Billionaire's Secret Baby: A Second Chance Romance (Hamptons Filthy Novel) Read online

  Billionaire’s Secret Baby

  A Second Chance Romance

  J.P. Comeau

  Billionaire’s Secret Baby

  Copyright © 2020 by J.P. Comeau

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Billionaire’s Secret Baby is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and occurrences are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to a person, living or deceased, events, or locations is purely coincidental.

  Cover art by Charli Childs

  Created with Vellum

  Let’s Stay Connected

  NEWEST HIRE

  J.P. Comeau

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  Surprise Protector Preview

  Chapter One

  Zeke

  The runway lights went by in a blur as the sleek jet touched down at East Hampton airport, and my pilot’s voice crackled over the speakers, “Home sweet home.” I nodded in silent approval… he was right. Owning a private jet made it possible to flit all over the world at my leisure. But it was Thursday night, my favorite night of the week — and now I was home.

  As we approached the private hanger that housed my jet, I spotted my Harley motorcycle inside, right where I had left it almost a week ago. Since last Thursday, I had attended a car show in LA and jetted off to Milan, where I had VIP tickets to a sports car race. But today, I was looking forward to spending the evening at the exclusive Hamptons’ Peak Club with two of my best friends, Riker and Nate.

  Within moments, I was waving to my pilot over my shoulder, knowing he would have my luggage delivered to my mansion before I got home. Revving the Harley’s motor, I pealed out, and the coastal breeze wafted in my tanned face as I sped away.

  When I arrived at the Hamptons’ Peak, I discovered tonight the guys were feeling friskier than usual when we decided it was a perfect evening for a no holds barred game of blackjack.

  Usually, one or more of us had to drive home afterward, so we held back on the drinking, but not tonight. Even Riker was adding his voice to our boisterous laughter whenever someone cracked a borderline inappropriate joke, which he had taken to patiently shaking his head at recently.

  Well, maybe not so recently, I guess, I corrected myself. Riker had gotten married to his beautiful bride, Elena, over a year ago, adopted her daughter Bree, had a son of their own, and they were expecting another. His transformation into a calming influence of sorts over our merry little band of three had occurred shortly after his marriage. Privately, Nate and I agreed this change was a good thing. We had both known Riker for a long time, and we had never seen him as happy as he was after he and Elena had tied the knot.

  I swirled my whiskey and took a sip, more to avoid laughing at Nate’s most recent joke than anything else. If I laughed any more, the boys would think the tears in my eyes were on account of the whiskey, and I couldn’t have that. Besides, my cheeks hurt.

  “What would your wife say if she could see you now?” Nate asked as he dealt the cards.

  “There’s a reason she doesn’t come here on Thursday nights,” Riker chuckled. “She knows I need my evening off if I’m going to be a good boy for her the rest of the week.” Riker winked at Nate, and I shook my head at the connotations of that sentence.

  “She has your security CEO butt whipped man,” I smirked. Riker seemed thoroughly happy with married life, but some of the things he said just bothered me. Sometimes, he would joke that Elena “let him” or “gave him permission” to do something, and he didn’t seem to mind. I couldn’t imagine holding myself accountable to someone 24/7… and still have a smile on my face.

  Well, I almost do that already, I reasoned over another sip of Crown Royal. Charles had been our family butler and chauffeur since before I had learned how to walk, and I considered him a close confidant and friend. Since my parents had passed, God rest their souls, he often took an interest in my daily activities. Still, that was nothing like I imagined having a wife would be. I rarely kept a girl longer than a month. After that, they started to get clingy and wanted more and more from a guy, and I never wanted to be that guy to anyone. Casual was the name of the game. Besides, the active social life that came with being a Hamptons billionaire always kept me busy and entertained… At least, most of the time.

  “Not whipped. Mutual respect.” Riker raised his glass as though giving a toast to the idea, but laughed along with us.

  Riker followed football and Nate played for the Lexington Colonels, so when football somehow inched its way into the conversation, I gradually tuned it out. Not my thing, I thought absently, my mind drifting away from our table to activities that were “my thing”. Motorcycles, cars… and hookups. Like that one particular hookup I hadn’t been able to forget, despite my best efforts. A hookup that had been crazy – insane! – even for me, not to mention entirely unexpected.

  Claudia Moore. Even all these years later, I remembered so well the day that the most beautiful girl I had ever seen came walking into my classroom, starting the school year as a new student at East Hampton Academy. Her family had not only just moved into town, but they moved into the estate next door to my family’s massive mansion. So, seventeen-year-old me regarded it as the perfect opportunity to make her my girlfriend. We spent every day after school together, doing our homework assignments. And, of course, we had also tried to dodge our parents and sneak in hot and heavy make-out sessions whenever we could.

  Those were the good old days. I leaned back and stretched my arms above my head, giving my back a well-deserved break from leaning forward, immersed in the game. The good old days. Not as old as I had thought, apparently. I might be a motorcycle-riding, carefree billionaire now, and she might be a fashion model with a brand to match her elegant, refined tastes. But when our eyes had met across our adjoined lawns that night… well, it had been a throwback to the past, to say the least, and an incredibly intense throwback - a throwback that felt amazing…

  Suddenly uneasy, I shook off my thoughts of Claudia and tossed back the rest of my drink. Chill, I ordered myself sternly. Hookups were a one-time thing that I never had a problem with before. And starting now with my high school sweetheart was a bad idea.

  “What’s up with you?” Riker asked, dragging me back to the pleasant atmosphere of our poker game.

  “What do you mean?” I asked casually, not really in the mood to explain what I was thinking, especially to the man I had just teased and would likely see my recent escapade with Claudia as ammo to get back at me.

  Nate added his voice to Riker’s. “It’s been your turn for over a minute, that’s what he means.”

  “Oh.” I flipped over my card and drew another. When the resulting numbers weren’t higher than Nate’s hand or less than 21,
I groaned.

  “Bad luck tonight,” Riker observed when his own cards beat Nate’s.

  I shrugged, glad we had decided to keep our friendly blackjack game private instead of taking it to the casino’s tables where the professionals played, and the stakes were much higher. “Just got a few things on my mind, that’s all. Well, one thing, really.” Even as the words left my mouth, I knew I was inviting unwanted questions from the guys.

  “Yeah, yeah, I guess so,” I muttered, wishing I hadn’t drained my glass so quickly. Ah, screw it. Maybe I’ll get something helpful out of them. “Alright, fine. Remember how a month or so ago I told you I had hooked up with Claudia Moore, a friend from high school?”

  “Sure, yes, I remember.” Riker raked the cards toward him with his fingers and began shuffling them.

  “Okay, well…” I picked a piece of lent off my sleeve, trying to appear nonchalant as I would normally be about a casual night with a woman. “I’ve been thinking about it. I mean – I’ve been thinking about her. A bit.” Smooth. Real smooth.

  “Really.” Riker’s gaze was all too knowing.

  “Yep.” I popped the p as I flipped up my first card.

  Nate took up where Riker left off. “And? Is it thinking about her as in wishing you could hit that again? Or, maybe, just missing being around her?”

  “Do the two have to be mutually exclusive?” I braced myself for the snorts of laughter and jokes about old high school flames that were sure to follow.

  “Of course not.” Riker set down the deck without dealing another card. “Is that all you miss about her, though?”

  “No.” I cleared my throat. Now that I was talking about the woman who had been plaguing my mind for the past month, my words came easier. “I guess… those other women. All the other ones I’ve met at bars or clubs? I feel like…” I shrugged. “Two weeks, and I know everything about them. But Claudia… she’s different. She always surprises me no matter how long I’ve known her. Does that make sense?”

  “No,” Nate quipped.

  “Yes,” Riker told me at the same time.

  “Great,” I joked, still regretting my empty glass.

  “Yes, and no,” Riker amended. “Emotions aren’t supposed to make sense, especially when it comes to beautiful women. Has it ever crossed your mind that you might like Claudia?”

  I blinked. “Like… like, like her?” I sounded like a stuttering high school kid all over again, but Riker had taken me by surprise. And I didn’t know how else to phrase it. No one had asked me that question in a long time, and I certainly hadn’t considered it either.

  “Yeah.” Riker chuckled. “Like… like her, as in, want to ask her on a real date.”

  This wasn’t the teasing I had expected, and I didn’t know how to handle it, so I turned to deflection. “She’s not in the Hamptons right now. She goes to Paris on business.”

  “Ask her when she comes back, then. Or hop in your jet and go see her.” Riker leveled his gaze at me. “I’m just saying that this is kind of how I felt. After I met Elena, I couldn’t get her out of my mind… And look where that got us.” Riker leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Don’t you ever get tired of having a girl whose name you can’t remember in a month?”

  “Charles does,” I snorted, and just like that, the spell was broken. What was I doing? This was supposed to be our one night out of the week to spend time as the three of us, with no interruptions from the three Ws – women, work and whatever else. The second I didn’t do, the last I could put aside, and the first I never worried about.

  “Charles just thinks motorcycles are dangerous,” Nate mused. “And I’m sure he assumes having a serious relationship with a woman would be a positive change for you.”

  It was more than that, but I laughed, glad our group had recovered our lighthearted mood. As we returned to our game, I couldn’t help but shoot a glance at Riker. He really had mellowed out since marrying Elena. That, and he seemed a lot more in tune with his emotions, and he had definitely become more empathetic toward others.

  Could Riker be right? Maybe something more than a hookup could come out of our chance meeting. I could find out if I reached out to her, but I never reached out first. I let the women come to me. Then I followed up with expensive dinners, designer clothes, and travel by private jet — until a prettier one caught my eye. None of that had ever impressed Claudia, and somehow, I never tried to woo her that way. That was flashy showoff stuff I did when only first impressions mattered.

  With Claudia, all impressions mattered to me. That alone should have been enough to tell me these feelings hadn’t formed from a simple appreciation for a pretty face. But right now, I could feel the third glass of Crown doing its job. I was forgetting my worries and cares - returning to the here and now with my two good friends. Claudia was a problem for another day – hopefully, the next day that she came home from Paris.

  Chapter Two

  Claudia

  A loud tapping assaulted my ears, and I glanced around me at the rows of chairs filled with waiting passengers and luggage. That’s when I realized that the heel of my own designer boot was making the nerve-racking sound. Deliberately, I pressed the offending heel flat to the ground and leaned back, huffing a sigh as I tried to relax.

  An hour. That was how long I had been sitting here, waiting for that irritatingly-calm voice over the speakers to announce news about my delayed connecting flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to the Hamptons. I guess that an hour wasn’t really that long compared to some airport delays, but it was still long enough to wear down my unusually thin patience and fill my legs with “the jitters”, as my mother often called them.

  Despite the delay and all the other worries that comprised a mountain of stress atop my shoulders at the moment, I couldn’t help but smile when I thought about my mother. Mom and I had worked closely together for years, and her ingenious ideas and designs had taken the brand of designer clothes she had started all the way to Paris. She was more than just my mother – she was my friend, role model, teacher, and business partner.

  Well, not as much anymore, I admitted to myself. Mom was starting to value her quiet estate in the Hamptons more and more these days, drifting away from the busy, hectic fashion scene in which she had once immersed herself.

  “Attention Flight 382, Flight 382.”

  My sleek black ponytail flipped over my shoulder to lay across my thick wool coat as I recognized my flight number and turned to look at the desk by the gate.

  “We regret to inform you that Flight 382 has been canceled due to weather conditions. We apologize for the inconvenience, and we ask that you speak to the desk at the gate for assistance booking another flight. Transportation and accommodations –”

  I tuned out the words as I reached into my handbag for my phone. Angry and tired passengers were already lining up, and I had chosen a seat reasonably far from the desk. So, by the time I gathered my luggage and walked over, I would have to wait several minutes. Instead, I stayed in my seat and phoned my mom.

  “Hi, Claudia.” She picked up almost immediately, and I could hear the pleasant buzzing of the smooth jazz my mother so enjoyed in the background. “Are you about to take off?”

  “No,” I sighed. “The flight was canceled.”

  “Oh. That’s too bad, but I suppose it’s for the best.” I heard the sound of a door opening, and the resulting rush of wind was loud even over the phone. “It’s definitely a nor’easter…no doubt about that.”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” I agreed, finding a new calm even as the nor’easter outside grew in rage. There was no reason to be impatient with Mother Nature, and complaining about a flight canceled for safety was just as childish. I did need to decide what to do, though.

  I didn’t want to sleep here in the airport, and searching for a hotel room just for the night when home and my mother were only 80 miles away felt like a waste of money and time. “Um…” I drew out the word, weighing my options. “I think I’ll just
rent a car for the evening and drive home.”

  “Are you sure, Honey? I know it’s only a two-hour drive, but in bad weather and traffic –”

  “Yes, I’m sure,” I said, pressing my phone between my shoulder and ear so I could get my things together. “I’ll be careful, I promise. See you in a couple hours?”

  “Alright. I would be a bit disappointed if I had to eat this fresh pot of clam chowder all by myself,” my mother joked.

  “Clam chowder? Now I definitely have to come home tonight!” We shared a chuckle, then said our usual “I love yous” and ended the call. Filled with new purpose, I joined the flow of passengers in the same boat and strode down the long stretch of walkway in between the gates.

  The airport’s car rental area was packed, and for a while, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to get a car at all. Luckily, the staff kept things moving, and I was able to roll out of the place about half an hour later in a little silver Toyota Yaris.

  Once I had fought my way through the multitudes of disgruntled drivers also trying to escape the airport, I breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed – but just a bit. The mountain of worries I had mentioned may have had a landslide that freed me of one problem, but the majority of the treacherous, winding paths I would have to sort out were still gnawing at me.

  One of the wheels ran over an invisible pothole along a darkened street. Instinctively, I laid a hand over my stomach as the car jolted, comforting the growing baby inside me.

  Pregnant. It had taken me six positive pregnancy tests to start using that word, even in the privacy of my mind. Saying it out loud— that would take even longer. Besides, I had no idea who should hear it first. My mother, from whom I usually hid nothing? My best friend, Tammy, who might be able to give me the advice I needed, or at least the comfort I sorely wanted?