The Billionaire's Secret Baby: An Alpha Male Friends To Lovers Second Chance Romance E-Book

JL Ryan

• Herausgeber: J. L Ryan
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

LA's nightlife ignites with scandal when Steph Jonas, entangled in a torrid affair with a billionaire CEO who's already taken, discovers she's carrying his baby. Secrets unravel as their forbidden love faces the ultimate test.

Steph Jonas has always been drawn to bad boys. But after narrowly escaping a toxic relationship with an alpha architect and losing her high-powered music executive gig, she's on the brink of complete destruction until she finds herself in the heart of Los Angeles, working at a seedy bar where she's constantly hit on by sleazy patrons.

One scorching hot evening, everything changes when a seductive stranger walks in. Ethan Remington is not just any man, he's a drop-dead gorgeous billionaire CEO with a reputation for getting what he wants. And what he wants is Steph. But there's one hitch - he's currently involved with someone else.

Despite the intense attraction between them, Steph knows better than to get involved with a man who's already taken. But the passion between them is too explosive to ignore, and soon they're tangled up in a torrid love affair. But when she discovers she's carrying Ethan's baby, she's forced to confront the harsh reality of being a single mom.

Determined to protect her heart, Steph keeps the pregnancy a secret from Ethan. But when he eventually finds out, he's stunned and unsure how to handle the news. The last thing he ever expected was to become a father. As they both grapple with the challenges of parenthood, Steph and Ethan find themselves drawn back to each other again and again. Can they make it work, or will their past mistakes and present insecurities tear them apart?

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Leseprobe

The Billionaire's Secret Baby

J.L. Ryan

Published by J.L. Ryan, 2024.

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

THE BILLIONAIRE'S SECRET BABY

First edition. June 18, 2024.

Copyright © 2024 J.L. Ryan.

Written by J.L. Ryan.

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

The Billionaire's Secret Baby

EPILOGUE

The Billionaire's Secret Baby

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Bye Bye, Music Exec Job

“Ready” “You bet, let us dive right in.” The tempo of the music was blaring into her brain while she nodded her head to the sound. She made a sign and the tempo dropped down a bit, another sign, and the song ended. She ran into the studio room at the other end of the glass where the other artist she just discovered was laying down his headphones with a giddy look on his face. He couldn’t believe he had achieved such a feat. His song. It was like a dream. She hugged him, “That was a beautiful song, Luke, I knew you had it in you from the first day I saw you at the park freestyling to your audience”. Luke's face beamed like sunlight. His dreams were finally coming true. She loved her job. Every bit of it. Steph Jonas worked with a top music agency that brings people not previously known in the musical industry, “newbies” as they like to call them into the limelight. She was good at figuring out who had raw talent or not, she could equate these lucky findings of her to finding untapped gold and turning it into something beautiful and worth hunting for. She happily looked at the state-of-the-art equipment in the music studio located in the basement of her company. The art designs on the wall inscribed with different signatures of artists who were globally famous gave her some form of pride. She may not be at the top echelon of the company but she scouted for these new raw talents and now they are making ways. “Steph?" the secretary softly called her name.

She was roused out of her reverie and turned back to look at the sweet-natured Mrs. Williams who was so nice and courteous to everyone. “What is it, Mrs. Williams?”, she asked. “Mr. Denver would like to see you in his office.” “Oh”, was the word that escaped out of her lips. Mr. Denver! The dreaded no-nonsense man who had been giving the workers the heave-ho. The Board of Directors had decided to lay off all the employees except the top executives. Mrs. Williams gave her a comforting motherly smile as she when past her with dread written all over her. She walked past the stunningly decorated passageway towards the only office that stared at you right across the studio. “Mr. Denver, you called...?” “Yes Steph”, he looked at her with pity in his eyes. He knew she was one staff member dedicated to the company. Pretty with her auburn colored hair trying to escape the baseball cap she had haphazardly placed on it. Only Steph could dress in such a manner and still look beautiful even though she seems not to know. He just had to do this. “I have no choice, it is the management’s decision”, he muttered irritatingly to himself. “Are you saying something to me, Mr. Denver?”, she asked with a scared look in her eyes. She looked like a doe caught in mid-flight. He coughed loudly, looked around his clean pristine office distractedly. “Steph, I know you understand”, he said soothingly to her, patted her at the back, and gave her the official letter he held. She knew what it contained without opening it. She walked out of the office with a stunned expression on her face. She had erroneously thought she had escaped this sledgehammer going round. She was not prepared for this. She thought of her mom, and her lifesaver Timmy, her Saint Bernard, what to do, what to do...

Ethan Remington sat amid his other friends at a bar in Los Angeles. It was a bar that everyone in town had been raving about, and they decided to go check it out since they flew in from New York two days ago to finalize a business deal. It was time for them to unwind albeit briefly. He was burnt out from working almost twenty hours every day with barely enough time to sleep or even eat properly. He smiled, thinking of the face of his secretary who was always exasperated that every morning he only asks for black coffee. She would say in a screeching tone, “Black coffee, all the time, you look all scrawny!” Oh hell, he ran his hands through his tousled hair, with his eyes in a half-asleep mode, with dark rings under them. He needs to get a vacation soon. All work and no play could make Jack a dull man, he mused twisting the proverb to suit him. Steph had just taken on a waitress job at the bar and was walking down slowly with two cocktail juices on a tray in her left hand trying to maneuver through the tables to fulfill the various orders she had. An older man smirked as she passed by, trying to smack her ass but she stylishly avoided him. “One martini, miss.” Another man in the seat a bit far off from her shouted to get her attention. She was almost close to tears. This job wasn’t what she was used to but it had been so hard to get anything close to what she has been doing before, what she had a great passion for. Her niche in the music industry was highly competitive and sadly it was either she wasn’t experienced enough or was overqualified. What an irony, she thought. She spotted the table she was going towards where four men were seated but their aura seemed different from the other men in the restaurant. They didn’t seem so loud, they were speaking quietly, and seemed immersed in checking out something on their phones. Steph was feeling all alone in the world with the strain of trying to make ends meet after losing her beautiful home and her mom having to sell the condo she bought for her. It had been a trying period for all. She suddenly began to sing “I know everything will be alright someday, someday, someday soooooommmm....” “You have a beautiful voice miss." she heard a male voice so deep tell her.

She was surprised because the singing had been an unconscious reaction towards the stress and anxiety building up in her. If she were home, she would have curled up with Timmy on her bed while listening to jazz music. She looked straight into the most mesmerizing set of blue eyes she had ever seen. The eyes held her gaze without blinking. She unconsciously traced his face, from the deep blue eyes like the sea to the ridge of the nose that seemed well carved by the gods, to his lips that alternated between being so masculine to a hint of femininity in them. His lips teased her and begged to be kissed. He was so handsome; she actually couldn’t remember the last time she was attracted to a man. “Our drink?” he asked teasingly “Yes,” she stammered out a reply as she was snapped out of her daze. “Oh hell”, something must be wrong with her, she thought as she hastily placed the cocktails on the table. Her eyes fell on his phone and saw that he was looking at song lyrics. “You like music?” “I am a music executive alongside my other friends, this is John, Mike, and Jeff.” He said, introducing all his friends to her. He continued, “It is just one of the things I and my family are involved in though." She could hear the passion in his voice. “I love music too, I used to work in the music industry until my company downsized and I was laid off." Ethan looked at Steph properly. Her long auburn hair was so silky he felt like running his hands through it softly. She had hazel-colored eyes, cute lips, and her legs seemed to go on forever. And her eyes seemed brilliant. He felt an instant connection with her. He had several women at his beck and call, he changed them like clothes, and it seems they were all after what they could get from him, his money. Even though he was still building his empire, Ethan was already worth billions. People whispered about him and he knew he had a nickname even though no one dare say it in front of him. Ethan the Billionaire. He hated the title. He just wanted to focus on his business because everything he did was out of passion and not just because of money. As a hot-shot billionaire CEO, his family owns homes in the Hamptons, London, Milan, and Beverly Hills, “Would you be my date tomorrow for a music industry event?” Ethan suddenly asked feeling confident in his abilities to woo and win a woman. Women would give anything to be with him, women practically begged to date him. He felt cocky and self-assured. Steph felt shockwaves fizzle through her, and then annoyance. Who was he to think he would get her so easily like that. She noticed the way he tilted his head, the subtle way he licked his lips, and she was riled up. “No sir, I am not interested at all,” she answered firmly and moved away. So much for her thinking that she could get an opportunity to rebuild her career by getting a job with them. She felt disappointed and stifled back the tears welling up in her eyes.

Billionaire Rejected