Read Complete Bliss (a Her Billionaires novella #3) Online
Authors: Julia Kent
Tags: #Contemporary Fiction, #Contemporary Women, #Contemporary, #Romance, #Literature & Fiction, #Women's Fiction
Complete Bliss (a Her Billionaires novella #3) (15 page)
Mike caught her eye in the rearview mirror. “Don’t do that.”
She startled. “Do what?” Dylan was so warm, so hard and secure, like being hugged by a muscled teddy bear. The afternoon’s conversation, the sparring between Madge and Darla, the talks about threesomes as if they were normal and just another way to love, all pinged through her mind.
Overwhelm.
She was living in overwhelm. And that was why Frank’s email was sending her home.
“Don’t try to convince yourself that your first instinct is wrong,” Mike elaborated, driving with his eyes on her through the tiny mirror. “You’re doing that female thing. Don’t invalidate yourself. Believe in whatever’s driving you to get home to Jillian. It’s important. It’s worthy. You’re valid for believing whatever’s in your gut.”
That made her tear up even more.
Traffic was backed up—no surprise given that it was already nearly five o’clock. By the time they got home it was well past six, and Cyndi was fine with their lateness, always reasonable and understanding. Closing her arms around little Jillian’s chubby body, legs like chunks of soft dough, cheeks the color of freshly picked cider apples in late October, made Laura feel like her heart was safely behind her ribs again.
It really was okay.
“I gave her a bath when you texted, and she already ate dinner. Given the time”—Laura knew it was 6:45 p.m.—“she’s probably ready for bed soon enough,” Cyndi declared. Short and thick, with steel-gray hair, the nanny’s piercing blue eyes were troubled, if no-nonsense. “And it looks like you could use a good night’s sleep as well, Laura.”
All Laura could do was bury her face in Jillian’s neck.
“Mama seepy,” the little girl said. “Zzzzzz.” It was a game Mike and Dylan played with her, and Laura laughed that her daughter had made the connection between Cyndi’s words and the dads’ game. Every day, little changes like this made her marvel. She hadn’t given birth to a baby.
She’d brought a little whole human being into the world.
Now
that’s
a superpower.
“Mama’s sleepy, yes,” Laura repeated as Jillian rested her brown curls on Laura’s shoulder, snuggling in like she was molded to live there. Which she was.
“Is everything okay?” Cyndi asked quietly. “You seem anxious. Did something happen?”
“No,” Laura rushed to say, not wanting to deal with anyone else’s emotional state right now. A dawning realization made her elaborate.
More than she wanted to.
“Did anyone call the house while we were gone?”
Cyndi’s face lit up. “Oh, yes!”
Oh, no.
“Your Uncle Frank called. I didn’t know you had an uncle!” Cyndi hurried over to the counter that separated the large, open-concept kitchen from the living room and picked up a slip of paper. “Here. He asked that you call him as soon as possible. Said he might swing into town for a few days and would love to see his favorite niece.”
His
only
niece.
Laura’s stomach dropped through the earth’s crust and into the magma layer. “Thanks,” she gasped.
Cyndi frowned, then her eyes changed to a wary look. “Oh dear. He was so charming on the phone, and I just assumed…” She touched Laura’s hand. “He’s not someone you want in your life, is he? I hope I didn’t make a mistake.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Laura answered, but she reached for Cyndi’s hand and clasped it like it was a lifeline. Kind, wrinkled eyes, intelligent and perceptive, yet so compassionate, met hers.
Jillian’s weight on her shoulder shifted just enough for Laura to realize that the baby had fallen asleep, her breathing suddenly even, her little lips nuzzled against Laura’s ear.
“She wanted her mama,” Cyndi said with a squeeze of the hand.
Laura swallowed hard as Mike and Dylan came into the room, brows furrowed, worried and ready to talk.
“Her mama,” Laura said through a voice full of worry over the unknown, “wanted her.”
“Something more happen?” Mike asked, crossing the room, his sheer size a comfort to Laura. Cyndi looked up to meet his eyes, and it was like she was watching Superman fly overhead.
“Uncle Frank called,” Laura whispered.
“
Here?
” Dylan asked, incredulous. “The house phone? It’s unlisted.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Cyndi said in an apologetic tone. “I just assumed he was a family member and it was okay to talk to him. To tell him.”
Laura’s extremities went cold. “Tell him
what
?”
Cyndi dropped her hand and gave Mike and Dylan beseeching looks. “He asked about Jillian. How she was doing, what she was like, and how Laura was. Asked about you two as well. Whether you treated ‘his girls’ right.”
Laura’s eyes bugged out of her head. Mike and Dylan exchanged angry looks.
“I’m so sorry!” Cyndi gushed. “I’ll never make that mistake again.”
Laura shook her head, as if trying to get rid of a bad thought. Which she was. The movement made Jillian rub her face against Laura’s neck. The toddler’s body heat was the only reason Laura wasn’t chilled to the bone with dread.
“Cyndi,” Mike said, “you haven’t done a thing wrong. We’re not certain why Laura’s uncle has suddenly come out of the woodwork, but Laura’s worried, and that’s good enough for us. From now on, screen his calls.”
“And if he shows up here,” Dylan added, lips tight, anger morphing his features, “don’t let him in. Call us right away, and worst case, call the police.”
“The police!” Laura cried out. Jillian smacked her lips in her sleep, and Laura lowered her voice. “Guys, I think I’m making you overreact. Frank’s not harmful. He’s never hurt me or threatened me before. It’s not like that at all.”
“You’re freaked, though. I can smell it on you.” Mike’s words made Cyndi do a double take, but he was dead serious.
“I’m freaked out because it’s just weird. And having him call here…”
“Why would he?” Dylan asked, but it was quickly clear his question was rhetorical, for he answered it himself, Mike and Laura all saying the word at the same time.
“Money.”
Cyndi made a clucking sound. “People come out of the woodwork when it comes to big money,” she said. “Not that I would know.” Her rueful grin made Laura feel sheepish.
“We didn’t live with money either, until a few years ago,” Dylan said. “You know I was a firefighter and Mike was a ski instructor.”
“We weren’t exactly rich,” Mike added.
“But you are now,” Laura pointed out.
“
We
are,” Dylan said. Everyone went quiet. Cyndi looked a bit embarrassed. Truth be told, the guys and Laura were, too. It was one thing to have money—their daily life made it clear that they did, because they had the freedom to spend their time as they pleased, a luxury more valuable than coin—but it was quite another to talk openly about it.
Which they didn’t. Not generally.
Then again, the news channels had covered Mike and Dylan’s inheritance after Jill died, so it was public knowledge.
Knowledge her Uncle Frank now had.
What on earth had happened to the pioneering lunch Laura had planned with Darla? The exchange of thoughts and feelings and ideas no one else experienced? Wasn’t she supposed to be dealing with the emotional aftermath of that right now—and not of Frank?
Life changed on a dime, didn’t it?
“I’m going to put her to sleep,” Laura said in dulcet tones, as Mike huddled with Cyndi, sounds of reassurance telling Laura he was making sure the amazing nanny understood all was well. Dylan followed her into the bedroom, where she settled Jillian on the enormous California king bed that Mike, Dylan, and Laura shared.
He cocked an eyebrow.
“I know we’re not co-sleeping with her anymore, but for tonight, I just want her there. I don’t know why I’m so worried suddenly. It doesn’t make sense, I know, but I don’t care. I want to have her near me.”
He pulled her into a warm embrace with arms like steel. “I understand, honey,” he murmured against her cheek. “And besides, trying to squeeze into her crib isn’t practical.”
“You’d know,” she said with a chuckle. “Remember that time it was the only way to get her to sleep? You took one for the team climbing in there with her.”
“And Mike has the pictures to prove it,” Dylan said with a pseudo-sour tone.
“You rang?” Mike appeared in the doorway. “My ears are burning. You guys talking about me?” His eyes lit on Jillian, a tiny cherub curled up in the center of the enormous bed, and he smiled.
“I see I’m going to get kicked in the kidneys all night,” he said.
“And not from me this time,” Dylan joked. Kind of. Dylan was the bed hog now that Laura wasn’t pregnant.
Mike joined the embrace, covering the side of Laura that Dylan wasn’t on. He kissed the top of her head and declared, “It’ll all be fine. I’m sure this whole Frank business will turn out to be nothing.”
Oh, how Laura wished he were right.
Oh, how wrong he turned out to be.
The story continues in
Complete We
, coming in fall 2014. Join my new releases and sales email newsletter list to get an email the day it is published!
Her First Billionaire
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COULD SHE REALLY FIND THE RIGHT GUY ON THE INTERNET?
“Hot, luscious piece of ass who can suck a golf ball through forty feet of garden hose seeks rippling-ab’d firefighter who has a tongue that thrums like a hummingbird and enjoys painting my toenails and eating Ben & Jerry’s out of the carton while watching Mad Men.”
Laura Michaels stared at the online dating site’s registration screen and frowned. That’s what she really wanted to write. Here was the truth:
“Needy, insecure, overweight twenty-six year old Business Analyst with three cats, a corporate job with pension and no debt seeks Mr. Impossible for way more than friendship and lots of ice cream. I’m desperate for some physical affection and oral sex with a guy who doesn’t view it as some sort of favor he’s granting me, and then expects to be praised like he cleaned my toilet. One night stands are better than nothing as long as you brush your teeth. So call me, maybe!”
So when hot firefighter Dylan Stanwyck responds and asks her out, it’s just too good to be true. When she searches him online and learns he offers himself up for date nights in bachelor charity auctions, she wonders if she’s on the right planet.
Because what could a guy like that see in a fat girl like her?
OR WOULD HE NOT BE WHO HE SEEMED?
Trawling through the online dating profiles isn’t Dylan’s idea of fun, but it’s been more than eighteen months since their lover, Jill, died, and Dylan and his unconventional partner, ski instructor Mike Pine, need to find a new love. While their threesome situation is more complicated than a contract from
Fifty Shades of Grey
, at least one aspect is simple: Laura Michaels, the cute, soft blond from the online dating site, seems like a good fit for at least a first date. Soft curves, gorgeous hair, eyes that light him up from the computer alone, and a profile that makes her seem smart and interesting—he has no problems asking her out.
The problem is letting her in.
Dylan and his not-quite partner have more secrets than their unconventional romantic relationships, and this latest snafu is a mixed blessing, for both became billionaires overnight after the third in their threesome, Jill, died. With her estate finally settled and Dylan and Mike the recipient of an annual income that gives them enough to buy entire towns in the Midwest, the two were left reeling. Months after the lawyer explained their new-found fortune, Dylan still works his regular shifts at the station while Mike remains on the slopes as a ski instructor, but with a caveat; now he owns the entire resort.
But if they tell Laura everything, they risk losing a chance at a new bond.
Two problems may have one lush, ample solution as Laura meets her first billionaire on her date with Dylan, but with a stunning twist at the end...
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Her First Billionaire
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Other Books by Julia Kent
Suggested Reading Order
Her Two Billionaires and a Baby
Her Billionaires: Boxed Set
(Parts 1-4 in one bundle, 458 pages!)
Complete Abandon
(A Her Billionaires novella)
Complete Harmony
(A Her Billionaires novella #2)
“Share Me” in the anthology Spring Fling
Deliciously Obedient
(the trilogy is done!)
Christmas Shopping for a Billionaire (in the
LOL Romantic Comedy Boxed Set
)
About the Author
Text JKentBooks to 77948 and get a text message on release dates!
New York Times
and
USA Today
Bestselling Author Julia Kent turned to writing contemporary romance after deciding that life is too short not to have fun. She writes romantic comedy with an edge, and new adult books that push contemporary boundaries. From billionaires to BBWs to rock stars, Julia finds a sensual, goofy joy in every book she writes, but unlike Trevor from
Random Acts of Crazy
, she has never kissed a chicken.
