  I felt like the abandonment issue should have nullified any other arguments. There didn’t seem to be much of a way to defend against that allegation with all the documentation to back it up.

  “Right. I would think you have a good case for abandonment, endangerment, neglect, or something else along those lines. I’ll remember to bring that up when I talk to my buddies. The main thing is going to be documenting as much as you can, and in the meantime, limit her access to Kaylee as much as you can. I would imagine you can’t flat-out keep her from seeing your daughter, but until there’s anything official, I wouldn’t leave her alone with Kaylee.”